The unimportant news thread

[Karl Henning]

Unimportant follow-up:

Newton's tiny home has a buyer — again

A 251-square-foot home in Newton is off the market once more.

The home was back on the market earlier this month for $389,900 after a buyer who initially put an offer on the home couldn't find a lender that would finance the home because it was too small.

This time, the home has a no-contingencies, all-cash offer, Hans Brings, the listing agent, said.

The offer was accepted on Oct. 17, Brings said, though for how much — or if it went for a number close to what it was listed for — he declined to reveal. The woman who is purchasing the home will be using it as an investment property, with plans to list it as a short-term rental, Brings said.


(How much it would cost to rent, I don't like to contemplate .... ~KH

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Unimportant follow-up:

Newton's tiny home has a buyer — again

A 251-square-foot home in Newton is off the market once more.

The home was back on the market earlier this month for $389,900 after a buyer who initially put an offer on the home couldn't find a lender that would finance the home because it was too small.

This time, the home has a no-contingencies, all-cash offer, Hans Brings, the listing agent, said.

The offer was accepted on Oct. 17, Brings said, though for how much — or if it went for a number close to what it was listed for — he declined to reveal. The woman who is purchasing the home will be using it as an investment property, with plans to list it as a short-term rental, Brings said.


(How much it would cost to rent, I don't like to contemplate .... ~KH

Karl,

Is this the one that your friends had been trying to sell?  Or the other one that I had found?  Looks like it was the one that I ran across (after googling a bit further).

Not surprised that the buyer decided to use it as a short-term rental place!  This site might give you an idea:  https://www.forrent.com/find/MA/metro-Boston/Boston/beds-studio?msclkid=9eb975de39151fed10d514a1cea80d49&gclid=9eb975de39151fed10d514a1cea80d49&gclsrc=3p.ds  Interesting to try and guess what she might be able to get for it.   Does include parking (a challenge in your area), but unless the downstairs included something even like a fold-away bed/couch, it's quite a bit more limited in terms of who would want to rent it (having to climb a ladder to get into and out of bed could be challenging if not impossible for a lot of folks.  I suspect that the insurance company might require additional changes/modifications to the movable stairs too.

PD

[Karl Henning]

Karl,

Is this the one that your friends had been trying to sell?  Or the other one that I had found?  Looks like it was the one that I ran across (after googling a bit further).

Not surprised that the buyer decided to use it as a short-term rental place!  This site might give you an idea:  https://www.forrent.com/find/MA/metro-Boston/Boston/beds-studio?msclkid=9eb975de39151fed10d514a1cea80d49&gclid=9eb975de39151fed10d514a1cea80d49&gclsrc=3p.ds  Interesting to try and guess what she might be able to get for it.   Does include parking (a challenge in your area), but unless the downstairs included something even like a fold-away bed/couch, it's quite a bit more limited in terms of who would want to rent it (having to climb a ladder to get into and out of bed could be challenging if not impossible for a lot of folks.  I suspect that the insurance company might require additional changes/modifications to the movable stairs too.

PD

The one you ran across.

[greg]

We may be competing with bots over the holidays...and in general too:  https://businessupside.com/2021/10/28/are-you-competing-with-bots-to-buy-gifts-this-christmas/

PD

If anyone is still trying to get a PS5, Sony has reservations for people to sign up who have had a reasonably account Playstation account.
I signed up, so hopefully will get an email in the next few months. I refuse to ever buy from a scalper out of sheer spite, more like I would rather punch them in the face if the world allowed so.

[Karl Henning]

Talk about 'squeakers':

'Every vote counts.' In Newburyport's mayoral race, there was a difference of just 27 votes

[Karl Henning]

From the NY Times newsletter:

On Saturday night, Americans will set their clocks back one hour, but there is a growing movement against the annual fall-back tradition.

It favors permanent daylight saving time, which would lead to lighter winter afternoons and darker winter mornings. The Times's Argument podcast hosted an expert who said that the change would reduce rush-hour vehicle accidents and energy usage. (A bipartisan group of senators has proposed a bill along these lines, and Senator Patty Murray of Washington gave a speech yesterday making the case for it.)

