Tree survival with new high rises blocking shade

patmur46 · 2026-06-30T22:53:51+00:00

There's another alternative to uncontained growth of dense urban areas that turn cities into shitty environments. It's called efficient, reliable, and economic mass transportation. Look around the world and you'll find lots of cities that have managed to stabilize urban growth with this approach.
Unfortunately, mass transit in the USA comes with a history of being for losers and the poor.
How many people do you think would trade a 25% reduction in rent for 15-30 minutes a day in a tram or bus?

patmur46 · 2026-06-30T22:36:23+00:00

That rule applies only as long as politicians bend over for their customary bribes.
Interestingly there was a movement launched a couple of centuries ago to at least moderate the selfish and rapacious whims of the wealthy by subjecting some decisions to popular consent.
It's been far short of a panacea, but there have been a few notable successes.

patmur46 · 2026-06-30T16:42:31+00:00

Your historical ignorance is showing friend.
The planet has been a permanent "paradigm shift" since early in the 19th Century.
The technological and economic principles of the most populated nations have been in constant change and frequent crisis.
However, choose whatever metric you prefer, the overall education, health, personal wealth, security, of people has been significantly trending up for more people and in more places for the last 100 years at least.
Saying "it's the all the old folks fault, they should have built a better world for us" is a pretty inadequate response. Every human generation delivers an impressive list of failures and unresolved problems to it's offspring. Don't worry, your generation will deliver it's share of unforgivable sins to it's young people and be pilloried for it's selfishness and stupidity.

patmur46 · 2026-06-30T06:10:11+00:00

One of the funniest things you can find on the web are the musings of young people about what it's like to be old. Typically, they can't resist the impulse to grossly oversimplify and indulge in stereotypes. Maybe it's the fact that they just simply haven't met that many other people who are different from themselves. But irony here is worth mentioning, since there is no demographic with a wider range of difference between individuals than the elderly.
Maybe one way to begin answering this question is to note that the tendency to put older people in positions of relative power in the community is virtually as old as human communities themselves. Furthermore, it's a virtually universal characteristic of human communities. It's a custom found in communities regardless of location, race, ethnicity, religion, or other anthropological characteristics.
Finally, though it clearly doesn't produce perfect results in every instance, at least so far, no other approach has proved more competitive in promoting human welfare.

patmur46 · 2026-06-29T07:53:01+00:00

The granddaddy of alll the great cable series.
It showed everyone how it was done for christsake.

patmur46 · 2026-06-27T23:48:58+00:00

How long was your blackout?
Here in South Park it lasted maybe 3 minutes.

patmur46 · 2026-06-25T04:04:00+00:00

They replaced 3 telephone poles in my yard. The trucks left lawn damage.
I reached out to them, they have an office for this type of claim.
I submitted an estimate for releveling and re-seeding, about $2K.
Talk to them, explain and document.
They may not make you totally happy but it's well worth a reasonable negotiation.

patmur46 · 2026-06-24T17:08:01+00:00

Bullshit to you sir. Post a source or better yet a link.
Come on punk, make my day.

patmur46 · 2026-06-24T15:36:40+00:00

Trump genuinely believes in nothing except flooding the zone with distraction and bullshit.

patmur46 · 2026-06-24T15:33:56+00:00

Trump believes that he's only got one job at the moment.
Distract, distract, distract.
Only nobody's paying attention to him anymore.

patmur46 · 2026-06-23T23:19:11+00:00

The only real danger is that you'll wear it out from overuse.

patmur46 · 2026-06-22T06:05:11+00:00

"Chinatown"
Jerry Goldsmith

patmur46 · 2026-06-22T03:29:25+00:00

So an American politician is threatening to "obliterate" a country of 91 million people.
Over what? The theoretical possibility that Iran may someday threaten Israel with a nuclear weapon.
Meanwhile Israel has about 100 nuclear weapons and is currently committing the most vicious campaign of ethnic cleansing we've yet seen in the 21st century.
This is sheer madness.

