(Part 2) Best products from r/bayarea

A lot of people start with one of the cheap Chinese radios like the Baofeng UV-5R. Get the programming cable and you can program in your local repeaters using CHIRP. Repeaters are base stations run by the local ham clubs, installed on top of mountains and tall buildings, which re-transmit your signal so it covers a much wider area. Disaster response will center around one or more repeaters, hopefully ones that have backup power. Without a repeater, the range of these handhelds is limited to a few miles (depending on terrain).

It's hard to say whether you'll need an external antenna at your apartment. If you have good line-of-sight to the repeater(s) you want to use, then the handheld and its stock "rubber ducky" antenna might be sufficient. If there are buildings or hills in the way then you might need a better antenna to compensate. There are many options such as a longer whip antenna for the handheld, a roll-up J-pole, or a yagi. None of those would require permanent installation. Antennas are a vast subject and it's hard to know what's best without experimenting.

Some more links:

Silicon Valley Emergency Communications System

Santa Clara ARES/RACES

ARRL guide for beginners

New ham radio operator

This book has everything you need to know to pass the Technician exam. hamexam.org has free flash cards and practice exams.

KB6NU has some No-Nonsense Study Guides including a free PDF for Technician class.

Also check out /r/amateurradio. Beginner questions are welcome. If IRC is your thing, they have a channel at irc.geekshed.net #redditnet. Freenode's ##hamradio is also good.

There are a ton of other resources out there. Hams seem to like making YouTube videos in particular. Ham radio is a huge subject; explore and see what parts you find interesting. Good luck and have fun!

You're doing great you now have a very good emergency fund but you need to change where you are putting the money you save moving forward. Change your 401k contributions to 22%, this is about 18k/year (the yearly max contribution). Then open a ROTH IRA and contribute 5.5k annually. These are tax advantaged accounts, make the most of them. For both of these investments and your age you want about a 80:20 stocks:bonds ratio, you can use a target retirement date fund to get this ratio but make sure the fees are low (<0.2%). You mentioned you wanted something more liquid than a ROTH IRA elsewhere but the ROTH is the most liquid tax advantaged account available (You can withdraw your contributions tax and penalty free at any time. Your earnings need to meet certain criteria to not be penalized when withdrawn). Any remaining savings should go into a money market account where it can mildly/safely grow and become a downpayment on a house. If after all this you find you still have extra savings start a taxable investment account that is well diversified. Individual stocks are little more than gambling, sure you might hit it big but you may also lose it all. You're young, play the long game to get rich and you'll maximize your chances to do so.

Also read this book sometime before you are 30, https://www.amazon.com/Allocation-Second-Professional-Finance-Investment/dp/0071700781

No, they absolutely don't. They *pretend* to care about precedent, but they overturn things all the time based on ideological beliefs and often rule against their own precedent, at least on important, ideologically divisive matters.

And that boils down to, as Eric Segall used for the title of a very good introduction book on the subject (though not the only one), that SCOTUS is not a court. It's a tribe of elders imposing value judgements when the Constitution has, by definition, no actual answers for the problems at hand (see: affirmative action, abortion, gun rights, etc.)

That's why a decision about, for example, if the printed currency of the United States is valid currency can be overruled within a year because one SCOTUS judge changed. Or why Scalia could overrule 200 years of precedent and declare in 2008 that the 2nd amendment is an individual right, even though we had clear, settled law that always declared that it was a collective one.

The way that they justify these decisions comes from different systems of value applications (living constitutionalism, one of the many different kinds of originalism, etc.) but it's all values, even if they like to pretend otherwise.

In fact, that the American public continues to perceive that SCOTUS IS a court and that it does care about precedence in contentious cases is one of the biggest cons of the American education system. And it's what keeps people from believing that the SCOTUS would ever overturn Roe because it's settled law, for instance, but the reality is they will overturn Roe in a heartbeat if Roberts decides it's OK politically.

SCOTUS is politics wherever the answers are not obvious.

You know, I HEARD that was great, and I loved the real book version... think you're right, gotta check it out. Thanks for the tip! Any other ones you loved?

It was cheesy but I really loved A Dog's Purpose recently. A really nice feel-good book. Also currently listening to the 100 year old man who climbed out a window and dissapeared and that is also pretty engrossing and fun.

