Everything posted by TheVat
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Bed bugs
You don't frighten us, English pig-dogs! Go and boil your bottom, sons of a silly person. I think we somewhat duplicated posts on the hotel vectors.
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Bed bugs
A girl and boy bed bug fall in love, start dating, then...you know the rest. If you are asking what causes infestations, that is from the usual vectors - they travel in on clothing, upholstery, bedding, luggage...anything people come in contact with and which wasn't properly cleaned when entering a house. (see my earlier thrift store remarks) Sometimes a hotel can have them and travelers unwittingly carry them home. Good hotels are pretty vigilant about pest control and cleaning, but there are cheap ones that sometimes cut corners. Also, crowded campsites have had outbreaks, and people transport them in camping gear.
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Messages to the president...
Sometimes the vibe is sort of like the serial killer who writes taunting letters to the police saying STOP ME BEFORE I KILL AGAIN! With TP, it's stop me before i grift again!
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Bed bugs
Another lesson, based on learning that thrift stores often do not launder donations, is to immediately transfer your purchase from the bag to the washing machine. Even if the article of clothing "looks okay." Apparently the thrift store standard is now mostly "if not obviously soiled or smelly, put it out on the rack." I did once buy a flannel shirt that reeked of elderberries and hamster cage shavings.
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Restorative bioengineering and genetic manipulation: The Dire-wolf case.
Not likely, though it's reasonable to assume it could run for high political office in the United States. Not sure how your meaning was so misunderstood. Yes, not continuing to breed bulldogs (or the epileptic seizure prone Irish Wolfhound, etc.) does not seem genocidal. We can give our pets good lives, and then encourage the next generation to adopt smart and adaptive mongrels. For one thing, if our human civilization ever collapsed, how long could we keep supplying kibble to our canine friends? It's likely many would have to resume pack life out in the wild, and it would be best if we kept companions that had the genetic diversity and mongrel smarts to make such a transition. This dog-tastrophe has happened on smaller scales, during massive social upheavals and wars. Surely it's better if we have canid species better able to deal with the unreliability of their human companions.
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Restorative bioengineering and genetic manipulation: The Dire-wolf case.
Just catching up, so I'll skip over what seems a little friction going on. I agree on the eco stewardship. This should include repairing habitats, restoring keystone species, pollinators, trophic cascades, etc. But I don't see gen mods as a good idea, if there are extant members of the wild species. Better to foster their reproductive health and restoring a normal population with reasonable genetic diversity. One exception, if we are sufficiently skilled in our tinkering, would be remedying population bottlenecks where you just don't have enough surviving wild members to rebuild the population with healthy genetic diversity. But inserting a healthy range of alleles would be quite challenging and not to be done carelessly. It should only be considered for the most extreme situations. It's so easy to mess up with ecosystem tinkering and have another Australia on our hands. And it's also worth noting the concept of the ecological niche - sometimes after a species goes extinct, another species gradually fills the niche that was vacated, and you return to a more stable ecosystem. And there's really no retrieving the former ecosystem - new forms have arisen and adapted. My basic ethos is that I see the Earth as being for all living creatures, not just a human playground. If we're clever enough to fuck it all up, then we need to be clever enough to undo our damage, or failing that, foster a new succession ecosystem with adaptively strong communities, healthy biomass, good carbon uptake and sequestering and so on. While the dire wolf idea is silly, having a few around to deal with the sociopathic Joffreys of the world and occasional white walker might not be so bad. AND THANK YOU ADMIN FOR FIXING THE QUOTE FUNCTION!
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The Dictators playbook
As a subscriber, I have unlimited gift links, so here you go: The AtlanticTrump Is Already Undermining the Next ElectionAnd the one after that, and the one after that.
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SFN Migrated and Upgraded
Today the hamburger menu appeared (at bottom of page) on my tablet and everything worked well. Thank you, mon capitaine!
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What ingredients automatically make a cosmetic bad?
Peace, victory, spaghetti, volume, vanadium and 2 to you as well, brother.
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SFN Migrated and Upgraded
Still no hamburger menu, no activity button, all very bare bones. I'll be on desktop tomorrow so it won't be a problem, and I'm most grateful for what our admins have done to keep it all afloat.
