2 demons for under a penny is quite a deal.

This is how I feel trying to order a margarita without added sugar.

If you’re into that kind of speculation, you might enjoy “The Cosmic Serpent” by Jeremy Narby.

We could use something like the international fixed calendar and just make the new year’s day and leap days a day of the week so that the calendar shifts by a day or two every year.

Sand Hills aren’t very afraid of humans anyway.

Yes, that is the vulnerability that you are exploiting and making worse for an entire family of cranes.

I’ve seen this story before. It usually ends in tragedy for the cranes. You’ve likely already seen the results with the loss of their chick. You blame it on a wild animal without proof, but it’s just as likely that the reduction of their fear response to humans (as a direct result of your “kindness”) led to their death.

While I envy your ability to get close to wildlife, loosing their fear of humans is really very dangerous for Sand Hill Cranes especially.

We all wear a mask.

I got my first Gmail address through an invite during the beta release in late 2004.

Does it really matter what the machines “think” if they steal water and other resources from poor and vulnerable communities on a scale that makes Nestlé jealous?

I see the irony is lost on you.

That’s like picking fights with strangers to manage your anger.

Occam’s razor doesn’t apply because a flat earth is an exceedingly complex and irregular explanation for the even the most basic naked eye astronomical observations we can make.

That’s fucking amazing. I love it. I want games like that for real now (they say, knowing full well that historically games made from movie and TV IP have been largely awful, alas):

• Asteroids, but with Star Wars ships.
• Galaga, but you fly voyager through Borg space, trans warp conduits, etc. Occasionally you pick up a clone or alternate timeline Voyager to fight along side you.
• Space invaders I think would also be a good with a Starship Troopers skin and bugs lobbing rocks at your bases, could also be good in the style of Scorched Earth (or Worms Armageddon).
• An Apple II style text only adventure game in Deep Space Nine.
• A farming/trading/city sim on Babylon 5.
• Civilization, but it’s Babylon 5, Star Trek, or Star Wars, Dune, etc.
• Old school 2.5D Zelda adventure game, but it’s Firefly or The Expanse.
• A Mario Bros. game but it’s Farscape.
• Mario kart, also Farscape.
• Leisure Suit Larry in the style of Lexx.

It’s because the precision is overstated in the conversion to imperial. If they’re going to convert units they could at least give the correct significant digits. It should have read (if one insists on not just leaving it in metric):

• Operational altitude: nearly 1 mile (1.5km)
• Weight: Under 1 ton (imperial or metric. Take your pick, it hardly matter.)

Why should anyone bother replying to your bat shit crazy questions if you’re just going to delete the post out of shame a few days later?

The only Star Trek or Star Wars shirt I currently own is black with yellow gold lettering saying “Star Trek” in the Star Wars font. I think it makes some people uncomfortable. My S.O. hates it. I think it’s hilarious and I know immediately what type of “nerd” I’m dealing with based on people’s reactions to it. I suspect most people don’t realize it’s a joke or they are worried that I don’t know it’s a joke.

You’re specifically crafting a definition for disappeared that does not correspond to the idea that OP is talking about. They are not using disappeared in that kind of literal way. Another turn of phrase or word that they could have used would be “swept under the rug”, “downplayed”, “minimized” “dismissed”, “de-emphasized”. Maybe disappeared isn’t the perfect word, but there’s no need to be so hung up on your own definition specifically crafted to support misunderstanding. That kind of rhetoric is a kind of arguing in bad faith.

You’ve just traded down votes for the report button.

I say they are two different use cases. There is often a very wide gulf between a comment that I feel does not contribute to good discussion and one that is so heinous that it needs to be removed. Most of your comments for instance: pretty naive and banal adding little good to the discussion overall, but I don’t feel that you’ve said anything hateful, obscene, or aggressive enough to warrant total removal. Usually I just downvote and move on, especially when I don’t want to hear that person’s bad take reply on my own point of view. I’ve made an exception here for you simply because you are trolling all over this thread, seemingly inviting downvotes. But, I’m going to block you and move on because you’ve killed any interest I have in this thread or the larger discussion. I still don’t think your comments rise to the level of reporting.

Reports and blocks aren’t a replacement for downvotes and if your instances doesn’t federate downvotes you shouldn’t use them that way.

I don’t disagree with you. I’m just amused that your example is printers and copiers, the tech that has been notoriously devilish to get working correctly from like the very beginning. New tech has certainly NOT made printing any easier or more convenient. Sometimes they simply require arcane incantations and a blood sacrifice. I still think people should at least try, but I totally understand why their threshold for “I’m over this shit and I want someone else (e.g. a pro like you) to fix it for me.” is so low specifically when it comes to printers and copiers.

I prefer to read by reflected light, not emitted light. I used to prefer real books (and I do still throughly enjoy them), but I’ve grown used to the creature comforts like waterproofness, annotations, highlighting, searching, and sheer data density of an ebook reader packed with more books than I could read in a few years. Granted I also highlighted and annotated any books I owned with reckless abandon, but the data hoarder in me loves the other aspects even more. Regarding data density, there is nothing worse than carting along a massive book while traveling only to finish it before you even arrive. If it was a book I didn’t mind leaving behind that might be okay, but now I’ve got to find a new book for the trip home too. I’ve tried to use my phone to read, but it’s uncomfortable given the small size and intense light. Also, reading in full sun on your phone will absolutely cook the internals and drain you battery, not great for something I might rely on for emergencies. So for me I read: new (usually physical) books from Indy authors or graphic heavy books (like baudy poetry from the renn-fest, comic books/graphic novels), previously loved books from thrift stores and used book shops (I absolutely love finding books in which people have left notes in the cover and margins), ebooks read on a cheap e-reader of popular stuff from disreputable sources, and listening to audiobooks from downright shady sources or podcasts on my phone.