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Ghost of LL

Burnt Ends
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Posts posted by Ghost of LL

  1. On 3/26/2024 at 2:44 PM, CooterBrown said:

    Seems like it would be more cost effective to just go with the "ultimate" layout in the bottom image while you're building everything else.  So, we won't do that.

     

    I don't exactly know, but I would strongly suspect that the decision on that is with the FAA.  

    This shit isn't being built primarily with city money.  Most of the money comes from the FAA.  And the FAA is notoriously conservative with its growth projections.

  2. 4 minutes ago, Dahobbs said:

    The Soviets had like 100,000 troops in Afghanistan, being supplied far for home. In Ukraine, Russia is fighting right next door to its border and supply lines. And it has engaged many times that number of troops, with casualties estimates being in the hundreds of thousands. These are not comparable wars. 

    Afghanistan bordered the Soviet Union.

  3. 50 minutes ago, TexasEd said:

    Dems should start negotiating with the moderate wing of Republican party to remove Johnson and replace him with a Republican Moderate, hell, they only need <5 Republicans to pull it off.

    No--fuck that.  It's not the minority party's job to help the majority party govern.

    Johnson is a perfect speaker for the Democrats to campaign against.  He's heinous and despicable, but he's also incompetent.  Apart from somehow getting Hakeem Jeffries as speaker, Johnson is the best the Democrats can do.

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  4. Just now, shadow_operative2.0 said:

    Aright, nothing we can do about it now. Score a fucking run. 

    I'm sorry--are you under the impression that I'm in the fucking dugout?  There was never anything any of us could do about it.

    But we can still talk about the umpires fucking up an obvious fucking call for five minutes.

  5. 24 minutes ago, bolverk said:

    These are the credentials of a Texas Supreme Court Justice.

    • Devine graduated in 1980 with a degree in Business Administration and Marketing from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. He then joined Shell Oil in Houston, Texas and studied law at the South Texas College of Law in Downtown Houston. After earning his Juris Doctor degree in 1986, he went to work for Brown and Root.[3]
    • Devine was an anti-abortion activist in the 1980s.[1] At a June 2012 rally, Devine said he had been arrested 37 times for protesting at abortion clinics.[1]
    • In 2004, Devine was sued for his refusal to take down a painting of The Ten Commandments on display in his Harris County courtroom. The case drew national attention.[1]
    • Devine and his wife continued a high-risk pregnancy for their seventh child even though the pregnancy was likely to cause the death of both the mother and the child, according to Devine. His wife survived the pregnancy but the child died an hour after birth.[1]

    On the upside, he rarely shows up for oral arguments, and SCOTX decisions frequently have the notation "Devine, J., did not participate in the decision."

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  6. 9 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

    Beautiful face with a lean, athletic build, firm rack, and playful buttocks.  And you'd fuck her?  What a bold stance, esquire.  

    Well, I know that I'm known for my controversial positions around here.  So what's the harm in throwing down another hot take?

  7. I will never understand this presumption that men have that women should be expected to behave "well" to other women.  Men can be assholes to other men; why should we not expect the same of women?

    And don't underestimate the role of the general human presumption that "what's worked for me must be what's good for you."  We see it in everything from the trivial (I had a good meal at this restaurant, so you definitely need to go there) to the meaningful (I breastfed, therefore you should breastfeed).  At its root, it reflects a basic lack of empathy and appreciation for the fact that people facing different circumstances may have different needs.  And it's just a weird thing that we expect women to have more empathy than we expect from men.

    TL;DR: Both men and women suck.

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  8. 51 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

    I didnt suggest for the customer to hire each element separately; they only need to interface with a single agent or a tour operator. But the agents and operators themselves cobble up the full package from the same commoditized assets. They have canned packages but will accommodate any modifications so long as youre on a private tour. 

    Point being that almost no aspect of the trip has exclusivity , so that the customer dont have to scrutinize too much over whether they pick Operator A vs Operator B, because of some unique amenity or experience they might miss out on.

    Of course, certain high end lodges like the Four Seasons Serengeti are capacity limited and may only hold their own safaris…but inside the park your vehicle is literally next to theirs seeing the same animal.

    Hope that makes sense to people new to safaris.  My experience was incredible and im looking forward to going again when children are of age (prob 7 minimum)

     

    37 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

    Small addendum on the viewing. When i was researching tours lots of people put emphasis on timing it to the big migrations. 

    i saw it, and it was cool, but if i didnt it was still cool because the rest of what you get to see is so spectacular. Its all relative and relative to the best zoos in the world theres obviously no comparison. 

    the only thing i regret not seeing is a rhino up close. Was told theyre super rare and only spotted 2 way the fuck far away through binoculars. 
     

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    That's all correct, and thank you for clarifying.

    There are some differences on the vehicles that may be worth pointing out, though much of the variation is between parks and not between operators.  In the Maasai Mara (Kenya), the vehicles are all open sided.  In the Serengeti (Tanzania), there weren't any open-sided vehicles that I saw.  They are all Toyota Land Cruisers that have been modified with a pop-top that allows you to stand up and photograph.

    Now, among the operators, there are some differences among the vehicles.  The Four Seasons operates its own vehicles that are kitted out with refrigerators and charging stations.  I mean, not that you have a good cell signal.  But it's nice to be able to charge your phone for the camera functionality.  And having a refrigerator in the truck is obviously a nice thing.

    But your underlying point is right--the Four Seasons truck is going to be right next to any other operator looking at the same leopard.

