101–110 of 477 posts
People really overestimate how resilient infrastructure is to natural disasters, and such disasters will become more common as the earth warms.
Wow, I lived in Canada for almost 6 years, and never knew that Canada spends so little on roads.
Seattle already hit the third-rainiest November in history and we're two weeks in. https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/11/15/atmospheri...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Castanet is gloriously imperfect. I hope they never change and never fade away. It's exactly what it looks like: a hodge-podged effort by some local folks with little experience and ability among them, besides an earnest desire to report local news with a local perspective, that has stood the test of time (it launched in 2000!).
So, an outsider's perspective: 1. It loads super quick 2. The list of articles is clear and easy to scan 3. There aren't a shit ton of adverts 4. There are no bloody popups, cookie notices, donate banners, etc. 5. The entire page doesn't load, me start reading then suddenly completely greyed out with an overlay because of badly implemented 4 6. No auto-playing videos that are impossible to find to stop If this is 90s…
For just a bit of context/anecdata, I'm talking to my brother who lives in Vancouver and he wasn't even aware this was a problem. The road closure[0] on hwy 1 near Abbotsford/Chilliwack is a good one hour drive away from Vancouver core[1]. So while it sounds noteworthy for an entire city be technically flooded in, unless you were driving to the boonies, you're probably not actually impacted in any meaningful way. He…
People really overestimate how resilient infrastructure is to natural disasters, and such disasters will become more common as the earth warms.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That garmin is a cool toy, but pricey ($400 for the device plus $50/mo for unlimited text service). What does your family member do that they have one? It seems like the kind of thing a park ranger would have, or that someone might rent before going on a long hike in a remote area.
They're super common now for backcountry hikers and trail runners. The plans start at $15 a month on a per-month plan (no lock in). There has been speculation that Apple would build this into their phones, which IMHO would be a killer feature. Imagine having an emergency feature that could be used anywhere on earth. How much would you pay per text? $5 per text message would be an absolute bargain in many of these rem…
I'm not sure how... the InReach (and similar products) are a Iridium satellite communication system that requires a bit more heft in the signal (up and down).
When you look at the iridium phones ( https://www.iridium.com/product-type/satellite-phones/ ) those aren't small things (look at the antennas).
Then you've got:
> Enhanced Battery Life Up to (4) hours of talk time, (30) hours of standby
for a non-smart phone.
I'm not sure how Apple would be able to incorporate a "no cell phone tower in sight" system... without also packing on the rest of the iridium system and making a much more bulky device.
Railways to the east are also washed out. [1] And the farm country in the cities of Abbotsford and Chilliwack to the east of Vancouver, which supplies most of the local dairy & poultry, is now either completely flooded or cut off. [2] [1] https://www.radionl.com/2021/11/15/cn-cp-trains-out-of-servi... [2] https://www.abbynews.com/news/immediate-evacuation-order-due...
One of my family members has been stuck just east of Hope, British Columbia[1] for almost two days now. There is currently no cell service, but luckily they have a Garmin inReach so we can communicate via its SMS feature. For anybody with friends/family in the area, the BC subreddit megathread[2] on this is a good starting place to get information on evacuations, power outage status, road closures, official relevant…
That garmin is a cool toy, but pricey ($400 for the device plus $50/mo for unlimited text service). What does your family member do that they have one? It seems like the kind of thing a park ranger would have, or that someone might rent before going on a long hike in a remote area.
For just a bit of context/anecdata, I'm talking to my brother who lives in Vancouver and he wasn't even aware this was a problem. The road closure[0] on hwy 1 near Abbotsford/Chilliwack is a good one hour drive away from Vancouver core[1]. So while it sounds noteworthy for an entire city be technically flooded in, unless you were driving to the boonies, you're probably not actually impacted in any meaningful way. He…