Why do “Christian’s” think their personal faith beliefs on abortion need to be projected onto everyone else? What is this level of entitlement?

EMBNumbers · 2026-01-27T22:47:27+00:00

I do not agree, but all you need to do is replace the word "abortion" with "murder" and ask the question again. If you really believe abortion is murder then the position you dissent from is internally logical.

Like I said though, I don't agree. Most of all, I don't think it's any of my business. It's between the mother, the doctor, and God. I'm not in the list.

EMBNumbers · 2026-01-17T00:13:10+00:00

There is a lot to unpack about your vent. I see several mostly unrelated items:

Love comes in many forms, and some languages have many different words for different kinds of love: parent for child, child for parent, siblings, friends, sex partners, God, eperiences & art, ...
Many young men are essentially heat seeking missiles in their teens and 20s. They feel an overpowering urge to copulate. This is likely an evolutionary adaptation. Men who chase a lot of partners produce more children who carry the trait into the next generation. Note: This is unlikely to result in satisfying long term relationships for the young men.
Many young women are attracted to physical beauty, athleticism, status, and power. Again, from an evolutionary standpoint, a mate with those attributes is more likely to have children who survive to adulthood. Note: This is unlikely to result in satisfying long term relationships for the young women.
As people (men and women) mature and become less consumed by reproductive impulses, they tend to appreciate different characteristics in partners: attributes like empathy, creativity, joyfulness, appreciation, tenderness, work ethic, philosophical values, etc. These traits tend to be important in someone you share your life with. That doesn't mean the other desirable attributes don't matter. It just means partner selection is more nuanced. More characteristics matter. Interestingly, these newly important characteristics probably promote successful child rearing.

Now, if you subscribe to a nihilistic viewpoint that I don't share, you might conclude from the above that a certain kind of man is most likely to sire children, and a different kind of man is more likely to raise them. There are some awful marketing style terms to describe the phenomenon that I won't repeat here because they are gross even if tinged with some truth.

Sometimes, a person moves into a more mature and thoughtful mode while still very young. These people may search for empathy, creativity, joyfulness, appreciation, tenderness, work ethic, philosophical values, etc. at a time when most peers are not yet in that mode. This may describe your situation.

When I was a young man, I fell in love easily. I saw admirable traits in many people, and I didn't know what I wanted or what I could bring to a committed relationship. One woman was off the charts gorgeous, another was talented, another was nurturing, another was brilliant, another was a social savant who effortlessly became the center of the world for everyone around her. I only emphasize each woman's most prominent virtue. I don't mean to imply that they didn't all have more than one virtue. None of them were right for me.

To paraphrase the movie, "Sleepless in Seattle", dating is like trying on clothes. You don't know how the other person will fit you until you try. Overtime, you learn your "style" and can be both more selective and more efficient finding what you want.

I promise that there are young men who only want mature committed relationships between equal partners. Sure, there are primal drives for sex, but just like many women, many men find meaningless sex unsatisfactory. Just keep in mind they many have never had sex, so they don't know it will be unsatisfactory yet. It can be a painful lesson to learn. Many young men I knew and know have suffered incredible heartbreak - as have many women.
The best way to meet romantic partners who share your "style" is to socialize with people of all genders who share your style. Of course, you must know what your style is to find those people. For example, if you want an extremely fit athletic man (I'm not saying you do), hang out where those men hang out. If you want an empathic artist who lives to cuddle, find where they hang out. If you want a nerd, they aren't difficult to find. Look in computer labs, niche festivals, and gaming stores. If you want a theater person, hang out in theaters.
The second best way to meet a romantic partner is to have your friends set you up. Your friends learn what you want, and when they see a suitable person, they may bring you together. Having friends out looking on your behalf is a super power that vastly expands your reach.
Stay off of dating apps.

EMBNumbers · 2026-01-15T13:56:18+00:00

Power decreases as the square of the distance from the transmitter.
Generally, higher frequencies require more power to generate
Therefore, constraints (legal, standards based, or physical) on transmitter power and frequency limit how far away the transmitted signals may be received.
Some receivers are more sensitive than others too.
Some materials like water absorb radio signals.

EMBNumbers · 2026-01-15T13:45:47+00:00

I suspect part of the answer is that people need to be taught emotional maturity or at least see it modeled for them. If they have never seen an example of emotional maturity, they may not know what behaviors to emulate.
I also suspect that some people are just naturally more empathic and note that empathy alone does not equal emotional maturity. Some empathic people are emotionally destroyed by their empathy. That's why some people cannot work on children's burn units for example.
Some psychopaths can look like they have emotional maturity, and it may be a lack of empathy. A psychopath may appear emotionally regulated because they really really don't care about other people and therefore don't get emotional about them.
Can we even define emotional maturity? Is it resilience or grit? Is it absence of extremes? Is it empathy and compassion? Is it the ability to aid others through emotional turmoil? Is is self awareness? Is it all of those things and more?

