Is the process storing more carbon than it's generating? Collecting, thoroughly drying, compressing into bricks... these all sound like process steps that take a non-trivial amount of energy. Hopefully it's all renewable. But depending on the heat required, that might need natural gas instead of an electric heating element.

“Noble lies” are anything but noble. They’re lies. They just cause distrust. People were inevitably going to draw political battle lines around public health policies, but the CDC gave an easy reason to.

Except it’s not being addressed through Congress, it’s being addressed through executive agency “re-interpretation” of existing laws (i.e. writing new laws where none existed before) and they’re getting smacked down in court because of it. If Congress wants to pass a law, cool, but that’s not what the ATF did on behest of the current administration.

The guncad community already directs and encourages people to obtain their files from trustworthy sources. Moreover, the development culture is that of open betas and testing before releasing files publicly to ensure the files are safe. Downloading files from outdated repositories or reuploads not from the original developer has been strongly discouraged because the guncad culture has already been established, they will weed out BS like this very quickly. So maliciously seeding these tampered files is really not going to trip up most folks. Furthermore, let’s set aside the morality and personal liability of what you describe (think of booby-trapping your house to counter potential burglars as a reason why not to do this), the fact of the matter is checksums easily defeat this tactic.

Agreed. It is refreshing. But don't underestimate the ability of "terminally online" people to stumble into a scientific discussion and make it about politics, sadly.

From my anecdotal experience, there are at least a few (several?) free ad-supported services available... IMDB TV, Tubi TV, Roku TV app, Samsung TV plus (only on Galaxy devices and Samsung smart TV's), etc. If for some reason you can't get IMDB TV to work, there are several other choices out there that offer much the same redundant content.

Look it up on a smart TV, FireStick, Roku... search for "IMDB TV". Download it and install. You're welcome.

Besides for the real "lockdown" times from early-mid 2020, I went into the office whenever I need to (or whenever I just feel like a change of pace to see my coworkers), and I've continued that model ever since. Fortunately, my director isn't a micromanager. As far as they're concerned, we're all business professionals, and as long as the work continues to get done and results are good, there's no reason to micro-manage how often we come in or don't come into the office. The way I see it, COVID forced us all to use tools like MS Teams to stay afloat. Once we proved we could use it to great effect and stay connected, there's no valid reason to force people to adhere to an in-office schedule -- let them decide. The work continues to get done. The only reason to get "the troops" in the office is essentially political ... personal preference of the managers / executives, an antiquated command & control mindset that I can't stand.

Root Cause Analysis is usually part of a quality investigation, and followed by Corrective and Preventative Actions. I wonder what they will decide needs correcting or preventing here...

Matt LaRosiere discusses this in an interesting segment on a TYT show youtube.com/watch?v=DjrDLaHKj2U The relevant bit is, traceability of firearms diminishes after a few years, because a firearm sold from a FFL (federally licensed firearms dealer) can only be traced back to the first commercial buyer. Perhaps a gun used in a crime was in fact owned by that first purchaser.... but maybe they bought it 9 years ago, and then 8 years ago sold it to a guy next door face-to-face for cash, who sold it to someone else, who left it in a car, where it was stolen from the glove box and then used by a criminal. They can only trace it back to the first purchaser from the FFL, who might be deceased by now. That is the limitation of tracing a commercially-produced firearm. Let's say you had to register a homemade gun with a serial number. Same process above, but you are the maker of the firearm VS. a gun company who is a manufacture of a firearm. Same traceability process applies, same limitations. This turns the conversation towards UBC and banning private sales, which there has not been sufficient political will to do. Also, consider that there are millions of old guns that were manufactured and circulated before serialization was required, further poking holes in traceability. Final point: This should be obvious, but traceability is not like some active beacon on a firearm monitored by a central database to prevent criminal use. Traceability is a paper trail between FFL's and their log books (only 10 years of those records are required to be maintained FYI. I believe older records can be discarded. I am not aware of the law requiring it, just that you don't have to maintain it).

People in college who take notes on their computer. Especially nice for convertible tablet laptops. Electronic handwritten notes are incredibly convenient.

Extending on your line of thought, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was morally justified because the collateral deaths of the innocents in those cities caused the Japanese to surrender to the Allies, thus ending the war and limiting further casualties. My grandfather supported those bombings using the same line of thinking. I'm not so sure it was, though.

How about diethyl ether?