But concrete is measured by volume at least in the US (cubic yards…sigh). I think this is because different mix designs can change the resulting weight. I’ve even heard of adding air to make for better pumping.
I'm not sure I'd agree, "Intrusive thoughts" can happen to anyone for example, and it doesn't mean you're a bad person because you literally cannot control them. But what you can control, is acting/listening to those thoughts or not, which for me would be the important part.
An intrusive thought is not necessarily a bad one. Bad thoughts are those that are counter-productive and should be avoided. e.g. self loathing, hatred, paranoia and many more.
> it doesn't mean you're a bad person
Nobody suggested that.
> you can control, is acting/
One's thoughts can also be controlled to a large degree. This is why people practice meditation, affirmations, cultivation of wisdom, gratitude etc.
What happens when a situation that the agent hasn’t been trained on occurs?
Is it going to have the critical thinking skills to understand the situation and make the right decision or is it going to just hallucinate some impossible answer and get people killed?
I’m not saying human controllers don’t make mistakes but this should be one of the last areas to fully automate.
Defensible housing exists, there have been some viral photos of a few houses that survived this wildfire. But the embers from large fires can fly for miles in high wind, so it would likely have to be the whole city
Technically, but nothing miles away caught on fire. The ignition zone is likely only a few hundred yards even in intense Santa Ana winds. So that means only homes in fire prone areas (or adjacent) would need to be made very defensible.
"Technically, but nothing miles away caught on fire. The ignition zone is likely only a few hundred yards even in intense Santa Ana winds."
Not true. Here in Riverside we were watching large still-lit embers floating in (some which caused a repeat fire in the riverbottoms north of the 60, first called Brown then called Holly.) The primary stopping zone currently is around Pomona but another hard uptick in wind and it can easily cover out to the badlands.
These winds are absolutely insane, you just do not understand. When they were peaking on Wednesday morning, my Subaru was being blown almost out of lane while driving down the 91 to work.
Probably a more pertinent question would be: can you construct houses that would not burn in a Santa Ana if all the vegetation and landscaping nearby burned.
If you have fire resistant structures and only vegetation burned, not any structures, it would be much less expensive to replace just the landscaping plants.
In a 80 mph wind, it would be very challenging to design a structure that would survive a wooden house burning next door.
You’re forgetting lots of people rent. Lots of people can’t afford to own, and almost all of them rent. The other factor is dual, or even 3+ incomes in families living together.
lots of people that can afford to buy many houses rent because it makes very little financial sense (for those who understand slightly-above-basic-math) to own a house in the US
I wish more people in the US believed that, it'd make my retirement planning so much easier. Incidentally if that statement were even vaguely accurate private equity would most likely not find residential real estate an attractive investment, which they most certainly do. All of my real estate has doubled in value over the last 5 years and through the magic of depreciation I'm on track to get back more in taxes over a 20 year span than the original purchase price of my investment property. Home ownership: shit makes perfect sense to me.
That thinking is very location-dependent. Cities and counties across the US vary wildly on the ratio of cost-to-rent to cost-to-own, and that number is sometimes less than and sometimes greater than 1, depending on where you are.
A big problem with renting is the capriciousness of the rental market in many places, which you can't solve with "basic math". That plus the availability of the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage in the US means that rental costs can be much more unpredictable than buying. Some people will -- very reasonably -- pay a bit more for peace of mind. And that's before we get into the topic of no-fault evictions, and how that can wreck a family's housing situation, sometimes with not too much notice.
Renter protections in the US are not great compared to in many other places, and that can make renting unpredictable and more "costly" in other ways.
