pk10534

pk10534 t1_j2endsf wrote

Reply to comment by r2k-in-the-vortex in [OC] Around 30% of countries spend more than 2% of GDP on their military by IndeterminateYogurt

Those aren’t “unintended side effects” they were purposeful research projects. Do you realize how much money and planning and coordination went into projects like ARPANET, in conjunction with universities and the corporate world? To act as though these were accidents as if the DoD just stumbled into making GPS or ARPANET is just incredibly naive, to the point of sounding purposely facetious. You’re just making these claims that have no basis in reality and completely ignore the history of these projects and defense spending because you don’t want to admit that it has resulted in some pretty innovative projects.

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pk10534 t1_j2ela2u wrote

Reply to comment by r2k-in-the-vortex in [OC] Around 30% of countries spend more than 2% of GDP on their military by IndeterminateYogurt

It’s bizarre you’d claim defense spending isn’t productive when defense spending in the US alone gave the world GPS, the internet (ARPANET), EpiPens, BugSpray, Duct Tape, Computers via the Army Research Laboratory, Nuclear Energy, Walkie-Talkies, and more.

I would consider quite a few of those inventions to be instrumental in our building of a “better, more capable” society.

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pk10534 t1_j266cot wrote

Reply to Flight tracker deems JFK and Newark ‘miserable’ during post-holiday travel rush by DrogDrill

> More than two-dozen flights had been canceled at JFK and Newark in that same period.

I mean…is the cancellation of 12 flights per major airport really that terrible? Seems pretty decent for one of the busiest flight days of the year. I could be totally wrong, I don’t know track average cancellations per airport lol, but given Southwest’s meltdown, JFK and ERW seem to have gotten off relatively easy compared to southwest hubs like BWI, Midway, STL, etc.

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pk10534 t1_j225zzc wrote

Reply to Commuting to Silver Spring by guerillagirl4

I used to make the drive from Baltimore to Bethesda regularly. Honestly 95 is usually pretty free-flowing in the mornings in my experience with some minor backups as you’re leaving Baltimore, but it clears pretty well after the 695 interchange. The DC beltway is gonna be where you really hit traffic so that’s what I’d be looking at and figuring out what time you’ll arrive there. In the evenings, expect beltway traffic, then some traffic around the 100 & 32 interchanges, and some more going into downtown Baltimore. I’d say your average commute will be 45min-1hr on a decent day, depending where in Baltimore you live (this is assuming you’ll be by 95).

My biggest piece of advice would be avoiding BW Parkway/295 as much as you can…as in, don’t take it unless an accident has happened on 95. My GPS has tried to take me on that road ever since I moved to Maryland years ago and it’s always a shit show of traffic and hold ups. And lord forbid you get one slow person in the left lane who’s stubborn, because traffic will get held up for miles. It is almost never faster to take 295 unless you’re going into downtown DC, and you’re not. There is almost never not traffic around numerous interchanges (495, 197, 32), unlike 95 which really only gets traffic at rush hour.

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pk10534 t1_j1qwv29 wrote

Reply to comment by Iroshima in Breaking lease by Iroshima

1.) Housemates: that’s not really the landlord’s fault, though. That’s a personal disagreement with her roommates. It’s not that I don’t empathize, but roommates not doing the dishes or picking up their clothing from the floor just isn’t gonna be viewed as a reason she can break a contract with her landlord. If the landlord is fulfilling his/her end of the contract, then that’s pretty much where their legal liability ends in a lot of cases. Your landlord isn’t responsible for mothering your roommates and making them clean the bathroom once a week

2.) Moving rooms: was this in writing, or an informal agreement? Because unless that’s a provision of the lease, that pretty much has no bearing on breaking it.

3.) flies: I’m gonna guess her dirty roommates play more of a hand in that than anything. Some fly tape and a good scrub of the apartment would probably make some good improvements to that problem, but I’m not sure what the landlord is gonna be able to do if her roommates continue to be disgusting.

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pk10534 t1_j1qugge wrote

Reply to Breaking lease by Iroshima

I would strongly encourage her to not “just choose to stop paying”. Barring unlivable conditions (mold, pest infestation, broken HVAC, etc), it’s kind of hard to just break a contract she willingly signed. Yes, breaking a lease illegally will have negative consequences for her, and I imagine going to court while you’re on a visa is probably not a good look.

Could you go into more detail about it not being “what she expected”? Depending on what she means by that, she might have some options. But realistically, unless it’s something really bad, she’s gonna either have to stay there for the duration of the lease or find 3 months rent to break it. For the same reason that it wouldn’t be fair for her landlord to decide he wanted her apartment back and that she had to leave immediately

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pk10534 t1_j19jrmo wrote

Reply to ‘Major Trustee, Please Prioritize’: How NYU’s E.R. Favors the Rich by goodguyfdny

I have a really hard time being upset that the man who gave $100 million to a hospitable, raised another $3 billion, and helped make a medical school at one of the country’s most famous universities (NYU) free is able to get a room instead of sitting in the hallway when he shows up to the hospital.

And also gee, really? They put a United States senator in a room instead of treating him in a hallway in an emergency room that could present a security threat with (according to their own admission) mentally ill and intoxicated persons walking around? Shocking.

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pk10534 t1_j19crun wrote

Reply to the rain we are getting now by ChemicalElevator1380

Question: do alleys get plowed if it snows? Most people on my block park behind their houses so we use the alley, just curious if the city will plow that or if we need to get the shovels lol

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pk10534 t1_j16lhas wrote

Reply to comment by sit_down_man in Baltimore police investigate 39 rideshare carjacking, robbery cases since November by ThatguyfromBaltimore

Well, it’s kind of hard to compare, because Bates has a 20-page explainer on his ideas of what to do and how to do it, complete with charts and statistics and addressing topics that range from firearms possession to vacant housing to drug court. So I’ll post a link to that. Meanwhile, I’ll just copy and paste Mosby’s crime plan here because it’s so brief and generic, and this is the only thing I can even find on her campaign site that talks about fighting crime rather than police or reducing sentences:

https://www.batesforbaltimore.com/_files/ugd/fd0924_ddf2d274c66c4eb49d0fa71ea720ff50.pdf

“In the past seven years, the State’s Attorney’s Office has maintained a 90% conviction rate on average for violent offenses, an average 88% conviction rate for mandatory minimum eligible cases, and a 92% conviction rate for violent repeat offenders, all of which matches or surpasses the conviction rates of her predecessors over the ten years prior to her taking office. Mosby has aggressively focused her prosecutors on targeting violent criminals by creating a Gun Violence Enforcement Division that targets violent criminals and the totality of their activities rather than just their violent acts, and a Criminal Strategies Unit that uses data and long-term intelligence gathering in partnership with BPD detectives to target the most heinous criminals in our city.”

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pk10534 t1_j14iv8g wrote

Reply to comment by BigHead3802 in [OC] Percentage of International Migrants Per Country by andyprendy

Brazil, Colombia and Peru surprised me because I know they’ve each taken in quite a few Venezuelans…I mean hasn’t Colombia taken in over a million just by itself? And that’s just from one country. But then when you factor in how large your country and my country and others are, it makes sense. But, at the same time, this data doesn’t reflect that the US has around 50 million immigrants (almost 25% of the global total) and would make you think we’re slacking lol. And I bet Brazil and others and underrepresented too

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