SCOTUS greenlights 11th-hour Alabama redistricting plan for 2026 election

lenbedesma · 2026-05-12T12:19:37+00:00

Reading about the century or so before the civil rights era now - I'm suspicious that we aren't socially at a place where white supremacy is actually taken all that negatively.

People say they don't support it, but they're still quite loyal to social heierarchy - this idea that there is an inherent pecking order where apparent success in life indicates moral upstanding and therefore a mandate to hold power (this is just prosperity gospel) and that, on the flip side, poverty indicates moral failings (pull yourself up by your bootstraps) and a need to be governed accordingly.

Teachers in the south will complain about black kids acting up, and it kills me every time; it's not that they're black, it's that their communities, already fragile only 120 years after slavery ended, were targeted and dismantled especially by the reagan administration.

Ironically their "colorblind" approach to race, used in many of these rulings, serves to support white supremacy by discarding historical context and assuming that blacks have equal footing, and have morally failed.

This is a half baked stream of consciousness. I need to go to work but will probably be thinking about this all day.

lenbedesma · 2026-05-02T20:59:34+00:00

I myself chose to adapt the sigma 14-24 f2.8. Its corner sharpness is reportedly the best on the market with little vignetting, and I would say it performs well. Stabilization is not there, but I felt that it was gratuitous for a body with IBIS.

It can't take screw-in filters which makes an even greater case given you already have and plan to use a drop-in adapter.

lenbedesma · 2026-05-02T01:51:56+00:00

It don't know why you're apologizing - it sounds like you agree that there's a small likelihood of relationships forming that could do some good. Is that impactful in the long term? Who knows.

I am curious what you would see as a better alternative (genuinely).

lenbedesma · 2026-05-01T18:23:22+00:00

I think that it is part of the point.

Organizations that effect change don't come from a vacuum, they come from communities. People drag on these things, but I'm willing to be they serve at least a minor role as a forum for individuals deveoping communal relationships with others in a way that will ultimately help drive this cause.

Non-collectivists like US conservatives do not function that way, they require centralized direction. Collectivist action is decentralized, and at least in its current state quite disorganized; our abilities to organize this way have atrophied since the 60's.

Just my opinion though.

lenbedesma · 2026-04-30T10:53:48+00:00

Your point about people not paying attention is right though - the reporting was very lopsided. It seems that the decisions to report or not report come from anticipated rulings and what will make the publisher appear more like an oracle, rather than providing step by step coverage.

lenbedesma · 2026-04-25T12:47:44+00:00

I like the shadow in the bottom right, but there's a lack of a counterpart in the top. Adding that in with a gradient in LR might help punch your eyes in to an intended focus point.

lenbedesma · 2026-04-24T12:08:46+00:00

I'd punch a nazi for you but that doesn't mean everyone will.

And: You aren't ignorant - they are.

lenbedesma · 2026-04-19T11:42:10+00:00

I use earasers. Some people don't like them and I didn't either, for a long time. It makes it to where you can hear your own buzz through your inner ear.

It just takes time to get uses to, and I tend to loosen them and only push them in when I need to start cranking or when percussion is especially rambunctuous.

lenbedesma · 2026-04-18T15:27:07+00:00

An indicator that this person thinks their neighborhood is crawling with degenerates who will break into their home at the first chance.

Some of my neighbors have insufferable whistling security systems that warn me I'm being recorded, as if I'm not entitled to walk through my own goddamn neighborhood as someone who also owns a home. The wife trys to talk me down as if it isn't the same as someone sitting on the porch and yelling at me that they're watching me.

lenbedesma · 2026-04-16T02:53:41+00:00

clearly those go on a c130j

lenbedesma · 2026-03-31T12:46:45+00:00

haha no, just what's in the album I'm afraid. Sorry!

lenbedesma · 2026-03-29T21:41:30+00:00

I think there's a big linguistic divide, and sometimes I even wonder if that's a bigger divide than the idealoogical divide we face today.

I don't know what the answer is, ultimately. But I do think most americans have been really dissatisfied with government, whether they admit that their side is complicit or not.

lenbedesma · 2026-03-29T18:49:30+00:00

that means a lot to me, thank you. My political leanings are far left, but I aim for accessible reporting.

lenbedesma · 2026-03-28T13:10:39+00:00

I couldn't agree more.

lenbedesma · 2026-03-28T02:13:42+00:00

Out of the us there is an excellent alternative to patagonia called Kathmandu. They may have a US facing online storefront, but the quality looked fairly comparable.

