Miscellaneous Discussion Thread II
Quote: odiousgambitIn alternative history you can go back and change some of Hitler's mistakes, or imagine Eisenhower misjudged the weather and it was awful on D-day causing failure, and have the war continue on for an extra year.
the Germans should thank their lucky stars this didn't happen. The atomic bombs would have been dropped on them
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It's interesting the number Japanese lives that were saved by dropping the a-bombs. If they had not been dropped we would have continued carpet bombing Japan and they would have lost 10 times more Japanese citizens then the a-bombs took out. The biggest mistake Japan and Germany made before World War II was severely underestimating our ability to immediately turn our economy into a war machine. We produced more planes and ships and guns and ammo and tanks then was ever thought possible in anybody's wildest imagination. The German POW's that ended up in the United States were astounded at our productivity and how little the actual War affected the lifestyle of the country. The reason we have such a large military presence everywhere to this day is to always remind people of what we're capable of so something like World War II never happens again.
Quote: billryanI was watching a video on field artillery and came across what I found to be a fantastic statistic concerning the Battle of the Bulge.
When Hitler assembled the forces for his last-ditch effort to prolong the war, his army stockpiled 120,000 artillery shells.
In defeating them, the Allies fired over three million shells and had another two million on hand.
Every German tank that went into the battle was irreplaceable.
For each US tank that was in the battle, there were five replacements in France, three in transit by ship, and three being built.
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NUTS
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-MgLP2Mmcck
If you don't count parking.
Quote: EvenBobQuote: odiousgambitIn alternative history you can go back and change some of Hitler's mistakes, or imagine Eisenhower misjudged the weather and it was awful on D-day causing failure, and have the war continue on for an extra year.
the Germans should thank their lucky stars this didn't happen. The atomic bombs would have been dropped on them
link to original post
It's interesting the number Japanese lives that were saved by dropping the a-bombs. If they had not been dropped we would have continued carpet bombing Japan and they would have lost 10 times more Japanese citizens then the a-bombs took out. The biggest mistake Japan and Germany made before World War II was severely underestimating our ability to immediately turn our economy into a war machine. We produced more planes and ships and guns and ammo and tanks then was ever thought possible in anybody's wildest imagination. The German POW's that ended up in the United States were astounded at our productivity and how little the actual War affected the lifestyle of the country. The reason we have such a large military presence everywhere to this day is to always remind people of what we're capable of so something like World War II never happens again.
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Several German and Japanese generals tried to point this out to Fuhrer and Togo. They didn't listen.
Quote: rxwineRent free in NYC?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-MgLP2Mmcck
If you don't count parking.
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Living in an RV in New York City has been going on for years and years and years. It's a huge problem because you constantly have to move, you constantly get vandalized if you leave it for very long, it's mostly illegal everywhere in New York City.
Quote: rxwineRent free in NYC?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-MgLP2Mmcck
If you don't count parking.
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That is the problem. Most city streets are either metered or are set up so you can't park a large RV without blocking someone's driveway.
It's possible, and a few people have lived in the city for years. There are even some people who live on their boats in the Hudson, although the city cracked down on this in the 1990s when a boat colony sprang up.
Quote: rxwineWow, there's a high-rise fire in Hong Kong in 7 buildings. The building houses 4000 people and the buildings have fire coming out all the windows all the way up.
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I’ve been to HK. I remember thinking the majority of their apartment buildings looked like fire traps. Laundry hanging out the windows. The apartments so small your cleaning solvents are near the heaters. Fire escapes you need to be a trapeze artist to use successfully.
About a year ago, I stumbled upon the website of a custom toy soldier maker in Wisconsin. It was pretty sparse, but I ordered a couple of pieces and was very happy with his work. When I tried to order more, he wasn't taking new orders, as he is a one-man shop with a single printer. About a month later, I got an email that he was taking new orders, and he opened an Etsy account to sell his goods.
People liked his stuff, but many commented they'd prefer 54 MM or even 60 MM to the 50 MM scale he was using. He started offering a base model, a 54MM option for 10% more, and a 60MM option for 20% more. Sales were very good and he hired two kids to help him ship his products.
