rkbabang

For durable goods, or for stuff where there's a real difference in quality, the value option can indeed be to buy higher quality, because you actually get more for your money. There's a saying about how poor people pay more for shoes (or boots, whatever) over time because the rich person will buy a good pair that will last for years and years while the crappy shoes will need to be replaced every few years, resulting in a higher cumulative price. I guess non-perishable items. For food we buy ingredients, not much packaged or canned. For cars and other perishable items I buy the best cheap thing I can. Some perishable things it does pay to buy quality. For example running shoes. I wear through those quickly, but bad shoes go even quicker, decent shoes are better on my body and last longer. For non-perishable items I pay up for quality when appropriate. I do the same math probably everyone on this board does. I always figure out how many cheap items I can purchase for the same price as the good item. If it's more than two and the expected lifetime is more than half it's better to go the cheap route. But more often the price differential isn't that large so it's better to pay for quality. Absolutely. One interesting thing going on the fresh food/paleo-type diet 4 years ago did for us is that brands completely disappeared from our kitchen. We don't buy packaged food at all. Just fresh fruits/veggies, meats(mostly local grass fed) and fish (mostly wild caught), as for beverages just our own filtered well water or brewed coffee (from local roaster in town) or tea (loose tea). The one brand you will see in our fridge is Kerrygold Irish Butter. But that is only because it is the only grass fed butter in the grocery stores around us and the farm where we buy our grass fed raw heavy cream charges way too much for their butter. With durable goods, I use the same calculation as you. Sometimes I buy the quality one even if the calculation comes out slightly in the multiple-cheap items favor. You need to factor in the trouble of shopping again for another cheap one 2 or 3 times rather than just 1 time for the quality item. My time and stress levels have a cost as well and need to be factored in to the equation.

I use it, although logging in today after seeing your post was the first time I'd logged in for about 6 months I think. I'd almost forgot about goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/8431549-eric-pavao

I've spent the last few months re-reading F. Paul Wilson's The Adversary Cycle/Repairman Jack series in order by when they take place (not by when they were published), starting with 'The Keep' and ending with 'Nightworld'. That is about 25 books (26 after 'Fear City' comes out this month). I'm on 'Infernal' right now, so 8 more to go. And of course I have 'Fear City' on pre-order which will come in this month, so that makes 9 more to go. EDIT: FYI if you're interested in the order to read them in to get one continuous story from start to finish: Pre-Repairman Jack Adversary Cycle Novels 1) The Keep 2) The Touch 3) Reborn 4) Reprisal Young Repairman Jack Novels (young adult novels) 5) Secret Histories 6) Secret Circles 7) Secret Vengeance Early Repairman Jack Novels 8) Cold City 9) Dark City 10) Fear City (TBP: Nov 2014) Repairman Jack Novels 11) The Tomb 12) Legacies 13) Conspiracies 14) All The Rage 15) Hosts 16) The Haunted Air 17) Gateways 18) Crisscross 19) Infernal 20) Harbingers 21) Bloodline 22) By The Sword 23) Ground Zero 24) Fatal Error 25) The Dark at the End The Last Adversary Cycle Novel 26) Nightworld

From Skeptical Science here : http://skepticalscience.com/climate-models-intermediate.htm Don't forge that climate is not weather guys, these are long term trends which are quite different. Exactly and because there are far more variables and feedback paths, many known and many unknown, climate is far, far, far harder to predict with any accuracy than weather. Which is the reason none of the doom and gloom predictions from 30, 20, or even 10 years ago have come to pass. I'm not saying global warming is not happening (I don't want to be labeled a "denier" and ex-communicated from the Holy Church of the Environment), but the real answer is that we simply don't know what effect the increase CO2 in our atmosphere will have long term. Discussing this with true believers is like discussing the existence of god. The real answer is I don't know and, regardless of what you think, you don't know either.

