“You don’t come here for the hunting, do you?”

Nuke it from orbit.

It’s the only way to be sure.

I guess I’d recommend watching Banshee.

In the years before the US existed, when the land was colonized by European powers, Europe had a lot of really annoying, prudish types who were a major downer.

Someone had the bright idea to encourage them to move to the colonies where they could live their prudish existence free from the naked bodies of Europe.

We ended up with all of Europe’s biggest prudes. Europe’s prudes have been trying to reestablish themselves, but they are at a serious disadvantage. Meanwhile, we in America have to deal with an overwhelming population of prudes that we’ve struggled for centuries to extinguish​.

While we’re on the subject, Europe also found it convenient to dump their criminals here. So we end up with a culture in which full frontal nudity is unacceptable, but gun violence is just fun entertainment.

I say that as someone who loves some good violence. Nothing quite so enjoyable as living vicariously through some bad ass beating the snot out of the bad guys in a movie.

I never would have thought of myself as a prude, but recently stopped watching the series Banshee because the amount of gratuitous sex in the show was exceeding the amount of gratuitous violence to such a degree that I began to feel uncomfortable.

Also you need to love licorice and sauna, that’s a rule

TIL I’m Finnish.

Your concern seems strange to me.

Looking at “British” for example, you’re taking about four culturally diverse groups (English, Welsh, Scottish, and Irish). “Ethnically British” doesn’t really make sense.

That doesn’t even consider the multitude of people from everywhere around the world who are British and perfectly comfortable identifying as such.

Why would anyone bother with sanctions? Nothing a foreign government could do would be worse than what our own is doing.

Just wait it out and hope you manage to find a way to secure our nukes after everything disintegrates.

I’m aware of an effort to get LLM AI to summarize medical reports for doctors.

Very disturbing.

The people driving it where I work tend to be the people who know the least about how computers work.

We’re monkeys with COMPUTERS!!!

My first cat was born as a barn cat, so outside was all he knew. Then, as a kitten, he managed to get both his front legs broken. When my dad found him he was running around on his elbows, and my dad was barely able to catch him.

My dad made the worst mistake you can make as a father, and brought the injured kitten home and let me see him, hold him, and feed him. He wouldn’t eat anything we gave him until we soaked kitten food in milk until it turned to mush, then put it on my arm and let him lick it off. At that point, my parents had to find a vet to fix him.

It wasn’t easy, but they managed to find someone who would fix him. His front legs were never really right, but he got around ok, and he lived decades longer than any of his siblings.

He was one of the smartest cats I’ve known, and the one thing he made absolutely clear at all times was it was better to be a 100% indoor cat. He would have considered any cat that “escaped” their home to be mentally defective.

So, let your cat know to follow the wisdom of Gimpy. The lure of the outdoors is a lie.

Parrot

You are correct. It relates to the torque (rotational force) that can be produced at different RPM.

Diesel engines have a narrow range of RPM where the torque is highest. At low RPM, the torque of a diesel engine is low. That’s why trucks have to shift into a low gear to start moving and shift multiple times to get up to speed. The driver uses the different gears to keep the engine running within the optimal range of RPM.

Electric motors have high torque at low RPM, so they can start a heavy load moving without having to have any complicated gearbox between the motors and drive wheels.

In a diesel-electric locomotive, the diesel generator can be designed to run at an efficient speed without being affected by the mass of the train. The electricity it generates powers the electric motors which have the necessary torque to handle moving the train.

You now have to lug around a LOT of both fuel and water, instead of just water and dry coal. Water and oil are both heavy by comparison to coal when lugging a train car of it around.

I think you’re making an assumption there. You would need to consider energy density of the fuel. Diesel fuel has almost twice the energy density of coal. For the same trip, the weight of the diesel fuel you would need for an oil-fired steam engine would be just a little more than half the weight of coal needed for a coal-fired steam engine.

Also, delivering the diesel fuel to the boiler would require a less complex mechanism and/or less workers than coal.

I’m not sure if your focus is on the printing or the designs. Personally, I’m really only interested in the designs. I’m not one of the people that enjoys tinkering with a flakey device trying to coax a result out of it. The printer is only a means to an end for me.

So, I’ve got some things I printed using my FDM printers, but generally what I’m most pleased with was printed through an online service.

So, here’s a ring I made a few years ago (printed via shapeways):

I’ve never worked for a for-profit company since I graduated college. There is variation in non-profit employers, but there are some that are great places to work.

I got a job at a university after graduation (different university than where I got my degree), and I worked there in different departments until I took a job in the university hospital. I’ve worked here for more than 25 years.

The pay tends to be a bit lower than what you’d get at a for-profit company, but not as bad as some would lead you to believe. I’ve been able to buy a home, raise a family, and live fairly comfortably.

The benefits are very good. There’s a strong focus on education and growth, and work-life balance isn’t just a lie they tell people in the interview.

Sometimes an actual medical condition makes the difference.

At a yearly physical, my doctor noted, “no one could gain that much weight that fast without something wrong”. That’s how I got tested for and diagnosed with a thyroid disorder. It’s also the explanation for why I could never lose weight. I thought the reason I could hardly move was because I was just getting older.

For years I had been unable to lose weight by dieting. After getting my thyroid levels corrected with medication, I became more active. I started casually intermittent fasting, and I lost 30 pounds.

There’s also been research that shows your gut bacteria has a lot to do with whether you gain weight or not.

https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/gut-microbiome-makeup-can-determine-ability-to-lose-weight

We have two guinea pigs.

Very often, guinea pigs are named after food. Our two rescues came with food names. However, everything eats guinea pigs and I feel it’s wrong to name them after food. We changed their names.

We named them after two characters from Downton Abbey: Daisy and Rose. Plants are the only living things that fear guinea pigs, so they are nice, powerful names for them.

Daisy in the background, Rose in front.

anyone doing that would come off like an idiot for a variety of reasons

That probably covers at least half the population of the US.

Guinea pigs are obligate nasal breathers. They only breathe through their mouths when in extreme respiratory distress.

They are also absolutely adorable.

If you’re in business and you don’t believe in DEI, you’re an idiot.

DEI means getting different points of view, different experiences, different backgrounds. All of which are better for the bottom line.