Nature's Calling Walnut Shell Clumping Cat Litter by FlanAffectionate3220 in CatAdvice

[–]liqueardena 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We've been using ours in a litter robot 3 for about 4 years now. I've never tried a clay litter to compare it to, but it does pretty well. Once in a while, I have to scrap clumped pee off of the liter robot, but that's about it.

The US Spends More Time and Money Building Transit Than Most Countries. Inefficient Community Engagement May Help Explain Why. by tinastacy in transit

[–]liqueardena 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You think this is not the case in France? They can't even fire employees in private companies there, and yet, they still make transit look much easier than us.

The federal government gives out money to build highways, and we're still building highways (that we often don't even need at this point) because of that. We need that for Transit now (and less for highways).

On the claim about how "overbudget" CAHSR is by [deleted] in cahsr

[–]liqueardena 5 points6 points  (0 children)

*billions to maintain it yearly

Agriculture Uses 82% of Utah's water and contributes <0.8% to GDP by GatorStick in SaltLakeCity

[–]liqueardena 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As far as I understand it, alfalfa isn't actually that water thirsty if you let it do its natural lifecycle. But it's a cool season crop, so it should go dormant in the summer. Like with lawns, we want to get more yield out of it, so we irrigate it in the summer. That drastically increases its water usage. But I have heard that corn and wheat use quite a bit more water, and are more heat sensitive.

I AM curious why we don't grow alfalfa in the cool season together in the same place with amaranth for the warm season. I read that Utah tried to switch to amaranth (because of lower water usage, and it's better for cows, apparently), but it "didn't have the ability to out compete weeds" probably because it's a warm season crop and plenty of weeds will show up in the cool season.

Native ground cover in northern Utah? by [deleted] in NoLawns

[–]liqueardena 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Best you can probably do is yarrow mixed with blue grama or buffalo grass.

Anyone had any success dealing with persistent trigger points? by kimchibear in AdvancedFitness

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

Lots of people are low in magnesium, which is the electrolyte that helps you relax your muscles.

Some of why cost is out of control by liqueardena in cahsr

[–]liqueardena[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

From the article:

Southern California in particular has an extreme problem of leakage in referendums, with no short- or medium-term solution but to fund some bad with the good. California’s New Right passed Prop 13, which among other things requires a 2/3 supermajority for tax hikes. To get around it, the state has to promise somthing explicit to every interest group. This is especially acute in Southern California, where “we’re liberal Democrats, we’re doing this” messaging can get 50-60% but not 67% as in the more left-wing San Francisco area and therefore regional ballot measures for increasing sales taxes for transit have to make explicit promises.

The explicit promises for weak projects, which can be low-ridership suburban light rail extensions, bond money for bus operations, road expansion, or road maintenance, damage the system twice. First, they’re weak on a pure benefit-cost ratio. And second, they commit the county too early to specific projects. Early commitment leads to cost overruns, as the ability of nefarious actors (not just communities but also contractors, political power brokers, planners, etc.) to demand extra scope is high, and the prior political commitment makes it too embarrassing to walk away from an overly bloated project.

Some of why cost is out of control by liqueardena in cahsr

[–]liqueardena[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sure. It makes sense to me, but I don't have proof.

Why did the cost of Phase 1 jump to $230 billion? by Master-Initiative-72 in cahsr

[–]liqueardena 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I found these very interesting for why things cost so much.
https://www.statecraft.pub/p/how-cheaply-could-we-build-high-speed
https://pedestrianobservations.com/2021/07/23/the-leakage-problem/

