On 19/05/2025 05:22, The Horny Goat wrote:

On Sun, 06 Apr 2025 08:48:36 -0700, Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:

And when someone actually /does/ build truly affordable housing -- it
is attacked as being "too small". As if affodable housing is ever
going to produce Bill Gate's house in Medina. Or anything much beyond
a starter home, and often not even that.

My daughter lives in the UK and owns a 2 storey 1700 sq ft walkup unit
which was built in 1860 and has been very well maintained and updated
through the years. I've never been there but have seen pictures and it certainly looks nice enough and not the least "Dickens-ish"

(She formerly lived in London in a neighborhood directly south of
Westminster and S of the Thames - her building was built in the 1930s
and some claimed the reason it was not bombed by the Germans is that
the design was unusual enough - basically 5 wings meeting in the
center - that they didn't bomb it to give themselves a landmark on
their way to Parliament, Westminster Abbey etc etc.)

Nothing to do with this vague memory then. <https://www.sfgate.com/obscuresf/article/history-of-California-swastika-building-17241331.php>

"SF" as in San Francisco - approximately -
or in this case, San Diego Bay.

--- MBSE BBS v1.1.1 (Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (3:633/280.2@fidonet)

On 04/04/2025 22:28, Cryptoengineer wrote:

I'd love to see a Phillip Jose Farmer's 'Purple Wage', the earliest
example of UBI I recall from fiction, but barring politicians
suddenly becoming immune to being bought off by unlimited
contributions from corporations or billionaires, it just ain't
going to happen.

I dunno, the current U.S. lot are dumb enough to
issue "Inalienable Basic" stock to every citizen
by accident, maybe intended as a tax avoidance
trick. Like, it's meant to be non-voting stock,
but it isn't.

--- MBSE BBS v1.1.1 (Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (3:633/280.2@fidonet)

On 05/04/2025 18:19, Dimensional Traveler wrote:

One of the reasons the US is having an affordable housing shortage is a shortage of construction workers to build the housing.ÿ I suspect there isn't a complete overlap in the workforce building factories vs. housing
but I'm pretty sure there is at least some.

3-D print construction is being used, if not
at scale. And pre-fabrication has been done.
With drawbacks, but it's just crossed my mind
that while it appears to be impossible even
or especially in 2025 to build housing without
incorporating catastrophic faults due to
workers' ignorance or deliberate negligence,
a pre-fab at least could be tested for faults
before it leaves the factory. But would it be?

--- MBSE BBS v1.1.1 (Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (3:633/280.2@fidonet)

In article <100qiro$7h8l$4@dont-email.me>,
Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@gmail.com> wrote:

On 05/04/2025 18:19, Dimensional Traveler wrote:

One of the reasons the US is having an affordable housing shortage is a
shortage of construction workers to build the housing.  I suspect there
isn't a complete overlap in the workforce building factories vs. housing
but I'm pretty sure there is at least some.

3-D print construction is being used, if not
at scale. And pre-fabrication has been done.
With drawbacks, but it's just crossed my mind
that while it appears to be impossible even
or especially in 2025 to build housing without
incorporating catastrophic faults due to
workers' ignorance or deliberate negligence,
a pre-fab at least could be tested for faults
before it leaves the factory. But would it be?

Factory error would be an issue and so, he said in the world-weary
tone of someone trying to assemble a complicated set using smudged
and unhelpful instructions, would assembly.

Plus there's the odd case of a minor cultural difference between
where the design was created and where it is used. There was a
really eligent design from Scandinavia that used prepoured
concrete slabs that fit nicely together. Worked great in Scandinavia,
where cooking uses electric stoves.

The UK built high rises with the tech. Those had gas stoves. The
first gas explosion lifted the ceiling off the walls, which fell
out. The unit above then collapsed down. The extra weight brought
a whole column of the building down.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronan_Point
--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

--- MBSE BBS v1.1.1 (Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: Public Access Networks Corp. (3:633/280.2@fidonet)