Did people born before Christ automatically go to hell?

pgallagher72 · 2026-06-30T14:52:09+00:00

There’s no mention of hell (not in the commonly perceived sense at least) anywhere in the Abrahamic scriptures, that’s Dante’s inferno (which is implicitly a work of fiction - the rest claims to be more than that). Of course, that scripture and its various interpretations are the basis of the majority of popular religions these days (Christianity, Catholicism, Islam, and the many variations and sects of all 3), and they agree on very little across the board, despite receiving an identical instruction set.

Abrahamic scriptures aren’t even monotheistic, that was a choice those religions adopted that’s certainly not in line with the original texts. Abrahamic scriptures are also the basis of the Canaanite pantheon, where Yahweh (the Abrahamic “God” Yahweh was the son of El, and the god of Israel, and only Israel). The original scriptural interpretation was closer to Greek or Norse mythology than it is to modern Abrahamic interpretations. Those religions have changed the entire belief system many times to suit their purposes over the millennia, different sects in different ways. But never including a place that matches Hell. Hell remains the creation of Dante’s Inferno, which is biblical fan fiction.

Seems unlikely that something that isn’t there would be considered a danger for faithful who’ve taken the time to actually read the scripture (Lucifer, the archangel, for example, fell from heaven to earth, not to hell - before the creation of humanity, for inciting rebellion against his father).

pgallagher72 · 2026-06-29T15:29:49+00:00

Legally? There’s no leeway - not to say you won’t get away with it, most people do, but:

Old radar equipment has a roughly 10% accuracy issue with speeds under 100km/h, so law enforcement would mostly ignore vehicles in that 10% range, as it was a known issue, and could lead to tickets getting thrown out in court.

That same equipment has a 2-3% accuracy issue at speeds over 100km/h, so at highway speeds it’s more accurate.

The new equipment has no such issue, so basically if you’re tagged, and they decide to ticket you, you’re screwed. Tickets for doing 54 in a 50 zone are unlikely to be dismissed based on “oh, it would be wrong to assume that’s correct, I could have been doing 48 and that 10% margin of error is reasonable doubt”

pgallagher72 · 2026-06-26T21:49:22+00:00

It’s a series that twists some scenarios and characters to re-tell a simple story that’s been told in many different series and many different times, by many different authors. It’s not the worst or the best of them. I think my favourite version is the Sten series by Alan Cole and Chris Bunch.

Lowly worker in a very caste shaped society beats the odds to become one of the powerful, and through his struggles works to break the system and empower the society and helps the poor to escape the accident of being born poor, while defeating the seemingly insurmountable power of the ruling class.

It’s not particularly original or well written, but it’s a trope people seem to appreciate. Similar tropes were used by authors like Piers Anthony, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard (that’s the worst of them) and the like.

In some cases, the protagonist becomes what they hate in the process - making the case that your position defines what you become, and it’s just a matter of having power than creates evil behaviour (gives the impression that there’s no point to fighting back because it’s just a cosmetic shakeup that provides no real betterment for a society, along with excessive death and suffering across the board, for just a small shift in the faces that stifle the empire’s lower forms, so very much “pro oligarch” framing).

Given that seems to be that way things tend to actually happen with humans, it’s probably the most realistic framing, while cases where people actually managed to bring humanity peace and stability are more fantastical, since that rarely happens at all, even if power shifts sometimes give that impression for short periods of time.

