As a retired toolmaker, I see your trebuchet and raise you the artillery piece I made for myself - a small Coehorn mortar of about 50mm/2" bore.

I've known 2 toolmakers that have built their own full scale full functional Gatling guns from scratch also.

Real life has always been either Pythonesque or the 3 Stooges. And as far as anyone can tell, is unlikely to ever be fixed.

I have nothing against calculators. But I have taught some elementary and jr high school math classes in my old a feeble age. The "why can't we use calculators" and " what do I need to know this for" was a constant whinge I had to listen to and deal with.

Why I want you to know how to solve a quadratic equation isn't because that's what you are going to do for the rest of your life. But rather, I want you to see something like that in the far future and go "Oh, I know what this and that it isn't gibberish. And I can whip out that smart phone I got and google it to find the howto steps to solve it." And I want you to acquire the discipline to learn things. Besides, just knowing what 7x3 is, makes everything else so much easier to learn in math. That removes fear and stress point and builds the confidence to tackle more complex ideas.

I probably own more calculators than most here. So, I'm all for them. And I did always allow any student to use a calculator in class. I would just hand you a slide rule.....(and yes, I'm that old to have used them in class as a kid and I still own a couple). But, when I was teaching, I really wanted my students get their fingers dirty with the numbers themselves and to learn how those numbers work. While getting the correct answer is very important, as a teacher, I was perhaps less concerned with the correct answer and more concerned with HOW you got that answer. Because if you know what you did to get that answer, you are far more likely to get the right answer than the wrong answer.

In the end, I think education needs to be approached from the idea of making learning more fun. No matter the subject. Sadly, that's a very difficult trick for any teacher in the typical class room to accomplish.

Keep your hands inside the ride at all times

As a retired medic who has has to deal with my share of the mentally ill, I will try to add a little context perhaps.

What got them to enter the apartment is they probably realized they were dealing with a mentally ill person who was not properly on their meds, (we can't say for sure at this point - but it's as likely as not), and they then started what should have been a simple welfare check. Which can entail entry to observe the person and the general living conditions. Cops do welfare checks everyday, multiple times a day. The next step if they determine there is a problem, is to request medical assistance, an ambulance, to deal with the person. The cops are to remain in scene and assist if needed - i.e. help talk the patient into seeking medical help or sometimes stop an assault on EMS. But that's what SHOULD have happened.

Instead a straight up murder was committed.

His begging for money from supporters IS his GoFundMe.

As one of my Daughters told the Chair of the Physics department at a large Big 10 collage to switch her major from ME to Physics, "I want know the answer, not guess."

One can hope I guess.

I'm just tired of all the noise about Kelcie/Swift romance and the general public's fascination for/against it.

If you want to do some reading, google the Minnesota Department of Transportation - MnDOT - is known nationally and internationally for it's testing of materials and construction of roads over a long term. There are some test sections dating back to 1973 that are still being monitored and studied. What make MnDOT studies valuable to other states, (and even other countries), is the wide temperature swings in the state. Temperatures can swing from -40F to over 100F in the course of one year.

A simplistic view - What damages road surfaces that happen over the winter and spring is the tiny cracks that are cause by the thermal expansion and contraction of the road surface that traps moisture which then repeatedly freezes and thaws. Freezing water expands creating a bit larger crack which traps more moisture - wash rinse and repeat over time and the surface flakes away causing potholes and broken roads. Add in the flexing of the road with heavy traffic, and roads will tend to break up and become rough. But there a a bunch of other considerations from subsurface prep to the general geology of where you want to build your road that all add to the life expectancy of the road itself.

Very generally, for heavy high speed traffic all weather roads, concrete roads seem to be gaining favor as the mixes get better additives.

I think self checkout works for one or two items. But not much more than that. I don't want to have two or three things to checkout and be stuck behind someone with a cart full.

But If I have much more than that, an "old fashioned" checkout is a lot better.

Anyone that thought AI was never going to be used militarily is a fool. The only question was "How soon?"

As of February first, Usenet is done also. Google will not allow joining or new postings anymore. But they will continue to host it as an archive, until they don't....