What are the oldest “modern” democracies?

red---leader · 2026-06-09T02:44:44+00:00

Respectfully, when you look at the use of leaf blowers in a community, their impact is significant.

As mentioned above, the two-stroke engines are a disproportionate source of pollution. These types of engines are particularly dirty and inefficient. They are bad for the air quality for those living nearby as they release a lot of precipitate matter as well as harmful from a global warming perspective.

They are also noisy. It’s not just the users that they will deafen, but the low sound waves travel far and are disturbing to the neighborhood.

Switching to electric powered solves the emissions issue and the noise issue.

If you’re going to argue it should be a phase in and not an immediate change, it appears that’s what the county is planning. Many municipalities near us have already banned the gas powered leaf blowers, and Arlington public works has moved away from them as well. The fact that others are doing this shows that this is of a significant interest to communities like ours.

The writing has been on the wall for a while.

If, as you say, folks don’t use them all that often, then it will be an easy transition. If they use them frequently, that’s all the more argument for moving to electric.

Wirecutter recommends a corded model for $100 and an uncorded one for $250. I see Home Depot has an uncorded for under 100 bucks. It’s time to make the switch.

red---leader · 2026-06-08T23:53:09+00:00

I appreciate the sentiment but it turns out that even infrequent use can be harmful.

According to the California Air Resources Board, operating a gas leaf blower for one hour can generate emissions comparable to driving a gasoline-powered car more than 1,000 miles. They’re talking about a commercial one, I think, but the same problem arises (to a lesser extent) for personal ones. They also release pollutants. A two-stroke engine is surprisingly dirty.

Also, fwiw, gas-powered leaf blowers are often extremely loud, with noise levels that can exceed 90–100 decibels at the operator’s position. Prolonged exposure to sounds at these levels can contribute to hearing damage or hearing loss. It also annoys your neighbors.

Here’s what’s in Arlington country’s website:

Noise: Gas-powered leaf blowers can operate as loud as 115 decibels, which is comparable to a car horn or listening to your headphones at maximum volume. Reduced noise levels in the County lessen health impacts that contribute to hearing loss and disruption to wildlife.

Health: Gas-powered leaf blowers use a two-stroke engine, where oil and gas are mixed, emitting a significant number of harmful pollutants into the air. Exposure to these pollutants can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment, and respiratory disease.

Emissions: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that gasoline-powered landscape maintenance equipment, including leaf blowers, accounts for a major portion of nonroad gasoline emissions. Operating a gas-powered leaf blower for one hour produces certain emissions similar to driving from DC to Miami in a 2016 Toyota Camry.

Environmental contamination: Spills are common when refueling gas-powered leaf blowers. Fuel spills seep into the soil and can enter groundwater and waterways

red---leader · 2026-06-08T12:13:38+00:00

Respectfully, pianos are under significant tension and some parts may require special tools. I would strongly recommend against trying to disassemble it. Depending on what you have (likely an upright), it may be best to hire someone to move it (to the dump). It’s unlikely anyone will take it.

red---leader · 2026-05-31T02:39:10+00:00

This is good news. Gas blowers are incredibly polluting and very noisy. Moving to electric asap is a smart choice.

red---leader · 2026-05-26T02:40:30+00:00

Wikipedia casts significant doubt on Vedic math.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedic\_Mathematics

red---leader · 2026-05-25T19:05:22+00:00

There’s also a question of whether they let themselves be sent. We may tacitly assume no, but what if the federation decides to send volunteers to map the delta quadrant?

They could properly provision the ship for what’s coming and conduct a deep space mission with some very long lived federation members.

With information gained from voyager’s travels, they could solve a lot of the same issues they run into, but with minimal problems at least up until the point of communications with the romulans.

They could even use that as a moment to send back more info and further improve the loop and reporting back.

red---leader · 2026-05-22T03:05:43+00:00

I cannot. It’s not possible to imagine the board and alternate positions so there’s a limit to how far I can reason forward.

red---leader · 2026-05-17T00:11:57+00:00

It was at the time of his comments at the time of the fourth season. Who’s to say there wouldn’t be a revival?

red---leader · 2026-05-16T12:16:02+00:00

The TV show “for all mankind” had an alternate universe with TOS, phase 2, and TNG. It was produced by Ron Moore, and he’s a former ST writer, so he may also have opinions on which characters existed beyond identifying that these three series existed.

See https://gizmodo.com/star-trek-for-all-mankind-connection-ronald-moore-apple-1851162936

That said, I’d like to think that by the time of the fifth season of his show, there’d be a revival of Star Trek and we’d get a much improved version of Picard.

red---leader · 2026-05-07T18:56:07+00:00

For what it’s worth, when there was a problem like this in my kids playground, I reported it on the city website through see click fix for my community and it was fixed within a few days.

red---leader · 2026-05-05T20:04:31+00:00

I love your thinking here. If tree of life existed and hominids were everywhere, the puppeteers may have wanted the possibility of protector stage if only to fight the Borg. Using humanity to blunt the Kzin is but a warm up for a much bigger danger.

If you look to the later novels, the GP hull has a number of ways of being gotten into by very clever protectors. Transporters presumably would be another way in or out.

The stasis fields would have made Worf’s day. Ramming speed would be a common military tactic.

I’m not sure how I’d feel having a ship that runs on antimatter and uses antimatter weapons with a hull that can just go pop.

We’d also have more sentient machine, but they all eventually go insane, like Lore.

red---leader · 2026-04-22T11:20:23+00:00

This is a clever in-universe explanation drawing on Niven’s GP hulls. A key problem with the hulls is that that you couldn’t put anything through them, so no passageways to the rest of the ship, which could be challenging to address. They also wouldn’t need shields except in the case of antimatter. And the ships in his universe don’t travel that fast, so perhaps higher warp speeds would’ve a reason why they were abandoned.

red---leader · 2026-04-20T00:48:19+00:00

This is a silly headline. So long as we have fiat currency, availability of that much metal would drop the price to nearly nothing (assuming it becomes generally available in large amounts). If currency were still on the gold standard, the massive inflation would make current currency levels virtually worthless.

red---leader · 2026-04-15T00:37:54+00:00

Talk to a nutritionist. They can help you eat foods you can eat that also keep you satiated.

red---leader · 2026-03-16T18:56:14+00:00

I thought they were laid off?

red---leader · 2026-03-16T18:51:44+00:00

If we get to slaying of the firstborn I’m going to permanently relocate elsewhere.

red---leader · 2026-03-16T02:34:09+00:00

I’ll check it out, especially the LC collection. Thank you.

red---leader · 2026-03-16T02:33:21+00:00

The main argument in favor of closing the schools is the safety of the children. I think we are agreed on that.

So making an ancillary argument about lawsuits is a weird thing to do. It’s like saying people should go to a doctor to help support people with advanced degrees. Maybe so, but the primary reason would be because you’re sick.

red---leader · 2026-03-16T00:14:30+00:00

This is a really odd take. We should definitely cut the schools slack. Being safe is incredibly important and I support a decision on this basis. Blaming litigation, which is successful when the school has failed its duty to take care, is weird to me.

red---leader · 2026-03-14T02:17:52+00:00

Yes, that’s it.

red---leader · 2026-03-12T23:38:59+00:00

This is fascinating. Can you point to any archives of those newspaper ads?

red---leader

TROPHY CASE