Badabinski

So, like, I agree with you. We need to make people less miserable. We need to find ways to make people feel less marginalized through better representation, and a reduction in authoritarian measures. I also feel that ending the cycle of abuse that leads to damaged children growing into harmful adults should be prioritized and addressed with better social services (free healthcare including mental healthcare) and societal reforms. You and I fundamentally agree on this, and everything I'm about to say below is the result of me being in a bad mood because my FIL shared some fucking stupid racist GOP misinformation with me about the cats and the Haitian people. I'm being pedantic (and frankly irritating) about this, but I'm just not regulating myself very well today.

I guess I'd question how much more accessible 3D printing is making it. Like, there are definitely gun parts you can 3D print, but they tend not to be the important bits. You can somewhat successfully 3D print the important bits, but that requires a lot of knowledge and skill (printing with high strength/high temperature plastics like Nylon or polycarbonate isn't easy, even with the newest crop of printers), plus a good printer (which is either expensive, or was self-built which increases the knowledge and skill required). If someone wants to make a gun with a 3D printer, they'll have to get a printer (and either spend $1000+ or spend $500 + months making one), learn how to use it, learn how to print with better filaments, buy all the vitamins (i.e. parts that can't be printed) and then they'll end up with a kinda shitty gun. Alternatively, they can do what Yamagami did and buy some cheap metal pipe and a battery and some tape. They'll get a kinda shitty gun without all of the 3D printing hassle for much cheaper.

Hell, if someone wants to make a good gun then machine tools have never been cheaper. I have a metal lathe and milling machine sitting out in my shop right now. I do not (and will never) make guns, but I could. My dad does competitive target shooting (Palma rifle) and has asked me if I could machine stuff for him which is why I've thought of this (I told him no, btw). My lathe was built in the 1950s and was $500. My mill is more expensive (about $4000 brand new), but I'm sure you could make a gun with a used $1000 mill. Machining is harder to learn than 3D printing, but with machine tools you can make more capable guns (i.e. semiautomatic/automatic, accurate, precise, reliable). The drawings are out there, and I'm sure I could turn some 4140 and O1 steel scrap pieces I have into a little gun. I can even make my own springs with my lathe. I have a granite lapping plate so I can make parts that are incredibly flat and smooth. I have a MAPP gas torch that I've used to harden and temper tool steel. A small home machine shop can produce a gun that's as good as anything from, say, the 1940s.

Should we say that companies like Harbor Freight or Grizzly are making homemade guns more accessible because they're selling cheap lathes and mills? I don't feel that's fair. Our technology and automation is getting better in general, which is making guns more accessible. It's why Yamagami was able to kill a world leader with parts from the hardware store. We can't really do much to stop the hardware store problem. All we can do is what you said. We can remove the things that make people feel the need to own a gun.

I want to call out something, since I feel a connection is being drawn here that is not valid. His gun was not 3D printed.

Investigative sources said that the gun used in the incident consisted of two metal cylinders wrapped in vinyl tape, which could fire six projectiles when the trigger was pulled. When prefectural police examined the seized weapon, they found it was equipped with an electrical cord and battery and that it was designed to ignite the gunpowder with an electrical current.

Sourced from this site: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20220725/p2a/00m/0na/021000c

I'm not taking issue with most of what you said, but FDM 3D printers aren't the issue here. Making a gun can be done at home with essentially no tools. I don't think we should get pulled in to blaming societal issues on a single piece of technology.

I'm in a hurry so I've left this comment short, I may come back and edit it with more thoughts later.

Seriously. The ECU in my partner's truck decided that it was done with magic smoke and Marie Kondo'd that shit out, leaving her stranded. Her truck is an old 2002 Dodge Dakota that we've been nursing along while the used car market cools down (we want to get her something small and fuel efficient, but cars cost too damn much). Back in 2000 or 2001, some bean counter at Dodge decided that the company really had to cheap the fuck out with their ECUs for the 2002 model year. Because of this, any 2002 Dodge truck has either had its ECU replaced or is a ticking fucking time bomb.

What's even better is that nobody makes these shit-ass ECUs anymore. The only replacements you can get are remanufactured units, and it's highly likely that you'll get at least one dud before you can find anything decent. We've been a tiiiiiiny bit less lucky than that, meaning we're on our 13th ECU. Our mechanic has gone through everything else to make sure there's not something external that's exploding the ECUs, and he hasn't found anything. Over the course of like 9 weeks, we've completely deleted the stock of these stupid things in Utah and all of the surrounding states. We're now ordering one from Florida that's been remanufactured by a different company which hopefully won't grenade itself.

Fuck American car companies, and apologies to anyone who's currently having a hard time sourcing an ECU for a 2002 Dodge Dakota. We screened all the bad ones out for you. The only good part about all of this for us is that our mechanic isn't charging us for anything more than one ECU replacement. The damn truck has been in the shop for 9 weeks, and we're only going to pay like $1000.

Sorry, I was having a shit day yesterday and made many grumpy comments on the Internet. I could have worded that better.

It should still exclude water. Like, there are ways to equalize pressure that don't allow for water to condense in the phone like OP's photo. This is a Bad Thing™.

As a child, I greatly preferred the original. A lot of the emotional subtext from the sequels went over my head (since I was raised in a very emotionally repressed environment), but I could totally grok the cold, somewhat impersonal nature of the first book. It was easier to imagine myself in this huge alien structure when I could understand the characters. Nowadays I think I'd probably prefer the sequels since I derive a lot of enjoyment from interpersonal drama and conflict. I'll admit that it's been ages since I've read them, so I can't say for sure.

It makes me happy to see Rama mentioned here! I read the first book in the series when I was 8 or 9, and it's what really hooked me on science fiction. Like, I had to read it with a dictionary open because some of the language was way too technical for me, but I was absolutely enthralled.

Game: Noita
Book: The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks (RIP, you deserved more time)
TV show: Cowboy Bebop, I think
Movie: Honestly, I can't think of one.

In order of priority, I'd put The Player of Games at the top by a wide margin (seriously, it's an amazing book by a brilliant author), followed by Noita, with Cowboy Bebop at the end.

If he were shooting something bigger than 5.56, then you'd want to try to seat it more firmly in your shoulder. An AR-15/M16 generates pretty negligible recoil, so it's fine. I used to compete in across-the-course service rifle when I was much younger (before I grew up enough to realize I hated the culture in that community), and I'd have the butt even higher up in my shooting coat's shoulder if I needed to do so in order to get a good cheek weld. At a glance, his technique looks okay. I've no experience with the front grips like that (my AR-15 had no rails for mounting shit), but the rest of his stance seeeeems okay.

I'm guessing that he was a dipshit in other ways and this bad publicity brought the other badness to light.

delet this

Time to see if this comes across properly without escaping:

¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

I do, but certain Android browsers don't support plugins. I have to use a specific browser for compatibility reasons with some work shit (I do on-call stuff). I need that to just work, so I can't use, say, Firefox for Android. I use multiple browsers on computers, but I just can't be bothered on my phone. That leaves me with DNS-based ad blockers. Those work almost as well, but only when I'm home or VPNed home. I don't want to use a hosted service for privacy reasons, and I don't want to expose a DNS server on the internet. This means that when I can't VPN or I forget to, I get fandom rage. I'm sure I could do something to address this, but I have bigger fish to fry right now. The nice ad-free fandom frontend sounds like a great compromise to me.