I’ve heard that kind of thing about a number of non-profits. Makes me wonder how they manage to attract so many awful people.

Or maybe people in general are just awful.

Senior managers were also awful then; part of their job is making sure that the lower level managers don’t suck, and they weren’t.

Depends on what the concentration is, IIRC. 70% is better than 90%.

The 575k number is dead and wounded though, many of those will heal fine,

Much like soldiers did after WWI, right?

The reality is that many people have lost limbs, eyes, hearing, and so on. That means that many of these people are not going to end up being productive workers once they’re released from service; they’re going to be less-capable than their abled-bodied counterparts, and in a functional country, would end up being a drain on the coffers due to disability pensions (I strongly doubt that Russia is going to give the wounded conscripts any kind of disability payments).

Any way you slice it, Russia is destroying their own future. This kind of war, in a time where people aren’t having children even at replacement level, simply isn’t sustainable.

Not entirely accurate. Late-term abortions are a thing, but it’s almost always a case of either some birth defect incompatible with life, or the life of the mother being at significant risk. In situations where abortion was always a realistic option, late-term abortions are almost always abortions for pregnancies that were wanted.

There has been one case I can recall from the last two decade or so of a single doctor performing post-viability abortions, and he ended up being criminally charged.

There’s been at least one Airsoft player that did this, and it was incredibly effective. I’d have to hunt around for the YouTube video they posted.

…Why the fuck would I need a chain on my lawnmower? AFAIK, push mowers are all direct drive for the blades, and riding lawn tractors use belts.

Carburetor, not ‘carborator’. And it’s mostly the most polluting engines–lawnmowers, chainsaws, etc.–that are still using carburetors. Every thing else that uses gasoline has switched to fuel injection.

And last, DO NOT LET ANYONE OTHER THAN A PROFESSIONAL CHANGE THE SPRING IN YOUR GARAGE DOOR.

…But bitcoin is doing just fine as it is…? It’s up overall, year over year. The only thing that’s not great about it right now is that exchanges (like Coinbase and Circle) have to report how much you have and move around, for tax purposes.

I’ve got a relatively small amount of bitcoin that I’m holding on to; it’s been holding value, relative to the US dollar. So what are they saying *isn’t" great…?

Okay, and raspberries aren’t technically berries at all, but aggregate fruits. In other words, so the fuck what? When you say ‘coconut tree’, everyone knows what plant you’re referring to.

A bike with a motor, or a bicycle?

If the former, you can always use Cycletrader. For the latter, well, sorry.

Huh. I thought that the new Quiet Place was really quite good, too. I wasn’t aware that people were being shitty about it because the lead character was black.

I feel like no one that’s offended by this has ever made their own chili. When chili is made right, beans or not, it should be about this consistency when it’s room temperature. Chili is supposed to be a main course, not a soup, and it’s not supposed to be thin.

Having used Wolf brand chili before, it’s just fine once it’s heated up. It’s solidly okay as canned chili.

That’s $62,000 annually. The median personal income in the US as of 2022 was $40,480, which means that’s about 50% above the median.

Not sure what you’re on that you don’t think that’s a pretty decent individual income.

Nudity isn’t inherently sexual. The idea that children should never see non-sexual nudity is… Well, it’s a great way to instill a lot of body shame in kids (and later adults). So I guess if that’s your game…?

Any [emphasis added] weight loss pill

Nope. There’s one that actually works really well. It’s called 2,4-dinitrophenol. It works by fucking up the way that your body makes/uses ATP; instead of being available for cellular respiration, it gets wasted as heat. It’s like constantly doing cardio; you’re burning tons of calories without doing anything. Users have reported losing up to seven pounds of fat–not water–in a week. The downside is that this heat can lead to hyperthermia if you take too much, and since the half-life is quite long, by the time you start seeing the negative side effects from OD’ing–about a week after you OD–it’s way to late, and your brain cooks. Oh, and you’re gonna sweat like a watermelon at a Baptist barbecue the whole time.

It was thought that it also caused cataracts, but that seems to have been incorrect.

It’s been banned since the 40s, I think, as a diet pill, because people had a tendency to take too much and die. If you know where to look, you can still find it. I wouldn’t recommend it for the overwhelming majority of people though.

Yearly bug and pest deterrent spraying around exteriors of buildings

No, this actually does something.

I live in an all-wood house. (Literally a log cabin.) I’ve had issues with carpenter ants. Spraying permethrin around the house, and on their trails when I see them, has largely eliminated the issue. It’s a pretty concentrated solution, about 10:1, and has to be reapplied every few months (it does wash off, eventually), but it def. does the job.

You can get a less concentrated treatment for clothing if you’re going to be in areas with extremely high levels of mosquitos and ticks.

Any product peddled by a megachurch (see the Baker bucket for a great example)

Some megachurches have sold freeze-dried prepper food. It’s not a grift per se, because it’s perfectly edible freeze dried food, but it’s overpriced for what you’re getting.

I’m D deficient. I took D supplements for a long time; m D levels never significantly increased.

one of those all-in-one $2,000+ fancy machines that mounts on your wall.

Actually about $4000 to start, plus the cost of the weight plates, bars (I prefer Ivanko), Iron Grip dumbbell sets, and so on.

In almost all cases, it’s cheaper to have a gym membership at a decent hardcore gym.

There are a lot of things you simply can’t do with bodyweight alone. And you can’t do it with just a couple kettlebells and adjustable dumbbells either. Having a lot of strength and muscle mass when you’re young is a very strong predictor of health in old age, since past the age of about 40, people just start losing mass and strength; the more you have before that, the better off you are.

Goth.