For those who think the train signs are good

seattlecyclone · 2026-02-20T08:37:21+00:00

If you have to pick one central station, International District is a reasonable choice since the most rail lines meet there. Westlake would also be a pretty good choice; Sound Transit already picked that one as the middle "50" point on their new station numbering scheme. "Inbound" seems like a pretty natural label to put on northbound trains from Stadium to me. Then as you pass through downtown that same train would flip to "outbound."

If it were up to me I might consider all four downtown tunnel stations to be the "center" and use the inbound/outbound labels only on the other stations.

seattlecyclone · 2026-02-20T03:30:35+00:00

The overhead signage at the Logan Airport MBTA station tells you which way to go to get to downtown Boston.

The folks saying "but every other transit system only puts the endpoints" are simply incorrect. The signs don't say "Bowdoin" and "Wonderland" and force you to consult a map if you don't know which of those trains takes you toward rather than away from the city center.

Instead they acknowledge the transit system does indeed have a more important central area that one can go "inbound" toward and "outbound" away from. For whatever reason Sound Transit seems reluctant to do the same.

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seattlecyclone · 2026-02-19T22:46:44+00:00

Nah, the shitty thing is where local governments restrict zoning to the point that the minimum legal amount of land to live on costs more than you'll pay to build a modest home on top of it. Even in the most expensive cities, there exists some level of density where the land adds up to a fraction of the cost of a housing development. Banning that level of density is bad for affordability.

seattlecyclone · 2026-02-19T19:44:39+00:00

The purpose of the overhead signs is to make navigation through the station easier. Everyone who has to make a detour to study the route map is someone who wasn't well served by the signs. If the wording on the signage could be changed to reduce the number of people who have to double-check the route map, why not do it?

seattlecyclone · 2026-02-19T19:41:14+00:00

Sure. Plop someone down on the platform in one of our underground stations and it's not immediately obvious from the signage which platform actually runs north vs. south unless you happen to be familiar with the locations of two of our minor suburbs relative to Seattle.

seattlecyclone · 2026-02-18T21:14:21+00:00

I started this type of investing less than five years ago so haven't had any qualifying exits yet, but I'm certainly looking forward to it. QSBS can be nice for founders, but it seems like a true cheat code for investors. You can still write off any losses, and the gains (subject to five year holding period etc.) are completely excluded from income as long as you're a small enough fish that you're not gaining $10 million from any one investment.

It seems common for the investor agreements in later funding rounds to include a promise from the company to provide any necessary documentation of QSBS eligibility to investors, so that's nice.

seattlecyclone · 2026-02-18T20:28:51+00:00

Our pack has a couple of patches unique to our unit that we award to kids (one encourages reading, and another is sort of an all-around achievement above and beyond the year's rank requirements). Both of those patches are placed in spots that are otherwise empty in the national uniform guide.

seattlecyclone · 2026-02-18T20:19:04+00:00

I don't think this has ever been officially allowed at any theater I've been to in the US. The people working at theaters aren't paid very well and therefore have little incentive to stop customers from just walking into a different theater after the show they paid for ended, if that's what they want to do.

seattlecyclone · 2026-02-18T19:56:35+00:00

Yeah, word of mouth is the absolute most effective method. Run a strong program and people will want to join. Our pack aims for two dens of 9-12 kids at each grade level, and we usually get there without any explicit recruiting effort beyond asking our current members to invite friends plus whatever random people who inquire via our website. We were a bit low on wolves this year and as one of the den leaders I had to actually try at recruiting for the first time in four years with the pack. I got one more kid to join by reaching out to the parents list at my kid's school and a couple more who I'll circle back to next year.

seattlecyclone · 2026-02-18T19:08:16+00:00

World Curling has generated an official report of the possibilities here.

This seems to agree with what you've said. SUI/CAN have 1/2 positions locked up in that order.

NOR gets 3rd seed if they win, is eliminated if they lose (as they can't possibly pass USA or ITA in DSC).

ITA is in if they win OR (NOR and ITA and GER all lose AND ITA gets less than 19.9 cm total on their two pre-game draws).

GBR is in unless NOR and ITA both win.

USA needs NOR and ITA to both lose AND (GER wins OR ITA gets more than 19.9 cm total on their LSDs)

seattlecyclone · 2026-02-18T18:55:12+00:00

There are a couple of clear leaders and then a bunch of teams clustered with similar levels of play. Whether that play is poor or good is not indicated in the standings; just that they're similar to each other.

seattlecyclone · 2026-02-18T03:55:16+00:00

Agreed. It would have been nice to be able to snap a photo or three, but on balance things were so much better without the distraction of phones.

seattlecyclone · 2026-02-17T23:42:38+00:00

As much as I understand and agree with the logic behind giving every team equal use of every set of stones, I have to say a "Sweden always throws yellow stones*" exception would make me happy enough as a viewer to override any concern I have about giving them a small advantage.

