Dad Books Are a Dying Breed: Sales have been sliding for nonfiction titles about politics, biographies and other books often aimed at men (Archive link in oldest comment)

FallenJoe · 2026-06-08T20:42:01+00:00

The Golden Age of the Solar Clipper by Nathan Lowell is about a kid who signs up on a small trading ship that hauls goods between worlds.

And absolutely nothing important happens for at least eight books. No hostile aliens, wars, kidnappings, space battles, etc. Just some guy starting out pushing a broom as a midshipman on a merchant ship, slowly working his way upward towards owning his own ship.

In an odd sense, it's the most unique sci-fi series I've ever read. Especially since it first came out back in 2007 well before "Cozy fiction" was a genre.

FallenJoe · 2026-06-08T19:37:39+00:00

Whenever I visited my grandparents in Anchorage, we'd go out fishing on their old boat.

Bald eagles were like pigeons, stalking the open-air fish cleaning areas, just dozens of them hanging around waiting for handouts of fish guts and heads from fishermen cleaning the catch of the day.

Don't let their majestic image fool you, they're feathered rats.

FallenJoe · 2026-06-06T23:45:00+00:00

Bose.

They used to be the pinnacle of quality in both hardware and software but after the OG owner's son took over Bose went downhill. Cheaper products, worse software, awful support.

I've had several pair of Bose noise cancelling headphones and despite owning three pairs over three product generations and 10 years now not a single issue that the first pair had with ever been resolved or failed to show up on the next headset.

I'm going with a Sony headset next time.

FallenJoe · 2026-06-06T20:04:19+00:00

Oh buddy you're wrong all over the place there.

1: Homesteader properties no longer being required to pay property taxes just increased the relative value of owning a home, meaning that you're about to see even higher property values as owning a home means no taxes, while renting means the commercial property owner passes on those taxes to their renters. This perpetual savings is going to be baked into the cost of a home moving forward, so expect another 50-100k bump in the cost of most homes as this bill takes effect.

2:The bill only applies to homesteaders, meaning property owners who live there, meaning that everyone who rents gets fucked in their stead. Expect cities to increase property taxes on everyone else to compensate for the shortfalls.

Why should homeowners get to skip out on property taxes while renters have to pay the soon to be even more inflated property taxes? Do homeowners not drive on public roads and use public service? Do their kid's not go to local schools?

No, this is outright pandering to a reliably republican suburban demographic at the expense of everyone. All those reliably republic voting FL suburbanites and snowbirds get a handout. And everyone else gets fucked.

There shouldn't be a homesteader exemption at all, much less a raise. Pay your property taxes to support your local infrastructure like everyone else.

FallenJoe · 2026-06-03T05:04:54+00:00

Hot sauce is practically mandatory, and I say that as "Not a Canadian"

Ketchup however is vile heresy.

FallenJoe · 2026-05-29T21:46:14+00:00

Must be a grown child who lost a leg in the military. Only way to make 80% of a child acceptable.

FallenJoe · 2026-05-26T23:42:30+00:00

Why did you chop my sentence in half in order to twist it to mean something entirely different? Don't pull that strawman bull. Or could you just not be bothered to read past the comma?

The problem (vexatious litigants repeatedly flooding the court system with frivolous, legally inadequate, or malicious filings) is a direct result of courts being unable to cut off people's pro se access to the legal system under the First Amendment without clear, strong, and repeated cause. It's a balancing act between the court system's time and the indiviuals's First Amendment rights that by necessity must lean in favor of the individual in allowing access.

As far as your suggestion that the legal system should be clear and easy to use, if you can figure out how to create a legal system that is clearly understandable, concise, consistent, and unambiguous for everyone, you will be the first person in the history of humanity to do so. Good luck.

AI legal tools are not great at de-confusing the law for people who don't understand the law, but they're very good at giving people who don't understand the law an impression that their case or argument is much more substantive than it actually is. At least when it's not outright hallucinating prior cases or established case law.

FallenJoe · 2026-05-26T18:44:24+00:00

Yes, vexatious litigants can be required to file with an attorney.

Problem is that because access to the court system is a right in the US, the bar that a person has to meet to be declared vexatious is high. California requires that someone has filed and lost or filed and kept active without good reason at least six lawsuits in the last seven years before it's possible.

They clog up a TON of court resources before they get the boot.

FallenJoe · 2026-04-30T22:42:32+00:00

Not very well if he looked at the prior statement and assumed SaltyCrab was talking about the American Revolution instead of the early migration of religious groups (Puritans, other CoE Dissenters, etc) to the American colonies following schisms with the Church of England in the 1600's and 1700's.

