I’ve recently made this decision with my lifelong closest friend. I’ve known about his changing views for a while but its really hard to let go of a friend I’ve had for 15 years. I justified it to myself because I wanted to make sure he had my perspective around and I thought he was starting to mellow out. Turns out he was just learning to avoid politics around his friends.

It came to a head when I moved to a new city and he stayed with me for 2 weeks. After hanging with my local friends for a year, I realized I was always avoiding the elephant in the room with him. When I introduced him to my friends, I realized I was really hoping he wouldn’t say anything crazy. I was really hoping my trans friend wouldn’t show up in case he decided to make that a focal point. He’s been “getting more religious” (dominionist, christo-fascist). And I can tell he’s still disguising himself even when we talk openly about politics and religion.

More recently, two other friends stayed with me for a week. They’re also long-time friends with the first guy. We all collectively realized that we were much more comfortable around each other than we were around him. I was excited to introduce them to my local friends. I never had to pick my words or hold my tongue. So I’m going low contact with him. It sucks but I can’t call someone a friend that has such fundamentally opposed values to my own. If it were just a difference in how much taxation is the right amount or how healthcare should be administered, I could look past it. But he’s gone pretty authoritarian and believes some of my other friends shouldn’t exist. I can’t reconcile that.

I showed my friends Rubber. It’s a movie about a serial killer tire. I think it’s great. Everyone I’ve showed it to thought it was terrible.

It’s a Doggy Dogg World

When I was a kid, I heard that leaving cut grass on the ground was better for your lawn. Surprisingly, this was enough to convince my dad that I didn’t need to bag the clippings when mowing.

It does. And that’s how mail-in ballots generally work. The drop boxes are to…reduce the strain on the postal service? Idk.

You’re a good Joe

When people refer to metal balls as ball bearings. A ball bearing is an assembly of outer ring, inner ring, balls, and a cage/retainer. I worked in bearing manufacture for years and they’re just referred to as balls. To be more specific, it would be a bearing ball, not a ball bearing.

Let’s go Justin!

A hybrid bike would be a great place to start. Your first bike is rarely your last. As you ride it, you’ll gradually learn what you like and don’t like about it. Some things can be replaced or upgraded. Eventually you’ll have a better idea of what to get for your second bike. If you’re buying used, make sure there are no signs of rust, the brakes and shifters work as expected, there are no squeaky or metal-on-metal sounds, and the bike is appropriately sized for you, and you should be good to go.

Also, you don’t have to do all the maintenance yourself. Bike service is usually pretty cheap. Some things I do myself, but when it requires special tools, the bike shop makes more sense.

I could be wrong, but aren’t a lot of injuries caused by being rear-ended while waiting at a red? I’m pretty sure that’s the case for motorcycles so I imagine it’s similar for bikes. I normally wait at reds but I’ll run it if there’s no traffic. It feels more like jay-walking than running a red light. Most people are perfectly fine with jay-walking.

Yep. Thought that was weird since he dropped out.

“here” is beehaw, which is a bit more sane. You’re probably thinking of lemmy.ml

Not a chance. The B2 is a manned platform. It’s also quite an old one which would require a huge program to create an autonomous capability. The B2’s successor (the B21) is coming soonish so such a program would have no support. Right now, autonomous military aircraft are mostly being considered for support roles like tankers with future projects of “loyal wingman” fighters to fly alongside a manned fighter. A deep, precision strike from an untested technology would never fly.

I prefer belt drive with a sealed internal geared hub. It’s not for everyone or every situation but it’s nice riding in the wet and just putting the bike away after without thinking about cleaning and lubrication

You just equated blocking c/politics with being broadly pro status quo. You can be politically engaged and active and not like the discussions on c/politics.

Amen! I went to a restaurant that had this layout. Each stall was like it’s own little room with a full sized door and a shared sink area. It’s more efficient use of space and you get a better stall. The only thing that I think would make it better would be a small side area with a couple urinals.

Eating during a long bike ride is pretty normal. Having a tupperware and utensils is interesting. Maybe he mentioned to his team that he was having some stomach issues from the normal energy gels.

What pests are wasps and hornets killing? The wasps and hornets *are" the pests to me.

This seems like a neat light. I’m willing to invest in good lights, but I’m not willing to carry around such a bulky solution. My normal lights detach and I can throw them in a small pocket on a bag. These would take up the whole bag. I can see them being well suited to road cyclists who don’t leave their bikes parked much. But for an urban commuter, id like a smaller option.

Yep. The cheaper and easier solution to extreme housing issues is a few pallets of bricks and some mortar. This company is on a marketing campaign to try to get people in rich countries to get excited about buzzwords so they can get funding.