Observations of the Random sort

[dhex]

It's about 40lbs but it wasn't the weight so much as the size of the damn thing. This is my first TV over 32“ and I wasn't prepared for the sheer size of it. I got albatross arms but it was a stretch Har Har Har

That reminds me. I need to figure out some sort of handles for our space heater. The space heater is four times as big and five times as heavy as it needs to be because it's not enough to heat the room, it also has to look like television with an anime fireplace.

Carry handles or those plastic strap thingies?

[Warren]

It's about 40lbs but it wasn't the weight so much as the size of the damn thing. This is my first TV over 32“ and I wasn't prepared for the sheer size of it. I got albatross arms but it was a stretch Har Har Har

That reminds me. I need to figure out some sort of handles for our space heater. The space heater is four times as big and five times as heavy as it needs to be because it's not enough to heat the room, it also has to look like television with an anime fireplace.

Carry handles or those plastic strap thingies?

*wondering how long dhex worked on learning human speech before he left his home planet*

[dhex]

Dude ain't you ever moved stuff before?

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Forearm-For ... /202300612

[Warren]

Dude ain't you ever moved stuff before?

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Forearm-For ... /202300612

Ah. I need a firmer grip than that. It's actually better to lift it by hand then hang it on fabric like that. I've got some bar clamps I'll try next time I need to move it.

[Hugh Akston]

Warren, do you have a photo of the heater in question?

[dhex]

https://nypost.com/2021/01/14/ny-cathol ... ss-report/

I feel like they buried the lede...

"In his own statement, Feinberg touted the “success” of the independent program, saying it had paid out $258 million to victims."

[Hugh Akston]

The only thing that makes you more of an asshole than driving a Civic Type R with the vanity plate "See Yuh" at 70 in a 55 zone is driving a Civic Type R with the vanity plate "See Yuh" at 15 in a 55.

[Eric the .5b]

Considering how often we talk about parliaments as a cure-all for American democracy, this interests me more at the moment:



Mind, the Cold War idea that we must have one man ready to blow up the world take decisive action at a moment's notice is built into so many of our public political assumptions that I can't imagine this ever happening in the US.

[Number 6]

In the nuclear era, the CiC role, specifically, the ability to launch a quick strike, is one of the key responsibilities of POTUS. How would that work in this system?

[Warren]

In the nuclear era, the CiC role, specifically, the ability to launch a quick strike, is one of the key responsibilities of POTUS. How would that work in this system?

It would be very easy mein Führer

[Aresen]

In the nuclear era, the CiC role, specifically, the ability to launch a quick strike, is one of the key responsibilities of POTUS. How would that work in this system?

In the United Kingdom, that factually lies with the Prime Minister as well as the Letters of Last Resort.

[Shem]

Considering how often we talk about parliaments as a cure-all for American democracy, this interests me more at the moment:



Mind, the Cold War idea that we must have one man ready to blow up the world take decisive action at a moment's notice is built into so many of our public political assumptions that I can't imagine this ever happening in the US.

Don't really see how we'd avoid it becoming another Supreme Court-style fight. The Swiss built theirs in the idea that the members would remain collegial and unitary in public, and the second someone like Ted Cruz made it on there, that would be over, and it'd be all about who could get 4 (or however many) votes and impose their plans.

[thoreau]

In the nuclear era, the CiC role, specifically, the ability to launch a quick strike, is one of the key responsibilities of POTUS. How would that work in this system?

The Swiss system is built around the idea that they are very unlikely to get into fights, and are not going to be sending the world into oblivion. This is an archaic notion that we Americans have moved past.

Don't really see how we'd avoid it becoming another Supreme Court-style fight. The Swiss built theirs in the idea that the members would remain collegial and unitary in public, and the second someone like Ted Cruz made it on there, that would be over, and it'd be all about who could get 4 (or however many) votes and impose their plans.

One interesting thing about their system is that even when a party gets a lot of seats in Parliament they might have to still wait an election cycle or two to increase their share of Federal Council seats. They have to play nice and wait and prove that they are big kids with lasting support.

[Shem]

One interesting thing about their system is that even when a party gets a lot of seats in Parliament they might have to still wait an election cycle or two to increase their share of Federal Council seats. They have to play nice and wait and prove that they are big kids with lasting support.

