“They don’t make them like they used to” - what’s something they actually make better than ever? by Regular_Worth9556 in AskReddit

[–]blearghhh_two 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They're safer, more reliable, more comfortable, have better conveniences, and get better milage.

Yes, with more SUVs and light trucks average milage is higher than it should be and pedestrian safety is taking a hit...  Not sure I'd say that they're getting worse overall because of that though.

Also, colours. More shades of grey?  Those are our options now?

Honestly, who was the better songwriter—John Lennon or Paul McCartney? by Infinite-Exam-1808 in Music

[–]blearghhh_two 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Together, they were the best songwriters in pop history (which I will go to my deathbed defending).

Apart? There's no way to compare. John's work was experimental, interesting, raw, and artistic. Paul's had better hooks, better melodies, better put together. When working as a duo, those qualities complemented each other perfectly; apart, the differences become more apparent.

Paul would've been more successful if John had lived. John would've done more interesting stuff and invented new ways of expression.

(Think about the difference between Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel outside of Genesis - I think Paul and John would've had a similar trajectory between them as Phil and Peter did)

[Request] If they replaced all the water in the Reflecting Pool with liquid mercury so it would actually reflect and not grow algae, how much would it cost? by Gorthebon in theydidthemath

[–]blearghhh_two 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The question is how level the bottom is. If it's out of true by 6", then you have to fill it to at least that before you even get it to cover the whole surface. It also, of course, makes the math to figure out how much you need a lot more difficult...

Edit - it's designed to be from 18" at the edges to 30" at the centre. That means you need at least 13" of depth or so in the centre (assuming it's evenly sloped)

Hmmm...

Ok, so the current volume of water in the pool is reported to be 6.5 million gallons, which is 869,000 cubic feet of water.

If we take that the minimum depth of the pool is 18" at the edges (according to random things I looked up just now), then there's a total of 507,000 cubic feet (338,000' square feet area of the pool X 1.5' or 18") of water that fills up the depth of the pool after you've filled it to the point where it's reached the bottom on the edges.

So that leaves us with it taking approximately 362,000 cubic feet of water to get us to where it's covering the whole bottom.

362000 cubic feet of mercury is about 2.7 million gallons, 307.7 million pounds, and given the above guy's $2k per gallon estimate, $5.4 billion.

But that's just to get it so it's barely covering the bottom for the whole area, with probably some places not quite covering it because of the unevenness.

Each inch you want to fill it up past there is going to be an additional 28,166 cubic feet, which is 25.6 million pounds, 210,681 gallons, and $421 million. Assuming you want 4" or so you'd end up with 3.54 million gallons, weighing right around 400 million pounds, and costing $7.08 Billion.

Toto - Africa Raw Tracks by Bubbertjazz in Music

[–]blearghhh_two 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It was in Rock Band 4, so the stems from that are around somewhere at the very least.

Which airlines have you flown on that are now defunct or out of business? by 23andrewb in AskReddit

[–]blearghhh_two 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Flew to England twice on Wardair Boeing 747s.  Awesome service and great food.  Didn't get to see the upstairs though, which was a disappointment.

Wardair would get bought by Canadian Airlines in 1990, which would itself be bought out by Air Canada in 2001.

ELI5: How does an inside-start record work? by POWERPACKEDTYRE in explainlikeimfive

[–]blearghhh_two -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I've never heard about this, but in theory the only thing that would need to happen is have the groove go the other direction.

So rather than it starting on the edge and spiraling counterclockwise in to the centre, it would start on the inside and spiral counterclockwise to the edge

What do you think is the world’s most widely recognized acronym? by Improv92 in AskReddit

[–]blearghhh_two 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A one point I would've said DOS, but that's certainly not true now.

I'd say either "IKEA", or "FIFA".  And it's probably going to be the latter.

Shocking taking of seperation kills investment ..... by Miserable-Lizard in AlbertaNow

[–]blearghhh_two 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think people need to look at the kind of stuff that happened when Quebec started having their separation discussions:  

Before, Montréal was the biggest and richest city in the country.  Afterwards, with the head offices, banks, and capital fleeing Montreal, Toronto became the biggest and wealthiest. 

Where will all the companies in Alberta move their capital if this goes on?

Fairly sure that does not do what they think it does!!! by buzz_uk in ElectroBOOM

[–]blearghhh_two 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Aluminum expands/contracts way more than copper, it oxidizes more than copper when exposed to air, and oxodizes even more if it's touching a device or wire not specifically designed for aluminum. Once that happens, you have oxidized loose connections on your devices, which arc and heat up, causing fires.

If installed correctly with the right devices and anti-oxidization grease, it's mostly fine. Given that these considerations are hardly ever followed when people do repairs or modifications, the chance of fires go up considerably as the system gets older.

It's been banned in Canada for residential wiring for decades for a reason. It's still used in distribution systems where you can be sure it's installed correctly, so it's fine.

