That looks like fun set to that music.

Damn that sarcasm button.

The imagery makes me think of my army service, on the other side of the iron curtain, we used to have a compulsory 2 years (1 year for university graduates after school, fortunately) so all the 18 yo kids got "drafted" for two years, not to war, but you never knew...

Everyone hated to go, hated it while there, it was a total waste of time, buggery, bigotry, boredom, drink and drugs, women, etc.
Everyone counted down the time to go home day by day like in jail.

Yet everyone posed for heroic photographs, preferably with their tanks (our group stood in front of our kitchen :-) and pretended to be manly.

That is how I see Vietnam, scared kids thrown into a difficult to justify war against the local people in a foreign country. Unenviable.

They deserve all the accolades and any help they can be given tenfold. Also they were all heroes if they did not chicken out.

And god bless America (meaning the US of A) if it can come up with a better way to pick wars. Kind of a hint is if you have to "defeat" the whole local population to win, dont start.

I saw this whole movie and its not bad.

The books are great.

You have to believe in something to have a goal in life but you need to pick well.

Justice and mercy (opposites in a way, no?) are IMHO good things to hope for, hoping to prove election fraud is like praying your neighbors goat should die. Morals and politics are a personal choice. Morals are what you hope to be and politics are what you hope the world around you will be.

Pratchett does a good job explaining to kids that its how you change yourself is more important than how you change the world.

The universe offers entropy.

I guess I’m not human by his measure then.

Do people really believe the universe/nature offers justice or mercy?
These aren’t even universal human properties, and they are purely human concepts…. they absolutely aren’t properties of the universe.
The universe is cold, calculating, and impersonal, not a moral, ethical, or empathetic guardian of justice or mercy that cares about you.

I think changing the flow of rain water through puddles is a universal childhood hobby. I can honestly say it has been a few weeks since I tried my hand at intelligent avulsion.

So this is absolutely true:

When I was 14, I wrote the (as far as I can determine) first parser-driven BBS in the world, basically creating the first purpose-driven, "multi-player" online adventure game, with the following caveats:

- Unis had such games themselves, but their access was limited to other university students and not the general public.

- It's also possible that someone else might have done the same thing before me, but I have never found any record of a such a BBS or online game existing prior to 1981.

The name of the BBS was 'New House of Wrath' and it featured a house that you explored via simple verb-noun syntax. Each room in the house was a BBS function (various text games which I wrote myself / a message base / a philez repository / a graffiti wall) as well as a simple underlying adventure in the style of Zork. The whole thing was written in sloppy TRS-DOS BASIC on a TRS-80 Model III and resided within 48k of memory including a primitive DB engine that I wrote. I still have a 8-pin dot-maxtrix print out of the code.

Shortly after my BBS went "online", a couple of multi-line BBSs sprung up, but these were straight BBSs without an overlying structure like mine.

At the time, I thought nothing of writing the BBS other than it was a fun thing to do. 80 Micro, the magazine that covered all things TRS-related, was going to write a story about my BBS, but nothing ever came of it. I ran it until about 1986 when I finally gave up because everyone was going to online service like Compu$erve and Prodigy.

I know I'll never get a single bit of credit for what I did, but I know what I did and I'm proud of my little contribution to the online world; that'll have to be enough.

With the infinite possibilities of life in the universe we could be just a "video game" where some 427 year old child living on a far distant planet or space station is just being entertained with his, her or AI bot choices. Hope this helps.

In a universe of infinite possibilities, how do these things keep getting stuck on a train track, when the train is coming?

Holy sheep shit man! So sorry to hear it.
Was the stomach expansion the only symptom? Are the gallstones related or just an extra fuck you from the universe?
Lots of questions....but for later.

Good luck on the drain and function tests. Do what your Dr tells you, don't fuck around with liver problems.

Glad to hear your wife is almost well....but so sorry your roles of patient/caregiver are reversing.

Good crunchy granola vibes from hippie land. Get well, and keep us updated.

They’re banning materials because they can’t be made without the toxic, easily spread, impossible to remove chemicals, and aren’t ever made without illegal dumping of the byproducts of their creation, according to the reporting….not simply because they share some chemistry.
Everything in the universe shares some chemistry with everything else, chemistry is the mechanism through which matter functions….it gives matter it’s properties.

Lead paint shares chemistry with other lead products….and a chemical. It’s that chemical’s toxicity that makes it appropriate to ban substances that contain it. Same thing here. These materials share a toxic substance (or toxic variant of the same substance). Less toxic substance than lead, sure, but still toxic, and much more widely spread. Contaminating the entire planet. As if we weren’t already in a mass extinction, we feel the need to create more toxic pollution for a tiny bit of convenience.

Perhaps you aren’t bothered by having every waterway near any manufacturer that uses these chemicals becoming toxic for animals and humans forever…most people are bothered by that kind of permanent environmental destruction or degradation.

