Joel Gross's Blog

I recently had a product from a major manufacturer fail that cost around $500, and it caused around $10,000 of damages. I submitted a warranty claim to the company involved, and they refused to honor it and pay the $500. So I pressed harder and told them that under strict product liability they were liable for all of the $10,000 in damages.… read more “$10,000 Settlement After Product Failure”

Our farmers in Washington have to pay $17 per hour minimum wage, while competitors in other states pay only $7 per hour. And Mexican farmers only pay $17 per DAY. Plus Washington state farmers have to pay tons extra for all the environmental and climate and safety regulations.

We either need super steep tariffs to make sure everything is kept on an even playing field, or to abolish all of these nonsense regulations, or we will see all of our farmers go bankrupt and we won’t produce food here anymore.

The risk that artificial intelligence leads directly to the extinction of the human species is very high. Most scientists working on improving AI have pointed to a risk ranging from 10-50% that their work eventually will lead to our extinction. AI’s intelligence is increasing exponentially as we speak. Wikipedia.

Far more money is being spent on AI now than was spent on either the Manhattan Project or on the Space Race.… read more “Luddite”

My great-great-grandmother, Lillie Green, was a full-blooded Choctaw. Her legacy is something I carry with pride, a connection to this land that predates the bureaucracy that now controls all of us. But today, in Washington State, that heritage feels less like a shared history and more like a bureaucratic weapon wielded by a select few. We are witnessing a troubling shift where the preservation of history has morphed into a financial shakedown, and Washington’s State Environmental Policy Act, or SEPA, has become the hammer used to enforce it.… read more “SEPA Archaeological Survey Scam”

I decided to go with rereading the whole Brandon Sanderson Storm light archive series. It helps pass the time when feeding the new baby at night, but it’s a bit of a slog. I reread Mark Lawrence Prince of thorns series before this and he seems to have a lot more fun as an author. I would highly recommend him and his various series.… read more “Reading”

I am a farmer with giant water pumps and center pivots that run on 3 phase 480 volt power. One of my pumps has 85 horsepower. I wonder if I could wire up some sort of custom made tea kettle and get water to boil in five seconds? 樂