Trump presidential pardon incoming in 3, 2, 1…

I doubt it’s polished. It’s probably a mirror wrap. Much cheaper and less effort.

Since chatting someone up is out of the question for me

Why? Are you unable to speak? Are you unwilling to try? Because it sounds like you’re hopeless about the idea of meeting someone and you don’t feel like your own efforts could possibly help.

I don’t see why the man must start this dance.

The truth is that nobody, regardless of gender, wants to put themselves in a position where they could be rejected. And women usually don’t need to. While you’re leaning against the wall waiting for that woman to start talking with you another guy will approach her and ask her out. We all want to feel like someone is interested in us. It’s flattering. It makes us feel good. And your question makes it clear you’re unwilling to put the effort into showing you are interested. You want someone else to show they are interested in you. That way you don’t have to risk anything. But low risk means low reward.

This may sound harsh, but I do understand where you’re coming from. I went through this myself. One thing that helped me was learning to let go of any expectations when approaching and talking with someone. Try to understand you aren’t there to pick her up, seduce her, or whatever. You are just there to talk. Everyone is interesting in some way. Practice asking people about themselves. You’ll be awkward at first. You’ll mess up and be embarrassed. But keep trying. If you can let go of your own desires and just be curious it will take you far. And talk with everyone you meet. Men, women, old, young, don’t discriminate. It’ll help you realize it’s just a conversation.

Also, put one of those sticky name tags on your shirt. “Hi my name is Tudsamfa”. It makes people more comfortable knowing your name.

It’s pretty clear what the consensus is here. Yes, talk with women. You can even (politely) hit on women you fancy. Based on your statement about yourself it’s unlikely you would be pushy and threatening if she said no, but still, just understand when to stop.

Next question is how to get there from where you are. You’re scared you would be seen as a threat, harassing women just by talking to them out of the blue. So you doubtless have little experience talking with women. That’s where you are.

I see two possible paths to take. Which one is right depends on why you feel that way. If it’s an emotional issue, like if you (for instance) start shaking and sweating at the thought of walking up to a woman and introducing yourself, then maybe start by talking with a therapist. They can be really helpful. On the other hand if you are just nervous because you don’t know how to talk with a woman then look into learning how to make small talk. It’s actually a skill. It’s something you can learn. And once you have learned it and practiced it enough that you are comfortable with it, then approaching and talking with a woman is just about starting and having a conversation. You can even practice with guys if it makes you more comfortable. A quick google search produces a bunch of good ideas on how to start.

Now you have homework. Learn how to carry a conversation. Learn to make people feel comfortable around you. Learn to actually be interested in other people. It shows and it makes a difference.

EDIT: In a reply to another comment you mentioned severe violence in your childhood and the resultant fear as a major deterrent in approaching people. That’s definitely something to see a therapist about. You can work through stuff like that in time. And you’ll be amazed how much more free you feel once you have.

I read this as a call to action for the people Musk/Trump are ordering around. If everyone just said “no, I won’t to do what you tell me” then we might avoid the collapse of the government/economy/country.

For most games I’d agree with you. But when it comes to Kojima, I don’t think it really matters. I finished the first game and, aside from delivering packages, I’d have trouble explaining what it is about. After watching the trailer for DS2 I’m thinking “okay, that’s even weirder, I recognize those faces, babies again I guess, and he’s still delivering packages it seems.”

Well, things would exist whether you’re in a capitalist economic system or not. People would make music and label their genre. People would write books and want to sell them. The real difference is who gets the profits.

Except for 2020 the 2024 election had the highest voter turnout so far this century. A lot of people were voting. Was it just more Trump supporters that turned up? He does have a way of stirring people up. He picks topics that make a certain type of person mad and that brings them out. Kamala could have responded by picking topics that inspired the left. Trump was offering a complete overhaul of the government and sweeping social changes (which he is delivering). Kamala was offering more of the same. I suspect he just brought out more people that otherwise wouldn’t have voted.

And before you start blaming me for it, I, like most of us, don’t live in a swing state. My vote literally didn’t matter.

What do you think of the police response to the Uvalde school shooting? Was it justified for them to stand around and wait while Salvador Ramos was killing other students inside? Maybe they should have just asked him nicely to stop? What about Steven Paddock in Las Vegas? Or Omar Mateen in Orlando? Would you have stood by and watched while they were shooting people? Would you have thought “I can’t know how this will turn out so I’m going to let them continue.” Or, assuming it’s the only way to stop them, would you have killed them to save a large number of innocent lives?

To make it even more clear, Omar Mateen started the trolley rolling. Would you pull the track switch so it runs over Omar Mateen? Or would you stand by and watch as it runs over 50 innocent people?

This is a hypothetical question unrelated to whether you could do anything about it with a ‘death note’ book. I’m just curious to hear your thoughts.

