Mantergeistmann
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User ID: 323
Mantergeistmann
4hr ago
a black woman
She certainly doesn’t look it in the article's photo.
Mantergeistmann
19hr ago
Which, if it gets the US industrial base to finally start making the damn things again and scaling up their production lines, is an odd net win.
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
Yeah, that's a bit of a sore point. The only harm a dirty bomb can do is, basically, what we allow it to do by being afraid of stupidly low levels of radiation.
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
The other argument for "why dirty bombs have never been made/deployed" is because they're useless, and a pain. The assembly (and shielding during it) is tricky, and while terrorists may not care about receiving a large radiation dose prior to detonation, they'll probably care that "it is well-documented by all our official agencies that the radioactivity in dirty bombs is unlikely to seriously hurt anyone."
Mantergeistmann
2d ago
there would be a captain who is actually in charge for the duration of the voyage, and we wouldn't vote on the captain midway through.
I mean, that can happen, but it's usually called a mutiny.
Mantergeistmann
2d ago
I know that they're working on getting robotic welders at shipyards - I think the Philly yard is one of the first to try it out. I would say it's not yet replacing the welders they've been unable to hire, but it is more progressed than just a PR stunt.
Mantergeistmann
3d ago
I would have loved to be a boxticker architect. Sadly, when I was looking at universities, they all wanted the next Frank Lloyd Wright. I walked into the admissions office, excellent SATs in hand, and before the topic came up was told, "oh, don't worry if your SATs are bad, we only really care about your portfolio!"
To which I (whose art courses had ended only slightly past stick figures) effectively responded, "Portfoli-what?"
Mantergeistmann
3d ago
Other projects I've considered is getting into game jams and light game development or actually going back and finishing one of the novels I started last decade.
I've actually just joined my first game jam, Adventures for one-page RPGs, which seemed like a good way to dip my toes in the water -- we'll see if I can actually force myself to carry through!
Mantergeistmann
3d ago
Anyone have any IPO advice for people whose company didn’t give out prior equity or RSUs? It looks like the (long established) company I work for is going to be going public, and I was wondering if there was anything to look for other than just an ESPP -- want to make sure I make the most of this opportunity. Also if there's any tax issues I should be wary of.
Mantergeistmann
4d ago
Yeah -- I didn't mean to imply it was a significant fee, merely an added bit of inertia against denouncing citizenship.
Yeah, US is weird. The oath is as follows:
I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.
But legally, the US does not force you to give up your previous citizenship:
U.S. law does not require a U.S. citizen to choose between U.S. citizenship and another (foreign) nationality (or nationalities).
it's 100% fine to keep it, and indeed, as I understand it, you have to file formal paperwork and pay a fee to your prior country to de-citizen yourself there, after you've become a US citizen, if you so desire.
Mantergeistmann
4d ago
I assume that Highlights is still around?
Mantergeistmann
4d ago
I'm envisioning a magazine with lots of pictures and low information density that you can just casually thumb through. You can put it on your coffee table, and its a more genteel alternative to scrolling. People might want that sort of experience and it feels high status.
So National Geographic, but with fewer words?
Mantergeistmann
5d ago
I was reading some discussion about the recent Tuscon (?) shooter on Reddit. There were no shortage of people calling him far-right after the news about his background broke. Which isn't wrong (radical Islamists do fit a great number of "far-right" definition points!), but it was clearly being used just as a way to further attack the US right wing/MAGA.
Mantergeistmann
5d ago
I can't help but wonder if the right questions aren't being asked. At the very least I'd expect natal sunlight exposure, outdoor activity, etc. to correlate with something.
Relative ages amonst school grade cohorts? I'd imagine people used to being several months older than their direct peers might show some correlation with something, for instance.
Mantergeistmann
5d ago
There's a reason I use "fortnightly" to describe anything that's a two-week period.
Mantergeistmann
5d ago
And that they manage to accomplish a good enough repair & paint job while at sea to hide multiple ASBM strikes from anyone who might have seen the ship while transiting and docking at port. And then completed the repairs in what, a week, with zero images or local contractor reports of missile damage?
Mantergeistmann
5d ago
The prevailing theory amongst the concerned is that those carve-outs are fake, and the police will arrest women for them anyway (or women will die in emergencies because the doctors will refuse to trust the fake carve-outs).
Mantergeistmann
7d ago
Nah, a lot of environmentalists talk about it... in terms of how much they dislike fracking.
Mantergeistmann
7d ago
Social programs that were originally predicated on 'Bob is injured down at the mines and lost his leg, give him a pension' are struggling to catch up with a world where you can just obtain diagnoses which, whilst I'm sure are serious and there are legitimate cases, are a lot harder to disprove as a third party.
See also: "disabled" military veterans.
Mantergeistmann
8d ago
Is that really a Bingo card, though? Seems like it's just a grid.
Mantergeistmann
11d ago
Calm down, have a biscuit and let me tell you what to do right now before I lose my patience with you.
It's been ages since I've read that book, but I thought the "have a biscuit" was her way of showing approval of him telling Umbridge off, even if it was reckless.
Mantergeistmann
12d ago
I got through How Not to Write a Novel. The authors spent too much effort on writing excruciatingly bad examples. I would prefer if they actually used fragments from real novels as examples and spend their effort on explaining less obvious problems than "don't make your characters too perfect or completely pitiful".
Me, I loved the excruciatingly bad examples. It's what I was there for. But yes, a lot of the problems were very obvious, but I figured it was written more for the "so you're just now trying to write and have written your first book" crowd, rather than the "experienced writer looking to hone their craft".
Mantergeistmann
12d ago
I remember, oh, a decade ago, a ton of articles were coming out about how Firefly was "geekwashing the Confederacy". My hunch is that the majority of authors of said articles mostly just wanted an attack vector at nerds, with the added bonus of a sideswipe at a different form of male-dominated media (Westerns).
If you had instead gone with "That's quhat I get", you could claim to just be an old Scotsman.
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