Joke, it’s not real

People have been pro-asbestos dating back to Roman times, and even back then it is said they knew it was harmful as well. But used it anyway. 😆

It appears that CHIPS was kept, but revamped.

I’d have to look into it more, but my gut tells me the CHIPS act & ‘Build Back Better’ was filled to the brim with pork & bullshit. You’d have to parse through, line by line, and take out all the shit. And hope all the changes get passed & implemented, and of course you’re still touting the worthless name of a project that your people hate that you didn’t even create. Or just blindly trust your opponent’s judgment calls & let it roll through, based on “just trust me, bro”. Nooooo thank you. Why bother?

With stuff like this, it tends to be easier & more expedient to take it behind the shed & shoot it. Replace it with your distinctly different, branded equivalent.

However. If this is true, it appears that Trump didn’t fully raze the CHIPS act & merely revamped it, is taking credit for it. Like you said. CHIPS must have been pretty true to cause.

Probably just lean super heavily on Taiwan, and Taiwan is also pledging to build a chip factory in the US. Georgia area, IIRC.

Batteries fucking suck. Can’t live with 'em, can’t live without 'em…but they’re always saying we’re on the cusp of an exciting new battery technology. Lately, they’re touting the idea of better, more efficient sodium batteries with all organic components.

While obviously it has a ways to go to reach working parity with lithium, there are also some big pros when it comes to safety & the ridiculous availability of sodium. If we can switch to sodium batteries, China takes a fucking massive hit.

…I mean…personally I’d be down for it, I really would, especially if it’s made into idk some kind of luxury experience like bathhouse/coffeehouse with WiFi. Idk just dress the shit up out of it.

But I think with all of America’s social issues & gender fights, random bullshit problems we create for ourselves, it would only be a matter of time before someone, somehow, is discriminated against. Files lawsuit. Sues the ever-loving shit out of the bathhouse. Bye-bye bathhouse. Between the “gay” stereotype & the sue-happy culture, your sentō is all but doomed to fail. Unfortunately.

Unless you could lawyer up & make a sentō that is somehow impervious to ridiculous, frivolous lawsuits.

It wasn’t men (or COVID ) that gave rise to the term “loneliness epidemic”. This issue is older than you realize. I lived through this, I would say mid 2010s this issue was being discussed (but only occasionally) based on men isolating in the late 00s, early 2010s and/or killing themselves. Deaths of despair & such. “Male loneliness epidemic”, “loneliness epidemic” were solidly PRE-COVID TERMS coined by the researches studying these men. Men were “doing the thing”, it was prevalent enough to get noticed, and they’re like hey, this is weird, this is happening a lot. It’s an epidemic.

This is a 2017 Harvard blog post…article…thing. ‘The power and prevalence of loneliness’. It mainly deals with old people but especially concerns men. While I don’t see the term in the article itself, it popped in a search as: “The epidemic — and health dangers — of loneliness”.

This is a 2018 article from Church Leaders (lol), “The Epidemic of Male Loneliness”. Basically word for word.

Psych Central Dec 2017, epidemic of male loneliness

The Walrus, 2018, epidemic of isolation among young men

Stanford, 2017, Loneliness Epidemic talking about men

April 2018, male loneliness epidemic

March 2017, HuffPost

March 2015

December 2017

Etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc…etc. Just do a web search specifying article dates & you will find a plethora of male loneliness epidemic articles well predating the start of teh covidz.

I think woke mind virus is more modern, probably making the scene during Trump’s first term somehow. I can’t quite remember.

I would argue terms like “epidemic” & “pandemic” are simply building on older terms used to describe social phenomena. Like “fever” has been used in that context forever.

Yes, if your battery posts are corroded to shit you just stick that thing on there & twist it around, rub up & down, and it cleans the crud off.

Once the battery post is clean & connection made, I’d recommend a protective spray or even a nice, thick layer of petroleum jelly. Keeps it nice. 👌

Sorry about your car! I hate that.

In an age where people are prone to feeling isolated & alone, for various reasons…this, unfortunately, is filling the void(s) in their life. I agree, it’s not healthy or best.

No, I basically get the same read as OP. Idk I like to think I’m rational enough & don’t take things too far, but I like my car. I like my tools, people just get attached to things we like.

Give it an almost human, almost friend type interaction & yes I’m not surprised at all some people, particularly power users, are developing parasocial attachments or addiction to this non-human tool. I don’t call my friends. I text. ¯\(°_o)/¯

…this. Let’s have a talk about basic security and prevention, because it’s important.

First of all, I wanted to factor in prices, but according to this webpage, the replacement social security cards should be free. However. I wouldn’t know from personal experience, and cannot verify.

By a combination of a small miracle, some neglect, and then some careful choices to safeguard it…I still have my original SS card. I would recommend getting a little passport case or something, and some metal plates or hard plastic cards to keep the SS card from bends/creases. Then you can place it in a blaze barrier document bag like this one. No, you don’t need this exact one, all I did was type in ‘blaze barrier document bag’ into Amazon because that’s the branding on mine. I just looked at it. $20 bag, goes a long way keeping that card safe & unmolested.

