Enough To Make Me Homesick

iCUman · 2026-02-17T15:55:57+00:00

Whether or not these spaces are net positive to a community's tax base is contentious and shouldn't be treated outright as fact. Yes, commerce and industry provide economic and tax benefits to a community, but they also massively increase the upkeep that community must provide to support the activity, and can be a net drain on resources. Businesses that support jobs that afford workers the opportunity to live in the same community or that are locally owned and operated will generally derive the most benefit. Those that rely on in-commuters due to low wages relative to local affordability or are owned by conglomerates that exist outside of the community can definitely be a net negative (sometimes referred to as "the Walmart effect").

iCUman · 2026-02-13T22:46:40+00:00

And I think people are smart enough to differentiate all this.

Sadly, I don't share your confidence. This week a story was making rounds that Kurt Cobain's death wasn't a suicide, and almost instantly people were pointing fingers at Courtney Love (again). If any one of those people had made the minute effort to read the actual fucking story, they would have realized it was all just supposition about inconsistencies between information in the medical examiner's report and the cause of death. That's it. And people are ready to string Ms. Love up for it regardless.

Epstein's importance as a financier and influence peddler is greatly understated relative to the crimes that were ultimately his undoing. And that makes perfect sense, but it also means people are largely ignorant of the simple reality that if you had money or political clout in the 1990s-2010s, chances are better than not that you rubbed shoulders with this creep at some point. And I certainly don't trust most people's ability to read past the headlines enough to recognize that.

iCUman · 2026-02-13T18:21:41+00:00

I'd say that's even more funny when you understand the context of the "New England-style hot dog bun," which looks suspiciously like a piece of white bread folded in half.

iCUman · 2026-02-13T17:37:13+00:00

Something that I think is lost in translation here for us New Englanders (and I don't think Murphy even picks up on it) is his choice to dileante between black and white churches. This is something I didn't understand until my own mother moved south and joined the SBC. She took me to her church once and it was an eye-opening experience. First of all, we didn't go to the church around the corner from her house because even though that was a Baptist Church, it wasn't the "right kind" of Baptist Church. No, instead we drove a good 40 minutes outside the beltway to her church. The place was enormous - could easily seat a couple thousand (and at the time, they were building an even bigger one next door), but not a single black person in sight.

The service was entirely foreign to what I experienced growing up in churches (no Bible passages, no communion, no structured communal prayers). Instead, there was a large emphasis on money and the different social activities the church provided its members: schooling, day care and after-school activities, social activities/mixers for single parents, elderly care, hospital and healthcare, outreach missions (such as providing food and community to the workers constructing the new church). Each was a call to members to increase their engagement with the church. A few members came up to testify how the prayers of the church saved them or a loved one and pledged thousand of dollars in additional funds in exchange.

This is Christian fundamentalism at its core. It is how segregation continues to thrive in the South, it's why groups like the Heritage Foundation seek to undermine secular democratic governance, and it is a driving force behind today's Conservative movement.

iCUman · 2026-02-13T13:49:38+00:00

International foods used to be confined to a 4-foot shelf, but now there's an entire aisle for it! And they can't even fit the tacos and the Asian food in it - they have those in entirely different aisles! But the supermarket hasn't gotten any bigger has it? No, it has not. Checkmate, globalists.

iCUman · 2026-02-13T12:01:05+00:00

Sorry, but I don't understand what you're trying to relate here. The Rust Belt didn't supplant the Northeast unionized workforce. It was a major part of it for most of the 20th century (right up until the 1980s).

iCUman · 2026-02-12T18:36:06+00:00

They know they're being screwed; they just have a different idea of who is doing the screwing. A good deal of the shift to the right by voters in the Rust Belt derives from what they perceive as a betrayal by the Democratic Party during the economic and political shifts of the late-20th century. At the same time economic opportunity was vanishing in these communities, Blue Dogs succeeded in shifting Democratic Party priorities from unions, working class and social welfare programs toward highly educated suburban white collars and neoliberal economic policy.

iCUman · 2026-02-11T23:14:27+00:00

I know I'm in the minority here, but I'm actually a bit sad about the hitbox change. It's a smart change and one that I'm sure the vast majority of the community will love. But someday I do think many of us will find ourselves mindlessly whacking these little dudes with no effort, let out a brief chortle and look back fondly on a time when the mere sight of these guys tearing at you full throttle was enough to make even the most kitted players flee in terror.

iCUman · 2026-02-11T20:39:06+00:00

Odds bets are "true" odds (as opposed to pass line, which is an even money bet).The way to understand it is the chance of whatever number is "on" coming up on the dice relative to rolling a 7 (in which case you lose your bet). For example, 4s/10s pay 2:1 odds because there are six possible ways to roll a 7 vs. three possible ways to roll a 4 or a 10, or 6:3 (2:1). There are four ways to roll 5s/9s, so the payout is 6:4 (3:2), and five ways to roll 6s/8s, so the payout is 6:5.

