My back was to put in rail everywhere with zero roads. People constantly complained about wanting roads, but there was never any congestion. And the desire for roads never seemed to affect anything.

CBL is one of my all-time faves! Add in Sync24, which is Daniel Vadestrid, AKA ½ of the studio lineup of CBL.

"There was a moth. I saved you from it "

It was always the plan from the beginning. “Scene on Radio” podcast, season 4, goes into great depth on the Founding Fathers’ mindsets and motivations as evidenced by their own writing and speeches. They were trying to balance a semblance of democracy and egalitarianism with outright money-grubbing and keeping slaves “just” until their own wealth was secured.

Yes, Adams (John and Samuel) and Gerry were vocally anti-slavery. But all the other names we really know? All slaveholders.

For the coffee drinkers: https://velo-orange.com/products/soto-helix-coffee-maker?keyword=coffee. We use these as daily drivers with a really good manual coffee grinder. Added bonus: our coffee can be about the same as we get at home.

There are so few absolutes in relationships. But this Mark Manson totally nails one of them: https://markmanson.net/fuck-yes.

There were a couple books I read long ago, one of which I think was “Catwatching” by Desmond Morris. I can’t recall the other one. Both books indicated the chittering was a frustration sound.

If you like that, you’re gonna love “Lies My Teacher Told Me” by James Loewen. I suggest this to everyone as an entry into deprogramming what was learned in US history class.

• The United States is a righteous, fair, and just country.
• Success and a comfortable life necessarily followed hard, diligent, smart work
• Adults, by virtue of having been around longer, necessarily knew more and knew better than I.
• Socialism bad.
• All kids get beaten on a daily basis for transgressions such as a B grade on their paper, a speck of food still stuck to the dishes after washing, or for listening to music on the radio that their parents didn’t like.

How do you think the gaskets are made?

What all goes through the heads of people who act like this? I’m sincerely curious. I really want to know what their thought process is, deep down inside. Outright greed can’t explain it all, because at some point this person’s selfishness about money has to bump up against their selfishness about living. Nihilism? Sociopathy?

I had a partner with genital HSV-1. YMMV, but in general:

• No BFD; the stigma of HSV is the result of a marketing campaign in the 70s (not 100% on the date) by a company selling HSV treatments
• Be honest and inform your prospective partners; yeah, some people who haven’t done the reading are going to react negatively
• Antiviral treatments are available; the one my partner was a daily pill
• In eight years of unprotected sex with her, she never had an outbreak and I test negative
• You may never have another outbreak, you may have regular flare-ups, or something in between
• Talk to your doctor and any take all of my previous comments like the Internet rumor it is

By executive order, I decree that humans are, effective immediately, forbidden to ever allow the lap to disappear, ever stop petting or playing with me, or ever leave to go to work. Additionally, I now have Presidential immunity to sleep between JayleneSlide’s legs all night, and hugs and kisses must be delivered to my head at every meal time.

If someone is describing jockey wheels as “middle derailleur hubs” and that replacing this one part will somehow cost almost as much as the bike, they don’t know enough to be buying a used, complex machine. Ya know, the machine that one is putting between their legs and riding down the road.

Unethical seller? Most likely, and the blame probably rests on the seller, although I’ll give some benefit of the doubt here. If someone bought one of my bikes and had such an issue, I would be aghast. I would bend over backwards to make it right.

There are so many subtle ways that a used bike can be a bad deal at any price. Please let this person’s experience be an opportunity to learn. Read a couple articles on what to examine when buying a used bike, how to determine if a frame is true, and how not to get screwed by a shady or just plain ignorant seller.

And FFS, take a few minutes to understand the rudiments of the systems on which you rely AND spend your hard-earned money.

Most operations on CAD and solid object modeling software are single-threaded, so focus on single core performance stats… Even my largest models in Inventor don’t get my 4080 Super spooled up.

Ooooh, that Burley Hopper looks like it belongs in my trailer quiver!

I’m a total trailer junkie. I… uh, might have a problem. I had the Gen 1 Tern GSD S10. It can absolutely haul an adult, but the comfort is lacking. Improving passenger comfort on the longtail can seriously impact cargo volume capacity depending on your needs and bag configuration. I prefer a bakfiet or semi-recumbent tandem for hauling another person. Putting an adult on a bakfiet lowers the CoG and massively raises the CoG on a longtail. Added bonuses over a diamond tandem: nobody has to yell to be heard, everybody gets a view, and most semi-recumbents let the stoker coast. I had a Bilenky Viewpoint with an independent stoker drivetrain; the stoker could select their own gear ratio.

Here are some of the stupid things I’ve done with trailers and cargo bikes.

Making smashburgers for 20 hungry Juneteenth mountain bikers.

Thanksgiving dinner for 20 plus supplies for a 5-day vacation.

150 pounds of books? Sure!

Ya know… I used to be this binary in my thinking. For example, I naively opposed harm reduction measures, such as needle exchanges and safe injection sites. Aaaaand I’d like to congratulate drugs for winning the War on Drugs.

Yes, we need to fight for a better world, better candidates, and better leadership in all things. But JFC, stop fighting last year’s fight.

I too want 100% progressive governance. Just a little bit of history and psychology reading demonstrates what you’re doing right here, along with the intractability, is categorically NOT how we get there. Just like the Overton Window slowly shifted since the 70s to the fascist US shitshow we have today, we need to work to shift the window back.

InB4: yeah, history also generally indicates bloodshed is inevitable in these cases, so we’re kinda in uncharted territory.

I understand the sentiment. I agree with the justified contempt for the DNC and Democratic Party. Let’s light a candle rather than curse the darkness.

A bakfiet will change your life for the better. An electric bakfiet is a huge bucket of “…and to think I hesitated.”

That said, I am seriously annoyed by the suspension forks. There is such a scant selection of 20" suspension forks; about the only fork I found worth owning is the Kind A3.0, which is $450USD MSRP. I have a Hase Pino which came with a terrible Spinner 300 fork. I can’t find a parts kit or even parts list for this stupid fork. In talking with the LBS Jedi, he said it’s basically a disposable unit. Something tells me that Urban Arrow did not spec a decent fork.

Also not a fan of Enviolo hubs. They eat up so much torque. I had a Tern GSD S10 with the Enviolo. Holy hell, that hub was a slog without the motor.

But whatever, I’m being a nitpicky curmudgeon… moar cargo bikes, moar better. Suspension, even crappy suspension, is a huge factor in getting people onto bikes. So whatever gets more people onto bikes is okeefine by me.

For anyone who would like more background on how this chart came to look this way, “Requiem for the American Dream” is free on YT: https://youtu.be/WEnv5I8Aq4I

Spoiler alert: this disparity is the result of a coordinated effort in response to an “overabundance of democracy.” Another great read on how we got here is “Evil Geniuses” by Kurt Anderson.

Source: I served for 20 years in the US military. When the 2003 Iraq War kicked off, a bunch of people joined the Reserves to say they were doing their part without actually having to do anything. They were shocked when we sent them to war first.

This is the intended effect of the Abrams Doctrine. After the abuse of presidential power that got the US into the Vietnam Conflict, Gen. Creighton Abrams wanted to make sure the entire country would feel the hit of the US’ bellicose nature and to put a check on presidents wielding military power. Of course, these good intentions always get warped and SecDef Laird’s Total Force Policy basically found a loophole for maintaining a larger fighting force that could be called up while playing Three Card Monty with the budgets.