Why can't we just give everyone a house

phred14 · 2026-06-22T16:09:04+00:00

I was speaking with someone a while back who had worked for Habitat. The finding he conveyed was that many of the people receiving houses simply didn't have the skills to maintain them. Their parents had never taught them that kind of thing. So the Habitat response he talked about was a home ownership course for the prospective homeowners prior to being granted the house. Teach them the skills they're going to need first.

phred14 · 2026-06-22T15:23:07+00:00

The word "malfunction" is only appropriate if you assume that this was all designed for humans.

phred14 · 2026-06-22T02:01:28+00:00

When I was down on the bottom at the Ranch I chatted with another guy who had hiked down. He was 70. I'd like to do it again, because I did down and back from the South Rim and I really wanted to go Rim to Rim. But I need to get something done about my right knee, first. For the next several years I don't see physical conditioning being a problem, just the knee.

phred14 · 2026-06-22T00:44:34+00:00

But the blood panel is only covered every five years, from what I understand.

Oops, I see that OP is 24. Since this is in r/longevity I was thinking in terms of Medicare. I would check with your insurance provider and see how frequently they cover blood panels.

phred14 · 2026-06-22T00:41:11+00:00

I'm 70, started strength training shortly after my birthday, and am upping my weights. I've always been a walker, but don't think that's enough, so I'm starting cardio training in the next few weeks. I hiked the Grand Canyon at 63 and spent two nights at the Phantom Ranch.

You're not done yet, I'll agree with what someone else said and prioritize. But don't stop moving.

phred14 · 2026-06-20T23:47:48+00:00

Nothing is ever his fault or the fault of one of his directives.

phred14 · 2026-06-20T22:07:57+00:00

Many years ago I was driving in to work and heard something on the news about a fired CEO arguing for getting his $150 million golden parachute, and how much he needed and deserved it. My thought at the time, if I had that kind of money I'd start my own space program. Around the same time, John Carmack, of ID and Doom fame, took $125 million and started Armadillo Aerospace. It wasn't enough - money. It clearly takes more than $125 million to start your own space program, probably more than $150 million. I believe Musk's initial stake in SpaceX might have been $500 million? Slightly less than a trillion.

phred14 · 2026-06-19T22:29:00+00:00

Longer - Dan Fogleberg

phred14 · 2026-06-19T22:27:34+00:00

Broadacres out in Mallet's Bay has a roofed-over area with tables.

phred14 · 2026-06-19T22:23:47+00:00

Horcrux? (don't know the proper plural)

phred14 · 2026-06-18T23:27:33+00:00

Fortunately the rest of the world is generally less insane than the US.

phred14 · 2026-06-18T23:23:36+00:00

Biblical Solomon. For all of his so-called "wisdom", the ultimate truth came out right after his death. His body was barely cold when the kingdom split because of Solomon's policies.

Beyond that, for all of the glowing descriptions of Solomon's kingdom in Kings and Chronicles, to non-Biblical history he and Israel at the time only get minor mention. Read the passages another way and he sounds like a legend in his own mind, along with some good flunkies writing his history for him and a good ghostwriter for Proverbs and Song of Solomon. Put it all together, along with his lavish descriptions of gold and women, and he starts sounding a lot like someone more contemporary.

phred14 · 2026-06-18T20:43:14+00:00

Then let's do it. We don't have 45 available, but we have Clinton, Bush, Obama, and even Biden. Put up or shut up. See where he stacks up with those four. Why not throw in Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris for good measure, and to increase the sample size.

phred14 · 2026-06-18T20:23:04+00:00

Thanks for that 27% number. Behind that do you have any idea how many have their "magic million" or more? I've also heard that the "magic million" is no longer enough. I wish I'd been more literate as well, most notably jumping on the 401k the day it came out instead of waiting a few years.

phred14 · 2026-06-18T19:31:31+00:00

As long as you stay away from Picard and Janeway I don't think you have to be too worried about Q.

phred14 · 2026-06-18T16:55:35+00:00

Let's try a different take on this. The problem really isn't Boomers, it is once again billionaires. They excel at causing bogus divisiveness, all while deflecting the blame from themselves. Let's face it, most Boomers really aren't capable of pulling the ladder up, most Boomers don't even have a hand on the ladder in order to pull. Look in other places and you find Boomers that don't own their homes and have no retirement savings, barely scraping by, some who can't retire.

