Viewing profile — asokoloski

I think they try to stay pretty explicitly neutral about advocating a particular density, it's just that they want people to be realistic about how much a particular kind of develo…

I had a similar reaction, after trying out Ansible at my last job. We ended up switching to fabric, which is all in Python. It was mostly good but had some awkward warts, which it …

For anyone who wants to know how they can help with this, personally: Citizens' Climate Lobby is a nonpartisan group that is trying to get a revenue-neutral carbon fee and dividend…

Seconded! Also, the criticism in this article about lack of diversity doesn't apply very much to Worm (and its sequel, Ward). To give some examples -- one of the protagonists of Wa…

These stores have massive invisible subsidies in the form of tax breaks and infrastructure built to support them. That's a huge factor in how they're able to undercut local shops. …

One can look at it from another perspective -- when Walmart comes to town, typically they'll receive a tax break, which is an unfair advantage over a local grocery store. They'll a…

Oh, yeah. Prop 13 is like an order of magnitude worse than just taxing property + land vs a higher rate on land.

You're correct, but it's a completely different incentive. If you hold out and everyone around you improves their property, your taxes go up almost as much anyway! It punishes spec…

Exactly. Taxing property encourages speculation and under-development. Showing an alternative, Pennsylvania has several towns and cities with a split-rate tax, which means that the…

This is why I think H.R. 763 (in the US) is a well-designed bill. It taxes everything, and has a built-in tariff to serve as incentive to other countries to implement similar carbo…

There is a third way. Suburban single-family zones full of cul-de-sacs are designed to be metaphorically put under glass and never changed. Building massive towers, on the other ha…

This is a common source of confusion, but carbohydrate intolerance is a symptom of diabetes, not a cause. Diabetics that go on Keto diets are still diabetic. If you give them a pie…

As an alternative, check out a whole-food plant based diet. Many foods in the standard American diet (junk food like chips and sweets, meat, dairy, eggs, oils, even fish) are gener…

One tactic that seems like it will be very effective is to call or write your congressperson to let them know that you support H.R. 763. The bill has support from economists and sc…

I suppose the question is not whether these people are a completely accurate representation of the country as a whole, but whether they will effectively serve as a dampening factor…

I posted a link elsewhere in the comments -- check out the Better Angels organization. I think they're really on to something. They teach people how to talk about politics in a way…

I've just recently discovered it, but I'm a big fan of the work that Better Angels are doing to reduce political polarization in our society and help us communicate peacefully: htt…

Yep. In fact, in order to make it more meat-like, they added a chemical called "heme" (it's what makes meat seem "bloody"). There's evidence that heme is a carcinogen. And of cours…

Stick with it! A vegan diet like you're eating has benefits far beyond weight loss -- you're less likely to get heart disease, cancer, and a whole bunch of other chronic diseases t…

I'm a climate activist, and I can't control how others act, but I'm in favor of, like you say, anything that works. The Citizens' Climate Lobby is focusing on a carbon fee and divi…

As far as I know, the most cost-effective method is very low tech--just find a good area and plant a variety of native trees.

To anyone reading who wants to know what they can personally do--in rough order of decreasing impact: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/ is doing really good work. They focus on a v…

This research simply says that the children of the age group studied are not hurt by screen time in one particular aspect -- mental health. To draw the conclusion that we should st…

We do require B12, but "found almost exclusively in animal foods" leaves out something important. B12 is produced by bacteria, and is found in natural, untreated water sources, as …

Hmm, you know what, I've been researching this a bit more and it seems like I was wrong. Apparently many cultures did boil seeds to produce oils for cooking or other purposes. I ex…