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.

I don’t know, why?

Technically it’s battery if she actually made physical contact. :p

I too played the Mad Max Video Game…

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.

Just getting my password manager being able to type text into other windows was a bit of a pain in Wayland in CachyOS. That’s a common thing everyone should be using these days.

For Microsoft 365 / Office 365.

Damn I call it my forever cough but also dealing with post nasal drip from both the first (2023) and second times (Aug 2025) I had covid.

I still do. Really should travel there soon before the rates get better for them (worse for me)

Has South Park Comcast episode nipple rubbing vibes.

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.

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).

I love that my global settings has a whole section labelled Privacy, but I can’t disable this globally for all chats my account joins.

Instead I have to disable it for each chat individually.

What awful design WhatsApp (obviously on purpose so I’ll forget with new chats).

Well maybe this is the push that those friends will need to move to Signal…

There’s a rather long documentary on it. I want to say by NoClip but not totally sure.

Short version is they came up with the idea in the 90s I want to say, playing tabletop with a friend group. Two main designers. Helped set up a company to make a computer RPG version and designed and built the game with a team. Outsider investing came in and bought up some amount of the company.

Once game was built and shipped and they were looking into what to do next they were effectively ousted from the company. So the two original designers of the game now get nothing and lost control of their passion project.

Edit: while. NoClip is making one, the one I’m thinking of was done by People Make Games. At least I think it’s this one? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JGIGA8taN-M

I actually looked up the source for this and couldn’t find it.

That being said I agree with the sentiment.