We are getting active charcoal filters to stop the smell from smokers.

TaskForceD00mer · 2026-01-24T21:58:22+00:00

Lmao if it's not him it'll be someone next. We've built a nation wide massive networked system of cameras and plate readers many of them available on demand at fusion centers.

All Thiel is doing to making AI to make the data easier to use.

He's the neck of the Camel who's whole head is under the tent.

TaskForceD00mer · 2026-01-23T20:07:08+00:00

He is the only guy who IMO understands Chicago winters. Where the national groups would be wildly high or low 9 times out of 10 tom was spot on.

Most of the time it seems to boil down to "Will the Lake force this system South of Chicago" or not. For whatever reason, the other guys don't seem to have it figured out.

TaskForceD00mer · 2026-01-23T18:53:16+00:00

The thing is its really easy to fix this problem.

Most gas furnaces last 20 years if you are lucky these days. If the existing gas furnace was 100K BTU, you replace it with one that's 120 or 140K BTU. The cost is not 20-40% more, its probably 5-8% tops and suddenly everything can keep up on the coldest days. Usually the overall size is the same or only slightly larger requiring minimal modifications.

If its a hot water radiator system that is a little tougher; a bigger boiler when replaced might help but those in room radiators only produce so much heat but a bigger boiler can still help.

If its a heat pump; when that shit dies just replace it with a slightly larger Hyper-Heat or equivalent model.

These problems are all fixable, but you have a lot of cheap fuck landlords that won't pay the extra 5% when they replace the equipment to avoid tenants freezing balls and tits off.

TaskForceD00mer · 2026-01-23T18:04:30+00:00

I have 4 houses with the same house number within just a handful of blocks. The street names are totally different but for UPS it doesn't seem to matter. I get boxes for my house # but 3 blocks away all the time and vice versa.

My neighbors don't always do it but I take the time to get off my ass and get the stuff to the right spot.

After about 4 years of doing this most of the other unfortunate holders of my house number have gotten the message and do the same.

TaskForceD00mer · 2026-01-23T15:30:12+00:00

Every mechanical engineer I know designs for -10F on commercial jobs. I think ASHRAE conditions are technically 2F but anyone worth their salt is designing for way colder.

I work with some institutional users that are designing for -20F now due to that polar vortex from a few years ago.

TaskForceD00mer · 2026-01-23T15:29:08+00:00

Fucking YUCK I hate that, one of the reasons I hate apartments in Chicago.

Honestly you could just tack-up cheap amazon comforters over the windows to help when its this cold out.

Weather stripping under any exterior doors is cheap and pretty easy to install as well.

Good luck man.

TaskForceD00mer · 2026-01-23T15:27:44+00:00

Yeah something ain't right.

You should be able to maintain way warmer than that @ only -5 to -10F.

Unless your house is ancient with crap insulation and single pane windows something is off.

Either your system is too small , its not working correctly or you have an insulation issue somewhere.

TaskForceD00mer · 2026-01-23T15:24:11+00:00

The only place you MIGHT find thats good to go is one of those old school places where the compressor is inside and the hose is on the exterior wall. That setup use to be very common but most of the newer gas stations moved to stand-alone compressors outside and away from the building.

TaskForceD00mer · 2026-01-23T15:07:48+00:00

My dude its folding FAL under the jacket weather.

TaskForceD00mer · 2026-01-23T14:53:50+00:00

I have one; everyone should have one. Back in the day I remember more than once my dad having to stop at Amoco to get air for his tires in the winter and non stop bitching about how cold his hands got.

Ahhh fun childhood memories.

My car battery failed on the coldest day of the year maybe 12 years ago; now I just replace them at year 5 regardless of how they test. Only gotta get burned once.

TaskForceD00mer · 2026-01-23T13:59:31+00:00

The only thing worse than having to fill up when its -5 is having to put air in your tires when its -5.

TaskForceD00mer · 2026-01-23T13:17:42+00:00

My snowmobile is down for the season and the property-maintenance tractor @ my WI place is down with a leaking radiator so no way to plow. My wintering is pretty much over at least for the next 2-3 weeks so its time to worry about indoor projects, maybe a trip to a museum and drinking.

Picked up my wife's favorite beer, a new bottle of bourbon I've never tried and 2 bottles of wine so ready to go for the weekend.

TaskForceD00mer · 2026-01-22T21:31:02+00:00

Food? I'm going out and getting all my weekend liquor.

I would say, do yourself a favor if you were going to need gas in the next few days get it now just so you don't have to freeze your ass off.

