I’m aware of OSC outside his books, but within Ender’s Game there is an exploration of a topic. It is the height of hubris to present one interpretation of fiction as if it is the only one and true one. I never read the book as excusing the genocide, rather that the horror of it was a major point. Is Ender innocent of genocide if he didn’t know he was committing it? I don’t know, that’s a thought experiment and discussion topic, but not one that I read excusing the genocide itself.

I find the linked page leaning heavily on the moral judgements and particular language of Graff, a character who I never found trustworthy or to be taken at face value. He always seemed to be saying whatever he needed to say to smooth past uncomfortable situations so he could mold Ender as he wanted him to be. Like he was an authority figure in some kind of dystopia.

Ender’s Game for sure was my first thought.

Oh those. I meant the Gillette Fusion razor heads. They are supposed to be disposable, and I do eventually get rid of them, but I extend the lifespan by a lot with a squeeze bottle of alcohol on them to clean them. A head that should last weeks will end up lasting me months with just a little care.

Reverse osmosis filter, you can just get an under the sink one of you don’t plan on drinking your shower water. Kind of pricey up front, and you have to replace the filters every so often, but it gives good taste and peace of mind for filtering.

I am telling you from first hand viewing that bottled water plants use the same kind of filtering.

disposable shavers

I have them, but clean them with a squirt of alcohol and they last ages. I think the last time I bought a pack was 2020.

I keep seeing ads for those AI tools that re-write work emails for you, to give them a “better tone”. Does the world really need an automated tool to help people with workplace posturing?

I find this even funnier knowing there are AI products out there to summarize incoming emails so you don’t have to read the whole thing. We live in a world with software to write emails nobody cares enough to write themselves, to be summarized by other software for people who don’t care enough to read them.

I gave up towards the end of the first season of Foundation. It is radically different than the book series in really fundamental ways. I think it was a bad sign that the parts of the show I was most invested in are completely invented for the show, while the parts supposedly adapting the book plots were really terribly bad both as adaptions and taken on their own.

What are they like and would I still get as much out of them if I hadn’t first watched the adaptation?

The books are great. I read them in middle school, and they aren’t nearly as intimidating as they seem. They deal with some big concepts, but are much more manageable to get through than something like Dune. I would describe each book has having a central thesis, with each sequel book being a twist on the previous book’s. I consider the original three books to be the “real” books, with the later being written years later under duress from fans and publishers. Still good, but I don’t think they were part of the original vision.

and the whole hooters/twin peaks concept

I haven’t thought about Hooters in years. It always did seem like a dated concept from the 1980s that was somehow still clinging to life in the 90s. It’s still in business, so obviously somebody must be going to them, but I don’t know if I’d call it normal for most Americans.

Anecdotally this is also my experience. I grew up with shoes off in the house, but even up to the early 00’s it seemed to be a cultural outlier in the US.

These days I think the majority of people who I go over to visit have a shoes off rule. Seems like the split is between the older half of millennials and up shoes on, and younger half and down shoes off for the most part.

If a business has a sign posted stating “no guns allowed,” you can still legally carry your weapon in that business.

I’m sure that’s the practicality, but I am skeptical of the legality of a CCW permit trumping the rights of the property owner.

It sounds more like breaking the law and just not getting caught. Do you have any links to CCW permit overriding property owner rights?

#8: Police

State police enforce state level laws, and Federal agencies enforce federal laws.

The whole semi-autonomous thing. If a state and the Feds both have their own laws against something they could each try to arrest somebody, but there could also be a situation where one might not have a law while the other one does. For example , weed is still illegal under Federal law. The Federal government has mostly chosen not to enforce these laws, but it could. Many states have legalized weed to varying degrees.

So there could be a situation where somebody is smoking weed in a state that has legalized it. The state police have no power to arrest that person, but the Feds do.

I’m sure this has all made it more confusing.

In the US with all the variety there are places like that, but then places where you seemingly can’t find alcohol to buy and take home anywhere.

There’s differences between how wine & beer, and hard liquor are treated. I’d say the “average” experience is beer in any corner shop or gas station, beer and wine in a grocery store, and hard liquor in specific liquor stores.

Alcohol sales vary hugely between states. In some states, you can get hard liquor at Wal-Mart while in others you can only get it at state run stores.

The rules about licensing mean some areas gas stations usually don’t even sell beer, while in other places they have giant walk in beer freezers.

Some states or counties have dry laws where they don’t sell alcohol on Sundays, or maybe no hard alcohol, or maybe you have to wait until noon to be able to buy it.

It’s all over the place.

As for the Wal-Mart machineguns, I think you’ve gotten enough replies on that detail, but again gun sales are something with huge variety. Some states have put restrictions in place where a Wal-Mart theoretically could still sell guns but doesn’t because of the hassle, and gun stores end up being few and far between, while other places basically just have the Federal minimum in place.

And if he has a permit but is printing then it can also land him with some penalties.

I can’t find anything in a quick search the specifies printing as being illegal. In fact, a quick search brings up the opposite, that printing is not a legal definition and the discussion around it by laypersons often becomes muddled with confusion between printing and brandishing.

States will vary, but did you have a particular one in mind regarding the specifics of printing? Some of the search results I get mention some anti-printing laws but none I find get more specific than that.

09/12_20/30_2024/inf

Then it isn’t a filler. I never said I don’t swear, but have greatly reduced it. One effect of reduced swearing is that when swears are used, they have more punch.

I’m not sure why you’re so invested in debating that people who habitually swear won’t insert swears into unrelated thoughts, but the only support I offer is to listen to someone who habitually swears speak. I don’t want to sound like that, so I make the effort not to.

My choice on how I speak and type doesn’t impose anything on you.

I don’t recall saying every use of a swear is a filler word.

Delightful.

I have made a conscious effort to reduce swearing, which has brought my swearing down to near zero, both online and in real life conversation.

I have found that it streamlines the ability to make a point. A lot of swearing is simply thrown in out of habit, and if you remove it, all you do is make your point more clear without losing anything of substance.

I think for many people swearing is a “filler word” in the same way that “umm” can be. I have also worked hard to reduce my other filler word use. My goal with both of these is better articulation.

The next effect is that swearing is normally viewed as an extreme use of language for an extreme situation, and when you don’t constantly swear the times that you do actually conveys how notable the situation is.

The domain was always for me to archive the things I enjoyed.

https://scratch-that.org/