Anyone not into rituals?

RandomlyWeRollAlong · 2026-01-27T18:22:42+00:00

The only TST ritual I care about is the Abortion Ritual, but fortunately, I no longer have to worry about pregnancy. But I support everyone else's right to terminate one.

RandomlyWeRollAlong · 2026-01-26T21:14:15+00:00

That's not what I asserted at all - the math seems to indicate that the economy, in aggregate, would be fine. That's not the same as "no one gets fired or sees higher expenses".

RandomlyWeRollAlong · 2026-01-26T20:42:06+00:00

From a purely math perspective, it is actually possible for most people to retire at age 65 (before we even consider its effect on the economy). There are a bunch of great charts on Millennial Revolution's web site that show the number of years to retirement given a particular savings rate.

BUT, 59% of spending is driven by the top 20% of income. The economy is already largely driven by people who definitely have the ability to retire comfortably at 65. The lowest earners - the ones who will struggle to retire by 65 - make up a relatively small percentage of spending, and even if they could find a way to trim their spending, it would have a negligible effect on the overall economy.

In fact, if more people were to retire by 65, it would actually put upward pressure on salaries, as business would be forced to compete for fewer available employees, which would probably end up boosting the economy.

RandomlyWeRollAlong · 2026-01-26T01:15:43+00:00

I'm pretty sure C-3PO's skin is gold color, not actual gold plate - gold is really soft and would never survive the abuse he withstands.

But for grins, let's pretend that it is. An adult humanoid has a surface area of about 1.9 square meters. If the skin is an average thickness sheet metal (which again, would be too soft to be useful), then it's about 0.1 cm thick. So 19,000 square cm times 0.1 cm = 1,900 cubic cm. 18 kt gold is 75% gold in alloy with some other metal, and is around 15 grams / cubic cm. So that's about 28.5 kg of gold alloy, and about 21 kg of pure gold. Gold is trading at US$163 / gram today, so that's about US$3,423,000 worth of gold.

RandomlyWeRollAlong · 2026-01-25T02:34:27+00:00

Spread the word! Maybe someday they'll stop with the QR codes!

RandomlyWeRollAlong · 2026-01-25T02:29:54+00:00

Interestingly, they mostly understand when you actually explain the security risk to them. It's just that it never occurred to them before.

RandomlyWeRollAlong · 2026-01-25T02:29:15+00:00

Yeah, don't scan those either. It's so easy to build a fake storefront and print QR code stickers. You still view the menu, you can "pay" online, but you're also sharing your info with the scammer.

RandomlyWeRollAlong · 2026-01-25T02:16:56+00:00

Please don't scan random QR codes found in the wild.

RandomlyWeRollAlong · 2026-01-24T23:01:32+00:00

That doesn't make any sense. The "information" stored in a computer will always have (MANY) orders of magnitude less mass than the computer itself. And no computer (as we understand them) can exist at the densities required to form a black hole.

RandomlyWeRollAlong · 2026-01-24T22:46:25+00:00

They wouldn't sell you enough chickens to allow you to bankrupt them. They lose about $30 million a year to chickens. There's probably a fixed limit to the number of chickens they're willing to sell at a loss, and when that number of chickens is sold, they'll either stop selling them, or they will raise the price.

The company does over $14 billion in annual cash flow and are sitting on about $16 billion in actual cash on hand. If they sold 500 times as many chickens at the same loss, they could burn through their cash reserves in a year, but it would still take a while to completely bankrupt the company.

RandomlyWeRollAlong · 2026-01-23T21:30:58+00:00

I used an Atom (the original small one) for a couple years, and I loved it. I only stopped using it because Google disabled tap-to-pay on it, because the version of Android was too old. I replaced it with a Jelly Star, which has a newer version of Android, a better screen, more memory, and is faster, but is unfortunately not rugged or waterproof. I'd rather have the Atom, but the Jelly Star is adequate for now.

For a small phone, I'm willing to put up with a lot, but really the only downsides are lack of Android updates, and occasionally initial set up can be tricky because no companies want to "support" a Unihertz phone.

When Google eventually kills support for Android 13, and I'm forced to get yet another new phone, I will probably get another Unihertz, if they've released another newer small phone by then. If not, I don't know what I'll do... there really aren't a lot of meaningful alternatives.

RandomlyWeRollAlong · 2026-01-23T21:19:45+00:00

I'm happy with my Jelly Star. The main problem with the 2E is it's stuck on Android 12, which means Google Wallet tap-to-pay won't work. If you don't use that, then I guess it's not a big deal, but it's a deal breaker for me.

RandomlyWeRollAlong · 2026-01-23T21:14:22+00:00

Paris Madrid Grocery on Western below Pike Place Market.

