Sure, it’s odd, but I’d rather that than the lung cancer from cigarettes

My favorites are the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Went to see them re-released in theaters earlier this year for the 25th anniversary.

Anyone who hasn’t seen it before, go read Tolkien’s letter to the nazis when he wanted to publish the hobbit in Germany.

I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-Iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people

It’s all to make a buck but it still counts

At least in some countries, weddings legally have to be an open invitation. The idea is anyone who has an objection needs to be able to bring it.

Big scary noise. Imagine being a footman walking into battle, then hearing a sound like a mountain falling over, then a dozen men in your formation fall over dead while a cloud of smoke erupts from behind the enemy pike wall. I’d be pretty concerned.

But in terms of killing effectiveness, bows at the time were better.

Guns replaced bows because they became better weapons. The reason people developed guns is because they saw potential, and because the loud bang bang noise is scary, not because they were better at killing than bows.

Yahoo: welcome to the club

the fediverse is too complex to free people from centralized stuff

Not really, people understood email just fine, and fediverse isn’t that different. The problem is there’s a major subtle push to make anything open source look way more complex than it is. It’s basically an open secret that microsoft did this with linux, and I’d be shocked if social media companies aren’t doing the same.

it’s extremely biased towards leftism

That’s inevitable. Anything foss will appeal far more to the anti corporate/ anti capitalist leftist people.

The difference is that plastic does genuinely have good uses

I don’t agree that the concept of “winning an argument” should exist, at least in most cases. Arguments should be a cooperative thing, where you’re working together to come to a point that you both agree on. Treating it as something that one person wins and the other loses removes all the learning that could happen.

That said, there are times when one person refuses to cooperate. At that point, I try to learn about their position as much as I can, and if there’s a potential audience like in a comment section, I’ll say my piece then leave.

He ends up playing this

This is from someone who got married in January this year.

The main part of marriage is the commitment to always choose to love your partner. To clarify, I’m using the word ‘love’ here as meaning “want what they want, and always do what’s best for them regardless of the cost to yourself”. You’re promising to always be the first person they can count on, no matter what happens. It’s not a promise to always like them, although that definitely helps and it’s difficult not to when there’s mutual love.

And for those that believe in this, marriage is an example of the love between God and his people.

Sure, the legal part exists, and I’d say it can sometimes be a good thing, but I don’t see that as core to a marriage. Really, if you both agree to be committed to loving each other forever, I’d say you’re married in the way that really matters.

If you know their address, sign them up for a scientology newsletter. It’s borderline impossible to convince them to stop

The usual complaint: American democrats are shit and don’t deserve your vote.

And the usual response: I agree, but what alternative are you suggesting? Not voting, or voting third party in fptp means you’re choosing to have less impact than you otherwise would.

Also, for context: I’m not American, I just have an understanding of current events. I’m not a liberal, I’m very much a leftist, but also a realist.

A. A “good rich person” is fundamentally unstable. When push comes to shove, they will either remain good or remain rich, not both.

B. Good people have principles, so they’re less likely to be willing to bribe public officials, even if they’re doing something good with it.

Done that before pretty much. It’s not hard. Use a bowline or some other loop knot to make a pulley between the loop and the anchor point, then go back and forth until you run out of rope, then tie it off.

Sure, ratchet tie downs are easier and probably get a tighter hold, but rope works fine.

Not my current town, but the town I grew up in.

In short, volcanoes. The town in built next to a lake. The biggest lake in the country. The lake is a caldera crater, from one of the biggest volcanic eruptions ever that we know of. And fun fact, it’s still slightly active, and several hundred years overdue.

I’d honestly rather not sell that sort of thing. The only reason I would is so I could spend my working hours making that and still be able to afford to eat. If that wasn’t an issue, I’d rather give my work away for free.

Panama makes some sense, because of the loch system. Each ship that passes takes a lot of their drinking water, and they don’t need to bomb ships to stop them passing.