I plead not guilty to these nefarious accusations.

Or do I ;)

People complain about taxes but in reality itâ(TM)s not all that different from other states, including the one I currently live in. The nominal rate is higher but there are a lot more deductions available.

The UC schools are hard to beat in terms of quality and since I now have a daughter of reproductive age, Iâ(TM)m concerned about her rights as a woman. Yes, we could afford to fly her to CA if that became necessary.

Salaries are a lot higher there for people in tech and there are a lot more opportunities available across the board.

There are nice places to live in the East Bay of SF, the coast north of San Diego, and places like Monrovia in LA.

So yeah, weâ(TM)re seriously considering moving back.

â¦but you have to cross multiple mountain ranges that are much higher than that to get the water there. Unless you bore tunnels through them, which would be a major expense. And then thereâ(TM)s the desalinization aspect to deal with as well.

From a technical point of view, it would be far easier to divert fresh water from the Snake River (about 200 miles north and at a similar elevation). Most of that ends up in the Columbia River and then, eventually, in the Pacific Ocean.

But Iâ(TM)m pretty sure that Idaho, Oregon, and Washington would scream bloody murderâ¦

I think the ski resorts can shift their opening and closing times by an hour for the 2023-24 season. Thereâ(TM)s time to prepare.

Iâ(TM)d love if the lifts stay open till 5 or 5:30 instead of closing at 4 (especially since the time just shifted).

I slept a lot the night after each one. No other side effects. J&J was four months ago, my last Pfizer was four weeks ago.

I regretted getting the J&J a couple of weeks after the fact (and the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were easier to find). Once the British study on mix-and-match came out and it became apparent that delta was causing chaos in India, I decided I needed to be revaccinated before it got to the US.

Based on the available data (limited though it is) I doubt I really needed the second Pfizer shot. But it is nice to have the CDC card showing two doses of a reasonably respected vaccine.

I do the exact same thing. Used this to sign two separate real estate purchase contracts. No issues...

Well, these companies have to operate their own private transit systems for their employees because Bay Area public transit and roads are so dysfunctional. If the infrastructure bill can help bring Bay Area transit up to European standards, then private corporations wouldnâ(TM)t have to pay for quality transit systems themselves...

Not just the Chinese military, The Art of War was also required reading when I was in ROTC here in the US.

Apparently, I saw an alien once.

I was camping with some friends in a very remote area in the desert of southern Utah. It was late afternoon when something up in the sky caught my eye. It was a shiny sphere of some sort.

It wasnâ(TM)t far away, maybe a couple of miles. It moved directly vertically, then shifted and moved horizontally for a while, the shifted again and moved vertically. And then it was *gone*. It was visible for 10-15 seconds. We all saw it.

There was no sound and we saw no emissions of any kind.

And before you ask, we were not in any altered state of mind. Weâ(TM)d just arrived at the campsite half an hour before. Beer was, however, consumed later that evening...

Oddly enough, Facebook stock was up over four percent today, reaching a new ninety day high. Not kidding here.

Slashdot, this is not ASCII art.

I got a home warranty on our house when we bought it. It covers all the major appliances and house systems and it has definitely come in handy.

They covered a rebuild on a 15-year-old A/C unit. That should extend its life for another 5-10 years.

But ultimately, I would rather have quality products. We have an LG dishwasher that is not even two years old yet and I think it is on its last legs. When it fails, though... I guess a call to the home warranty company will be in order.

Around here the ski resorts do have diesel generators installed at the base of every lift, but the lifts normally run on electricity from the grid.

The generators are used as a backup... you do not want to strand skiers on the lift if the power goes out.

Unfortunately cabin service would not have started yet since they were still in takeoff mode (well, first class passengers could have had a couple of drinks before departing).

This is why I always have a couple of drinks *before* getting on the plane. At least if something goes wrong I have a *chance* of reacting somewhat calmly, otherwise I might have a heart attack.

A lot of planes were grounded for extended periods of time during 2020 and are gradually being returned to service. But complex machinery like this generally does better when itâ(TM)s continually operated.

I wonder if this was one of those planes.

I think you have things reversed.

r/wallstreetbets is a discussion board on the Internet. It has over 3 million subscribers (and probably a lot more who read, but don't subscribe). Each of these individuals acts in their own self interest. There might be a few "whales" thrown in there, but in general, no individual reader of that subreddit has the power to manipulate the market on their own.

Robinhood is exactly one corporation (a person, right?) and it took actions today that demonstrably had an negative impact on share prices.

I have never had an account with them, and after today's events, I can assure you that I never will.

Their actions didnâ(TM)t just affect their customers negatively. They also affected people like me, who assumed that trading in these stocks would proceed according to the standard rules and that the brokerages would not be putting their fingers on the scales.

I have written all of my state's representatives and senators about this issue. It may be all for nought but then again, maybe not. It's truly a rare day when AOC, Ted Cruz, and I can all agree on something...