I'm confused as to what your position is here (and the general position of that Facebook group)... Does my position matter? :) Apparently, to many former classmates, it did. I received PMs asking when I became a Republican. (For the record, before moving to DC, I owned a Prius & tried to get my dad to buy a Nissan Leaf because he doesn't drive much anyway. My parents now drive my Prius. My position is in accordance with the stereotype of Prius drivers.) Yale's Business School (the group was set up for the 2014 & 2015 classes to communicate) has a lot of students who are joint degrees with their Forestry School and the entire school leans fairly eco-friendly. Amazingly, or perhaps predictably, once I revealed my personal position, the rhetoric toned down a notch. And yet, should it have? Nothing had changed in what I had said -- only the perceptions of who was saying it. Highly disappointing since we literally had a required class on avoiding these biases. I'm chuckling because your clarification is as clear as Alan Greenspan! Parsing all of the above, I guess you're on my side. Not that it matters, as you say! That was intentional. :) A more clear statement of my position would be as follows: Clearly, the world is warmer than it used to be. (Surface & Ocean.) It's stupid to claim otherwise. However, it's unclear whether this will necessarily lead to calamitous outcomes. It's similarly stupid to claim otherwise. The question I posed to the group, which went unanswered, and I guess I'll pose here as well is the following: Imagine a completely flat surface and a machine that drops grains of sand onto it one at a time. Over time, you'll build a bit of a sand pile. At some point, each additional grain of sand will either (a) do nothing or (b) cause a landslide. It is difficult to know (1) which grain of sand will do it, (2) whether a landslide will happen and (3) if a landslide happens the general magnitude of the slide. (In mathematical circles, this is an Abelian sandpile problem.) Now, this is a sandpile that exhibits self-organizing criticality with only two variables. Sand and gravity. If we can't figure this one out -- what makes us think that we can figure out the exact future states (or even probabilistic future states) for a much more difficult complex dynamical system, e.g. the climate? It's lunacy. The less sophisticated question (in the same vein) is that if a meteorologist can't tell me if it's going to rain 365 days from now, then what makes anyone think that a climate scientist can tell me what the world looks like 100 years from now. I think you either typed two extra numbers or you forgot the decimal point. You must have meant: "If a meteorologist can't tell me if it's going to rain 3.65 days from now..."

I'm not sure about "good for energy" or even what that means. Oil/Gas? Solar/Wind? Nuclear? Your ability to run long distances? But in general whenever the Senate and Whitehouse are held by different parties that is a good thing for the country. Gridlock is good. The best thing you can hope for is for them to get nothing done.

I'm ready for the coming ban on incandescents -- I'll go back to gas lighting! http://carolinalanterns.com/ :) Those are awesome! Thanks for the link.

This one made me cringe: "(5) Mandating Solar Buildings: The vanguard of government promotion of the solar industry, solar mandates require that new and renovated buildings include solar power. I can imagine a world a few decades hence where every building is equipped with a mini-fusion reactor which supplies all of the building's energy (no more gas/oil/propane needed), yet every new building built must budget for the required solar panels which are useless, but the big solar lobby fights the law from ever being repealed.... Do we never learn? It really is a wonder the candle making industry never got the electric light bulb banned.

How did you manage to drop out of the fourth grade? The police would take my kids away if I tried that on them. In most states you can drop out when you are 16 regardless of what grade you are in. Maybe he stayed back a few times. :) But seriously if he was home schooled he was probably better off, and even if not, truancy laws may or may not be enforced depending on where you live. My Dad's family immigrated to the US when he was 8 years old and his parents sent him to work on a farm rather than enroll him in school. He never did learn how to read or write.

So what was it like inside? I've heard of people going in before, but I thought those were only stories intended to scare children into doing what they're told. I know, I wasn't sure what to expect either. But it was comforting to see that it pretty much looks the same as it did 30 years ago. The best way to describe it is remember what it looked like the last time you were there. Now picture the exact same store, but only the Kenmore re-badged appliances now have stainless fronts, the tube TVs have been replaced by flat screens, and the shoes now say Craftsman and DieHard. That's pretty much it. You can almost see the Brady Bunch singing in the aisles.

I have a confession to make, I actually walked through a Sears store this weekend. It was pouring raining late Saturday afternoon and my wife wanted to go to the mall for something and it seemed like everyone else had the same idea. We couldn't find a spot anywhere, cars were following shoppers out to their cars and waiting for them to pull out. So I said to my wife, I'm going to go to the Sears entrance I bet we find a spot there, and sure enough we found one not too far from the door. As we were walking past the shoe department heading to the mall entrance I saw Craftsman and DieHard shoes and thought WTF? I don't know if DieHard underwear exists or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did.

Buy any pair of Craftsman shoes and get a free pair of DieHard underwear.

I had a similar experience with Bank of America. Although they took my side, I wasn't very satisfied. It was over a $50 bill at Pizza Hut on the other side of the country. I told them I haven't been in that region in years. They refunded me and investigated. I thought that was the end of it but then they mailed me a picture of the receipt, which clearly wasn't my signature, and said I need to sign the accompanying page saying it's not my signature and get it back to them the very NEXT DAY. Luckily they let me fax it, but it was annoying. I would think that they can a) see for themselves that it's not my signature by comparing w/their records and b) see that the purchase was on the other side of the country, with no other purchase in that area years before or after; and trust me based on that. I've disputed a bill with AMEX as well and it's much smoother. They make it clear that they trust you and want to be on your side. My dispute was only over $100, but that was what made it insane to spend $80 on cab rides there and back to get my card credited. It is ridiculous that they wouldn't credit me over the phone. I told this to CitiBank, the only thing the tour company did was send Citi a picture of the original receipt with my real signature on it and that was that. The charge was determined to be legitimate and reappeared on my account. It isn't much money, but I'm glad to find this out now before some issue ever comes up that involves something more substantial. Yea, makes sense. Amex would have heard your argument and realized it was ridiculous of the tour company to expect you to show up in person to cancel. My dispute for Amex was that I had purchased tickets to a college football alumni "event" at a bar in NYC, for my college team. But when we got there, there wasn't anything special going on, there was no reserved table, no special food or drinks, nothing. Nobody even checked our tickets. In other words, anybody could have just gone to the bar and sat down, which was mostly empty anyway. I explained this to Amex and they agreed that it was silly and credited me right away. Seems a hell of a lot more reasonable. I wonder if this is the reason, rather than cost, that some merchants don't accept AmEx. It is a lot easier to screw over MasterCard holders and get away with it.

