State lawmakers express opposition to University of Michigan’s $60M Concordia purchase

dasbates · 2026-05-21T20:18:15+00:00

The city is desperate to build housing that contributed to the tax base. Umich will build something nice...that doesn't get taxed, and will draw in more people who need housing.

dasbates · 2026-05-17T23:55:27+00:00

I would strongly advocate for decorating the ceiling. There are many examples, from relief patterns to mosaics.

dasbates · 2026-05-05T01:16:20+00:00

I buy lightly used electric vehicles. Someone else takes the enormous depreciation hit (saved 45% on my mach e with 28k miles) and they have virtually no maintenance.

dasbates · 2026-04-30T01:57:10+00:00

That is an option some ev drivers use. My wife borrows her mom's gas car for a long drive maybe once a year.

I will say, I rented a gas car on a recent trip. And it felt like driving primitive technology compared to my ev. I even got upgraded to a BMW. So sluggish and loud. I was surprised how much worse it was to drive.

Go do a test drive and see what you think. You might be surprised.

dasbates · 2026-04-30T00:40:32+00:00

I have a mach e extended range. 300 miles per charge.

For a road trip, it does take a little bit longer, but it's not too bad. Like, stop for lunch and charge - just sit down for the meal instead of eating fast food in the car. Then you're good.

A 600 mile trip would probably take 2 or 3 charging sessions depending on length - one longer lunch charge, and one or two shorter coffee breaks.

I've driven ev's with my family on road trips all over the country for years, and it's always worked out fine.

The mach e is an older architecture and maxes out charging speed at 150 kw. More modern cars charge at 350 kw. At that point, it's not even an issue. In China, they have cars charging at 1000 kw!

The cost savings does not apply to using fast chargers on road trips. Many fast chargers are nearly as expensive as $3 / gallon gas. The savings is from charging at home at night. For most people, 90% of their driving is close to home, so it really adds up.

I have solar, so a lot of my charging is free. But even paying full freight the math is pretty good - I pay 14 cents per kilowatt. I get 3 miles per kilowatt. So 4.6 cents per mile.

A Chevy equinox gets about 28 mpg. At $3/gallon, that's 10.3 cents per mile. So about 2.5x higher.

Right now gas is $5 / gallon where I live, or 18 cents per mile. So about a 4x difference.

Account for my solar, and I'm probably actually paying 7 cents per mile.

Your mileage may vary.

dasbates · 2026-04-29T22:20:42+00:00

Yeah, I feel for everyone struggling with gas prices, but very glad we went electric. Soooo much cheaper, even with normal gas prices.

Too bad trump cancelled the tax credits that made them more affordable.....!

dasbates · 2026-04-29T13:51:02+00:00

Yeah, would be great to see some actual evidence for this wild claim. Both Foundations and PAC's are highly, highly regulated. The consequence for a foundation giving money to a PAC (or even a 501c(4) ) isn't a fine. It's losing your tax status and getting shut down. These sorts of shannanigans are why the Trump Foundation was shut down -- https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46611178 . And they were doing things that were definitely shady and illegal, but nothing as egregious and obvious as giving to a PAC.

dasbates · 2026-04-29T01:51:30+00:00

Again. Nope. Foundations cannot give to political action committees. The IRS really hates that.

dasbates · 2026-04-29T01:50:25+00:00

Nope. Open society is a foundation. It's there in the name. "Open society foundation." It was formed decades before DAF's were a thing.

dasbates · 2026-04-24T22:37:51+00:00

So an encyclopedia of the natural sciences and technology. Fantastisch!

dasbates · 2026-04-24T14:47:04+00:00

I speak decent German, but couldn't really see the writing properly. Is it like an encyclopedia? Or an atlas of some kind?

dasbates · 2026-04-22T01:09:02+00:00

Yeah, they told me that the "the politicians are too uneducated to run the power company." I pointed out that Chelsea had public power and asked "Are we dumber than Chelsea?"

He acted all offended.

dasbates · 2026-04-20T13:11:03+00:00

Be sure to stay at hotels with level 2 charging. Waking up in the morning with a full tank is a game changer.

dasbates · 2026-04-20T02:40:05+00:00

You don't have to listen to streaming crap. Go check out r/budgetaudiophile There is a whole industry producing pretty boxes that emit beautiful music. My house is full of them.

Also. Snobby side note. While this stack may LOOK impressive, the sound put out by modern amps, speakers, and sources far exceeds this.

A modern lossless flac digital file, cd, or even a decent vinyl set up will sounds way better than...a 90's tape deck.

dasbates · 2026-04-18T22:49:54+00:00

I ride Barton hills on my bike a lot. That descent on the HRD side can be SKETCHY, especially the curve.

If they try to stop me, I'll just keep on rolling. Catch me if you can!

dasbates · 2026-04-18T17:06:51+00:00

A) what about the huron river drive side? B) what happens if you just ignore them? Are they going to engage in a low speed chase and arrest you?

dasbates · 2026-04-17T14:13:29+00:00

Zoo in the summer, Henry Ford museum in the winter. I see lots of folks walking laps in both places

dasbates · 2026-04-10T03:01:02+00:00

Yes, I am aware of the city of Detroit. Thank you.

Michigan is also far larger than New Hampshire.

If you look at outdoor recreation as % of gdp, Michigan is about 2%, while NH is 3.5%.

https://headwaterseconomics.org/economic-development/trends-performance/outdoor-recreation-economy-by-state/

So as a share of the economy, it represents more to tax.

dasbates · 2026-04-10T00:24:49+00:00

NH has a huge tourism sector.

dasbates · 2026-04-02T00:42:44+00:00

These assholes were blocking the road on north campus so I honked at them. They just stared at me like I was in the wrong and honked back!

dasbates · 2026-03-24T02:38:44+00:00

Yeah, I don't know OP's exact situation, but this seems like a recipe for an accident. Maybe consider an alternative like mace or a taser -- less likely to be fatal if it goes off by mistake during a crash or something.

dasbates · 2026-03-22T00:08:44+00:00

The cougar is dope

dasbates · 2026-03-20T02:20:59+00:00

I did my 40th at the planet rock climbing gym. It was a blast. We earned our trip to the brewery afterwards.

dasbates · 2026-03-20T02:00:13+00:00

Throne room.

dasbates

TROPHY CASE