The best way to learn is to try :) I can highly recommend the Colette Sewing Handbook for lots of information and some great beginner patterns! And if there's anything you need a hand with, I'm happy to help out :)

Revenue that goes to an ''org'' not a ''.gov''.
No tolls in the United States go into any municipality's ''revenue''.
This is a little known fact.
What exactly is the VTA?
The government can ''appoint'' people? Just like the Federal Reserve, a private bank. How nice.
Where does the money go when tolls are collected? Follow the money.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara_Valley_Transportation_Authority
I know. We aren't following the money yet. With no sarcasm involved, I wish you luck in following the money.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special-purpose_district
Who owns the Federal Reserve? That seems to be shrouded.
The VTA's money goes into the ''VTA transit fund''.
Anyone who wants to try and verbally simplify what I am talking about, should read this book about the revolution of ''Transportation Authorities'' in the US. You will never find a book more critically acclaimed.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Broker-Robert-Moses/dp/0394720245
Amazing reading.
A review excerpt: ''As time wore on Moses became less and less the man of the people and more and more the man of the system of his own creation, and that system was the toll-gathering mechanism of New York's bridges and tunnels. He invented that peculiar institution, the "authority" (as in Port "Authority" or Tennessee Valley "Authority") that is neither wholly governmental nor wholly private, and so lacks the restraints of either; Moses' cash cows kept him in power and gave him an antidemocratic arrogance that is truly breathtaking and, one hopes, will never be duplicated.''
A must read, if one wants to know what they are looking at, while enjoying any city's roads or public transportation. Man oh man is the public in the fucking dark about Transportation Authorities.

I'm a fan of owning my own gear, but there are lots of variations so make sure you know what you want to use it for before buying.

• In general, scuba and snorkel fins are different. You can use scuba fins for snorkeling but not the other way around - the scuba fins are longer to give you more power as you're carrying a lot of gear.
  
• If you're not sure you want to do anything like this beyond Hawaii, renting is super cheap when you're there and it means you don't have to stuff the gear into your luggage.
  
• If you think you might want to scuba around SF in the future, make sure to get open-heel fins with boots, otherwise you'll have to get a separate set for here (full-foot fins are warm water only).
  
• As another commenter pointed out, you can get gear at any of the scuba shops in the area. They charge fair prices for cold water scuba gear. I paid about $200 for gloves, boots, fins, mask, and snorkel. As noted above, if you're only going to do warm water you're better off renting or buying a cheapo set when you get there.

Great site to keep track of where colors are changing: https://www.californiafallcolor.com/map/

And I really recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/Californias-Fall-Color-Photographers-Autumn/dp/1597143170

I picked it up in June Lake a couple years back when camping in early October to enjoy some fall color. More of the Sierras, but the color up there at this time of year is amazing. I personally love the June Lake loop.

My boyfriend converted one of our rooms to a music studio, so we've been trying to minimize decibels and understand the struggle.

Without drilling, there's no way to completely soundproof your shared wall but there are things that will help.

Acoustic paneling is great and comes in different shapes in colors. The thicker the foam, the greater effect. We attached them with Command strips. You can also hide the foam in canvas paintings.

Thick blackout curtains and plants, help, too. Rugs, pillows... Anything thick and cushy will deaden the sound.

I think a lot of people are equating the crystal salt-like additive MSG (e.g. Ajinomoto) with naturally occurring glutamates. Maybe this person, for whatever reason, does not want to eat MSG additives but is fine with eating naturally occurring glutamates, such as those found in seaweed, tomatoes, anchovies, etc.

Also, to H20, there are fish sauces that have naturally occurring glutamates and no MSG additives.
Examples of fish sauces with no added MSG (emphasis on the "added"):

https://www.amazon.com/Red-Boat-Premium-Fish-Sauce/dp/B00B617XK2

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Tiparos-Fish-Sauce-23-oz/16004704


To be clear, I agree that MSG tastes fucking AMAZING. But I also respect the decisions of people who don't eat MSG additives.

Geez.

You might try making yourself some brownies with methylene blue in them. You can send the box to yourself. The idiots will eat them.

Methylene blue is a dye often used to treat fish for all sorts of stuff, and is plenty safe to consume. The thing is that it turns your urine bright blue. It can be quite surprising for the target. It also won't hurt them at all.

You can get it at aquarium supply stores, though it can be difficult to find it by itself. It can be found in lab supply stores sold as slide dye. You can get it off of amazon here:

http://www.amazon.com/Methylene-Blue-Stain-Bottle-Purity/dp/B00CGCBHHA

Be careful handling it, it stains your fingers at full concentration. (ie, wear gloves and use glass cookware)

Also, it's a good idea to eat one of the brownies yourself before you send them to yourself to make sure you got the concentration correct.