Fun fact, Viagra was originally supposed to be for lowering blood pressure and to alleviate angina. During the human trials it was discovered that one of the side effects was, well, what it's sold for now. Obviously the side effect was vastly more profitable.

I have a family member who retired from a large city fire department. If fire fighters failed their physical for having high blood pressure they would ask their doctor for a Viagra prescription and pass the follow up physical.

You would think. But computer modeling for how long something will last has gotten really good. That's why things fail just outside of warranty more often these days. I'd guess that the starter motor itself could outlast the engine. But I'm sure there's some electronic component that will fail. Kind of like the old small block Chevy starters. It was almost always the relay that was attached to those that failed because they were too close to the exhaust. When I was young we would get a $2 Ford starter relay from the auto parts store and wire it in attached to a fender well or the firewall. That usually saved us $20 for a new starter and I don't think anyone who did this had to worry about it again.

They do, which makes batteries and starters on those cars considerably more expensive to replace. My last car did not have start/stop and an OEM starter was $110. My current car has start/stop and an OEM replacement starter is $700. Neither of those include labor.

I just checked the Ford website for a 2020 Ford Explorer. I don't know what year your Explorer is, but on a 2020 with a moonroof the limit is 75lbs and without a moonroof it's 165lbs. If you plan to haul things on your roof, don't get one with a moonroof. Regardless, according to Ford, even with a moonroof, you can put over 3X the weight you are claiming.

Here's the thing you are missing. Those coal plants are taken off line when solar and wind are functioning but the coal still has to be burned even when they are disconnected from the grid. A small coal plant takes at least 10 hours from a cold restart until it can produce power. Larger modern coal plants take 24 to 48 hours to start up. So they never stop burning coal. They just disconnect the plant from the grid when renewables are enough. But they are still burning coal the entire time. So what ever CO2 and pollution they produce when producing power they are also producing when they are disconnected from the grid.

Has something changed in the last 10 years that make the sensor and glass in an iPhone better than a DSLR? I can see the appeal of the weight savings. But beyond that it seems like there are only disadvantages.

After 50+ years of every breakthrough reported being followed by "unlimited fusion energy is just 15 to 20 years away" it's kinda hard to not make a joke of it. Duke Nukem Forever was delayed by 14 years and was a similar joke. The promise for fusion being 20 years away has gone through 3 generations now.

You might want to double check. Sting sang the intro part of Money for Nothing

No, the initial hysteria was childish. Ivermectin is used on horses. But it's also been used in humans for decades. By your logic people who take nitroglycerin for heart conditions are fools because it was used as an explosive.

All pre-covid publications showed that masks weren't terribly effective and no proper instruction were given outside of "wear a mask or you're a murderer". The reality is that any mask must be changed hourly. N95 masks require proper training and are uncomfortable to wear if sealed properly. Otherwise they are pointless. Studies since have shown that an improperly worn N96 mask has 6 to 9% efficacy.

No one suggested injecting bleach. Trump ran his mouth asking about using bleach internally during a press conference. But no one recommended it.

Slashdot: cisgender neuro divergent

Ftfy.

I do. My deck is Dolby B/C/S. I also have a Walkman with Dolby-C. I'm not saying I use either often or have even used them in years. But they still function, so I never saw the point in throwing them away. The last time I threw out an obsolete player I ended up needing to buy a used one a few months later for some obscure thing I forgot about.

Is it though? I don't know too many folks who listen to music through anything better than a phone and whatever earbuds they have. Usually in a loud environment. Or using just one of the earbuds. Unless you are listening to something critically in a controlled environment, you're never going to notice a difference. Plus digital clipping in a lot of modern music sounds a hell of a lot worse than tape hiss to me.

OMG, you mean things need to be adjusted in a mechanical device? Azimuth is adjustable on any decent deck I've ever owned. I believe anything with Dolby C or S was required to have sapphire bearings. I know the one I have does. So most of the issues you mentioned are because you are ignorant or just want to be contradictory.

I'm not saying that anyone should be switching to cassette just for funsies. My point was that cassette isn't as bad as a lot of folks think it was. Sure, you're 1989 cassette of Milli Vanilli that got played 2000 times in a $50 boom box and kept in your glove box in the summer sounded like shit then and even worse now. But any decent recording that was put to something above Type-1 cassette and played on a quality deck and stayed in a controlled environment is certainly listenable.

Sure, if you kept them in a shed. In a controlled environment they are likely just find.

You must to be too young to remember 8-track then. When I was really young at least 2 of my relatives had Victrolas with 78 RPM shellac records. Cassettes were much better sounding and way more durable. If the heavy needle mechanism slipped out of your fingers, it would shatter the record if you were unlucky.

Type 2 and Type 4 cassettes sound a lot better than most people seem to realize. I still have my Dolby-S tape deck I bought in the early 90's. Granted, I haven't used it in years and prefer CD's for the most part. However, by the time you hit your 30's the frequency response a CD or Vinyl have over a cassette doesn't matter as you can't hear above the 17kHz limit of a cassette anyway. Type 1 tapes have a lot of hiss. But it's negligible on Type 2 or 4, especially if it used DNR-S. A lot of the cheap stereos I've seen have more amp hiss anyway.

Would I purchase a cassette today? Unless it's the only way to get the music I want, No. But it's far from the worst option. Besides, folks were listening to 128-bit MP3's for years on 10 dollar earbuds. I'd argue that was no better than a decent cassette as far as sound quality.

Because that statement was from 1947.

Imagine if Obama used drones to kill unarmed American born citizens outside of a war zone with no due process? Oh, wait.