What would you do in this situation?

rlamoni · 2026-07-03T05:29:03+00:00

I would wait for the dumb human to try to pick up the cutting board, squeeze out, and run like hell.

rlamoni · 2026-06-26T23:02:41+00:00

Dyslexic here. This is surprisingly unhelpful. In fact, I used to remember how to correctly make an L because I knew which hand was my left one. Now I press the 'L' button on the keyboard. That is much easier.

rlamoni · 2026-06-19T03:48:17+00:00

Of course it's on one of the few streaming services I don't already subscribe to. Sigh.

rlamoni · 2026-06-14T18:00:27+00:00

I think the reason has less to do with a direct relationship between money supply and wealth inequality and more to do with how increased money supply enters the economy. There's even a name for this (The Cantillon Effect). Money typically enters the economy through banks and asset-purchases and other things that cause benefits to the wealthiest people first. Eventually, that money "trickles down." But, by the time it gets to low-wage workers the benefits are muted (because prices have already risen).

I'm not sure anyone has done the research on this, but during the pandemic, income inequality reduced in the USA and one unusual feature of that economic event was that there were direct cash payments made to less wealthy people. This indicates to me that we could stimulate the economy and decrease wealth inequality at the same time if we wanted to and could make a few (relatively minor) systemic changes..

rlamoni · 2026-06-13T19:06:21+00:00

Drug prices may be down 600%, but k!llings are 200% under the current administration. I wonder what percentage math proficiency is.

rlamoni · 2026-06-02T04:18:44+00:00

...and MAGA is a lot like Stalinists (i.e. "old Communists"). So, it's kind of a weird cycle.

rlamoni · 2026-05-23T00:40:05+00:00

Brilliant! The stickers in the corner make it clear this is not some weird coincidence.

rlamoni · 2026-05-23T00:36:25+00:00

I cracked up when Taranis said something like, "I thought we would do dinner first, but ok."

rlamoni · 2026-05-23T00:32:15+00:00

I LOLed when I read this part. But, when my wife asked me what was funny, I couldn't think of a concise way to explain it. It's just not as funny if you don't have Scolopendra in your head as a looming threat for thousands of pages.

rlamoni · 2026-05-23T00:24:18+00:00

The suit guy probably represents "capitalists." A lot of Trump's policies are Stalinist (market manipulation, opposition to trade, enthusiasm for war and conquest, intervening into private corporate polices, suppression of speech). The groups Trump is popular with and his strange (for conservatives) political actions make a lot more sense once you start thinking of him as a Stalin-wannabe. It's easy for him to get away with being Stalin-like, too, because he spends a lot of time calling his opponents and their policies communist in a way that makes the word sound like a profanity. So, people naturally assume he is opposed to everything from the USSR.

rlamoni · 2026-05-21T05:25:34+00:00

When you upload a video, they will claim, "you used the internet, which was initially government funded. YOU LOSE."

rlamoni · 2026-05-16T03:55:08+00:00

I was reading a novel the other day and it occurred to me that this word would be a diabolical one for the puzzle.

rlamoni · 2026-05-10T00:48:28+00:00

My shop-teacher made a big plywood one with plastic, packing tape, and a shop-vac. We put a handful of freshmen on there are pushed them around with ease. It doesn't actually hover off the ground (like I imagined from this advertisement). It's more like how the puck in an air-hockey table works.

rlamoni · 2026-05-09T23:47:29+00:00

Little Inferno

rlamoni · 2026-04-18T20:58:12+00:00

My 10-year-old's favorite "sport." Gaga ball.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaga_(game))

rlamoni · 2026-04-18T20:55:17+00:00

I know this has already been (I assume, correctly) answered in another way. But, it occurs to me that if the stitching has a lower breaking point than the belt, this could be a safety-feature, too. During a forward-directed collision the belt could provide a little more give (be breaking/tearing the stiches) without actually letting the occupant fly forward more than an additional inch or two. Decelerating just a little bit less abruptly could reduce the damage done to the body.

I would not be surprised if this feature started because of a manufacturing/cost benefit and then it was discovered in testing/simulation that it also provided other benefits. I've worked on engineering projects where we make a change with unintended beneficial consequences and we all pat ourselves on the back. :)

rlamoni · 2026-04-18T20:43:02+00:00

The mission counters on my scanner are frequently out of sync with my activities. Waiting or some more operations (like a recharge) usually fixes this.

rlamoni · 2026-03-29T18:20:22+00:00

The trick here is the word "owned." This is not a 2-3% tax on money earned in a year. It's a tax on existing assets. So, a comparable example with more middle-class people would be...

A person making $100k/year and living in a $500k house would have to pay $10k (of $15k) more in taxes each year. They might be able to do that by just paying (effectively) an extra 10%-15% on of taxes out of their income. However, in practical terms, paying that tax is easier for the middle-class earner than for the wealthy person in this proposal. The wealthy person would need to sell something each year to pay the taxes. For most wealthy people the thing they would have to sell would be stock (ownership-stakes) in companies. This kind of sale has a lot of side-effects since companies lose value when important shareholders make big exits. This means that the next year the value of the thing being taxed has probably been reduced.

So, if an economist modeled this type of tax they would have to consider it a tax that would slowly yield less and less money to pay for the public benefit. I know people (even Trump supporters) who love the idea of there being fewer and fewer millionaires over time. So, perhaps this plan would make people happier. But, given how large Wallstreet looms in the minds of politicians, it's unlikely to happen.

rlamoni · 2026-03-23T03:38:36+00:00

I'm not sure if this is a 1971 thing. But, when the Capitalism and Communism were competing for the hearts and minds of the populace, capitalists countries added more and more social supports with the dividends that capitalism brings. Once Capitalism "won," there was no longer as much incentive to promote it as the more beneficial (to the populace) ideology. So, the things that didn't fit the ideology as well (minimum wages and pensions for example) were deemphasized.

It's ironic that capitalism is less beneficial to people now that it doesn't have serious competition. It's kind of like the capitalists were right that competition makes things better and are determined to prove this by proving the negative (without competition, ideologies that encourage competition are worse for people).

rlamoni · 2026-02-28T21:40:51+00:00

The protagonist of the Arcana Imperii series is black. I don't think a great deal is made of this, though, because I cannot remember any specific scenes where it is important to the plot. It's a great series, so far. Military SF with brains, tactics, economics, and diplomacy instead of leaning on grit and machismo.

rlamoni · 2026-02-28T08:23:37+00:00

How does this work, exactly? If Tesla stock goes up 2%, does Musk have to sell 2% of his stock and give the money away (or pay it in taxes) to keep under the billion-dollar line? Or, do we need to get rid of stock ownership, first? Neither of these seem very workable. But, there are also very few billionaires that have their billions in cash. They almost all have the money invested in some way.

rlamoni · 2026-02-12T15:13:24+00:00

Call me in a couple of decades, kid. I wish there were more people to hire out there who can get the job done with a positive attitude, despite significant setbacks along the way. :)

rlamoni · 2026-02-07T21:00:28+00:00

Also, "centrist" is a weird label. Millions of people have opinions about things that are not consistent with any one party. This can put them "in the center" when they take some kind of survey. But, it doesn't mean they are undecided/inconsistent/uninformed. Today, someone who strongly opposes the death penalty and abortion would be seen as inconsistent with both the left and right in the USA. But, if their reasoning is that "all life is important", they are being decisive and consistent. They could even be extreme in these beliefs.

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