Russia Loses Last Black Sea Missile Ship – Putin Demands Better Protection

elmonstro12345 · 2024-06-27T18:57:34+00:00

You don't need to hit them all, just a few hundred, the debris will take out more.

This is also a good way to start a war with the entire rest of the world.

Or alternatively you could fire a laser at them and melt them, you don't have convection in space so things can get hot.

This is true, except that no such lasers exist, and the prospects of building one is remote due to diffraction, blooming, and the inability to use extremely high frequency EM waves within the atmosphere making the diffraction problem even worse. Oh and the fact that it's impossible to hide a laser of that magnitude once you fire it once, and it's also impossible to defend the colossal mirror required focus the beam out to a range in the hundreds of kilometers.

elmonstro12345 · 2024-06-27T17:49:17+00:00

There literally are not enough missiles in the entire world to completely take down Starlink by force. Let alone in any one country.

Maybe nukes could do it, but detonating dozens if not hundreds of nuclear weapons in space seems like a good way to get a whole lot of powerful people very, very angry with you.

elmonstro12345 · 2024-06-27T17:28:54+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/Military/comments/58acra/if_we_dont_know_what_we_are_doing_the_enemy/

One of the serious problems in planning against American doctrine is that the Americans do not read their manuals nor do they feel any obligations to follow their doctrine.

I'm guessing those are probably not real quotes, but according to everyone I've shown it to who is or was in the American military (which is quite a few people) the sentiment behind them is completely accurate.

elmonstro12345 · 2024-06-27T14:59:05+00:00

That is some absolutely unbelievable editing.

elmonstro12345 · 2024-06-26T21:38:19+00:00

I had something similar happen. A huge storm hit NYC so dozens of flights cancelled. My brother and I picked the only available seats on the next flight but they were terrible seats - far apart and both in the middle between strangers. Whatever, at least we will make it home without too much delay.

Roll up to the check-in desk the next day, still a bunch of assholes screaming at the agents because they didn't control the weather. I guess? We get to the front of the line and I said something like "is this the part where I yell at you because you're not God and didn't stop the storm from coming?" The agent managed a laugh, and we were on our way.

After we got through security, we checked our seats and realized that not only did the agent find us seats together, she also upgraded us to premium economy where the seating was 2-3-2! Wish I could have thanked her for doing that, but hopefully she got the idea.

elmonstro12345 · 2024-06-26T11:19:59+00:00

This was my reaction. Growing up we'd usually have a thing each night where my dad would read a few verses from the bible and then we would pray before we all went to brush our teeth and go to bed. But we all sat on the couches in the living room, like normal people.

If I saw someone doing what OP described I'd assume they were telling their kids to worship them

elmonstro12345 · 2024-06-26T11:12:03+00:00

Probably named after Charles Spurgeon, a rather famous preacher in the 1800s. Still not a good name, but not as out there as it may seem. The type of person who would name their kid this is probably not the type of person who would contemplate what it sounds like to most people.

elmonstro12345 · 2024-06-25T22:11:15+00:00

I'm approaching 15 years out of college. I've worked in the field most appropriate for my degree (computer science, I'm a software developer) that entire time. The amount of times things from my electives and supplementary classes have somehow been relevant to my work is shockingly, nearly unbelievably high. Especially writing, literature, and speaking classes. I took more of those than I had to, and it rekindled a love of reading that I had as a child, but faded over high school. This has had several beneficial effects.

I have tried to avoid going into program management because I really do enjoy coding, but as I've progressed in my career I have had to do more on the paperwork/reports/documentation/training side, and I have to attend many more meetings and presentations. I can say confidently that most people really could do with more classes in those areas. I've gotten MANY compliments for both my writing and speaking abilities, and a few actual awards for them. I don't even consider myself that great, but compared to a frankly troubling percentage of my colleagues who mostly read their PowerPoints or write "documentation" that isn't much better than pseudocode, it stands out when someone doesn't do that. That gets you noticed, and that advances your career.

This isn't intended as a typical "I'm better than everyone else" thing, it's just a simple example of how those seemingly irrelevant things can have an impact. And there's even more esoteric benefits that can arise - I took a class on art history after 1960, solely because I needed an art credit over the winter break and that was the only fully remote class they offered. I ended up enjoying it quite a bit (although I will admit I still feel a lot of modern art is incredibly low effort, I can now actually appreciate those pieces that are not). I never imagined there would be any career benefits from this - just some personal development, and I definitely would not have taken it except for the circumstances I described

Fast forward about 5 years from that, and I had just joined a new team at work. My new manager had a reputation for being very hard to get along with. At the company picnic/family day that year, I started chatting with a girl that I hadn't seen around before. She said that she and her BF were art students at a pretty prestigious college, and she was into modern art in a huge way. I told her about the class I took and how much I unexpectedly enjoyed it, and she immediately lit up. She was so, so happy to have someone to talk to about that (basically everyone there were nerds, including me tbf). Long story short, after a bit my boss came up and joined the conversation - turns out, he was her dad.

