It was hard to get some real numbers of refineries but maybe I’m just not using good search terminology since I’m on my phone.

This paper has an appendix on page 18 that talks real numbers. https://researchcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2021-Refinery-Report-Final.pdf

In 2018 the total output value of the refineries in WA state was 19 billion USD. In 2019 it dropped to 18 billion. I assume price fluctuations in the market.

Per https://usafacts.org/answers/what-is-the-gross-domestic-product-gdp/state/washington-state/ in 2018 the GDP of WA was 562 billion.

That makes the WA refineries output about 3.4% of WAs GDP in 2018. It’s not nothing but it also isn’t really that much. Considering the boom in the technology sector it’s probably much less of the GDP these days.

I’m originally from Alberta and I do think Canada should have it’s own refineries but don’t try to press that WAs economy is make it or break it because of these refineries.

As someone who lives in WA state, people have been trying to get income tax implemented here for a while now, but it’s against the state constitution. It has nothing to do with refineries.

People want income tax here because the current sales tax system misproportions tax on only what people spend. This means lower income earners foot more of the tax bill, as they spent most / all of their income just to live. Higher income earners might spend more in general but they also invest that extra income, which eventually will have capital gains tax (but only on the gains) but will never be hit by sales tax until it’s spent.

Anyway, 99%+ of people can’t consistently tell the difference between a 160kbps OGG and lossless, because of limitations in either their equipment, training, ears, or a combination thereof. This has been blind tested many times and the audiophiles that ‘swear they can tell’ are always proven wrong, they then usually blame the equipment or test. There’s tests you can run yourself too, eg here: https://abx.digitalfeed.net/list.html

Ooohhh I did that test when I got a new speaker / amp setup at my PC and as a musician I thought “I got this”. Plus I was trying to decide if Tidal was worth upgrading to from Spotify.

I did slightly better than average. Like just slightly. I might have the results somewhere.

I ended up doing Tidal’s free trial. I couldn’t tell a difference. Went back to Spotify. (though now my group of people are on an Apple Music family plan).

I mean I’m sure it was a mix. There are a lot of stories out there about how if you didn’t stay on top of your outsourced factory they would look everywhere to cut corners to save a few extra cents here and there.

You (used to?) have to constantly check production quality and make sure nothing was changed out for a low cost part or lower cost source material. Otherwise your product quality falls off and you’re losing money on warranties and repairs and losing customer goodwill.

The other thing that happened is these factories, once they had your design, would make the same thing with lower cost parts / materials as a knockoff and sell it unbranded, as they don’t care about US or European IP Laws. Word might get around that “hey you can get the same brand X product as brand Y or from Aliexpress and save 50%”. Now they’re undercutting you, and you lose customer goodwill because people think your product is overpriced. Then the knockoff fails and they are happy they never bought your product in the first place because they think yours would have failed too. Through word of mouth people say “oh that broke after a month” not realizing the offbrand was made with shoddy materials, less screws, cheaper batteries, an inferior screen, literally anything they can do to save money.

Where’s the pusbback beyond talk?

https://operationtotalrecall.ca/

Someone made a list of all the MLAs who voted in favor of forcing the teachers back. Some are in various processes like they are at the Gathering Signatures point for Demetrios Nicolaides.

An article on it here:

https://calgaryherald.com/news/politics/recall-efforts-targeting-ucp-mlas-momentum-notwithstanding-clause

In fact Elections Alberta asked for additional funding and the UCP blocked it.

https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/elections-alberta-urges-government-to-reconsider-13-5-million-funding-request-for-recall-petitions-and-citizen-initiatives

Firefox w/ uBlock Origin is still fine.

Had a girlfriend from decades ago where her dad started a family owned winery in the Okanagan (though they eventually sold to a larger company, I guess none of the kids wanted to take over?). They would sometimes age and bottle grapes from other vineyards (who didn’t have their own equipment) for that vineyard to then sell.

For all I know there are companies that buy grapes off the market, pay a winery to process, age, and bottle them, and then sell it under a brand name that’s basically just outsourcing all the work so they could exist in a small office somewhere.

Another example on a brewery tour at Big Rock brewing in Calgary, they would bottle for other companies sometimes. At the time our tour guide pointed out a bottling line that was being used for Smirnoff Ice iirc. Or maybe it was Mike’s Hard Lemonade? One of those.

Yeah I work at MSFT on a completely different team.

Teams recently asked if I wanted this and I was like… “sure!”

Now when I’m in the office and people check my status it tells people my desk location and when I’m WFH or elsewhere it tells people I’m not in the building. I don’t get people asking “hey are you in today?”

A lot of people in this thread are taking the headline literally like it’s “are you online or away?”. No. This is more of "are you at your desk in the office or working from a different building or from outside the facilities.

spice satellites

The spice must flow.

Netflix charges me, a single guy, for 4 simultaneous streams if I want 4k. So I shared with my parents.

Then they had the audacity to stop people from password sharing or to charge even more if you want to share. I set up an automatic email forward so my parents get every sign in related email.

Oh yeah that was when they announced you’d get copilot credits or whatever as part of Office 365 and bumped up the price.

This is what my friend and I do now.

Proxmox on bare metal.

Currently messing around with Talos Linux in a VM.

Republicans will promise them back in the form of tax cuts.

You forgot this part: “… For the rich”

VAC bans are pretty nasty iirc.

Your account gets flagged for cheating and you can’t play on any official Valve servers for that particular game ever again.

Also if you family share the owner of the game gets the ban (don’t share with people you don’t trust).

Edit: oops it’s only for the game you were found cheating on.

For Microsoft 365 / Office 365.

This guy did just that:

https://youtu.be/qy_9w_c2ub0

Thought it was a really cool idea / project. Essentially a modified Z Flip.

This was an interesting video / project I quite enjoyed.

https://youtu.be/qy_9w_c2ub0

Watched a guy using an air horn on his bike riding around a European city using it on people walking in the bike lanes. So many people had no idea they were in a dedicated bike lane. Either blocking it or walking in it or crossing over it right in front of him.

Didn’t tidal like about their super high quality tier not actually being as good as they said it was?

Talking with cyclists it’s actually the opposite. It works in the sense that if someone is turning right they will get into the right lane and essentially self block a bicycle from pulling past them on the right side (if a cyclist did that they have a high likelyhood of getting hit as they are pulling into the cars blind spot… Then traffic starts moving and the right turning car just goes and suddenly there could be a bike there).