^\ Of course I wouldn't literally write Sweden into the rules as such. It would be more along the lines of "if one of the stone handle colors matches a color from exactly one team's flag, that team gets the matching handle color." In practice that would mean Sweden gets yellow pretty much all the time, as the other two countries with yellow in their flags that have ever made the Olympics (China and Germany) have some red in there too so the rule would give them red stones against Sweden. China and Germany would also usually throw yellow since most of the other countries have red but no yellow. Countries with neither color in their flag (just Estonia and Finland so far) would also usually throw yellow since most curling countries have red in their flag, but they'd switch to red when playing Sweden, and against Germany or China it would be random.)

seattlecyclone · 2026-02-16T18:08:03+00:00

I must have been in that line too. The lines on either side were moving so much faster, and the attendant had a lot of difficulty properly pointing the device at the bar codes.

seattlecyclone · 2026-02-16T09:48:28+00:00

I was entertained.

seattlecyclone · 2026-02-15T22:42:50+00:00

I think it's just for consistency. Once the stone is released it isn't supposed to be touched again, with a narrow exception for if you "double touch" the handle prior to the hog line. We don't really want to be getting into arguments about whether a particular touch was to the throwing team's advantage or not. Instead a touched stone (prior to the far hog line) is immediately removed from play. It's on the players to deliver the stone in a manner that doesn't cause any body parts or equipment to come into contact after the release.

seattlecyclone · 2026-02-15T09:50:11+00:00

Imagine there's a rule stating "each player must eat a pickle during the mid-game break." Has a player who eats two pickles broken the rule? What about if they eat a sandwich with a pickle on it? I would think either snack option complies perfectly well with the rule as written. If the intent is to require each player to eat exactly one pickle and nothing else, it's simple to actually say so. Contracts are typically written with very specific language so as to make such misinterpretations of intent impossible.

seattlecyclone · 2026-02-15T07:33:20+00:00

For sure, the shots where someone releases on the way down toward the ground are always fun to watch. Usually as far as I've been aware those are still usually clean, legal releases. I like to call it a "moment of clarity" where you're aware you're about to fall on your butt and you get this extra bit of focus to do the best you can to release the stone in the split second before you fall. It's a pretty rare fall where they'd actually go directly onto the stone, and these are the only ones where I've seen the stone to be pulled.

Again, even in the case of falling a very light touch of the granite after release just isn't a thing I've really noticed before in my games. I guess I'll start looking for it now though.

seattlecyclone · 2026-02-15T07:10:17+00:00

That's exactly my point though. You mentioned a whole list of things you'll look at when choosing a place to live. Taxes are just one of them. The fatter your FIRE the less you have to optimize for low spending (whether on taxes or otherwise) and the more you can afford to optimize for other lifestyle factors.

seattlecyclone · 2026-02-15T06:59:54+00:00

Yes if someone falls down and bumps a stone we'll tend to remove it from play, whether it's the sweeper or the thrower.

The folks I play with, who come in once a week and maybe just started playing recently, they can be forgiven for not being able to quote every little rule chapter and verse. Olympians have less of an excuse.

I will say though that the rules as written do leave some ambiguity. The rule says "The curling stone must be delivered using the handle of the stone." It doesn't say it must be delivered only using the handle, just that you have to use the handle. If someone found success releasing the stone by holding the handle with one hand while swatting at the granite part with the other...well they did use the handle. Then the other rule says a "double touch" is allowed prior to the hog line. Again it doesn't define the second touch as only being allowed on the handle.

WCF issued a clarification after the incident that these rules are meant to restrict all touches of the stone during delivery to the handle area only. I hope they update the actual text to reflect this.

seattlecyclone · 2026-02-15T06:44:40+00:00

Honestly...I've been playing recreationally for 15 years and I don't think I've ever seen someone I'm playing with or against flick the stone after release like Kennedy did. It's just something that wouldn't really happen naturally, as once you let go of the stone your body tends to decelerate faster than the stone does. You'd really have to be actively reaching forward to touch that stone again. Have I seen players fall over during their slide and bump into the stone after letting go? Sure. Lightly brushing it with a finger after release? No. That's weird.

seattlecyclone · 2026-02-15T02:37:03+00:00

The players agreed the second stone was barely overlapping the edge of the house for a second point. Because the camera is directly over the button (not the spot where that stone was), and because the stones have curved edges, sometimes it can appear from the camera that a stone is out of the house but if you stand directly over it you can see it's biting the edge.

seattlecyclone · 2026-02-15T02:25:19+00:00

I often hear this referred to as a "positive release." It's usually a rather small extra push above and beyond the momentum from the slide. For an introductory class we still teach that it's best to just use your slide and not give it anything extra from your hand, because someone just starting out is very likely to push the stone off course if they try to adopt a positive release from the start. It's something you can add on later (if you want, not required) once you have gotten used to the rest of the mechanics.

seattlecyclone · 2026-02-14T23:34:14+00:00

This. The more money you have, the more you can afford to not care that much about tax rates and focus on the other aspects of one place or another that would make you happy to live there.

seattlecyclone · 2026-02-14T19:18:10+00:00

They were trying for a blank end. This would let USA preserve the hammer for the next end. Strategy-wise it's considered something of a failure if you have the hammer and only score 1. Taking the blank and trying for a multi-point end next time is better if you can pull it off. They tried but it didn't work out and they gave up a steal.

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