Poe wrote a thing called The Pit and the Pendulum, which you may enjoy.

At this point Putin has no choice but to keep the war going. His economy is sliding, and has been, and all that’s propping it up is the switch to a wartime economy. Take that away and the whole house of cards collapses. So I don’t give two shits what he says about anything regarding all this. He’s stuck with no moves left.

Oh, and his population has been crashing for years. And now Russia is losing a solid chunk of healthy young men. Remember Putin creating a national holiday years ago? Everyone was to stay home and fuck. I’m not making this up. Haven’t heard about it for a long time. Anyone?

(You meant feet per second.)

People seem to think it should have torn his ear clean off. Bullets can barely nick things.

LOL, if they showed a 5.56 bullet at actual size people wouldn’t believe it’s so tiny.

This is not a typical home or office printer, very specialized.

cultural differences do exist

And a great many cultures didn’t give a shit about homosexuals. The meme is about our modern culture’s misinterpretation of older cultures. And speaking of history and culture, if you think you’re being persecuted now, oh boy, you should have been gay in 80s. We’ve come a long way in a few short decades.

What’s really surprising to me is how patient most cops are. I always said I couldn’t be a cop because my temper would involve beating dumbshits with a baton.

Look, I hate pigs far more than most of you guys. And I have personal experiences/reasons going back decades. But sometimes watching my wife’s cop show I’m screaming, “Just beat his fucking ass!”

Same goes for judges. Spent a night or two watching sovcits in court. Heysus, were I a judge I would bounce them out on their ear the second they starting talking that shit.

In case I get called a boot licker, and I will, here’s my latest cop story.

For brevity let’s just say I had words with my MAGA neighbor. No threats, well, except for him stomping down the street to kick my ass and me quietly walking inside for my Colt .45. This motherfucker call the cops on me! (First one to call wins. Every. Time. Remember that. I should have called first, but didn’t think some yelling would come to that. Fucking MAGA pussy.)

Pigs show up dressed in their finest Hugo Boss black and one fat fuck is trying to get me to talk. I would not, except to state that no threats were exchanged and that’s all he needs to know. Pig threatens to get a warrant and arrest me for “causing a public disturbance” if I don’t allow him to violate my 5th amendment right to STFU. I STFU, nothing happened, because of course it didn’t. Because I STFU.

Got me thinking on this meme.

Been saying for years, the Cambrian was life testing what would work. See also: 1910-1920s mechanical inventions.

At that point I thought it was an Onion article.

“Chinese people like pork, right?! And they like coffee! See where I’m going with this?!!!”

All true! But the profits still get siphoned off elsewhere. My Lowe’s employs us locals, but the hardware store downtown doesn’t exist to provide shareholder value.

Again, you’re right. Non all non-local sellers are evil capitalists, hell bent on making us poor.

I cannot see any difference. (Firefox on Windows.)

Thanks! Didn’t realize FOV was painful in even the best systems.

Maybe I’ll try this one when I have money again. Any thoughts on that? Never had thermal anything, but that would be neat.

21 is a weird age. From the outside I seemed fine, but the inner turmoil was like going through puberty again. And the same happened at 29 or so! I thought, “Am I going to go through this shit every seven years for life?!”

Sounds like your problem is self confidence, and while I’m healthily confident, I’m certainly not qualified to say much. When I’ve gotten down in the past I’ve taken a step back and worked on my appearance. That’s all on you and doesn’t depend on others. The nicer you look, the better people treat you and that blooms confidence.

Looking good isn’t as hard as people make out. No, you don’t have to be rich. Can you get your teeth whiter, lose weight, catch a bit of sun, dress better, exercise, do something with your hair? I’ve noticed in life that the vast majority of us could easily be more attractive with a little work, and it’s a truly rare person I’d consider “maxed out”, no room to improve.

Any of that make sense?

Maybe I don’t notice because I’m in the deepest South. Trees don’t dump all at once, it’s a gradual thing from fall through spring. All I ever see is landscapers doing a quick blow down after mowing.

Also, we’re not so much into appearances down here, not like other places I’ve lived. Your yard doesn’t have to be perfect.

SOAP calls

Now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time.

CO2 is a non-issue in open places with people around. The one gas our bodies detects well is CO2. If there’s even a tiny percentage higher than background, people are going to quickly notice.

How odd! Everywhere I’ve voted in OK, IL and FL had pretty much the same setup, basically a 1/8th scale, standing office cubicle. You got me thinking, I’d be surprised to see anything else!