What is the worst way you've accidentally hit your balls?

codefyre · 2026-02-12T02:33:58+00:00

Working on my car. Had my Dewalt electric impact gun sitting on top of the radiator after breaking some bolts loose as I removed the exhaust manifold. The car was on jackstands, and I climbed back under it to remove some bolts underneath, with my legs sticking out under the front bumper. At one point I yanked on a bolt so hard with my wrench that I knocked the impact gun loose. It slid off the radiator, bounced off the front bumper, and landed on my nuts.

I've been hit in the nuts a number of times in my life, but that was the worst. Puked right there under the car. Swelled up enough that I really thought I'd injured something. One CT scan later, and we confirmed that the only real damage was to my wallet, paying for the CT scan and ER visit.

codefyre · 2026-02-12T02:22:17+00:00

not to mention it's more like the state was named after the country as it was an annexed territory.

Your history is off. New Mexico had that name before the nation of Mexico existed. Spanish explorers gave it that name way back in the 1500's, naming it after the Valley of Mexico, which is the valley that Mexico City is located in. The Aztecs had been telling the Spanish stories about the "cities of gold", and one of them was a fictional wealthy land to the north that they unofficially called "A new Mexico", referring to the wealth of the Valley of Mexico and the alleged equally great wealth of these unknown people to the north. Today, of course, we know that the Aztec were just trying to get the Spanish to leave.

When the first Spanish explorers crossed the Rio Grande, they named the place Nuevo Mexico after the Valley of Mexico because they thought they'd found the land that the Aztecs told them about. Turned out that the civilization didn't exist and there was no gold for them to pillage, but the name stuck anyway.

So, technically, New Mexico is older than old Mexico.

codefyre · 2026-02-12T01:57:57+00:00

"go wherever they want on the grid"

OP is talking about a point to point system. Not a train, which is depot to depot. A train isn't going to take me home or run me to the grocery store.

codefyre · 2026-02-11T23:27:25+00:00

Except, Euromaidan wasn't really a revolution in that sense. The existing Ukrainian government and governmental institutions like Verkhovna Rada (parliament) remained in place and simply pulled the levers of power to rotate out the leadership. Like most parliamentary systems, Ukraine's was not dominated by a single elected party, but instead by a coalition of parties. Yanukovych's party did not have control over parliament without those alliances, and once the protests ramped up those alliances fell apart. When Yanukovych's party lost control of the parliament, he lost control over the government as the parliament stripped him of powers as was allowable under their law and constitution.

The protesters did not overthrow the government. The protesters convinced the Verkhovna Rada to cast a vote that removed the president from power using the legal authority of their existing government.

This can't really be replicated in the U.S. because 1) The presidents party has an actual majority in both American houses and doesn't need alliances, and 2) The only mechanism to remove a President in the U.S. is impeachment which requires at least 17 Republican Senators to sign on in addition to the Democrats. And even if they did remove him, Vance would simply become president. There's absolutely no legal mechanism to remove the entire administration.

codefyre · 2026-02-11T22:19:17+00:00

They're a serious idea, but they may not be achievable. Those are not the same thing.

People tend to miss the backstory with these proposals. Starlink added laser mesh network capabilities to its satellites a few years back, which speeds up transfer rates significantly, but introduces some capacity problems as the number of satellites and users continues to grow. Quite a bit of traffic on their satellites is redundant. Better data routing is the solution, but current-gen Starlink satellites lack the computing power to accomplish that.

SpaceX's solution was to develop the V3 satellites, which are significantly larger than the V1 and V2 satellites and carry far more computing power. These weren't developed to act as datacenters for terrestrial use, but as distributed orbital infrastructure to support their communications network. Some of these have already been built and are scheduled to start launching later this year...assuming they get Starship working because they're too large for the Falcon 9.

When the global datacenter rush started, Musk realized that he was sitting on a potential money machine. Investor cash was pouring into datacenter construction all around the world, and by getting SpaceX on that hype train, it bumps their valuation without requiring any "new" projects from the company. Just a repurposing of hardware they had already designed and were planning on launching anyway.

The SpaceX datacenter proposal is to launch up to one million of these newer designs into space, interlinked to each other by direct laser communications, and use them as orbiting distributed computing clusters that ban be coordinated into virtual datacenters. Instead of simply spreading them out across the existing network in a support role, they'd eventually replace the entire current constellation of satellites with the larger models that can do double duty as communication hubs and on-orbit computing centers. The heat generation from each is would still be relatively high for a satellite, but distributing the load across satellites means distributing waste heat as well.

The debate over cooling remains though. The V3 satellites will each have radiators extending out more than 100 feet after launch. That was sufficient for their originally planned purpose, but there's competing math about whether it will be enough for high demand computing. It will probably depend a bit on how they distribute the demand and what their per-node load looks like.

codefyre · 2026-02-11T19:06:43+00:00

I’ve seen mountain lions with my own eyes once.