Someplace along the line, I'd emailed him a question and he called me back. It turned out he was only sixteen and still in high school.
Two YouTube videos brought in several hundred orders. By the end of the summer, he was making ten items a day but receiving twice as many orders. Lots of money was coming in, but it seemed like more was going into production than was being sold. His parents got involved as people tried to cancel their late orders but there was no money to be had. As he had hundreds of orders, with most being in the $50-$100 range, it became a serious matter.
It turned out his original pricing was correct, but his optional prices ruined him. A 40MM Tiger Tank sold for $19.99 while a 60MM sold for $24.99. The problem was that the larger scale used nearly twice the material and energy to produce, and he was actually losing money on each larger piece he sold. He's out of cash, and owes people either refunds or products he can't afford to make.
Another toy soldier collector has stepped in to try and help out, infusing some cash into the company, but they've been forced to raise prices so the larger tank now retails for $45 instead of $25, and a bunch of collectors, in a very niche market, are quite unhappy.
Quote: SOOPOOQuote: rxwineWow, there's a high-rise fire in Hong Kong in 7 buildings. The building houses 4000 people and the buildings have fire coming out all the windows all the way up.
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I’ve been to HK. I remember thinking the majority of their apartment buildings looked like fire traps. Laundry hanging out the windows. The apartments so small your cleaning solvents are near the heaters. Fire escapes you need to be a trapeze artist to use successfully.
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From what I heard on the news, Hong Kong actually has decent building codes and many were surprised by this. Of course, if you put wooden scaffolding up the entirety of a building I guess that may change some of the characteristics.
Quote: SOOPOOQuote: rxwineWow, there's a high-rise fire in Hong Kong in 7 buildings. The building houses 4000 people and the buildings have fire coming out all the windows all the way up.
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I’ve been to HK. I remember thinking the majority of their apartment buildings looked like fire traps. Laundry hanging out the windows. The apartments so small your cleaning solvents are near the heaters. Fire escapes you need to be a trapeze artist to use successfully.
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I remember that predominantly in KWC.
Other areas seemed mostly OK, although... cozy.
Really bougie apartments had a private balcony leading to a separate "maid's quarters", where hired help imported from poorer countries could be accomodated. The "maid's quarters" and balcony did have laundry hanging, but not generally over the edge.
https://gizmodo.com/cannabis-induced-scromiting-is-on-the-rise-study-finds-2000691530
What a horrible condition to have! Vomiting so painful you are simultaneously screaming in agony.
Videos of this should be made and shown to young people in schools to inform them of the risks of drugs and their overconsumption. We have no problems showing the lungs of a cigarette smoker from an autopsy to educate on the harms of that habit. Most of us got to see movies with titles like "Red Asphalt" and "Flesh, Metal, and Glass" to discourage drunken driving and unsafe driving in general. Seeing this, people heaving and screaming from too much pot, will be fair warning that with habitual and excessive consumption, you too may scromit.
Quote: AutomaticMonkeyHave you ever scromited?
https://gizmodo.com/cannabis-induced-scromiting-is-on-the-rise-study-finds-2000691530
What a horrible condition to have! Vomiting so painful you are simultaneously screaming in agony.
Videos of this should be made and shown to young people in schools to inform them of the risks of drugs and their overconsumption. We have no problems showing the lungs of a cigarette smoker from an autopsy to educate on the harms of that habit. Most of us got to see movies with titles like "Red Asphalt" and "Flesh, Metal, and Glass" to discourage drunken driving and unsafe driving in general. Seeing this, people heaving and screaming from too much pot, will be fair warning that with habitual and excessive consumption, you too may scromit.
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The original uncultivated plant usually wasn't that strong. People had to start messing with it, which wouldn't be surprising to me, that it might have created a problem that wasn't there before.
Quote: rxwineQuote: AutomaticMonkeyHave you ever scromited?
https://gizmodo.com/cannabis-induced-scromiting-is-on-the-rise-study-finds-2000691530
What a horrible condition to have! Vomiting so painful you are simultaneously screaming in agony.