Those bags aren’t entirely fireproof & it’s only one layer; they’ve done extreme tests & the contents can (possibly) become slightly torched. That’s where you can buy a shitty 90s fireproof lockbox for next to nothing secondhand, I know I’ve got at least 2 & I think one was $5 & the other $10. Arguably more effective than the bag, my friend’s house burned down but he had a shitty 90s fireproof lockbox & it kept his personal documents & pictures of his deceased mother fully intact. We’re not looking to confound master thieves with a safe, we’re just looking to safeguard SS cards and/or pics of dead moms. 👍 FB Marketplace, I found ones for $10-15 in IL, KY, MO. Everybody has these shitty 90s fireproof lockboxes. No excuse. Put the document(s) in the bag, and the bag in the shitty 90s fireproof lockbox. Double protection.

Also noteworthy: fireproof concrete lined filing cabinets (I recommend FireKing), sometimes you can find them cheap used because they’re a heavy nuisance item. If you have a basement, put the fireproof/resistant stuff in your basement or ground floor. It’s more stable there & should survive.

Then for those interested in the eccentric & the extreme, dive down the rabbithole known as Starlite fireproof coatings. While we may never know the exact formulation of this wonder material as it was presented, it turns out Maurice Ward merely rediscovered the lost art of intumescent materials that release layers of carbon char when exposed to heat. You can buy intumescent paint like this one & it’ll essentially fireproof any material you paint!

So in conclusion, yes, you can buy fire resistant filing cabinets. Even “fireproof” ones. And safes, and lockboxes, and document bags, and even intumescent paint. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Not all of us live in cities, nor would we ever want to. I do not have access to public transportation to take me to & from one of my jobs.

If you are able, yes, kind of amazing perks & I’d use it. It would certainly save me more than a little money in car insurance, maintenance, fuel, potential for accidents, etc. But it is not a feasible option, specifically for me.

Okay…now that the left is finding every reason to hate on Tesla, allow me to help: this is, and always has been, a massive fucking myth. It never was more energy efficient than a regular ICE vehicle.

Mainly because of its construction. Mining the cobalt, etc for the batteries is very energy intensive. Then there’s the tires. AFAIK, you can’t just throw any old tires on a Tesla vehicle. You have to buy their special tires with all these sensors in them. I think there are knockoffs, but still. You also have to change the tires more frequently than traditional ICE vehicles, because they wear out faster, because the Teslas are heavier. A car weighs as much as an SUV or truck (3,582 lbs - 4,065 lbs), the Model X Plaid weighs 5390 lbs, and the Cybertruck weighs 6000-7000 lbs.

The damage doesn’t stop with the vehicle itself; we must also consider the impact of heavier vehicles on the roads. It will also cause the roads to wear out faster than normal.

Unless it’s crashed or burned in protest or whatever, IIRC, a Tesla vehicle can redeem itself from its massive environmental cost to produce & such. But only after many hundreds of thousands of miles on the road, and by the time that occurs, you’ll need to replace the battery. “Tesla batteries can last between 300,000 to 500,000 miles, which translates to about 1,500 battery charge cycles.” Kiss another $13K - $20K goodbye to swap out that battery for a new one.

So with its far simpler & straightforward construction out of readily available material, coupled with a sprawling existing infrastructure…the ICE car is more eco-friendly and cheaper to operate! And the hybrid vehicles are better than both full-electric & ICE, best of both worlds.

I will check them out later! I’ve been wanting a robot vacuum for a while now but I also am wary of Chinese bullshit.

I want a really good one that doesn’t connect to the internet in any way. 👍🏻 Even if that kills some of its smart features.

LOL, FBI 😂

Tbf it was lost on me, too. Love the design & thoughtfulness.

Pun not intended

Well, I’m still skeptical, but I have far more trust in France’s reporting than Chinese claims.

I agree, people will no, but debadging even that little oval? Taking it ou of the grill? That is very intentional, it doesn’t occur by accident, it might even make some people go, “…huh.”

I would refuse to have their emblems on my vehicle. I have my reasons. Unless somebody wants to buy me a nice one & leaving badges on was part of the conditions, by all means, drop thousands of dollars on me & make me a hypocrite. I am nothing if not practical. But if it’s my money, on my Ford vehicle, all badges & emblems are being stripped off.

Another reason not listed: fuck the manufacturer. I don’t pay, I don’t drive around town, I don’t live my life to be an advertisement for you. ¯\(°_o)/¯

Ford has done me wrong. Ford has done America wrong. But for the right price, I still might consider driving a Ford. Why cut off your nose to spite your face? But you bet your ass I’d debadge that motherfucker. Ford doesn’t deserve to be publicly acknowledged by me on my goddamned vehicle, bought with my goddamned money, to be seen by others. Nah. I’m not doing that.

Get a salvage Ford, or a really ugly/deformed Ford, debadge it? Hell yeah. Let’s go.

I also don’t like explicitly branded clothing. Why do we pay to advertise for these people, like it’s some kind of privilege or status? 🤨 Especially the most basic bitch stuff out there, manufactured by foreign slave labor. Idk, it’s all dumb.