My tidbit to add is that when the Mongols got to Europe and encountered stone castles that were harder to siege, they solved the problem by bringing in seige engineers…from China.

They were doing that stuff on the reg. One of their demanded tributes was, essentially, skilled workers as slaves. They were very aware that they had a very particular skillset that didn’t translate well to everything. So they took what they needed to run their empire and put it wherever it was needed - even if it was someone who knew how to e.g. do algebra.

Send them to Minnesota. We’ve got a dozen different activist groups dedicated to helping immigrants.

It’s not an oh-marge, it’s ho-mahg-ee.

Yes, this looks much better. My other thought would be road-rail buses, but getting on/off the tracks might be too much work to be worth the extra flexibility.

That looks horrible. Cramped, the giant windows means it’s hot and the sun is always in your eyes… Any reason they need to only use one rail? We already have road & rail buses, trucks, etc…just use those.

Are we talking brown bears or black bears?

Brown bears are violently territorial and will attack you for being in eyeshot.

Black bears are basically giant racoons and will move away from people - especially if you’re making loud noises and making yourself look big - because they don’t want that smoke. They’ll only get aggressive if you surprise them or get anywhere near their younglings.

I’d probably take a black bear over a lot of dudes. As long as we got a good hundred feet or so of distance, Mr Bear and I ain’t gonna bother each other.

Megamind. Just Megamind. The Incredibles is good, but Megamind is first class.

Mass Effect 2 and 3 are up there with some of the best shooters I’ve played. It’s just so smooth. And the weight/CDR system is incredibly simple yet impactful. I’ve played through 3 several times. Yes, the story beats weren’t always great. Still fun.

EDIT: Since we’re posting favorite builds: Sentinel gang. What’s that, I have access to literally everything you need to beat any enemy? Yes please.

Simply do not consume animal products.

How can we reconcile eugenics in dogs but not humans?

That’s the neat part, you don’t.

It’s America. You can buy a gun.

The comment he was canceled for was for saying that the West has a cultural sense of guilt around the historically widespread oppression of Jewish people (which is true), and that the US and Israel are closely financially linked (which is true). So yah, I think he has cause for an accusation of censorship.

This was a hard ‘no’ from me until I read the article. Let’s be honest with ourselves - either we foster these sort of closed gardens or we go play in the infinite shit-filled sandbox the rest of the Internet is becoming. This honestly just sounds like moving to an RSS-only model, which is something I could get behind.

No. It just does not work that way. The article specifically mentions that there’s no proof whatsoever that the company can actually generate a face from DNA. It’s like looking at a textbook on automotive design and predicting exactly what a specific car built 20 years from now look like. General features? Sure - four wheels, a windshield, etc. Anything more specific? Nope, not at all. And this is before we get into environmental factors - think of scratches or aftermarket spoilers on a car. Humans are similarly influenced by their environment, even down to the level of what we eat or the pollutants in the air we breathe.

What the cops did is as close to bullshit fantasy as makes no difference. Asking a fortune teller to draw you a picture would be only slightly less accurate. This is so insanely problematic those cops ought to be up on charges.

I’m sorry, is the article quoting a fucking LLM as the interviewee? What the fuck is this? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.

Suppressing repeated notifications has been a thing since messaging has been a thing. If your service doesn’t offer it, find a better one. Also, this is a hypothetical, and a bad one. Why would you not simply read the texts?

Illinois is certainly trying

Jesus fucking christ. This treats Biblical fanfiction as the foundation for modern realpolitik.

It makes perfect sense. Cigarettes are cancer death machines in an addictive package. They should be banned. However, we’ve learned from hard experience that making addictive drugs harder to get just leads to addicts trying even harder to get them. So what’s a practical solution? Grandfather in the current addicts and try like hell to keep everyone else away from it.

Equality doesn’t come in to this. You do not, in fact, need to protect people’s right to addictive cancer sticks.

My thoughts exactly.

The Comanche raids on Mexico started after some Mexican territorial officials put out bounties on the ears of Native Americans that they didn’t like. In response, the Comanche ravaged Mexico as far south as Mexico City (as they should have). Not to say the Comanche were nice - there were plenty of other tribes they ruthlessly dominated.