Ding ding ding

The same is done with commercial property too. Holding out (or more correctly, withholding a property entirely) vacant for X months is more profitable overall as it keeps the supply low for office/light industrial space, driving the same demand to fewer units until ✨ a newly renovated unit ✨ is available on the market.

Until X months inoccupancy exceeds the profit of Y units generating Z extracted profit each, they come out ahead. And not even ‘we covered the mortgage and local tax’ ahead of break even, but the potential earnings if all were listed and rented.

They literally make more money keeping housing vacant. And that needs to change.

I’ve had decent luck with CL in the past for rentals, but understand that it’s generally: an illegal listing (eg no windows or the like for fire egress), sex traffickers targeting desperate women, or scammers - and you need to be able to jump on the legit leads ASAP.

But yes as a renter, sifting through Craigslist was vastly preferable to paying whatever some private equity firm decided “market rates” are (we are the market, teehee 🤭) for a hovel in a 1+5 complex, or dealing with the myriad of cutouts that paywall listings or communications like the OP.

Yes. For a non space-tier power. Their utility for space/LEO comms are valuable, but peripheral. Never going fully high tech, keeps the legacy systems in use and in current practice. Whereas a power like the US doesn’t do shit without a LINK net established and maintained, because we’ve forgotten/are unwilling to use the old methods.

It’s the Ukraine-Russo problem in the Black Sea, but applied to space. Denial is easier than presence, and even easier than dominance. If you can’t compete, why let them use it they way they want, or at all?

Grew up in SoCal, been back many times to visit family over the years, I don’t see why anyone moves there who isn’t aspiring artist of some kind - and even then… good luck!

High cost of food and supplies, excessive housing costs, droughts, wildfires, car-centric everything yet questionable civic planning, smog haze basically daily, termites eat your house every few years, and the sprawl… Jesus. Knew an old hat Boeing engineer who built his dream home way outside the city, and over the decades his commute went from 45 mins to three hours. Before he took early retirement he found a carpool buddy to trade off days driving so at least one of them got to use the time effectively.

But hey! It’s right by the ocean, and the weather is perfect - if you love cloudless sunshine and hate season.

This is so mind bogglingly insidious to actually roll out because Delta is a regional hub monopoly and major common carrier nationwide, they very well could be the market setters for this kind of AI-price scalping. Like, we’re just going to throw out the concept of serving ‘a market segment’ and trying to land on a certain price:offering ratio to capture market share via demand curve plotting, inherently leaving space both at the fringes and center for competition.

Now there is no competition. How does American or United price compare on routes or seat category, when there is no public price, but a personalized formula to maximize value extraction from each person? It’d be like trying to price compare at a close-envelope auction - you can’t.

There already is a lot of opacity in the buying process like phased seat releases creating artificial scarcity, but this is next level. I can absolutely see Delta holding back seats instead of selling them to ‘low value’ individuals who have very elastic demand, and releasing seats early/only for those who’ll pay the fees. Want peace of mind knowing you locked in your flight 6-9mo ahead? Pay up 🔫

And not just as a refresher/competency test! It should also be a chance to educate on updates like legislation that get passed, safety information and tips as research improves, and new traffic controls like double diamonds or roundabouts that weren’t in use when people learned to drive in their youth.

But at a minimum you should have to re-validate that you are a competent and safe driver every decade or so, agreed.

There’s a key difference between using a tool to crunch a known mathematical equation (because you cannot just say “find X” to the calculator) and having to punch in the right inputs - ergo requiring understanding - and simply asking the teacher for the answer.

Treat AI like the hermit oracle/shaman/divinator of yesteryear, and you’ll get the same results - idiots who don’t know how to think for themselves, and blindly accept what they are told.

Your Brain on ChatGPT

…LLM users displayed the weakest connectivity. Cognitive activity scaled down in relation to external tool use… LLM users also struggled to accurately quote their own work. While LLMs offer immediate convenience, our findings highlight potential cognitive costs. Over four months, LLM users consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels.

Outsourcing thinking from your brain to an AI literally makes you dumber, less confident in the output, and teaches you nothing.

Call me a Luddite or a hater, but if you’re one of the people who uses AI as a shortcut to actual thought or learning, I will judge you and disregard your output and opinions. Form your own basis of understanding and knowledge instead of a teaspoon deep summary that is frequently incorrect.