Yes, my state has incentives for heat pump installs and a special electric rate for heat pump users (for those who heat with electric only)

I got a smaller incentive for installing a heat pump in my family room but still keeping my gas furnace. Electricity is pretty expensive here so the tradeoff is about 45°F. Above that the efficiency of the heat pump wins out, but colder than that the furnace is cheaper.

I did try the heat pump when it was cold, and it still produced a respectable amount of heat at 20°F

I lived through Reagan and it turned a lot of things in directions wrong for the citizens but it was nowhere near this. There was still “shame” preventing anything blatant, there was still at least a nod toward helping people, there was still some competence, there was still some function in Congress.

You could even argue that Reagan did “make America great” by commanding respect in the world and getting at least something’s done.

Trump is an 8 year old in a tantrums version of Reagan

In one of the more extreme cases where Duh Santis rented a jet to abandon a bunch of immigrants on Martha’s Vineyard without notice - we brought them to the mainland where there were already facilities. It was all just a game for headlines at the immigrants expense

Wow, I can’t believe how many women in Joshua Tree were attacked by four pit bulls on that one day in January

It’s sort of a plus … obviously not in your scenario …. I believe pitbull breeds tend to be one of the protective and loyal breeds, and they do have a very strong bite. I have no worries about my pit bull with my kids but if you frighten her around them you’ll see her instantly change from a cuddle bug to on guard against hell and its minions

Unfortunately they’re sometimes loyal and protective to people who don’t deserve them

I also feel like I need to add that many breeds of dog are very loyal and protective. In the same situation a German shepherd is equally dangerous. Even little dogs are likely to come after you for attacking their human although obviously they can’t do as much damage. I feel like your situation was a general dog issue: many/most dogs are protective and loyal. You really can’t attack their human without them helping (and yes it doesn’t matter who started it or if he was a dick, to the dog you were attacking his human

Same experience here, dogs of all sizes, shapes, breeds. The only dogs that ever bit me for real were mini poodles, two of them.

Well technically I suppose my pitbull - I stuck my fingers in her mouth to pull out whatever she had picked up off the street to eat, but one time she didn’t see and accidentally bit down a bit. She immediately released and was mortified she may have hurt me

Yea. I’ve been tempted to this many times over the years. I’ve always had one dog at a time because that works for me, but I know they’ve suffered from lack of companionship when I’m not around. Getting a buddy would likely make my dog’s life better.

In particular my last dog never really adjusted to our family. Way too high energy level, way more need for attention than we were able to give. I specifically considered getting him a buddy but couldn’t risk one buddy’s life as the last ditch effort to save another. We did end up having to rehome that dog but at least didn’t affect another

Pit bull breeds are commonly available as rescues and they tend to become very attached to their family, very affectionate. They can be extremely smart and loyal. Also they look cool, somewhat distinct from the everyday golden retriever ilk. I trust my pitbull with my kids more than any other dog I’ve owned.

Personally I find them the right size: big enough to play rough or to cuddle without worrying about squishing them, small enough to be easy to feed and clean up after

They also seem like a great physical level for family life. They can have intense play but endurance is not their strong point. It’s not like they need to run all day

Nope. Just small. There is no single threshold that fits everyone: it varies by age, weight, gender

FOMO. In addition to the below, AI is a huge bubble and the only way to win is to have the biggest and the most datacenters. So companies are in a rush to grow the fastest.

When the bubble pops, each hopes to remain on top, dominating a new industry and reaping untold wealth. However most of those companies will lose. Most of those datacenters will shut down. It will be “dead malls” all over again. It will be society impacted the losses of business excess again

Meanwhile a huge part of the problems they cause is we are way behind in infrastructure spending. We already weren’t able to get sufficient power everywhere needed. We already couldn’t easily support new power generation or large power users. Now we’re suddenly tripling projected power growth?