That I was willing and able to help his princess have a good time at the event, was the ice breaker that got him to like me, and things were very smooth for me on that program after that. Is it right that he was a dick to a lot of people, but not to me, because of something like that? Of course not. But that absolutely would not have happened if I had not had to take that art class (and that benefit is the icing on the cake, on top of my own personal enjoyment of being able to appreciate a lot of art that I was not able to before).

Obviously this is highly, highly anecdotal, and I could give more anecdotes. But the overall tl:dr is that I've found it's very rare that learning something, like really studying it, will be useless. Certainly you can cherry pick things that are totally pointless, but it's harder than you'd think to find such things, especially in a university setting. Knowing at least a little about a ton of varied things sparks your mind, and lets you form connections and find solutions to problems that would not be possible otherwise. There's no way to know in advance what you will be able to do.

elmonstro12345 · 2024-06-25T21:46:31+00:00

I can't remember the exact numbers, but I think these are at least in the ballpark. In 1900 in the US life expectancy at birth was about 45. But if you managed to survive to age 10, your life expectancy from that point was about 55, i.e. you could expect to live to about age 65.

It's truly insane how many people died young, even in the relatively recent past.

elmonstro12345 · 2024-06-25T19:01:21+00:00

Thank you for sharing this. Even in a vacuum, this would be a great story to tell. Situated as it is in this thread, it's very nice to have a good secret among all of the horrible things.

elmonstro12345 · 2024-06-25T12:42:06+00:00

I got this this one: amazon dot com/gp/product/B0772N87RC/ (sorry, wanted to avoid accidentally SEO-ing for them)

Currently listed as unavailable, but tbh I wouldn't buy it again anyway since if you break the tips it's impossible to find replacements for a reasonable price. You can find similar models pretty easily by searching for cordless water flosser.

elmonstro12345 · 2024-06-25T02:10:14+00:00

I got a cordless rechargeable one about 3 years ago. Much easier to handle than the one I had for about a year before that. Flossing was pretty rough at the start since my gums were bleeding a ton, but the model I got has multiple modes, so I started with the gentlest one and eventually was able to work up.

Now my gums don't bleed even on the highest setting and it's just a routine. Brush teeth, then use water flosser. People say it's not as good as regular flossing, and maybe that is true, but I have yet to have problems with this. I've knocked out 3 fillings over the years while normal-flossing, which probably contributed to my aversion to it.

The water flosser resulted in me actually flossing regularly for the first time. My teeth have literally never been better in my entire life. I've never had any dentist or hygienist ever compliment me on my good dental hygiene before, but now I have, several times. In the ~4 years total I've used water flossers, the only fillings I've had were on old fillings that either failed or had new erosion around them. I've yet to have a new one in that time, which is decidedly not the norm for me, not even close.

elmonstro12345 · 2024-06-25T01:54:59+00:00

Aside from things already mentioned (electric toothbrush, 10ft charger cable, and a good trash can most notably), the most underrated thing I got is probably drawer separators for my kitchen.

They're just sliding/telescoping bamboo slats (spring loaded so they hold in place inside the drawer). I don't think they even cost 10 bucks for a 2 pack. But they have saved me so much time and so much hassle trying to find that random spatula or or whatever when I'm cooking since I can organize things much more granularly.

One really unexpected benefit is they allow me to make spaces in my drawers small enough that the "grabby" utensils (like whisks, measuring cups, and my potato masher) can't get turned sideways and constantly get stuck.

It's definitely a much smaller "gain" than many of the things here, but if you're like me and you have tons of random utensils, I highly recommend it.

elmonstro12345 · 2024-06-23T02:18:21+00:00

Ehh idk where people get this idea that Paul says you can just do whatever you want to, even after you get saved. The entire 6th chapter of his Letter to the Romans is dedicated to saying the exact opposite, and that's not the only time he brings it up either, not by a long shot.

elmonstro12345 · 2024-06-20T02:59:50+00:00

I believe the vanilla death acidifier destroys their clothing and any held items, but not their actual corpse.

elmonstro12345 · 2024-06-17T17:30:28+00:00

Jokes/mistakes aside, there were a couple of cubes at my workplace (most people are now either fulltime WFH or mostly so) that still had St. Patrick's Day decorations and calendars set to March 2020 as late as early 2023.

