jqubed

@ jqubed @lemmy.world

Posts

95
Comments

3259
Joined

3 yr. ago

2d ago

Colorado declares town abandoned amid water and leadership crisis
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jqubed @lemmy.world 2d ago
As the Post put it, political infighting, accusations of fraud, a physical fight at a governing board meeting and a worsening drinking water supply crisis combined to doom Hartman as a standalone town.
Its water tower spent years needing but never getting substantial repairs as the town was gripped with feuding which the Post compared to the 19th-century rivalry waged in the US’s Appalachia region by the Hatfield and McCoy families. The outlet reported the quarreling in Hartman was so intense that it kept at bay any water operators who could step in to assist.

2d ago

TIL one of the most famous musical instrument companies primarily runs on open source software out of pure spite

Legalized extortion. Interestingly, reading up on the organization, they seem to operate globally, not just in the US.

4d ago

Sometimes I just… gotta acknowledge he’s got the rizz

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jqubed @lemmy.world 4d ago

Look at Ms. Moneybags; I’ve seen pastry chefs go into that much debt in culinary schools just to make $30,000/year!

4d ago

YouTube: "Either way, we get paid."

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jqubed @lemmy.world 4d ago

Google:

4d ago

Christian preachers are turning airplanes into unwanted worship services

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jqubed @lemmy.world 4d ago

This happened all the time on the New York Subway when I lived there 20+ years ago. But there you were usually only 2-5 minutes away from the next station and you had the ability to go to a different car, so most people just ignored them. You’re not going to find many commercial flights that are less than an hour gate to gate, though, and frequently many hours in duration.

4d ago

TIL one of the most famous musical instrument companies primarily runs on open source software out of pure spite

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jqubed @lemmy.world 4d ago

Article from August 20, 2003

Did you want to settle?Never, never. That’s the difference between the way an employee and an owner thinks. They attacked my family’s name and came into my community and made us look bad. There was never an instance of me wanting to give in. I would have loved to have fought it. But when (the BSA) went to Congress to get their powers, part of what they got is that I automatically have to pay their legal fees from day one. That’s why nobody’s ever challenged them–they can’t afford it. My attorney said it was going to cost our side a quarter million dollars to fight them, and since you’re paying their side, too, figure at least half a million. It’s not worth it. You pay the fine and get on with your business. What most people do is get terrified and pay their license and continue to pay their licenses. And they do that no matter what the license program turns into.

I wonder if that little poison pill about having to pay the legal fees for the Business Software Alliance from day 1 is still true? I’d also be curious to see a follow-up today for how they’re using FOSS in their business. There are a lot more resources today than there were in 2003!

5d ago

What is your favourite fast food burger?

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jqubed @lemmy.world 5d ago

I’m realizing I like smash burgers from fast food places. For me Shake Shack tops that list, with Freddy’s a close second. I was surprised at how good I thought Sonic’s smash burger was since I usually haven’t been overly-impressed with their food. Not a smash burger, but I do like Five Guys, although they’re really expensive. None of those I would describe as particularly fast, though.

For something that’s actually fast, as in my food can be ready as soon as I get to the window from when I ordered at the drive-thru intercom I’d say Wendy’s is currently my favorite. They changed their burgers after founder Dave Thomas died and I haven’t liked their changes to the traditional lineup, but the Double Stack or Baconator/Baconator Jr. are good. The others like McDonald’s, Burger King, Hardee’s/Carl’s Jr. are consistent, rarely bad but also rarely great. You’re in Canada and I’ve noticed when we go visit my wife’s parents up there that McDonald’s is often running some limited-time variant on their burgers, often the quarter pounder, and sometimes they’ve been good, or at least interesting. We don’t seem to get those in the US, so if you want a fast food burger you might want to at least try them since you have easy access.

My recommendations might not mean much, though, because I haven’t been particularly impressed with the A&W burgers I’ve had in Canada. I’ve already forgotten what I really don’t like with them even though I had one a few weeks ago, but I think it’s something like the buns are weirdly grainy and the meat is loose and has an odd flavor. I like the root beer, though, in spite of your paper straws that start breaking down way too fast.

