Before I’m sent back, shoot the time travel master (nerd!) in the head. Shoot their attendants, too (nerds! nerds!).
Grab all the other options, and load them in the time travel car. VERY IMPORTANT: the Moog will be playing the Knight Rider Theme until further notice.
Time travel back to the Vatican, Apostolic Palace. Driving the motorcycle up to The Pope, I do a jump that involves me turning upside-down OVER the Pope, during which I look down, shove the LSD down the Pope’s throat, and then do an Akira-slide right in front of him.
In fluent Latin, I explain to the Pope that I am a messenger from God who has been sent to deliver a Mighty Revelation. For the next several hours I use all the other options I brought back to astound and amuse The Pope during the LSD trip. During this phase of the experience, the Moog will be playing selections from Pink Floyd, focusing on music from Dark Side and before. The key message of The Revelation is that I am an agent of God to be protected and revered.
After the Pope comes down, I scope out the Vatican’s Cardinals. (The Moog will be playing Guile’s Theme during this phase.) The spices are covertly swapped for hashish and opiates, which I use along with the Warheads candy to bring mini-Revelations to those Cardinals who seem friendly. Those Cardinals who seem hostile to me, are fed bits of the Uranium. I am declared a Cardinal. When the time is right, The Pope is also fed bits of Uranium.
After the Pope dies, a conclave is convened in the Sistine Chapel to select the next Pope. The Moog will be playing Objection from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (2001) during this phase. As a Cardinal, I attend, and will use the motorcycle to pop wheelies and do donuts until I am elected.
When I first appear on the Papal balcony, to be revered for the rest of my life as an infallible being whose words must be obeyed without hesitation, the Moog will be playing the instrumental version of We are Number One from Lazy Town, and I will be doing an appropriate dance.
My plan was to take the dab pens and the moog, assuming it could be used as a backup battery to the pens. And then just plan to hang myself when confronted with the inevitability of sobriety.
Hey y’all no need for that! Meet up with me in the year 1214, and Pope Rolando will set you up as Archbishops somewhere. We can even go on convenience store runs in my time machine!
Everyone taking this challenge is invited. All your sins will be forgiven!
The moog is “magic - works without amp or outlet” so it is magic. (Given.)
Therefore the moog is AI, since magic and AI are indistinguishable. (Lemma: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” -Clarke. The exact workings of contemporary “AI” neural networks are insufficiently understood, therefore indistinguishable from magic.)
Because the moog is AI, I can talk to it like ChatGPT, I just have the wrong keyboard.
Use the keyboard like this: first key is “A”, second key is “B”, etc. Type out some sentences until the AI figures out the pattern. I have plenty of time to do so, since I have a time machine.
Use the keyboard to chat with the moog to tell it what I want it to play.
yes there’s a problem, its only magic is that is works without an amp or outlet. none of the other things you’ve listed are implied or remotely plausible.
Just hope your time machine doesn’t deposit you off during the Western Catholic Schism or else you’ll have to repeat this multiple times with multiple popes.
And often, the people who laugh at “boomers” saying shit like “What global warming?” in weather events like this, don’t acknowledge or comprehend they’re doing the same damn thing, from the opposite perspective.
The IRS is actually testing a new system where they just tell you how much you owe/get, and that’s it unless there’s unreported income and such that needs to be corrected.
Yes, but previously all the big player opted into a middle ground goverment sanctioned “free file” system that made filing taxes free for most Americans from these companies.
Thr big players have recently opted out, so the IRS is now actually running the pilot this year.
I’m aware of this. This is the first time I’m aware they managed to get a pilot system and I think that shows great promise. Also, people are noticing more and more, and pushing back.
I’m not going to lie; there is a threshold where just being a complete tribal savage is easier than dealing with the beauracacy. If it becomes too time consuming, expensive, and stressful to do taxes, I will squat in the soon-to-be ruins of business real estate and hunt the local pigeon and duck populations to survive.
So you mainly want to avoid Intuit owned companies and H&R Block. They alone spent millions per year to lobby against easy and free filing for taxpayers.
Then there’s the ACTR (American Coalition Of Taxpayer Rights) who spend $100s of thousands a year lobbying for the same (and are made up by 14 members:
Edit: Started a post in /c/asklemmy to find out alternatives. Tax Act was my go-to company, but they’ve joined the ACTR at some point, so they’re a no-go.