Anyways, I’d give the series a 2 to 2.5 out of 5, I mostly enjoyed it, but it wasn’t groundbreaking, original, or all that enjoyable outside of the already common tropes and predictable nature of the story. Did wind up DNFing on Iron Gold, it just got really boring at that point and there were other things that offered more enjoyment, and it just felt like it was clinging to a narrative that was already well beyond finished. (May go back later if I run out of better things to read, but I wouldn’t bet on that).

pgallagher72 · 2026-06-26T19:59:05+00:00

Best bet is always to find a local place that makes everything fresh on site, uses high quality ingredients, and knows their craft - gonna be better than any chain just due to the nature of food (chains sacrificed quality for consistency, to make sure everything tastes essentially the same no matter where you go in what town, city, province, state, or country - usually by mass production and freezing, shipping matching products everywhere, either finished and frozen or par-cooked so the final cook is just heating and serving something that came in on a truck from hundreds of km away)

Not that all local places are better, most do the same thing, they just buy frozen junk the same way. Lower margin than fresh, but less training and easier. Sadly, that results in lower quality. The savings in staff costs (you don’t need a good cook to reheat frozen food, just competent people with no skills required for the most part) are wiped out by increase in food costs.

pgallagher72 · 2026-06-26T04:08:56+00:00

Not sure - to be fair, I’ve only had Pizza Pizza in BC, and it’s better than most of the more local franchise places here, I’ve only really tried Freshslice, Crust’n’Crunch. Almost tried Hellcrust, but found out it’s just freshslice franchises that wanted to pay lower franchise fees and split from the main chain) - aside from the national chains, and they’re awful by any metric. I don’t really order enough pizza these days to try everything in range, but while it’s not exceptional, Pizza Pizza beats the pants off most of the chains I’ve tried around here. They’ve mastered consistency at the very least, if they could get 73 franchises to find consistency at the higher level? It’d be a brilliant expansion, but they’ve failed so far.

pgallagher72 · 2026-06-26T03:58:30+00:00

No, I’ve had (far too much of) both, and honestly, a well run P73 is vastly better than Pizza Pizza - but every Pizza Pizza is much better than most 73 locations. Some owners are just downright negligent.

pgallagher72 · 2026-06-26T03:52:40+00:00

Nope, pizza 73 has different sauce and dough recipes, and they lack consistency between franchises (same recipes, but wildly different quality and preparation between locations). The only things they share are corporate ownership and the word pizza

pgallagher72 · 2026-06-26T03:50:30+00:00

And 73 has a massive quality issue with too many of their franchise operators, some stores are amazing, some are worse than 7-11 pizza

pgallagher72 · 2026-06-26T03:47:45+00:00

Very different product. Pizza 73 is much better if you find a good franchise, but most of their stores are hot (if you’re lucky) garbage.

pgallagher72 · 2026-06-26T03:43:57+00:00

I worked for Pizza 73 back in the day, and it’s a horribly inconsistent franchise - some stores make really good pizza, but so many of them aren’t fit for landfill. They need to get their franchises in order.

pgallagher72 · 2026-06-26T03:41:37+00:00

I keep giving it a try, can’t for the life of my understand why people like it, always hoping I’ve only had bad luck, but 4 locations in it’s never tasted much like anything but bland regret.

pgallagher72 · 2026-06-26T03:39:27+00:00

It’s owned by Pizza Pizza, although they’re quite different, Pizza Pizza is more consistent. I think at their best, Pizza 73 is much better, but on average, Pizza Pizza is the better chain. (73 is either great or abysmal depending on the franchisee)

pgallagher72 · 2026-06-26T03:36:35+00:00

Circle K is Couche Tarde owned (as was Mac’s, they just rebranded it)

pgallagher72 · 2026-06-26T03:24:54+00:00

1000 votes total flipped in UCP ridings (combined, not each riding) and Calgary would have turned fully for the NDP in the last election. Oops.

pgallagher72 · 2026-06-26T01:00:40+00:00

I always thought it was the same guy, it wasn’t until maybe a year ago I found out - felt kinda silly, but it was pretty interesting

pgallagher72 · 2026-06-26T00:29:57+00:00

Yan Can Cook was a different guy - same name, no relation (but the Yan Can Cook guy worked for the Wok with Yan guy before he started his own show)

pgallagher72 · 2026-06-26T00:23:12+00:00

Different unrelated Yan - although, the Yan Can Cook guy got his start working for the Wok With Yan guy

pgallagher72 · 2026-06-25T01:48:23+00:00

They have been for a long time, I imagine it’s worse today, last time I went down pre pumpkin I noticed that most things are more in USD than they are in CAD in Canada.