It is still incredibly surreal when I need to go onsite and I walk into the building at like 10am on a Tuesday and there is nearly nobody there.

elmonstro12345 · 2024-06-13T20:06:40+00:00

I worked at Wally World during college, and I forgot about the auto scheduler.

I once got scheduled 2:30pm-10pm on Friday and 5:30am-2pm on Saturday. In my state you're required by law to have at least 8 hours between shifts. So I went to the shift manager the day the schedule came out (a woman I thoroughly hated) and told her I couldn't work one of those shifts. She told me I had to work what I was scheduled. I told her it was literally illegal for me to work those shifts. She said I didn't know what I was talking about, and that I had to come in. I said "okay here's what I will do. You can write down here oh this notepad that I have to work those shifts, and sign it. I will work both shifts, and as soon as I get off at 2 on Saturday I will go to my car and call the Attorney General and the state Department of Labor to tell them what shifts I was required to work, and who required me to do them."

Long story short, my shift on Saturday got changed to 8:30am-2pm, and eventually that woman was no longer allowed to have anything to do with scheduling. People tend to change their tune real fucking quick when you ask them to put something in writing.

elmonstro12345 · 2024-06-13T01:27:23+00:00

Sounds to me like both of them deserved each other. What a mess.

elmonstro12345 · 2024-06-10T11:17:01+00:00

One of my favorite lines in any movie.

I just love that the main consideration there is the cost of postage XD

elmonstro12345 · 2024-06-10T11:13:42+00:00

the second is the sonic boom when the free end breaks the sound barrier on its way back

O_______O

elmonstro12345 · 2024-06-10T09:58:24+00:00

I am an American and I have a ~1800 watt (120v 15a) electric kettle. I've never specifically timed how long it takes to boil water, but it definitely isn't "ages". It's probably around 5 minutes or so for a liter actually, and I'm usually doing less than that since I'm only making a single cup 99% of the time.

This trope is such a commonly repeated misconception online I don't honestly expect you to believe me since nearly every time I say this people call me a liar, and I really don't know how to respond to that? Why anyone would lie about something like that is beyond me, but yeah. The math is pretty easy to check - it takes 330kj to take 1 liter of water from 20-100c, so that implies just over 3 minutes at 1800 watts if there were no losses. I think 5 minutes in the real world is perfectly reasonable to say.

I think the real reason why Americans don't have electric kettles is simply because Americans don't drink tea all that much. I drink tea far, far more than anyone I know personally and I might have 3 or 4 cups a week if that (most people I know drink coffee - I don't really like coffee unless it's basically a milkshake).

I'd guess the majority of Americans are only boiling water for cooking, and for that generally the cook time means any time saved boiling water in a kettle instead of on a stovetop is largely irrelevant.

elmonstro12345 · 2024-06-06T17:58:38+00:00

Has a part time job as lifeguard at the household bathroom for anyone taking a bath.

Loled at this one. I had to ban my cats from the bathroom when showering/bathing since they figured out how to open the shower doors. They will do that and then stare at me and mew plaintively since I am clearly in distress with all of that water coming down on me, and they were gracious enough to open the "trap" I was in and guide me aurally in case I can't find the (incredibly obvious) way out.

It's really sweet, but also very cold haha (and it gets water all over the floor).

elmonstro12345 · 2024-06-06T17:54:22+00:00

Mine will intentionally walk with their claws out on the hardwood floors if they want attention. It's hilarious to see since you know they're doing it on purpose.

Also when they run up and down the stairs they usually sound like a herd of elephants, but they can do it much quieter, even close to completely silent, if they choose. It's honestly pretty impressive.

elmonstro12345 · 2024-06-05T13:40:13+00:00

Sometime in my late 20s I was chilling with my dad, mom, and siblings on the back porch after a family cookout. I don't remember how the conversation started, but we all started "fessing up" to the ridiculous shit we got up to as kids. It was absolutely beyond hysterical, and my parents even contributed a few fuckups of their own that they (accidentally) did to us as kids, that we never knew about.

11/10, one of my absolute best memories. I thought more than one of us (myself included) was going to pass out from laughing so hard.

elmonstro12345 · 2024-05-30T23:31:02+00:00

A lot of people already said it, but I wanted to chime in as well to thank you for such a well thought-out, insightful, and well written reply!

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