- Millennials don’t yet realize how fully the political system is rigged. (H/T Shel and jed in comments)
- Pop-Up House.. Low cost, quick build, pretty cool. But why when they tout these things do they always act as if plumbing, electrical work, and site prep don’t exist?
- “Are Pets Really Good for Us?” Heck, yeah! … as long as we don’t trip over them or become social outcasts.
- Well, this is depressing. Fear of punishment from a vengeful god turns out to produce social good. Not surprising, really. That’s probably why vengeful gods were invented (by those who wanted to define social good for everybody else).
- Nicki on government health care as the ultimate sickness. Man, such horror stories should have been left behind in the Soviet Union.
- Smart guns, stupid science (and that’s even without addressing their “features” of being hackable and remote shut-offable).
- Just five years old and already the the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a hotbed of abuse, including race-based corporate shakedowns.
- Finally, OK Go does another one of their mind-bendingly memorable videos for another of their oddly forgettable songs.
Obamacare horror stories. Wow! I hear them sometimes from patients who come to me after losing their insurance because of that asinine law. Why don’t we try a really radical, crazy idea, like free markets? If we just got the government out of the way at all levels, health care could be as affordable as electronics. Just look at how advancing technology keeps causing prices to plummet in that industry. We could have service that is just as customer-friendly as pizza places. All we have to do is get the government out of it. All we have to do is convince people to give up their addiction to O.P.M. Fat chance of that happening. Oh well, I guess we’re stuck, then.
And when Clinton gets the Democratic nomination, it will be all the fault of Citizens United. 😉
The video tells you what kind of floor system the pop-up has, but what’s the foundation? Pier-and-beam, surely. Can’t be block-on-ground.
So the whole structure is made of lightweight foam blocks. Wonder what a stiff wind will do?
I’ve been trying to think of some good uses for a smart gun. Maybe hunting non-dangerous game. I rejected training because I wouldn’t want to hear, “But I didn’t think it was that close to the wristwatch.”
No, no Jim…See, we don’t have ENOUGH government here. It’s obvious that people are not smart enough to navigate the minutiae of making sure we don’t tax them further into poverty and poor health, so we just need to replace the whole system with one like Canada.
You know, the one where you get pretty good healthcare until you turn 40. Just don’t get hurt or sick afterward.
Ask me about the 60 y/o marathon runner who separated his shoulder and was told it was “just time for you to slow down a little. We’re not going to be able to get you in for probably 6 months for imaging, and surgery probably won’t be approved for someone of your age with the remaining mobility that you have.”
Or the man who was diagnosed with an unspecific liver problem which would kill him in 6 months, and was given a 12 month timeline to see a specialist, and the advice to go home and “get your affairs in order.”
Or the woman whose husband was diagnosed with a minor cancer, but had it metastasize to his lungs and liver 6 month wait for the required diagnostics before treatment could start. Why focus on the woman instead of the dying guy with cancer? Well…He got sent home to die with a breathing tube, dislodged it one night, slipped trying to get out of bed, punched a hole into something vital, and bled out on the bed while she waited the approximately 45-50 minutes for emergency services to show up.
And there are just the worst of the stories I have from people I know. They’re “friend of some guy on the internet” to you, but a little more painful for me, and damned infuriating when a friend or acquaintance starts talking about the wonders of socialized medicine.
Any idea who makes the little scooters from the music video?
Maybe what society needs now is more fear of an angry god to make people behave in a less angry way and limit the more ridiculous examples of political correctness.
The 2 week PopUp houses aren’t anything like the original page and video present. As you read the actual information on the BUILD ONE page, you find a minimum 6 month construction process making this a lengthier and more expensive process than ordinary construction. And while they cite a 2 month delay in permitting, I am guessing that here in OK we would see that delay extended considerably as the boards would want to see everything double verified for structural integrity.
And while it is likely very energy efficient after construction I can’t help wanting to see energy consumption figures for the manufacture of the huge foam blocks. I suspect that just as electric cars consume almost 3 times as much energy in manufacture (the batteries and the raw materials to manufacture those are the huge culprits) than traditional cars resulting in no net carbon savings over the life of the car, these houses also look to me like they consume many times more in manufacture than traditionally built houses.
