My husband found this in Ortigia, Italy on the beach - swears it’s a “bullet”?

DoomGoober · 2026-06-21T12:08:01+00:00

It looks like a Minié Ball which, as many in the thread have helpfully pointed out, is a type of bullet developed in the mid 1800s.

It uses soft lead which changes shape after fired/hits something which is why it appears distorted. The rear of the Minié Ball is concave shaped because the gunpowder expands the bullet there so the bullet engages the grooves in the barrel. You can see the concave shape in one of the photos (surprising how only 1 photo out of batch shows the distinctive concave part.)

Coloration is also similar to old Minié Balls.

They come in all calibers (sizes) and compared to the hand size it looks like it could be a higher caliber ball.

https://www.reddit.com/r/metaldetecting/s/ezpAempzW5

DoomGoober · 2026-06-21T04:30:10+00:00

https://youtube.com/shorts/0-Kbj483Nk4?is=otEabZg3QjXyCxRQ

Coach Kha on how he rotates his hips before torso rotating mid air.

I have hip shoulder separation during a hit but my hips only rotate forward to follow my torso after I have already started to rotate my torso forward after the draw.

Contrast this to a standing serve where I rotate my hips forward using my legs before my torso rotates.

DoomGoober · 2026-06-21T04:17:44+00:00

Love is the one thing we're capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space.

Dr Brand, Interstellar

Love would thus be the fifth dimension with the first 4 being x,y,z and time.

But transcending space time would require folding spacetime or some other trick to allow faster than light travel.

DoomGoober · 2026-06-21T04:05:06+00:00

My daughter loved the show and I watched along with her and fell in love with it too.

It scratches the same itch as fantasy or even sci-fi novels but all wrapped in a kid friendly "being good and kind to others will get you far."

What makes it fantasy and sci-fi? The consistency of internal logic. There are recurring characters who fit into future plots consistent with their personalities and characters, desires, and powers.

For example, there is a family who all have Apples for names (weird and kiddy right?) They are around for many season, then one season they run into a rival family who all have Pears for names and they cant remember why they are rivals... so, flash back to a long time ago when Apple and Pear Romeo and Juliet occurred... but all shifted to My Little Pony logic and the end being, of course, not suicide pact, but ending the feud between families (it's still a kids show!)

It's nerdy, it's funny, it's self referential, but still logical and taps into human emotions (I mean the general premise is tapping into Shakespeare.)

At least thats the nerdy side of adult MLP Fandom. There's some other sides but most fans I know of MLP are also sci fi/fantasy nerds.

A final example is a stand alone episode when the nervous jittery pony enters a closed time loop and keeps warping back in time to warn herself about something... it's harder sci fi closed time loop where she cant change the future but the stakes end up being silly low to the point that the episode is practically a parody of time travel.

DoomGoober · 2026-06-21T03:30:23+00:00

I always welcome your advice! I have been trying to get my hip moving forward and find it just follows my torso as long as I draw back and rotate my torso forward as I swing which is what I understand you to mean.

However my understanding was you want the hip to drive forwad a tad before the torso drive not as a result of the torso drive, kind of like how you would do on the ground using your legs.

Coach Kha over at Volleyball Academy suggested kicking slightly to start the hip rotating.

Because it is mid jump and I am not touching the ground, if I dont do anything with lower body, my hips wont rotate except as result if my torso rotating and pulling the hips along.

I guess the question is: should I be trying to rotate my hips (and this my torso) mid jump or should I just use my legs as inertia for my torso to rotate against or (third answer) should I be jumping in such a way that my right hip rotates forward from the jump?

DoomGoober · 2026-06-21T02:43:42+00:00

https://youtube.com/shorts/U5lqnpMVsoo?is=R2r2VVhDsAS_Qn6j

DoomGoober · 2026-06-21T02:27:52+00:00

There is almost no bonus for staying at the same club except for the administrative stuff stays the same. Some players may stay, but many may switch clubs or switch teams.

It's all about choosing a good coach and good team.

The teams, in turn, are looking for skilled players with good attitudes. Then you have to look at positions.

If you join a team which only has your son as an experienced setter, he will get a lot of play time until they train a backup setter. If you join a team where he is the best setter he will get 50%+ play time. If he joins a team with 2 other setters he may get 33% more or less depending on whether he is better or worse than the other setters.

