The people in your TV set

All are welcome.

I for one don't want to give Physics research a blank check to investigate some unobservable math fantasy.

Why not? And who exactly is asking for a "blank check"?

Since most of the artists I listen to on streaming services are dead, should they be paying me?

A bunch of workers hanging their body weight on the lever end would raise the stone a foot or two. You prop the stone with some timbers, shorten the lifting rope, and repeat. When the stone gets to the next level of the pyramid, you rotate the lever arm horizontally and pivot the stone to the next step.

Sounds plausible, except how does that lever get the stones to the top of a 455' structure? The widest "step" doesn't seem like it would allow room for enough guys to exert 800 lbs on a lever, much less for the lever itself. And we're talking a pretty long lever by the time you get halfway up. Then, you've got all the limestone sheathing to put up and you have to make sure the inside chambers are there, and accessible..

However they did it, it's pretty remarkable. I got to see it once up close and it's amazing.

I left off the most important part of the Baldwin quote, the second half:

This perpetual justification empties the heart of all human feeling. The emptier our hearts become, the greater will be our crimes.

In the words of the great James Baldwin:

The world has never lacked for horrifying examples; but I do not believe that these examples are meant to be used as justification for our own crimes.

The "Runaway Galaxies" was the name of my garage band in the 70s.

Hell, I won't even use digital thermometers out of concern that they'll upload my body temperature to the internet. I'm not going to be uploading my vitals to some app developer in Mencino.

Honestly, I think we're seeing late-stage Apple at this point. Each new product announcement makes a smaller and smaller blip on the radar, and Apple is entirely a company whose fortunes are tied to the faddish vitality of a brand name. Every year Apple does less and less to differentiate itself, and their older products are starting to whither a bit. The people who were excited about OSX 16 years ago have less and less to be excited about with each passing year and those aren't the same people who are going to get excited over a watch or something that will tell them they need to exercise more.

I'm not saying Apple is going to crash and burn or disappear, but when a company's capitalization is their biggest news don't make the mistake of thinking the future is a foregone conclusion. (see: IBM).

But you didn't eat it

Well...

To quote a commenter above:

reality is there will be collateral damage in fighting terrorists sometimes

if you travel to the middle east, don't be surprise if terrorists grab you and hold/torture/behead you

This shouldn't have been let out of the firehose. WTF is nerdy about this?

You're joking. Liquid mercury? Come on, show of hands: Who among us has not at some point in our lives broken open a thermometer in order to play with the mercury inside? That's a nerd rite of passage.

Hell, I'm old enough to remember when they made little maze puzzles with a blob of mercury inside that you'd try to get from one corner to the other. Those were the days before parents raised kids like veal. We had pocket knives, for chrissake. Can you imagine millennial parents giving their precious offspring pocket knives? I had my own .22 rifle by the time I was 10. All the liquid mercury I handled in my life, it's no wonder I'm half an imbecile.

What's strange about any of that?

The carved shells? They were from a Mossberg 500 Tactical Persuader pump action shotgun.

Fuck your aliens.

I know, right? It wasn't aliens that built the pyramids, or anything supernatural. It's stupid to think that.

Everybody knows it was Anunnaki, our ancestors, the Shining Ones, who gave this technology to humans over 250,000 years ago.

Whenever I hear of a story like this, I am reminded of the scene in Martin Scorsese's great movie, Raging Bull, in which Jake LaMotta, played by Robert DiNiro, speaks of an upcoming opponent to an associate:

"I'll put yous both in the ring and give yous both a fuckin' beatin', then yous can both fuck each other!"

Haven't we lost enough to the stupidity of our intellectual property laws? Could it be time to revisit whether or not they're actually doing what they were meant to do?
 

God (Via his assistant) unleashes all manner of misery and suffering upon Job, killing his family, ruining him financially and inflicting him with horrible diseases entirely to show that Job, as a loyal Jew, will remain obedient and loyal no matter what circumstances throw at him - and sure enough, at the end, God restores his health and wealth. Though not the dead family.

Not only that, but he did it basically on a dare.

God: "Job will do anything for me, no matter what"
Satan: "no way"
God: "yes way"
Satan: "prove it or GTFO"
God: "watch this..."