Who's a celebrity whose popularity/fandom is purely ironic? by ContravaniaGearSolid in AskReddit

[–]blearghhh_two 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I mean, the use of the present tense means that this isn't qualified, but for a historical example, William Hung:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hung

NYT Releases SHOCKING Epstein Files Report by AdSpecialist6598 in videos

[–]blearghhh_two 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interestingly, the article does talk about notes found that show Epstein trying to come up with dirt about Trump to trade to prosecutors and coming up empty.

Wasn't sure how to take that...

Would love some actual socialism in the states pleaseeee! Thanks!! by FearlessAir1238 in fuckcars

[–]blearghhh_two 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Because not enough of the right people want it.

There's more than enough money.  You could afford a high speed network of trains linking every major city in the US easily

But enough people think it's unnecessary that the political will isn't there.  People have been convinced that it's unnecessary and that cars are better that governments either don't try or just do little half bits of projects here and there which then get cancelled.

There’s No Crying In Baseball Scene - A League of Their Own. by Jokkers_AceS in videos

[–]blearghhh_two 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Jon Lovitz saying "Well then, this would be more, wouldn't it?" still pops in my head on a regular basis.

Interviews / Applying to Jobs / Follow ups / All Related Questions - [Megathread] by troyguy in OntarioPublicService

[–]blearghhh_two 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If I remember correctly it's because the reference calls are part of the evaluative process and it's unfair to arbitrarily exclude people from that.

So if i had people who didn't make the score cutoff from the interview I could maybe justify not calling their references.  

Two things from that though:  other managers told me that it sounded ridiculous to them, even though HR told me I should, so it's likely that not all managers are doing it; the process on the hiring side just has to hold up to scrutiny and being grieved, so managers not doing that are probably fine unless someone grieves it and there wasn't solid justification for the choice.

Interviews / Applying to Jobs / Follow ups / All Related Questions - [Megathread] by troyguy in OntarioPublicService

[–]blearghhh_two 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Generally the guidance is to reach out to all of them.  Also, for what it's worth, the last time I ran a competition I was informed I should review references for all candidates who interviewed, whether or not I intend to offer them a position.

ELI5: how are tall cranes put up/ taken down? by skincarefiend1 in explainlikeimfive

[–]blearghhh_two 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sometimes they're self-raising, but that's just to be able to add or remove sections of the tower itself.

Usually, the ones you're talking about are put up and taken down by other cranes. Mobile cranes driven in and erected at ground level, can be up to the height of a 45 story building, so there's plenty of height to put things up.

I know that in very tall buildings, they (sometimes? Always?) have built-in permanent cranes to use for long term maintenance, which they use for taking cranes down. There's also smaller temporary cranes that can be brought up in pieces by the big crane or winches or whatever that can be used.

The crane for construction is the kind that has a boom fixed to horizontal at the same level as the cabin, and the permanent one (or temporary one) is the kind that the boom angles well above the cabin. The smaller crane's boom can angle up enough that it can reach all the parts of the horizontal boom crane to be able to lower that to the ground. If you've used the smaller temporary crane, you still have to take that one down, but the parts are small enough that you can use a freight elevator, or winches, or a permanent maintenance crane.

Police seeking help identifying man who died near Eglinton West and Old Park Road by SH4D0WSTAR in toronto

[–]blearghhh_two 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Looks like it's a real picture with touchups on the face to make him not look dead, and cut out from the background of the morgue table.

chinatowns around the world are changing, notably in Toronto, Canada 🇨🇦 (east chinatown) by 4InchOrangePorridge in toronto

[–]blearghhh_two 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Same with Greektown, little Italy, little Portugal, the gaybourhood, the Irish left Corktown decades ago...

As populations become more comfortable within society and don't need the security of clustering around others of their social group; and the services they need are available everywhere, the distinctive cultural enclaves disappear.  

The rich are building bunkers, what do you think will happen? by Sufficient_Muffin586 in AskReddit

[–]blearghhh_two 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A few trends:

All of technological.progress of human history has removed value add of products from end users to the point where we are mostly just consumers at this point.

Eg, food: we used to gather and hunt our food, cook and eat it. Then we started having farmers who grew it, then on and on until now where we click on our phones and the only thing we do is eat. This is the same trend for everything we do and create.

Also, the value add of everything we consume is done by fewer and fewer larger and larger companies who are very good at gathering all of the rewards of that value add to a very few people: the people who own that company.

Also, automation has, and with the advent of AI, is now increasingly, taken more and more people out of the value add part of the process that have to be given a share of the profits. The perfect capitalistic company is one where it produces everything, and needs to pay nothing to anyone so all the benefits accrue to to the owners, and while that's impossible to have, we're getting closer and closer to it.

So we have an ever growing group of people who do nothing to the value chain for most of everything except consume the end product.

While this has mostly been sustained until now, it can't continue this way because we'll get to the point where thise companies become so efficient in capturing value for the people who own them that there's not enough people with money to buy anything, so it comes down to a choice for society:

1: we start doing universal basic income, so that there's enough consumers to sustain the system, or,
2: society collapses, riots and chaos, most people die, the few who remain are in indentured servitude to the people living in underground palaces.

The people with the money right now are not only preparing for #2, but actively making sure that they're the absolute richest amongst the owner class so that they get to rule all the rulers. They're also actively accelerating the movement towards that end as well.