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UK Online Safety Act: impact on SFN
2nd that. (I'd prefer an annual payment, and not automatically deducted)
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SFN Migrated and Upgraded
Apparently none of that (pic of Bohr atom, browse, activity, leaderboard) loads on an Android tablet. So I think that answers my question about desktop/laptop v tablet or cellphone. I will try turning on the Show Desktop Page option, see if that works, though it usually makes for a very crowded page with minuscule text and buttons.
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What ingredients automatically make a cosmetic bad?
If I take a position that is anti-antimony, does that just make my view....mony?
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US assault on free speech and freedom of expression
So here is where I try out our new emoji library. 🫣☹️🤮 I will be interested to see how his Houston district responds, if any there are paying attention. Since the massive national demonstrations on April 5, I'm at least feeling a little hope that people are starting to wake up here. ETA So further research shows that, in context, Rep. Self was in fact quoting Goebbels in order to attack someone, to imply that someone leading a free speech project was actually emulating a repressive Nazi policy. His imputation appears to be quite false, but at least I see now that he was not advocating for Goebbels ideological views on censorship and propaganda. His attack on Biden's DGB was vile nonetheless, but was just BAU in the GOP.
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SFN Migrated and Upgraded
After five minutes scrolling all the way to bottom of homepage I was unable to find the New Posts button, which used to be handily situated atop the homepage. Am I missing something, or is my tablet not showing a complete page somehow? And yes, ditch the giant illustration boxes for each forum - a simple tight list is sufficient. This is the feedback phase of restarting the forum - that means we don't have to get used to clunky and unsightly. Tweaks and nips and tucks can be made.
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What ingredients automatically make a cosmetic bad?
Pthalates and parabens are common ingredients that are hormone disruptors. I have a relative who works in pharmacy and says Walgreens et al are removing products that contain these. There's a list out there of cosmetic additives with known carcinogenic effect or reproductive effect, called The Dirty Dozen, which you can google. I noticed the last tube of hand lotion I bought at Walgreens had ingredients info that made note of the absence of parabens and pthalates.
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Maybe Just My Imagination
The only impediment I can see is that T's puppet master Russia has a strong economic and military alliance with Iran. So is possible T's bestest tovarich says nyet. (but maybe T abetting the overrun of Ukraine is enough to counterbalance?) So far, the raw malice of the TP administration has been hampered by its gross incompetence. My hope is that this, combined with the TP tendency to drop a campaign pledge when it proves difficult, means he will see some other political squirrel to chase besides immigrants. He'll ship off a few loads of purported Central American gangsters, declare victory, and on to some other distraction.
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US assault on free speech and freedom of expression
It is possible, given TPs ability to intimidate people, mobster style. Our best protection might be expressed by this equation: (Present Year - 1946) X (kg annual average cheeseburger intake x BMI) X (annual average miles traversed in golf cart/miles walked) = Imminent Death Rating. So, let's say it is late 2028, so we start with 82, multiply by (260 kg cheeseburgers X BMI of 30) so that's 7800, and then multiply by 400 golf cart miles / 1 mile walked...which gives us an IDR of... (82 * 7800 * 400) = 255,840,000 for the IDR Basically anything over 100,000,000 is high risk. Over 200,000,000 is "how are you even still here?" (DISCLAIMER: Equation is not based on real medical research, and is offered only for purposes of whimsy)
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What are you reading?
Have heard nothing but praise for Butler. So, thanks, this may be the nudge needed.
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Wall paper remover...
I usually hire the strippers. It's so fun to watch them work. (I'm leaving now)
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Voodoo Maths & LLMs
Good lord, that's even more nonsensical. And even worse, is fabricating that countries are charging us enormous tariffs when the number cited is actually the import/export ratio. Words fail...
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Political Humor
All those tuxedos, all that snow....must be Davos.
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Wall paper remover...
The three most important parts of wallpaper removal: steam, steam, and steam.
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Voodoo Maths & LLMs
Here's a telling bit of survey data: In a Gallup poll conducted in February, 81 percent of Americans called trade an opportunity, not a threat. Seems the gears of representative democracy have seized up. I was slightly confused by the phi, wondering what the Golden Ratio was doing in there. 😏 So if it's a pass-through number, and it's .25, this seems to assume that, what, that importers (and producers) will just eat the other .75? I'm thinking the TP administration wants to hide the reality that the pass-through will be higher, i.e. consumers get really screwed.
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Voodoo Maths & LLMs
Well, it is a relief that stores will stop selling those shoddy penguin-assembled cellphones the Falklands were dumping on us. It's not really fair if your workforce can be paid in sardines.