The real scary thing about those rings is that they can’t actually be taken off. Wear them long enough, and the neck muscles atrophy to the point where you’re incapable of holding up your own head. Take the rings off and your head flops over like a wet noodle.

Write them a physical letter complaining about their website and mail it to them via international mail. That should get the point across nicely.

Eh. I’ve been watching it, and I think it’s a decent adaptation. Entirely faithful to the original? No. But the core trilogy of was written in the 1950s, and it’s absolutely a product of its time. I for one am glad they left the misogyny back in the 1950s where it belongs. Also, the original books were very much in the “our friend the atom” era of nuclear power, the era where they were predicting power too cheap to meter and no one had ever heard of a nuclear plant meltdown. The inclusion of the genetic dynasty was an inspired choice. And frankly, I’m glad we’re not depicting a far future where everybody is white.

But I think the TV series is faithful to the core themes of the books. It still explores the contrast between the “trends and forces” and “great man” theories of history. It still explores the fascinating concept of predicting the future mathematically. It still shows the slow and inexorable decline of a great galactic empire. And the Mule in the show is every bit a force of malevolent evil as the Mule in the novels.

Overall, is it a perfect one-to-one adaption? No, but that was never going to happen for a book like Foundation. It was long considered unfilmable. But some minor adaptations have allowed them to create a good series that explores the core themes of Asimov’s work.

I want to be turned into a drone. I’ll be just like this cat. It will be a much larger version. Used for deliveries or emergency services. And I will be completely naked.

Funeral pyres or other forms of open air cremation are generally not legal due to concerns of fire spreading.

That’s why you set up your OWN funeral pyre! Got a terminal cancer diagnosis, looking to go out on your own terms?

1. Erect a large funeral pyre on a large piece of open ground. (Ideally do this at a time of low fire risk.)
2. Create an ignition mechanism that can be activated by a timer.
3. Take a lethal dose of opioids or whatever assisted-suicide drug you’ve been prescribed.
4. Set the timer to ignite the pyre a few hours after you are certain to have succumb to the effects of the drug.
5. Activate the timer, climb atop the pyre, and take the big nap.
6. A few hours later the pyre alights and your body is cremated in an open funeral pyre.

I mean, sure, it’s illegal as Hell. But who are they going to prosecute? Are they going to put your ashes on trial?

Every single night I have a strange recurring dream, where I am wearing lederhosen in a vat of sour cream…

I’m going to right now start the conspiracy theory that the actual US president, Donald Trump, has not worn pants or underwear in decades. He’s somehow just hypnotized us all into not noticing.

Wait, what the hell did Denmark do to New Zealand?

If it was working for everyone, there would never be a widespread movement that got Mercator largely phased out of education.

If we were to talk about education injustices we could argue about how the USA stole the name of the continent for theirs and how most of the world went along with that, and you people don’t seem to like that talk…

I propose that Brazil go for the option of maximum chaos. Brazil should formally change its official name to Os Estados Unidos da América. Ain’t no rule that says two nations can’t have the same name. By default, every diplomat on Earth would just start casually referring to each country as the North United States and the South United States. Brazil could effectively rename the United States on a global diplomatic level.

Pfft. Antarctica is but a few islands in an ice-sheet trench coat. If the ice sheets melted, it would remain uninhabited except for some stalwart rancher folk.

I don’t think there’s any standard that requires it anywhere. So I’m not sure exactly what this is about.

Don’t give the right any ideas. They’ll be on about “geometric purity” or other such nonsense. Or anything but Mercator will just be “woke.”

I hate this kind of artificial limitations but in this case I’m totally fine.

This is an environmental disaster. We’re building cars with equipment that will never be used. It costs more materials, time, and energy to manufacture a 300 HP engine than a 200 HP engine. VW might make all models with a 300 HP engine and then require a subscription to increase the power from 200 to 300 HP. Yet, what if you don’t want to use that extra power? You’re still stuck with the weight of the heavier engine! You’re hauling around a uselessly heavy engine, and you’ll be doing so from the moment you buy the car until the end of its life. Even if you don’t want to pay for the subscription-only equipment, you’re still paying for the higher gas costs to haul all this redundant crap around with you. And the environment takes an unnecessary hit for us to manufacture equipment that will never be used. This is an environmental disaster.

In some cases, arson is morally perfectly justifiable.

Just proceed as planned. If the company is so fragile it can’t survive one week without someone to cover a position, well it’s in such dire straits that it’s going to be out of business within a year anyway. If you company survived Covid, it can certainly survive this.

Unless you stab your boss and set fire to the building on your way out the door, you can have zero worries about your end of employment details showing up on a background check.

https://kenneth-noll.uconn.edu/how-to-build-a-termite-farm/

I do not baby cast iron at all. I use plenty of dish soap and scrub it. But then again, I’ve also to completely refinished cast iron before. You learn to appreciate how durable seasoning can be when you actually try and remove it. My main skillet I’ve in the past taken it down to bare metal with an angle grinder, then built the seasoning back up from nothing.

Popcorn made in pre-used oil can be awesome, and an easy way to get rid of 100ml or so.

Then there was that time in college I tried to re-use oil I had previously fried shrimp in.

Turns out shrimp-flavored popcorn is not an enjoyable experience!

That already exists in one setting, the field of nuclear weapons design. See born secret.