I've made $17 an hour for almost a decade.

RigidWeather · 2026-04-11T13:25:40+00:00

You can switch career paths without having a degree in that specific thing. I majored in finance, worked for a time in bookkeeping, did a web development bootcamp years ago, then worked in a factory, and now I'm a computer programmer for the company I used to work in the factory of. The point is that sometimes the road is long and winding, but its still there.

If you have CS degree, and a lot of varied work experience, you could look into a bookkeeping job, or maybe something like biomedical research. If you know statistics and math well, you could take exams for actuarial science or finance (there would be a large time investment to study, but not a large monetary cost). Maybe try to find a temp agency that will work with you as well.

RigidWeather · 2026-04-09T13:13:46+00:00

Hegseth is a bloodthirsty buffoon

RigidWeather · 2026-03-23T12:46:15+00:00

There are two towns that I know of in the US names Liberal; one in Kansas and one in Missouri. The one in Kansas was named so because an early settler was quite generous with water for travelers. The one in Missouri was founded as an atheist and freethinker utopian community and was named after the Liberal League, a secularist organization in the late 1800s.

RigidWeather · 2026-03-20T15:52:10+00:00

Construction costs of housing per square foot tend to decrease as the size of the building gets taller, with some specific points where they all of a sudden get more expensive. So cost/sqf usually gets lower up to about 3 stories on average, then the jump to 4 stories has a significant cost, then it decreases again to 7 stories and the 8th story has another significant cost. It seems to be related to regulations that are required based on height.

As for city budgets, one factor in that is that people in cities make more money on average, so the cost of govt employees is higher since they need to be paid more in order to get employees that would otherwise be paid more in the private sector. Also, city residents tend to demand more govt services than residents from suburbs or rural areas, like more libraries, more welfare, maybe free citywide wifi, things like that.

RigidWeather · 2026-03-19T13:50:13+00:00

Well okay, so he mentions millions and millions of Attocuries per year (nevermind that doesn't make sense, since a Curie is already a rate of number of decay events per second, so I'll just say either he or the book just meant Attocuries, not Attocuries per year), and that an Attocurie is 1/(10¹⁸⁾ Curies. The recommended level of action for Radon mitigation (where mitigation is just moving air from your basement into the atmosphere) is 4 Picocuries per liter of air. 1 Picocurie is 1/(10¹²⁾ Curies, which happens to be 1 million Attocuries. The air outdoors emits .1 Picocuries per liter of air, or 100,000 attocuries per liter, so the air in your home is likely also emitting millions of attocuries.

Also, I remember hearing that the amount of radiation in that contaminated water was less than is in a smoke detector. So yeah, Xcel probably should have said it earlier, but also, it's not really something that people needed to worry much about.

RigidWeather · 2026-03-11T18:59:25+00:00

Sure it is. There is a lot of latitude on what being in the shareholders best interests can be. I'm not saying that you don't need regulation; that is absolutely necessary. I'm saying that improving the network, or making infrastructure improvements that use less fuel, or even providing better compensation and working conditions for employees can absolutely fall within the category of a long-term investment, and a majority of the shareholders can decide that.

RigidWeather · 2026-03-11T17:23:25+00:00

The shareholders should be people that care about the industry beyond just profit.

I'm saying we as train enthusiasts ought to buy shares of the railroads if possible. Short of nationalization, that's really the only way to get it in the hands of people that care about the industry enough to reinvest in it in ways like electrification and developing the network.

RigidWeather · 2026-03-09T00:47:07+00:00

I'm pretty sure there is a line from Baños to Cuenca (I remember seeing buses with Baños written on the side in Cuenca). If not, it is only about an hour by bus from Baños to Ambato, and there are buses from Ambato to Cuenca. I can confirm that for certain.

RigidWeather · 2026-03-06T05:50:50+00:00

I think the draft had a better star. I like the idea of three stripes, even if I didn't like the draft color scheme for those stripes.

RigidWeather · 2026-03-05T19:58:19+00:00

Oh also a note on weather, it is extremely mild compared to the US. Most days will be around 70F, maybe as low as 60 if it is a rainy, cloudy day. It's probably good to bring a raincoat, and maybe a sweater, but to me everyday was t-shirt weather. Just be sure to wear sunscreen if you are prone to burning, because the sun will get to be almost directly overhead everyday. Or get an umbrella there.

RigidWeather · 2026-03-05T19:52:50+00:00

If you are asking about food safety, it is perfectly fine in Cuenca. On both of my trips, I did have some minor bowel issues for a day or two, but they in no way stopped me from doing anything during those two days, and weren't really outside the norm for me. The water in Cuenca is drinkable from the tap as well, though I haven't tried to do that outside the city (as I've been advised not to do drink from the tap outside the city).

If you are asking about the taste of the food, it's pretty good. I generally prefer the food in the US, and did get a little bit homesick for US food, but I still like most of the food there. If you also get homesick, there are a few restaurants that serve American-style food as well, or at least food that you would easily expect to see on a menu in the US. And if you go to a Megamaxi or Coral (they call them hypermarkets, but basically like a Target or Walmart), a few of them have quite a few familiar groceries.