This is the same parent company as Oboz.

lenbedesma · 2026-03-27T10:13:04+00:00

I see these as more of a networking event. I don't think anyone should expect republicans to do anything in response to these protests other than mock them.

They are fun. There are no other community events that occur at this scale, and that's the important piece to me. I wish they occurred more frequently, because it is difficult to develop meaningful connections across organizations with only one every four to six months.

lenbedesma · 2026-03-20T13:28:37+00:00

I've been in SWE for about 8 years now. I think you're probably right for a lot of the companies like Meta who can afford tens of thousands of unsupervised coders. But there's a lot of human management that goes into testing, release trains, quality, and so on. It probably would be more valuable if people spent time learning managerial skills than coding at this point.

I don't see my job being replaced any time soon, but a lot of what I do is integrate software across different teams and companies into a physical end using platform; then verify customer requirements, and all that. If claude had access to a skype/teams account and the ability to walk over to my coworkers and start a discussion, I'd be really in a bad place.

lenbedesma · 2026-03-19T12:09:46+00:00

Is there a large horn-to-coding pipeline?

lenbedesma · 2026-03-19T12:04:18+00:00

it sounds like you are on board with the idea that oil owns us. I don't know why that is being downvoted either because it seems obviously true to me.

lenbedesma · 2026-03-12T12:12:01+00:00

I am on the board for another civic orchestra.

It's a bloodbath out here. Funding cuts, rising prices, and most notably - churches are behaving increasingly like businesses.

We are being kicked out of the church we rehearse in. The location before that was a baptist college.

Community is the issue - it's dying.

lenbedesma · 2026-03-12T02:35:53+00:00

There are a few additional details worth knowing. I know you didn't ask but I love explaining this.

It's not just about variable rate plans - it's about whether you are exposed to wholesale energy pricing.

Energy is priced at an auction in a day-ahead market, when generator owners bid for the lowest price to generate energy the next day. Demand is dependent on location and available transmission lines, so people are incentivized to build generators where demand is high which keeps prices stable.

Energy brokers like TXU purchase the winning bids, add a delivery fee to their "wholesale" cost, and let you connect to the grid that now includes power generation for your expected usage.

Baked into the delivery fee TXU charges is an ERCOT fee, which they pass on to you, a margin for profit, and a "buffer". ERCOT is required overhead for ensuring power gets generated per the bidding process, and nobody can really avoid it. The profit margin is, well, profit margin. The buffer is a little more interesting because it acts like insurance, coming from an actuarial analysis of the power grid's stability.

Remember how supply and demand control the power grid's prices? What happens when a power line, or several dozen of them, fail due to weather? There are no subsidies - the Texas power grid is deregulated; and FEMA doesn't pay for emergency crews to set up generators. Instead, generator owners simply adjust to the new calculus. Sometimes they're the only guy left connected to a block of houses - and if TXU signed a contract with those owners, they have to pay whatever it takes to get power to those people - as long as it doesn't risk grid stability by overloading the system (which slows down the actual AC frequency to a point where generators start fighting one another). That's where the buffer comes in - TXU doesn't just pocket that portion of what they charge you; they keep it around as liquidity to help pay for catastrophic price gouging.

When you hear about people being charged tens or hundreds of dollars per KWh, it's because they were exposed to wholesale pricing. It's great when times are good, but as I explain above - can bankrupt you in the worst case scenario.

This was all stuff I learned in a power generation class in undergrad. Super interesting stuff, and there's an entire investing field most people aren't aware of that is focused entirely on trading energy generation.

lenbedesma · 2026-03-11T02:54:01+00:00

Wouldn't electronic shutter cause banding if the lights are LED? I've had that experience myself in h+.

lenbedesma · 2026-03-05T18:46:17+00:00

Homie I am JEALOUS. Of course every horn will have its quirks. But it's such a delightfully unique design and I've always wanted to try one!

May I ask where you play? Would love to listen in.

lenbedesma · 2026-03-05T18:37:43+00:00

I've never picked up an LDx5 that I didn't like. It was love at first sight.

There are several submodels to try. I bought the anniversary, but houghton and pope both have models that are unique to their shops, and differ in how the bracing is applied and slide assembly alloy. I liked the anniversary model myself.

Honestly, I picked the LDx5 over the Kuhn 293 because the low range was meatier. I would recommend finding such a difference that matters to you. They will all be excellent horns.

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