They’re making it harder and harder to do so apparently and to download the books that you buy from their store.

I don’t trust that they won’t make a strong push to lock you into the Amazon ecosystem.

And, bluntly, I don’t trust Bezos, especially after all of this election bullshit he pulled with WaPo where he personally got involved. The chances are now non-zero that Kindle could censor books. If a tyrannical regime told Bezos to remove a list of books from Kindle devices I think he’d roll over and do it. And that’s not right. They’re the customer’s books - they bought them and they get to decide what they read without censorship. And to be clear, I don’t care which way the censorship goes. We shouldn’t be censoring books - full stop.

I used to be such a kindle Stan but I don’t think they will let me have full control over an expensive device that I buy and books that I buy on their platform.

I de-drm every book I buy and side load it onto my devices because no company in the future should be able to tell me what books I can read. I’m currently using a Kobo but if they start fucking around too (no signs of this yet…) I’ll find a device that will respect my freedom.

If you want to sideload your own books and continue to be able to do so, steer clear of any Amazon device.

Timothy Snyder - On Tyrrany

For my friends in America who did not want this or deserve this.

The ones who supported this can reap the karma that they gave sewn.

Bracing for impact in Canada.

Take it one step further and that sense of wonder is why I feel the powers that be reacted swiftly to squash psychedelics and shut down all research into them, unless the research benefitted the national security cartel, of course.

It’s difficult for rulers to maintain capitalist control when you can eat a piece of paper and have the wonders of the universe revealed to you and realize that it’s supposed to be about loving other humans. Makes neverending consumption and 9-5 work seem really lame in comparison.

My city has a local company that rents storage units and they have entirely too many locations relative to the population of our city such that I believe they’re a criminal enterprise. I believe they construct so many new buildings for money laundering purposes and to facilitate human trafficking and drug running out of them.

Breaking news, I just googled them and one of the owners was convicted in his 20s of trying to sell poached falcons to Saudi Arabian royalty. The plot thickens.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, to paraphrase the famous quote.

Point being that they didn’t know what Lyme Disease was until they made the breakthrough discovery.

Your smartphone can’t see viruses or heat but other cameras can. Point being, there’s lots a normal camera can’t see.

Several things.

1. Everyone seems to be stuck on the fact that travel to get here would be interstellar and that’s impossible. Another hypothesis could be that they’re inter-dimensional or ultra-terrestrial, possibly living in the ocean.
2. The famous videos released by DOD and reported on in the NY Times.
3. If the accounts of these videos by trained military pilots is to be believed then a) they can accelerate many times beyond what any known military craft can to the point where the structural integrity of any known aircraft would fail. b) They were observed entering and exiting the water.
4. If a) then maybe our smartphone cameras cannot see them clearly due to speed or cloaking technology. I’d point to the “Jellyfish” video leaked this year where the UAP was captured by infrared only. Source.. Most normal cameras can’t see lots of things.
5. Kirkpatrick was clearly running diversion tactics on this issue before he left to the Department of Energy. He lied about meeting with individuals about Skinwalker Ranch (the individual produced receipts), he’s purposefully deceptive with his wording - “aliens”, “UFOs” when asked specific questions about Non-Human Intelligence (NHI) and UAP, and gets the facts about the most famous cases wrong when trying to discredit them. Most recently he claimed that one of the videos was an optical illusion because it was filmed during the day but the video was in fact filmed at night.
6. J Allen Hynek, head of Project Bluebook, which was a government program to debunk UAP. The guy who coined the phrase “Swamp Gas”. He finished his work with Bluebook and basically did a 180 and for the rest of his life claimed the government had pressured him into coming up with debunking theories. He believed in UAP and became an advocate for the rest of his life. Why?
7. Rendlesham Forest case, which prompted the US Government to medically pay one of the soldiers who was subject to the phenomenon.
8. The former Canadian head of our DOD and other very senior government officials which speak freely after retirement and say that there is a coverup. Recently Harold Malmgren presidential advisor to Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford, claimed that he was briefed on “Otherworld Technologies.” Obama saying famously in that interview that there are things in our skies and we don’t know what they are. He could have just said no they’re not real - why didn’t he?
9. Famous reports in WW2 of fighter pilots seeing metallic orbs, just like the ones still reported today. There was no drone tech back then.

What would be enough proof if what we’re dealing with is beyond our current comprehension? Do they need to trot it out on live TV? Lyme disease wasn’t discovered until relatively recently like the 70s or 80s iirc and it was because a Doctor got it. Up until then they were saying it was juvenile arthritis.

I’m just saying that there has been a lot going on recently if you pay attention.

Either a lot of really high level officials are lying or military/intelligence is. Knowing how going public with this stuff can ruin your life, what possible motivation would they have to lie. There is no big money in this.

Uh yeah it kind of is? You’re the one who said it’s about the Last Supper (incorrect) and who has a bee in their bonnet about drag queens for whatever reason.