” they always act as if plumbing, electrical work, and site prep don’t exist?”
Probably because it doesn’t look like they did any plumbing or electric in that demonstrator.
That house will not meet standard American code, and will require an engineering sign-off on every build. The design is… insane. The roof is flat, level, no incline whatsoever. Put it in a northern state, and the snow load will collapse it in short order. Down south in a rainy climate and the roof will leak. Leaves and other debri will pile up. I’m none too thrilled with the foundation they showed in the video, since that’s one place I don’t trust engineered beams (moisture exposure), but it might be OK if they found the right product.
They’re idea of low-cost differs from mine. They estimate $135-208/ft^2. The US average is $125/ft^2 for standard wood frame construction, and not even counting the engineering, I think this will run higher. I guess the French market is pricier.
Cool OK Go performance. Don’t miss the behind the scenes video: https://youtu.be/WCwzaTPARtU
And, of course, the stars of the show, Honda’s UNI-CUB Personal Mobility Device: http://world.honda.com/UNI-CUB/ . Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear to be available yet.
Their idea… I started to write that sentence differently and forgot to correct.
It looks like there’s a lot millenials don’t understand, thanks to our failed educational system. http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/02/11/poll-millenials-prefer-socialism-over-capitalism/
Regarding bank loans, I remember that Thomas Sowell wrote that the way to determine racial fairness in lending was to compare the default rates of whites and blacks. He noted that they were essentially identical, which meant the banks were doing a good job of determining who was an unacceptable risk.
That was a cool video. I was impressed by the camera work. If it was by a drone, it’s a very steady one with a great operator.
As to the CFPB, it was born bad and needs to be completely abolished. You knew it was off to a terrible start when its initial leader was Elizabeth Warren, and if anything its current administrator, the political hack Richard Cordray, is a step down from her. This is an agency which is completely out of control, and the geniuses who devised it ensured that it would be forever unaccountable by eliminating the need for Congress to authorize its funding (it has direct access to the Fed and spends precisely what it wants with no controls). It doesn’t even pretend to follow the authorizing legislation, but simply goes after anyone it chooses even if it has no legal jurisdiction. Talk to your banker; he’ll fill you with horror stories.
About the Pop Up House. Bear is spot on that house would not pass code. Add in that there is no foundation (fail), no insulation (fail) potential structural issues with the roof i.e. snow load (fail) and the house is a black hole for money.
Info on the scooters used in the OK Go video…
http://world.honda.com/news/2013/c131114Personal-Mobility-UNI-CUB/index.html
MJR, depending on how those little “piers” are anchored, that part might meet code.
Hey Bear I took another look at the construction video of the Pop Up house. Looks like they just pound in stakes into the ground and put patio stones with holes in the center on to the stakes. I don’t think that would be an issue in the southern states. Up here with frost heave in the winter and rain water making the ground soft and unstable around the stakes the building inspectors would fail it. The only reason I say this was due to the escapades I had with the building inspector when we built our house. To give you an idea of how picky they were they failed the railing on my deck because it was 1/4 inch too low. I solved this with a bit of 1/2 inch strapping all around the deck on top of the rail. After I got the occupancy permit I simply took the strapping off.
That was a fun video. The other day, I encountered Idan Raichel on Radio Paradise. There’s some good music there.
Glorp! Boogered that link!
Idan Raichel.
There, all better.
Rigged political system – It took me 30 years to figure out that the actual, resultant policies of the Dems and Repubs is identical and has not changed since before my first memory.
Foreign – Kill people and take their resources (for freedom)
Domestic – Less and less freedom (for freedom)
MJR, is that what they did? I assumed those were set into some sort of concrete footing.
Stakes ain’t gonna meet code anywhere in the country. We use concrete blocks (pre-grooved for 2×4 or 4×4) for storage buildings,but if an inspector found someone doing that for an inhabited structure, he’d tag it, then call the county health department for a mental examination of the builder.
A peaceful solution, resulting in one death. http://www.policeone.com/standoff/articles/74764006-Ore-standoff-shows-FBIs-low-burn-strategy?nlid=&utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_content=TopNewsRight3Title&utm_campaign=P1Member&cub_id=usr_UCMGWTjy67cS2jL1