How is that different from the Supreme Court?

[thoreau]

One interesting thing about their system is that even when a party gets a lot of seats in Parliament they might have to still wait an election cycle or two to increase their share of Federal Council seats. They have to play nice and wait and prove that they are big kids with lasting support.

How is that different from the Supreme Court?

In terms of the distribution of timings it isn't. The mechanism is different. As I understand it, a party gets onto the Federal Council when there's enough support in Parliament, not when a justice finally succumbs to disease. The People's Party (right populist, more or less, if we're approximating Swiss political divides with US labels) was in the Big 4 for a while, and arguably at least as successful as any of the other Big 4, but had to wait until 2003 to be allowed a second seat on the Federal Council. The Greens were the 4th biggest party in the larger chamber in 2019, but didn't get even one seat on the Federal Council.

FWIW, I think this slow change helps their consensus nature. And I agree it could never work here. I can admire it without thinking it would work in this society.

[Mo]

I just drove by a giant gold ox. I think I passed out and ended up in the Bible

[Aresen]

I just drove by a giant gold ox. I think I passed out and ended up in the Bible

Well, did you stop and worship it?

[JasonL]

Before you answer, I'm not sure you are in the safer of the two testaments in this regard.

[thoreau]

I just drove by a giant gold ox. I think I passed out and ended up in the Bible

Or a Kevin Smith movie.

[thoreau]

A discussion of money in ancient Mesopotamia. At 9:10 they say that 8 grams of silver could buy 300 liters of barley.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/2 ... 0508489727

Nowadays 8 grams of silver is about $7. A bushel of barley (35.2 liters) was $4.79 in December 2020 (https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_barley_price), so 300 liters is about 8.5 bushels, so about $40 for 300 liters.

Since barley farmers are surely more efficient today than back then, we can conclude that silver was way more expensive back then.

[Jadagul]

A discussion of money in ancient Mesopotamia. At 9:10 they say that 8 grams of silver could buy 300 liters of barley.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/2 ... 0508489727

Nowadays 8 grams of silver is about $7. A bushel of barley (35.2 liters) was $4.79 in December 2020 (https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_barley_price), so 300 liters is about 8.5 bushels, so about $40 for 300 liters.

Since barley farmers are surely more efficient today than back then, we can conclude that silver was way more expensive back then.

Turns out that silver miners are also more efficient.

[Jennifer]

Everything was way more expensive back then. Remember my "historically rich" game? I still play it, almost unconsciously/automatically, anytime I read any well-done, well-detailed piece of historical fiction or non-fiction.

I've been trying to make a modern price comparison of sorts -- I've been killing time with dollar-store jigsaw puzzles, and "Dollar stores are the modern equivalent of the old five-and-ten-cent stores America had in the early-to-mid 20th century" is one of those oddball facts I've picked up somewhere along the way. One night I was reading a modern reprint of a WW2-era British book of ways to pass the time during the war, which unsurprisingly recommended jigsaw puzzles (the book included instructions on how to make your own).

This inspired me to go online for a bit of link-diving and, long story short: I eventually learned that the old F.W. Woolworth chain got its start as a five and dime. The chain expanded to England, where the original prices for everything were either threepence or sixpence. During WW2, Woolworth stores in Britain sold jigsaw puzzles with patriotic themes for sixpence (though due to wartime shortages, the quality of the puzzles went way down compared to their prewar offerings -- flimsier materials, more cheaply printed images, etc.).

It amused me to think that one of the things I'm doing to "deal with" covid is exactly identical to a thing many wartime Britons did to "deal with" the war: assembling jigsaw puzzles bought from an "everything's the same low price" chain of stores, and the jigsaw puzzles in question are of objectively lower quality than the full-price puzzles you could buy at regular-price stores.

So then I spent a little more time trying to figure out: how does "sixpence for a jigsaw puzzle in World War Two Britain" compare to "one dollar for a jigsaw puzzle in America today?" Even knowing they had 240 pence to a pound back then, with the minimal amount of research I was actually willing to commit to it I couldn't find firm statistics like, what if anything was the British minimum wage then; what was an average wage vs. a "good wage," what were the standard prices of other things (like, how does the cost of a puzzle compare to the cost of a month's rent) .... nada. Still, I suspect sixpence then was a lot more than a dollar today, where actual buying power is concerned. Especially if you're only buying the absolute-cheapest items in the "luxury/non-necessity" category, like a jigsaw puzzle.

