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bolverk

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by bolverk

  1. 4 hours ago, idigTexas said:

    I don't think you are part of the problem.  I may be biased, though, as I live in the same hood, also alone in a 3/2, though mine is squeezed into only 1000 sf (no 90-pound dog).  I pay more than you do, but only bought a year and a half ago, and would have had to look in a more remote burb if I had waited much longer.  One thing that is different in my case is that I currently work from home, so my commute is a walk of 30 feet.  I would rather be more central, but it isn't going to happen on my income, and I have nothing bad to say about South Austin. 

    Welcome to the hood, idig. In fairness, the ex and I bought the house in 2004 when Austin was still recovering from the dot.com bust, and I'm fortunate that she walked away without wanting anything to do with the house which I was able to keep through the divorce.

    • Like 1
  2. 29 minutes ago, PHLaggie said:

    that's great. The urban infill has a lot of opportunity for that sort of development. Even if it's not brownstone or truly rowhouse, perhaps it is the New Urbanist concepts... those are doing very well in the nicer parts of Dallas north of downtown.  I don't know the price points for those-- I'm sure they're pricey compared to the market, but obviously they are targeted toward a different audience...and may be due to all the in-migration to Texas cities from West and East Coast/Snow Belt areas, that demand is there and may be growing.

    New Urbanist with hidden parking garage, and a mix of uses is a nice, medium density infill. More should be encouraged.

    And any new train lines should have stations that are automatically zoned for Transit Oriented Development... high density, mixed use, fully leveraging that shiny new train line. Mockingbird Station north of downtown Dallas is one such area but more should have been built by now.  In Austin, the solitary train line should have more density built right next to its train stations, if at all possible.

    3

    One challenge we have in Texas is our over-reliance on property taxes to get shit funded, which makes the price of the "dirt" on which "improvements" are built outrageous. You should probably move this to the unpopular thread, but I think that an income tax to offset property taxes would greatly improve our situation.

    Right now, I live on 0.16 acres in a ticky-tacky, late-1970s subdivision,  and my lot price is appraised at $100,000, which is insane. Of course, most of the taxes go to the Austin school district. Unfortunately, about 1/3 of my school tax dollars leave the district to support "property poor" districts (aka the Robin Hood plan) around the state.

    At the same time, school district boundaries in Texas are rather arbitrary and don't align with actual "wealth". As an example, I grew up in a mid-sized town in the oil patch (4A) school, but the district boundaries didn't even reach with the city limits. Two other more rural 2A schools have the actual oil fields in their districts, so they receive all the benefits of free money flowing from the ground. The result is they can hire better teachers and offer subsidized housing (the school districts actually have constructed homes for teachers), which reinforces the flow of transfer students to property "rich" districts.

    The whole system is insane.

    It seems to me that a more equitable tax structure that was focused on spreading the wealth via income versus property ownership could alleviate some of our issues regarding rising home prices. 

    Edit: Or just have statewide property tax (which is unconstitutional in Texas) that is devoted strictly to education and is shared equitably based solely on enrollment counts.

    • Like 1
  3. 3 minutes ago, PHLaggie said:

    My house in Philly is 2400 sq ft; it's not small. I just don't have a huge backyard and I have no frontyard; I don't live in a highrise, and it didn't cost me a whole lot compared to houses in the suburbs; nicer suburbs here with "good" school districts command higher housing prices and higher real estate taxes. I guess it's a different dynamic in a 300+ year old city/metro area compared to a still-growing sunbelt area like Houston or Dallas.

    What I give up in "elbow room", I make up for a walkable commute (or a cheap and quick transit ride) and no hassles with buying/storing/maintaining a private car. Eventually I may move to an old-school suburb with transit access so that even though I would have a car I wouldn't need to use it much.  The predominant urban architecture of Philly is a rowhouse, which also saves on utility  bills and since mine is a new construction house it is well-sealed anyways.

     

    Within urban planning and architecture, there is the notion of the "missing middle", especially in Sun Belt cities which were fast-growing after WWII. From the 1950s to the present, there have only been two real models for housing: tract homes (whether modest or McMansion) or apartment complexes. More recently, we're developing high-rise condo or apartment towers. But there still remains an untapped demand for something in-between that I think a lot of us are actually seeking that would be similar to the brownstone/rowhouse model or even something a little more modest.

    • Like 1
  4. For those of us who are current Austin homeowners and would be happy to downsize to a more central location, there's an obvious dilemma. I live alone in a 3/2 house (1500 sf) in South Austin between West Gate and Brodie about midway between Davis and Wm Cannon. My mortgage, homeowners insurance, and property taxes currently cost me about $1250 per month (though the property taxes keep rising).

    There is absolutely zero "product" on the market that I could own to get a little closer to downtown and have any semblance of a backyard or any sort of outdoor space. As a matter of fact, in a lot of those old apartment complexes from the 1960s off Manchaca north of Ben White that have been fixed up and turned into condos, a one-bedroom would cost more than what I'm living in now. Hell, even a two-bedroom apartment in my neighborhood would cost more.

    As a rational person, I understand that where I live is an extremely inefficient use of space. But, also, as a rational person, why would I give this up? I have a very easy commute to my downtown workplace and have even taken to riding the bus to save on gas, get exercise, and preserve my sanity. It's awesome.

    Give me a tangible financial incentive to downsize and I'd be happy to take it (after my 12-yo, 90-pound mutt who actually uses the backyard passes).