People have been performing different gender roles for hundreds of years. In Shakespeare’s time they didn’t let women act in plays so it was all men.

Japanese Kabuki theatre is also all men acting in male and female roles.

And yes, Ancient Greece - y’know, where the Olympics originally come from - also had men dressed in drag for female roles in their theatrical performances as women generally did not act in theatre.

Let’s also not forget France’s most famous drag king, Joan of Arc!

So I’m not sure what the issue seems to be.

You need this.

It is likely not legally habitable. And to make it so for a renter would be beyond my current financial capabilities.

I have a second home but I inherited it. It would need 100s of ks in renos to rent out. It wouldn’t bring me much money to sell it - would probably need to sell for land value only.

But - it’s a place of refuge for my family member in an emotionally abusive relationship, a friend struggling with her marriage, a crash space if anyone I love is in a rough spot. It’s brought my family together and it’s where we gather.

I don’t think this is wrong because I am using it for net positive purposes in the long term, and someone otherwise probably couldn’t use it - it would be a tear-down.

Isn’t it funny how the public servant basically manifested the home for her because she probably has a great lawsuit now?

The seats are haptic too. It takes forever to render the graphics apparently so maybe that’s why - not playback but rendering. Apparently After Effects will only go up to 12k?

I’m not super technical but I have been to the Sphere. It’s awesome.

There’s a good HBO series about this called 100 Foot Wave.

There’s definitely a racist subtext:

1. Imagine the Queen criticizing Kate for being “flamboyant.” This word echoes negative racist stereotypes disseminated by white culture of how Black women act and dress. Now to be clear there is nothing flamboyant about this dress and when compared with Kate both dresses are large and grandiose. It’s not just that she’s not “virginal” it’s the “in your face”-ness about it that the Queen has commented on. What did Megan do differently than any other Royal bride on her wedding day to stand out except be black?
2. it is possible that the dress appears to be whiter because Megan’s skin is darker, which is also subtly racist. Black women need to be relegated to a different shade of white when they’re divorced now? Come on.
3. Camilla the divorcee wore white on her wedding day to Divorced Charles the 3rd. She just had an ugly - and I might say quite flamboyant - overcoat over it.

Everyone has their stuff and their time to go through it.

Looking at what others are enduring too helps for inspiration and strength - frig someone I know has a parent dying of ALS and doesn’t even show it in their day to day. That’s a rough situation, they’re in their early 30s like me and they’re handing it with so much grace.

Someone else I know, late 20s, just severely injured themselves in a foreign country to the point where they are in a medically induced coma and may never walk again. The medical bills are going to be at least $100k to evacuate them out, and they can’t leave the country until it’s paid. That’s awful for them and their family.

I wouldn’t trade either of these situations for my own.

I’m not saying OP should look down on people who have it worse or that they can’t be mad/sad with their current situation. Just that hearing others’ stories can help with the strength to move forward.

In terms of my sis, one of the greatest lessons in life I’ve learned is that you can’t make another adult do anything even when it really is the best thing for them. I think there’s a strong criminal harassment case but she’s gotta get there - I just have to support her until she does. This gets him out of the house, makes it safer for her, and then they can divide assets. She’s trying to deal with him rationally and keep harmony but it hasn’t sunk in that no matter what she does it will boost the tension and she’s just gotta rip the band aid off in the smartest and safest way. In divorce law, it can be used against you if you “abandon the home” and their home has tons of equity so she can’t go anywhere. And any subsidized housing for him is several years’ wait. Hard to convince a mentally ill person who needs treatment of that when he flip flops between his new GF, breaking up with his new GF, can him and my sister get back together, wait no my sister is the devil and me and her are both cheating on our husbands (lol not cheating in her case because they’re separated), emailing my husband these lies and then in a separate email admitting they are lies, believing her birth control IUD is actually an abortion and she’s a baby killer, then wait no GF and him are back together.

You just gotta try to hang on. Life as you get older is a total question of wtf is going to happen next.

I’m in one of those cycles.

1. Covid
2. Walked in on my dad almost dead from undiagnosed cancer and my childhood home trashed because everything fell apart when he was looking after my mom who has early onset dementia
3. 2 weeks later my dad dies & I am visiting the hospital during the height of Covid. My mom has to live in the hospital and doesn’t know who I am anymore. She doesn’t know her husband died.
4. Cancer scare. I think it will be fine? They’re still testing.
5. Husband lost his job. I am the only breadwinner.
6. Sister in abusive relationship with a severely mentally unstable husband who is spending all of their money. I fear every day he is going to kill her and their kids. She can’t kick him out of the house because he is on disability and can’t afford his own place.
7. Substantial changes at my job leading to feelings of mega insecurity for me.

Oh yeah and my mom isn’t even dead yet!

But I’ve also had some really great experiences during this time that I wouldn’t trade for the world.

If psychedelics are safe for you and you have no history of mental illness in your family I would strongly suggest that.

I LOVE this.