It says a lot about the culture of the 60s and/or Pohl himself, that the first conceivable use for “instant ordering” would be for drugs.

… Pocket bar? Googling it gets me nowhere. Surely he didn’t mean a bar of alcoholic drinks? Maybe a pocket pry bar?

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Fair enough, life is complicated enough as it is! 🫡 Glad you were able to simplify at least one part of it. I completely understand not monetizing a hobby, as it would suck all the joy out of it.

Dude. We are about to sell our home because clearing snow off our long, steep driveway is a massive pain. It has taken years off our lives. We were seriously looking into snow removal robot but inflation and tariffs put that way outside our price range. You might be underestimating a potentially huge market. I would’ve never thought that’s something that could be DIY’d!

The main issue with permafrost is instability. If you build on permafrost, when it melts you’ll lose everything that’s not anchored to bedrock. Imagine the ground 3ft below the surface of your street suddenly collapsing, like a sinkhole. At the very least that would ruin the road, the water and sewer pipes, the electricitu and telecom lines, etc. Melting permafrost also releases A LOT of methane, a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. (Runaway global warning, anyone?) Lastly, after the permafrost melts, the soil that is left isn’t necessarily suitable for agriculture: it washes away easily and is prone to waterlogging.

Of course, these challenges can be overcome with time and money. It might become worth doing once the current arable land turn into deserts. But the scope of it is huge. We’ll have to invent a whole new type of agriculture.

“Only those who do not seek power are qualified to hold it.” Plato knew what was up.

Since deep-fried pickles are a (delicious) thing, I bet this is better than it looks. Warm salty dough meets juicy tangy pickle, then the cheese bridges the textures and provides a savory background. I’m converted.

Does the field have a cornerstone forum where amateurs mingle with pros? For example, there are several professional astronomers and astronauts on Reddit, and telescope builders on CloudyNights.com. Atmospheric optics has atoptics.org.uk. The chess community has lichess.org. Places like that could be a good place to post about your idea without going into the technical specifics. Hopefully, other members of the community would let you know if you’re going down a promising path, and refer you to a specific pro/academic to further discuss your idea.

You might be onto something with the knock-off theory. I had Walmart shirts and underwear with the cornucopia logo.

That makes sense, that it would be your subconscious alerting. In a similar vein, whenever I know I need to shower first thing in the morning (as opposed to before bed), I often dream of showering on the bed. Yes, like standing on the mattress on top of all the sheets and pillows and blankets. Or at least somewhere in the bedroom, like on carpeted floor next to wooden furniture. I HATE those dreams so much but they keep happening.

You forgot the leaking pipes, so of course everything relatively safe to touch is also wet and cold.

Congratulations! May your new life as homeowners bring you happiness!

Make sure you know where the water shutoff valves are, and that the electric breakers are labelled. And do not, I repeat, DO NOT start any DYI project on a Friday afternoon.

You’re right, thank you for pointing it out. I’ll change it.

Exercise outside (preferably in a natural setting) and with a group. Outdoor bootcamp is the holy grail for me. Reasons:

1. Outside air is easier to breathe than stale gym air

2. There’s always something interesting to look at while you slowly die

3. Clumps of grass don’t mind if I swear under my breath

4. PEER PRESSURE. IT WORKS.

5. At the end of the training session, trauma bonding with the rest of the group (edit: I misused the term trauma bonding)

What if only people who make over $500k annually can vote? Is that still a democracy?

Hobby: Telescopes upside-down or back-to-front, pointed through windows, with aperture caps on, without eyepieces, under heavy light pollution and glare, magically show Hubble-level images of something only visible from the opposite hemisphere.

Job: The Government knows everything about you and any employee can pull up any info on anyone in seconds. Ffs we can’t even get two departments to cooperate on a common database format.

We have a shit-ton of projects on the go and zero free time (and energy). So today I decided to pay $6,000 and have someone repaint part of the house exterior. We don’t have the time, skills, or tools to do it ourselves, and it will buy us some time until we can properly address the underlying issues.

And loon calls in totally the wrong biomes, even continents!

Paralives! Because fuck EA for ruining The Sims (among many other games), it’s time for a good competitor. Plus, they’re from my city!