And just so you know, you can make your point without insulting someone.

Maybe if you used “electrocuted by a bolt of lightning” or “turned into a pillar of salt” or some other widely recognized form of divine retribution. That may be enough to distract investigators and throw them off your scent. But if not you are just revealing information that will lead the investigators right to you.

Kira/Light was thinking small. Targeting criminals already in jail is just vengeance. With a death note you have the power to reshape global politics and even all of society. Psychopaths/sociopaths often rise to top positions in business and government because they are good at deception, ruthless, and can shield themselves from the consequences of their actions. And from there their capacity to do harm to others can be immense. Luigi not only understood this, he had the courage of his convictions.

Heh, maybe I’d give the death note to Luigi.

A lot of people in the comments here are taking the high ground. “I wouldn’t use it. I’m not a killer. I’m better than that.”

But by not using it you are even more of a killer. This is a trolley problem. If you pull the right switch one evil psychopathic murderer dies, if you don’t pull the switch thousands of their innocent victims die. If you have the power to make that decision then the responsibility for the deaths falls on your shoulders, whether it’s one death or thousands.

So yeah, I’d use it. I’d start at the top of the psychopathic killer list and move down. I doubt I’d have to wonder when to stop. There are so many. But once they got the message I’d be more moderate and only use it when necessary.

Workpro multitool often dips below $20.

The Cool Tools review on it is pretty good.

There are two kinds of true, and thus two kinds of ‘real’. There’s the kind where what you believe matters and the kind where it doesn’t. Gravity is the second kind. Step off the top of a building and it doesn’t matter if you believe in gravity, you’re going to fall. Politics is the first kind. If everyone believes I’m the king of North America, well, then that’s the truth. It’s reality. Likewise if everyone in the government believes that Elon Musk can fire whoever he wants, then he can, because everyone will just go along with it.

So what is it? Phospate Removal Material doesn’t tell me much. Is it activated charcoal? Ground peanut shells? I need to know.

A paper on the topic reports that

Several adsorbents have been used for phosphate removal from water. They include; aluminium-modified biochar (Yin et al. 2018), aluminium-doped magnetic nanoparticles (Xu et al. 2017), laterite soils, and black cotton soil (Reddy et al. 2020).

You seem to be arguing that FDR was a leftist because of the policies he implemented. But I think what you are missing is why he implemented those policies. I think the truth is he didn’t really have the public interest at heart. His agenda was to contain a growing threat to capitalism in the form of the Communist Party of the 1930s. His strategy to contain the CP was to neuter the party by bringing it into the Democratic party fold, alienating their most militant members, and slowly squashing their agenda. Of course he had to appeal to their interests to do so. But it was a temporary strategy, not a real shift in US policy. There are a few articles on the topic if you are genuinely interested. Here’s one. And here’s a quote from another.

The New Deal reforms Sanders evokes were not the product of a farsighted, enlightened reformer, but responses to tumultuous class struggles in the early and mid-1930s. These reforms sought to contain explosive social struggles and were never truly universal, excluding women and African-Americans, for example. After mass struggle ebbed, Roosevelt shifted back to his original goal of stabilizing US capitalism while moving toward establishing US global domination during World War II. Progressive reforms came to an abrupt halt in the late 1930s, allowing the rollback of many popular gains during the 1940s.

Sounds like it’s time for a municipal broadband solution. If AT&T doesn’t want the business, fine. Let’s not force them to take our money.

Chloramines are disinfectants used to treat drinking water. Chloramines are most commonly formed when ammonia is added to chlorine to treat drinking water.

source

Currently playing MGSV on PC. I never got into the metal gear franchise because I wasn’t willing to keep up with the play stations. But it’s a surprisingly good game. A little fan-service here and there (cough, Quiet) but the gameplay is solid. I like how they tie achievements with in-game rewards, things like rescuing a certain prisoner unlocks a new type of weapon or something. It’s a good motivation to complete all the optional parts of the missions. And the missions are replayable, which gives you plenty of opportunity to get the best ratings and rewards.

Whether humanity will survive really is an open question. Despite all the rhetoric and protests and promises the annual CO2 emissions have continued to increase steadily. It’s wishful thinking to imagine that we are going to do anything about this before the consequences of our choices force our collective hand. Any report or scientific paper that includes a phrase like ‘there is still time’ is just not accepting the reality of the situation. A year ago James Hansen published Global Warming in the Pipeline where he wrote “Equilibrium global warming for today’s GHG amount is 10°C”. A 4–7 degree rise over 5000 years ended the last ice age, Ocean levels rose 400 feet. A 10 degree rise in a century or so would be way too fast for most species to adapt. It would inundate the majority of our most populated cities. I could go on, but I get depressed writing about this.