…That does not, in fact, make it any better.

That makes it even more terrorism.

Not a war crime; terrorism. Hezbollah is a political organization.

That’s not entirely accurate. Yes, it was more than the GDP of the entire planet at the time, but that’s not the value of the entire planet. Unless they meant the amount of physical currency that existed, in which case the amount was considerably less than the 62T that the article cites, since most money is never physical.

It’s still patently ridiculous though.

Depends on what you’re doing, and how often you’re going to be doing it.

For mechanical tools, I like both Harbor Freight and Gearwrench. I like Gearwrench a lot more, but I haven’t managed to break any Harbor Freight tools yet that weren’t air or electric. For basic sockets, etc., it will be fine for almost everyone. (Spend more for torque wrenches though; don’t cheap out on those.) HF tools have pretty limited sizes though; they don’t have anything really large, like about around 25mm. Unless you are a professional mechanic, you probably shouldn’t waste your money on Matco or Snap-On.

For most cordless general and woodworking tools I like Makita. For more specialized powered hand tools I love Festool, but do not try to fill a shop with them. Just get the ones that no one else makes an equivalent of, like their Rotex sanders, or the domino joiner.

For woodworking shop tools–things that aren’t portable–buy old Delta or Powermatic, particularly stuff that is in no way shape or form portable. Trying to do any serious cabinetry on a job-site table saw is an exercise in frustration and wasted material. A tabletop jointer won’t give you good results.

And for hand-powered cutting tool, like chisels, pull-saws, planes, etc… Be prepared to start spending a lot of money. Hand planes alone can set you back a few hundred each, like for Lee Valley ‘Veritas’ planes. And that’s not even getting into the water stones that you’re going to need to keep them working in perfect condition.

I haven’t heard anything in particular about Kentucky Ballistics. His content doesn’t interest me, but I haven’t heard of anything objectionable. Demo Ranch (Matt?) is friends with a whoooooooooole lot of very questionable people. It seems to mostly stay out of his videos though.

There are a few that are decent people. Not a ton. But a few.

I like Ben Stoeger’s stuff, because he largely keeps out of any culture war shit, and focuses on shooting better, and whatever the current USPSA bullshit it.

I dunno, maybe look him up on Instagram? He did an interview with Adminstrative Results (I’ve got his real name written down somewhere; he’s a former cops) on YouTube where he came right out and said it, made a bunch of anti-semitic jokes, and then it went really downhill from there. He was at least smart enough to delete the comment where he was talking about the massive amounts of ILLEGAL ANABOLIC STEROIDS that he uses (since that’s admitting to both a felony, and being a ‘habitual illegal drug user’. both of which would ban him from owning firearms).

He’s a christian nationalist, has called all trans people pedophiles, is homophobic, and is generally a shitbag. He surrounds himself with people that are overtly fascists.

No Tails?

You can still get kopi luwak that’s solely from wild civets–rather than captive–but the price is astronomical. I think that the last time I looked it up–more than a decade ago–it was something like $150+/pound.

These leaks frustrate labels and artists and not just for financial reasons. Many musicians work months if not years on their tracks; seeing these being paraded on pirate sites, before their official release, stings.

I dunno about this. Most of the artists I give a shit about have their music up for free on Bandcamp. The ones I’ve asked point-blank about it have said that they don’t care about piracy; they see it as free advertisement for their live shows, which is where they make most of their money (and on merch sales). This might be true of some of the largest acts, where sales might make up more than a few hundred dollars in total annual revenue, but probably a lot less true for most mid-sized or smaller acts.

OTOH, given that the labels are the ones making money off sales of music, they probably care quite a lot.

I’ve personally found that I can hear a sound difference in 320kpbs .mp3s, depending on whether or not it was encoded with a constant bit rate, or a variable bit rate.

First, this is fantastic information, and I’m going to save a copy of it.

How would you feel that eBay compares to something like Facebook Marketplace? I’m aware that this is a very open-ended question.

Eh. It’ll probably go back up. There have been crashes before, and every time it’s jumped up after a few weeks or even months. It’s mildly annoying, that all.

Interestingly enough, that concept is coming full circle.

This is my body, this is my blood. Happy are they who come to my supper.

You really need a critical mass to break Adobe’s stranglehold. I hope that someone can, because I hate their software-as-a-service model. But for now, I have to suck it up and deal with it.

Their refusal to pay to integrate PANTONE colors has really fucked up my workflow. :(

Nothing is going to effectively hurt their bottom line, because they own the market. There are no other viable alternatives to Adobe if you are working in the graphics profession. Everyone, and I mean everyone, in graphic design/visual communication uses Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Acrobat. If you do any work with designers and receive files from them, you’ll need to use Adobe products in order to access the files and all the information in the files.

This is the sector I work in. There is absolutely no getting away from it, and until someone comes up with a product suite that is better right out of the gate, and is completely compatible with Adobe, no one is going to switch.

[What we’ve got here is failure to communicate. Some men, you just can’t reach. So you get what we had here last week – which is the way he wants it. Well, he gets it.}(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=452XjnaHr1A)

Sure, you can decide when you’re done.

But in my experience, most people on the spectrum say that they’re putting in effort, but they’re not even putting in the bare minimum. They–by which I mean we–have skewed perceptions, because we lack a certain type of effective empathy. We have a hard time seeing ourselves the way other people might, and assume that people are able to see what we intend, rather than the results.

You can decide that you’re done. You can’t create a false, bullshit narrative, and then expect everyone to accept your “truth” as some kind of universally correct thing. Like, “Likewise, some of us just aren’t destined for love, be it for any myriad constellations of internal and external factors,” because, hey, there’s no such fucking thing as “destiny”. There’s no predetermination like that; having a successful relationship isn’t determined by physical–or even mental–standards that are absolute. Every single potential partner has different standards and needs, so if you can’t meet one person’s needs, you move on. All the shit you talk about is not unique to ND people.

…Because everyone has to change and compromise in any romantic relationship.