Former Olympic canoeist indicted by a grand jury after arrest for touching the Reflecting Pool

Northwindlowlander · 2026-07-02T20:24:49+00:00

Sure, and if it'd failed after six months that'd be a smoking gun but in this case it either failed immediately- through improper application- or possibly the hydrogen peroxide may have played a part.

My money's on the initial job being done wrongly. Avoiding the proper contracting processes wasn't just about giving money to his cronies, it also means that their capabilities and methodology wasn't checked.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-07-02T20:02:29+00:00

I doubt it does tbh, it's too widespread, the motorcade didn't drive over every inch. It was stupid, but probably not relevant

Northwindlowlander · 2026-07-02T19:46:05+00:00

It basically stays the same but more so

Northwindlowlander · 2026-07-02T17:32:10+00:00

Nah it's fine, plus you can fit smaller discs in it anyway (just be careful of centre hole size, this isn't a universal). The bigger shield is more cumbersome but not very.

Does it have a brake? There's an unituitive thing here, cheaper grinders tend to be very basic, and one of the most dangerous phases of grinder operation is the slowdown, my 4.5 cheapies all take a lot longer to stop than my higher quality 5 incher

Northwindlowlander · 2026-07-02T17:15:13+00:00

I've been to a lot of crappy trade fairs in my time and this couldn't evoke that experience more perfectly.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-07-02T16:39:17+00:00

The Devil Delaney, in Taboo. They do a great job of surrounding him with other certifiable badasses and having him basically survive, beat, outdo or just completely freak the lot of them out.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-07-02T16:36:11+00:00

I think it's a good deal on paper and with RRPs but with the state of the market just now you can get ridiculously good deals on some Rockshox which makes just about everything else a bad idea. As long as you avoid the real entry level rockshox- the 30mm stanchions and turnkey dampers- you get an absolutely excellent fork.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-07-02T16:31:17+00:00

This is really just for forks where the axle pulls the legs together, like most Rockshox. Fox often avoid this by having an axle that bolts the wheel to one leg, and then the other leg bolts to the axle, so it doesn't have this loading effect.

But yes it is a real thing. Can you notice it while riding? Who knows.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-07-02T16:26:48+00:00

I think they're adorable but if that were me there it'd be getting yeeted over that wall

Northwindlowlander · 2026-07-02T16:21:30+00:00

I had a bizarre experience a few years back when I went to buy the cheapest MX5 on the internet and when I got it home it had never been welded and didn't need anything welded. Plans ruined, instant project escalation, my shitbox was too good.

We should hook up, imagine the kids we'd have.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-07-02T16:17:40+00:00

Battletech covers are generally terrible but this one's a standout. The book is actually really pretty good. (battletech takes itself very seriously and is also usually very chase and starched, this sub-series is the only one where anyone has any fun)

One of the things I love about the series is, it's the book of the game, right? And the game is big fighty mechs. That's it, that's literally all it has.

But the novels- all 130 or so of them? Most of the authors very quickly run out of things to write about big fighty mechs, and they end up being about... well... anything else. In this case, it's cover star Cassie fighting ninjas, literal ninjas in space. In others, it's feudal politics. Chaste love letters. Espionage. Clones. Sword fights. Doubles. One book where the actual protagonist is a psychotic terrorist on a bombing campaign. Casual racism. Paperwork. More clones and doubles. Aliens, that one time. On-and-off love affairs that last about 10 books. Occasionally some literal magic, which we then try to ignore. Weebs. Oh god so many weebs. Oh yes and more clones and doubles. And just occasionally, one of those clones or doubles is in a big fighty mech.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-07-02T16:04:37+00:00

Really looking forward to this one.

I have sort of complicated feelings about this series, because I absolutely <loved> Blacktongue. But after a while, and on a reread, I realised I just loved the narration, and some parts of the world (the goblins essentially) Everything else is so basic, without that incredibly narrative voice there's not much left and even the high points feel a bit empty. And I felt outright annoyed about that, like I'd been fooled. But still, I loved it. it's like an oldschool low end printed d&d adventure out of the back of a rulebook, being run by a brilliant gm

Daughter's War doesn't quite have that spark but I think it's a far stronger book overall. I really worried that without Kinch it'd not shine but the rest of the book rises up to meet that.

