BlackAura

I recently learned one of the reasons they dye the river once a year is to do leak testing.

That's gonna make for an awkward all hands meeting.

Hah touche. I don't blame you. Find a knockoff.

My friend swears by Leaf and I ordered one but haven't tried it yet. Shortly after ordering mine they announced the new Leaf 2.

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).

To be clear. The vast majority of Canadians do not want private health care. Just certain people in government are pushing for it.

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.

Now include the womens leagues.

That's because the poverty line is directly tied to the cost of goods and services (and to social services, tax credits, etc that those under or near the poverty line can take advantage of).

Effectively it will move up as goods cost more (inflation) and social services and other credits people can take advantage of are reduced / removed.

If more social services are added, i.e. Life becomes cheaper without your income increasing, then the effective poverty line drops as it's only a number based on household income, and now you need less household income to survive at the same level.

The stock market is its own beast and is not directly connected to income, social services, or the cost of goods.

Mermaid diagrams, where supported, I feel are invaluable in tech.