Edit 2: Checking out some older reddit threads on the subject, FreeTaxUSA may be the best option so far. FreeTaxUSA are owned by Tax Hawk which is a member of the ACTR, however of all the ones i’ve checked so far, they are the cheapest (free Federal and $15 state), and at least they’re not one of the top lobbying companies like Intuit(Turbo Tax/Credit Karma tax services), H&R Block, or Jackson Hewitt.
It’s already like this with free tax returns. It just sucks you have to go through Intuit, because of their lobbying. The government is also counting on you to not properly doing your taxes. They want you to be lazy and pay more in taxes, for the convenience.
They don’t want to come after people who aren’t paying their taxes. They’re making it inconvenient to file, so poor people who don’t have time/ knowledge overpay.
You apparently misunderstood what I was saying. The IRS is testing a program where they tell you how much you get/owe, and that’s it unless you need to make changes like adding deductions or reporting unreported income.
And you’d have to be in a pretty high income bracket or run your own business for that to happen.
I make upper middle class money and keep all receipts and such, and I’ve never had my itemized deductions surpass the standardized deduction. But every year I enter all of it just to see.
If you’re one of the people who do, then you’re likely already have a tax accountant doing your taxes for you.
It’s a new "Direct file" pilot program. It will automatically calculate your deductions and credits, as they are not in anyway trying to “stop you” from getting them.
No it’s not. They’re testing out direct filing in 13 states this year, cutting companies like Intuit out of the equation for a giant chunk of the population.
Yeah. Where I live I get a message from our version of the IRS. They tell me how much taxes I’ve paid last year, and if I’m owed back taxes or if I owe more. If I don’t change it, I accept it. Easy.
Also, the IRS only escalates straight to jail if it’s incredibly obvious you’re intentionally committing tax fraud. If your forms are wrong they just send you a letter to fix it.
I wish more people were aware of this. One year I made a rather significant number entry error and should have owed a couple thousand more than I paid. I got a fairly routine letter later in the year asking me to correct the error. I had a little mental panic, reran the numbers, and filed an amended return. There was no pressure, you always have payment options, and they send you back another letter confirming the acceptance of the amended file. I understand that many people would have significant problems paying extra unexpectedly but unless you are actively committing fraud you are not an immediate priority for the IRS.
And if you can’t afford to pay it all in one go, they will work with you to set up a payment plan. If you can pay it off in 6 months it’s basically a non-issue.
Make sure you save all those letters, lest you resolve the error and get a letter several years later saying you owe $x + interest due to an error that you’ve already resolved. Because they don’t have those records digitally, apparently, and if you don’t have paper copies of every document involved you might just get to pay that penalty whether it was ever due in the first place, or even if you’ve already paid the penalty. Or get a lawyer.
Which is what happened to me the year before last.
That sounds like how it works in my country. Every year is just log in, take a quick look at the numbers, sign and send it away. Takes a minute or two and it just works.
On the left you see a format popular on tiktok, where a clip from a videogame, some ice cream video and a Family Guy clip share the screen, playing simultaneously.
On the right you see a news anchor with weather info, a ticker and stock data also sharing the same screen.
The tiktok format is supposedly for low attention span kids which (also supposedly) need three completely disconnected things happening on screen at once in order to not lose interest in the video. The other one is… the news as it is common in the US.
“They are the same”: you could say that both of these formats serve the same purpose.
It’s not the same, TikTok is shit content crammed into a very small box where as the bullshit on Fox and whatever else is bullshit crammed into a much bigger box.
Yeah they’re both fucking trash but they don’t have the same impact over a long term, but go off I guess
You should see the Japanese TV then. It’s not only cramped, it’s completely different programs at the same time. I don’t even know what the reaction clips are reacting to or which is the main program.
This would only be the 24 hour “news” networks that deliver entertainment and opinion under the guise of factual information. Local newscasts don’t often do this. However there are some ownership groups out there that try to model themselves after the big cable companies.
Just so you’re aware, the TV broadcast is (Canadian) CP24 Toronto, and they have this so that you don’t have to wait through commercials and other random news segments to get weather, traffic, headlines and stock tickers. This is a common channel to have on in waiting rooms and the like.
On the left side of the image, you will notice a prevalent format that has gained popularity on TikTok. It features a composition where a brief snippet from a video game, a delightful ice cream video, and a scene from the animated television series Family Guy coexist on the same screen, all playing simultaneously.