6d ago

The USMNT is as good as parents can afford

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jqubed @lemmy.world 6d ago

The reason for the team’s dominant success goes back to getting a jump on the rest of the world when it came to soccer. That jump came from a massive push from the Federal Government of the United States of America when Title IX was created and women’s college sports was given the financial resources to create a competitive environment that the rest of the world lacked. In short, funding sports at the amateur level gave more players more opportunities to play at a high level and it has paid dividends in terms of World Cup trophies, victory parades, and Olympic medals.
American male soccer players have not had this level of intervention from the state and struggles to win soccer games. Instead youth soccer players who drop college tuition amounts of money to pay for a sport that the best players in the world learned in alleyways using a bag of rags for a ball. Meanwhile, sports like basketball have a clear and affordable pathway from playground to being noticed by scouts in middle and high school to college to professional levels. This allows a deeper talent pool and doesn’t exclude players whose families can’t afford to send their kids to play for expensive youth clubs. In short, the USMNT is held back by a system that prices many players out of the sport and changing it is extremely difficult. To be clear, this is an emerging issue for the USWNT, but getting a head start from Title IX means the women’s program is leading the world and not playing catchup.

Interesting analysis. It sounds like they need to find a way to make school soccer teams more competitive so that kids can learn the game well there instead of having to play in expensive private leagues. Title IX didn’t just benefit collegiate sports but middle and high schools. With their limited budgets, though, the schools are prioritizing the most popular boys’ sports: football and basketball, and in guessing baseball comes in ahead. In the girls’ side the most popular sports are basketball, soccer, and probably softball. So really, this becomes a chicken-and-egg popularity problem: men’s soccer isn’t very popular so it doesn’t get much funding, which means the men don’t end up being very good and people aren’t going to be very interested in watching bad soccer so men’s soccer isn’t very popular in the US.

I wonder if a similar factor contributed to the decline of American tennis. We have plenty of free tennis courts around the country, but if you want a good coach you’re largely going to have to pay. Tennis should attract the best women athletes because tennis players are the highest-paid women athletes, and I’m not sure any other sport even comes close to what’s possible in tennis. But how many kids are getting good coaches to develop their game when they’re young?

1w ago

49ers interim HC Chris Foerster reveals Kyle Shanahan's message to him

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jqubed @lemmy.world 1w ago

I had not seen the news about Shanahan being in a car wreck!

1w ago

My never again project is close to the end!

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jqubed @lemmy.world 1w ago

Wait, are you my child? They’re doing something extremely similar

1w ago

JetZero

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jqubed @lemmy.world 1w ago

There are two startup passenger jet manufacturers building factories at the Piedmont Triad Airport in Greensboro, NC. One is Boom SuperSonic, the other JetZero. Of the two, I think JetZero is most likely to succeed. If they can actually deliver 50% less fuel burn than the current offerings from Airbus and Boeing they will have airlines clamoring for their aircraft. Even if Boom gets their plane in the air (itself a big question mark since all the engine suppliers told them they could not build an engine to their requirements so they decided to also build the engine themselves), it’s not clear to me that there’s a more viable market today for supersonic air travel than there was when the Concorde was flying. Plenty of people would like to fly that fast, but I don’t think there are plenty who can afford it.

3w ago

GameStop CEO Says Games Are "Irrelevant" To Company Revenue

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jqubed @lemmy.world 3w ago

GameStop beat out Hot Topic in bidding for ThinkGreek, with a winning bid of $20/share compared to Hot Topic’s bid of $17.50

3w ago

For those of you kicking it old school

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jqubed @lemmy.world 3w ago

So many of the foreigners visiting for the World Cup have missed out on another great American culinary tradition smh my head

3w ago

Traffic Camera Captures Woman Driving With Her Phone on Her Lap (Face Down), The State Mailed Her a $1251 'Public Safety' Ticket

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jqubed @lemmy.world 3w ago

Emporia, Virginia is another notorious one, right on heavily traveled I-95 as well as US-58. Virginia has front license plates, so the cars that don’t have front plates definitely aren’t from Virginia and if there’s a group of cars all going the same speed it’s the easy way to pick out the non-local. Saw it happen when I was a passenger.