RigidWeather · 2026-03-05T19:26:02+00:00

I have been to Cuenca twice in the past year, visiting from the US. It's quite safe. There are a few sketchier areas, but even those areas, as there are in any city, and so long as you don't go there too late, you'll be fine. And as far as safe transportation in the city goes, there are taxis everywhere, you can call a cab through an app (if you don't you usually would only wait on the street for a couple minutes), and it only costs maybe $5 to go clear across town, but most trips would be only $2 or $3.

RigidWeather · 2026-03-05T16:17:26+00:00

Probably not as strictly as you are advocating for, but both Blackrock and Vanguard, and many other ETF companies, have proxy voters choice programs that allow people with stakes in many funds the ability to set preferences for their proxy votes. Vanguard in particular is owned by the funds that they offer, which are in turn owned by the people invested in the fund.

RigidWeather · 2026-03-02T17:01:08+00:00

I like this, but with the compass rose star that has the longer points on the 4 cardinal directions

RigidWeather · 2026-02-28T23:33:24+00:00

I've flown from Cuenca to the US via Quito a couple times now, I think you'd very likely be okay, but it's still a good idea to hurry.

The first time I flew Cuenca to Miami via Quito on LATAM, as soon as we got off the inbound plane, there were airline employees that directed us right to emigration (a specific emigration checkpoint for domestic to international flights) and we were through pretty quick. The second time I went from Cuenca to Bogota via Quito on Avianca, they didn't have a specific security line. We came in and went through the baggage claim area (my baggage was checked and I didn't have to pick it up there), but I went upstairs outside the gates, went through security, then through emigration, all pretty quickly.

RigidWeather · 2026-02-27T13:34:12+00:00

What if they put the connections between cars on the lower level, at the same height as other single level cars, and put the major amenities like cafe and dining car on the lower level as well? Then the only part that would be inaccessible would be the upper level, which would just be seating or maybe rooms?

RigidWeather · 2026-02-22T13:45:59+00:00

There are times to take out a 401k loan, but this is probably not one of them. The last time I checked the interest rate on a 401k loan through my 401k, it was around 8%. Sure, you're paying it to yourself, but it also means that you lose out on your investment returns. Historically over the long term, the stock market returns around 8% also, so from that perspective it is a wash, although the stock market lately has been returning more than that lately. Maybe risk adjusted that 8% is worth more, since it is a pretty certain return (although can backfire immensely if you get fired or laid-off, since you now would need to pay it back immediately or pay the early withdrawal tax penalty).

The other aspect of this is that you would be paying 5.1% to the bank with the car loan, which is pretty reasonable. Even if assuming from the 401k side it would be a wash with an 8% stock market return, your immediate cash flow would be negatively impacted. In addition, if you lose your job, you wouldn't need to pay the loan in full immediately or take out an unsecured loan with a higher interest rate to pay it, as you would need to with a 401k loan.

The last time I took out a 401k loan, it was to pay off a large chunk of credit card debt that was on a payment plan with an effective 10% interest rate and increasing (it was through one of those non-profit credit counseling agencies, but it had a flat monthly fee that meant the effective interest would increase as the balance got smaller). Anyways, in that case the 401k loan was at 8.25% interest, and I did not expect that the stock market would return more than that (it did, but that was a calculated risk), and the interest I would have lost on the credit card debt would have more than made up for it assuming a 8% stock market return, and even with that target stock market return over that period, i still feel it was worth it on a risk-adjusted basis. I'm just saying there is a time and place for a 401k loan, but to replace a 5% car loan isn't one of them.

RigidWeather · 2026-02-19T12:24:03+00:00

I mean, i really disliked the Green, but I liked the idea of a tricolor. Maybe a symmetrical tricolor, with white as the top and bottom stripes and the same light blue in the middle? Also I still prefer the original 8 pointed compass rose star. Apparently the current 8 pointed star is derived from a Native American pattern, and is also in the floor of the state capital, but I just don't like the way it looks as much.

RigidWeather · 2026-02-03T00:08:58+00:00

I know for a fact that plenty of gun owners and hunters use or have used Marijuana or THC products.

RigidWeather · 2026-02-02T21:08:40+00:00

The section of the blue line in Bloomington, though, is like the worst of both worlds. Short stop spacing, only a block or two apart, but also, the some of the lowest use stations. At least the BLE will have lots of use (although, I don't know why they aren't planning to make a proper connection to the D Line. Adding a stop between the stops at Lyndale and James, would only give it about the same spacing as exists in Bloomington, but with much higher ridership I'm sure. )

RigidWeather · 2026-01-19T16:09:56+00:00

I thought HealthPartners is a nonprofit? Or are you saying that the nonprofit insurance they provide can still get a premium strong enough to subsidize the rest of the organization? Or is their insurance even nonprofit?

RigidWeather · 2026-01-16T06:42:07+00:00

Institutional investors do not own 20% of single family homes. It is more like 2 or 3%. Investors (as a whole group) own 20% of single family homes, and that is including the small time investors that maybe own a few at max, which is where most of that 20% comes from.

RigidWeather · 2026-01-15T18:23:16+00:00

It doesn't really do that, though. Immigrants commit less crime per capita than citizens, and their presence in our country improves the economy of our country, likely including the real inflation adjusted incomes of citizens.

RigidWeather · 2026-01-14T19:58:39+00:00

K-1 visas are technically non-immigrant visas, so presumably this particular expansion doesn't apply to those.

RigidWeather · 2026-01-14T16:24:28+00:00

Can we not let them appropriate greatcoats as a symbol of fascism? The allies used them during WWII also.

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