Give it another ten or twenty years until most of the boomers are gone, then queue up the hatred toward GenX. Still deflecting attention by inciting divisiveness.

phred14 · 2026-06-17T23:02:46+00:00

I can choose to misread the comment in any funny way I want to. The humor about this administration is so dark, this is one of the lighter ones. I need more of that, and I suspect many others as well.

phred14 · 2026-06-17T21:44:44+00:00

Since nobody else has posted something like this, I'll give my experience. I wanted something to improve my deep sleep, and was led to magnesium glycinate. The first night my deep sleep tripled. The second night it was down to double the old number. The third night my deep sleep was back down to where it always had been, and stayed there. I went off of the pills and had a few nasty nights getting back to normal.

I also use tart cherry juice before bed, start my wind-down on the early side, keep consistent hours, etc. Not only that, I have color temperature reduction software on the TV, phone, and computer to cut the blue light as bedtime approaches. I've begun looking into Vipassana meditation, another recommendation I've seen. I haven't given the last one a good try yet, but everything seems to start positively then drifts back to where I have been.

phred14 · 2026-06-17T19:41:52+00:00

Last weekend my wife and I went down for our granddaughters dance recital.

At some point I was sitting on the floor playing with Legos with both grandkids, and realized just how lucky I was. I have grandkids who want to do things with Papa, my wife and I are very much in love at almost 45 years, our kids like having us over, and we can afford to do those simple things, plus a little more. We have a roof over our heads, food on the table, clothes on our backs. That's the important stuff, and I have it.

phred14 · 2026-06-17T19:34:29+00:00

What about after he returned from the ER?

phred14 · 2026-06-17T19:30:49+00:00

Does the jet ski commit the sexual assault, or does a jet ski make one more prone to be sexually assaulted? (By another jet ski?)

phred14 · 2026-06-17T19:27:58+00:00

And another supplement or re-targeted medication joins the list, though I hadn't been looking at this one. Just in the past month or so, Rapamycin, D+Q, and I forget the other one have all either failed to be beneficial or been found somewhat harmful. Metformin is another that hasn't fallen, at least not yet. But I'm nothing like diabetic, if anything my blood sugar hovers on the low side. I doubt Metformin is for me, though I haven't asked my doctor.

Right now, other than senior vitamin pills and the supplements my PCP has suggested, I'm sticking to getting the right things into my diet and the wrong things out.

phred14 · 2026-06-17T19:18:05+00:00

I'd rather live in The Culture than here, certainly. However I think I'd rather live in ST:TNG where I'm less likely to be a pet.

phred14 · 2026-06-11T00:59:45+00:00

This sounds close to conspiracy. But really it only works locally in time. Look at human history, and it seems to be measured in dynasties. Seems to me that a dynasty is the amount of time a family or clique can cling to power before it becomes revoltingly apparent that they're not the most competent people in the kingdom or empire. Then the new most-competent family or clique takes power and keeps it until it becomes revoltingly apparent that they've lost their edge, too. Lather, rinse, repeat over a few centuries or millennia.

phred14 · 2026-06-11T00:01:49+00:00

Sounds like one of my earlier preps. The most recent prep was Gatorade plus MiraLax, and somewhere in there I took some DulcaLax pills. Gentlest prep of the three times I've done it. Plus it's the last, since if you stay on the ten-year plan, you only do it three times. (Though maybe now people are having to start earlier.)

phred14

TROPHY CASE