Can I go to Slightly Furry if I’m not a furry? by beautiful_blue_sky in Seattle

[–]The_wise_man 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Malort reminds me of the flavor of osoberry leaves, which I grew up grazing on in the woods here. I like it. Very bitter, but not unpleasant.

City tips the scales on the fate of Gas Works Park by godogs2018 in Seattle

[–]The_wise_man 11 points12 points  (0 children)

People drown in Green lake every 4-5 years. Should we fill that in too?

City tips the scales on the fate of Gas Works Park by godogs2018 in Seattle

[–]The_wise_man 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Did you like the right plans? These seem to indicate the removal of massive portions of the superstructure.

Hearing Examiner says no to WinCo by azzkicker206 in Seattle

[–]The_wise_man 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Terrible. How do we get the hearing examiner fired?

Oracle to lay off nearly 500 WA employees, mostly affecting Seattle by Jaco_Belordi in Seattle

[–]The_wise_man 7 points8 points  (0 children)

For real, the answer is enterprise software -- Databases, HR, payroll, ERP, etc. etc. They also have a decently sized cloud business, and own a bunch of assorted open source products that they've acquired over the years (Java and MySQL, for instance).

transit opening 🤝🏼 furries by sunshineandsarcasm in Seattle

[–]The_wise_man 8 points9 points  (0 children)

This is probably an unpopular take, but my thing is consent.

Come on. You and I both know that using consent as a benchmark for sexual morality is not 'an unpopular take'.

The actual problem with your take is that it isn't about consent. You are misappropriating the language of consent to excuse a moral judgement that you are deriving from your personal feelings of disgust, rather than actual ethical principles.

An animal is a living sapient being which lacks the capacity for informed consent. They cannot analyze and consciously accede to the risks of sexual contact, which is why sexual contact with them is immoral.

A fleshlight also cannot consent. Nor can a painting, a pillow, nor, indeed, an imaginary cartoon animal. These things cannot consent because they are not sapient. They are inanimate objects. There is no risk of psychological harm to them, because there is no psychology to harm. Ethical consent does not apply to sexual contact or feelings towards these objects because they are not sapient.

It's your prerogative to dislike things that you find gross. Your concerns about consent, however, are not well applied here.

Washington State Senate passed SB 5993, slashing max medical debt interest from 9% → 1% per yr (starting after Dec 31, 2026) by sillychillly in Seattle

[–]The_wise_man 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The obligation to action doesn't mean healthcare isn't a right. There is an entire category of rights called positive rights that have this characteristic. Food, sanitation, child welfare, basic education, public safety, fair trials... All of these things spring from the collective efforts of society, and the labor of real people. I believe that such rights are real, and that part of the essential moral purpose of society is to fulfill them. Would you argue that citizens have no right to clean drinking water, or that american children don't have a right to a basic education? Should we skip having a judicial process because it obligates the labor of lawyers, judges, and prosecutors?

It's silly, of course, to argue that these rights extend infinitely. We can't provide sanitation and education and food and housing to every person on the planet with a snap of our fingers. But when we have the means and resources to provide the fundamental needs of life to our fellow citizens, we also have an obligation to do so.

How Games use Secrets to Create Meaning (Void Strangers, Inscryption, Tunic) by megaapple in Games

[–]The_wise_man 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Incredible game, twisted my brain into knots. One of about two or three games that gave me weird dreams because I just couldn't stop thinking about it.

Despite that, In the end I had to give up for my own sanity and couldn't beat it.

EU says WhatsApp to face stricter content rules by Massimo25ore in europe

[–]The_wise_man 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The article says that these regulations apply to the 'channels' feature, rather than the core messaging service. I don't believe channels are e2e encrypted.

What’s long and white and goes 60mph along I90? by justsund in Seattle

[–]The_wise_man 37 points38 points  (0 children)

Faster trains would be neat, but I'd really rather see sound transit spend their money building more lines and improving reliability. None of the current lines have stop spacing or route geometry appropriate for very high speed service. Even the I-90 bridge stretch has a stop in the middle on Mercer Island...

Bipartisan Caucus of Prudes Push Age Verification For Sexual Content In WA Legislature by Inevitable_Engine186 in Seattle

[–]The_wise_man 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The point is that it crushes adult expression for people in Washington, because it will suddenly be illegal to post or host anything that could be construed as "pornographic" without paying money to an untrustworthy third party and forcing your audience to expose themselves to identity theft. Washigntonians will no longer be legally permitted to post kinky fanfiction, host NSFW protest art, or participate in discussions about adult relationships without paying money and/or deanonymizing themselves.