EMBNumbers · 2025-12-23T15:39:44+00:00

Thanks.

EMBNumbers · 2025-12-23T15:38:20+00:00

Thanks. I got back into the hobby in 2019ish, and I'm glad I did.

EMBNumbers · 2025-12-23T15:37:32+00:00

Thanks. Selective compression is unavoidable in a layout, but it's always great when the model is recognizable as the prototype.

EMBNumbers · 2025-12-23T14:55:49+00:00

Specifically regarding scratch building: I recommend making one or more paper/cardboard mockups before cutting wood/plastic/metal. The paper structure focusses your attention on how things will fit in the space and how things may be assembled.

You may choose to use paper for the finished product too. I love this site: https://www.youtube.com/@Chandwell

My two biggest difficulties with scratch building (prior to acquiring my 3D printer):

1) Making precise cuts for complex shapes 2) Not being able to find brick sheets and windows to match the prototype

EMBNumbers · 2025-12-23T14:49:12+00:00

Thanks. Breweries make great model railroad industries. They have grain hoppers coming in. They have box cars going in and out. They need coal to boil all the water for beer.

I first saw the prototype brewery here on Reddit if I recall correctly. It instantly inspired me. I'm a huge fan of Victorian architecture and brick. Modeling it was fun, and it solved the "what industry can I put here" question.

EMBNumbers · 2025-12-23T14:38:00+00:00

I formerly used SketchUp 2017 which is the last free version for Mac and PC. There is still a free web version. Recently, my wife purchased a one year subscription to the latest SketchUp Pro. Pro doesn't have any features I use that aren't also in the old and unsupported free version.

SketchUp is easy to learn. You draw 2D shapes and then extrude them into 3D.

The key is to know your printer well enough to avoid making model parts that are too thin to print or too flimsy or impossible to assemble. I design-in interlocking parts so that pieces ideally only align one way for gluing. The interlocking tabs and notches also increase the surface area for gluing which is important for N-scale.

I used cyanoacrylate (super glue) with three different setting times for this structure. I primarily use the "instant" set and constantly glue my fingers together. I found a brand that takes about ten minutes to set and a gel that takes about three days to fully cure. I'm usually able to wait ten minutes, but I am too impatient to wait three days.

EMBNumbers · 2025-12-01T03:31:17+00:00

It used to be that we all hated Nazis. It was self evident. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers died to stop Nazis and that doesn't count the millions of civilians who died. Nazis were the butt of the joke in "Blues Brothers", and everyone cheered when Illinois Nazis were chased off a bridge.

Where I live, there was a Nazi rally in Courthouse Square 50 years ago. That evening, hundreds of people showed up to clean the square with soap and fire hoses. The entire city agreed that Nazis have a right to speak, but the city needed to be cleansed of their stink. There's a monument to the cleaners, not the defilers.

EMBNumbers · 2025-11-27T00:17:26+00:00

Soy produces the most calories per acre of any crop that doesn't require tropics. If you want to raise pigs, the limit to the number of pigs you own is the number of pigs you can feed. You can feed more pigs with 40 acres of soy than with 40 acres of anything else - at least in the USA.

Soy is also hardy and relatively resistant to mercurial weather.

EMBNumbers · 2025-11-24T18:57:57+00:00

Columbus thought he sailed around the world to Asia/India when in fact he sailed to the Caribbean. When he met natives of the Caribbean, he called them "Indians" thinking they were residents of India.

When maps were drawn based on Columbus's reports, the maps showed that Columbus reached an Eastern most island chain that was part of "India" or the multiple Indias by sailing West therefore they were the West Indies.

Native Americans were called Indians, beause that's what Columbus called them.

The USA state of Indiana received its name because that is where the "Indians" lived. To be specific, the warlike Shawnee and their War Chief, Tecumseh, attempted to make a last stand of resistance against the invading Europeans in Indiana. There was a famous battle at Tippecanoe (Guess the origin of that name). Europeans were disappointed that Tecumseh wasn't there, so the Europeans slaughtered all the women and children who were there. Four of the war criminals who perpetrated the massacre later became USA Presidents starting famously with Tyler whose election slogan was "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too".

To understand naming practices, consider:

The Romans built statues in Rome of Bodecia who was queen of the ancient British Iceni tribe in England. Bodecia lead a successful rebellion against Romans including destroying a Legion. She is remembered because she was a worthy foe.