And infrastructure spending from the 2022 bill was mostly cancelled in the current political chaos. And we’re still not talking about being so far behind on infrastructure spending. We don’t seem to care that infrastructure in good repair would be much more resilient to sudden needs like this, much more able to support innovation

The first month, yes. In general that is not healthy to aim for. In general extreme programs are not healthy and not sustainable

At one point i used weight watchers to successfully lose a lot of weight - I lost 109 pounds over a couple years as planning for being better able to care for kids. This is a regular program, very much not extreme. However a key part of their program was weekly weigh-ins.

Their recommended intake varies by age, size and gender: I think I started at 2100 calories/day and was down to 1800 as I was reaching my goal. Meanwhile my ex’s target was 1200 calories/day

The programs goal was to lose about 2 pounds/week and focus on sustainable life changes - keeps you healthy with regular weight loss. However everyone had much bigger losses the first couple of weeks. I’m sure I lost more than 20 pounds my first month on the program, but it was water weight, not repeatable. Certainly not a healthy goal

As a bigger guy with much higher volume of blood than most of you, no way would I drive after four beers, plus I think that’s wrong

A more interesting question is when he learns he has a place in history as the most hated, corrupt, self-destructive President ever, is he enough of a narcissist toonly care that he has a place in history?

I find that theory fascinating, as well as the one where it would have to be carbon based like us because chemistry. (Silicon a distant second on supporting chemistry that a life form might need)

Then intelligent life would need to be land based because you can’t easily do things requiring heat without an oxygen atmosphere and something to burn (an octopus or porpoise might be intelligent but that’s a dead end without fire)

To be space faring, your planet couldn’t have much more gravity than earth, else chemical rockets wouldn’t work

At what point is it usefully generalizing on what any life form would need vs where are preconceptions limiting your thinking?

Don’t forget fires as a hazard. When you’re underground, there are fewer windows to jump out of

Or mold/air quality. When you’re underground there are fewer windows to open

Plus more people would be S.A.D. There you’re underground there are fewer windows to let sun in

Maybe. The point of vertical biracial panels is less need for batteries, or counterbalance generation. When you look at the system as a whole, it may be simpler and cheaper over everyone installing panels with a strong peak in the afternoon when no one is using it

I like that different pronunciations and spellings are a history of integrating different languages and cultures. Especially now with all the hatred, spite and racism, at least I get to be amused that the language they claim as their own has a fundamental “diversity, equity and inclusion “

And no the Brit’s can’t claim to be the mother language - maybe they were the melting pot that spawned its birth, but as long as their fanny’s are on the wrong side …

(As someone who has historically been too sheltered so thought some societal issues were over dramatized, nothing could make me so pro “diversity, equity, and inclusion” like today’s US politics.)

I always thought the celestial bodies thing was just another case of proper nouns. Jupiter is always capitalized because it’s a proper name.

But “the Moon” can be either. “the Moon” is the proper name of Earths natural satellite so should be capitalized, but “the moon” is a description of any planetary body’s natural satellite so should NOT be

Similar for “the Sun”. “the Sun” is the proper name of Earths star, but “the sun” is any solar system’s star. I like that in so much science fiction they’ve figured this out and use a distinct proper name, “Sol”

Removing the tax on tipped workers was also helpful for some working-class people.

I’m much more cynical about this. Tipping has always been the most acceptable kind of tax fraud, that we all willingly participate in. I’m sure it’s changing as credit cards dominate, but tips paid in cash leave no record trail, no evidence that they ever existed. Why would wait staff be diligent about reporting it? At the same time, it’s small potatoes to the IRS, hardly worth trying to enforce. Why even bother?

they rescheduled marijuana

Half-assed it. How do you schedule the drug differently when it’s “medical” vs recreational? I don’t partake so it doesn’t affect me either way, but a lot of people like it for anxiety and to help calm the mind to sleep.

How is it that a person in Massachusetts trying to calm their anxiety is using “drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”, but a person in Florida using it exactly the same is using “ as drugs with a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.”?