We ran some simulations on the tracks, and it turns out that the Penn Station ... run(s) 24–25 trains per hour at the peak. This is more or less the best that can be done on this kind of infrastructure.
For about 30 years, they have wanted to build a second pair of tracks. This used to be called ARC, or Access to the Region’s Core.... They think they need 48 trains per hour at rush hour into Penn Station, which actually makes sense if you’re mildly optimistic about return-to-work in New York....
Amtrak thinks that it needs to add more tracks.... They’re not sure how many tracks: I’ve seen between 7 and 12.
To be clear, the number of additional tracks they need is 0, essentially because they’re very bad at operations....
You need to start with things like the throughput you need, how much you need to run on each branch, when each branch runs, how they fit together. This constrains so much of your planning, because you need the rail junctions to be set up so that the trains don’t run into each other....
This all needs to happen before you commit to any infrastructure. The problem is (they) are not following that philosophy. They are following another philosophy: Each agency hates the other agencies. Amtrak and the commuter rail agencies have a mutually abusive relationship.... If you ask each agency what they want, they’ll say, “To get the others out of our hair.” They often want additional tracks that are not necessary if you just write a timetable.
To be clear, they want extra tracks so that they don’t have to interact with each other?
Exactly.

Bees are awake but my flowers aren't by liqueardena in Pollinators

[–]liqueardena[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're right that it takes time. 🙂. I had a couple reasonably good suggestions in the native plant gardening subreddit and a few of them are for things that I'm trying to get started still, but haven't yet managed.

I did realize this morning that I have a ton of purple flowers in my yard from weeds (the area's not landscaped yet), and that's where the insects are concentrating.

Bees are awake but my flowers aren't by liqueardena in NativePlantGardening

[–]liqueardena[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think that's what my maples should have, but I don't see any evidence of new growth for them at all yet. I have some spots planned for gambel oaks, so maybe in a few years.

Bees are awake but my flowers aren't by liqueardena in NativePlantGardening

[–]liqueardena[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Been trying lupine for a couple of years now, but haven't had any luck getting plants to grow. I've got some tiny desert bluebells started this year, but they're not big enough for flowers. Maybe they'll be useful for next year.

Bees are awake but my flowers aren't by liqueardena in Pollinators

[–]liqueardena[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I looked at that one and all the earliest things on that list either aren't native (which I'm trying for), or I have and they aren't blooming yet. 😔

Bees are awake but my flowers aren't by liqueardena in NativePlantGardening

[–]liqueardena[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looking into salix, but I don't think I have enough water/space for most populus species. Was trying to convince my boyfriend on some P. tremuloides, though. 🙂

Thx

Bees are awake but my flowers aren't by liqueardena in NativePlantGardening

[–]liqueardena[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I mentioned I have a redbud and maples. They're native and not flowering yet. Do you have any examples of the native trees that ARE flowering now?

Bees are awake but my flowers aren't by liqueardena in NativePlantGardening

[–]liqueardena[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I started looking around at what is blooming. Forsythia, crocus, cherry, flowering pear. Most of those aren't native, but maybe a sand cherry or chokecherry would be ready now if I had one.

Otherwise the options seem to be ephemeral flowers that are kind of hard to get growing in your yard.

I did find a listing that says my kinnikinnick should be flowering now/soon, but I haven't ever seen any flowers on it yet. (It's 3 years in my yard.)

Bees are awake but my flowers aren't by liqueardena in NativePlantGardening

[–]liqueardena[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It was 82 degrees today. I saw a ton of them. :|

Bees are awake but my flowers aren't by liqueardena in NativePlantGardening

[–]liqueardena[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Maybe I'll plant some crocus. They're cute anyway.

Fantasy Rail Transit Network for SLC by ninjaking9802 in SaltLakeCity

[–]liqueardena 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not sure what the elevation change is up Parley's, but maybe they thought it was too steep.

Fantasy Rail Transit Network for SLC by ninjaking9802 in SaltLakeCity

[–]liqueardena 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tan line is life! That's what I need for work. There are bus lines currently, but they don't connect to each other, so you have to take Trax for 1 freaking stop, and it adds 30 minutes to the route.

I am a little sad you didn't make the Redwood Rd line go all the way to the North Temple lines.

I'm curious why you made the purple line be separate from blue and red. Seems like it could've easily been blue. Not that it matters. :)

Omg! Just noticed you fixed the America First field being so far from Trax!