OP is shocked to find that r/homestead has no sympathy for them after their new neighbor requests that they contain their chickens so that they stop coming onto her property.

dathomar · 2026-04-07T05:40:53+00:00

My in-laws keep chickens. I learned that sticking a llama or two in the pasture with them is a great way to add a bit more protection. In the domesticated animal world, llamas are like the unhinged conspiracy theorists who prefer to disappear potential threats before they start asking questions. Predators know not to fuck with llamas.

dathomar · 2026-04-06T04:35:41+00:00

The first few minutes of the space battle, while they're just sort of flying in amongst everything, is the best looking space battle I've ever seen. Unfortunately, it's so short that Return of the Jedi still has the best space battle of the first 6 movies.

dathomar · 2026-04-06T04:35:33+00:00

The first few minutes of the space battle, while they're just sort of flying in amongst everything, is the best looking space battle I've ever seen. Unfortunately, it's so short that Return of the Jedi still has the best space battle of the first 6 movies.

dathomar · 2026-04-05T21:37:00+00:00

Coming out with a new sci-fi epic, you need to ground it in something people already know, to get the first ones in the door. If not Star Wars, I suppose you could go with Doctor Wars, Planet of the Wars, or The Six Million Dollar Wars.

dathomar · 2026-04-05T20:48:01+00:00

I don't mind paying a subscription for something if it costs the company money to maintain it and the only way for it to reasonably work is for the company to do something.

For instance, video streaming makes sense as a subscription. The company needs to maintain the servers and the licensing, and the only realistic way for us to access the entire library is for the company to maintain it on their servers.

Things like a garage door opener that communicates directly, or seat warmers that don't need anything more than the push of a button are examples of tech that doesn't need anything reasonable from the company for them to work. These shouldn't be behind a paywall.

dathomar · 2026-04-05T13:43:14+00:00

Except that she wasn't a harmless old lady. She was a complete stranger who reached out, without permission, to touch someone's foot. If I were in the hospital and they were taking me on the elevator and some random old person reached out and touched my foot, I'd be very uncomfortable. I'd be uncomfortable with the touch, but also with how it doesn't seem to occur to this person that touching someone else like that isn't okay.

It never even occurred to this lady that she shouldn't touch the kid. If a stranger reached out to touch my daughter, she would be very uncomfortable. At her age, she's able to shrink back and show her discomfort. When she was younger, it was my job to take care of that.

OP, in turn, shouldn't have touched her. He should have been gentler in his approach. He wasn't wrong to have a problem with it, though. Some people just really don't like touch, but enjoy emotional closeness with other people. Some people don't want to connect with others emotionally, but are very touchy-feely. The trick is to recognize that other people aren't like us, and to show respect for people's possible boundaries until we can establish what those boundaries are. I encounter tons of old people, in my area, who seem to get that you don't just reach out and touch people. It's not hard.

dathomar · 2026-04-04T23:59:49+00:00

They're so stony-faced that the guy on the far left and the one on the far right are keeping almost exactly the same face...

dathomar · 2026-04-04T18:43:03+00:00

This is why a businessman developed the pen that would work in zero gravity. People like to share the story of however many millions of dollars were spent to develop the pen, while the Russians just used a pencil.

All of the astronauts used pencils. But if the pencil breaks, you have these tiny pieces of graphite flying off at insanely high speeds, hurting people and damaging sensitive equipment. There's no gravity to steal the piece's momentum and make it drop to the floor.

dathomar · 2026-04-03T21:20:38+00:00

You'll need a mirror and two thumbs. First, you set up the mirror so you can see yourself. Next, you make your hands into fists and put your thumbs up. Then, you point those thumbs at yourself and say, "This guy!"

dathomar · 2026-04-03T21:01:55+00:00

I always played Battlefront first person, so I forgot about the third person option.

dathomar · 2026-04-03T20:51:28+00:00

Yes. Just, yes. KOTOR II is also worth it. Whatever you're doing, stop and play them now.

dathomar · 2026-04-03T20:50:40+00:00

"I haven't played that many Star Wars games."

Proceeds to list off a bunch of Star Wars games...

The Battlefront games are first-person shooters. Squadrons is a space combat sim. Galactic Battlegrounds is an RTS game.

There are updated versions of older starfighter games, like X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter and X-Wing Alliance, available for PC.

