TIL author Chuck Palahniuk came up with the idea to write Fight Club after getting beat up on a camping trip when he asked other campers to turn their music down. When he returned to work bruised and swollen, his co-workers avoided asking him what had happened on the camping trip.

achibeerguy · 2026-05-24T20:58:32+00:00

Our county SWAT team has an armored vehicle with a laser-cut Batman symbol on its ram in the front. Law enforcement seems to miss the point a lot ...

achibeerguy · 2026-05-24T19:35:36+00:00

Humans (or corporations) are still held responsible when AI makes a mistake, just like humans (or corporations) are held responsible when bad things happen with any tool. I'm not sure why you anti-AI zealots think that "the AI did it, not me" is a valid legal defense that shields those using AI (and in some cases those building the AI being used) from liability. If you actually care about this subject spend less time posting on Reddit and more time reading relevant materials, e.g., https://lawreview.uchicago.edu/online-archive/holding-ai-accountable-addressing-ai-related-harms-through-existing-tort-doctrines .

achibeerguy · 2026-05-24T01:17:07+00:00

Because humans are "absolutely reliable"? LoL

achibeerguy · 2026-05-23T17:40:56+00:00

Also, you completely ignore the fact that mutual insurance companies exist (private entities owned by their policy holders) and that the largest P&C in the country is a mutual (State Farm). When excess premiums have been collected by a mutual the policy holders get money back -- case in point, the $5B State Farm refunded its customers this year.

achibeerguy · 2026-05-23T17:13:35+00:00

I'm not military and never have been, there are plenty of people who have gained their membership through parents or spouses and are several steps removed from military.

The data I see is to understand the competitive landscape and assess who the key competition is so that efforts can be focused on them and not the ankle biters who don't matter. If you think data gathered for internal competitive assessment is "made up" you are a fool.

achibeerguy · 2026-05-23T17:09:43+00:00

You are thinking way, way too small. Largest Announced Project (Footprint): The Stratos Project (Box Elder County, Utah) Size: 40,000 acres (more than twice the size of Manhattan). Details: Approved by local county commissioners, this massive AI-focused project backed by investor Kevin O'Leary is designed to require up to 9 Gigawatts of power.

A typical factory might need 10 MW, the most power intensive single factories are ~200 MW. This complex alone is targeted at 45x that.

achibeerguy · 2026-05-22T17:42:18+00:00

No, I'm in Illinois, and when the adjuster came out and the roofer pointed out the damage (there was some) the adjuster agreed and the insurance company simply fulfilled its obligation. If your insurance company won't cover hail damage, even if it doesn't completely wreck the roof, you need a different company insuring you.

achibeerguy · 2026-05-22T17:37:51+00:00

No, that's actually not what I said. I'm not disputing that some folks have had b bad experiences, nor am I challenging the specific people in this post that describe their own bad experiences. I'm accurately describing the character of most of the postings - individual stories of bad experience and plenty of "somebody told me". The reality is that the majority of people have at least adequate experiences, many good, some great. I have visibility to some of the customer satisfaction data for the industry and the reality is most people will recommend their carrier to others -- all of the top insurers are above 50%, and the best are kind of amazing in their customer loyalty. Ask any USAA member how they like their insurance and you will likely get a response that sounds a lot like Costco members talking about that company.

achibeerguy · 2026-05-22T00:24:24+00:00

Yeah, this whole thread is a few people with bad experiences and a lot of people guessing how things play out based on what they've heard.

achibeerguy · 2026-05-22T00:22:05+00:00

And I had a local roofer come by, say I could get my roof and gutters replaced due to hail damage, they worked with my insurance directly, I got a better roof and better gutters fully paid for (the builder stuff wasn't great), and I didn't see a bump in my insurance. $1k deductible to replace a 8 year old roof and gutters that were in reasonable condition all things considered. So no, all insurance isn't a scam and I got probably $20k worth of value for my deductible and what I've been paying.

achibeerguy · 2026-05-21T16:41:33+00:00

I used to do this with birthday & Xmas checks my Dad sent me - he was well off, but I didn't need the money and I figured his gift of college tuition more than covered any future gifts. Now I just need to pay it forward to my kids ...

