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Joined 8 months ago
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Cake day: June 14th, 2025

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  • It depends on the leaf-to-area ratio. We have a lot of trees that are large. Even mulched, the sheer volume of leaves would kill the grass. We have about a third of an acre and let a majority grow taller stuff, or where the trees are really dense have a leaf mould ground condition. It is nice to have some walkable area, grass is the lowest maintenance option for that, and keeping the grass alive requires leaf removal.



  • I’ve asked my neighbor if an arrow I found in the road was theirs (no, but he was happy to take it) and coordinated removal of dead trees on the property line. Those went well.

    I was rather stressed and unhappy when a neighbor, after some passive aggressive comments, reported us to the city weed inspector. The weed inspector determined we didn’t have any violations, and we made extra sure to leave our “wild patch” in the front yard and take our time cleaning up leaves after that.







  • I work in manufacturing, lots of physical tasks. The work instructions for the physical tasks get out of date with control system and physical machine changes just as much as the non-tangible type work documents.

    I have found work instructions that (succintly, no essays) explain when something is a safety protection, or affects quality, are more effective. Most workers want to make a good product, and are genuinely trying to be helpful by making a change, but might not have visibility to the full impact. Explanations can also help reduce change fear: often managers won’t approve change because they don’t know why a rule exists, but are afraid it’s important. Having the explanation right there with the rule can help reasonable arguments prevail over fear.





  • The space here is limited… The immigrants are directly competing with me for the in-city apartments.

    More desirable locations will be too expensive for many, or most, people to afford. As local economies change, and different locations become desirable, people will be priced out and forced to move. Good city planning decisions can slow this down to allow people to adapt, but trying to freeze things in place is futile.

    It’s not really possible to set up city planning regulations so the population stays exactly the same. If a city were successful in making itself an undesirable place to live so that no one new would move there, it would probably start losing its population, which (like growth) forces its own hard planning decisions.


  • It’s a lack of nuance. Higher rates of population growth can be good, if pressure points like housing are planned for with zoning and permitting systems that promote densification in popular locations. The badness is neither the additional people nor the housing regulations individually, but instead is that they don’t match.

    Also, there’s a lot of racism in the mix. The people with legitimate concerns about growth planning (or the lack thereof) end up mixed in with the people who are horrified at the idea of their racial group becoming a minority of the country’s population.



  • In any system, some people with very expensive treatment options, especially if the treatment would extend life only a few months and/or with poor quality of life, are going to be denied that treatment. As a society, it doesn’t make sense to spend twelve million dollars to keep one bedridden patient still bedridden for another six months, when that money could instead be used to improve quality of life for many people for many years.

    I believe the meme is about denying highly cost effective care like insulin or basic doctor visits, which is cruel without any redeeming aspects. Just wanting the conversation to include that, while the US has drawn the line in a ridiculous place, there does need to be a line drawn sonewhere.


  • China’s ten-year presidential terms worked well for their people for a long time. That Xi has gone the dictator for life route is IMO a significant threat to their future direction.

    Many countries also seem to be on a fine interim path to building up a combination capitalist/socialist economy and bringing up their median and minimum living standards. China is big and influential, but doesn’t have a lock on that.