Oh for sure, I fully understand that there are tons of things/mechanics we take for granted every day that we don’t actually know how it/they work(s) at the most fundamental level. Static electricity just seemed like a pretty important one that I’d just assumed it was well and thoroughly researched/understood.

Anyway, completely agree with you that this breakthrough is great news and that there are some exciting practical applications that may emerge as a result, particularly the more that model is understood/completed.

I had no idea this was unknown, and it’s even crazier that the model for it is still not complete even after this breakthrough. More power to them, being able to fully understand triboelectricity and eventually fully controlling it will be great. Hopefully they’re able to crack the rest of the mystery soon.

Will this actually work or will companies go off your billing address? I guess you could probably technically get a proxy address in California for billing. Regardless, this should just be a national law.

I think it’s because PSN isn’t available in a number of countries, so it’s an arbitrary obstacle to an otherwise fully functional game that doesn’t and shouldn’t need an account. Requiring external accounts to play a game is nothing new, but I’m happy to see people reaching their threshold for these ridiculous practices and openly complaining. If people didn’t complain and simply didn’t buy the game, how would Sony know why people aren’t buying it?

Oh, trust me, everyone that support universal healthcare is very much aware that the US ranks quite poorly when it comes to preventable mortality rates in hospitals. The insurance and medical lobbies have used the bullshit wait times disinformation/propaganda for decades and those against universal healthcare love to bring that up as some sort of reliable defense.

The other thing they consistently use to defend the current system is it would raise taxes to overwhelmingly burdensome rates. They of course ignore the insane monthly premiums that families have to pay already, not to mention the amount of taxes we already pay for Medicaid/Medicare. We get to pay twice! What a benefit.

That poor movie was a travesty on multiple levels. Why Shyamalan was chosen to write/direct that movie, I care not to look up. My off the cuff theory was that he had kids obsessed with the animated show and he wanted to destroy something they loved after they accidentally broke his one and only Golden Globe award.

Name one outrage among conservatives in the US when a white person was cast for a role that was any other ethnicity in the source material. Sure, it happens on the Left, Netflix is especially accused of white washing (recent example: Three Body Problem). But, conservatives don’t give a shit when it happens the other way around.

Regardless, I truly couldn’t give a shit who gets cast for what regardless of source material. If the actor/actress is able to play the part well, I come for entertainment and couldn’t care less.

Personally, I think the lack of outrage is because the people who get outraged by black people being cast for roles that were previously white characters, aren’t concerned when it’s white people being cast no matter the source material.

I mean, sure, but if it detects something and there’s no reason to suspect it’s necessarily cancerous, then I’d hope doctors would recommend just keeping an eye on it and possibly scheduling periodic checkups to ensure it doesn’t continue growing. No competent doctor is going to recommend invasive surgery right off the bat.

The UN’s Global Plastics Treaty is certainly a step in the right direction. I’m not sure what can actually be done about the problem, especially with how pervasive synthetic materials are throughout the world. And what is medicine supposed to do? Plastics revolutionized sanitation, particularly in the medical field. Very complicated issue to resolve.

Talk to your primary doctor if they can get you a referral for an MRI. Insurance loves to try and deny MRIs, so I think a referral is probably required due to how expensive they are. IMO, they should be included in annual physicals since it’s one of the only (if not the only) ways to detect brain tumors early, which is critical given how difficult it is to treat brain tumors and the earlier the better.

This isn’t always the case, technically. Dental can be considered for normal health insurance if it’s directly impacting your health (like an emergency surgery). That being said, your insurance may fight the shit out of this and will still most likely require you to list your dental insurance as the primary for billing.

Checking for prostate cancer is super easy now and doesn’t even require a finger in your bum. It’s a simple blood test that is far more accurate than the traditional manual method. I get one done every time I have a physical since they just add it on to the other stuff they check my blood for.

Agreed. HZD always felt like a game that was built around a story premise first and foremost, which sort of makes sense as that studio had never done a game like that before.

I remember an interview where they were struggling to shift gears from Killzone and looking for new ideas from among their staff when one of their devs pitched HZD’s premise. As a result, they approached making an open world action adventure game as complete noobs. This doesn’t excuse any of the poor design decisions. I was hoping they’d learn from their mistakes in FW, but they instead made the open world part somewhat better and then forgot to keep the focus on the main quest and characters in the process.

Last I’d read, there’s no consensus that he actually voted for Trump. Dude’s views were all over the place.

Regardless, if someone takes Trump out, I will literally lose no sleep or tears. I don’t advocate for violence, but MAGA sure as fuck does. Reap what you sow and all that.

Agreed, wider and thicker with maybe a wavy/ ridge texture on the bottom half of the mustache and slight rounding/flaring on the sides that narrows to the top.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1262480275/ron-swanson-250fp011911_400x400.jpg

Feels like that’s a good reference pic for OP.

Edit:

But I do prefer #2 more. Like others have said, it’s simpler and easier to tell the expression.

Oh for sure, they’ve made some progress and there are a lot of D reps and senators who want to do much more, I didn’t mean to imply otherwise. But, the modern American public at large act like the president is some grand arbiter of getting laws passed single-handedly. Many ignore that it’s Congress that’s the most dysfunctional component when it comes to actually getting things done for the last two-some-odd decades. Hell, we have tons of people that chalk up the entire state of the economy on a single person every election cycle, it’s craziness.

Anyway, my point is that anyone that’s actually paying attention in good faith knows it’s almost entirely the GOP blocking healthcare reform. But, as we’ve especially learned these last 10+ years, many Americans don’t pay attention to reality.

That 8 years thing for healthcare could easily backfire. The majority of Americans are very fed up with our healthcare, and Democrats haven’t done much to fix it this administration either (not entirely their fault, we have a gridlocked Congress and Senate, after all). The concept of a plan quote is hilarious, though! My friends and I plan on using it at work from now on.

Anyway, even most Republican media outlets have conceded that Harris won last night. As for the MAGA cult itself, I honestly haven’t bothered to go down that internet hole yet, nor am I likely to. I’m sure there’s countless bots/trolls spinning the story and creating a fake reality already, with plenty of zealots lapping it up because their collective delusion requires it.

Same. I logged about 20 hours on it before my desire to play just kind of slowly faded away. The game was too large and long to warrant such basic gameplay mechanics. You could be fully upgraded within 5-10 hours and then you’ve essentially seen all the gameplay there is. There’s maybe 6-12 random “quests” you’ll see while traveling (those dynamic events, e.g. a wagon being robbed), so even that part of it becomes repetitive pretty fast.

I’ll get downvoted, but RDR2 is a really overrated game, in my opinion. The game was well made, no doubt about it. Its graphics and environmental design are still gorgeous even to this day, despite being 8 years old. The voice acting, writing, direction, cinematography, etc. are all very well executed. However, at the end of the day, I just found it kind of boring to play.

Right? For a game to be a collector’s item, it needs to still be able to function in its intended capacity. Additionally, they need to be considered good. Most games that become a collectable do so when they transition into the “classic” category, usually 20+ years after they released. In 2050, no one’s going to think, “Oh man, Concord was hailed as a masterpiece in its day, I need to own that piece of history!”