I smell PC policing, where's my rhetorical pitchfork....

...oh it's Andrew Jackson....errm...yeh...never mind, not even going to try arguing that one!

*backs away sheepishly*

These people are witches! I can just about do a shitty vape ring now and again when I really try. Some of the things I've seen others like this chap do always blows my mind a bit.

#vapenation

I could go either way without wider context, I was basing my comments pretty much entirely on my past experience with such people.

However going only off the vid, the couple filming make it clear they hadn't actually paid for the sauces yet, suggesting that the way they asked had caused the conflict if you see what I mean.

i.e. it wasn't withholding already paid for services

When I said entitlement, I really just meant that it seemed like they couldn't handle the idea that they didn't get exactly what they demanded regardless of how they asked or behaved. But it was purely intuition from past experience. Without wider context I couldn't say with any conviction.

I don't have a lot of time for people who conveniently forget you are still a human being just because you work somewhere. I'd always put basic human respect first and never had much time for "the customer is always right" thing if you know what I mean. (I'm not the best guy to hire for such a job as a result)

I think it would be a more civil society if customers were also held responsible for their actions by more companies, but I recognise this is probably hopelessly wishful thinking.

I do recognise that much of our culture is not set up that way, that's why I consider him a braver man than I in some sense. I would just pussy out in favour of economic stability and whatnot.

I would be foolish if I expected things to not work as you have described. But I did feel a little swelling of pride to see the guy appearing to put his dignity before economics. (or just me projecting)

Probably not a smart move, but laudable perhaps in its own little way.
If the job actually matters that much to him, then yes that was clearly self destructive. Though I felt there was a healthy dose of sarcasm when he referred to it as his nestegg. Perhaps I just misread that.

And again, I may just be projecting all of this.

As for the last part, I really just meant that in the grand scheme of things this probably shouldn't matter that much to them. Either they were being assholes, or this guy had bigger problems than they did with his life.

If it had been a habitual problem that could be another matter, but I see no suggestion of that.

Could so easily go the other way, just that the couple instantly set off my "entitled asshole alarm" for whatever reason. It's usually right, but I don't for a moment think it forms the basis of a valid argument. That's why I went to great pains to use only ambiguous language.

I reserve the right to be wrong at all times in life.

Going only off of that vid, I'm inclined to take the managers side on this one.

The couple filming set off my arsehole detector straight away. Far more than he did anyway, though I have nothing to go on other than my experience with such people.

I'm willing to bet the couple instigated it at any rate. There's an air of entitlement about the way they handled the whole thing.

Though as I say, I'm basing this largely on intuition rather than facts. That manager doesn't come across like a guy being an asshole for the sake of it & I've certainly thought about telling customers to fuck off in just such a way in previous jobs. (though I'm a coward and never actually did)

If so, he's a braver man than I and should be commended for putting his self respect ahead of a mere job!

If not then fuck knows, maybe he's an asshole too.

Either way the two filming should probably try to find a little perspective.

Agreed.

They managed to turn a treatise on Nietzsche's abyss and the nature of Anarchy & Fascism; into a one sided fairytale about extreme neo-conservatism vs pseudo-liberal collectivism.

& don't get me started on the fucking "eggy in a basket"!

V is supposed to be a god-damned monster, not a relatable hero.

Reading V after seeing this film was what made me truly understand why Alan Moore wants nothing to do with film adaptations.

A matter of scale, distance & speed. (assuming we are talking about electrically driven engines like ion drives or the proposed EM engine.)

If nothing else, the sun gets weaker the further away you get. Out at the edges of the solar system it's almost negligible.

Given that mass directly effects net thrust & fuel range, smaller craft working in the inner solar system may well be better off sticking with solar over a bulky reactor.

Larger and or longer ranged ships should start to favour fusion reactors and such.

Unless of course they manage to miniaturise the fusion apparatus, or perhaps harness quantum effects like matter/anti-matter. etc. etc.

Surface area to volume ratio also starts to shaft solar power the bigger the ship gets too. The panels would have to get exponentially bigger along with the ship/engines.

I couldn't tell you exactly where, but there will be natural tipping points between the practicality of one over the other.

Edit: The calculation would mostly be the ratio of energy produced to mass of the generating apparatus. The point where a fusion reactor (inc it's fuel) can produce more required power per unit of mass than solar cells (and associated gubbins), is the point where it becomes more efficient for most spacecraft.

Though solar still has a clear advantage where indefinite operational duration is a factor. (fusion requires fuel, albeit in small quantities)

Because the Sun doesn't have a convenient plug socket

There are some pesky logistical problems in harnessing even a fraction of the suns output.

It's not that it can't be done but.......we could instead just make our own fun sized suns like these people are trying to do.

Nothing else could really touch the output of a fusion reactor if (when) they finally nail it.

Not that solar cells wouldn't still have their niches, or a stopgap role in the mean time.

He did indeed. She's a good looking sheep!

They are going for a direct adaptation of the original rubber suit. Stupid grin, tiny arms and massive tail et all.

I'm pretty stoked TBH.

"oooh noh! GOOOOODZZZIIIIIUUUUAAAAA!"

Speaking as a philosophy graduate, Karl is basically my to go guy for philosophy of science.

He cut away of a lot of nonsense in the subject by thoroughly refuting the idea of inductivism, which is unfortunately how most non-scientists seem to think of scientific "truth".

Science can't make true statements, it can only refute untrue statements.

This is the only way for empiricism to get around the problem of induction. (& even then it just avoids the problem rather than solving it)

We don't know the sun will rise tomorrow, but we can attempt to refute theories that suggest that it won't.

Thus any theory which is not falsifiable is not truly scientific.

(I realise I'm restating some of the above, but dammit that expensive university education has to be useful for something!)

It's insanely cheap and potent.

TBH the only way I think it could be nipped in the bud in the west is by legalising heroin to push the price down.

Junkies will find a way. If the easiest way is a drug that will kill & injure them many many times faster than a more costly and harder to obtain alternative, then that's the drug they will gravitate towards.

Much like with the rise of crystal meth.

Crack and heroin require them to maintain a fairly substantial income to fund the habit. Addictions to Crystal and Krokodil can be sustained on a relative pittance.

Agreed. "Talent" I think can be thought of as something akin to enthusiasm, rather than some kind of innate ability.

It's probably true to say that most of us are not cut out to be drummers, or theoretical mathematicians and such.

But I think this is only really because we do not care enough to practice sufficiently, or take enough care and attention in how we go about it to become truly good.

We lack the same "talent", but I don't think there's anything really mysterious about it.

As a matter of pedantry.....Paul knew full well before the Jihad started, that it would spread to the stars.

This was the least fucked up possible future he saw and even though he knew it involved the death of his love Chani, he chose that future over the "golden path".

*Massive spoilers from later books below*
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His second son Leto (yes another one) eventually fulfilled this and basically calls his father a big pussy for avoiding it in the 1st place.

The Golden path being ascent to godhood and becoming the greatest tyrant the human race would ever know. (Worm-man super hybrid)

(The end result being that the human race would finally be free of the fatalism Paul and Leto II were trapped by, by the time his reign ended millennia later.)

I don't think you will be disappointed.

This is a great example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ULm7qrO16I