Conversely, on the right side of the meme, you’ll find a news anchor delivering weather information, a continuous news ticker displaying various updates, and real-time stock market data, all competing for space on the same screen.
The TikTok format on the left is believed to cater to individuals with relatively shorter attention spans, particularly younger viewers, who supposedly require the simultaneous presence of three entirely unrelated elements on screen to maintain their engagement with the video content. On the other hand, the right-side depiction represents a quintessential depiction of the news presentation format that is commonly seen in the United States.
The phrase “They are the same” is a humorous commentary on the meme, suggesting that both of these seemingly disparate formats ultimately serve a similar purpose, albeit in very different contexts.
For those who might still be grappling with comprehension:
On the leftward portion of the provided image, observers can discern a particularly prominent format that has seen a meteoric rise in its acceptance and widespread use, especially on the social media platform known as TikTok. This format encompasses a unique assemblage wherein a fleeting segment extracted from a video game, a visually captivating video that showcases the delightful intricacies of ice cream preparation, and a notable moment extracted from the well-known animated television show, “Family Guy,” are all juxtaposed to appear concurrently on a singular display screen, thereby playing in unison.
In stark contrast, if one directs their attention to the rightward section of the meme, it becomes apparent that there’s a news anchor, immersed in the task of conveying meteorological updates. Accompanying this, there is an unbroken stream of a news ticker, diligently broadcasting a plethora of diverse news highlights. Additionally, there is a live feed that presents the ever-fluctuating dynamics of the stock market, with all these elements vying for visual dominance within the same confined screen space.
The format emblematic of TikTok, situated on the left, is postulated to resonate more with individuals possessing attention spans that might be characterized as being on the shorter end of the spectrum. This is especially true for the younger demographic, who, it’s hypothesized, necessitate the concurrent exhibition of three wholly unrelated visual stimuli to sustain their levels of engagement and immersion in the digital content being consumed. Conversely, the representation on the right encapsulates the archetypal portrayal of how news is traditionally presented, a style that has become somewhat of a hallmark in the realm of American broadcasting.
The overlaying text, which reads “They are the same,” provides a tongue-in-cheek commentary, insinuating that, despite their apparent differences in presentation and context, these two formats converge in their overarching intent and purpose, each catering to the specific needs of their respective audiences, albeit in divergent manners.
For those who, perchance, remain ensnared in a web of puzzlement and seek further elucidation:
Upon the immediate leftward expanse of the visually rendered image in question, astute onlookers and discerning individuals would undoubtedly identify a distinctive, yet increasingly ubiquitous format that has, with the relentless passage of time, surged forward, embedding itself deeply into the cultural zeitgeist, primarily through its proliferation on the digital social media behemoth known as TikTok. This inimitable format is a testament to the modern era’s digital craftsmanship, where it harmoniously amalgamates a transient and ephemeral segment meticulously plucked from an interactive video game, an exquisitely framed visual documentation that indulges viewers in the delectable journey of ice cream artistry, and a poignant, perhaps even evocative, fragment extracted from the annals of the widely recognized and critically acclaimed animated television chronicle, “Family Guy.” Astonishingly, all these disparate elements coalesce, seamlessly cohabitating the very same digital canvas, and serendipitously unfold in synchronized harmony.
Yet, if one were to meander their gaze, redirecting their ocular faculties towards the diametrically opposite side, specifically the rightward flank of this meme-centric artifact, a starkly contrasting tableau emerges. Herein, a seasoned news anchor, donned in professional attire, appears deeply engrossed in the solemn act of disseminating pivotal meteorological prognostications. In tandem, and perhaps adding to the sensory overload, a ceaseless and inexorable news ticker cascades downwards, acting as a conduit for a veritable cornucopia of timely news briefings. Augmenting this already bustling visual cacophony is a real-time, dynamic representation of the financial market’s pulse, showcasing the capricious ebbs and flows of stock indices, all of which jostle, compete, and clamor for the viewer’s fleeting attention within the confines of a singular, constrained screen territory.
The quintessentially TikTok-esque tableau, which graces the image’s left hemisphere, is conjectured, hypothesized, and postulated to resonate profoundly with those individuals whose cognitive proclivities lean towards possessing what might colloquially be described as abbreviated attention durations. This observation rings particularly true for the more nascent generational cohorts, who, as prevailing societal narratives suggest, ostensibly require an intricate ballet of simultaneous, non-correlated visual stimuli to perpetually fuel and stoke the fires of their engagement and sustained interest in the ocean of digital content they so voraciously consume. In juxtaposition, the tableau on the right harks back to and encapsulates a time-honored, venerable modality of news dissemination, a paradigmatic archetype that has entrenched itself as an emblematic mainstay within the bastions of American televisual broadcast traditions.
The superimposed inscription, which succinctly proclaims “They are the same,” injects a dose of sardonic wit, playfully insinuating that, beneath the veneer of their ostensible disparities in thematic content and contextual backdrops, these two visual formats, in their essence, might indeed be converging upon a singular, unifying teleological nexus, each meticulously tailored to satiate the nuanced appetites of their distinct viewership, albeit via markedly divergent stylistic avenues.
I just said “Can you rewrite this passage to be even more verbose? {your comment}” for the first one and then “Can you make it even more verbose? I’m going for excess levels of verbosity” for the second one. The very first line
For those who, perchance, remain ensnared in a web of puzzlement and seek further elucidation:
Last time a recruiter harassed me via text he tried to convince me of all the kickass benefits and fun of being in the military. Straight up just told him “Dude, if you put a gun in my hand, you’re going to be responsible for a suicide. Not happening.” For some reason he never replied.
Why I refuse to have guns even though I’m really interested in learning to shoot. I would love to go to a range and get better at target practice but I just don’t want to go down that path. Maybe I should consider archery
Jesus, there is a non-zero number people, in this thread, that don’t get guns because they are afraid they might suicide? I hope you get the help you need, keeping a gun out of your house is a good thing but it is just the tip of an iceberg.
Edit: Everyone on this thread is acting like this is normal, THIS ISN’T NORMAL OR OK. PLEASE take care of yourself.
I think it’s more of a don’t trust themselves with that power sort of thing, I’ll bet most of them have a hard time making the big calls and hard shots of life and work.
Men who own handguns are eight times more likely to die of gun suicides than men who don’t own handguns, and women who own handguns are 35 times more likely than women who don’t.
I’m not sure if it’s fair to say that people are “acting like this is normal” - it is a real danger, and it’s good that these folks are aware of it and are acting accordingly. Even if you get help, you won’t just magically get better and will never suffer from suicidal thoughts again. Making sure you don’t put yourself in unnecessary danger seems like a healthy strategy to me.
I don’t know if it’s a people who already have issues and have guns are more likely to use the gun instead of other means kind of statistic you have there, but owning a gun does not want to make you want to kill yourself purely by existing. It is a problem that exists regardless of the gun. And people who just… don’t have a gun have a thousand different ways to accomplish the task. You aren’t like, a healthy individual then get a gun and suddenly have … urges.
I don’t know if it’s a people who already have issues and have guns are more likely to use the gun instead of other means kind of statistic you have there
Well, you could easily figure that out by reading the link I sent. But I’ll gladly clear it up for you: the statistic isn’t about “likelihood of using gun for suicide”, it’s “likelihood of suicide”. Men who own guns are 8x more likely to kill themselves than men who don’t.
but owning a gun does not want to make you want to kill yourself purely by existing. It is a problem that exists regardless of the gun.
It is, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore the statistics. Owning a gun dramatically increases your chances of suicide, mostly because it’s the quickest method easily available. Suicide is extremely often an impulse. If you have a quick and easy method available, you’re far more likely to commit suicide than if you don’t. This has been researched for a long time.
And people who just… don’t have a gun have a thousand different ways to accomplish the task. You aren’t like, a healthy individual then get a gun and suddenly have … urges.
Okay, so people with suicidal thoughts should just buy guns and go through with it, or what? I’ll repeat myself: you don’t just get help and are magically better the next day. Improving your mental state is a process that takes at the very least multiple years. Knowing yourself and statistics well enough to not give yourself an easy suicide method is good.
I assume it increases the risk of successfully kill yourself on impulse. Having fleeting suicidal thoughts because of a temporary circumstances, is what is dangerous here. That’s the kind of suicide you’d regret if you could regret something when being dead.
The more interesting thing is that it’s only 8x higher for men opposed to 38x higher for women. If I remember correctly men tend to do more brutal suicides, which means a percentage probably only got that gun to kill themselves.
Is it just me or this statistic kind of… useless? It’s the same as saying “people who own a car are eight times more likely to die in car crashes”. No shit. Surely we should be comparing the raw (successful) suicide rate of gun owners versus not. Later in the article they do cover this to a point, stating that it is still a 4x increase.
The researchers found that people who owned handguns had rates of suicide that were nearly four times higher than people living in the same neighborhood who did not own handguns. The elevated risk was driven by higher rates of suicide by firearm. Handgun owners did not have higher rates of suicide by other methods or higher rates of death generally.
Basically the out of a simple pull of the trigger is too easy. Easier than jumping off a bridge, relatively painless, quick and doesn’t injure bypassers.
Having the gun is too easy an out, so people with suicidal thoughts will stay away from them. I was like that too at 22. Here’s just one of many stories. Trigger warning for suicide (duh)
If Quebec, Canada had the same access to handguns as the US, I would be dead today. Simple as that. Instead, I failed an attempt to jump from a viaduc because I was scared of causing a collision and taking someone else with me, was sent to the hospital by the police, got a psychiatrit’s help. Turns out I wasn’t a lazy worthless piece of shit. I had an untreated, very powerful case of ADHD blocking me from accomplishing anything of value.
I am no longer suicidal. I’ve overcome that. However, I always worry that those feelings will one day come back after a series of bad decisions. I am, therefore, keeping things that would kill me in an instant without pain away from myself. You just never know when you’ll have a moment of weakness. If I thought to off myself once, I can think of it again.
I guess my initial comment, for me, was the perspective that it is common enough to have this many people openly talking about it in this thread very nonchalant, like that is the norm. There are a thousand reasons not to own a gun, that reason seemed a little specific, then others chimed in that were on the same page. It just surprised me. I am glad you are doing better and I hope you remember how temporary those feelings are if they ever come back.
Idk if you’ve ever had suicidal thoughts, but they can are generally really impulsive, and not really well thought out. Obviously everyone is different, but many suicides are done on impulse.
I’m doing perfectly fine right now. I’m happy and have a pretty good life. But I know that when bad events happen, those suicidal impulses are just that…impulses. they aren’t something that most people who attempt suicide sit down and take the time to thorougly think out. They can happen unexpectedly when you’re in a vulnerable stste. Unexpected and intense life events happen that can push even “normal and well adjusted” people over the edge if they have access to something dangerous like that. Imagine suddenly and unexpectedly losing your spouse or your career or etc. Shit happens.
… a very, very small subset of the skills, if any.
Is there a VR gun app that simulates guns having… weight?
How About how to handle misfires, squibs or jams? Does it go over safety precautions, proper storage, handing, transit and relevant local laws?
Oh how about recoil management and shooting stances and shouldering? All the intricacies of reloading different kinds of weapons? Trigger pull and break?
If you got your gun training from VR, you’d still probably want to take a firearms familiarization course IRL before actually using a gun, as all that VR can really offer is the general concept of aiming.
Also, depending on your VR headset of choice, you could probably actually buy a decent pistol, rifle or shotgun and a day at the range’s worth of ammo for the same cost.
Honestly, a pellet or bb gun would be a far better way to learn a lot more applicable basics of shooting for cheaper than a vr headset.
Shooting a gun in VR is nothing like shooting a gun in real life, and if you ‘train’ in VR and then actually try to shoot a gun IRL you will realize this basically immediately.
I am trying to imagine someone with ‘VR Training’ going to a gun range and it looks like the vids of people waving loaded guns around on range and sweeping people with a loaded mag, shooting a gun and having it fly out of their hands or into their faces because they have no idea how stances and recoil work.
I suggest if youre looking for a shooty type hobby that doesnt involve actual guns, yes archery is very neat, though modern compound bows are comparably pricey to many guns…
Perhaps try paintballing or airsoft?
Frankly I’ve always found airsoft and the community around it pretty cringey, but I had a blast ‘woodsballing’ as a kid. The indoor competitive ranges I found silly… but it can be great fun to stomp around in the woods for a day, if you don’t mind huge bruises from getting hit haha!
Even so, probably most outdoor ranges have an area for chronoing (dialing in your gas pressure so your paint is flying at an appropriate speed) or just target practice, and you can probably just plink at such a range if you wanted to.
Idk if this is something that would be legal in every state, but most shooting ranges I’ve seen have firearm rentals. This typically helps them to sell guns because you can see how they feel, but there’s no obligation to purchase. They also might let you rent stuff that you couldn’t legally purchase without crazy licensing, like fully automatic machine guns.
I have a friend who doesn’t think it’s a good idea for himself to own a gun for similar reasons. Others here seem to be alluding to that being a huge issue, but I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. It’s weird to assume that the people who don’t want you own guns must have mental health issues. The data is clear that owning a gun makes a person significantly more likely to be harmed by a gun, whether it’s self-inflicted, an accident, a robbery gone wrong, or any number of other events. If you feel like your health and safety are at risk because of anxiety or depression or anything like that, I hope you’re able to help yourself by even just chatting with somebody who is qualified to help you, maybe getting some medication and lifestyle tips also. I found that I had a vitamin D deficiency, and just taking a standard supplement every day has had a big positive impact on my mood and attitude. Like, I still feel helpless in a shitty world that we as a species are actively making worse every single day, but now I know that that’s a problem that’s way too big for li’l ol’ me to solve. But what I can do is take a few minutes to type something to an internet stranger to tell them that they matter and that they are worth the effort of helping. You matter and you’re worth the effort of helping. Even if you don’t think it’s particularly dire, check in with yourself. Therapy is not for emergencies, so don’t wait until it’s an emergency to talk to somebody.
If you want a pretty close experience without the real risk of suicide, you could always go with lower caliber airguns. The lack of muzzle energy means it’s not a ripe candidate for killing anything but small game at most, it requires you to be pretty on top of your shit as far as consistent follow through, holdover, windage. Shot per shot cost can be pretty low, especially if you get a swaging die and make the pellets or slugs yourself. The only downside is that the guns can get pretty pricey, up in the realm of very expensive normie guns, especially for something very high quality and with all the cool stuff, but overall it’s a pretty cheap and less dangerous hobby if you like shooting. Most people have this conception that they’re only for kids or whatever, based on what they see at the sportsman’s warehouse, but with a bit of googling you can find some guns that are pretty performative for not a lot.
When somebody contacts me out of the blue without my input, tries to sign me up to get murdered for the benefit of the military industrial complex, and reads “No, I’m not interested” as “tell me more,” I become less likely to be as polite about matters. No means No, and if you keep pushing I’m gonna be as blunt as I need to be.
Fuck this. Torx, Hex, square drive are all positive engagement. Phillips is literally designed to cam out. Slotted is just the first head type to have existed because of how easy it is to make, but is far inferior to every other type.
A good square bit for my impact is a lifesaver as an electrician. Pretty much every conduit fitting set screw can take flat, Philips, or square. When you’re reaching out one-handed from the top of a ladder, you really don’t want to cam out all the time.
I’m gonna go pay for that silly looking onyx the fortuitous film just so he gets my money for doing something different and helping other people make a dollar
Obviously this is a terrible idea, but I’m gonna answer it seriously for the sake of dunking on it.
The amount of work. I mean, just astronomical. That’s 1,650 miles of longitude this dude is talking about filling in; the largest earth-moving project ever was the Panama Canal, and it’s only about 50 miles long. Plus, by comparison, it’s essentially a one-dimensional line! This looks like it’s probably in the ballpark of 500-ish miles from the current shore to the new shore, and two-ish miles from the surface to the floor.
Where would we get the land from? It’s not like there’s a pile just sitting around. I guess we could dredge the Pacific and truck it across to pour into the Atlantic? Take down the Appalachians and the Rockies? Bring down an asteroid into the ocean? None of that would be enough. In fact, nothing I can think of that we have access to could even come close to providing enough dirt (remember, we need 1,650 x 500 x 2 cubic miles of it!), even if we could manage to do it without destroying ecosystems or killing billions of people.
The people who have spent a lot of money buying homes and businesses on the current Eastern seaboard of the United States would probably have something to say about this plan. (Something loud and something very angry.) Besides, it would completely upend the shipping industry, the fishing industry, the tourism industry, and more. This would legitimately destroy multiple national economies, and that’s before you even take into account the ecological disaster.
Sea level rise is already a major problem. So displacing a bunch of water in favor of dirt probably isn’t going to help that too terribly much.
