I don’t see how Vt state government can address the massive consolidation in algorithmic rental pricing. They don’t have the reach or power. Sure they can address smaller issues such as short term rentals and barriers to development, but those arent the main drivers of the broader housing issues.

I still maintain that it requires regulation of corporate landlords and their pricing practices. That’s an issue for national legislators.

Nimbyism is one of the top two or three causes of this, for sure. Boomers pulled up the ladder on a lot of stuff.

Affordable on a median Vermont wage would be a good measure. I think most federal agencies use 30% of gross income.

I'm two weeks out and still dealing with severe left side pain with no explanation. Currently going thru tests. I'm also vaxed btw.

Its just infuriating how horrible this has been and still is being handled..

Im glad you're well now.

No. See the comment with sources. Read.

And the crazy part is those resources- we already had a lot of them! We have access to JSTOR, and a ton of researching resources. I don't know how all of that will be affected with the merger.

I really don’t need/want to hear this stuff. I’m just glad to have gotten over covid. My doctor did not believe that I was immuno-compromised and I plan share my experience with him. It was shortness of breath, nausea, abdominal pain and I think diarrhea. I went back to masking and continue to mask in public spaces.

We're not, we're just telling you how much you have to pay in taxes. If it's too much you'd be free to sell.

This is where VT is at. We should not cater to wealthy outsiders and end up with no workforce as result of it.

I mean whatevr makes us feel better about the hell we live in now.

Yikes

I mean they bascially said the vaccines only work for a couple months and are really only good for short term in high risk or elderly.

Not to mention the FDA going after Moderna for withholding information that the boosters aren't even made for the new strains and basically was a waste.

Hunh, that's interesting - I work in healthcare and my institution has us return to patient-facing work regardless of positive or negative follow-up test results on Day 6. The caveat is no eating or drinking around anyone and remain masked at all times, which is harder than it might seem.

Highly disagree. There are more who share this deluded belief and likely are (still) unvaccinated in the US. Doesn’t help that it’s still mutating.

I think those people should be blasted into the sun but that's not why covid is still around...

I heard this story on NPR back in November. Apparently this has been happening nationwide, and in some cases, at least, the perpetrator is outside the US.

They will still have their journal database subscriptions to lend out, but that doesn't cover a commitment to books. I do wonder how much of an increase there was to database costs with the merger. A school that size easily pays 100k for EBSCO's academic search complete, so I can only imagine the costs for Sage, ScienceDirect, and JSTOR. Hope their database budget is at least 500k!

They meant it in a don't go near anyone and mask way. But that could very well just be in the medical setting.

This last time with covid it didn't feel like the other times at all and im still dealing with major digestive issues and crazy pain in my left side they can't explain.

Right, thats a really good point. They kept reiterating that "the interlibrary loan will still exist", but how will they accomplish that if they can only take and not give?

Did your doc's office say the 5-day rule was garbage from an infection prevention standpoint or from a "people aren't recovering in 5 days" standpoint? I am getting over my second case of COVID and tested negative six days after symptom onset. Still followed the 5-day quarantine guideline and have been masking religiously around everyone who hasn't also had it in the past month/only eating or drinking when alone. The CDC is saying if you have two negative tests 48 hours apart you can stop masking before day 10, but I didn't bother repeat testing since I was going to be masking religiously either way.

Even though I'm not a danger to others, I am still operating at about 60-75%. It was like this the first time I got COVID, although that time it took until right around day 10 to test negative and I was bedridden for a solid week. Guess the previous infection and bivalent booster gave me a little edge.

There are a lot of other factors at play too. Not sure how they will get around reciprocal lending and borrowing agreements for interlibrary loan when you have no physical books to lend out. There are two virtual private colleges in the state and even they maintain their physical collections partially for this reason.

I know quite a few people from the south. Usually, they're indoctrinated to believe the civil war was about "states rights" to which I always add, "to own slaves." This is met with outrage and typically I've gaslit them. Not to say you're not right, but in my own experience that's typically not the case(That they would want slavery again). Although these people are from larger southern cities so maybe that changes it?

I think generally the supporters of the confederacy would like to pretend it's about supporting state autonomy, and I think a lot of Vermonters might agree with the idea of "keep the damn government out". But you can't make a strong case when you then go around being a complete asshole to an entire group of the population.

That's like saying you don't need a daddy or mommy to supervise you then when they turn their back for a second you shove a kid into the sandpit. Maybe you don't, but how can you argue that if you're being irresponsible? Of course, when THEY get pushed into the sandpit you're running to ask Daddy Tru-*cough* the government to help punish the bully.

At the end of the day, I find it appalling and frankly abhorrent when I see confed flags up here. It boils my blood until I remember that's EXACTLY what they want. In my mind, there is absolutely no doubt its treason, its hateful, and the people should be imprisoned somewhere in Texas at a work camp for 40 years.

But like... thats just my opinion man.

When are more folks gonna realize the cops are nothing but a state-sanctioned gang?

Exactly! Thank you so much for your point of view. This doesn't save ANY money, in fact its going to cost so much more. The only money "saved" is from the librarians they want to lay off in July. The cost of removing all of the books, and the shelves, and remodeling the area would be so much more than what they would "save"

Also want to point out that digital books are more expensive than physical copies. A library license for an unlimited user textbook can easily top $500. How will this save any money when you can get multiple copies of the same book physically?