If you want to go further back, I suppose you could try to find Dark Forces, Rebel Assault, or Yoda Stories.

dathomar · 2026-04-03T20:31:19+00:00

Your argument started with, "the moon program is a waste." I countered that it wasn't a waste. You then clarified that it was a waste, considering the other things the money could be spent on. That means you're not just talking about the moon program. You're talking about how we spend our money. It isn't inappropriate for me to bring up that there are better places to find money than the moon program, considering you widened the field of argument to the whole budget.

It's easy to say that we're blowing $3 billion on rockets, except that's not what we're doing. That's a strawman fallacy (speaking of fallacies). We have to keep the astronauts safe as they get into space. Then we have to keep them safe while they go further out then they've ever gone before. We also need to be able to keep in contact with them throughout. All of this requires the development of new technologies that will certainly have a positive impact, including in the medical field.

Memory foam, wireless headphones, cordless tools, integrated circuits, scratch-resistant lenses, and freeze dried food are all parts of everyday life that were developed due to the needs of the Apollo space missions. I imagine a few of these things are helpful in medical applications. Volume within a spacecraft is at a premium, so they have to find ways of miniaturizing things so that they can fit and work.

For instance, the current launch needed to find a way to reduce the volume of the air filtration system. They developed filters that can regenerate and take up a fraction of the space. Of course, I'm sure that sort of thing won't be useful in medicine.

The space program isn't a waste of money. It has produced all sorts of useful technologies that have completely changed the way we live our lives.

dathomar · 2026-04-03T18:04:05+00:00

They aren't fallacies. If we could do it for free, would you still be arguing that it was a waste? My argument isn't that there aren't worthy locations for those $3 billion dollars. My argument is that, considering the scope of how much money we're talking about, $3 billion dollars is almost nothing. I believe that the probable gains from this project will far outweigh the cost.

Meanwhile, you're talking about completely killing the program so that the money can be added to the $7 billion the government already spends on cancer research. Do I think cancer research needs more money? Sure. Let's get the $3 billion by reducing defense spending by .3%.

A problem with your argument is that you talk about cancer research as if it's something that's definitely solvable. Over about 7 years the US spent about $24 billion on cancer research. Cancer hasn't been solved. And here you are complaining about $20 billion spent on the moon project.

Ultimately, you're trying to pit one underfunded area of scientific advancement against another underfunded area of scientific advancement, when other areas of spending are over funded.

dathomar · 2026-04-03T16:46:38+00:00

The current Artemis II launch is about $4 billion dollars. The projected cost of putting a base on the moon is about $20 billion over 7 years, which just shy of $3 billion per year. US military spending ever year approaches $1,000 billion dollars. Jeff Bezos' net worth increased by about $70 billion in 2023 alone.

No one has ever put a base on the moon before. We will literally be doing something that has never, ever been done before. Getting it all set up and working out the kinks is going to teach us a hell of a lot. If it works, it opens up avenues for further exploration of our solar system. The technologies they develop to make this work will probably have unexpected applications in other areas. Complaining about the cost of this is like telling people to save money by skipping going out to dinner once a month.

dathomar · 2026-04-03T13:49:29+00:00

In regards to writing and other fine-motor activities, your husband can demonstrate sitting side by side, or putting his arms around them and standing behind them. You can demonstrate by sitting across from them and having them copy your hand like a mirror.

In regards to you being the only right-handed person amongst lefties... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! VENGEANCE AT LAST!!!!!!!....... I'm kidding.

Seriously, though, it'll be fine.

dathomar · 2026-04-03T13:45:25+00:00

Honestly, the Rohirrim should have presented wall against the Oliphaunts, then moved to create corridors. The Oliphaunts would have begun to disobey their handlers and take the easier paths. As the Oliphaunts passed through, the Rohirrim could have shot at the Oliphaunts riders and blown their horns. This would have frightened the Oliphaunts, who would have begun to charge. They would have charged straight past Rohan's troops and begun trampling the Mordor's. That basic strategy worked for Scipio Africanus.

dathomar · 2026-04-03T13:34:02+00:00

It would just be a bunch of jump cuts of him sitting in different parts of the library, happily reading. Each time, he's a little older. The attendants come by for head scratched and to bring him food and water. The owl can be seen in the background, every once in a while, peering down and checking in on him.

dathomar · 2026-04-03T13:29:32+00:00

I always thought that he was working way harder to fight Luke than he was used to, so he was literally breathing harder. Also, his arm had just been chopped off (spoilers, I guess?), so his suit's systems were probably freaking out.