[Aresen]

Everything was way more expensive back then. Remember my "historically rich" game? I still play it, almost unconsciously/automatically, anytime I read any well-done, well-detailed piece of historical fiction or non-fiction.

I've been trying to make a modern price comparison of sorts -- I've been killing time with dollar-store jigsaw puzzles, and "Dollar stores are the modern equivalent of the old five-and-ten-cent stores America had in the early-to-mid 20th century" is one of those oddball facts I've picked up somewhere along the way. One night I was reading a modern reprint of a WW2-era British book of ways to pass the time during the war, which unsurprisingly recommended jigsaw puzzles (the book included instructions on how to make your own).

This inspired me to go online for a bit of link-diving and, long story short: I eventually learned that the old F.W. Woolworth chain got its start as a five and dime. The chain expanded to England, where the original prices for everything were either threepence or sixpence. During WW2, Woolworth stores in Britain sold jigsaw puzzles with patriotic themes for sixpence (though due to wartime shortages, the quality of the puzzles went way down compared to their prewar offerings -- flimsier materials, more cheaply printed images, etc.).

It amused me to think that one of the things I'm doing to "deal with" covid is exactly identical to a thing many wartime Britons did to "deal with" the war: assembling jigsaw puzzles bought from an "everything's the same low price" chain of stores, and the jigsaw puzzles in question are of objectively lower quality than the full-price puzzles you could buy at regular-price stores.

So then I spent a little more time trying to figure out: how does "sixpence for a jigsaw puzzle in World War Two Britain" compare to "one dollar for a jigsaw puzzle in America today?" Even knowing they had 240 pence to a pound back then, with the minimal amount of research I was actually willing to commit to it I couldn't find firm statistics like, what if anything was the British minimum wage then; what was an average wage vs. a "good wage," what were the standard prices of other things (like, how does the cost of a puzzle compare to the cost of a month's rent) .... nada. Still, I suspect sixpence then was a lot more than a dollar today, where actual buying power is concerned. Especially if you're only buying the absolute-cheapest items in the "luxury/non-necessity" category, like a jigsaw puzzle.

According to the UK inflation calculator, £1 in 1944 was the equivalent of £44.14 in 2020. Six pence is a fortieth of a pound, so £1 would be roughly equivalent.

FWIW, the UK did not have a minimum wage until sometime in the 1970s or 1980s.

According to this page, the nominal weekly wage in the UK in 1945 was £3.81 (or £3 16s 4d, if you prefer).

[Kolohe]

A discussion of money in ancient Mesopotamia. At 9:10 they say that 8 grams of silver could buy 300 liters of barley.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/2 ... 0508489727

Nowadays 8 grams of silver is about $7. A bushel of barley (35.2 liters) was $4.79 in December 2020 (https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_barley_price), so 300 liters is about 8.5 bushels, so about $40 for 300 liters.

Since barley farmers are surely more efficient today than back then, we can conclude that silver was way more expensive back then.

If you’re in the Tigris Euphrates valley in way back BCE, barley was a local commodity, and silver was in import from Anatolia (Aka Asia Minor aka modern Turkey), Iran or Armenia.

https://www.ancient.eu/Silver/

[thoreau]

A discussion of money in ancient Mesopotamia. At 9:10 they say that 8 grams of silver could buy 300 liters of barley.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/2 ... 0508489727

Nowadays 8 grams of silver is about $7. A bushel of barley (35.2 liters) was $4.79 in December 2020 (https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_barley_price), so 300 liters is about 8.5 bushels, so about $40 for 300 liters.

Since barley farmers are surely more efficient today than back then, we can conclude that silver was way more expensive back then.

If you’re in the Tigris Euphrates valley in way back BCE, barley was a local commodity, and silver was in import from Anatolia (Aka Asia Minor aka modern Turkey), Iran or Armenia.

https://www.ancient.eu/Silver/

That makes sense.