Videos of this should be made and shown to young people in schools to inform them of the risks of drugs and their overconsumption. We have no problems showing the lungs of a cigarette smoker from an autopsy to educate on the harms of that habit. Most of us got to see movies with titles like "Red Asphalt" and "Flesh, Metal, and Glass" to discourage drunken driving and unsafe driving in general. Seeing this, people heaving and screaming from too much pot, will be fair warning that with habitual and excessive consumption, you too may scromit.
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The original uncultivated plant usually wasn't that strong. People had to start messing with it, which wouldn't be surprising to me, that it might have created a problem that wasn't there before.
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And the heavy users are beyond any plant now. Along with the edibles and the vapes, it's concentrated hash oil, and with special equipment for smoking the oil directly, not just putting some on a joint or cigarette like they used to. What next, inject it?
Concentrating anything can do that, and probably no one died of alcohol poisoning before we learned to distill. Without hard liquor you really can't get it down your throat fast enough to get a lethal dose before you pass out.
Quote: billryanWhen overnight success leads to utter failure.
About a year ago, I stumbled upon the website of a custom toy soldier maker in Wisconsin. It was pretty sparse, but I ordered a couple of pieces and was very happy with his work. When I tried to order more, he wasn't taking new orders, as he is a one-man shop with a single printer. About a month later, I got an email that he was taking new orders, and he opened an Etsy account to sell his goods.
People liked his stuff, but many commented they'd prefer 54 MM or even 60 MM to the 50 MM scale he was using. He started offering a base model, a 54MM option for 10% more, and a 60MM option for 20% more. Sales were very good and he hired two kids to help him ship his products.
Someplace along the line, I'd emailed him a question and he called me back. It turned out he was only sixteen and still in high school.
Two YouTube videos brought in several hundred orders. By the end of the summer, he was making ten items a day but receiving twice as many orders. Lots of money was coming in, but it seemed like more was going into production than was being sold. His parents got involved as people tried to cancel their late orders but there was no money to be had. As he had hundreds of orders, with most being in the $50-$100 range, it became a serious matter.
It turned out his original pricing was correct, but his optional prices ruined him. A 40MM Tiger Tank sold for $19.99 while a 60MM sold for $24.99. The problem was that the larger scale used nearly twice the material and energy to produce, and he was actually losing money on each larger piece he sold. He's out of cash, and owes people either refunds or products he can't afford to make.
Another toy soldier collector has stepped in to try and help out, infusing some cash into the company, but they've been forced to raise prices so the larger tank now retails for $45 instead of $25, and a bunch of collectors, in a very niche market, are quite unhappy.
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This kind of thing happens to people. It happens in the business world. Happened at a place I worked.
People who are creative usually are less than aware of costs. My mother and her sister were in a business selling custom dog treats. I asked the unit cost, they did not know. I started calculating cost of ingredients by the cup, etc. I forget how it turned out, they did not do it much longer.
From the article:
Grace Ying, who has lived in Flushing for more than 32 years, said she was “devastated” about the Cohen-backed casino getting the greenlight.
“They keep talking about how many jobs this will bring, but think about how many lives this will ruin,” said Ying, 65, who fought the proposal from its inception.
“Many people in my community suffer from gambling addictions, and the only thing that holds them back from throwing their money away is the distance from here to where the casinos are,” she added. “Now they won’t be able to help themselves. It’s like putting a liquor store in front of an alcoholic.
Quote: TankoThree new casinos approved for NYC. Two in Queens and one in the Bronx. All will be completed within five years.
From the article:
Grace Ying, who has lived in Flushing for more than 32 years, said she was “devastated” about the Cohen-backed casino getting the greenlight.
“They keep talking about how many jobs this will bring, but think about how many lives this will ruin,” said Ying, 65, who fought the proposal from its inception.
“Many people in my community suffer from gambling addictions, and the only thing that holds them back from throwing their money away is the distance from here to where the casinos are,” she added. “Now they won’t be able to help themselves. It’s like putting a liquor store in front of an alcoholic.
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If you live in NYC you can easily find places to gamble without setting foot in a live casino.
