• 4 Posts
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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 2nd, 2023

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  • There really is no one in control. Not really. There are people and groups with spheres of influence and power. I wish there was an evil illuminati out there in control of things, at least it would be organized.

    Best I can figure, most everyone is faking it. I’ve spent time with CEOs, military officers, rich people, big time evangelists. They’re mostly faking it, some even feel imposter syndrome like normal people do.

    This isn’t to say that they don’t perpetrate great evil, but they’re also not superhuman or super intelligent. Many of them are of average intelligence at best. They’re just lucky or lack morals as we know them, reframing their moral system to excuse their actions. Everyone is the hero of their own story even when they are corrupt to the core. Hitler was a dog lover and vegetarian.

    All this to say, there is no silver bullet for cancer. There is no magic carburator invented in the '70s that gets 100mpg. There is no over unity generator that will provide free power. Somebody would steal those secrets and sell them for millions.

    I half expect that the insurance companies will run the numbers on end of life costs and maintenance costs of disability and still cover the standard schedule of vaccines. Deaths/crippling get expensive enough and they may even require vaccinations to keep insurance.

    The wingnuts in question here likely believe the antivaxx shit, or see enough politcal advantage in parroting it that it has resulted in this. In some sense, the GOP has been too successful, now they are married to the lunatic fringe and have members from that fringe. They’re stuck on this ride as well. Hope they choke on it.


  • His ideas are fantastic. Execution and characterization are spotty. Been a while since I read anything of his, but IIRC, he has a tendency to dip into surrealism or absurdity that feels cringey instead of his artistic target.

    In some ways, it’s similar to a lot of Golden Era SF. You read it for the ideas, not the story.

    I do have a favorable opinion of him and his work. I’d really enjoy Doctorow being paired with a traditional fiction author and both being rode herd by a hardass SF editor.






  • Machinist@lemmy.worldtomemes@lemmy.worldit helps
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    8 months ago

    Sounds like your grandfather was a wise man. That’s a great story!

    Luckily, I’ve never ended up in a survival situation. However, I have a few habits. I keep a fire source or two in my truck, zippo in my jeans. Feel naked without a pocket knife and keep a knife or two in my truck. I also keep a piece of pine heart in my truck bed. Has come in handy many times and I’ve built fires in southern February thunderstorms.

    Taught my kids how to build a one match fire with just a knife and a match when they were in elementary school.

    Also taught them to never go in the woods without a knife, fire, and water. Taught them how to find pine heart. Probably time for a refresher course for my son on fire building.

    I’ve been trying to teach my son how to sharpen knives, but it requires a level of stubbornness that he doesn’t have yet. (I don’t see the point in all those fancy angled sharpeners.) Use a flat stone, diamond preferred for speed and sharpness. You can make any sort of edge you want. Get good, and in a pinch you can sharpen a knife or other piece of metal with a brick or flat rock.



  • Machinist@lemmy.worldtomemes@lemmy.worldit helps
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    8 months ago

    Very nice. Never owned a Benchmade, can’t justify spending that on myself. 😁 I carry Chinese Kershaws, easy to sharpen and I can beat the hell out of them without guilt. I’m a cheap knife person, other than the Victorinox Swiss Champ I also always carry (on my fifth or so). Like Dexter Russell and Mora for fixed blades.

    Any chance you’d share the survival stories?

    Here are our kitchen knives, mostly carbon Dexter Russell:




  • I don’t have a source, but I’ve been hearing for a while now that there is a lot of pseudo science in matching barrels to bullets.

    Polygraphs ended up being pretty much complete bullshit and roadside drug tests are real bad about false positives.

    IDK, it’s basically a tool mark. I’ve looked at those under microscopes. They vary a whole lot when things are running well. I would think you could only really match something if there was a distinctive abnormal feature.


  • Nah. Callous disregard for masking and basic safety precautions in the face of a relatively well understood virus.

    Chump and him being too vain to wear a mask. The corporations that fell right in line with relaxed masking. All the fuckers that got angry with me for wearing a mask in public. I’m talking red in the face, pissed off at me. Willfull ignorance is the greatest sin and I hope they all suffer profoundly before they die shitting their kidneys out of their eyes.