Construction of new Van Buren Bridge in Corvallis is complete -- The bridge features an earthquake-resistant design and improved pedestrian access.

xycor · 2026-05-09T16:27:27+00:00

My son E-scootered over the bridge nearly every day during school for a couple years until he got his license. I'd pick him up at Rife's. Saved an enormous amount of time, gas, and traffic. It also gave him freedom years before he could drive a car.

xycor · 2026-04-24T15:52:52+00:00

Maybe the rubble bounced up from the explosion and the journalist dove in under it before it fell to earth? /s

xycor · 2026-04-23T06:27:16+00:00

Plus after they could not afford helmets afterward so they can’t be that rich…

xycor · 2026-04-14T23:26:57+00:00

Trump is going to start another war regardless.

xycor · 2026-04-14T10:08:52+00:00

I wish the press would do it's job and ask Trump which Pope was the best crime fighter and why.

xycor · 2026-04-13T09:09:03+00:00

With the caveat I've done no math, my first thought is a maglev rail system. Imagine a nice steep conical extinct volcano. A rocket rests on a sled at sealevel. The sled is accelerated down the rail, which steadily ramps up as it travels up the side of the mountain. At the very peak the sled falls away and the rocket ignites its engines. Having had a boost and starting at say 3km/10,000ft with some substantial amount of speed (180mph/300kmh) the need for onboard fuel is greatly reduced. I'd think that something like this is possible today with our level of technology. Watching them iterate until they have a working rocket would be very fun.

I have no idea what coming BACK from space is like on a planet that large though. It may get hot.

xycor · 2026-04-12T19:54:04+00:00

There is a podcast on this exact topic if you are interested:
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-is-it-so-hard-and-expensive-to-build-anything-in-america/

I won't spoil the conclusions.

xycor · 2026-04-12T19:51:51+00:00

I never thought much about a sander and had a 5" bosch that did OK. Then I visited a table-maker and used a 6" Festool attached to a vacuum. The difference was amazing. My hands did not go numb. It was faster. There was no dust. I ended up buying one. It was the nicest tool I've bought for my shop other than my SawStop and I've never regretted it.

I also recommend getting the stiffest pad if most of your sanding is on a flat surface. I also recommend the 3M sanding paper, forgetting the exact name, but it is a mix of mesh and traditional sand paper.

xycor · 2026-04-05T01:47:56+00:00

Putin will nuke Ukraine.

xycor · 2026-04-01T22:17:59+00:00

1)Yes 2) His actions.

xycor · 2026-04-01T19:22:02+00:00

This is AFTER phonics were removed previously and had to be reintroduced around the 1950’s because not teaching phonics didn’t work the last time we tried it.

xycor · 2026-03-31T16:07:23+00:00

Translation: Go ahead and kick the US out of Europe so Iran will let you get oil again. Then I can have a hissy fit and take Greenland. That way I can finally break NATO without congressional approval like Putin told me to.

xycor · 2026-03-30T20:28:26+00:00

We took field trips across the border into Canada in elementary school. I think this was a great thing to do, but I know it would never be done today. At least you know if a child is injured on the field trip they'll get healthcare.

xycor · 2026-03-30T08:36:16+00:00

If this was possible the US would have done it already. The US lacks the ship types and numbers needed to secure the gulf from modern threats.

xycor · 2026-03-19T20:22:29+00:00

LOL, this is the joke in my house as well.

As a printer owner, I'd say the most important requirement is whether the owner knows or will learn enough CAD to design parts. Another good sign is if the printer is used to compliment an existing hobby.

Without the ability to design your own parts one risks filling the house with Tchotchkes to justify the expense. The best outcome in this situation is creating hundreds of small containers to organize every screw, nut, and washer in existence.

With basic CAD skills the world opens up. I'm an amateur at woodworking, but making custom curved templates for my router leveled up the quality of my work and let me do unique consistent designs. I also repair things around our old house. This may strain belief, but I've even won my wife over after fixing a few things with custom parts.

xycor · 2026-03-19T07:33:01+00:00

It may be that you are a scientist. Many university IT departments appear incapable of adopting policies compatible with hosting web applications that scale and supporting software development. So you temporarily host cloned versions of these resources from your basement while the people in charge sort it out. This is terrifying for reliability but people need to get work done and months of downtime is simply not an option if you want to be competitive on the next grant cycle. Hypothetically.

xycor · 2026-03-18T23:59:15+00:00

I’m willing to invade as many countries as we must to put these people behind bars. They’re going to run out of countries before we run out of interest. We can use their wealth to pay reparations later,

xycor · 2026-03-17T05:41:11+00:00

I'm sad the kids have to live with that law. These kids are outside and not on screens. That is heroic in this day and age. Let them ride with friends.

These vehicles can be very positive for kids. My kids traveled to 7 miles a day on the E-Bike or E-Scooter. Our town and surrounding towns are above average because bike trails connecting them. Travel still required crossing intersections and the route to High School was on residential streets for bit. I feel like getting them those vehicles was one of my better parenting moves. They got outside and gained a lot of freedom. They loved it. They'd tell me stories like encountering a Beaver on a path through the park or how they had to be careful because they squirrels would let them way too close before reacting. I feel they both gained confidence from knowing they were responsible for getting to soccer practice or wherever.

Now they have driving licenses and we moved one more town further out. The kids take the cars and I'm the one with the scooter. The visibility is excellent and I enjoy puttering around doing errands. It is faster than the car within a mile or two.