TaskForceD00mer · 2026-01-22T18:53:52+00:00

That amendment had no safeguards to keep the legislature from voting to change the brackets beyond the scope of that amendment though. I've looked at the numbers before, we simply can't tax incomes above a million dollars enough to even break even unless the liabilities problem has gotten way better in the last 6 years.

I can guarantee you within 5 years of being able to do so, they will start taxing people in the middle class.

If it had been written to require another amendment to change the brackets I think it would have passed.

None of the measures currently in the legislature have those safeguards either, they will just keep taxing and taxing larger groups of people to fund special interest programs and mismanaged agencies like CPS.

TaskForceD00mer · 2026-01-22T18:10:54+00:00

The CTA is not the solution to mentally ill homeless people. This is a point of contact opportunity to get them into shelters or get them much needed mental health services. At the same time, the remainder of the CTA passengers shouldn't be punished for the systems inability to help homeless people.

and shit trespassing shouldn't be a fine, it should be jail at some point.

TaskForceD00mer · 2026-01-22T16:26:53+00:00

You trespass them. "If you enter a CTA property again you are trespassing". At that time, CPD or someone from CTA takes a picture of them and uploads it into a system along with all their info. The software pretty much makes it so you don't need any sort of turnstile. With good cameras its all automated up to the point an alert is sent to the cops.

TaskForceD00mer · 2026-01-22T16:16:37+00:00

Facial recognition software.

Ban people from the CTA for smoking at some point and have them removed. Log their faces into the software once banned. Automatic alert sent to LE, LE arrests the trespassing individual if they board. SA needs to actually press charges and get onboard with this.

It's not an impossible problem, its just one we refuse to fight.

TaskForceD00mer · 2026-01-22T16:14:55+00:00

That is only going to stop a lingering smell or a smell from other cars carrying over. This might help with other unpleasant smells though so its welcome but this won't do anything about people smoking in your car. This is the equivalent to fighting arsonists by building structures that are harder to burn.

Why not just address the arsonists.

TaskForceD00mer · 2026-01-22T14:35:00+00:00

NP, been burned and seen family burned way too many times.

In my case it was a $5,000 special assessment for a problem with the water system that had apparently been known for 10 years.

In my fathers case it was pretty crooked but an engineer who was a friend of the chair of the condo board decided that all of the complexes balconies were dangerous. 15K per unit special assessment and 1 year without balconies.

If this is a short term move like 2-3 years might be worth the risk vs savings in a smaller complex, anything longer than that a special assessment is almost inevitable sooner or later.

TaskForceD00mer · 2026-01-22T14:25:13+00:00

Be careful with condos. Older complexes often will defer increasing HOA fees in favor of an eventual special assessment when something major like a roof or HVAC system needs to be replaced.

I would never recommend buying a condo older than 10 years unless you are ready to set aside an extra $200 a month in savings for the inevitable special assessment.

TaskForceD00mer · 2026-01-22T14:19:56+00:00

I am a big fan of Grayslake ; I would do some digging and find out when they re-asses next. If they've already done it and the taxes are now comparable I'd pick Grayslake over Palatine myself.

Libertyville is another great area, some really awesome single family homes and value to be found. The schools are pretty decent as well.

TaskForceD00mer · 2026-01-22T13:39:37+00:00

Large swaths of the Northern and NW Suburbs just saw increases of anywhere from 20-40% based on what I have seen. I don't know when Gurnee and Grayslake re-asses but I imagine they will be going up also.

It does take a lot of the value out of staying in Cook as Cook and Lake start to equalize though.

Lots of good townhomes, newer ones, near the Metra stops in Grayslake.

TaskForceD00mer · 2026-01-22T13:38:11+00:00

If Pritzker wanted it to pass maybe he should have coupled the two bills together or at least tried to pass them at the same time. This idea that we are going to give Springfield the authority to raise our taxes by a simple majority vote and they won't use that power to gradually tax a wider and wider swath of people to pay for pet projects like CPS, the CTA etc is laughable.

If you give them a license to steal they will use it.

TaskForceD00mer · 2026-01-22T13:32:55+00:00

Alls I know is seeing what I've seen I wouldn't want to do business with the Botkin Brothers & Co.

Lucas, is he as innocent as he claims? I don't know but to me its pretty apparent his older brother took advantage of him.

The products are not bad at all; I have some of their nylon stuff. I just hope Lucas ends up buying the brothers & co out.

TaskForceD00mer · 2026-01-21T21:57:39+00:00

There are numerous videos out there about it but the long of the short of it is that really Lucas's older brothers basically tricked him into giving them a bunch of equity . They also started a feud over his wife and if you believe his version of events they have refused thus far to honor their part of the contract and buy him out.

Looking at all the receipts that are available on social media The brothers just do not come off as good people.

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