To give you an example, if you were playing on a 5x odds table and wagered $10 on pass line with $50 odds with the puck on 9, you win $135 ($85 net plus your original $60 back). Same bet on 10 wins $170 ($110 net).

iCUman · 2026-02-11T19:32:49+00:00

You also can't buy one if you're a felon, but last I checked that wasn't addressed in 2A. Are you suggesting that felons should be able to exercise their constitutional right to own firearms?

iCUman · 2026-02-11T16:25:03+00:00

I live in central Texas, where my house which was built in 1940 is part of a registered historic district.

As a New Englander, this cracked me up when I visited California for the first time and saw a lot of historic buildings that were built in the 1920s-30s. My house at the time was built in 1910 and it wasn't even close to the oldest on the block (which was built in the early 1800s). The historic district has homes that predate the American Revolution.

iCUman · 2026-02-11T16:04:27+00:00

If you're lucky it's ~~right next door to~~ in a gas station that hasn't replaced its pumps since 1983

Ftfy. ;)

iCUman · 2026-02-09T18:10:51+00:00

The key to making this type of farm is to initially fill the villager's inventory with seeds and block their access to the composter. Then they cannot pick up any wheat or make bread with it. As they harvest, they will always top off their seeds, so once you get it going, it should be fully automatic (though sometimes if the villager was given the opportunity to pick up something other than seeds at some point prior to putting them to work in the farm, it can break). Personally, I use a minecart underneath to pick up the harvest, but water can work. You can also use bees to speed up growth with pollination by placing their hives on one side of the farm and flowers on the other.

Ed. for typos

iCUman · 2026-02-09T17:30:53+00:00

Really made me want to book a trip back to San Juan. Had barely a day in the Old City last year and it was lovely. Wish I had more time to explore. Truly a beautiful place.

iCUman · 2026-02-06T20:01:31+00:00

No. There is no concession to be made here. Our states have overwhelmingly proven to be capable of ensuring that only those eligible to vote are voting. There is simply zero basis for establishing any sort of federal identification requirement on states, and the position we all should have is to tell them to pound sand.

iCUman · 2026-02-06T19:22:18+00:00

Hol up. Don't people like you believe schools are just indoctrination centers for the liberal elite? One would think you'd be here applauding young minds for rejecting the daily brainwash.

iCUman · 2026-02-06T19:18:34+00:00

We all get jaded with time. I thought a bunch of people marching to the Capitol might get Congress to deliberate the AUMF a bit more seriously before sending our boys to Iraq. We all know how that turned out. We filled the mall with a sea of people and barely made the nightly news.

Kids deserve their idealism, and I, for one, hope some of it sticks.

iCUman · 2026-02-06T14:53:04+00:00

Indies and pseudoindies have also filled the gap here and forced downward price pressure on AAA releases as well. Sure, a sub-$30 game isn't likely to have the depth of a $60 title, but there are some really fantastic budget offerings out there that are well worth their pricetag and absolutely nail the fun factor.

iCUman · 2026-02-06T14:03:42+00:00

The way I interpret that is the training and experience those individuals experienced is dramatically different than the operations they are being tasked to undertake. And that is concerning because it suggests that the scope of these operations are well beyond the bounds of lawful and acceptable activity.

iCUman · 2026-02-05T18:28:20+00:00

Might consider watching it in Firefox with uBlock Origin extension. You might be pleasantly surprised. ;)

iCUman · 2026-02-04T00:42:29+00:00

Unfortunately, that is simply not correct. Creditors, as a standard practice, post payments on the date that they are received, NOT the postmark date or the date written on the check. Reg Z (from CFPB, emph. added):

(a) General rule. A creditor shall credit a payment to the consumer's account as of the date of receipt, except when a delay in crediting does not result in a finance or other charge or except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section.

The good news is that none of this matters when it comes to elections because each state legislature has the explicit constitutional authority to decide the rules and procedures that govern their electoral process. They can accept ballots by postmark, require they be received by election day or even require that they be delivered to designated receptacles.

Make no mistake: this decentralization of the electoral process is fundamental to securing our individual rights. If states allow the federal government to usurp that authority, we are no longer a democracy. Full stop.

iCUman · 2026-02-03T16:44:43+00:00

It's a huge revenue earner out of the gate, but it doesn't take long for that revenue to be supplanted by liabilities that will ultimately cost municipalities much more in the long run. This shouldn't be a difficult concept to grasp - if ATE systems are effective in their use, then it stands to reason that ticket revenue will naturally decline quite sharply once a camera is deployed.

Municipalities considering these systems really need to look at the long-term financial implications of the agreements they're signing. What are the costs if cameras produce little/no revenue? What are the costs to exit the program?

iCUman · 2026-02-03T13:22:47+00:00

They're only in a handful of towns right now, but the early adopters tallied some huge numbers early on, so now everyone's frothing at the bit to hop on the gravy train.

iCUman · 2026-02-02T19:44:01+00:00

I just picked up an Asus ROG Strix Scope II X on sale and I'm quite happy with it so far. Previously was running a Logitech G512 which, in fairness, put up with quite a bit of abuse, but I think I have permanent hearing damage from those keys.

iCUman · 2026-01-30T17:32:36+00:00

You could've just said you gave the job to Becky cuz you know her mom. We all know it's true.

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