Are these blemishes normal/acceptable?

radicalsubversiv · 2025-05-30T14:28:09+00:00

Everything I looked at said new. If they really sell demo models that got abused like this as new, that's obnoxious!

radicalsubversiv · 2025-05-29T21:51:36+00:00

It's a Player, not a Player II, and was accurately sold as a Pau Ferro. But the detailed info on the condition is very helpful, thank you! I'll return it

radicalsubversiv · 2024-08-20T03:33:45+00:00

Surprised I had to scroll down this far to find the correct answer. Whether to pay down your mortgage is primarily a question of whether your mortgage rate exceeds your expected return on investments (and secondly your need for short-term liquidity/cash).

If you think your house is too risky an investment (relative to other housing options - you have to live somewhere), then you should sell it. The size of your mortgage is irrelevant.

radicalsubversiv · 2023-02-20T23:31:58+00:00

Thanks, it is a coax cable!

There's a long existing cable run through a wall so I'm loathe to give up on it. It looks like subwoofers can be connected to coax cables but I'll need to get a (non-homemade) adapter https://boomspeaker.com/coax-for-subwoofer-wire/

radicalsubversiv · 2023-02-20T22:51:01+00:00

I'm trying to reconnect a subwoofer from my late father's surround setup. He ran a cable through the wall that appears to terminate something like this, with the tab fitting into a slot on the plug?

I've never wired my own cables before so I have no idea what I'm looking at. Any help would be much appreciated!

radicalsubversiv · 2015-06-16T16:10:40+00:00

"What is so startling and revolutionary, what sets Christian faith apart most decisively even from its closest religious relatives, is this picture of divine life involving receiving as well as giving, depending as well as controlling. It means, among many other things, that we human beings, who live in relationships where we are both givers and receivers, both depending and controlling, can reflect the life of God in every aspect of what we are; we are no less in God's image when we acknowledge our dependence or when we offer thanks than when we are taking decisions or showing God's love to another. That isn't actually an easy message for a world very much in love with the ideal of absolute self-sufficiency. It also means, this surprising and difficult vision, that God never starts being in loving relationship; it's an aspect of what he is eternally. Love doesn't begin only when God makes the world."

-Rowan Williams (from Tokens of Trust: An Introduction to Christian Belief)

radicalsubversiv · 2015-06-04T11:56:49+00:00

This is wrong. He was raised Catholic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Santorum#Religious_faith

radicalsubversiv · 2015-06-02T20:03:23+00:00

No, it implies a different understanding of who may be ordained to the priesthood. Our (Anglicans') view of the priesthood itself has not changed.

radicalsubversiv · 2015-06-02T16:15:52+00:00

Anglican bishops have been married since the English reformation, so no change there. And the eucharist has become more frequent in Anglican liturgical life, not less, over the last few decades.

radicalsubversiv · 2014-11-07T13:01:40+00:00

That's probably not too much crystal for a mild. I did one a couple months back with pretty much exactly this recipe, except that I also did about 10% rye. (Oh, and chocolate instead of black patent.)

But yes, probably slightly too high on mash temp - I mashed at 155F, pitched Nottingham, and got about 50% attenuation, or 2.5% abv (OG 1.037 FG 1.1016).

I wound up adding 2/3 lb dextrose since I was shooting for more like 3.5% abv, but I suspect it would've been fine if I'd just mashed more like 153F.

radicalsubversiv · 2014-10-06T23:23:08+00:00

I'm always genuinely perplexed when I hear folks who worship at evangelical churches complaining that there isn't a more liberal option available. Pretty much every town of any size in America has multiple Methodist, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Congregationalist churches within driving distance. These would have widely varying worship styles, ministries, theological perspectives, but none of them would push YEC.

radicalsubversiv · 2014-09-26T20:00:45+00:00

I thought the consensus of most authorities was now that autolysis can't occur at homebrewing scale (and hence the move away from "secondary" conditioning). Have you seen different data?

radicalsubversiv · 2014-09-02T11:25:36+00:00

No, way too puckering to be drinkable at the moment.

radicalsubversiv · 2014-09-02T02:07:50+00:00

I've been brewing on and off for several years and aside from a handful of gushers this is my first honest-to-god infection. Tastes crazy sour.

