[spdrun]

This startup is building a remote configurable hearing diagnostic and hear aid system. The concept is to allow some elderly in the rural/remote community with limited mobility and unable to reach hear specialistics to have access to top hearing specialists that live elsewhere (IE urban areas)…

Two things:

(1) What’s to stop the companies from pushing laws that allow the specialists to be outsourced abroad or automated away? This sounds like a jobkiller long-term.

(2) People who need hearing aids should also have a checkup for other organic causes of hearing loss … a hearing aid could be hiding the real problem that’s damaging hearing long-term.

[spdrun]

Personally, I’ve met with my therapist over zoom and in person, and for me, in person is much better.

And if telemedicine becomes normalized, insurance companies will ram it down people’s craws in the name of “efficiency” and “cost saving”, even though it’s inferior for some people like yourself. Not all people even have a safe place to meet “virtually” with a therapist, away from nosy family, significant others, or roommates.

[spdrun]

We’re talking about tech companies in the US, right? Do you not expect some to be exploitative?

[spdrun]

Plenty of smart Ukrainian refugees willing to work for an H1-B …

[spdrun]

They’ll just start whittling away at the hours where remote access is available to them… they’ll have to come in or get fired.

[spdrun]

This isn’t 1979. There is no shortage of fuel. Russian oil is about 10% of US consumption. The price rise is due mainly to speculation. We shouldn’t be taking coercive steps to keep gas cheap. We should be thinking about how to rebuild our economy to not use fossil fuels for transport like it’s still 1960.

[spdrun]

Forcing people to WFH will just decimate electric/clean transit systems and encourage them to sprawl out, which will actually increase driving and unsustainable development long-term. Let fuel prices rise to $5/gal. Let people make their own more efficient choices. Maybe people wouldn’t be buying 15 mpg pickups to drive to the grocery store if gas were priced in accordance with its ecological effects.

Forcing people to work from home to keep gas prices low to enable the sprawl/consumption economy is illogical.

[spdrun]

Bicycles and trains both to move people longer distances and deliver stuff. Electric vehicles without range limits. Maybe Hyperloops for freight as well.

[spdrun]

Fourth solution which Israel is likely mediating.

Russia gets to keep Crimea, Donetsk, and Luzhansk. What’s left of Ukraine (most of it) agrees to never seek NATO membership and to neutrality. Ukraine is granted similar status to Switzerland and Norway (EEA/Schengen) with respect to the EU.

Putin gets to claim success in protecting the “Free People’s Republics”.

[spdrun]

I don’t know if it will succeed, but it’s a welcome change from the 4000+ lb EV behemoths that are being pushed by automakers these days. Electric vehicles aren’t a panacea unless the power to charge them comes from nuclear or renewables, so energy efficiency (weight reduction/aerodynamics) still matters. A 5000 lb electric SUV built like a masonry latrine will still be suboptimal from an environmental standpoint.

I don’t necessarily think that 3 wheelers are the future, but I’d love to see a sub-3000 lb electric car with roughly the geometry of an early 2000s Civic or Corolla. It’s definitely doable — an 85kW Tesla pack is 1000 lb, but an electric motor is much lighter than an infernal-combustion engine and transmission.

[spdrun]

[quote=Coronita]I know someone else that did this to their Lexus GX. Is there a reason to do this to a GX?[/quote]

GX is basically a shorter-wheelbase Land Cruiser — it’s a decently capable off-road vehicle.

[spdrun]

I don’t think it will crash, but it will normalize this summer, since people will be more comfortable listing their homes and having open houses if COVID is no longer a major issue. People will list to take advantage of higher prices.

[spdrun]

Tellers, what tellers? They’ll turn their business model into Internet banking, with physical locations only for personal service if you’re high net worth. Cash? Who needs cash? Who needs privacy? They’re “temporarily” closed a bunch of branches in the past year, and the closures are becoming permanent.

Pay $25 an hour by firing 75% of those who make less, and save on property taxes/rental fees to boot. Automation, baby.

I’ll stick with a bank that will reimburse my ATM fees and where I can walk to a physical location. I love how cash feels running through my fingers. The delicious feeling of privacy and lack of accountability.

[spdrun]

Wouldn’t that just shaft them as far as capital gains tax, since the home may not have been used as a primary residence?

Can’t the trust just use the home as a rental and collect income that’s split between the beneficiaries?

[spdrun]

Eviction moratorium was lifted by a Fed judge.

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