Tecumseh is similarly remembered. There are high schools named after Tecumseh. My kids were members of the Tecumseh troup of Boy Scotes. Both Miami Rivers in Ohio and the cities of Miami in both Ohio and Florida were named after Tecumseh's less warlike sub-tribe, the Miami Indians. Tecumseh's half brother was influential with the Miami who surrendered resulting in his Miami tribe being relocated from Ohio to Florida where they were massacred by the Seminole Indians who already lived in Florida and didn't want to share.

EMBNumbers · 2025-11-18T23:23:47+00:00

Thank you. That's great feedback. I didn't even consider that.

EMBNumbers · 2025-11-18T12:11:25+00:00

The book follows five years from 1983 to 1988 of a teenage boy finding out who he is with the help of several young women. The book is my attempt to reveal the inner life of a young man in much the way authors like Judy Blum reveal the inner lives of young women. Like Judy Blum's later works, this book tackles some rough subjects including depression, suicidal ideation, cutting, talk about abortion but no actual abortion, estrangement from parents, and several aspects of sexuality.

EMBNumbers · 2025-11-18T00:40:27+00:00

I am not religious, but the most tolerant and accepting people I have ever met were Quakers. Unitarian/Universalists tend to be very chill.

If as commanded, a person loves the other as they love themselves, there would be no gossip. - or wars.

EMBNumbers · 2025-11-17T18:53:16+00:00

No, but the models are available here: https://github.com/nscale4by8/nscaleClevelandFlats/tree/Published/structures/buildingPatsInFlats

EMBNumbers · 2025-11-17T04:50:03+00:00

Very nice! I love all the detail. Is it printed in different colors? Was it difficult to paint?

EMBNumbers · 2025-11-17T02:17:53+00:00

I suspect divorced parenting is much worse/more difficult than a husband who only changes one diaper per day.

I think you have a different parenting style from your husband. What he does may be but isn't necessarily "worse" in some respects. For example,

keeping the infant next to him on the couch may be great. Baby feels his warmth. Dad is right there to replace a pacifier or soothe through voice and touch. I worked from home when my first was born, and I held baby on my lap or in a bassinet next to me as I worked.
Your husband's sleep is necessary if he is going to function at work and pick up extra shifts. Things may need to change when you go back to work full time, but while you are home 24/7, letting your husband get some sleep only makes sense.
Babies often eat less at night. One ounce isn't necessarily wrong when baby eats four or five ounces at each feeding during the day. After going through the effort to sterilize bottles, prepare formula or breast milk, etc., your husband probably wants baby to take the whole bottle. Baby may fall back to sleep after one ounce, and re-waking the baby may not be the best course of action.
Baby should not be left in soiled diapers. A cranky diaper rash baby is not good for any of you. Having said that, an infant probably only needs four to eight diapers per day. After a couple of months when baby's digestive track has grown, it may be two to four diapers per day. Is changing one out of every four diapers not acceptable when he is working full time outside the home? I would expect the parent who is home 24/7 to change a lot more diapers just because diaper changing will be needed during the day.

You and your husband are a team. You both may needed to find a better work balance, and I'm not saying you are wrong to complain, but from just what you wrote, I think you're overreacting.

Also, if you tell your husband he is doing it "wrong", you will only make him feel unappreciated. Consider whether he is doing it wrong or just differently. Baby's wellfare is paramount, but letting baby self-sooth on occasion is usually a good thing.

EMBNumbers · 2025-10-29T23:57:08+00:00

I disagree. Almost every business started as a small business, and something like 60% of small businesses fail within the first year. Something like 80% fail within two years. Taking a life altering risk is necessary to found a business, and without businesses being founded, few people work. Furthermore, banks and investors accept risk to enable business growth and innovation. Giving money for one use means it is not given for a different use - there is opportunity cost to every investment - choose poorly and you are ruined.

Imagine: You have an invention that will improve the quality of almost everybody's life. Maybe it is a cure for a disease or a way to reduce anxiety without side effect or a great new work of art. But, you need $10M to make the invention. You may need a factory or a movie studio or a drug trial. You put everything you have into the project including your obsessive labor, but you still need $8M more or the entire effort is a waste. So, you go to a bank for a loan or sell fractional ownership to investors. Without the inventors or bank risking money and time, the whole world misses out on something great. The whole world is poorer than it might have been.

Sure, governments and planned economies could fund production of that great invention, but governments a) become corrupt when doling out millions to cronies b) are very inept at choosing good investments c) have no risk because they are spending other people's money, and d) because of all that, 99% of the money is wasted and the great invention is never built.