Josh Barro of Insider has made the other side of the argument, writing that the sun shouldn't rise after 8 a.m. in December — and that when the U.S. tried permanent daylight saving time during the 1970s energy crisis, people hated it. Barro's message: Feel free to keep whining, but turn back your clocks.

I love the off-the-cuff surrealism of "the sun shouldn't rise after 8 a.m. in December." (I'll note that I experienced (and survived) this during my stay in St Petersburg.

"when the U.S. tried permanent daylight saving time during the 1970s energy crisis, people hated it." Yes, change anything, and there are some who will complain.

[Spotted Horses]

From the NY Times newsletter:

On Saturday night, Americans will set their clocks back one hour, but there is a growing movement against the annual fall-back tradition.

It favors permanent daylight saving time, which would lead to lighter winter afternoons and darker winter mornings. The Times's Argument podcast hosted an expert who said that the change would reduce rush-hour vehicle accidents and energy usage. (A bipartisan group of senators has proposed a bill along these lines, and Senator Patty Murray of Washington gave a speech yesterday making the case for it.)

Josh Barro of Insider has made the other side of the argument, writing that the sun shouldn't rise after 8 a.m. in December — and that when the U.S. tried permanent daylight saving time during the 1970s energy crisis, people hated it. Barro's message: Feel free to keep whining, but turn back your clocks.

I love the off-the-cuff surrealism of "the sun shouldn't rise after 8 a.m. in December." (I'll note that I experienced (and survived) this during my stay in St Petersburg.

"when the U.S. tried permanent daylight saving time during the 1970s energy crisis, people hated it." Yes, change anything, and there are some who will complain.

I don't know what St Petersburg has to do with it, and I see no "off the cuff surrealism." The time zones should not be artificially manipulated to move daylight to the evening hours from the morning hours, when the result is children reporting to school and people going to work in pitch-black darkness when it wouldn't otherwise be necessary. I remember the imposition of all-year "daylight savings time" in the 70's. People didn't like it, it didn't save any energy and it was one of the more idiotic things Jimmy Carter did.

Where I live, on the winter Solstice, sunrise is 7:36 standard time, sunset 5:40 standard time. The sun rises about 4.5 hours before noon and sets about 5.5 hours after noon, so even standard time is shifted towards evening light at my location. Daylight savings time would sunrise at 8:36, sunset at 6:40, 3.5 hours of daylight before noon and 6.5 hours of daylight after noon. I see no advantage in that. The time shift is disruptive and I would be in favor of year-round standard time.

Noon is, by definition, when the sun is at it's highest point and that should be respected.

[amw]

I don't see why we don't just have shorter work days in the winter, so that the majority of working people neither have to report to work before dark nor leave work after dark. That's how people worked for most of human history after all.

[Brahmsian]

Regarding the spring and fall time changes, see polling station. 

[SimonNZ]

Plus there's the classic argument that daylight savings causes global warming by adding an extra hour of daylight.

[Karl Henning]

The time shift is disruptive and I would be in favor of year-round standard time.

Completely agreed.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Don't know where to put this.  Is there a general European politics/news thread?  It's certainly not "unimportant".

Concerned about what I've been reading lately...number of issues.  Trying to figure out what is going on in Belarus and slash what is Poland dealing with in terms of immigrants.  There are number of people flocking there trying to escape horrible conditions elsewhere and find a better life.  I do read sites like CNN and the BBC and read things like German aid being sent to the border to help.  What is Belarus' role in all of it?  Latest news:  it seems like Belarus might be willing to disrupt natural gas lines to western Europe due to possible sanctions?  If I'm recalling correctly, I remember previous issues with natural gas...trying to remember all of the details...think that it was Russia being blamed?

I'd love to hear more from those effected and more news in general.

PD

[JBS]

Don't know where to put this.  Is there a general European politics/news thread?  It's certainly not "unimportant".

