Yeah looking closer, I can see that it's actually a delicate flower-skeleton of a sort and not a bigger branch, and the spikes that look like they are two or three inches are maybe one.

I stand corrected.

Word. I can see that. Just never seen it this bulky and clear but it might be the photo making it look "bigger" than it actually is.

I'm very familiar with rime and hoar, being an avid snow sports enthusiast. This looks like both, but also neither. Hoar tends to be more uniform in all directions, and feathery, delicately white, not clear either. It probably is sort of a combination of the two. With rime being deposited, and hoar "growing."

I do pay my taxes. I work a steady blue collar job with payroll deductions, at a small business where I am well aware of how much tax the business pays as well.

That's exactly why I'm much more concerned with the big fish than the minnows.

I think it's poorly thought out and targets the wrong people for possible small levels of tax evasion, instead of filling the deliberate loopholes in tax law that allow for massive tax avoidance.

If consciousness is just electromagnetic signals, there is no real reason it couldn't exist purely as such. Who needs ftl, or even a vessel, be it a body, a computer, or craft, if you can simply exist as a waveform radiating across the universe?

Why has nobody thought of this before!?

If people just always did the right thing, we wouldn't need rules, or debate on the rules, or the very definition of what "the right thing" is!

Looks more like a light rime than hoar frost. Beautiful either way.

I like the music video of death too.

Is that movie bad? I thought it was awesome.

But it's not throwing money away. It's just spending money on something that they want to spend money on. Yes, if you are buying a bunch of tickets regularly, it quickly becomes a form of real gambling with terrible odds, but for most it's just a buck or two that doesn't really hurt them. No different than spending money on anything just because you want it. It's not an investment, it's just a game with a side of charity. "Poor" people are allowed to perform acts of charity too.

A voluntary donation is not a tax.

It's unreasonable to say "I can give $2 to the lottery fund every few months, which goes to help support state programs, daydream a bit about being a millionaire, and not at all miss the money?" It's basically a donation with a chance of a payout.

I mean, if it doesn't hurt you and you get some enjoyment out of it...

I'm confused now.

>I wouldn't even realize modern microphones don't work like that.

They...do.

Bzzzzzzz.

I generally agree, with all of this, though still think it's funny how squicky people get about discussing sex with kids in general. Like, yes, nobody is teaching kindergarteners about safe sex or sex toys or positions or anything explicit about the act. But kids from a pretty young age are completely capable of learning about the fact that it's a thing, it's (usually) how they came to be, and that it's a very personal subject that they themselves have control over regarding their own bodies. The more educated kids are about sex, the less likely they are to make risky decisions or allow someone to "groom" or otherwise take advantage of them. Actual "groomers" love it when young people are uneducated in the matter. And as for the whole "why would an unrelated adult want to talk to kids about sex, that's the parent's job" argument, most sexual abuse of children is perpetrated by family members, not teachers. The teachers are more likely to stop it than family is.

It's weird how there is this major, almost ubiquitous, often risky factor in life that we often attempt to completely hide from children until they stumble through it themselves unprepared. All because people are either so afraid of being seen as the "creep" or "groomer" or so afraid of the idea that their children will be doing it themselves someday, which ironically, is something they also pray for in the form of grandchildren.

I mean, they can mention their marriage if they are straight, or read stories about straight characters, or do all sorts of things that reference heterosexual relationships and traditional gender roles, that's just conveniently not "discussing gender/sex."

Really, it's about protecting the parents, not the kids. They are afraid of having to discuss these issues with their kids because they are not mature enough for the conversation, not the kids.

It is specific about the "absolutely none up until 3rd grade" and then says "in an age appropriate manner" beyond that. It is purposefully ambiguous so that pretty much any discussion in any grade can be challenged and shut down.

That is being honest about it.

Thanks, Ribs.

It's called the meat sweats, thank you.

For some reason this reminded me of the scene in the movie Go where Sarah Polley drinks a beer in front of the weird knock-off Amway narc.

Plot twist, blackmailer has been phished before but is super oblivious and thought this is how you flirt.

Better to not fly than to fly with someone you aren't comfortable with.