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General chat thread

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Zoom might work.

Depending on your browser it should be easy to find it.
 
SissyWannaBe said:
hi! dunno if it's the right thread, but anyway -

i've finally upgraded my monitor from measly 19' to 32', but now i can't read QQ while on PC because everything is crazy wide now and i have to actually move my head to read full sentences. is there "native" way to squish QQ design? or do i need third party help to do so?
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Have you tried using windowed mode instead of full screen?
 
I just read this and had to share. I want to stress that I'm not drawing or arguing anything about politics with this - I was just marveling at the numbers.

"According to the unadjusted number from the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System, 3,909,502 background checks were conducted [in June 2020]." This represents a 135% increase over June 2019.

For those who are unfamiliar with American gun laws, or with the NICS system, that means there were at least 3.9 million successful purchases of items legally classified as "firearms" under the National Firearms Act of 1934 through federally licensed firearms dealers in the last 30 days.

I say "at least" for several reasons:

1) not all states run their background checks through the FBI

2) each check represents one buyer, not one firearm. If you are buying 5 guns - or 30 - only one check is performed.

3) transfers between private owners are not required to go through the NICS in most states.

Americans literally bought enough firearms in June alone to re-arm the entire United States military - all branches inclusive - and have spares left over.

Per the FBI, 342 million background checks have been performed since the NICS went online in November 1998. That figure is through March 31st of 2020. Once those figures have been added, we should expect an increase of at least 12 million.
 
Updating my previous post now that I have the actual NICS spreadsheet from the FBI - some additional numbers. Once again, this is not intended to be political - just some amazing numbers.

The last month in which less than 1 million NICS checks were conducted was September 2008.

The last month in which less than 1.5 million checks were conducted was September 2014.

The last month in which less than 2 million checks were conducted was September 2018 (I have no idea why they're all September).

At least 2 million checks were conducted every single month of 2019.

March 2020 was the first to cross the 3 million mark - far exceeding the previous record to hit 3.7 million checks. Since then May and June have also crossed the 3 million mark.

The last year in which fewer than 10 million checks were conducted was 2005.

The last year in which fewer than 20 million checks were conducted was 2012.

We're currently on track to have at least 30 million NICS checks by the end of the year.

According to data reported in the ATF's 'Firearms Commerce Report in the United States 2019' report, as of December 2019 Americans own approximately 423 million firearms - a figure which likely exceeds that of all military and law enforcement forces of all extant nations combined.

At the current rate, Americans - already the most heavily-armed nation in history - will own half-a-billion guns by the end of 2022.



BUY STOCK IN FIREARM MANUFACTURERS. This industry is likely going to have banner year after banner year for a long time to come.
 
WhiteKnightLeo said:
For those who are unfamiliar with American gun laws, or with the NICS system, that means there were at least 3.9 million successful purchases of items legally classified as "firearms" under the National Firearms Act of 1934 through federally licensed firearms dealers in the last 30 days.
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Wait, this background check is only used for firearms? Don't you need background checks for a zillion things these days?
 
magic9mushroom said:
Wait, this background check is only used for firearms? Don't you need background checks for a zillion things these days?
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This specific system is only used for firearm purchases, yes. It's not nearly as extensive as other background checks - its function is only to determine if existing law enforcement records would classify the person being checked as a "prohibited person". Depending on demand - and on how complicated law enforcement records on you are - the results can come back in as little as 20 minutes.

Moreover, the system is subject to Constitutional limits due to the protections of the 2nd Amendment. It's a "must issue" system - if the buyer isn't a prohibited person (not a felon, not dishonorably discharged, not an illegal alien, not 'mentally defective', not a fugitive from justice, not a convicted domestic abuser), the sale must go through.

Further, if the NICS does not return a "no" answer within 72 hours, the buyer can take possession of their firearm. They may be required to return it later if and when the results do come back (I'm not clear on the details), but there was some concern at the time of legislation that not putting a maximum time limit on the sale hold could be used as an end-run around the right to keep and bear arms. This way, if the NICS is ever shut down for any reason, the only practical effect is that all firearm sales through licensed dealers will have a 3-day waiting period - but if there was no time limit, shutting the system down would effectively prevent all firearm sales.
 
WhiteKnightLeo said:
This specific system is only used for firearm purchases, yes. It's not nearly as extensive as other background checks - its function is only to determine if existing law enforcement records would classify the person being checked as a "prohibited person". Depending on demand - and on how complicated law enforcement records on you are - the results can come back in as little as 20 minutes.

Moreover, the system is subject to Constitutional limits due to the protections of the 2nd Amendment. It's a "must issue" system - if the buyer isn't a prohibited person (not a felon, not dishonorably discharged, not an illegal alien, not 'mentally defective', not a fugitive from justice, not a convicted domestic abuser), the sale must go through.

Further, if the NICS does not return a "no" answer within 72 hours, the buyer can take possession of their firearm. They may be required to return it later if and when the results do come back (I'm not clear on the details), but there was some concern at the time of legislation that not putting a maximum time limit on the sale hold could be used as an end-run around the right to keep and bear arms. This way, if the NICS is ever shut down for any reason, the only practical effect is that all firearm sales through licensed dealers will have a 3-day waiting period - but if there was no time limit, shutting the system down would effectively prevent all firearm sales.
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I see. Interesting.
 
yG0sCVo.jpg


Yes. I want this too.
 
