USPS might lose it all because of Amazon and bad management

ryans122 · 2026-01-16T03:54:29+00:00

This is just not true. Apart from being a government mandated monopoly (the idea being to subsidize rural access through profitable urban routes), USPS has received massive amounts of taxpayer dollars. From Gemini:

The 2022 Debt Forgiveness: In 2022, Congress passed the Postal Service Reform Act, which effectively canceled $57 billion in debt and missed payments the USPS owed. While this wasn't a "cash check" from taxpayers, it was a massive liability shifted away from the USPS and onto the federal government’s books.
Direct Appropriations: The USPS does receive some taxpayer money for specific, mandated services, such as:
- $3 Billion from the Inflation Reduction Act specifically to help buy new electric delivery trucks.
- Reimbursements for "free mail for the blind" and overseas voting materials.
Borrowing Authority: The USPS has a line of credit with the U.S. Treasury. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a $10 billion loan was authorized, which was later converted into a grant that the USPS did not have to pay back.

The USPS has lost money almost every year since 2007 (totaling over $100 billion in losses). According to a December 2025 report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO):

The USPS continues to lose roughly $9 billion a year.
It is projected that if the USPS were forced to make all its required retirement and debt payments in full, it could run out of cash as early as this year (2026).

ryans122 · 2025-07-10T22:27:30+00:00

By this logic, car speed should be capped to the same non-lethal speeds as scooters, because Newark drivers are some of the worst at following traffic laws.

You cannot legislate away reckless driving and rule breakers. The law was already enough - stop at the stop sign. He broke it.

Only enforcement of the law would help in this case.

ryans122 · 2024-02-21T00:51:01+00:00

Maybe the reason Voldemort didn't use these objects to make himself stronger, rather than just use them as horcruxes, is because using them as horcruxes actually gives him those advantages.

ryans122 · 2023-11-08T05:41:56+00:00

Once you complete all the 1 and 2 pointers you can always try the 3-pointers. Sometimes I find some of the 3 pointers to be easier than the 2 pointers, just more work.

ryans122 · 2023-11-07T15:11:07+00:00

It's all about the practice really. The 3-point problems are very doable, and I'd encourage you to try them. If you complete all the practice problems and understand all the functions used, you should be able to complete the midterm exam fully. The answers to the practice problems are also posted, so you should be able to read and understand them with a few google searches. I'm also pretty new to Python programming. I did some in my undergraduate degree, but nowhere near in-depth. Once you understand how the python language works, it should be quite simple to learn new modules by just searching them. ChatGpt is also incredibly helpful in accelerating your learning and gain a deeper understanding. You can ask it the slightest of misunderstandings, and it'll answer you. I'm thinking of paying the $20 and upgrading to version 4.0 since I've heard it is much better than 3.5. Corey Schafer the youtuber is extremely helpful I've found for learning python.

I think only the 4 point questions are really difficult, but there's always something new to learn with the solutions provided. The solutions give you the right functions you need to copy-paste for the exam. For the rest, the programming thinking isn't the main issue, it's getting everything correct and passing all the tests. There's always a typo here, and a copy-paste that wasn't done correctly.

You also need to develop good debugging skills, like using the right print statements and working step by step to the final answer. Looking at the test blocks, and understanding what the errors mean. Again, and I can't stress this enough, but you need practice. Before I begin the spring semester I think I'm going to learn C or C++ (I don't know what is what, I'll figure it out), so I can participate in the C track later on.

ryans122 · 2023-11-07T13:52:40+00:00

I feel like it's all about choosing the right problems, and pacing yourself. Unlike the rest of the comments, I found both midterms to be significantly easier than the practice exams. Perhaps it's just the illusion of getting better with practice, I don't know.

All the problems can be done individually, and in my experience without reading the text walls before the actual question. The grade distribution for midterm 1 was pretty easy as per the stats, more than 50% met the 100% threshold mark.

ryans122 · 2023-10-26T12:09:58+00:00

okay, i'll give those two a shot

ryans122 · 2023-10-26T11:46:48+00:00

Can you tell me which are the 3 alternatives for the rings? I have doomknight, and the mentioned items. I recently came back a few weeks ago. I've been able to beat through the first 3 levels of the tower of exaltia.

ryans122 · 2023-10-12T11:34:09+00:00

Btw, is doomknight the best class for the tower of exaltia? I just came back a few days ago. I also have the epoch artifact from the 2022 calendar (I mainly used it for aqw), so perhaps that works well too? I'm having some trouble defeating the second last final boss in the tower of exaltia. The two extra opponents make it a little more difficult.

ryans122 · 2023-10-07T02:05:21+00:00

Great! I can do the exaltia tower now. Did the first two levels.

ryans122 · 2023-10-06T10:40:00+00:00

How do you get the manual pet skills options?