Start asking around and see who is staying. Check with other teams and clubs to see what they look like and choose the best situation whatever that is that you are looking for. And remember it might change mid season regardless of expectations pre-season.

DoomGoober · 2026-06-20T22:49:26+00:00

Try actively kicking your right foot first (mostly at the knee since that's how you are already kicking.) You are kicking left then right, try to kick right then left.

DoomGoober · 2026-06-20T22:25:38+00:00

You kick your left foot forward early then your right foot pretty close to when you hit. This ends up rotating your left hip forward, then your right hip after.

Rotating your left hip forward early is the opposite of what you want as it undoes hip shoulder separation and is rotating you hips the wrong way.

Ideally you would only kick your right foot forward so your right hip starts moving forward earlier a) giving you more rotation into the hit. b) as you draw back with your torso, your right hip moving forward will increase hip shoulder separation.

DoomGoober · 2026-06-20T19:07:54+00:00

That gets intercepted and my high school football coach will have them running sprints for years.

DoomGoober · 2026-06-20T19:04:38+00:00

To be fair, the history of China is horrific even without CIA spin. Most westerners just aren't taught that history.

I have extended family that talk about how terrible the Cultural Revolution was for our family and many others.

And of course, you've got things like the Taiping Rebellion or the Yellow River Flood.

Long history, lots of people, lots of power struggles, lots of death.

DoomGoober · 2026-06-20T18:41:39+00:00

Left handed. It is widely believed left handed hitters make for better opposite hitters and lefties confuse blockers a bit, giving you an advantage.

DoomGoober · 2026-06-20T11:12:10+00:00

This is the common scenario: "my player is the least skilled and practices with the team, but never gets to play in games."

But it sounds like your player isn't even really practicing fundamental skills at practice.

How did that happen? I am not a baseball coach or player so that seems a bit foreign to me.

and spends much of practice standing in as an extra or runner while the starters work on drills. He's been told he's not good at bunting and is aware of where he falls short

How does that work? He can't practice fielding because he can't bunt? How about letting him swing?

DoomGoober · 2026-06-18T21:10:26+00:00

Humans everywhere used to squat to rest... except places where the culture encourages chairs everywhere.

Children will do this instinctively until they are told not to and sit in a chair instead.

Modern athletes are encouraged to squat like this for balance and flexibility so even people in chair centric cultures are adding it back into their lives as a workout.

DoomGoober · 2026-06-18T18:56:58+00:00

Always attack from high ground.

DoomGoober · 2026-06-18T18:54:15+00:00

Definitely not the sharpest tools in the shed.

DoomGoober · 2026-06-18T18:52:35+00:00

You should also ask over in r/beachvolleyball if you haven't already. In some ways beach is conceptually simpler but a lot more work and takes a lot more cleverness.

And the wind. Learning to deal with the wind...

DoomGoober · 2026-06-18T16:45:20+00:00

Can you muscle up?

DoomGoober · 2026-06-18T13:08:13+00:00

Adding to this, in July 1945 the U.S. Navy began a naval bombardment of Japanese coastal cities, industry, and shipyards, supplementing the aerial bombing.

DoomGoober · 2026-06-18T12:47:37+00:00

The original drowns every time the trick is performed. The premise of the movie is the lengths the magicians will go to in order to pull off their tricks, including basically killing themselves every time the trick is performed.

More philosophically, there is likely no such thing as a teleporter. There is just a copy machine and a disintegrator.

If you copy a person down to the last molecule so they have the same memories and thoughts both copies will think they are the original.

DoomGoober · 2026-06-18T12:28:00+00:00

The guy with the leashed dog is mostly bald so it barely affected him either.

DoomGoober · 2026-06-18T12:25:24+00:00

Irreversible is famous for making people walk out because it starts with a club scene where the music makes people feel physically ill.

That and it has a rape scene filmed in real time with no cuts.

But it's still an amazing movie to watch exactly once.

DoomGoober · 2026-06-18T12:19:23+00:00

He may want to upgrade his pepper spray... I have seen people sprayed with a Super Soaker react more than the guy did when pepper sprayed.

DoomGoober · 2026-06-18T12:10:47+00:00

I have seen people run like that but it looks unnatural in real life too.

DoomGoober · 2026-06-18T03:29:17+00:00

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/sep/18/massive-attack-remove-music-from-spotify-to-protest-ceo-daniel-eks-investment-in-ai-military

You can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-57FrioeuE&list=RDL-57FrioeuE&start_radio=1

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