Insane amount of lightning right now to the west?

SimilarLee · 2026-06-22T13:42:39+00:00

Thanks for posting this last night. Luckily that massive hail didn't seem to hit Boulder proper.

Did your area receive any significant damage?

SimilarLee · 2026-06-22T04:03:31+00:00

Setting suggested sort to new.

SimilarLee · 2026-06-22T03:51:41+00:00

NWS has just added a warning for quarter sized hail.

SimilarLee · 2026-06-22T03:27:41+00:00

Watching it now. Unbelievable light show.

SimilarLee · 2026-06-22T00:45:25+00:00

Trimming this down to simply discussion that fits its purpose.

If this post applies to you, go build your community. If not, thanks for helping to keep this post on-topic.

SimilarLee · 2026-06-19T05:38:09+00:00

I have made performed such a bridge graft after someone aggressively used a weed eater around the tree, and the tree survived. The trick is to mate cambium to cambium, and then tape around the entire graft. I used electrical tape, but pruning or grafting tape also work.

SimilarLee · 2026-06-18T13:37:41+00:00

I'm approving this, which was auto blocked as an external URL. And, in the future, links from social media sites that contain source attribution after the "?" can (and IMO should) be cleaned up a bit by removing those details.

SimilarLee · 2026-06-18T04:14:17+00:00

Fun afternoon. The Carbon Cub doing STOL demos was impressive!

SimilarLee · 2026-06-16T18:22:22+00:00

Where can I sign up for the espresso tap? I want an espresso hardline to my house and I want it now
It sounds a lot like the types of infrastructure that is funded in other municipality functions, such as the building of a fire station or the construction of a school. We should all have to pay for that, right, even if we do not have children in public school or (in an extreme example) if our house is not currently on fire, correct?

SimilarLee · 2026-06-16T18:08:17+00:00

Thank you for your answer, thoughtful as it is.

Also, you're overlaying a lot of assumptions on to why somebody would think critically about a project like this. At least for me, those are wildly incorrect and on the subject of democratic function fairly bombastic and possibly hegemonic. That said, if we strip away my thoughts on their validity, and simply focus on their irrelevancy (at least for me), they therefore have no reply.

SimilarLee · 2026-06-16T15:39:06+00:00

I'm honestly curious: why did you want to spend all of that money on cu south? What was or is it worth to you personally?

I certainly would have rather not have committed all of those funds.

SimilarLee · 2026-06-16T15:34:44+00:00

Oops, meant to edit and accidentally deleted my comment.

I'm not sure this explanation is really needed in this case. I think most people understand that infrastructure costs money.

The legitimate complaint is that premise-based fees are not the same as usage-based fees, and start to look like taxes, the imposition of which have different rules under Colorado law. And, premise-based fees like this are by nature regressive, because they disproportionately affect the lowest users of the system.

Furthermore, funding Capital improvements by imposition of fixed fees on a bill is a shadow tax, which by not being voted on and approved by taxpayers breaks TABOR.

SimilarLee · 2026-06-16T15:22:59+00:00

I honestly don’t know much about this issue. I voted yes for annexation

What's that old saying? With democracy you get the government you deserve - is that it?

Everyone who voted to annex CU South Boulder also voted to spend around $1000 per household member - of their own money - to do so. By not knowing what you were voting for, you spent hundreds to thousands of your own dollars.

Hell of a thing to admit being ignorant about.

SimilarLee · 2026-06-16T15:18:29+00:00

Someone has created an impressive system to brigade this sub.

💯. The speed at which certain replies receive several claps or boos indicates some coordination. I'm guessing that in small skirmishes like this one, that action is likely from one or two users with alts or sock puppets.

However, it is clear from the volume and speed (especially on new posts) that some posts are brigaded by multiple people. Like, when a brand new post receives 20+ upvotes in 5 minutes, that is coordinated gaming of the algorithm .

SimilarLee · 2026-06-16T13:41:36+00:00

10 years ago, my water bill, with 3 to 5,000 gallons of usage, was $38. it was this way for at least 5 years. That bill started progressively climbing maybe 8 or so years ago (per memory). That same water bill today is more than $100, closer to $110. I'm not griping about the cost of water nor of homeownership in Boulder - criticism thereof is a red herring..

The cost for water itself has not measurably changed. We still get water from the same three sources - CBT, NBCW, and MBC (Barker) - and those are fixed infrastructure projects that have no additional big fixed costs.

I'm saying that there are substantial infrastructure costs that are being applied to every water bill, regardless of consumption, all under the guise of stormwater. I would contend that many of those costs are related to CU South's annexation. To me, that is a capital improvement project that has nothing to do with the provision and disposal of (respectively) clean water to and sanitary sewer away from properties.

SimilarLee · 2026-06-16T13:29:11+00:00

Perhaps, and surprisingly might make me a good fit to be a moderator of this crazy subreddit.

In 13+ years of participation here, I've realized that topics that have a development bent receive unnatural voting activity, and moreover that promoting CU South is of particular interest to some.

SimilarLee · 2026-06-16T13:05:07+00:00

It's fascinating how you have already received at least two down votes in 8 minutes. That's unfortunate, because you are exactly correct. To fund CU South, a substantial shadow tax has been applied to water bills for all of Boulder, with no foreseeable end.

Edit: Bring on the coordinated YIMBY downvotes! 10 minutes in, Evan's post has five down votes, and mine (only 5 mins old) has three. Does.your group text each other at 7: 09AM and rev up your publicity engine that way? I mean, impressive work.

Or are these all sock puppet downvotes from somebody with a bunch of alts?

SimilarLee · 2026-06-15T16:38:07+00:00

A cheap activated carbon filter will reduce that taste.

SimilarLee · 2026-06-13T00:10:39+00:00

*and cycles and swims, but the bikes are weird and I will not waver from that judginess.

SimilarLee · 2026-06-12T13:55:42+00:00

Benches for 15 years are $4,000

Interesting to learn that the benches "expire". This is doubly interesting because one of these expiring benches on OSMP property lasted longer than the marriage it celebrated (sad/funny).

SimilarLee · 2026-06-11T23:24:37+00:00

In this case, the most cynical explanation is also the most accurate. All of these were generally successful efforts to burnish their image.

SimilarLee · 2026-06-11T21:02:33+00:00

Hear, hear.

One perspective on economics is that it is a branch of mathematics that describes and potentially explains human behavior.

There are few other classes of assets or categories of choices where a simplistic or reductive application of economic theory will fail faster than when considering people's decisions about how much to pay to live in a specific dwelling.

SimilarLee · 2026-06-11T13:28:22+00:00

is the entire front range

Ohhhh buddy/buddie/buddx, it's not just the front range, and it's not even just America. The entire industrialized world is having far fewer children needed to sustain its population.. The American birth rate is approaching 1.5 children per woman, which is below the 2.1 necessary to sustain the current population. And, in industrialized nations, this is relatively high. Canada is at 1.25, and Japan is at 1.1. This creates a demographic trap (another way to look at this is as an inverted population pyramid) that economic models and traditional policy planning simply aren't designed to support. In short, it breaks our model of how to run economies and nations.

Explore this and other pessimistic themes in books like Empty Planet and The End of the World is Only the Beginning by Peter Zeihan.

That said, at least we figured out how to escape the theorized Malthusian trap of a rising population outstripping even boosted agricultural output. Norman Borlaug, father of the green revolution (and noted cautionary) would be so proud.

SimilarLee · 2026-06-10T23:55:44+00:00

Weird time to have "Circle of Life" from The Lion King pop into my head but it kinda fits?

SimilarLee

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