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Cake day: July 15th, 2023

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  • well she didn’t mean any of the rain precipitators. She meant, they actively controlled hurricanes. It’s both weird and fucking stupid.

    Actually. I wonder what would happen if you took a microwave array, of appropriately huge power, and directed it at the hurricane’s flanks, you know. to heat up the water on that side. maybe make some wind. I bet you could steer it “some”…

    (Mexico, if you’re reading this, I absolutely won’t try this, if you send me your best street taco recipe.)















  • Bro, I’m an atheist.

    I don’t subscribe to anything to do with it.

    But seriously. The gospels were recorded as oral tradition. Maybe from geriatric as hell disciples, but more likely who ever they told stories to. Most the disciples died around the same time Mark was written (70 C.E.)

    If you accept that jesus wasn’t made up out of whole cloth, and that’s reasonable, then the details like who the disciples were and came from are probably reliable. They would have been still in living memory. (Or alive, at least to tell the author of Mark.)

    Same for things like who lent Jesus a tomb to rot in, S well as numerous other examples. So, if you want to point to all the Things People Wrote About Him, you’re going to have to take all the parts where rich people gave him places to sleep, and food and hospitality, and generally hung out with him; along with all the “yup money bad.”

    As written, he clearly didn’t have a problem with wealth when it was shared with him.


  • the things he’s “reported as having said” are almost certainly not things he’s actually said.

    with very limited exceptions, we don’t really know anything at all about him. We don’t even know if he really existed. (It’s probable. Yeshua was a super common name at the time, as was Joseph. So it’s almost certain there was some guy named Yeshua ben Joseph- or in modern rendering, ‘Jesus son of Joseph’.

    Given at the time the region was rampantly awash with faith healing mystics, it’s not unlikely one of them happened to have that name. Actually, It’s not entirely improbable that there was more than one faith healer with that name.

    Any assertion that Jesus is anti-wealth or anti-capitalist is belied by a single, easily overlooked fact: the disciples were almost certainly well off. Of the disciples whose professions were recorded, they’re all at least successful business men. Andrew, James, John, and Peter were fishermen- each with their own boats; and probably supporting a small crew. Mathew was likely the most wealthy, as a tax collector. Thomas, Nathaniel and Philip were likely fishermen as well; Simon was a politician or rebel leader (he may have been the brokest, but, also, he wasn’t exactly one of the masses, either.)

    remember, that Jesus never outright forbade wealth, or condemn being wealthy. he did condemn the love of money; however, and warned of the spiritual hazards of greed; and taught that pursuit of god was more important, that pursuing god and pursuing money together were impossible. but that doesn’t mean being successful is inherently immoral. Also recognize that the businesses didn’t just go away without the disciples there to tend them.

    The boats were still in good order, there would have been a crew, income. Which is how, after the crucifixion, they had boats to go fishing in, and followers were praised for their devotion, by bringing in money and resources for use of the whole.

    as for statements of jesus that we can readily believe, if you accept the historicity of Jesus, and that’s not unreasonable to assume, then Jesus called himself the king of the jews. We can believe that because it’s really the one thing the romans would have executed him for. (to their way of thinking, he was setting himself as a literal king, in opposition to Rome.) the religious disputes… meh. that’s not their concern. (and remember, there were lots of faith healers/mystics/heretics running around. The typical solution by the mainstream jewish authorities would be to knife them on some lonely road and leave their bodies in the ditch. the roman governors did not like that. for one, it was untidy, for two, they saw it as an affront to law and order- roman law, and roman order.


  • Did you even read my comment before posting 9 paragraphs? I didn’t say it was batshit insane to claim that there are sociopathic teachers. I said it was batshit insane to compare the rates of sociopathy in teachers to the rates among politicians, ceo’s, and police. Which it is.

    You’ve clearly not read any of mine.

    This is now the third time that I’ve explained why people are “lumped in” on that list. And that is that everyone on that list exerts control, or strong influence over other people. (Cops and politicians, the general public. CEO’s their employees, and the public that interacts with their company or is impacted by it, Teachers… their students.)

    That is the thread which lumps them together. Having that authority over others is possibly what attracts psychopaths/sociopaths/NPD types to jobs like being a cop, being a politician, or pastor or CEO. Or, possibly, yes, being a teacher.

    You’ll also notice, that that list of careers only really includes the sorts of jobs that are- or have historically been- viewed in a positive light. As honorable, or ‘pillars of the community’. I’m guessing you would generally describe teachers as “selfless” and “caring”, maybe even “highly empathic”; but, uhm. not to put too fine a point on it, before his arrest Dennis Rader would have been described exactly as that. he was a Church President, a Boy Scout Leader, and an AF vet. Of the people that knew him, it was almost impossible to believe that Dennis Rader was the BTK killer.

    So yes. I would be very interested to see a study that looks at teachers and how many are psychopaths; as well as everyone else on that list. I’m going to assume teachers fall somewhere above a baseline of the rest of the population; and somewhere below the other professions on the list. I suggested Librarians as a sort of control group, because they also happen to be a career path that people look at as largely positive or honorable; but lacks any real authority over others.


  • Thought of another.

    If you need to cool something off quickly-sodas in a cooler for example, instead of just ice, add water.

    The water increases contact and allows the what-ever to cool by conduction rather than radiation.

    This also applies to cooling things like boiled eggs or custards or if you’re doing ice cream the “old way”, getting it started faster.

    Also if you find you need crystal-clear ice, say for cocktails, you can make your own mold using a thermal or insulated cup and casting silicon resin. Get whatever you want to use as a positive for the mold, if you want spheres, a racquet ball or squash ball works well. Then, attach a straw with some glue- hot glue works, Elmer’s or CA. Doesn’t really matter.

    You will need a second positive that goes into the bottom of the mold and has another straw between the object you want, as long as it creates a large space with a small void between them (a half an inch on straw length,) you can make this with crumpled up paper or something. It doesn’t need to be pretty. Just about as large as the positive you want.

    Set that positive up in the mug exactly how you want the ice to form- something to keep the mold and straw centered helps. String held in place by the lid works.

    You will also want to know about where the positive is widest. If you’re molding something cubed or with flat faces, have the straw come off a corner and that straw being the lowest point.

    When the silicone is cured, use a knife to cut through at the widest. If you need to worry about alignment, you can cut in a wide shallow V. This cut lets you unmold.

    It’s not necessary but helpful to leave some gap at the top to fill with, the water will find its way in,

    The way that this works is simple. The insulation on the cup causes it to freeze from the top down. The clouding stuff in ice is caused by impurities coming out of solution. As it freezes top-down, the impurities are pushed out of the top chamber and into the bottom still-liquid chamber.

    Leave the lid off for freezing. Then to finish, all you really need to do is cut the bits of drain and fill holes, temper the ice, which makes it nice and shiny (and, huh, wet…)

    Whiskey snobs will be impressed. You can get best results with distilled water (the bottled jugs at the grocery store are cheap,) but some air will still be trapped and cause problems.