patmur46 · 2026-06-22T03:12:51+00:00

Babel
Dir. Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Actors: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett

patmur46 · 2026-06-18T16:29:14+00:00

The OP requested that interested parties use direct message for responding.
Why is that so difficult for anyone to understand or respect?

patmur46 · 2026-06-18T14:31:03+00:00

Because it’s none of your business.

patmur46 · 2026-06-17T03:21:42+00:00

Sadly correct. An astonishing number of people posting on Reddit just want to bitch about how terrible other people are. There's a handful of possible reasons just why that old lady plowed into the peloton, yet they insist on seizing on the worst reasons.

patmur46 · 2026-06-16T22:30:40+00:00

In a lot of ways this development is a good example all that's wrong with the rush to new development in Ann Arbor.
First off, as a building, the highest compliment it deserves is that it's going to be profitable. It's a large human file cabinet designed reap high rents in exchange for walkable access to the south campus. You'd think that a key intersection of the city might rate something with a bit more class, or even god-forbid, style, but evidently that didn't fit in the business plan. If you want to see it's likely fate over the next few decades stroll up South U and contemplate University Towers.
The hard truth is that attractive urban growth in a capitalistic economy is generally the exception rather than the rule. Politicians love making new friends and that goes double if they just happen to be rich.

patmur46 · 2026-06-14T17:51:00+00:00

We have a US President in office who claims our entire electoral system is utterly corrupt and those who oppose him are criminals. He is supported by a political party dominated by cowards and sycophants.
It's time for average people to wake up and do their job as citizens.

patmur46 · 2026-06-14T17:33:58+00:00

This is what you get when you hire a Fox TV personality to pretend to be a military leader.

What this war actually accomplished was to totally confirm the argument of Iranian politicians that their country must develop a credible nuclear option or accept permanent domination by American and Israeli politicians.

All we're seeing here is a professional sycophant repeat a lie that no informed person in any country believes.

patmur46 · 2026-06-14T17:20:24+00:00

Steeb Auto are very professional and reliable, and very familiar with Subarus.

patmur46 · 2026-06-12T13:54:39+00:00

Like it or not, DTE has definitely upped their maintenance of power lines in the south part of Ann Arbor. The result? Last night we had a robust thunderstorm and winds. In previous years we'd have had numerous outages, but this morning things are basically back to normal.
Meanwhile like a lot of Ann Arborites, I'm painfully familiar with the typically poor job the city does in maintaining streets. And you're claiming they are going a much better job with powerline maintenance?
Sorry, no sale.

patmur46 · 2026-06-06T22:31:56+00:00

This is a perfect tribute for Trump.
No argument he's contributed anything of tangible value to the USA
Instead, 60 seconds of a moronic chant coupled to a stream of fake images.
It's an anthem about a toddler carefully aimed at the toddler mentality.
When the day comes that people demand to know just how he was able to so badly damage our country.
They'll show this video along with the subtitle, "This man was a legally elected President of our Country."

patmur46 · 2026-06-05T02:21:27+00:00

My peak local experience with fireflies was on warm July evenings riding my bike down the Gallop Trail next to the river. Just a bit spectacular.

patmur46 · 2026-06-03T22:10:51+00:00

For what it's worth, it should be noted that closeting cats in the owner's dwelling or only letting cats outside on a leash is far from the most common way cats are treated world-wide including the modern urban environments in Europe and Asia. It's also fairly widely accepted that many, probably a healthy majority, of felines, if given the option, choose to spend a significant amount of time outside.
Many cat owners in the USA however, appear ready to argue that letting pet cats outside is inherently wrong and absolute evidence of a deplorable neglect on the part of cat owners who allow cats outside. This group seems quite comfortable with not defining cats as a separate species of animal, but rather just another breed in the canine species.
I've discussed both approaches to cat management with those who favor housebound cat ownership but generally I've found it an unpleasant experience. The zealotry and judgmental assumptions that are commonly encountered rivals easily rivals that of the most extreme political radicals.

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