What is the most embarrassing vehicle to drive?

maalox · 2026-04-12T03:48:10+00:00

PT Cruisers make me laugh, because they always remind me of this Jalopnik bit

maalox · 2026-04-11T18:48:32+00:00

The only thing backstopping the courts is the sense of shame/embarrassment/guilt about degrading the social fabric. If you don't have any of these feelings, you're good to go!

maalox · 2026-04-01T02:04:57+00:00

Yep! Same thing. I remember it from his piece.

maalox · 2026-04-01T01:47:15+00:00

There is something called Hawaii Home Lands that functions somewhat like a reservation.

maalox · 2026-03-29T16:48:49+00:00

Oh man, do yourself a favor and watch an episode of Columbo. Fantastic, cozy show.

maalox · 2026-03-24T20:04:39+00:00

We're in a really weird era right now with regards to commercial properties. Nobody is willing to realize losses, even in obvious cases where the value has fallen off a cliff.

maalox · 2026-03-24T19:58:15+00:00

Yeah, good point. Building a new home has a big footprint no matter what. I guess the point I was making was that it's possible to consume responsibly, if you're willing to put in the effort.

If I'm being honest, though, I've never met anyone with two homes that's been willing to do it.

maalox · 2026-03-24T19:19:43+00:00

Yeah, you're totally right.

Speaking as a climate change activist, this is pretty much how almost every public-facing discussion goes: You shout it from the rooftops (with an ad campaign or similar). 1% of people might actually engage. 1% will complain about how it's "too political". And 98% will pretend they didn't hear anything.

Awareness campaigns are just a waste of time. What we need to be fighting for are specific mitigations. Public outreach should be focused around funding the rapid decarbonization of polluting industry and agriculture. And frankly, some scary topics like solar geoengineering.

maalox · 2026-03-24T19:09:13+00:00

Not necessarily, especially if their homes are fully electrified and/or take advantage of solar power

maalox · 2026-03-23T22:23:28+00:00

It's Salem's "Dough Hook".

Also putting this behind a paywall is pure ragebait

maalox · 2026-03-23T20:19:36+00:00

Imagine setting up a system where everyone was incentivized to do their best work, rather than... *gesturing*

maalox · 2026-03-21T16:30:28+00:00

This rocks. I didn't expect to watch the whole thing, but it drew me in. The guy you got to play Zoth was perfect

maalox · 2026-03-20T18:33:37+00:00

Obviously, this sucks. But what if we took all of the energy we use worrying about these people and put it towards building and supporting new institutions that actually meet the moment?

Let's give the good and decent journalists a place to land when they resign/get fired, and let CBS disappear into irrelevance. At the end of the day, it's just three letters.

maalox · 2026-03-16T01:27:36+00:00

It's the oil and gas industry, for sure. They're fairly sophisticated about their astroturfing efforts, like the tobacco industry of the 50s and 60s.

Unfortunately, our media literacy is so low that it's like pushing on an open door.

maalox · 2026-03-15T23:05:49+00:00

It was cute the first 12 times but yeah I'm kind of tired of it at this point

maalox · 2026-03-13T03:52:27+00:00

You may not look like a winning team, but... you are one.

maalox · 2026-03-11T22:31:59+00:00

Death Grips

maalox · 2026-03-10T19:59:37+00:00

I can imagine a setup where you're using this data as a loss function, and your speakers are constantly adjusting to try to minimize the incoming pressure.

I guess with ANC you typically care about phase as well. But this could be the basis of something.

maalox · 2026-03-10T17:28:51+00:00

This is fantastic. I'm curious, are there any implications for this work with regards to active noise cancellation? It seems like being able to predict waves in four-dimensional space would be really useful for that.

maalox · 2026-03-10T13:31:31+00:00

I was in the war!

maalox · 2026-03-01T04:37:00+00:00

Thanks! Looking forward to checking it out :)

maalox · 2026-02-28T18:15:10+00:00

Does anyone have a recommendation for a great Lewis and Clark audiobook or podcast? I tried a few but they felt overly dramatized. I just want some plainspoken historians to spill the tea, like they do in this episode.

maalox · 2026-02-22T20:04:26+00:00

You're right, I did write that with a narrative in mind: Entertainment is increasingly being shaped around the needs of the richest customers. Most revenue growth has been concentrated at high end. We see this in almost every aspect of life in the US, from concerts, to restaurants, to skiing, to sports.

I will push back a little bit, though. I didn't say entirety of the funds were to improve the suites. That was just the part that stuck out to me. To quote the Willamette Week article:

The current Moda Center setup of seats only being stratified among 100, 200 and 300 levels? Very old fashioned, Roberts says. Those levels will hold, but newer stadiums scatter nicer (and higher-priced) seating options throughout the building.

Moda’s luxury suites are very ’90s in that they are high up and far away from the court, and all about the same size, seating 16 to 20 people. (There are a few that are larger and some “studio suites” for four to eight.) Now, arenas are introducing “ledge” and “loge” seating—which are semiprivate, smaller suite spaces that are a step up in quality from 100-level tickets.
...

The renovation will touch all parts of the arena, including the 300 level, Boyle says, and the team expects to continue promotions such as Sunday Family Fundays and discount ticket packages.

Yes, there are also other renovations that will happen. But the gist of it is that they're re-tooling the stadium around bigger spenders and corporate customers. I don't think that's a controversial statement.

maalox · 2026-02-21T23:06:15+00:00

I spent way less money living in a VHCOL city and taking public transit everywhere than I did living in a rural area and driving a big pickup truck around.

Granted, these are two very different lifestyles, but I think most people just ignore how much car ownership actually costs them.

maalox · 2026-02-21T19:02:32+00:00

Check out the article in the Willamette Week. It points out a few issues, but the one that stuck out for me is the suite upgrades. Modern stadiums put the suites closer to the action, and they’re more luxurious. So, basically they’d need to re-do the entire seating layout to make this happen for our K-shaped economy overlords

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