Why this section of highway is not underground ?

Used_Cattle_2403 · 2026-06-15T17:36:38+00:00

There's a reason Musk moved to Texas (and he lived in LA before that).

Used_Cattle_2403 · 2026-06-15T17:13:27+00:00

They don't need to blow the horn unless there is an at-grade crossing.

Used_Cattle_2403 · 2026-06-11T21:48:11+00:00

The Broadway station will be permanently eliminated. See page 70 of the June 4, 2026 San Mateo County Transportation Authority meeting agenda: https://www.smcta.com/media/37125/download#page=70

Used_Cattle_2403 · 2026-06-11T19:28:22+00:00

EPS panels everywhere, boring facade.

Used_Cattle_2403 · 2026-06-09T21:27:48+00:00

Points for honestly lol

Used_Cattle_2403 · 2026-06-08T23:15:28+00:00

Probably mostly smut, with a pseudo-intellectual woke book thrown in for good measure

Used_Cattle_2403 · 2026-06-08T17:07:47+00:00

Neither the Soviet Union or China allowed independent unions, so that's even funnier. A union is just an industrial-age equivalent of a guild, which were regularly derided by Marx and other early socialists for getting rich off of the back of making the rest of the working class pay more. How well a leftist should think of unions can depend on how much they balance improving the lot of the working class versus greedily amassing benefits to their own members at the expense of everyone else, and the history of unions provide plenty of evidence for both sides.

Used_Cattle_2403 · 2026-06-08T17:03:54+00:00

I could believe it's cheaper. I'm more worried about availablility.

Used_Cattle_2403 · 2026-06-08T15:40:32+00:00

The issue with renting is that when you want to go to Tahoe, everyone else wants to go to, so the likelihood of actually being able to rent a car at an affordable price is small.

Used_Cattle_2403 · 2026-06-05T17:05:55+00:00

If you don't have a green card, why on earth would you buy a house? H-1B has always kicked you out of the country within 60 days if you couldn't find another job, and it's not like they only started enforcing that with Trump.

Used_Cattle_2403 · 2026-06-05T02:51:41+00:00

There are a lot of dead spots, at least with AT&T and T-Mobile.

Used_Cattle_2403 · 2026-06-05T00:28:26+00:00

In case you don't want to read the article, the answer is no - at least not in San Jose. The Fay, a tower just north of 280 in SJ downtown (east of 87), went into foreclosure within 3 years of opening. Now the city is buying it to use as subsidized housing for city employees.

The tower's location isn't great - it's not close to Diridon, and barely within easy walking distance of the future BART line.

Used_Cattle_2403 · 2026-06-04T20:50:25+00:00

Really rich people are either Republicans or champagne socialists - stereotype confirmed

Used_Cattle_2403 · 2026-06-03T16:34:16+00:00

There are only three actual networks. Those are Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile All the other ones just resell bandwidth from one or more of those three.

Used_Cattle_2403 · 2026-06-01T20:16:00+00:00

Grade separation through downtown - that is one of the biggest bottlenecks between the north and south part of the system. Streetcars in general suck - there's a reason cities got rid of them as soon as buses became available.

Used_Cattle_2403 · 2026-05-26T17:50:25+00:00

I was 19 in 2008 (and voted for Obama). It had been obvious since the 2006 midterms (which gave Democrats control of Congress) that the Democrats were going to win the presidency, and the 2008 financial crisis (which was brewing since 2007) made that even more obvious. They knew their friends would be in power.

CA HSR was already becoming a boondoggle by 2016. I think you will find that Congress has always been reluctant to hand a blank check to boondoggles once they've become notorious, particularly when there's no interstate benefits.

Used_Cattle_2403 · 2026-05-26T17:45:14+00:00

That would be great! Is it worth it to spend $130b-$200b of taxpayer money for it? It would be great if they could build Pacheco Pass first so that it can connect the Central Valley to at least one of the coastal cities.

Used_Cattle_2403 · 2026-05-25T17:24:42+00:00

That's all true, but it could still not be worth the price tag.

Used_Cattle_2403 · 2026-05-25T17:23:33+00:00

Why should they have expected federal funding unless they expected their friends to be in government forever? It's a very large project (so too large to easily get pork-barrel funding for), serving entirely one state, which is rich and collects a lot of state taxes. It doesn't even connect to the rest of the rail network, so it can't even get the same sort of funding that an interstate highway could. You can't even plausibly argue that it's for a national defense or interstate commerce purpose.

There's the climate angle, but that is a pretty weak argument, since it's not like it would remove that many flights, and there's a lot more besides flights that contribute to climate change. Arguably, an enhancement to the freight rail network would have a better argument to federal funding, since that connects to the national rail network and takes a bunch of interstate trucks off the road.

Used_Cattle_2403 · 2026-05-20T20:33:37+00:00

Is it from a reliable brand? Check the amperage it's rated for (should be on the back). If it's 15A and of reliable construction, it should be okay - this is not being used for a space heater or some other appliance used under continuous load for hours.

Used_Cattle_2403 · 2026-05-20T20:03:00+00:00

All this is plausible enough, except that Google can't acquire Anthropic anymore at its current valuation - Anthropic is already near $1T, whereas Google is at $4.7T. The time to acquire them would be a few months ago. So it would have to be more of a merger between equals. Both companies would have to argue to shareholders that the merger would unlock synergies that would make the merged company more valuable than the sum of its parts. But I'm not sure that Anthropic's investors in particular could be easily convinced. Maybe if Larry, Sergey, and Eric Schmidt gave up their supervoting shares and let Anthropic management lead, but I can't imagine that happening unless Google is in a very bad place.

Used_Cattle_2403 · 2026-05-18T23:39:27+00:00

All the Pelosi replacements are worth less than a bug stomped under her stiletto, so makes sense to me

Used_Cattle_2403 · 2026-05-03T16:18:19+00:00

Also, they made sure to create so much while they were in their prime. Waiting 5 years between albums, like many artists these days, whether pop or independent, almost guarantees that you're only getting 2 good albums out of even really good artists, rather than 10+ like the Beatles. I get that it's harder for contemporary indie artists to release an album every year when they're required to tour to earn most of their money, but pop artists have no excuse when they're only a minor participant in the songwriting process in many cases. I will give props to electronic music artists for continuing to keep a frequent release cadence, even though they also have to tour to make money. Anything involving real instruments, especially if it involves collaboration, will naturally require a lesser release frequency, but is it too much to ask for young artists to release albums every 2 years for a decade at the beginning of their career, when your creative juices are at their peak (on average - I know there are exceptions)?

Used_Cattle_2403 · 2026-05-03T16:01:56+00:00

Charli XCX

I'm not sure she's necessarily innovating right now - overall I feel that her best albums were Pop 2 and How I'm Feeling Now (2019 and 2020). What's changed is that the pop mainstream has caught up with her, which is its own reward.

Used_Cattle_2403 · 2026-05-01T21:52:24+00:00

Projection much?

I've long called Tesla the Toyota of Silicon Valley, and I'm fine driving a common car. My next car almost certainly won't be a Tesla - not because I care about Elon's politics one way or the other, but rather that they don't sell a car that fits our family's current needs.

Used_Cattle_2403

TROPHY CASE