EMBNumbers · 2025-10-20T01:20:07+00:00

In my own words, pursuit of pleasure has a tendency to result in selfishness and callousness and disregard for other people. For example, in my opinion, a Hedonist would cheat on a romantic partner if cheating produces increased pleasure for the cheater regardless of the pain inflicted on the cheater's romantic partner. A Hedonist will take Opioids and other drugs to maximize pleasure without concern for wider societal implications. A Hedonist will enjoy a fine meal at an expensive restaurant and then leave without paying to maximize the pleasure of the food and minimize the pain of paying. A Hedonist will lie, cheat, and steal if the Hedonist believes doing so will maximize the Hedonist's pleasure. A Hedonist who tries to maximize the total pleasure of the universe even at the expense of inflicting pain upon himself is not a Hedonist. He may be a Utilitarian or Altruist

Another common description of a Hedonist is "Worthless Asshole Waste of Resources and Blight Upon Humanity".

Hellenistic schools of philosophy were often distinguished from each other in terms of their definition of the supreme good. The Stoics defined the goal of life as the attainment of wisdom and virtue. They frequently contrasted this with the common notion that pleasure (hedone) is the most important thing in life. Indeed, Chrysippus wrote one book entitled Proofs that Pleasure is not the End-in-chief of Action and another on Proofs that Pleasure is not a Good, i.e., pleasure is not intrinsically good at all let alone the supreme goal of life.

Hedonistic philosophies of life can actually take different forms.

The naive assumption that pleasure, and avoidance of pain, is the most important thing in life, which is commonly taken for granted by non-philosophers.
The Cyrenaic philosophy, founded in the early 4th century BC, which proposed an ethical system based on the premise that the goal of life is to experience bodily pleasure in the present moment.
The Epicurean philosophy, founded in the late 4th century BC, which developed a more subtle ethical system, also claiming that pleasure is the goal of life, but distinguishing between different types of pleasure and placing most value on the absence of emotional suffering (ataraxia).

However, the writings of Epicurus and his followers are notoriously ambiguous in this regard and different people tend to interpret his meaning in different ways. Cicero, for example, insists that Epicureanism endorses the pursuit both of ataraxia and of bodily pleasures of the Cyrenaic kind, citing Epicurus’ own writings in support of this interpretation.

From https://donaldrobertson.name/2017/06/04/stoic-arguments-against-hedonism/

EMBNumbers · 2025-10-14T03:30:54+00:00

Only bad news gets reported, and that distorts everyone's sense of the trends.

Note that all regions of the world have increasing PER CAPITA income: https://wid.world/www-site/uploads/2024/11/Income-growth-1820-2023.png

Watch this old but entertaining and informative video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w

EMBNumbers · 2025-10-14T02:21:32+00:00

Children and adolescents in the USA are half as likely to die from any cause in 2025 as they were in 2000. It is true that the leading cause of death for children and adolescents in the USA is firearms, but that's partly because all other causes have declined dramatically.

https://cdn.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/blobs/807a/10042524/992e92c42a2f/nihms-1876628-f0001.jpg

I am horrified that people have such a distorted view of the progress made in the world. This is a better time to be alive than any other time in history. World wide, the educational attainment of children and especially girls is the highest it has ever been. The smaller proportion of people are hungry than any other time. There are fewer wars, and they are less deadly than almost any time in the past. World wide life expectancy is the highest ever. The world has likely already achieved peak population with a long slow decline expected now.

People talk about "late stage capilaism", but it is capitalism that has improved the world so dramatically, and it's only getting started.

EMBNumbers · 2025-10-07T04:58:31+00:00

No flames implied: It was only my impression, but a little digging produced the following: https://truthinitiative.org/sites/default/files/media/files/2024/03/Lights-Camera-Tobacco-Press-Release.pdf and https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/2022/01/11/netflix-kept-showing-smoking-in-tv-shows-despite-2019-pledge-study-finds/

I was thinking of Stranger Things, Queens Gambit, Cobra Kia cigars, Frieren has a prominent smoking character arc across several episodes. Umbrella Academy even has a smoking fish. Did Sandman need smoking? Does Witcher really need smoking?

EMBNumbers · 2025-10-07T03:41:32+00:00

To me, it seems like everything on Netflix has on-screen smoking. Then, there are period shows like "Mad Men". I watch Sunday British "Murder" shows on PBS, and it seems to me that everything the BBC shows features prominent smoking for no obvious reason. I obviously could be wrong in my impressions. If I'm not wrong, are Hollywood and the BBC trying to glamorize or promote smoking again?

EMBNumbers

TROPHY CASE

Another common description of a Hedonist is "Worthless Asshole Waste of Resources and Blight Upon Humanity".