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Posts
2
Comments
186
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • "The balloon formerly known as unidentified"

  • Yeah, Texas was the only place that I've actually witnessed casual open carry on a regular basis but to their credit I never saw any crime with a gun. However, I know people all over the country who conceal carry and you'd never know it.

    I realize this is anecdotal but I witnessed the 2022 Las Vegas mass stabbing outside my hotel that killed 2 and injured 6 people. No one even knew what was happening because it was such a quick and silent attack.

    My point is not that guns and knives are comparable, but that it's silly to feel afraid in the US simply because of guns, generally I'm more scared because of the mental health and wealth inequality crisis causing an increase in apparently crazy people wandering the streets.

  • "We need to convert all cars to electric ASAP to save the planet!""-Wait, not like that!"

    Seriously though, when I visited China recently, I was blown away by how many cool cars are there. In the US we have like 3 companies that own the entire market of similar vehicles.

  • Agreed, guns in public are not as common as this post implies. Additionally, I'm just as scared of a mugger with a knife. Seeing that video of someone drop dead within 3 seconds of being stabbed in the neck is pretty freaky...

  • That is a common misconception and not true. You probably hear about some large state-run enterprises but >84% of businesses in China are private. Today there are several times more private businesses in China than in the US. I work closely with someone who owns their own business in Shenzhen and it doesn't sound that different than in America.

    https://bigdatachina.csis.org/can-chinese-firms-be-truly-private/

  • Turns out it belongs to an amateur hobbyist:

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/us-monitoring-high-altitude-balloon-west-rcna140275

    Maybe I got the previous balloons mixed up. The article on this post states:

    Though the Pentagon eventually concluded the balloon did not transmit information back to China, its presence put the U.S. military on high alert for other objects in U.S. airspace. Fighter jets shot down several unidentified objects over the U.S. and Canada over the following weeks.

    The military couldn't find any debris from those objects, and the search was called off due to dangerous weather conditions. Mr. Biden said the unidentified objects were not believed to be connected to China's spy balloon program.

    "The intelligence community's current assessment is that these three objects were mostly balloons tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions studying weather or conducting other scientific research," the president said. .

  • Turns out to belong to an amateur hobbyist:https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/us-monitoring-high-altitude-balloon-west-rcna140275

    When did weather balloons become national news? Aren't there always weather balloons floating around the world? Is it just that this one isn't registered or something?

    The article even states that the infamous "Chinese spy balloon" from last year turned out to have no ability to send information back to China and it wasn't even from the Chinese government, but from a private company, institution, or individual.

    Source: The Pentagon and Biden quoted in this post's article.

  • I cap my bandwidth at 50% of my max upload and download speed during the day and 80% of max during night when I'm usually asleep using qBittorrent's schedule feature.

  • I was at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel which gets a lot of guests from China where 4 is unlucky so they skip the 4th, 13th, and 44th floors. The building is technically 45 stories tall but the elevators go up to 56.

  • TIL US citizens have no constitutional rights when being held by border control on US soil. That was a real WTF for me.

  • It mostly bothers me when I just order 1 entree and a water. At one place that might cost $10, and at another place it might cost $30, and all the wait staff did was carry a plate from the kitchen to me in both cases.

    It doesn't seem fair that the wait staff at the more expensive place gets tipped more than the less expensive place just because of an arbitrary custom.

    The extra cost of the expensive meal is mostly due to ingredients, the cooking process, the location, and maaay slightly more complicated table setting.

  • Yes it was annoying how our families kept bringing up how we "got lost on the mountain" during the trip and we kept having to remind them that we weren't lost, just hiking!

  • This is like when I was 11 and my family went hiking up a mountain in Yellowstone. My young cousin and I thought my brother was ahead of us on the trail so we hurried up trying to catch up to him. We were passing many hikers on a busy trail and being safe.

    An hour later my brother comes running up behind us saying everyone is looking for us! Apparently the park rangers had been mobilized to search for us, the missing children, and when we got down the mountain an hour or more later our families were down there in tears fearing we had fallen off the mountain or something.

    Point being, it's totally possible for everyone to think you're lost and in danger when you are fine and know exactly where you are.

  • I'm guessing you're not getting many replies because you're not forming a coherent argument.

    Your first comment was against Taylor Swift expressing the view that her fans should go out and vote. Your second comment is against "what she represents" which you left undefined other than the media cabal which is a separate issue and outside of her control.

  • Very good explanation. If usb-c is good enough for a MacBook, it's definitely good enough for a small headset - no excuses!