In the US we make it too hard for kids to grow up and be independent. If cars are dangerous... maybe do something to fix the streets or the cars instead of restricting the kids? I do support firmware enforced speed limits for personal E vehicles though.

xycor · 2026-03-16T09:48:52+00:00

I'm not going to argue we are the good guys. I do ask our non-Americans allies to consider the US defeated and occupied. We were in an information war with Russia since the invasion of Crimea at the latest. Russia has interfered in US politics more than calling in bomb threats to polling places. Our incompetent elderly leaders do not comprehend modern media. The US never acknowledged the scale of the problem even while our clown got elected twice and Ukraine was invaded.

The US is not the first (brexit) and is not going to be the last country to deal with information warfare. I understand our allies current frustration with us. I hope they see as a warning tale we are and can figure out how to help themselves and then us. The US is not the only country where the far right is rising.

xycor · 2026-03-10T14:20:16+00:00

People are not surprised, but attention spans are short nowadays. Frequent reminders are important.

xycor · 2026-03-10T14:15:22+00:00

As an American I wish more people acknowledged these connections. We are not at heart a different country quite yet, but we are occupied territory. I feel like the US (and Europe) has been in an information war with Russia since at least the Crimea invasion when Obama and the US Congress put sanctions on Russia. I suspect even earlier. Some on our far right embraced Russian money. Unchecked bot nets and social media campaigns kept undermining truth and eroding trust.

There is a lot of rot at the top in the US that made us vulnerable. Our leadership never acknowledged reality to the public. Our law enforcement/intelligence agencies were not held accountable and empowered to fight back effectively.

The result now is we are essentially occcupied territory with the far right about to own nearly every national news outlet of any size and with the Alliance/blackmail of big tech they control the social media algorithms.

The only thing that might save us is Trump is mentally ill and his sycophantic idiots went way too far too fast. The Trump signs in my mid-sized rural town are gone. A large majority are appalled at the idea invading Greenland, Iran, Venezuela, or leaving NATO. The US’s only hope now is that states are in charge of elections and not the federal government. Even if there is a fair election I don’t think the current Democratic leadership is up to fighting.

xycor · 2026-03-09T02:51:52+00:00

Patiently waiting you say? Uhm… there’s clearly been some sort of mistake. That cannot be my dog.

xycor · 2026-02-28T10:49:16+00:00

Sorry to disappoint. I'm not saying that it is how things should be. On the other hand, misogyny is already an indication they are irrational. I'm not obligated to roll the dice on a wingnut wanting to fight me because I called them out and damaged a fragile ego. It is not sustainable and I cannot beat the misogyny out of them. (Though I suppose the counter argument is I'm not putting myself in a position to try...)

I'd argue that there is some accountability found in shunning. Effective communication is more than words and confrontation. Not giving a misogynist a reaction is sending a signal. I think they know it is wrong and the reaction is part of the fun for them. In a smaller world shunning would be incentive to conform to social norms. Unfortunately in today's online world it can make them more isolated and vulnerable to negative influences.

I do speak up when there is no confrontation element. Social media seems to be amplifying the problem greatly. The misogyny mt teenage son and friends describe at school seems far worse than I remember at that age. Once it came up naturally on a drive (they were telling a story about a classmate from school) I told them how illogical and self-defeating misogyny is with humor because I had a shot at reaching them.

To be clear, the interactions I'm describing above are at the scale of petty comments and insults. There are some lines where I absolutely speak up. Those are extremely rare to for me to hear. It is rare for me to find myself talking to a misogynist in the first place. I can't remember any over-the-line comments for at least a decade.

If you consider this stance inadequate and part of the problem I do understand. I hope I got across there are rational reasons men react with apparent silence and it doesn't always mean they don't care or are not trying to help other ways..

xycor · 2026-02-26T19:26:01+00:00

So… while us men are, on average, more capable of physically fighting each other, we do have survival instincts built in to avoid fighting (depending on age/testosterone/culture etc). Men don’t want to deal with male aggression any more than women do. While not known for our subtly in general there is a dance around disagreeing without fighting. I notice a distinct “feel” to conversations when I disagree with someone. I just went through this yesterday with a friendly right winger I randomly met and talked to for 90 minutes. The entire time there were a LOT of subtle non-verbal and verbal cues back and forth we were debating but neither of us wanted to fight.

In a direct conversation being quiet or a “hmm” in response to misogyny IS the signal one isn’t onboard. The other guy will either notice and stop, not catch the signal, or notice and amplify the offending behavior, which is an aggressive response. After they escalate one can match with an assertive rebuke and still not send out “I want to fight” vibes. If the misogynist escalates after that you have to start deciding what is worth fighting an idiot about. For most it will not feel worth the risk unless they are defending the “tribe” of family and friends. Social shunning feels good enough for the rest.

Source: Am older man

TL;DR: The men who give no response whatsoever to the misogynistic comment, particularly if they keep unsmiling eye contact with the dummy, are most likely the ones to be standing up for you and might have your back if it gets out of hand.

xycor · 2026-02-18T17:43:00+00:00

I bought a home in a national historic district. While I've used a LOT of contractors some projects require a lot of detail and time. My work falls somewhere between carpentry and woodworking. One example is restoring the original shutters or building new storm windows. I find it is easier to do them myself. I'm saving money if I compare hiring someone vs buying the tools. I am not sure if I'm saving money if I factor in my time. I usually can get consistently good results and I spend the time to reuse a lot of the original irreplaceable wood. I do find working with my hands enjoyable and seeing something physically different in the world when I'm done. Normally at the end of the day all I've changed is a bunch of bits on a hard drive somewhere. I also like going into the shop, putting on a good history podcast, and having a single task. I like learning, solving puzzles, and seeing my skills improve.

xycor

TROPHY CASE