I was looking at the URL, misread traumabooks.itch.io, and thought, ‘what a perfect source for that book, I want to see their whole catalog.’ Supremely disappointed.

15% of the population are under 12 and almost 5% are over 80.

ed: actually, it seems like “85%” is just bullshit. Probably closer to 95% Wondering if this might not be a decade+ old chart.

The law only gets you compensation after the abuse and destruction ends. If anything.

Even 50W, 24/7, is 36 kWh/month. $3 where I live; $12 in CA.

What I expect is that those people will either a) receive a form letter saying that their Medicaid has not been renewed, b) simply not receive new Medicaid card after applying and being silently rejected, or c) have a hospital administrator explain that they owe $10,000 because Medicaid will not cover their charges. Obviously, the hospital is greedy and mean.

Unless those communications include the explicit phrase “because of Donald Trump’s Medicaid cuts,” few people will draw any connection between the mysterious, bureaucratic determination of Medicaid coverage and their ‘tells is like it is’ hero, bankrupt casino owner, Donald J Trump.

I love the story that Napolean went to the unimaginable luxury of having a whole set of aluminum tableware made up to awe his visitors.

My Pi spends all of its time around 55°C in a 20-25°C room. Main server idles at 47°C. Those aren’t worrying temps.

I’ve watched enough Lock Picking Lawyer never to want a consumer ‘smart lock.’ Half of them can be opened with a magnet. Maybe commercial grade is better, but I’ve been locked out of my job after every power failure for the last 10 years, until someone comes along with a physical key.

Re homeassistant on a Pi: homeassistant does a lot of database transactions, so you may want to have db storage on something other than an SD card.

If she hadn’t personally suffered for Trump’s policies, she’d still have the same nasty values.

What’s difficult for me is - now that she’s learned the Leopards-eating-peoples-faces party will happily eat her face - can she extend that lesson to the Leopards-eating-peoples-legs party or the Bears-eating-peoples-faces party. Because if these people have to personally experience each of the obvious and horrible consequences to realize that the next charismatic ghoul is a charismatic ghoul, then we are no closer to a better world.

The main difference is who bears the risk. For pensions, it’s the employer, who has to make extra payments if the pension fund falls behind it projected obligations, or surrender its management to PBGC. That open-ended risk is why most companies have abandoned pensions. For SS, it’s the government (although they do have the power to change their legal obligation). For annuities, it’s the recipient, who will just get less money if the annuity’s investments underperform during the accumulation phase.

SS is a defined benefit administered (and guaranteed) by an independent agent. Pension is a defined benefit administered by employer (or PBGC). Seems pretty similar to me.

Annuity is a defined contribution disbursed formulaically by a company you hired. The only similarity is the regular payment.

Like I said, it’s been a minute, but BYD isn’t available in the US; looks like Mercedes offers 4 SUV/crossover models starting at $55k and 2 sedans starting at $75k; Kia is all SUV; Hyndai has one sedan and two crossovers. Ford is crossover/truck; GM is all SUVs. More than there were, but non-Tesla sedans are still the exception. I’d love to see BYD in the US. Love to see KEI in the US.

It’s been a while since I looked at EVs, but my (US) experience at the time was that Tesla was one of very few companies offering sedan-shaped EVs. The US market was full of crossovers & SUVs (like Rivian), and that form factor seems antagonistic to many of the things that make high performance, long range EVs: terrible aerodynamics, high body weight, poor visibility… They’re big enough to fill will batteries to compensate for the poor efficiency, but that just raises costs.

Don’t really have taxes at that income level. In the US, ACA pays full insurancne premium (currently, that will change if the billionaire tax cut passes), and ‘wellness checkups’ are $0 out-of-pocket by law. Most of my dinner recipes are around $2.50/serving at 900 calories. I’m able to walk most places I go, but car insurance is $100/month. Don’t feel like dating, raising kids, or making big vacations. I average something around $7-800/month on ‘entertainment’ like video games & hobby materials, which leaves $300-400 savings. $350/month is 10%, which is around 2x the US average savings rate (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PSAVERT). Savings for emergencies like insurance deductible and for retirement.

But that’s my point: my housing probably isn’t everyone’s idea of ‘comfortable,’ my diet is pretty carb-heavy and probably not everyone’s idea of ‘comfortable.’ I like it, though. It feels comfortable to me; I don’t consciously restrict any of my spending - all the numbers I’ve given you are post hoc analysis. I’ve been doing it for a decade.

I don’t dispute people feeling like they need $150k to live comfortably. Lots of people want kids. Lots of people want to take a nice vacation time-to-time. There’s a massive propaganda machine out there trying to convince everyone that they need just a little more than they have right now to feel good about themselves, and I believe that propaganda starts wearing thin by the time you get to $150k, $200k. They’ve got to live their life; I can only live mine.

That’s what I said: “Comfortable” depends on feelings. Once you know what feels comfortable, then you can quantify.

Well, then I can say that $40k is definitely “comfortable.” That’s $1500 rent, $300/month food, another $200 gas/elec/internet, a thousand left over for odds & ends and another couple hundred saved.

Pretty much my budget in a MCOL major metro.

You can’t define “comfortably” without feeling.

Lemmy needs a new community: Cops or Criminals? Just pictures of thugs in SUVs & you have to guess whether they’re a cartel hit squad or ICE.

If you’re doing 1-a-day, a rice cooker can be a great simplifier. Throw a measure of rice & your protein into the cooker, some rough chopped veg if you like. 2 minutes prep. While it cooks, make some kind of a sauce - yogurt or mayo make great bases, just add whatever spices you like; gochujang or miso thinned out with some soy sauce, citrus, or vinegar. When the rice & protein is done, pour on the sauce, add some pickled veg if you like. 800-1000 calories, depending on how much fat is in your sauce, one cooking pot, one eating bowl. 20 minutes start to finish.

Not exactly the same, but I have an air quality sensor I use to turn the HVAC fan mode on/off to filter. Also a CO2 sensor. Both wired to the RPi I run homeassistant on. The HVAC is controlled via T6 pro Z-wave now, but I started out with a Zooz Zen15 switch to just turn the whole thing on/off.

The CO2 sensor has been pretty stable for 4(?) years - it has an internal recalibration routine that resets its baseline based on the past week’s data. My readings range from 400-ish with the windows open & fans to 1200+ cooking with gas in the sealed house. Averages around 800 with the AC or 500 with the furnace (which exhausts combustion gasses). The aq sensor has been replaced once after 3-4(?) years. It reads exactly what purpleair says is outside with the windows open, drops to 0-2 µg/m3 with the filters running, spikes to 300+ cooking.