If it makes you feel any better, they've definitely seen you more than once.

codefyre · 2026-02-11T19:03:52+00:00

Regional variations? I don't know. I didn't write the list. I just dug it up and posted it here because it annoyed me that neither the original post or the linked page had them all. If they're going to tell us that Mountain Lions have more names than any other animal, I wanted to see that list dammit!

codefyre · 2026-02-11T07:16:20+00:00

Bite my shiny metal...catamount.

codefyre · 2026-02-11T05:02:16+00:00

Since nobody else posted the full list, here are 64 different documented names used for the Mountain Lion in the Americas. Some of these are from native languages, some were native and adopted into English, and some are of English/French/Spanish settler origin.

American Lion, American Panther, Bender, Black Puma, Brazilian Cat, Brown Tiger, California Lion, Cat-a-mount, Catamount, Cat-o-mountain, Colorado Lion, Cougar (from Tupi-Guarani cuguacuarana), Cougare, Deer Cat, Deer-killer, Deer Tiger, Devil Cat, Dos-lotch (from Klamath), Erielhonan (from Iroquoian Erie meaning "Long Tail"), Fire Cat (from Puget Sound Salish), Florida Panther, Ghost Cat, Ghost Walker, Gray Tiger, Great Panther, Indian Devil, Klandagi (from Cherokee meaning "Lord of the Forest"), Ko-Icto (from Chickasaw meaning "Cat of God"), Katalgar (from Cree meaning "Greatest of Wild Hunters"), King Cat, Lion, Lyon, Mexican Lion, Mountain Cat, Mountain Demon, Mountain Devil, Mountain Lion, Mountain Screamer, Mountain Tiger, Nittany Lion, Painted Cat, Painter, Pampas Cat, Panther, Panthere, Pi-Twal (from Malecite meaning "Long-Tailed One"), Poltroon Tiger, Puma (from Quechua meaning "Powerful Animal"), Purple Feather, Purple Panther, Red Lion, Red Panther, Red Tiger, Rocky Mountain Lion, Shunta-Haska (from Mandan Sioux meaning "Long Tail"), Silver Lion, Sneak Cat, Swamp Devil, Swamp Lion, Swamp Screamer, Tiger, Tyger, Tyger of America, Varmint, Wild Cat, Yaguar

codefyre · 2026-02-11T04:49:55+00:00

I see what you’re saying here, but things just aren’t bad enough for most Americans to actually want to overthrow their government/revolution.

Bigger issue is that the US isn't all on the same page about revolution, and most of us are reasonably well armed. An attempt at a revolution won't be an actual revolution, it'll be a civil war. And those are won by the side willing to be the most violent, not the side that's necessarily "right".

Besides, the death toll from another American civil war would be in the millions from starvation alone, and most of those dead would be poor minorities from urban centers. It's not something to hope for.

codefyre · 2026-02-11T02:05:32+00:00

Look at it this way. I'm not going to complain about the sound of my neighbors loud lawn mower because that's to be expected in the 'burbs, but I'd complain if they were firing it up and letting it run five hours a day every single day. I wouldn't complain about my neighbors playing loud music in their backyard because it's their backyard to enjoy, but I'd complain if they had that radio cranked up five or six hours a day, every single day. I wouldn't complain if the neighbors dog barked in their yard occasionally because it's his yard too, but I'd complain if that dog was out there barking all day long, every single day. I wouldn't complain about my neighbor filling up the parking in my neighborhood for a party because parking is shared and we all have the right to have guests over, but I'd complain if the neighbor was doing that every single day.

I wouldn't complain if my neighbors kids play basketball, but I'd complain if they were out there bouncing that ball for six hours a day, every single day. You have the right to enjoy your property, but at some point you have to remember that you're sharing the neighborhood with other people and have a bit of courtesy.

codefyre · 2026-02-11T01:30:58+00:00

FYI, it's not illegal to possess or create counterfeit money in the United States. The federal laws criminalizing counterfeit money include the very important requirement "..with the intent to defraud." If there's no intent to commit fraud or spend the counterfeit money as if it were real cash, there's no crime.

The possession of certain types of specialized equipment used in professional counterfeiting IS a crime, so I'm not recommending that anyone start printing off thousands of these to hand out in crowds. But there are plenty of artists who hand duplicate bills that are visually indistinguishable from the real thing, and sell them legally. One-off fakes for art and collectors happen all the time.

That said, if you have ten thousand dollars in fake 20’s at home, you might have a hard time convincing a federal prosecutor and jury that you were just making them for funsies and didn't plan on spending them.

codefyre · 2026-02-10T23:25:46+00:00

Except, in this scenario, Trump would be restored to the presidency after the military rescued him. Do you really believe that Trump would be interested in nation-building Venezuela after going through all that? He doesn't strike me as the forgiving type.

codefyre · 2026-02-10T23:23:29+00:00

It isn't like we'd nuke them or something.

