Marty_d

...And no, I realise this is not the music thread. It isn't Freddy Mercury crooning that one. Maybe this should be in the random thoughts thread as it was just something I was musing about in the shower today. But the gist of it is, the hook for most religions is that they offer you eternal life, for nothing more than your belief and a small financial gratuity. But they haven't really thought it through. What exactly would heaven be like, for you to be able to bear it forever? The common conception in christianity is a kind of hero worship. God and Jesus are sitting there and everyone is kind of sitting around them, basking in the glory and basically... doing nothing. Look, raising 3 kids and working full time, with countless home renovations and trying to build a plane at the same time, I get that relaxing would be nice. For about 2 weeks. After that, find me something to do or I'm just going to get up to mischief. The muslims make it slightly more interesting by giving the honoured few 72 virgins. (Is it heaven for the virgins, or hell?) So ok. That might be fun for a while. But after a few weeks, they're not virgins. Unless they get replaced? Then they start comparing notes, start complaining that you're not meeting their needs, eventually organise strikes... but anyway. Even if they were gorgeous, eager and easily satisfied, how long would it be fun for? Wouldn't you start wishing for meaningful work, or a decent shed to hide away in? I guess the point is that what makes the fun things in life fun, is that there's a limited opportunity to experience them. Holidays in France are memorable because they're only a few weeks. If they were for years, then it wouldn't be a holiday, it'd just be where you live. The stupid thing is, as humans we are aware that we only have a short time on this planet. So we should be doing something exciting and satisfying every minute of every day. But do we? How many hours to we waste in jobs we don't find fulfilling, housework, arguing with loved ones, worrying about money, about relationships, about all the distracting and boring shit that comprises 99% of our time? So death, inevitably, is what makes life special. We're alive for a mere flash of time between billions of years of not yet being alive, and billions of years of no longer being alive. But even in that short time, up to 100 years if we're lucky, we may get to the stage where we're ready to die. How, then, does the prospect of any sort of eternal life hold any appeal?

Q. How do you turn a duck into a soul singer? A. Cook it in an oven until its bill withers.

No, but they're better than the currant ones, which are a bit fruity.

Well, the current ones reflect headlights at night, which serves the purpose.

As in all things in life, there's nuance and shades of grey. If the parents knew of this behaviour and either showed a reckless disregard (making no attempt to stop the behaviour) or actively enabled it, like those idiots in the US who bought their son a pistol when they knew about his fantasies of doing a school shooting - then yes, they should be accountable and charged accordingly. But what if they didn't know? Kids are incredibly good at hiding behaviours. Most parents, probably including most of us (or our parents if some of us don't have kids) have had the wool pulled over their eyes at some point in their lives. If the parent had no idea of the behaviour, and in general was raising their kid in a reasonable manner, then I don't see how they're responsible for what the kid does. As to the idiot who T-boned the car, the job of his defense counsel is to get him off by any legal means available. So while they might be considering his dislike of being locked up, I will lay money that neither the prosecution, judge nor any sensible jury will.

Yes, they're all over the place.

Reverse mortgage is another option.

It's funny, I've never been able to put up with something on my wrist. Prior to mobile phones I never knew what the time was unless there was a wall clock somewhere.

The round blank face is reminiscent of the robot in the recent Lost in Space series - wonder if that's a good design choice??

That's true and I was thinking about electric aircraft the other night. Even now there's a swag of detractors over in Rec Flying with all the reasons electric aircraft will never work - based on what we know today. Future generations will probably laugh at us the same way as we laugh at those people who said "that'll never work" about all the things we use today.

That's insane. 450,000 before they did the brake pads, and even then they only did them because they were looking at something else. 200,000 before the first service.

May he be mistaken for a statue by every pigeon in New York.

I used a similar one for the deck, but it also has a free-rotating collar that prevents you from sinking the countersink too deep.

Maybe Ukraine should be targeting Putin's palace with a few drones. Even if they don't get the arsehole it would piss him off.

Not that we can see them now, with the bi-annual deck oiling they're as brown as the wood.

Screwdriver? What is this thing you speak of? If it doesn't have a bit that fits in my rattler, I'm not interested.

Square all the way. Straight are just ridiculous. Whoever came up with that idea should be strapped to a chair and have his fingers gashed by straight screwdrivers, which is what happens when it slips. Phillips head #2 are slightly better but strip too easily. Hex are quite good, I use hex batten screws for anything that needs a serious big-arse screw. Square cavity (Robertson?) - I use those now in preference to anything else. My deck has thousands of them in stainless steel and was far easier to screw down than if they'd been phillips.

Eighty-eight?

On a clock

They've got this stuff called electricity now. Much better than either kero or gas.

But then you reduce down to a L when you're 50.

In most cases, that's better than the alternative.

Birds of a feather. There's not a single adult in that immediate family (including spouses) that I'd piss on if they were on fire.

The sad part is that anecdotally, there are also "normally" reasonable people who will vote for him. See @Jerry_Atrick's post about his Oregon friend a few posts back. It's like the otherwise reasonable people who can look at a school shooting like Sandy Hook, be outraged and saddened that the tragedy happened, yet steadfastly say that any checks on the ability of individuals to buy semiautomatic rifles is a step too far. I think the US has some deep-seated problems and Trump is just the symptom - the turd that has floated to the top, so to speak.

America needs an intervention. The countries of the world need to gently sit them down in Switzerland's living room, give them a cup of tea, and have a serious conversation about health care, gun control, religion, and the level of sanity required in it's CinC.