HelixDab2 @ HelixDab2 @lemm.ee

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2 yr. ago

The NRA gave up their 'jack-booted thugs' rhetoric and started kissing Republican asses when Bush Jr. was president. Bush very publicly renounced his lifetime membership over LaPierre's--very, very reasonable and measured--stance that the feds were shitty people. The NRA caved rather than continue to speak the obvious truth, and they've had a fetish for licking cop boots ever since.

My experience certainly does.

I've worked with some really great people. But maybe 1 in 5 or so was a loudmouthed shitbag, and when you called them on being shitty, they either threatened you, or acted like it was all a joke or a big misunderstanding, and you were at fault for being upset, etc. I can't guarantee that the shitty people I've known have harassed women, but the probability seems high.

Weeelllllll...

We're violating trade agreements with our tariffs. But giving tax breaks to companies that re-shore industry would also likely violate trade agreements, because it would create 'unfair competition'. Kinda like the way that China has given subsidies to certain industries--such as solar panel producers--has created unfair competition, since they have far lower costs than other solar panel producers. As such, tax breaks and incentives would probably also hurt our trade relations, because we would essentially be taking jobs out of other countries. ...But that would probably hurt out relations with other countries far, far less than what we're doing now.

Honestly, there's not a great way to bring manufacturing jobs back in a way that doesn't harm our relationships with other countries, or our national interests in some way. By purchasing shit from companies with lower labor costs/standards of living/higher levels of labor abuse/etc., we've undercut our ability to produce the same goods at a competitive price while also keeping our own standards. Even if we went back to pay ratios between workers and executives that existed 50 years ago (I think that lowest to highest ratio in large companies was about 150:1 in the late 60s), that wouldn't be enough to keep our living standards, avoid labor abuses, and still be competitive with shit we get from China.

This is compounded by the fact that we do have some of this manufacturing in the US, because it's more-or-less required by the Barry Amendment (USC 10 §2533(a)). But the costs are astronomical. Take a backpack made by Mystery Ranch. Their Black Jack 80--identical to the USSOCOM SPEAR Patrol bag they make, just with another name--is $1200. The version that's made in Vietnam and is not Barry-compliant, was about $400. The materials and craftsmanship were substantially identical, but the fabrics were sourced from outside the US, and the manufacturing was done outside the US. There's no reasonable way that the US gov't can subsidize those kinds of costs.

So what's happening here is that the carbonic acid in the carbonated water is curdling the milk. You can get the same effect by adding any acid to milk. If you're cooking, your recipe calls for buttermilk, and you don't have any, you can substitute regular milk that you've added a tablespoon of vinegar to (stir, wait about five minutes before adding).

...Shouldn't that be the other way around...?

Alan Dershowitz has turned into a right-wing hack, making ridiculous legal arguments to defend untenable positions.

Unfortunately most commercial farms aren't putting in what they're taking out, even with the industrial fertilizers. Most of the industrial fertilizers are just nitrogen, potassium, and phosphates, often as a liquid. You are absolutely right that you can't take and never return; that's why in pre-industrial revolution times, people would rotate fields between crops, and lying fallow/being used for grazing (where sheep, cattle, etc. were leaving free fertilizer) You also ended up with fewer years where all your crops got wiped out by a single pest, because you weren't farming just one thing. Efficiency in farming--esp. monoculture--is great for profits, not so great for the land itself.

Good news is that good water treatment plants will pull phosphate out of the waste water.

Eh. High levels of phosphates end up running off fields into waterways, and then you get things like algae blooms. Waste water treatment plants will clean up runoff that goes into the sewers and storm drains, but it's not really cleaning up entire rivers. IIRC, that used to be a much more significant problem; I remember water in rivers near where I grew up--which was all surrounded by farms--often had white, sludgy scum anywhere that the current was forming eddies. If I remember correctly the high levels of that white shit was due to worse regulations governing agricultural run-off.

Under that criteria, there are a grand total of zero areas that can accommodate them. Same goes for dogs.

But that's a stupid criteria, because cats are tamed, and thrive indoors.

Hope that helps.

If someone intentionally caused harm to any of my cats, I live near a large national forest, and once you get a few hundred yards off a trail, no one is going to find a body.

Who tf gets a pet cat and doesn’t let it outside?

People that love their cats and don't want them to die young. Outdoor cats live an average of 2-5 years, indoor-only cats live an average of 10-15 years. By allowing cats outside, they're exposed to pathogens, parasites, and dangers that they wouldn't otherwise experience. In my area, there are coyotes, bobcats, rattlesnakes, hawks, and owls, all of which will quite happily make a meal of a cat. There are also cars; they don't tend to be able to stop on a dime.

fertiliser is applied in tightly controlled doses based on aerial analysis

Gotta say, this should be a huge red flag for everyone. Soil quality is declining sharply, and fertilizers simply aren't making up the difference. Switching to robots farming will almost certainly accelerate this.

