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Cake day: June 30th, 2023

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  • Also the personality and self-control of the person taking it. Like are they the type to say, “no thanks, I only do coke on special occasions” or the type to say “wow, that line felt amazing, I’d like to feel that way all the time!” Because that can throw out all former plans regarding quantity.





  • Ironically, the dark side of the moon is lit a bit more than the light side. Dark side is gonna be almost exactly half of the time, light side is a bit less because it’s the side facing the sun during lunar eclipses.

    Same argument for the dark side of the moon getting more light than the earth because of solar eclipses (if we’re comparing % light coverage, not total photons).



  • That miserable cunt would have been more likely to grab that chicken sandwich from your hands, add the spice to soaps so it always hurts to masturbate, and insist you eat something specifically made to taste as bland and boring as possible. Followed by getting his soap company hostilely taken over because his business partner realizes he’s a fucking idiot that a) one shouldn’t be in business with and b) is too focused on puritanical bullshit to prevent a hostile takeover.


  • I have a mini fridge purchased new early 00s that I recently left unplugged for a day or so to melt the ice buildup on the freezer.

    Not that I’m happy with the overall state of appliances these days, but the reality is that technology is still improving, but some of those “improvements” aren’t for the buyer’s benefit (while others are). And there’s plenty of plain old cheap shit in a nice brushed stainless steel package to make it look high end.

    Like induction stoves and convection ovens weren’t really a thing in the 80s but imo are way better than what came before. But, despite being a convection oven, the cheap one the developers picked for my place is the worst oven I’ve ever used. And I’m hesitant to “upgrade” because, despite knowing they can be better, there’s a good chance whatever I end up getting won’t, or make will be at first but will start degrading rapidly from day 1 such that it’s shitty by the time the warranty runs out.

    That is the big difference between modern and older appliances. The older ones were made in good faith, the newer ones are a gamble because we have an economic system based on greed and it has progressed a lot since the 50s.



  • I don’t think I’d be able to agree with that last sentence. Like if our universe is contained within another one and there’s no way for us to “escape” the constraints of this universe to test that, it wouldn’t be less true, it’s just not knowable through any real means. Best we can do in that regard is either choose to believe it or not or leave our mind open to the possibility that it may or may not be the case.

    It’s kinda like your other point except applied to things well beyond our senses and any additional ways to measure things via science. Whatever is going on outside of this is still going on whether we know about it or not.

    Though in all the thinking about it, entertainment is one of the top reasons I can think of for why we might exist. It’s the only non-circular one that has occurred to me (ie, the others tend to beg the question “if this is for something else, then what is that something else for?”, and we circle back to where we started, just with a bigger picture of what’s up). Though circularity doesn’t imply it is wrong or incorrect, it’s also possible we are in an arbitrarily deep set of nested simulations, each trying to reveal information about the sim one layer up to the simulants in that layer while those one layer above them watch to see what they figure out.

    And this isn’t an anti-science stance, I just think that there’s a bunch of things that are unknowable (to us with our current limitations, at least, as another part of my pet idea is that we created this to entertain ourselves). And, no, despite my name, I don’t think spirituality can give any answers, though it can make a lack of answers more comfortable, and philosophy does have much wisdom to offer (which is more why I chose this name because enlightenment is real, though it doesn’t turn you into some all-knowing guru and has many forms).



  • In my experience, the paper wasp description applies to the yellow jackets. They are fairly common around outdoor eating areas around here, especially near the garbage cans. I find they mostly just check out the food, though they will check you out, too, and will sometimes get right into your face, but I’ve found a good way of reclaiming your space is to slowly push them away. You probably won’t even make contact with them while you do so because they react fast.

    Though I’ve also noticed that they (and bugs in general) are more interested in some people over others and I’m lucky to be on the low interest to bugs side of the spectrum.


  • In addition to what the other commenter said, there’s some luck of the draw, too. There were three forms of it, having to do with how you were infected. Bubonic was one, associated with sores and boils on the skin, caused by flea bites. Pnumonic was a lung infection, which could spread directly via droplets. And septemic was the blood infection version, usually happening as one of the others progressed.

    Bubonic only killed about 40-60% of those who showed symptoms, while pnumonic and septemic killed 90-100% of those who showed symptoms.

    So to get infected at all, you needed either to be bitten by an infected flea, share air with someone who has pnumonic, or share fluids with someone that has bubonic (specifically the pus from the sores) or septemic (the blood, though maybe other fluids too).

    Some managed to avoid these entirely. Others could have had lower exposures to the point where they didn’t develop symptoms. If someone gets infected but the infection doesn’t get established enough to become stable, they often don’t get treated any differently from people who weren’t infected at all. Those death rates only apply to those that they knew had it (though sometimes death rates are given per population rather than infected, and those tended to vary wildly in infected areas, from like 50% to 80%).

    With viruses, at least, asymptomatic infection seems to be far more common than we would have thought. Both ebola and covid antibody studies showed that the antibodies were found in many who never got sick, implying they were exposed but their immune system beat it before symptoms showed up.

    Bacteria isn’t necessarily the same, but it’s possible that something like this is a factor and those might have even developed some immunity. Plus, natural selection would select for people who are just less susceptible to it while it’s out there killing off a significant part of the population.


  • I guess you’re forgetting the time Elon Musk smashed his cybertruck window while demonstrating how indestructible it is?

    Or the time that guy who was told his submarine design was stupid because fibreglass is strong under tension but still took it down to the bottom of the Atlantic multiple times until it crushed him along with some idiots that must have thought it was fine because it had been down and back before?

    Didn’t some politicians drink Flint water to try to “prove” it was safe?


  • The sai one looks practically unusable, too. Thinking of the usual angle I use to cut pizza, the crossguards will get in the way.

    I see this as a great taste, horrible execution. Especially because the one executed the best would have been better as a katana rocker cutter (which the staff isn’t, as a stick with a cutter in the middle is completely different from a single curved blade, to disagree with the other commenter).

    A good set would have been katana rocker cutter, sai cutter (with a longer center blade and a smaller circular blade), a staff dough roller, and I guess nunchuck grain thrasher or maybe parmesan cheese and crushed pepper shakers. But I’ve always been a function over form kinda guy and hate artistic choices that completely ignore function.