I had a similar experience with Bank of America. Although they took my side, I wasn't very satisfied. It was over a $50 bill at Pizza Hut on the other side of the country. I told them I haven't been in that region in years. They refunded me and investigated. I thought that was the end of it but then they mailed me a picture of the receipt, which clearly wasn't my signature, and said I need to sign the accompanying page saying it's not my signature and get it back to them the very NEXT DAY. Luckily they let me fax it, but it was annoying. I would think that they can a) see for themselves that it's not my signature by comparing w/their records and b) see that the purchase was on the other side of the country, with no other purchase in that area years before or after; and trust me based on that. I've disputed a bill with AMEX as well and it's much smoother. They make it clear that they trust you and want to be on your side. My dispute was only over $100, but that was what made it insane to spend $80 on cab rides there and back to get my card credited. It is ridiculous that they wouldn't credit me over the phone. I told this to CitiBank, the only thing the tour company did was send Citi a picture of the original receipt with my real signature on it and that was that. The charge was determined to be legitimate and reappeared on my account. It isn't much money, but I'm glad to find this out now before some issue ever comes up that involves something more substantial.

I'm starting to understand why customer service is such an important thing with AmEx card holders. I just got screwed by CitiBank. I was in Mexico this summer and paid for a tour, I changed my mind and called the tour company to cancel 3 days before it was supposed to take place. They told me they would not refund my money unless I showed up at their location (a $40 cab ride from my resort), so I told them no, I am just going to refute the charges with my credit card company. CitiBank refunded my money while the "investigation" was pending (2 months), but I just found out today that they are taking their side, not mine, and the charge is back on my account. I'm paying my bill, claiming my reward balance and cancelling that account this week. Bastards! I've been a card holder for decades and the one time I've needed them they screw me over.

That's a great story. I was going to reply that the hardest part would be actually finding a K-Mart, but first I went to their store locator and wouldn't you know there are actually 4 of them in my state. One of them is only 11 miles from my house. Who knew? I guess I don't drive through those types of neighborhoods that often.

That clip was totally unrealistic. I mean it showed shoppers at the Sears. No way that happens in real life. Believe it or not, Sears is still an actual company. They have locations and employees (and presumably) some customers. I just don't know what they are going to do when their customer base (over 70, no internet access, still has a rotary dial land line phone with a 25 ft cord and answering machine with a tape as the only way to get in touch with them, and sometimes uses their phones to order from catalogs) dies off? You've seen these people. They are the women with white hair that are always in the grocery store line in front of you trying to pay with a check then take 25 minutes to back out of their parking space in the parking lot. They own K-Mart too, but I think it has been about 10-12 years since I've seen an actual K-Mart store, so I'm not sure if those still exist.

This belongs here:

Hey, I loved Tolkien and Rand as a teenager. I also think I remember going into a Sears store with my parents once back then when people did that sort of thing.

Tell me exactly what I should invest in and exactly when to buy and sell so that I earn 200%/year.... okay make it 100% per year, I'm not greedy. Let me know when this is available.

Some more info released. I guess they have built a small fusion reactor, fired it up, and are collecting data. Lockheed looks for partners on its proposed fusion reactor Lockheed has built its first Compact Fusion Test Machine and fired 200 Test Shots

That hasn't been my experience. The last few times I purchased a house and the last time I refinanced my mortgage, the appraisers were there for well over an hour taking measurements in every room, tons of notes/drawings and looking at pretty much everything including basement and outbuildings. I'm pretty sure what I've experienced is standard at least in New England. How can you appraise a house from the driveway? I think (hope) drive by appraisals are over with. I think they were common during the housing bubble. For my last refi (maybe 2 years ago now), the guy came in and looked around every room. Nothing too crazy. No measuring. He wrote some notes. And he was out of here within 30 minutes. I live in the SF Bay Area. "Drive by appraisals"? One check box on the form: [] House exists.

That hasn't been my experience. The last few times I purchased a house and the last time I refinanced my mortgage, the appraisers were there for well over an hour taking measurements in every room, tons of notes/drawings and looking at pretty much everything including basement and outbuildings. I'm pretty sure what I've experienced is standard at least in New England. How can you appraise a house from the driveway?

FCKD is available.

Did you hear the one about the Troll with the mustache who shopped at Sears? Just kidding, there's no such joke. No one shops at Sears.