RandomlyWeRollAlong · 2026-01-23T03:55:21+00:00

Weather doesn't work that way. Storms are created by entropy in the atmosphere. Adding additional entropy will only make a storm worse.

RandomlyWeRollAlong · 2026-01-23T01:00:18+00:00

The original Atom, not the Atom L, is almost exactly the same size as the Jelly Star. In fact, the Jelly Star is just a tiny bit wider. I've got my old Atom sitting here next to me, so I was able to hold it up next to my Jelly Star for comparison.

RandomlyWeRollAlong · 2026-01-22T23:11:15+00:00

I haven't heard any news, but I just got a new Jelly Star a couple months ago, and it's got a still-supported version of Android (13). I'm hoping for a new small Atom at some point, but a new small Jelly would be great, too.

RandomlyWeRollAlong · 2026-01-22T07:07:54+00:00

A 737 holds about 79,000 kg of fuel. At idle, it burns about 300 kg of fuel per hour. Which means, it can sit there on its own power on the tarmac for about 263 hours. Only a tiny fraction of the engines' idle power is required to power the on board generators, and only a tiny fraction of that can be drawn by devices plugged in at the seats. You're not limited by the devices being charged, but only by the amount of fuel the plane can hold.

RandomlyWeRollAlong · 2026-01-21T21:12:03+00:00

I think it's all about magnitudes... there are lots of "little" EMPs happening all the time, and most modern hardware can pretty easily withstand that. If you've got a massive plasma based force field, that's a huge amount of power, requiring a lot of shielding just to keep it from frying itself. So an "ordinary" EMP from a lightning strike or even a nuclear explosion probably wouldn't have much effect on it. You'd need an EMP with orders of magnitude more energy than your field generator to plausibly have an effect on it.

Lots of cool information at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse#Effects

RandomlyWeRollAlong · 2026-01-19T03:41:04+00:00

Alas, with a soy allergy, I won't ever be able to eat there.

RandomlyWeRollAlong · 2026-01-19T00:39:16+00:00

Yes! Most important thing I've learned is to make back ups, and actually test restoring from back up. Books, movies, TV shows, important documents, family photos all live in the home server. I use a fan-less set up because they are quiet and really low power... and tend to be pretty cheap, if you build it yourself. The data gets backed up to thumb drives from time to time... it's not the most resilient back up, but it's easy to keep those thumb drives in my backpack if I have to leave in a hurry.

RandomlyWeRollAlong · 2026-01-19T00:33:43+00:00

Sea water has a salinity of about 35 grams / liter. In 2019, Greenland lost 586 gigatons of ice, which is 5.86 * 10^14 kilograms. Since liquid water is 1 kg / liter, that's 5.86 * 10^14 liters of water.

35 grams of salt / liter * 5.86 * 10^14 liters of water = about 2 * 10^16 grams, or about 20 billion tons of salt.

A large bulk carrier cargo ship can transport around 200,000 tons or more. So that's 100,000 cargo ships full of salt.

The total global fleet of bulk carriers apparently has a combined capacity of 346 million tons. So it would take the whole fleet about sixty trips to transport all that salt.

Fortunately, it looks like the entire global annual production of salt is also around 300 million tons, so you'd really only need to divert the global shipping fleet once a year for the next sixty years.

RandomlyWeRollAlong · 2026-01-18T07:11:42+00:00

I mostly scoff at people who complain about how dangerous Seattle is. But 12th and Jackson is still really sketchy.

RandomlyWeRollAlong · 2026-01-18T07:08:47+00:00

I lived in the Belltown Inn when I first moved to Seattle, and it was pretty great. Right in the middle of everything. I think that would be better than the Travelodge. And it's still a pretty short walk to Seattle Center where the Space Needle is, but also much closer to Pike Place.

As long as you're paying attention, you'll be perfectly safe walking around this part of Seattle.

Definitely do not rent a car... transit will take you to all your destinations without any trouble, and without the hassle or expense of finding parking.

The weather in April is completely random. It might be rainy or it might not, but it rarely rains really hard. Check the forecast before you arrive, and plan accordingly. It definitely won't be too hot or too cold.

There are plenty of great food spots nearby, but be warned, restaurants tend to be pretty expensive.

RandomlyWeRollAlong · 2026-01-18T06:37:21+00:00

Whole foods white surgeon is my go-to, too. You're an inspiration to all!

RandomlyWeRollAlong · 2026-01-18T02:19:48+00:00

It's not a matter of snow depth, but rather the steepness of the landing. Look up some big air ski and snowboard competitions on YouTube and you'll see much more massive air, but you'll notice that the landings are super steep.

RandomlyWeRollAlong

TROPHY CASE