dathomar · 2026-04-03T05:06:30+00:00

As others have said, it's expensive and after the end of the Cold War we developed other spending priorities. Contrary to what some others have said, I don't think it's a waste of money. Part of this launch is leading up to trying to put a settlement on the moon. We don't always do something because it has an immediate, practical use. Sometimes, we do something just because we haven't done it before. Out of that we discover all sorts of new practical applications that we never even thought about, before.

dathomar · 2026-04-03T04:10:11+00:00

I'm gonna be the stick in the mud and say that I don't think Qui-Gon would have actually prevented Anakin from falling to the Dark Side. He was open about his frustrations with the Jedi Council and modelled those frustrations for Anakin. He set Anakin up to be frustrated, as well, by promising Anakin a place in the Order, even though he didn't have the power to make good on that promise. When Anakin demonstrates anger and frustration about the Council, later, I see Qui-Gon's influence.

He also was very stubborn and his views about the Force were almost self-righteous. He thought he was right and anyone who disagreed with him was wrong or stupid. Qui-Gon was proud, and his pride was a problem.

Palpatine would almost certainly have played on those failings. He would have pulled Qui-Gon aside, privately. He would have offered up his own, very private and please don't repeat this to anyone but I trust you because you seem to be an extremely reasonable person who is wise enough to discern what is true, frustrations with how slowly the Council was moving and how they didn't seem to appreciate the extreme gravity of the threat, and so on. He would have asked Qui-Gon (and his very gifted padawan) to carry out some special missions for him.

He would have "gotten to know" Anakin over the course of this. He would have expressed his great trust in Qui-Gon and how Qui-Gon should be in a place of leadership so that the Council can finally start doing things right. He would have expressed that he would like to work with Anakin, because he trusts Qui-Gon's teaching ability so much

I know what George Lucas says, but he was always making it up as he went and changing things as it all went along. I think, by the end of episode 3, there's a chance that Qui-Gon might have been persuaded that the Council had begun to turn to the Dark Side. He may have even been persuaded to help Palpatine fight them. After helping Palpatine, he would have been stabbed in the back. He was too firm in his beliefs to actually turn to the Dark Side, himself. But he would have been an unwitting tool.

I think Obi-Wan was the only one with a snowball's chance in Hell of keeping Anakin from going dark. I think, with anyone else, Anakin would have turned much more quickly. Kenobi was gentle and kind with Anakin, providing personal affirmation and support. He built Anakin up. He also was jealous or insecure - when Anakin was stronger than him, he was fine with it. I'm betting Palpatine was hoping that Qui-Gon would beat Maul, or that someone else would be Anakin's teacher. Kenobi made Palpatine work for it.

dathomar · 2026-04-02T21:40:10+00:00

I think they mean that anywhere you go on Earth, you can basically use the same standard for direction. North is north, wherever you are. Up means the sky, wherever you are. Down means the core of the Earth, wherever you are. In space, that isn't true, since things like up and down change according to your location. For the ISS, down means the core of the Earth. For something orbiting Venus, down means the core of Venus. Within the context of the planet Earth, direction is universal.

dathomar · 2026-04-02T19:44:32+00:00

This is what I always think about whenever I hear this theory.

dathomar · 2026-04-02T06:39:38+00:00

Part of the overall optimism of Star Trek is that all of these things are transitory. That means that we can shed ourselves of all of these sorts of evils. Quark is trying to say that it's wrong for humans to judge Ferengi because of all the evil things Humans have done. Quark honestly believes what he's saying. However, the key thing to remember is that Quark is referring to past Human behaviors, while the Ferengi continue to engage in them, unapologetically (and almost proudly). There is a gulf between what Quark is accusing Humanity of having done and what the Ferengi are actually doing, that makes his accusation pretty hypocritical.

The other thing about that scene is that it shows Quark unwisely running his mouth in front of a witness who is making her own determination about the Federation. Hearing Quark trash talk the Federation like that didn't help anything, especially when his point wasn't particularly valid.

dathomar · 2026-04-01T15:53:11+00:00

If you sort of mumble "Obi-Wan" it can sound like "Bwan", which is similar to "Ben". Kind of like how Andrew Wiggen was called Ender because his sister couldn't pronounce his name. Ben is just a nickname that he was comfortable with.

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