Semisimian

He seemed to be taken by surprise at the blowback from Riyadh. His reasoning was “the governments can suck, but the people are great. I perform for the people.” It’s a viewpoint convenient to his wallet, but now he doesn’t really bring it up.

He still sees his job is to speak truth to power and always punch up, not down, but I believe he is also ignorant of the totality of the Saudi’s evil. I’d rather try to bring him over to us than cast his voice aside.

It’s “too many people,” so that, by definition, is past the optimal amount.

A 35 year old song posted 18 years ago and I was there for both.

This is the 1st I’m hearing about Walter. I’m glad it is this meme. ARgHHHrAARHggHH!

I was a Scout in the 90s. The pedophilia allegations were rampant back then, too. And the beginnings of the christo-fascist movement. And (in my troop) the paramilitary indoctrination. I lobbied all of my frustrations to my parents who made me stay in until Life, just before Eagle. I think they figured I’d just go ahead and finish it out. Nope.

I got SO many valuable life lessons from Scouts, but the organization itself is so disgusting it is hard to fathom. The dads that were there to help were great! The merit badges are simple paths to learning new skills. Friends your age sharing an experience, commiserating with boys at a fucking brutal time in your life, all good! But even with all that value, I still saw the organization for what it was. I got what I could out of it, but how can you reconcile the comradery you feel with the pain the Scouts are causing others?

Boys need a safe space.

I think of this every time I feed my dog the last of the tuna can: a wolf chasing down a fish at 60 mph.

From the article: “There are recent signs that the gradual decline in church attendance has leveled off. For the first time in 25 years, the number of people attending in-person worship in the US has increased.”

The article also says that about 100 million people (30%) attend a weekly service in the US nowadays. They talk about the heyday of the mid 20th century where 50% of Americans attended a weekly service. The population of the US in 1950 was 150 million. So that’s 25 million more people attending church today.

So why are all the smaller churches closing? The article (and possibly the PBS doc) fails to place some of the blame on the congregation capture of mega churches and how politics has driven people into these behemoths. I know that is what’s happening where I live in the South. They have a large sanctuary and expand that with an enormous online presence. How else can we have more Church goers and less churches?

For your interest in cultural history, I think that Budapest would win, as it has been a crossroads for centuries. For environmental studies, Iceland would win hands down. They are global leaders in that field.

Something that has not been mentioned yet is that Budapest is rather large, with a metropolitan population of over 2 million. The entire country of Iceland has under 400K people. Iceland is remote and feels remote. To me, that’s perfect. Your results may vary.

It sounds like by “quality” you are talking about the physical fragility of the CD. True, a more modern format might be nice, with a bump to 24 bit depth. I would want something a little more collectible than a thumb drive though.

I say this as an avid CD buyer who rips full quality to a Plex server. Also download from Bandcamp.

My country-listening kid has heard the song and wonders who is streaming it. Not popular in their friend group. This is the first I’ve heard of Ella. 🤷

The concept described here is what us homebuilders call “make up air.” In a tight envelope, when you need to exhaust air, you have to forcibly introduce fresh air to make up the difference. Otherwise your envelope (home) will sit in a vacuum and air won’t move anywhere.

Usually, there is only one window in a bathroom. If you have a fan, turn it on and open the window and it should disappate quickly. If you only have the window and no fan, punch a hole through the drywall to the next room, preferably close to the baseboard for optimal airflow. I assume you are at your “special friend’s house” and trying to hook up. Wait a few minutes and it should clear. Hope this helps!

Put as much money into your index funds and don’t stop until October 13th, 2026. Then convert it all to cash.

Penned by Karin Larsen, a sports reporter. I wonder if this is in her neighborhood and she likes to go fast.

But honestly, a good temporary strategy. These barriers are a stop-gap measure to slow down cars, but they aren’t good urban planning. What they do well is disrupt the norm and look ugly. It gets people on board for when a good plan comes along. I’ve seen it happen in my city over and over again. What I don’t know is if the city planners are fully aware of the strategy.

“On Monday, Queensland will become one of the first jurisdictions in the world to require a driver’s licence to ride an ebike in public.”

This is AI slop. Please remove.

Should be “shonetines I git shad.”

“prospective”

You sly dog.

Here’s a link to the novel if you’re interested: https://a.co/d/01DIl9oB

When evolution says “no notes.”

I am in construction (not manufacturing) and own my own business. Truth is, they are both right.

Rodney is right because there are a huge number of variables that the prof’s equation is ignoring. Also, it is generally a good idea to know what you are manufacturing and work to produce that product as efficiently as possible. The professor is sort of putting the cart before the horse by building a factory with no product.

That said, we are in a learning environment and seemingly in a lower-level class. You have to strip away real-world variables to teach the lessons at hand. The professor is right not to include corrupt politicians and mafia folk, it’s too much when you are trying to start with the basics. But he should’ve had the class decide on a product - he said it himself, it could be anything - and then build up from there.

Mafia payoffs are a 300 level course.