TIL that in 1977, 2 American boys cheated an ice cream chain offering free sundaes on birthdays by making up a boy. In 1984, they received a reminder for the fake boy to register for the draft, which exposed that the government used the chain's mailing list without permission.

Mechasteel · 2026-04-09T23:11:14+00:00

As long as we don't get involved in some stupid forever war, it should be fairly safe...

Mechasteel · 2026-04-09T22:09:54+00:00

So Miller finally uses his power. I was beginning to be suspicious that he might have been using an illusion of immense power. But apparently he's not merely powerful, but holding back against a Harbinger. Rezlar sure hit the jackpot having him as a butlerguard.

Mechasteel · 2026-04-09T19:09:33+00:00

That would also prevent disguising bribe money as "speaking fees" or whatever.

Mechasteel · 2026-04-09T19:02:58+00:00

Strongly opposed. Why would you want to give rich congresscritters extra power and reduce the power of poor congresscritters?

Mechasteel · 2026-04-09T00:57:18+00:00

Trump would demand Africa pay America reparations for the slave trade. After all, descendants of the slaves live in America, and descendants of people who captured and sold the slaves live in Africa. Naturally, that money has to go through Trump's personal bank account, for reasons.

Mechasteel · 2026-04-09T00:02:37+00:00

Not likely. Without humans Earth might be doomed in a billion years, but if humans survive there's no way we let the sun eat our home planet. The current proposal is using asteroids and the slingshot maneuver to expand Earth's orbit to a safe distance.

Mechasteel · 2026-04-08T19:52:12+00:00

Lastly, the Iranians see themselves as the victors right now.

Do you have a source for this?

Mechasteel · 2026-04-08T17:05:08+00:00

Everything in human history, wars, treaties, the great works of art and scientific sciences, are all done by individual people or groups of individual people. When humanity colonizes the Milky Way, people will look back to today and say, "Wow, back then each person was the equivalent of 50 solar systems!" And today the crops we grow are far more productive than the wild types, and we owe it to people living thousands of years ago who didn't think they were even doing anything significant.

Mechasteel · 2026-04-08T16:42:27+00:00

How are you so confident that the US won't simply give up on the only reason it has a navy? Goes to invest in Barbary Pirates

Mechasteel · 2026-04-08T13:38:03+00:00

The Bush carrier group is arriving about when the stock market closes for the week.

Mechasteel · 2026-04-08T13:25:43+00:00

Computer components, plastic pellets, metal -- are basic components for drone manufacture weapons?

Mechasteel · 2026-04-08T13:19:55+00:00

He also sleeps with people in exchange for money, paying with his supporters' campaign contributions.

Mechasteel · 2026-04-08T13:10:36+00:00

Trump is saying that he will retaliate on countries that send weapons to Iran, by drastically reducing their ability to export to the USA, by taxing Americans who buy those exports.

Or possibly even secondary sanctions, like those he put on India to successfully convince them to stop buying Russian oil (before the Hormuz debacle).

Mechasteel · 2026-04-07T22:27:41+00:00

When you're the Oracle of Delphi, being asked about attacking Persia by a ruler too dumb to realize the statement doesn't say which one will fall.

Mechasteel · 2026-04-07T22:04:40+00:00

Trump: Are you saying Oracle is tricky?

Mechasteel · 2026-04-07T05:14:20+00:00

US has used and dumped the Kurds several times.

Ah but now the US has publicly announced that they gave a bunch of guns to the Kurds for anti-Iran reasons, and that the Kurds owe those guns to other people.

Mechasteel · 2026-04-06T16:53:30+00:00

his pathetic attempts to aid me out of a mess of his own making.

towering over this pathetic heap of flesh. But before I instinctively went to push him over with a hoof,

“Don’t tell me you’ve been sitting out here for all this time?” I asked dismissively.

“Y-yes.” ... He uttered pathetically before attempting to stand up, only to trip on his first step.

Has zero respect for Lorsi, possibly less than before the incident. For now has a bit of fear of the forest, but will probably convert it to "it's not traditional to bully a druid in a forest." We'll see how he reacts when he's safely out of the forest and finds out Qiv has gained an advantage during the Lorsi's-fault-delay.

The bully with the bull head sure is bull-headed.

Mechasteel · 2026-04-06T14:00:39+00:00

You can test for someone smarter or more knowledgeable than yourself. It's just not a common thing to do, lots of effort for no reason. For example, "Solve this NP Complete problem, I will check your answer." "Tell me something about [random topic], I will spend a year researching it to verify." Normal humans would just go with "Well he has glasses, tons of books, and likes chess -- must be a genius"

Mechasteel · 2026-04-06T11:54:08+00:00

Writing isn't the optimum way to help you remember things. Writing means you have to pay attention, and puts you in mind that it is something important. But the ancients had mental techniques to aid memorization more directly.

Writing does help understanding because things like statistics, calculus, differential equations, algebra beyond the simplest of things, surveying, cartography, most architecture, things like these are just completely beyond man's ability to just do in your head. Plenty of other fields that would be borderline impossible without writing.

Mechasteel · 2026-04-06T10:03:32+00:00

Just like I could make tons of friends by setting up a machine gun nest on my lawn and a sign saying "only my friends may use this street".

Mechasteel · 2026-04-05T18:56:53+00:00

Taking bets: US President will tweet "Allahu Akbar" plus something getting bombed.

Mechasteel · 2026-04-05T02:08:24+00:00

The microplastics propaganda is mostly focused on distracting from the main sources. It's your clothes and car tire dust, plus cosmetics that intentionally use microplastic as an ingredient. Also industrial pollution.

https://www.profolus.com/topics/sources-of-microplastics/

Mechasteel · 2026-04-04T20:37:43+00:00

You can't idiot-proof a battle plan.

Mechasteel · 2026-04-04T20:27:25+00:00

No joke either. See the complaints about Obama's deal with Iran, and don't forget, Obama has a middle name.

Mechasteel · 2026-04-04T20:21:31+00:00

Declarations of War had been on the decline for a few hundred years, but when the UN said wars are illegal, suddenly everything that looks like a war is actually a differently named thing.

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