I used to be a surveyor! The tripods have different tools you can put on top.

A ‘level’ is used to look at rod (some distance away) with measurement gradations on it, like a ruler, to add or subtract height from its current position to determine elevation. You can transfer measurements long distances by leap-frogging positions of the level and the rod. If you start or end at a known USGS monument, you can tie into historicity known elevations. This is how elevations were mapped before GPS (but the survey markers are still used today). They have some really fancy auto-levels that read a qr-style barcode and can measure down to very precise heights.

A ‘thedolite’ is a robot-style machine that uses triangulation to determine elevation, distance, and angle. You benchmark it in place so it knows its location, then uses a rod with a prism it can follow. It calculates degrees it turns horizontally and pivots vertically to calculate where you are with the prism. It will automatically guide you to pre-programmed points to lay out very precise locations. Or you can use it to capture really precise points that are in the field. I haven’t been a surveyor in 20years, but they could easily layout points to millimeter accuracy when I was in the game.

We also used lidar scanners to capture ‘as-built’ maps or calculate volumes of material. A lidar scanner shoots out a laser a few 100,000 times a second as the scanner turns on the tripod. When it bounces off an object, it returns a x,y,z coordinate and a color of the object it bounces off of. When you get a few million returned, you get a point cloud that represents the physical area you are mapping. When you move the scanner and repeat the process, you can map out large areas to a pretty high degree of accuracy. We once used a scan of a statue that was built in the 1800s to compare against the weight of construction materials so we could calculate the crane load expected to move it. Pretty cool stuff!

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Oooohhhh… no. It was in the flight path for O’hare and very… not nice. Also, I’m from the south and know nothing of building techniques in cold climates. It wasn’t expensive, but didn’t feel unsafe.

I had heated floors in a Chicago apartment. I would lay tomorrow’s clothes on the floor at night and they were toasty warm when I put them on in the morning. Then, I’d put my blanket on the floor when I left for work and it would be nice and warm when I was ready to jump into bed at night.

Take a slice of white bread and a single slice of American cheese. Microwave just long enough to make the cheese slightly burn… the phase just after bubbly will get harder when it cools. Top with hot sauce or spicy ketchup… but not too much. If you can find it, there is an Indian curry spruced ketchup that is awesome.

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Or when they can’t find enough workers and their crops die in the fields…

Gotta cash out before all the “value” disintegrates…

You know how much insurance costs on a Ferrari?

…/s. Any Replacements fans out there?

Pre-legislating from the bench. Why don’t we just get rid of the legislative branch and let the judicial branch do whatever it wants? ( …/s)

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I’ve been playing the Zelda series since the original NES game in the 80s. BOTW and TOTK are some of my favorites.

Two for the cooter , one for the pooter…

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It did pass and is tied to performance of the company. He doesn’t actually get a 55B bonus. His bonus is in the form of stock, its award is tiered based on revenue-tied performance, and he can’t sell the stock until 5 years after it’s awarded, as to prevent a pump-and-dump incentive structure.

That IS the issue in American politics. As much as you believe people should be in tune with what is going on, politically speaking… they aren’t. Middle America gets sound bites and moves on. A lot of misinformation hits with them because they aren’t paying attention to how messed up politics actually is.

Things like presidential debates are worth tuning in to because it’s a single event (or 3) where you can get a condensed amount of information from the candidates. Most people don’t saturate their lives with politics. Things are changing because of social media, but that’s not necessarily for the better. Most people just want to live without the weight of the world on their shoulders all the time.

It’s already on the books for Sept 10. If Donny turns tail, Kamala just gets an open platform with the whole country watching to lay out her platform and point out Trump isn’t there because he is incapable of forming a plan he can stand up and defend.

It’s a win-win for her, no matter what he does. His only hope is to play the game and not look like a fool…. Is that possible?

No, but he is finding out why twitter had all of its policies on combatting misinformation before he took over and gutted the staff… to prevent getting sued. You can say anything you want in America and the government can’t tell you that you aren’t allowed to say it, but you are still accountable for the damages caused by what you say… just ask Alex Jones.

But operating in other countries doesn’t afford the same protections from government scrutiny.

Disinformation campaigns are part of the reason social media is causing as much social strife in the world. It is not outside a logical line of thought that governments are going to attempt to minimize the damages from platforms like Twitter when they can. You may not beat misinformation, but you can minimize the financial incentive to promote it if you fine the fuck out of it when you find it.