Mood:
Exam in 2 wks
Still can't bring myself to study
 
Lying here questioning my life choices

I kno it's 2020 am nihilism is basically a vibe but rly
What's the point
Like bruh
Idgaf bout anything
I just can't bring myself to care
Bruh
................. mœØþ
 
Oxymoron said:
Bored
Broke
Besotted By Bitches

What am I even doing
[dice]22190[/dice]
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Oxymoron said:
Why?
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Oxymoron said:
Mood:
Exam in 2 wks
Still can't bring myself to study
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Oxymoron said:
Lying here questioning my life choices

I kno it's 2020 am nihilism is basically a vibe but rly
What's the point
Like bruh
Idgaf bout anything
I just can't bring myself to care
Bruh
................. mœØþ
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I was gonna say something about double posting (or quadruple posting?) but why indeed...
 
You know what are two great tastes taste great together? A chocolate brownie dipped in mustard.*

*YMMV
 
Looks like Dogecoin in the the mist of another pump and dump (because of some tweet by Elon Musk)... well luckily I already have some on hand that I'm ready to dump...
 
heralding_bubble said:
Probably that one where a bunch of Twitter accounts were used to post a "gimme ecoins and I'll send double back" that happened recently
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I already made a few hundreds bucks from the last dogecoin pump & dump last week (the one that happened because of some tiktok thing going around) so I'm kinda surprised people are falling for the same shit again so quickly.
 
Many years ago I wanted to get a T Shirt that just said on it "Ezekiel 23:20" and nothing else.

Because I wonder how many people would get it. I haven't done it yet though and I should.

Ezekiel 23:20 "There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses."
 
alethiophile said:
While this isn't wrong, from the perspective of system denizens the distinction between a nova and a red giant phase is mostly academic.
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Imabot said:
Suddenly by cosmic standards. By human lifespan standard even fastest nova would look like it's taking it sweet time, and it would be unlikely you'll life long enough to see it full potential hitting Earth when it starts. Novas aren't sun explosions that cause instant destruction of entire solar system within seconds. That process takes centuries. It's an instant moment for a billion years old star but not from human perspective


Both events would turn our Solar System into inhabitable hell were no life could ever form. Mercury and Venus will be swallowed by the Red Giant and Earth get so close to that hot dying star that it will make current Venus look like Arctic. Goldilocks Zone will cease to be a thing. Red giant gravitational pull will weaken enough that Outer Planers like Uranus and Saturn will be falling out of orbit. It will take longer than Nova would but end result is same.
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While the red-clump Sun will be significantly less massive than the current one, the gas giants will stay in orbit (albeit larger orbit), and some of their moons could be vaguely habitable. The big issue is the stellar wind stripping their atmospheres; red giants' stellar wind is no joke.

And yeah, as AD said novae actually are fast. The months-long light curve doesn't actually represent the fusion power, either; as I understand it, what you're seeing from many lightyears away is not the minutes-long fusion burst itself, but the competing effects of the blue-hot, blasted-off material spreading out (and thus gaining more area to glow from) vs. cooling down (and thus glowing less). If you were in-system, of course, that blast would actually physically strike your planet within hours.

(The rule about supernovae is "however big you think supernovae are, they're bigger than that". Novae aren't quite that big, but they're still big enough to start talking about blast waves in space.)
 
magic9mushroom said:
While the red-clump Sun will be significantly less massive than the current one, the gas giants will stay in orbit (albeit larger orbit), and some of their moons could be vaguely habitable. The big issue is the stellar wind stripping their atmospheres; red giants' stellar wind is no joke.

And yeah, as AD said novae actually are fast. The months-long light curve doesn't actually represent the fusion power, either; as I understand it, what you're seeing from many lightyears away is not the minutes-long fusion burst itself, but the competing effects of the blue-hot, blasted-off material spreading out (and thus gaining more area to glow from) vs. cooling down (and thus glowing less). If you were in-system, of course, that blast would actually physically strike your planet within hours.

(The rule about supernovae is "however big you think supernovae are, they're bigger than that". Novae aren't quite that big, but they're still big enough to start talking about blast waves in space.)
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TBH really if you've got the kind of system that's prone to produce either a nova or a supernova anyway, it probably wasn't that friendly to life to begin with.
 
alethiophile said:
TBH really if you've got the kind of system that's prone to produce either a nova or a supernova anyway, it probably wasn't that friendly to life to begin with.
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I don't see anything wrong with the usual setup for novae i.e. close binary. Circumbinary planets are known, and many of them have been in the circumbinary habitable zone (if "habitable zone" even means anything with the whole "subsurface oceans" deal on icy bodies).

I mean, granted, there's going to be a red-giant phase at some point prior to any novae, but eh.
 
I was flipping between Youtube channels I sometimes browse but don't subscribe to and caught this:

First a review of a trailer


Then a response to said review:


Neither of these guys are actually upset at each other, mind you
 
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