I'm currently a fan of Eluktronics. I haven't used their lower-end models near that $1k price point, but the two MECH-15 models I use have been fantastic.
More like 375 million years, about the middle Devonian period.
Tangentally: for millions of years after plants started using lignin as a structural material the decomposers couldn't break it down very effectively, so for like 60 million years lots of that tough plant material stacked up into deep layers and eventually turned into coal.
If the defendant fails to show up the bondsman has to pay the court the entire amount
I'm curious, does the bondsman actually give the court cash, or just guarantee that they will if the defendant doesn't show?
And if that is the case, do they bond out more people than they actually have cash to cover, knowing that it is unlikely that they'll ever have to cover all those positions?
There was a plan? Someone could have told me about that 40 years ago!
Seriously though, yeah, I guess. Not completely a traditional plan since I skipped the whole university and singles life part and instead went right to work, got married and had kids (which turned out great, kids all moved on to do their own stuff by the time I was 40, so now I have money and health at the same time, which would be pretty cool if I had some time).
TBH neither my partner nor I give a flying fuck about traditional anything, we just kinda do what sounds like fun and isn't too likely to fuck things up for future us. Not a whole lot of long-term planning going on over here.
That's what I've been wondering too. I keep seeing people complaining about ads, but I use Edge (and Firefox) with Bing regularly on an up-to-date Win 11 system and I'm not seeing anything like that.
Maybe they've got demographic targeting that I don't fit into or something.
No, I agree that allegiance is a behavioral motivator, but I think it is distinct from loyalty and that people tend to conflate the concepts (similar to how people sometimes conflate or confuse infer/imply and borrow/lend).
Loyalty, a behavior, can be observed; allegiance, a commitment (maybe supported by emotion, maybe not), cannot.
For me, it's not even that. Loyalty is not owed, nor is it earned. It is nothing more than a description of behavior.
Think of it this way: I always do my grocery shopping at Target instead of Walmart, even if I see that something is slightly cheaper at Walmart I'll still most likely go to Target for it. Some might see that and say, "Look, he has loyalty to Target", assuming that I shop at Target because I am loyal to that brand. But that's backwards. Really it is that I can be described as 'loyal' because I consistently go to that brand. 'Loyalty' is a description of the behavior, not the cause of the behavior.
it can be used against you
Only if you have bought into the coercive bullshit that 'loyalty' is itself a reason to do something. Employee or customer loyalty is nothing more than an observation that people consistently support the company. That loyal behavior is seen because those people consistently have reasons to support the company. If you observe that people are loyally supporting your company, that is because they have reasons to do so (for example, you might be paying them to show up and do shit. Or maybe they think the shit they are doing is important or fun).
People who want something from you for less than it is worth will try to convince you that loyalty is something you owe them or that they have earned from you because if you believe the lie that loyalty is a reason for action that makes it easier to get you to give them something for free.
IMO acting out of loyalty is never good. That is a backwards application of the concept intended to make you to act against your own interests.
Some people like to flip the idea of loyalty around from a description of behavior to a reason for behavior as a method of manipulating other people.
Like, if people see me consistently supporting my friends even when that is difficult they might think I'm 'loyal', but that's backwards. I'm not supporting them because I am loyal, I support them because I like them and want them to succeed (and hopefully they'll support me too). If someone wants loyalty from me, that's an immediate red flag that tells me they either don't understand why I do things, or they don't care and just want me to do whatever they want.
Yep, two simple mechanical knobs is easily the best microwave oven interface. Although I do like the fancy Samsung microwave I have that is almost completely silent and lightweight, I think it uses an inverter instead of a chonky HV transformer. I wish I could get a combo of that inverter with a couple of simple knobs for controls.
I'm currently a fan of Eluktronics. I haven't used their lower-end models near that $1k price point, but the two MECH-15 models I use have been fantastic.