Use some Rokset on all your fasteners; the only way to break the threadlocker is with heat, and heat would also destroy the bodywork. So you could still replace damaged panels, but you couldn't steal them.

a) I’m not sure about trusting second hand parts

It's pretty much plug n' play for wiring harneses. If you are placing the replacement while removing the original one, it's hard to go wrong. The wiring harness that I bought for my CBR was a little wonky; the service manual covers 2007-2012, but they made some very minor changes for '11-'12. One of those changes was moving a single pin where the harness connects to the ECU. The result was that I had an engine code--knock sensor malfunction--and I had to re-pin that single wire. It was a bit of a pain in the ass. It was annoying mostly because the person that sold it didn't realize that there was a difference.

Lots of 2nd hand motorcycle parts are just fine. Things that are damaged in crashes are usually catastrophically damaged.

multi-part disassembly and - more critically - correct reassembly challenges me.

That's fair. I'm in the process of trying to turn a naked sport bike into a cafe racer, and just to change the headlight assembly, I need to remove the wheel and then the fork. It should be a 10 minute job, but instead it's several hours. When I was checking valve clearances on my CBR, I ended up having to nearly remove the engine to get to the cam shafts. I hadn't thought I was particularly mechanically inclined, but I guess I kind of am?

I used to have a fairly large collection of skulls that I'd found while walking around in the woods.

Not sure what ever happened to them... Probably lost them in one of my many moves.

I dunno, bourbon is nice too. And it has the benefit of usually being a lot less expensive than a Caol Ila, Bunnahabhain, Ardbeg, or Lagavulin. Rye whiskey is another one.

But Jack Daniels can fuck right off.

As for the suicide attempt, that’s something incredibly heavy for anyone.

The irony is that some of the people I had mistakenly believed were friends were (are, I believe) in an anti-suicide advocacy group. I guess it was easier for them to say the right things than to do the right things. 🤷 Lessons learned, etc.

I wonder where the cool emotionally available people all are?

I met some when I was a member of The Satanic Temple. And then Lucien Greaves/Doug Mesner went full-on authoritarian, I bailed because I'd already escaped from one cult, and the people I knew stayed. Now I'm the out-group, rather than a friend, because group/social identity is harder to let go of than individual friendships. I met some when I was in art school; hopefully the world hasn't beaten that tendency out of them yet.

I suck at making friends

I hear you. It's hard to make plans with anyone now; no one seems to follow through. And without spending time with people, you can't build those bonds of friendship.

My divorce was nine years ago. I got remarried a whopping five days after my divorce (...because that was the statutory minimum time; my ex-spouse had dragged their feet so long with a divorce they initiated that I'd had three serious relationships, met someone, gotten proposed to, and was ready to get married before the divorce was complete). I can say without reservation that my current partner is leaps and bounds better than my ex-partner. I've long ago accepted that many people that said they were friends were not friends, even if it still sticks in my throat. In the time since my divorce, I've lost an average of 1.1 cats per year, and it never gets easy to hold someone that's been a friend and companion for over a decade as they take their last breath.

Am I okay? I'm as okay as I ever get. I've been through therapy multiple times, and I'd probably still go to therapy if insurance was affordable.

Do I have friends? Not really. If I make plans with people too far in advance, they forget and make other commitments. If I try to make plans too late, they're already booked. It's possible that I'm simply unlikeable; I tend to lean that way.

My only point was that, anecdotally, this is the experience that a lot of men have when they try to be emotionally vulnerable and honest with their male friends. Perhaps Gen Z isn't getting this kind of shit; maybe they're able to be more emotional. I kind of doubt it though, because young Gen Z men are trending far more conservative than Millennials, and conservatism isn't friendly towards emotional intimacy among men. I hope that they do better than my generation did.

It also opens buds to help you if they’re up for it.

My experience has been that being emotionally open tends to make people withdraw. Should it be that way? Of course not. Should I get better friends? Yeah, that would be cool, and I wish that was as easy to do as it is to say. I've found that many relationships and friendships end up being somewhat transactional; people are there for the good times, but aren't interested in the emotional labor when shit gets real. I try to be there for people when they're going through shit, but that doesn't seem to be reciprocated.

If I sound bitter, well, I am. And cynical.

A lot of people I had thought were friends ghosted me when I failed to complete suicide and had a 72 hour hold. My ex-spouse held me in utter contempt because I was struggling emotionally. A lot of people I had known for a decade or more ghosted me when my ex-spouse and I were getting divorced; in fact, I only got to keep one friend in that divorce.

I suspect that this is part of the experience of being on the autism spectrum.

Just ask him what he's doing when she makes those noises, because you want to try it out on your girlfriend (or have your boyfriend do it to you, either/or, I ain't gonna judge).