I know a number of builders in my neighborhood. There's a number of compounding issues: labor costs are higher, which means the customer wants to maximize resale value by amortizing lot costs. This dovetails (in Texas) with carried property tax rates; so, lots in city boundaries increase in price faster than you'd think just sitting around. Second, the builders tend to buy material on futures, which means you lock in price + volatility. There's been a buttload of volatility over the last 12 years, adding to the cost of materials. Inflation has hit building materials pretty hard (wood, concrete, steel).
Last, and this is really hard to convince some people: the amount of rebuilding due to natural disasters has skyrocketed. Due to the way insurance & federal relief works, that work is far preferable to labor than spec work. This has put a huge distortion in the new build market.
They absolutely do. Look up all the building code changes post Hurricane Andrew in the 90s. Those changes spread through the whole southeast and have made wind almost a non-factor. The problem is and always will be flooding. My house is built above the '100 year flood' line to fit code which helps. The problem is either older houses or houses built in areas that didn't historically flood enough for people to consider it a risk.
> Those changes spread through the whole southeast and have made wind almost a non-factor
This is great, but ugh, I live along the Gulf Coast and for the life of me I don't understand why more people don't build with concrete (block or poured) walls, instead of stick-framed! Sure, you can build wood to withstand wind up to code, but you can't make it termite-proof, of which this region has an abundance.
The biologist would be expected to describe the lichen in detail, including where it was found, its expected ecology, its place in the ecosystem, life-cycle, structure, etc. It is no longer 1696 where we can go spear some hapless fish, bring back its desiccated body, and let our fellow gentleman ogle over its weirdness.
Having a nonstandard American dialect is even worse. Texas dialects have a much broader set of larger contractions than coastal and Midwest accents. Autocorrect becomes an active enemy when I'm trying to type "I'd'nt've" or "y'couldn't'v'nt'd".
I dunno man. I'm just typing what I hear & say. The first is "I do not think I would have done that", more or less. The second is "I could not have done that" but with an agreeing second negative? Like a hill people "I wouldn't do that if I weren't you."
Words that are words, backwards, but are not palindromes. My boss is awesome and when I find a new one at 200am and excitedly text him, he congratulates me.
Tesla owner; same boat. I think Austin has voted with its doors enough for me to get the idea, at this point. I got the car in 2001, and it should be good for another 5–7 yrs as my daily commuter. I'm just resigned to my dingy fate, now.
The next car has to be a long hauler; we're looking at hybrid SUV/minivans. After that ... I hope Aptera is shipping.
I’m in Austin and have a Tesla (which I bought new) and I love it. Next car will be another new Tesla as well. Austin loves teslas, they’re everywhere. A handful of degenerate leftists isn’t scaring anyone.
Well, even more precisely: an executive order applies to federal workers in the executive branch. It doesn't apply to federal workers in the legislative, or judicial branches, and other sorts of workers. It certainly doesn't apply to private citizens or the states.
Translation of cuneiform is limited by the number of people who know the different Semitic and nonsemitic languages. Bulk transcription of the texts just makes the amount of material available to translate even more overwhelming.
The real revolution would be AI reconstruction of the 3d fragments and filtering of the bulk documents (receipts) from the interesting historical augments. (Hate mail, spam, poetry, death threats, omens, math, etc.)
My youngest is not gifted in math. She's still in the top 1/3 of her class, through diligent study, repetition, and review. Over the last year she's gone from dreading to loving math. Please keep an open mind about your kiddo's interests and don't push too hard.
Last, and this is really hard to convince some people: the amount of rebuilding due to natural disasters has skyrocketed. Due to the way insurance & federal relief works, that work is far preferable to labor than spec work. This has put a huge distortion in the new build market.
reply