You are correct. If I gave the impression that it is a safe endeavour, I am sorry. It is safe IF done correctly, but it can get explodey if you fuck up bad enough.

Do your research, keep it small scale and don’t sell.

I you make your own, there is no risk for blindness. Blindness comes from methanol, not ethanol. If you use a yeast based process to produce the alcohol and then distill it, there is no way to accidentally produce methanol in that process. The cases where people get blind or die from moonshine stems from when the feds replaced moonshine with methanol to be able to make that claim and disrupt the business of organized crime during the prohibition. There are still cases now and then where people try to make drinkable alcohol from some industrial base and don’t know how to.

TLDR: Don’t buy, make.

TL;DR: Capitalism sucks.

So that was a bit of a depressive read. Can’t say I’m really surprised as I grew up in the 70’s and was around to see how Ruhr in Germany spew out enough sulfur to poison the lakes even in the Nordics.

The ruthless effectiveness of the suppression of any opposition is what gets me about all this and that is the major difference about how the debate was back then. I’m not saying that the perpetrators were any better back then, it’s that they get away with methods and arguments that simply wouldn’t fly in the 70’s. The press would have had a field day taking down someone trying to lie or suppress to the extent they get away with today. More often anyway, not saying it was perfect in any way shape or form, but the press had more freedom and was actually feared because they could make a difference and was much freer to do so. The reliance on ad money instead of subscribers is a large part of what killed the free press. You don’t bite the hand that feeds you. Media owners do and did obviously play a large part on what stories and spin they allow, but if the spin was too blatant, competing media would be oh so happy to point that out and shame them for it. This does not happen today because all media that counts is owned by a small click of people with the same interests and goals.

Any left leaning media have had a much tougher time switching to a mainly ad based revenue streams because the ones buying ads have an interest in keeping the status quo and why would they buy ads in media that works against their interests? There are basically no left leaning mainstream media outlets left, even in the paradise on earth that is the EU, and for a smaller outfit it is basically impossible to get a dissenting view heard.

*This comes from a European perspective, where the difference is more pronounced between then and now, but the difference is there for US media too, albeit to a lesser degree. There were still large outlets with a bit of a backbone willing to run a story that was embarrassing to or was contrary to the wishes of powerful people back then. Not so today but for slightly different reasons in the US.

*By left in this post I mean European left, not the hard right Democrats that the US define as left.

Sure they are. It’s just that notifications are evil too.

So that’s were the inspiration for Ford Prefect came from.

As others has commented as well, this is just ripples. Trump is so thoroughly corrupt and bought this doesn’t even register. If you’re a strong man dictator, you don’t even have to buy him, he’s free to play. I think what the money is starting to realize is that he won’t reliably stay bought and is unpredictable because of it. Even Putin had to brake the spy manual rules and very visibly have the handlers meet him much more frequently and openly for such a high visibility asset. But as this is Trump, the rules do not apply.

As for the money, they aren’t really used to this way of operating and since it is literally impossible to keep Trump on script they get very nervous about what he’ll say if they get on his bad side or even by accident through his less than coherent ramblings. It is not easy dealing with a petulant, half senile old crook with the demeanor and attention span of a coked up five year old that always gets his way. Everyone with half a brain that have spent time with him knows this. The look on that reporters’ face when he was handed that crayon painting tells the whole story. I guess the people that voted for him get that look all the time and believe it is something positive? They mistake a tired “sure, buddy, whatever you say” as actual agreement?

What is positive is that the money seem to have gotten the message by now and they are slowly edging away from Trump. Without being too obvious, of course, bets needs to be hedged. The number of news pieces without unabashedly obvious Trump/Republican spin has slowly increased lately. This has nothing to do with any reporters suddenly growing a brain of course, it is all mandated from above. The money got the message that Trump is bad for business and they are acting on it.

That’s my take and I’m not known for having a positive outlook on current events. Still very much not a fan of what the atrocity helpers of the dems are doing. It is arguably even worse when you consider that they aren’t halfwits like Trump and presumably actually know what they are doing and still aid an actual fucking genocide that wouldn’t even be possible without US help. Despicable.

That never happens if you try for it in my experience. You could also aim for a net hit, but I’ve seen rescued ones so it’s not a sure bet either. The top guys are so fucking quick it is unreal. They’d also catch on pretty quick to what you’re doing so I doubt it’ll be effective even if you succeed after a while.

But yes, apart from them fucking up, that’s likely the only chance.

I’ve badly played some competitive table tennis and I’d not take a single point. There is however the chance that the pro fouls a serve. Not a big chance if they are just making safe serves and prepares to murder me on the off chance I get the serve back over the net. I doubt I would, even if I’m better than average.

I played someone at a corporate event who obviously had played quite a lot for fun and with friends, but he hadn’t played anyone who could spin the ball. After I noticed, he hardly got anything over the net or on the table anymore, even if he was good for an amateur. The same goes for playing the pros. Even if you know how to handle spin, the amount of spin pros can put on a ball is unbelievable and your ball will hit the net or be way off the table. Every time. No exceptions. None.

Spin is only one aspect of the game. Speed is another and at that level it is unbelievably fast. The speed the balls have that the pros are able to return is fantastic. To even produce those speeds isn’t something most can do, and to do it on a ball from a pro and also hit the table? No. Just no.

I’ve played lowest league players where I went without points and even they certainly wouldn’t get any points in the Olympics. Your chances in all this? Figure it out.

Right on.

That article almost hurt to read.

But for a glorious few moments you’d be in nerdvana. Worth it. Refresh rate will simply be calculated by how many electrons hit the screen per second, so not quite infinite. Bet the number is pretty high, though.

“Son, always be a good boy, don’t ever play with guns, but I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.”

Folsom prison blues Johnny Cash

I must confess to not watching the vid either. 😃

This is known. Until key distribution is solved one time Cryptos remain unpractical for everyday use.

Ryan added that Schwarzenegger’s and Tom Arnold’s faces look like they are “made out of putty.”

Duh. If the AI changed that, they would be unrecognizable.

Too bad. I would’ve enjoyed reading your version of it. 😆

Lol. Is that an actual quote? It is hilariously bad. Reminds me of the Remo pulp fiction series I used to read as a kid when there was nothing else to read. That was even more over the top, but by much less than I would’ve thought from watching the Tom Cruise Jack Reacher movie. Might have to read one just for shits and giggles.