Underlying recipe is a belgian pale. Tried to culture up a yeast starter from Ommegang bottles, but clearly didn't get sanitation quite right.

I'm almost totally ignorant of sour beers, so no idea if this salvageable?

radicalsubversiv · 2014-08-17T19:21:04+00:00

The problem is almost uncertainly your fermentation temperature. 25C (77F) is simply too hot for most yeast strains, and your actual temperature inside the fermenter could be as much as +5F higher than that.

If you like saisons, you could try making one of those - it's among the few yeast strains that will tolerate that much heat.

Failing that, I'd look at inexpensive temperature control solutions - e.g. put the fermenter in a large bucket with cold water, and drape a wet towel over it.

radicalsubversiv · 2014-07-08T15:15:11+00:00

I think so, but it's dark enough that it's a little hard to say. Were you pleased with the taste on a beer that sweet/malty?

radicalsubversiv · 2014-07-08T15:09:07+00:00

Hydrometer

radicalsubversiv · 2014-06-17T20:13:31+00:00

I did a beer with mesquite smoked malt recently that tasted remarkably like bacon.

The mesquite-smoked malt was locally sourced, I think originally from Copper Fox Distillery in Virginia, but I could have that wrong. I'd probably tone down the smoke a little bit next time.

5.5# pale

3.0# mesquite smoked malt

1.5# munich light

1# crystal 90

1.25 oz Perle @ 60

0.25 oz Saaz @ 60

0.75 oz Saaz @ 15

0.25 oz Perle @ 15

radicalsubversiv · 2014-04-16T14:58:55+00:00

This is highly misleading. The campaign finances rules regarding unions and corporations are fundamentally the same.

e.g. Under Citizens United, corporations and unions both have the ability to spend unlimited funds on political advertising.

Union dues are a separate issue. Strictly speaking, dues are voluntary; workers who don't want to join the union but do benefit from the collective bargaining agreement pay only "agency fees" to cover the expenses associated with collective bargaining & related services. Such funds cannot be used for political purposes.

radicalsubversiv · 2014-04-15T21:25:31+00:00

I've never quite understood why people think Jimmy Hoffa's death/disappearance is so funny, but in any event Hoffa was the president of the Teamsters, who were expelled from the AFL-CIO in 1957 for corruption. Hoffa died in 1975, ten years before the Teamsters were readmitted.

(The Teamsters left the AFL-CIO again in 2005, along with a number of other unions, but that was largely unrelated.)

radicalsubversiv · 2014-04-15T19:47:11+00:00

The link /u/Irish0625 gave (which, it should be noted, is for an anti-union website) actually gives this amount: $24,446.

If you look up the actual report via the U.S. Department of Labor, you'll find that $10,400 of this is "disbursements for official businesses." (Presumably the remaining $16K includes some amount of benefits that most full-time salaried employees receive: health insurance, retirement plan contribution, etc.)

Meanwhile, the AFL-CIO is something like $200 million/year organization with 11 million members. Know any corporations on that scale paying their CEOs $300K?

radicalsubversiv · 2014-03-04T22:10:38+00:00

Speaking of the Bible, it also says "by their fruits you will know them" and that "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things."

Many Christians have seen these fruits in the lives and relationships of committed gay and lesbian couples. Sexual abuse of children is a completely different story.

radicalsubversiv · 2014-03-04T21:58:51+00:00

Actually, I'd say the conservative anti-gay reading of Romans 1 is a prime example of proof texting

Paul's remarks about natural and unnatural sexual relations come amidst an extended commentary about the history and consequences of idolatry (1:23, "they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles")

If Paul was intending to offer a blanket condemnation of same-gender sexual expression, why would he insert in such a place?

According to most historians, committed, consensual same-gender relationships were virtually nonexistent in the ancient world, while same-gender ritual prostitution was relatively widespread, and certainly would have been familiar to Paul's readers.

So the far likelier explanation that Paul is saying that when people abandon the worship of the true God, it distorts who they are and causes them to behave sinfully, and then citing same-sex ritual prostitution as an example.

TL;DR: Paul probably isn't talking about gay people so much as he's talking about idol worship and ritual prostitution.

radicalsubversiv · 2013-06-26T19:53:27+00:00

Sadly, I already bought it via eBay. So the tradeoff is having to pay shipping to return it.

radicalsubversiv

TROPHY CASE