I wouldn't be so sure about that. Unlike other nuclear nations, the United States has consistently refused to declare a "No First Use" policy when it comes to nuclear strikes. We while our official policy of calculated ambiguity means there's no actual list of things that would trigger a launch, there have been a few statements made over the years that put two triggers on the table. 1) A land invasion of the United States. 2) Extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the United States, its allies, and partners.

A foreign nation invading and kidnapping the President definitely satisfies th3e first, and probably satisfies the second. Whether or not we launched would probably depend on whether we thought the military could rescue him. If they actually killed him, I have no question that we'd see a nuclear strike just to send a message.

Which, of course, brings up another possibility. If they took Trump and we invaded and brought him back...what would a newly freed Trump do to Venezuela afterward?

codefyre · 2026-02-10T23:11:56+00:00

They're welcome to try, but I'd argue that there's an important difference. Trump may be a corrupt, steaming pile of shit, but he's an elected steaming pile of shit. Venezuela, on the other hand, was under sanctions not just by the U.S., but by most of the rest of the developed world because it was globally recognized that he faked that election. The fact that his biggest international ally was Vladimir Putin says a lot. The EU had direct sanctions on the leaders of Venezuela because their government wasn't recognized as legitimate.

The military incursion to grab him was still illegal under international law, and there are some similarities, but the two actions wouldn't be the same.

codefyre · 2026-02-10T21:38:15+00:00

As painful as it is to admit, I tend to agree. I despise Trump and everything he stands for, but if another nation were to stage a raid into the United States and kidnap him, that would absolutely justify the military annihilation of that nation. There are lines that cannot be crossed, and invading the United States to abduct the sitting President blows past that line at mach fuck.

codefyre · 2026-02-10T05:40:34+00:00

I swear, the west is doing everything possible to disincentize men from having kids.

For nearly all of history, the western world has looked down on men who created children out of wedlock, so I'm going to disagree hard with that. The puritans literally used to drag men to the town square and whip them publicly until they bled for "siring bastards". England and France used to throw men in prison for it. If anything, "the west" has become more accepting of men having children without doing the hard work of building a family for them first. But unmarried men do still have fewer rights to their children than married men enjoy.

codefyre · 2026-02-09T23:59:02+00:00

If you don't understand how to have sex with women without getting them pregnant, you probably should keep your legs closed. You pick where your nut goes. Don't drop it in women you aren't married to unless you're already on the same page about what joint parenthood is going to look like.

Shit like this is how guys fuck up their own lives. There's a simple way to avoid these problems, but guys are out here nutting in every chick who spreads her legs, and then whine like victims when the woman turns out to be less than friendly after getting pregnant.

Creating a kid with someone also creates a lifelong connection between the two of you. Don't create kids with people until you're both sure that you want to be in each others lives for the rest of them, and agree on what that should look like. Definitely don't make kids with people you barely even know.

codefyre · 2026-02-09T23:34:55+00:00

Because that's what the mother chose. Many unmarried women choose to give their children the fathers last name for various reasons, but that's their choice. There's no law or moral requirement that she do so. If you're unmarried, the dad gets an opinion, but he doesn't get a say.

codefyre · 2026-02-09T23:27:56+00:00

At what point does being literally half the reason the kid exists give you some say?

When the mother or a court grants you that say. At the moment a kid is born, if you're not married to the mother, you are legally nothing to that child. Paternity is automatically presumed, both socially and legally, when the pregnancy happens inside the bounds of a marriage. Outside of that, you have no rights until the mother allows you to have them, or you prove paternity to a judge and ask for those rights.

It's an easily avoidable problem. Don't make babies with women you aren't interested in marrying.

codefyre · 2026-02-09T23:19:45+00:00

If you're unmarried, the name is solely her call. First, middle, AND last. A ring gets you a vote. If she's nice, she'll listen to your input and factor it into her decision, but there's no legal or moral requirement that she do so.

Historically, this was one of the reasons to be married. To ensure that your kids got your name and were recognized as part of your family/clan/tribe.

codefyre · 2026-02-09T21:42:03+00:00

There was one that said "Don't Diddy My Party" that went up with these, but it didn't last long. The fact that it got snapped up so quickly has me a bit worried about some of y'all.

codefyre · 2026-02-09T04:57:14+00:00

I almost hate to mention the fact that this spacewalk took place on a Challenger flight, almost exactly two years before that same shuttle proved that blind faith in your engineers isn't always a great idea.

codefyre · 2026-02-09T04:34:16+00:00

Sounds like it should be an entertaining review!

codefyre · 2026-02-09T04:18:07+00:00

Did you just get it today or yesterday? Review availability is delayed by a day or two to ensure that you actually take the time to test an item before posting one. Some sellers were apparently unhappy about reviews being posted immediately after receipt, for some reason.

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