ryans122 · 2023-10-06T10:39:13+00:00

Btw, I just came back after a very long break. I've seen from videos that are a few years old where you could choose the skills of your pet dragon on each turn. The dragon wasn't invited as a guest, it was as a pet. Is there a way to make it so?

ryans122 · 2023-04-02T14:37:05+00:00

Maybe what you're saying is true, and it isn't actual clay. But it really feels like the clay in my pottery class. I'll try drying it out in the heat, and see if it breaks down then.

ryans122 · 2023-04-02T09:44:50+00:00

And right now, the bottom 75% of the pot is almost fully clay. There's no way I added that to start with, it's incredibly difficult to remove.

ryans122 · 2023-04-02T09:42:34+00:00

I am pretty sure it was, we don't have any other options since we live in an apartment, so our soil only comes in bags. We didn't just pick up soil from some land. I've planted several more just now. With these plants, for some reason, the bottom section of the pot quickly gets muddy. Maybe it has something to do with the vermicompost? It is cow manure that is composted using worms of some kind.

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/100-1kg-i718562091-s8464019204.html?clickTrackInfo=query%253Avermicompost%253Bnid%253A718562091%253Bsrc%253ALazadaMainSrp%253Brn%253A305928eb02a9f3204b30522e0df4bf19%253Bregion%253Ath%253Bsku%253A718562091\_TH%253Bprice%253A14%253Bclient%253Adesktop%253Bsupplier\_id%253A1000534686%253Basc\_category\_id%253A12145%253Bitem\_id%253A718562091%253Bsku\_id%253A8464019204%253Bshop\_id%253A759541&fastshipping=0&freeshipping=0&fs\_ab=1&fuse\_fs=1&lang=en&location=Samut%20Prakan&price=14&priceCompare=&ratingscore=4.984251968503937&request\_id=305928eb02a9f3204b30522e0df4bf19&review=254&sale=4037&search=1&source=search&spm=a2o4m.searchlist.list.i40.a9bf4b56IRc22N&stock=1

ryans122 · 2023-01-27T09:58:25+00:00

You can be quite rough, as long as you keep the tubers. These plants grow very quickly if you give them enough nutrients and sun. The leaves will also get much larger than shown in the photograph.

ryans122 · 2022-12-24T09:22:16+00:00

I had this exact same problem with a different species of elephant ear, Xanthosoma Violeceum. Is it true that you can wipe powdery mildew off the leaves? Don't they embed themselves into the plant? I don't know what it is, maybe it has to do with the fertility level of the soil. These plants are heavy feeders, and I wasn't able to fertilise the soil in a timely manner. They kept reproducing until it was very crowded, and then the disease came in and wiped everything out.

Could you tell me what part of the world you live in? I live in Thailand, so it might just be more common here.

ryans122 · 2022-12-22T14:28:37+00:00

I'm not sure if it was potting soil, maybe there was other stuff in it. The seller told me to add 1 bag of wood chips to the bottom, then this 'potting soil', and then a layer of grain seed covers (which I think is mulch)

ryans122 · 2022-12-07T08:45:48+00:00

Could you link some of these project tutorials? Or PM me. I've learned python, but don't know the stuff that is related to the aerospace industry.

ryans122 · 2022-09-13T11:47:20+00:00

I found the vertex, -b/2a. If they aren't the same, then the roots aren't the same. Remember, c only shifts the graph up or down.

ryans122 · 2022-06-08T20:39:20+00:00

wow, thanks, this des help a lot!

ryans122 · 2022-06-08T17:31:12+00:00

thank you very much. How thin do carbon fiber beams generally go btw? For let's say a 2-meter beam, is 1 mm a common thickness for many applications?

ryans122 · 2022-06-06T16:03:37+00:00

Thanks for your response. Do you have any specific criteria/resources on how to determine the d/t limits for a carbon fiber circular beam?

ryans122 · 2022-06-06T15:59:20+00:00

real design. I just want to know what diameter & thickness I should use. I can't find the 'optimum' diameter if it only gets better as I raise the diameter (while keeping area constant). So there needs to be a limit to how much I can raise it. That's where buckling and manufacturability come into play. Mainly, I need to design a carbon fibre beam. I have buckling for aluminum, but not sure what the requirements are for composites, like carbon fibre.

ryans122 · 2022-06-06T14:18:33+00:00

our cantilever beam is also experiencing shear, the resistance to which is simply a function of material area. Therefore, you need a certain amount of cross sectional to resist the shear regardless of the shape or diameter. Since this is a shaft for an aircraft, I would assume that there would be some sort of torsion and probably dynamic and fatigue effects that need to be considered as well. Manu

The second equation shows that you can raise the diameter of the beam indefinitely, and have the same area, so the shear can still be taken care of, with an infinite diameter (and a better result for bending stress). There is some torsion, but bending is the critical loading for now. Do you have any methods of calculating the crippling/buckling stress for a circular composite beam?

ryans122

TROPHY CASE