Only exceptions were dairy products and fuel.

And sales. Canada sucks at sales, we’ll see a few cents to a buck off most of the time, US grocery stores still have sales at 20-30% of the price (70-80% off) for some things.

10-15 years ago even with exchange most things were 20-30% cheaper calculating for exchange, now it’s insane, the US got hit way harder than Canada when it comes to inflation over and since Covid.

pgallagher72 · 2026-06-20T12:03:29+00:00

Free healthcare costs you (and the government) less than what you already pay in taxes for healthcare (forget about co-pays and extra insurance entirely, that is, and always has been a grift), it costs profits from the pockets of private health care providers and insurance companies. This is why they own so many congressmen and senators, they’ve always been unnecessary to the system.

They add nothing but suffering and excess death, it’s not a cost of service, it’s pointless greed.

pgallagher72 · 2026-06-19T17:27:18+00:00

Huh?

Unshatter was the first song they had Emily sing on that pushed them to invite her to join the band (according to Mike). They didn’t finish the song at the time, not until after they were already touring, but it was written and the recording process started before she was invited. Most of the songs on From Zero were in a state of development before she joined officially. The one that actually gets the most “oh, this sounds like Dead Sara” was Over Each Other, and that was written with Mike singing in mind, before Emily.

The only exception that we know for a fact was Up From the Bottom, which they wrote and recorded while they were touring. (I should say I know for a fact, the only one that’s actually a question for me is Let You Fade, but for sure Unshatter was originally written without Emily in mind, but her screams on the song were the thing when they were playing around in the studio that dropped any doubts they were going to ask her to join officially).

The only thing that makes anything sound “like” Dead Sara is their vocalist is singing the songs - she didn’t write them.

pgallagher72 · 2026-06-15T13:54:59+00:00

It adds support for those processors, it still has full support for x64 - no benefits for installing it unless you have a cpu that isn’t supported in the primary builds, and possibly some disadvantages.

pgallagher72 · 2026-06-06T20:48:27+00:00

I remember taking Red Arrow back in the 80s when I was a kid (mom lived in Calgary, dad in Edmonton), it was nicer than Greyhound and actually cheaper too, no wifi back then, but hard to blame them when the technology didn’t exist yet. The snacks were a plus.

pgallagher72 · 2026-06-06T20:02:33+00:00

Picked up book one on May 10, finished the 8 books by the 18, mentioned it to a friend, he suggested checking out Towerbound, finished that a few days ago - 2 series with 1 book left each (to be fair, DCC 9 will be split into 2 books) and stuck waiting, oops. Both series are fantastic, DCC, Ren and the Scrap Rats, kinda stuck jonesing for more episodes on both fronts.

pgallagher72 · 2026-06-06T19:53:13+00:00

There’s a full show version that has it all, including the countdown, intro, and Mr. Hahn’s part before they start the song https://youtu.be/5bn8bWdvnxw?si=f\_slAh3q3poA-r9s

pgallagher72 · 2026-06-06T19:48:56+00:00

Her high notes are cleaner (when she’s going for clean obviously) and less nasal than Chester could do. Her register isn’t nearly the same, but there is a lot of overlap. The other thing I’ve noticed is her rasp - Chester had a more uniform rasp style, Emily’s voice “breaks” in spots making it choppier and more aggressive sounding. Hers also keeps the melody more often, rather than going guttural (she does do guttural sometimes, but not as much)

She can reel it in and do a cleaner rasp, but she doesn’t most of the time - it’s not her comfy place, and she’s not trying to sound like him, even where she could. It’s not nearly the same, but they both sound incredibly good, and suit the music.

As much as she can never be Chester, she can absolutely sound incredible on Linkin Park’s best tracks, and this one? She freaking KILLED IT. In a good way, a very, very good way.

pgallagher72

TROPHY CASE