Oh okay. That’s really interesting! I love cucumbers, both fresh and pickled! I like the smell too. Nice and fresh!

Cucumbers naturally produce very bitter compounds known as cucurbitacins. These cytotoxins are bred out of the cucumbers by hybridization but they can always re-occur in plants that were cross-pollinated (usually unintentionally). Perhaps at one point you ate a cucumber containing some and you now have strongly aversive reactions to them?

Oil is a force multiplier, definitely. But any nation that declined to pursue an oil-based economy during the oil boom years would’ve been swept aside or doomed to irrelevance. It’s like someone throwing a loaded gun into the middle of a prison riot. You either grab for the gun and start shooting or you take cover and try not to get shot.

I don’t think it’s unique in that. Before oil, we fought over land, food, spices, tea, steel, gold, and silver.

Recall that the modern nation state came out of the Peace of Westphalia that followed the Thirty Years’ War. Just over 2 centuries before that was the Hundred Years’ War.

Think of all the wars Romans fought trying to colonize and subjugate everyone. As well all the wars trying to defend themselves from the Carthaginians and the Persians and even the many uprisings of their slaves.

Let’s not forget all the wars in Asia! The Warring States period of Chinese history lasted over 250 years. The Sengoku period of Japan was also marked by over a century of frequent warfare.

The Egyptians and their many wars against the Nubians. The Zulu Empire of Shaka. The Aztecs and their wars to obtain sacrificial victims. The Mongolian Empire. The Comanche Empire. The Inca Empire. The Babylonian Empires. The Assyrian Empires.

On and on and on and on it goes. Empires and wars all the way back to the beginning of organized society (even before agriculture). Humans fight. It’s why we form gangs and get visceral thrills from violence. Violence is taboo in modern society for a reason: it’s not just dangerous and damaging to social order, it’s addictive.

It’s funny but it’s also ignorant of Christianity. Jesus WILLINGLY CHOSE to be crucified. He knew it was going to happen before anyone else.

Feed us what? Carrots? Most of Canada’s food is imported during the winter!

My microwave boils a cup of water in less than 2 minutes.

There are varieties of rice that don’t require flooded fields. They’re called upland rice. They have issues with weeds and pest control that regular rice doesn’t have, but these varieties still manage to feed about a hundred million people.

No, that’s the thumb of the guy on the left. He has his hand over the other guy’s mouth to shut him up.

It’s from the movie Predator. Watch it. Fantastic movie!

Rust users are informally called Rustaceans and there’s even a book for them:

EV design right now is just about the worst thing if you want to survive an apocalypse. Those things are practically impossible to repair. Disposable cars that depreciate rapidly.

A post apocalyptic EV is gonna be some scrapped together dune buggy powered by lead acid batteries and a simple DC motor. It will be lucky to get 40 miles of range, rather than 400, but that’s okay because there won’t be any roads left.

Why lead acid batteries? Because you can rebuild them with minimal tools.

Oh I was very confused by the headline. I thought for some reason a company placed a database in charge of personnel decisions and it just chose to fire hire. No, it’s MongoDB the company that fired her!

Jokes on you! I cracked open the keyboard and rewired the circuit so the scancodes are swapped!

Valve doesn’t set the prices but they provide the venue. Just like how Vegas provides the venue but doesn’t run the casinos.

Lots of other places have casinos but Vegas is the one everyone blames for the epidemic of gambling addictions. Vegas creates the conditions for problematic gambling that are much more powerful than a single casino.

It’s not sales specifically that I have an issue with, it’s a business model based on selling people tons of games they don’t play. Is GOG doing that too? Well I don’t like that either, but at least I can take my games with me when I leave GOG because they’re DRM free downloads from a web browser.

I’m not a compulsive gambler either, but I have friends who are. Am I not allowed to be opposed to gambling?

I don’t think Steam is unreasonable, I just think they get way more goodwill from their customers than they probably deserve. It’s like with Apple or the Catholic Church. A lot of people love them but they do have ugly sides.

I think convincing people to buy games they never play is a scuzzy thing to do. Is it as scuzzy as gambling? No. But it’s not up there with something like a co-op bakery or coffee shop that sells products (and a cozy environment) at a reasonable price that people actually enjoy.

People have been saying “well they support indie game developers” and sure, yes indie game developers sell a lot of games during Steam sales. But there’s a problem there too: if loads of people are buying indie games but not playing them then that distorts the indie game market. It takes revenue away from less-well-known developers and gives it to popular/viral flash sale developers whose games people aren’t playing. That’s bad for anyone who wants to reward developers for making better games that we actually want to play but otherwise haven’t heard about.

No, it’s not the same as gambling, but it does exploit weaknesses in human psychology to get people to buy things they don’t need.

If you’re buying a game that you’ll never play just because it’s on sale, you’re not saving money.

Proton is built on the open source project Wine and private products from CodeWeavers. Yes, Valve has contributed a tremendous amount to the project but they aren’t deserving of sole credit for it.

I own neither an Xbox nor a PlayStation (nor a Switch, for that matter).

There are LOADS of other options besides AAA games on the big platforms. There are countless vintage games, freeware, shareware, and abandonware that can all be played on the Internet Archive. There are countless indie developers out there to support, including some that have been in business for more than 30 years.

It really bothers me when gamers act like the big publishers are the only game in town (while also complaining about how bad AAA games are now). I mean if you like AAA games, fine, no argument there from me. But if you also like games for their stories and gameplay and don’t need AAA graphics to have a good time then there are thousands and thousands of options out there. I just think most people are unaware of them.

I didn’t give my position.

I don’t participate in steam sales anymore. I don’t buy anything on steam because I’ve already got way more games than I’ll ever be able to play. If there’s a new game that I really want to play I’ll try to get it from outside steam if I can, or at the very least make sure it’s DRM-free so I can play it without launching the steam client (I hate the steam client but that’s just my opinion and I won’t tell anyone else what to feel about it).

Do I think they should be banned from having sales? No. I also don’t think gambling should be made illegal even though I’ll continue trying to warn people away from gambling.