  5. 1 minute ago, Brisketexan said:


    Make it $4...one of us can get the combo deal at Wendy’s.
    
    And that person will be me.

    Because Tahoe.

    You're on, suckah!

    Wait...Wendy's is really that cheap? Damn. Given inflation, that's almost as good as the old dollar Whopper days.

  6. You 100% support Mueller the same way that authoritarian governments support a fair trial - “You will get a fair trial, followed by a prompt hanging.”
     
    I guarantee that no matter what Mueller reveals, you’ll say “gosh, that Trump isn’t the most savory character, but that’s just not enough evidence.” The conclusion is already set in stone with you, you just won’t admit it. No matter what the evidence. Trump selling half the states to Putin for bars of gold, Trump on video thanking Putin for hacking into voting machines and changing 500k votes...whatever. Imagine the worst you can....and it won’t be enough for Tahoe.
     
    Anyone care to make a wager on that?
    I'll take that wager, but maybe for only a marginal amount (
    ) because, see, I'm a poor who has far less disposable income than you and maybe far more faith in my fellow man than they deserve.

    Besides, Tahoe is now on record as saying he'd prefer Pence. Maybe he thinks that closet case has a better chance of not being implicated in this shit storm of conspiracy, complicity, collusion, and corruption.

    In closing, I think the $2 would be a decent wager. It might buy a donut or two.
  7. One thing that stand out for me is a line that MIB had when talking to Delos-host for the 149th time, "Maybe humans weren't meant to live forever." (paraphrasing)

    Take that what it's worth, but it makes me think that MIB wouldn't voluntarily be in on a scheme to clone of himself.

  8. I started taking the MetroRapid buses about 6 months ago and fucking love it. No more worries about traffic. I can relax and surf Shirley; I'm walking a little more (exercise, yo!); and, occasionally, I get a chance to spot a particularly attractive coed. Of course, I work downtown so that helps a lot.

    Mass transit, whatever the form, is going to have to be a major part of the solution. Sure, we can build more roads, but we can't build them fast enough. And, with more limited funding today (relative to the past), we can't build as many as we used to.

    • Like 2
  9. Sorry for the thread derail, but this seems pertinent:

    'Memory transplant' achieved in snails

    Quote

    Memory transfer has been at the heart of science fiction for decades, but it's becoming more like science fact.

    A team successfully transplanted memories by transferring a form of genetic information called RNA from one snail into another.

    The snails were trained to develop a defensive reaction.

    When the RNA was inserted into snails that had not undergone this process, they behaved just as if they had been sensitised.

    ...

    Traditionally, long-term memories were thought to be stored at the brain's synapses, the junctions between nerve cells. Each neuron has several thousand synapses.

    But Prof Glanzman said: "If memories were stored at synapses, there is no way our experiment would have worked."

    The UCLA professor of integrative biology holds a different view, believing that memories are stored in the nuclei of neurons. The paper might support hints from studies conducted decades ago that RNA was involved in memory.

    The type of RNA relevant to these findings is believed to regulate a variety functions in the cell involved with the development and disease.

    The researchers said that the cells and molecular processes in the marine snails are similar to those in humans, despite the fact that the snail has about 20,000 neurons in its central nervous system and humans are thought to have about 100 billion.

     

  10. 3 minutes ago, Horn_Spanker said:

    So has everything we've seen so far been before Bernard was found washed up on the beach?  I was starting to think there are two Bernards?

    That's my understanding. Check Anton's post above for someone's best guess at a timeline.

  11. 1 hour ago, wild_turkey said:

    I’m a bit lost on that part. Are y’all saying that Bernard visited and destroyed that lab on his own? That was triggered by his realization he was a host?

    I was thinking it was the same lab we saw him visit with Charlotte earlier in the season. They entered through a different entrance (elevator in the ground vs the cave), but I guess what got me was the syringe of cortical fluid conveniently laying on the counter. I figured that was the syringe Bernard previously used on himself, unless we are to believe there are multiple labs with a similar appearance and that cortical fluid syringes are a common tool in the lab.

    That was just a total guess on my part as it's the only timeline that I figure makes sense.

  12. 1 minute ago, oSuJeff97 said:

    Yeah I think that looks right.

    Also in between 4 and 5 would be Stubbs and MIB's daughter being "saved" by Ghost Nation;  MIB's daughter runs away and then they just let Stubbs go.

    Right.

    Of course, there are also the Maeve and MIB storylines happening simultaneously.

  13. 46 minutes ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

    The last time he visited was right before he enters the park the last time. Supposedly confirmed by looking at dates on screens. So the latest version of Delhost had only been in there 14 days when they find him.

    Yeah, I want to make sure I've got the timeline right here:

    1. MIB leaves batshit daddy Deloss in his cage.
    2. Bernard becomes self-aware and presumably wrecks shop in that lab (as seen last night).
    3. Ford makes Bernard shoot himself in the head.
    4. Host uprising and guest massacre.
    5. Bernard hauls ass with Hale (wait, where the fuck is Hale now?) and gets captured by the Confederados.
    6. Dolores double-crosses the Cconfederados and Bernard escapes only to be later recaptured.
    7. Bernard and Elsie rediscover the lab with daddy Deloss, finally terminating his tortured soul.
    8.  ?
    9. The cavalry arrives, discovers drowned hosts, starts exterminating survivors, and finds Benard.

    Does that all sound about right?

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