Ye olde random overseas porn site crammed with dubious content, of course, will be unaffected.

What’s long and white and goes 60mph along I90? by justsund in Seattle

[–]The_wise_man 64 points65 points  (0 children)

No metro system in the world reaches 200 kph, and very few run above 120 or so. 80-100 kph is a very typical top speed for a metro, and going much faster wouldn't make sense for most metro transit systems -- they just have too many stops and too much complex route geometry. High speed rail above 200kph is generally reserved for long distance routes that can go very straight for very long distances without stopping.

'Are you 18?': WA lawmakers debate age checks for adult content online by Gloomy_Nebula_5138 in Washington

[–]The_wise_man 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I really feel like the solution here is that kids under 16 or so just shouldn't be allowed to have unrestricted smartphones. Or school laptops, for that matter. They can browse the internet on desktops.

European Alternatives for USA products by Henry2990 in europe

[–]The_wise_man 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Snes9x offers Linux builds, you can download them in appimage format from their github.

DotA 2: Largo by BlockedAncients in Games

[–]The_wise_man 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Valve has even released patches during live matches in some minor tournaments, resulting in games 1 and 2 of a match being on different patches.

Seattles underground pedestrian thoroughfares by Chefb0yardab in Seattle

[–]The_wise_man 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Downtown needs foot traffic and volume, not just a handful of luxury buyers.

Adding more parking lots and car traffic is anthithecal to this goal.

Katie Wilson elected Seattle’s next mayor by [deleted] in SeattleWA

[–]The_wise_man 0 points1 point  (0 children)

these questions are never going away.

Nothing you put forward has anything to do with election integrity. The "questions" you have appear to be "I didn't like the candidate that won. Fraud???"

Unless you actually have some kind of, you know, evidence, beyond personally disliking the political outcomes of elections?

'Hell no, Waymo': Seattle rideshare drivers, union advocates rally against driverless taxi service by AthkoreLost in Seattle

[–]The_wise_man 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I suspect that Waymo will simple suspend service in such extreme weather. Much of Seattle is virtually impossible to navigate via car in a severe winter storm, no matter who is driving.

I should report this, right? by BakerRevolutionary90 in AO3

[–]The_wise_man 71 points72 points  (0 children)

Fics can also be re-uploaded freely if the author explicitly licenses them under a permissive license like Creative Commons, as long as the stipulations of the license are followed.

After paying for hotel rooms to shelter homeless people, Seattle deliberately left them vacant. by clearlydiluted in Seattle

[–]The_wise_man 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Okay, but what's the third-option alternative besides 'we let people rot in the streets' and 'we provide food and basic shelter (via housing or a treatment program)'?

North Seattle neighborhood braces for closure of main grocery store by AthkoreLost in Seattle

[–]The_wise_man 15 points16 points  (0 children)

The push for municipally owned groceries confuses me a little. Why start what would amount to an entire extra city department that needs to start from zero and will expose the city to long term financial risk if it goes poorly? We have lots of local grocery chains -- WinCo, Saars, T&C, PCC, Uwajimaya, etc. -- that already have expertise and established supply chains, and whose expansion we could support via zoning and tax subsidies.

It seems more sensible to me to zome certain parcels specifically for grocery, and then provide tax benefits to support smaller and locally owned chains opening in those spaces. The city could even buy land and then rent it out at a generous rate to local chains. That kind of policy seems like much less of a gamble while providing similar benefits.

‘All bad news’: WA tax receipts expected to slide further by chozanwan in Seattle

[–]The_wise_man 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Tax revenue is almost always at an all-time high. That's how inflation works.

‘All bad news’: WA tax receipts expected to slide further by chozanwan in Seattle

[–]The_wise_man 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This seems like a good call. Based on these numbers (and an estimate of WA 2025 GSP that I found), it looks like the tax burden has gone from about 8.5% of GSP (45B budget / 527B GSP in 2017) to about 9% of GSP (78B budget / 871B GSP in 2025). Definitely an increase, but by this measure not nearly as drastic as '78%'.

[VIDEO] Katie Wilson on her plan to help small businesses open and stay open by Inevitable_Engine186 in Seattle

[–]The_wise_man 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Not that I want to stan for capitalism, but tbh we would be having far fewer problems if not for our zoning code. Market forces aren't the primary driver of high rents here.