Concerned about what I've been reading lately...number of issues.  Trying to figure out what is going on in Belarus and slash what is Poland dealing with in terms of immigrants.  There are number of people flocking there trying to escape horrible conditions elsewhere and find a better life.  I do read sites like CNN and the BBC and read things like German aid being sent to the border to help.  What is Belarus' role in all of it?  Latest news:  it seems like Belarus might be willing to disrupt natural gas lines to western Europe due to possible sanctions?  If I'm recalling correctly, I remember previous issues with natural gas...trying to remember all of the details...think that it was Russia being blamed?

I'd love to hear more from those effected and more news in general.

PD

I'm having a hard time understanding what exactly Putin/Lukashenko expect to gain, beyond distracting from Lukashenko's coup and further energizing Europe's xenophobes.

There's also Bosnia, where the Bosnian Serbs with help from Serbia and possibly from Putin, are trying to achieve the breakup of Bosnia they couldn't achieve in the 1990s.

[André]

I'm having a hard time understanding what exactly Putin/Lukashenko expect to gain, beyond distracting from Lukashenko's coup and further energizing Europe's xenophobes.

There's also Bosnia, where the Bosnian Serbs with help from Serbia and possibly from Putin, are trying to achieve the breakup of Bosnia they couldn't achieve in the 1990s.

Both are examples of putinism, attempts to regain influence in former soviet republics or help 'first-degree cousins' like the Serbs in their own attempt to recreate a Great Serbia. The common denominator is to have them move closer to the russian bosom than the european one.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Found some more news about Bosnia here:  https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/international-envoy-warns-bosnia-breakup-amid-tensions-80925311

Can't believe this story.  This Colorado community was proof an all-electric, net-zero future is possible. Now that vision is under siege   

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/11/us/colorado-geos-neighborhood-net-zero-climate/index.html

After all of that hard work, break-throughs and progress?!   

PD

[LKB]

Both are examples of putinism, attempts to regain influence in former soviet republics or help 'first-degree cousins' like the Serbs in their own attempt to recreate a Great Serbia. The common denominator is to have them move closer to the russian bosom than the european one.

+1

One should never underestimate Putin. Having lost President Dumbass as his willing booster, it should be expected that he'd focus his energy on enhancing his local security, as well as making common cause with Xi wherever possible.

Can Biden continue effectively as the counterweight, given the coming mid-term elections and treasonous behavior of a majority of Republicans in Congress?

I'd like to believe that he can. Despite his obvious limitations, it would seem that Joe Biden is, in fact, a solid moderate who truly has the nation's best interests at heart. Let all who would sustain and strengthen the U.S. support the President, for he is worthy of his office, unlike the previous occupant.

[Spotted Horses]

I went outside to see the near-total lunar eclipse at about 3am. Remarkable sight, with the moon glowing red except for a small slice or light. Would have been more dramatic to stay out for the two hours or so to watch the shadow move across the moon, but didn't seem practical to stay up that long in the wee hours.

[Florestan]

the Serbs in their own attempt to recreate a Great Serbia.

This is one of the biggest, most blatant lies in the propaganda war against Serbia and the Serbs and I am greatly astonished to see it is still being circulated in AD 2021.

https://monthlyreview.org/2007/10/01/the-dismantling-of-yugoslavia/

[Karl Henning]

Good fun!

Opinion: A ranking of 100 — yes, 100 — Christmas songs

98. "Santa Baby." The panicky Michael Bublé version that addresses Santa as "buddy" and "pally" and, even more confusingly, "poppy" has been richly and correctly mocked. But here is my bone to pick with the original, especially in 2018: Santa's WHOLE CONCEPT, as far as I can understand it, is that he will give you amazing, wonderful gifts for NOTHING. Yet the singer in this song seems to be laboring under the delusion that to receive elegant presents, she has to sleep with him? Eartha, or whoever else is covering this, you don't have to! This is Santa's only job! If he told you this was part of the equation, he was lying!

[SimonNZ]

Heh. I want to hear "Please, Daddy (Don't Get Drunk This Christmas)" played in malls.

They left off Tom Waits " Christmss Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis".