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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 6th, 2023

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  • Not in widespread use, but they have the designs for a pretty badass sniper rifle that uses a transporter to beam the bullet past obstacles and place it directly in front of the target, paired with a headset that can see through walls.

    Now that I think of it, they also established in first contact that kinetic weapons are effective against the borg, since Worf’s blade and Picard’s holographic tommy gun were able to get past the borg defenses. Seems like maybe they should have replicated some guns and ammo, or possibly just taken some from the planet below.




  • My first car had some faulty wiring or might have been possessed. The radio didn’t work, the front passenger window had to be disabled because it rolled down but not up, and it locked the doors any time you opened or closed the front driver side door. Hell, sometimes it would lock the doors for no apparent reason, just because you looked at it funny or something. I carried three keys in different pockets because I learned the hard way that only having one backup isn’t enough, and also just how easy it is to not notice a hole in your pocket.

    The entire lower half of the body had been rusting out, so the previous owner patched it with fiber glass screen and driveway patching material then spray painted over that with a bright silver that didn’t even remotely match the dark grey of the rest of the car. There was also a hole in the trunk that had been partially covered with some plywood and foam insulation.

    The muffler fell off and dragged behind me while I was driving. I replaced it but kept the original on the floor of the back seat and before giving anyone a ride I’d pick it up and ask if it looked important to them while they were still taking in the sight of my car’s exterior and wondering if they just made a huge mistake.

    The hood latch broke while I was on the highway, causing the hood to pop up and try to kill me. Had to make an emergency stop and duct tape the thing down. I did eventually fix it.










  • The problem is that we have so little media that is both trusted and trustworthy. That so many people don’t actively seek out reliable information and think critically about it. Many just find a source that confirms their bias and feeds their emotional state, while others just passively absorb from those around them and on social media. And once you’ve bought the lies and misinformation, anyone that tries to tell you the truth becomes suspicious, because you know they are wrong.

    And because the never ending stream of bullshit is both a lucrative industry and a source of immense political power, there is a vested interest in keeping it highly polarized and partisan. They have to tie it to your identity and tell you that this is what your country stands for, so that you know that everyone who disagrees is an enemy.

    Anti-vaxxers are nothing new, but they were never so openly embraced by a political party (to say nothing of those who have claimed that vaccines are suddenly against their religion, discovering a prohibition that no religion has ever had prior to 2020). They don’t care how many people will suffer or die because of their actions, as long as they can benefit from it politically. Sadly, this is a fairly consistent theme on the right.






  • “objective, good faith, and scientific” objection to the drug being used for anything other than what it is intended for

    That should be a fair standard, except that this is legislation being pushed specifically because objective, good faith, scientific objections were preventing people from getting the ineffective treatments they wanted after embracing right wing conspiracy theories and rejecting actual medical advice. Because this is a requirement and not merely a shield for those doctors who do choose to prescribe a requested medication, the determination for what is and is not a valid objection is not left to the doctor but to whatever body would be adjudication a dispute.

    The article doesn’t say what the potential penalty is for refusing, so I’m not sure if this is something that could result in criminal charges, lawsuits, or which might come up on malpractice cases. But I know I wouldn’t want my future to be dependent on my ability to convince a judge and/or jury that my objections are sufficiently grounded in science. Especially not in a state where a majority have seemingly decided that they know more about medicine than doctors and scientists.