NBA/sports fans will get this

My first post in GD Primaries


Saw someone wearing one of these in the gym this morning. I complemented him on it.





https://bobcat.grahamdigital.com/image/upload/view?width=1280&height=720&method=crop&url=

Why America's New Apartment Buildings All Look the Same

The part about parking requirements and the "Texas doughnut" gave me a chuckle.
I didn't get that they covered the lack of difference in design/aesthetics. Still a pretty good read.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-02-13/why-america-s-new-apartment-buildings-all-look-the-same

Cheap stick framing has led to a proliferation of blocky, forgettable mid-rises—and more than a few construction fires.



In the U.S., stick framing appears to have become the default construction method for apartment complexes as well. The big reason is that it costs much less—I heard estimates from 20 percent to 40 percent less—than building with concrete, steel, or masonry. Those industries have sponsored several studies disputing the gap, but most builders clearly think it exists.

They can also run to the nearest big-box store to find workers. Stick construction allows builders to use cheaper casual labor rather than often-unionized skilled tradespeople. And it makes life easier for electricians, plumbers, and the like because it leaves open spaces through which wires, pipes, and ducts can run. Still, there’s a reason why stick wasn’t the default for big apartment buildings until recently, and why these buildings are limited in height: Sticks burn.



Yes, the result can be a little repetitive, but repetition has been characteristic of every big new urban or suburban housing trend in the U.S. over the past century or two. There’s lots to like about stumpy buildings that provide new housing in places where it’s sorely needed and enliven neighborhoods in the process. A four-story Texas doughnut can get 50 or 60 apartments onto an acre of land, while the most aggressively engineered West Coast stick-and-concrete hybrid (two-story podiums are allowed now, along with other variations) can get almost 200. That’s not far from the range that the renowned urbanist Jane Jacobs deemed optimal for vital street life.


There’s also lots to like about building with wood, which, as long as the trees are replanted and allowed to grow to maturity, is now generally accounted to be a net consumer of carbon dioxide. Wood’s green credentials have helped spur a recent worldwide push for more construction with “mass timber”—softwood lumber glued together and compressed into thick beams, columns, and panels. The tallest such structure completed so far is an 18-story dormitory at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver. Oregon has already changed its code to allow mass timber buildings of that scale, and the 2021 IBC is set to do the same.

My daughter got accepted to HIGH SCHOOL!

Yes, the idea of applying to high school seems absurd to me ...BUT ya gotta understand.

It's a really good program. Public schools. No cost other than the normals.
Every kid has a laptop from grade 6-12 thanks to meals tax (mostly paid from people outside the county).


From hair/nails to engineering (same school) to humanities to Arts to Medicine Sciences to IT etc.
A kid can get an Associates Degree before they leave high school at $950 per year.

Take a look at the programs available to the kids of a county with a population of about 307,000.
https://henricoschools.us/specialty-centers/


Henrico County is a bit odd. It wraps around the top of the city.
The west end used to be considered high end while the east end was farm country. Now the west end is third generation home owners and the east end is black middle class. Politically it flipped in 2008.

I moved to the city 25 years old from the boondocks of Tidewater and heard people rave about Henrico schools. I doubted it. They really don't score well in the published school evaluations. I have been nothing but impressed.

Thirty of the Worst Metal Band Promo Photos of All Time

Thirty of the Worst Metal Band Promo Photos of All Time

http://www.metalsucks.net/2017/02/10/thirty-of-the-worst-metal-band-promo-photos-of-all-time/

Any "Turds of Misery" fans here?

Talk radio this afternoon - a common theme about Joe Biden.

Mods - this is about talk radio and Biden in the general election not the primaries.




So I flipped over a few minutes after the drive time show came on after the "news" at the top of the 5:00 hour. I'm thinking this started about Bloomberg not running for POTUS.
The host said that he thought Joe Biden was a formidable opponent for Trump. He then started taking calls "What do YOU think about Biden as a candidate?"

First caller - fairly normal sounding guy who agreed Biden would be good but that Trump will still win in 2020.
Second caller - there's something "creepy" about Biden.
Third caller- what's with all these pictures of Biden with children? Will the media report on Biden's weird history with children?

At this point I'm thinking - is this really going where I think it is?

Fourth caller - goes on this long slow but calm rant about the "dark secret" "so called elitist types" have in their background. He added (the host let him keep going) that many of these people have been exposed and that more are about to be. He then specifically said that Biden has disturbing images and stories about him that will come out.

Fifth caller (good old boy) - AOC is "dumb as a post" and Biden has some strange things about him.

The host - Jeff Katz - is a typical talk radio hack who repeats the same things listeners have heard all day on this station but I was a bit surprised he fostered this line from callers. He even added after the third caller that "Yes there are a lot of really strange images of Biden 'out there'"

When I got home I googled Joe Biden pedophile. I didn't recognize any of the websites with stories about this. Hesitantly I clicked on images - pictures of Biden at official functions with children there. There's one with, I think, his daughter in a swimsuit.

This must be a thing in the RW world. This radio show clearly doesn't use scripted callers. I guess the callers just happened to be QAnon people or it's really that prevalent out there in their world.

Bill Murray on how art saved his life.

Hey, when did Genoa City move to Virginia?

Topic of much discussion in the breakroom.
We watch and joke on The Young and the Restless.

As you probably know Nikki is on trial for murder.

The pics below show what is first clearly a Wisconsin flag (where Genoa City is said to be) and the second - same courtroom set - is clearly a Virginia flag. We couldn’t see if the Virginia one was with or without the nipple.

Lester Maddox - Dick Cavett - Jim Brown & (I think) Truman Capote.

*WARNING* language MEMES