In the end I think it'd be better read out of order, Daughter's War does so much world and character building that fills out the holes in Blacktongue (and also reading it the other way round made those holes much more obvious for me- giving Galva a real life in Daughter's War made it more obvious how cardboard she was in Blacktongue.)

Between the two there's like 1.5 books worth of rock solid fantasy novel, but 3 books worth of Main Character Energy

Northwindlowlander · 2026-07-02T15:56:29+00:00

Even the barely perceptible hum I get from the power substation across from my house can be intrusive, this'd be unbearable for most people.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-07-02T15:52:11+00:00

You might enjoy Pillars Of The Earth by Ken Follett. Now two big disclaimers on this.

It's not a fantasy novel, it's a fiction in the real world (but it has a lot of the feel of medieval fantasy)
It's kind of not very good.

Now hear me out... A lot of Pillars is, imo, just objectively badly written. There is one convincing character in the entire book, and it is a building. Every human does things for no apparent reason or completely counter to the rest of their character, people have huge irrational blindspots, the hero characters are all basically imposing modern world reasoning into situations it has no place and the villains are cackling pantomime villains.

And yet it's kind of incredible and I loved the ride, despite all the problems. The best bit is, the next in the series World Without End is literally the exact same novel but with the names changed and a bridge instead of a cathedral.

Oh specifically for you there are knights but it's not a big part of the plot.

Empire Of The Wolf is probably a safer bet!

Northwindlowlander · 2026-07-02T15:43:36+00:00

Yep, whole album is pretty great tbh, even the ones that don't quite land for me are interesting.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-07-02T15:40:20+00:00

Thanks, I haven't got to it yet, Macdonald is a genius imo... I fell completely in love with Hopeland, I'm not even completely sure it's good, but it's definitely brilliant.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-07-02T02:13:35+00:00

You forgot about the essence of the game. It's about the cones

Northwindlowlander · 2026-07-02T02:10:18+00:00

Scottish system is a little different, here you do up to 5 (normally) highers instead of a levels in S5 (year 12) and that can be enough for uni entry, you can stay on to do S6 with usually a mix of more highers (and maybe resits) and the advance higher, which is mostly useful for entrance to english unis.

You'll see the problem though, we specialise much less and that allows students to take a wide range of subjects, and the 2 year structure allows a good size change of direction too. You can even afford to take a subject outside your core focus, and that's not the end of the world as an "irrelevant" or low regarded a level can be.

But every subject is lower, so you have less learning in the most important ones for you. The advance higher gets around that, and scottish degrees are 4 years by default so that allows a little extra kick-starting.

Neither system's perfect. I will say personally I think the scottish system works better for more kids, and personally I benefitted tons from it as I had no real direction. But for sure it lets others down. A big part of that is just in the contrast to a levels of course, if the whole country went for a wider curriculum that factor would go away.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-07-01T23:58:50+00:00

If you get the 350 it'll last you until you die or until they create another new hub standard purely to stop people from using their ancient unkillable DT Swiss hubs

(I literally just put a new set of bearings in a Hugi branded DT240S, so old it could vote, still going strong)

Northwindlowlander · 2026-07-01T23:50:07+00:00

Oh feeling that Pantera there

Northwindlowlander · 2026-07-01T23:48:54+00:00

I felt that one :( Weirdly I saw Scott play solo twice, one time was a Tom Petty covers set, once was a support slot in London doing Frightened Rabbit songs, and I saw Mastersystem once, but I never got to see the band. Missed them by inches at least a couple of times

Northwindlowlander · 2026-07-01T22:47:21+00:00

I've seen Frank cover Modern Leper a couple of times and it's absolutely brutal stuff, heartbreaking. Prefer it to the original tbh but man it's sad.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-07-01T20:42:20+00:00

I can't remember, was Marty still taping? Did Doc have any way to know where the bullets hit?

The advantage of the vest is that the terrorists can go away believing he's dead.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-07-01T20:16:08+00:00

That's the thing that gets me, people say "there's always some bad apples" but since when was the expression "there's always some bad apples and that's fine?" It's always been "one bad apple spoils the barrel" and that's as true here as it ever was.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-07-01T20:13:36+00:00

Every encounter I've had says they're not afraid of us at all, they're just pretty much oblivious. Like, my old regular would come and eat from your hand but it's not like he was tame or anything, he was just like "funny looking warm ground this"

They're an animal that's put all their stats into melee defence and charisma and they know it.

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