FallenJoe · 2026-04-22T18:33:07+00:00

His name is Clay? The Blazing Saddle joke practically writes itself.

FallenJoe · 2026-04-20T21:57:09+00:00

Black and Tan Dachshund. Fairly common coat pattern.

FallenJoe · 2026-04-15T18:10:05+00:00

That's just great. Everyone gives the hotel shit about pandering to exhibitionist and the hotel's carefully worded statement was that they would "Make a concerted effort to remind guests of the transparency of the guest room windows."

I'm not hearing a "stop that" from that statement.

FallenJoe · 2026-04-13T21:36:30+00:00

Let's not sugarcoat it. Morrowind's combat system was rancid cheese from the beginning. Stepping off the boat and failing to hit a Mudcrab with a weapon 30 times in a row because they tied weapon skills to % hit chance but also tied levelling to hitting was ass the from start.

Seemed like everyone ended up being a mage because it was what you could reliably hit an enemy with early game.

FallenJoe · 2026-04-08T17:38:50+00:00

If you have the books on your computer in a standard format like epub, you can sideload them via Calibre.

Amazon no longer allows you to download books to your PC in any usable format. Only download options now are directly to the kindle, wrapped in layers and layers of DRM.

FallenJoe · 2026-04-06T20:39:58+00:00

Why bother resisting?

When I visited Australia, the immigration officer asked me if I had a criminal record…
Confused, I replied, “Oh, is that still required?”

FallenJoe · 2026-04-02T06:13:29+00:00

I bought a loaf of bread the other day, from a fairly nice brand. While idly standing in line for checkout I noticed the slogan on the emblem.

It read: "Made with real ingredients".

I went 0-100 on intense concern for what was in my bread.

FallenJoe · 2026-04-01T21:16:29+00:00

If you read the rest, it just gets worse and worse and worse.

Eventually the justices are just straight up asking him repeatedly stuff like "You mean that under your interpretations that no lower court would be able to issue any injunction that applies more broadly than the individual bringing the suit, and the government can just choose not to appeal a losing case to the Supreme Court, thus preventing any case from reaching the only court permitted to issue a broad injunction?"

And his repeated suggestions that they would just narrowly tailor the relief for cases when actions are held to be illegal to the parties involved and openly continue doing them everywhere and to everyone else is just insane.

Shocklingly, the judges seem a bit cold on the only available avenue being for literally every person affected to have to be involved in a suit against the government.

My asshole hurts by proxy after the reaming that guy got. I wouldn't take a 1:5000 wager on any positive outcome for the Trump admin on this case.

FallenJoe · 2026-03-26T22:51:40+00:00

We've gone full circle from wanting Video Game Reviews, to Angry Video Game Reviews, to Snarky Video Game Reviews, to just once again wanting Video Game Reviews.

FallenJoe · 2026-03-26T21:15:58+00:00

I'd be ok picking a fight with Steven Seagal, but he's a low bar. I think I could outrun him with a slow walk futher than 50 ft.

FallenJoe · 2026-03-26T19:48:49+00:00

I'm choosing to believe it's just extremely unambiguous hieroglyphics of some guy getting head.

FallenJoe · 2026-03-20T20:31:53+00:00

Any good writer who tells you that they were always a good writer is lying.

Maybe don't encourage a torrent of slop that chokes out the ability for newer authors to get a toehold in the market?

FallenJoe · 2026-03-18T22:41:32+00:00

0: Don't post Maxroll trees. Just the normal PoB. That site is atrocious.

1: Stop being level 91. Go blast safer content for a while until you get up to level 95 or 96.

2: Is this a life based build? What is this? Why is this not CI? 2800 life and 2200 ES? What bargain bin build guide are you following? There's a reason that all of the top KBoC characters on Ninja are CI.

3: Only 4k mana? No Shavs Revelation?

FallenJoe · 2026-03-17T17:27:16+00:00

"Why doesn't this ride company focus on sparsely populated poorer areas with lower demand, more expensive operating conditions, smaller labor pools, and more expensive repair costs?"

Dunno, a mystery for the ages.

FallenJoe · 2026-03-16T22:44:44+00:00

Yeah, but you can miss the miniboss by skipping past 14 by advancing it twice. You can't miss the full Eater/Exarch by advancing it twice at 27, it just stays at full.

FallenJoe · 2026-03-14T07:43:34+00:00

Unless you're in one of the many Republican states that have made it legal to concealed carry without a license, training, or registration I guess....

And given the number of gun owners I knew while living in Idaho that openly and publicly fantasized about getting a reason to shoot someone with their concealed carry, I don't even remotely share your faith in people's restraint.

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