…why? A lot of America is sitting unused or underused. If you were to clump all of the US’s land use into discrete blocks, it would look like this: ImageThe area labeled “LAND?” on the ocean in the OP map is, give or take, the size of the current amount of land owned by the 100 largest landowning families, private family timberland, golf, and fallow land (meaning land used for nothing). This means that the area that the person in question is asking about is already essentially or literally being used for nothing at all. Before we start undertaking an ecologically-disastrous and fundamentally impossible project, we’d probably figure out ways to use that other land.
But there’s more. The land that is being used is almost entirely being underused. For instance, take the “Cow pasture/range” section of the map; cattle account, by far, for the highest land use of any land use in the country. But the 28.2 million cows in America only need about an acre of land each; meaning that the 124.7 million acres of land they roam is about five times bigger than what they actually need. Most of the other production uses for land in the US (along with rural housing) are similarly sprawling because they can be; land is comparatively cheap, so there’s no real reason to consolidate. If that changes, land prices will rise, and the people and companies holding on to underused land will discover that it makes financial sense to sell and reconfigure their businesses to make more efficient use of the land.
So calm down, Lex Luthor. The problem isn’t that resources are actually scarce. It’s that people at the top have a financial interest in underusing their holdings so that they can keep prices artificially high.
There are lots of reasons this wouldn’t work, but yours isn’t one of them. Plenty of coastal cities have already done this on a small scale, whole neighborhoods are built on fill- back bay in Boston, marina district in San Francisco just to name a couple. And as a bonus, a good strong earthquake turns it to soup, so every so often you can wipe the slate clean and start over.
If you already know where a pressurized liquid magma pool is, maybe. Though if it’s not pressurized enough you might just get the release of some weird fumes and vapors. Or the lava might rise a little then settle back to a standard hight rather than errupting.
If you dont have a pool of lava to aim for about the earth mantle, then probably not :( By the time you get deep enough into the earth to hit magma, the hole would collapse due to pressure and pretty much any modern drill would be soft due to the heat.
Heres a discussion about this that happened else where on the interwebs.
But the 28.2 million cows in America only need about an acre of land each; meaning that the 124.7 million acres of land they roam is about five times bigger than what they actually need.
Wouldn’t we want cattle using at least a bit more land than they strictly need? Overgrazing was one of the contributing factors to the Dust Bowl.
Fallow land is used land. It’s land that’s not currently used but its non-usage only happens its efficiency when actually used. It’s like sleeping, but for land, so it’s not free to use
I’m aware of that land use need, but actually most farmers use crop rotation to fulfill that need. You plant a crop that depletes phosphorus one year, and then one that restores it the next year. Obviously that’s oversimplified, but actually letting land lie fallow isn’t as critical anymore in a more diverse agricultural world.
Besides, letting land lie fallow is agricultural use, as you’re restoring the land for later growing seasons. That, iirc, is why the word “idle” is included on the map alongside “fallow;” true fallowing would be included in the agriculture regions.
Fertilizer does provide some help, but cover crops and crop rotation is still necessary. Anhydrous ammonia and ammonium nitrate don’t replenish everything that crops take out of the ground (really just nitrogen); and even if it did, it’s really expensive.
Well, I think the word “barren” is a little bit more ambiguous, but generally “fallow” implies that it could be used, but isn’t; while “barren” means that it couldn’t be used for any productive purpose (specifically any agricultural purpose). In other words, land could be temporarily fallow but used again later, but would likely require remediation or even engineering to make productive if it’s barren.
I mean it looks like an office in their home, which is where such an error is completely understandable and forgiveable
Also, in the right context and to the right person a slightly-comically proportioned phalace can be a very funny and heartfelt gift especially when paired with a good punchline. I have a relative who works for the government, and received a penis-shaped bottle opener as a gift from a colleague in another agency after working a long-term project together with the attached commentary that his team wasn’t the easiest to work with. Knowing the recipient plus how he loves to pull it out and tell the story every chance he gets, it’s probably the best gift that he could’ve gotten.
Labeling that as unprofessional is kind of arbitrary, which was basically my point.
Although sex is something as natural, normal and common as eating, sleeping, shitting, having hair and whatever, some religious people a long time ago felt like this was something that needed to be tabooed, which I find stupid, because it has led and still leads to a lot of problems.
I’m glad that this started to change, but still, having some harmless sex toys on display shouldn’t catch so much attention imo.
I just chuckled. That people are focusing in on the background for what is a “serious interview,” that in itself is weird. I’d be focused on the interview, regardless.
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