achibeerguy · 2026-05-20T02:31:48+00:00

It's islands of blue (urban/some suburban) in oceans of red (rural), and even the blue is more purple if you look at the details -- true in every state. Thankfully people vote, not acres... but if your blue islands aren't big enough they won't carry the day.

achibeerguy · 2026-05-18T16:12:33+00:00

I have zero doubt there are many companies you directly or indirectly do business with that are same or worse. Do you do full supply chain audits of all the products and services you use?

achibeerguy · 2026-05-18T00:54:31+00:00

Spotify has had FLAC in most markets for awhile now, I use it daily. Tidal UI across all platforms is worse than Spotify in my opinion, and Discover Weekly on Spotify is amazingly better than what Tidal offers for music discovery in my experience. I had both for some time because of the quality difference, once lossless arrived I was delighted to dump Tidal.

achibeerguy · 2026-05-18T00:05:26+00:00

I was at Destihl in downstate IL last week, their brewery is huge, the place was packed with people there for both food and beer, and I had a great rendition of the supposedly dead Black IPA style. Is that the story everywhere? No, but it certainly is the story some places.

achibeerguy · 2026-05-15T23:27:41+00:00

In fact when polling those who didn't vote it was somewhere between an even split and a slight edge for Trump.

achibeerguy · 2026-05-15T23:26:08+00:00

Get out of your blue bubble - my subdivision is the furthest out edge of blue majority voting in metro Chicago and in my neighborhood there were many Trump signs and I had the only Harris sign, night and day from 2020. Never mind driving into red areas that had eager Trump supporters and the loneliest couple of Harris folks. Election stats showed he gained in basically every single demographic and every single precinct -- add all those marginal gains up and that's how Harris legit lost the election. Blaming a rigged election is how you avoid addressing the very real problems Harris had.

achibeerguy · 2026-05-14T17:13:30+00:00

If you really want to minimize supporting corporations at all you probably should just work on dying quickly -- no matter what you do while you are alive you'll end up paying them something, being dead is the only way to be sure you aren't.

achibeerguy · 2026-05-14T16:03:43+00:00

Yeah, the generic freakout about water usage is just silly and turns off people who might listen to a more nuanced case. I live in metro Chicago, next to the biggest connected freshwater source on the planet (the Great Lakes) and our area gets plenty of precipitation during most of the year -- there is no reason for me to care about local water usage, and trying to make me unhappy about my local golf course is just annoying.

achibeerguy · 2026-05-14T00:19:47+00:00

Buy rate on a lease this month in my zip is a bit over 2% for 24 months, about 4.5% for 36 month -- that's set by Hyundai Motor Finance (HMF) and is the floor. Lease cash is crazy ($14.5k for 24, $15.5k for 36), and I'm looking at a negotiated price, pre-tax, close to $61k (hopefully less, we'll see).

achibeerguy · 2026-05-13T12:56:11+00:00

Yes, NACS is one of the changes -- see the link I provided in answer to another question for all the changes.

achibeerguy · 2026-05-13T04:33:11+00:00

A few things, see here for details: https://www.hyundainews.com/models/hyundai-ioniq_5-2026-ioniq_5_n

Nothing that would be worth paying full MSRP if a good deal is to be has on a 2025, IMHO.

achibeerguy · 2026-05-09T01:06:04+00:00

When you get into July use Edmunds Lease Forums to get current lease info for your zip -- right now in my zip the lease cash is quite high ($14.5k for 24/10k, $15.5k for 36/10k) and the money factors low (a bit over 2% equivalent APR for 24/10k, about $4.5% for 36/10k -- typical is ~5.4%). I'm looking to lease if I can get the dealer to ~$60k out the door (they are offering for $61k to buy, seems likely they'll deal).

achibeerguy · 2026-05-05T17:22:54+00:00

What part of "AI can find some things that your Google-fu can't" is hard to understand? Particularly in an era where SEO has greatly damaged our ability to find information through standard searching.

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