That’s why humans don’t deserve to survive. As a species, we’re so irresponsibly self centered it’s going to kill the planet and us with it, all for nothing worth having.

Made me wonder, how many steps (geographically/ scale) can be made starting with the universe and ending at a residential address?

(edit)
Universe
Super Cluster
Cluster
Local Group
Solar System
Planet
Continent
Country
State
County
City
Neighborhood
address
(may not apply to everywhere i'd assume)

That's my best stab at it. Do tell if it's not correct in some way.

Again, the universe provides more evidence supporting my argument.....

This week indictments were unsealed against two Republican operatives, Jesse Benton and Doug Wead, for allegedly funneling money from a Russian national to the Trump campaign in 2016.

yes, that is all too true. can be very successful yet be oblivious to the realities around them.

- remember an interview w/Ted Turner, while he was on top in the cable world (CNN was king). when speaking about business matters; very insightful. But when the questions about current affairs came around; he gave his opinion then changed it or said IDK anytime the interview offered a counterpoint.

- in an interview w/Colin Powell, as Sec of State, when the interviewer tried to corner him on how, looking at his GPA in HS and college, he ever made it to a 4-star general? all Colin would do was smile and say (something like) "It's good to be American. It offers many great opportunities to many people." That line of questioning ending in both parties smiling and chuckling.

- had to show our valedictorian how to put air into a tire. watching them struggle was hilarious but made one empathic.

also the belief anyone can become the president of the U.S.A. is both inspiring and terrifying. (as we all know now)

****

seeing this video, and the truth of the above sentence is a reason why education should become one of the top three, if not top, priorities, and quests of this nation. paired w/a universal form of national service* should provide all citizens will the skills to perceive wtf is actually going on.

*a former military serviceman, back from Iraq, noticed that Congress has far fewer former service members in their ranks since the early '80s. he noted in the military there are many ilks of service personnel, but they all work toward one goal. they have to - or they fail. reading this, have to believe - like Bush, Sr and Clinton both agreed on - that all Americans should put in some form of national service . since it'd foster a better understanding of other Americans: how they lived, how they were raised, their beliefs, the challenges they must face...i.e. see more than what's outside your 'bubble'.

this idea and a couple of other GREAT bipartisan ideas have waned since 9/11 but it'd be a hell of a fix.

* * * * realizing have wandered off the trail * * * *

or more concisely; to your point...

a body might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but any tool can become useful.

Not sure I understand. Neither article dealt with common sense, only that people with high iq's often aren't what most would consider "successful" and rarely fit in in a world that values predictable uninspired thinking and those who take the road more traveled over intelligence and unique thought processes.
I could be Steve from the second article if my IQ was 46 points higher. His mannerisms sound just like me, except I don't limit my references to three movies. I went to college for over ten years with no plan for any degree...but accidentally qualified for a general science degree anyway. I've never seen a successful career as the road to happiness, so many successful professionals are miserable...same goes for wealth. I've always thought, when you find yourself in want of something, don't ask the universe to give you more, ask it to help you want less. That road leads to contentment and happiness. Does that mean I have more, or less common sense than average? It definitely makes me abnormal, many would say unsuccessful....I think they measure success wrong.

In Seattle, there's a shipping canal that cuts through the Ballard, Fremont and University districts, each spanned by a single drawbridge, any of which MUST be opened if ANY boat traffic requests it. There's a time between 4pm - 6pm where they won't open the bridge, but one minute after 6, if you're not across you just turn off your engine and watch every entitled prick in the PNW putt their boat down the canal. Bridge opens, 10 minutes pass, bridge closes again. All along the canal. Backing traffic up to the fucking moon and it takes about 15 minutes to clear. Which works out wonderfully because the bridge often has to open 10 minutes after it just closed. At first, it's a novelty to see the bridge open. Then it's meh. Then it's the bane of your fucking existence. You start to whimper and sweat when you hear the two-minute horn and the ding-ding-ding of the gates coming down. Then come sthe white-hot fury directed at anyone who has the gall to come down the canal at exactly 6:00:01 and block traffic for the next 47 years. Hate. Hate. HATE!!!

The NOAA ships, mega-yachts and ships going to the yards are kind cool, 'tho.

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE!!!!!!

I'd just like to point out for the record that Steam has 10 games where a fox is the protagonist and only one where it's a cat. This means foxes are 10x better than cats. Cats are 10x better than people, leading to the inescapable conclusion that foxes are 100x better than people. Using advanced AI modeling, the universal constant of people being 100x better than Republicans equates to foxes being 100x . . . uh . . . hmmm . . . lotsa numbers there. Ok, to keep things simple, let's just say foxes are a million times better than everything else in the universe.

In short, if you want to be a better person -- or better anything -- be a fox.

But fuck off because we're closed.