     

     

    That is a really great shot of the cheetah.  We didn't get to see one of those.  But we did see a rhino in the Maasai Mara. 

    And then when we went down to Victoria Falls, there is a small preserve along the Zambezi with a small herd of rhinos.  And that's wild.  Those rhinos are guarded 24/7 by armed rangers.  I mean--those rangers are standing right there with AK-47s within thirty yards of the rhinos.  And the rhinos are just chilling.  It's the only place along any game drive where we got out of the truck to view an animal.  The rangers don't let the vehicles get very close to the rhinos, so you get out and walk up to them.  And you can get . . . well, probably a lot closer than you really should get to something as big and heavily armored as a rhino.  That was pretty damned cool.

  9. 6 hours ago, 52-80 said:

    safaribookings.com is booking engine for basically all operators, and will have the prices listed there.

    you dont have much of a choice in the experience of disneyland or not.  consider that a safari is a guide driving you around large parks, no operator has exclusive routes or knowledge or land or animal access.  the drivers have CB radios and they share info with eachother so if theres a spectacular viewing (like a lion feed) and there are other jeeps nearly its inevitable they will converge in the same spot.  but no, its never like a bukakke circle.

    when picking a safari package, youre really just picking the driver.  the exact itinerary, the quality and style of lodging (traditional hotel, treehouse hotel, in-park luxury lodge), the food (prepared by hotel or accompanying cook), are all dictated by your schedule and budget, and are common across all operators.  if you want to see parks A, B,C in succession and paying midprice accomodation and another party does the same with another operator... youre likely to see their truck next to yours at the hotel each night.

    Two caveats with that:

    1) If you see the Great Migration crossing the Mara River, then you're going to have a line of vehicles.  That is the prime wildlife spectacle in all of Africa--seeing the wildebeest trying to get across that river and dodging the dozens of crocodiles.  

    But when we went (June) the Great Migration was still down in the Serengeti.  So up at the Maasai Mara, things were still a little low-key.  The most vehicles we saw grouped around one thing was when we spotted a leopard.  Leopards are fucking hard to spot.  So when you spy one in a tree, you're going to have some vehicular traffic around it.  But even then, there were only four trucks (including our own) around the tree with the leopard in it.

    Alarmingly, there was also a leopard in the tall grass on the ground that we never fucking saw.  That was unnerving.

    2) The situation you describe with hiring drivers and lodges separately is consistent with your mid-range lodges.  But for your high-end lodges like @millhouse is talking about (e.g., the Angama properties), the driver is directly employed by the lodge and is assigned to you when you arrive.  The game drives are all included in the price at the Angama properties (and other high-end lodges), and the drivers will just take you out whenever you want to go.

    So that's a bit of a different experience than what you're describing.  And if you want to go that high-end route, you can cut out the travel agent entirely.  Because Angama will arrange all of your internal flights and everything if you want them to.  

  10. 11 hours ago, DixonHur said:

    I grew up when the on ramps on Central were like 10 ft long, so I understand the sentiment.

    No shit.  If you grew up in central Dallas in the early 90s as I did, this freeway is luxurious. 

    I'm not going to hear any complaints about that road from someone who didn't have to go 0 to 70 in the span of 70 yards, close your eyes, and pray there wasn't someone in the right lane preventing you from merging in before the entrance lane ended in a concrete barrier.  It was like automotive Russian roulette.

    That was livin', my friends.

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  11. On 3/26/2024 at 9:37 PM, Mitch Cumsteen said:

    It was better than I thought it was going to be, which was awful. So it’s not terrible but I thought they dropped the ball at the end in the climactic fight. You go through the whole movie building up to it and then it was almost an afterthought. 

    That was Mrs.LL's complaint.  She wanted more busting for her Ghostbusters dollar.

    I disagree.  I was in it for the nostalgia.  The merchandising call-back was fantastic.  And then you had Ackroyd and Murray basically loving every minute they were on camera.  That was great fun.  Throw in the Ghostbusters Labs, Inc., and I was down with all the shit leading up to the (admittedly very short) climactic battle.

  12. On 7/20/2023 at 6:01 PM, Gale Snoats said:

    Gonna be in Boston for one night with my daughter on our way to Martha’s Vineyard. Get in about noon Saturday and leave the next morning. Any recs for great hotel with good area to walking around and good restaurants close by? Only one night so not so worried about cost if we can find a memorable place. Appreciate Hate’s recs above but it’s been a few years since he posted so wanted to check. Thanks

    Ps would love to to see the Sox (they play at 4 sat) but daughters not a huge baseball fan and my boy would be pissed if I did that w/o him.

    I have a similar deal this Summer.  The boy has a weeklong program at BU, so I need to fly up to pick him up on Saturday.  They get released around 1:00.  

    My current plan is to have him Uber over to the hotel.  I just got a room at the Hilton at Logan, because we have an early flight Sunday morning.  And then the Red Sox have a 4:00 game.  Then go over to Legal's for dinner.  I know.  It's a chain.  But I've always had good experiences there.  And I can get a lobster and the boy can get a steak--the variety of the menu is a bit of a selling point.

    @Captain Ron--I'm definitely open to suggestions (particularly on the restaurant point).  And any updates for 2024 are greatly appreciated.

  13. I just saw a still of that dashcam video on Twitter without looking at the headline or anything.  And it's absolutely amazing to me how I could tell in an instant that the wreck was on North Central Expressway.  

    Seriously--is there any more distinctive highway in America (speaking here of the highway itself and not any surrounding buildings/landmarks)?

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