Quote: avianrandyJust walking down the street or getting on the subway seems to be a gamble in NYC
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I am guessing that you haven't spent much time in New York City. I never felt unsafe in NYC during the daytime. Granted, there were areas I avoided at night.
Quote: DRichQuote: avianrandyJust walking down the street or getting on the subway seems to be a gamble in NYC
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I am guessing that you haven't spent much time in New York City. I never felt unsafe in NYC during the daytime. Granted, there were areas I avoided at night.
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No one goes to NYC anymore. It's too crowded.
Quote: billryan
No one goes to NYC anymore. It's too crowded.
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I thought it was always crowded? I've seen pictures.
I was driving very near NYC not too long ago. Next to dodging random gunfire, that is a horrible experience.
I believe that NYC has a smaller population now than it had in the 1960s. While most large cities in the world have grown tremendously in population from that time (including cities with immutable sharply-defined borders like NYC.)
Quote: billryanSupermarkets in the Bronx sell special bricks for the residents to buy and have handy when white folks bumble by.
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Quoted so as to preserve for review.
Quote: AZDuffmanQuote: TankoThree new casinos approved for NYC. Two in Queens and one in the Bronx. All will be completed within five years.
From the article:
Grace Ying, who has lived in Flushing for more than 32 years, said she was “devastated” about the Cohen-backed casino getting the greenlight.
“They keep talking about how many jobs this will bring, but think about how many lives this will ruin,” said Ying, 65, who fought the proposal from its inception.
“Many people in my community suffer from gambling addictions, and the only thing that holds them back from throwing their money away is the distance from here to where the casinos are,” she added. “Now they won’t be able to help themselves. It’s like putting a liquor store in front of an alcoholic.
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If you live in NYC you can easily find places to gamble without setting foot in a live casino.
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At one time, there were several poker rooms in the City, but the NYPD kept breaking in and robbing folks playing a legal game. Home poker games are allowed in the state, but the NYPD seemed to see them as a personal piggy bank and would seize everyone's money and chips. I'm not aware of anyone ever getting any confiscated money back.
Most of the games moved to Long Island or Westchester, where the police departments don't have dedicated squads to raid poker games, or Brighton Beach, where the Russian mob rules.
Quote: DRichQuote: avianrandyJust walking down the street or getting on the subway seems to be a gamble in NYC
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I am guessing that you haven't spent much time in New York City. I never felt unsafe in NYC during the daytime. Granted, there were areas I avoided at night.
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So you haven't seen the video on the news of the New York college student girl getting hit in the face and dragged by her hair by a homeless guy who had been arrested 16 times for similar crimes and let go every time. The only reason they went after him is because her video got 4 million hits in a couple hours. New York City is a swell place.
Quote: gordonm888In my youth (1970s) I have been in the South Bronx when people on the 3rd or 4th floors of the buildings were leaning out their windows and throwing bricks at people on the sidewalks. I left NYC as soon as I could and it would take a gun to my head to make me move back....
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My visits to the South Bronx have always been perfectly safe. Of course, I was going there to a sacred place, for a sacred reason! The Stadium crowd is not a wise choice of targets, unless someone thinks it's a good idea to provoke groups of boozed-up young males.
At the old Stadium depending on where you parked, your walk to the ballpark could take you past a city jail and sometimes you would hear the guests hooting and hollering in there. Good intimidation for visitor fans!
Much of the SB and most of Brooklyn has been gentrified, yuppified, and DINKed to extremes. In the 1970s, Gleason's Gym had two armed guards to walk members to the parking lot; now there are sidewalk cafes on the block. My grandmother's house in Sunset Park sold for $29,000 in 1976, after no one in my family wanted it, and was recently on the market for $1.3 million. In fifty years, 59th St went from an Irish neighborhood to a Puerto Rican/Dominican one to a Chinese neighborhood that is now seeing Hipsters that are aging out of Williamsburg. The Basilica went from having one Polish mass on Sunday to a Spanish one, and now has multiple Chinese and Korean masses. The Catholic school I attended was mostly Irish/German and is now 100% Haitian.
The only constant is that the city continues to attract new immigrants.
