It has been popular. People were traveling out of country for joint replacements. Costs were less for travel, surgery, and recovery than what they would pay for it here. Covid put a damper on travel for a couple years, so not sure if it’s still as popular. I would consider it if/when I need knee replacements done. Considering what I’ve heard about the quality issues of joint replacements in the US, I don’t want one here.

There really should be better options, but it’s where this country is currently at, where some home chemistry is something people would have to consider. You’re right, it’s dangerous and certainly has a lot of risks. With some background in it myself and access to resources that the general public doesn’t have, I would still be hesitant to try something I’d cooked up in the basement at home. But, I’m also not at the point where I’m going to die from a treatable but unaffordable disease.

I’m a quality chemist. I test the API’s that process chemists make to be sure they’re right. Yeah, reactions don’t always proceed as intended. These guys do understand the risks, and are only trying to provide an option. Here in the US the insurance companies are perfectly willing to let us die because funding expensive treatment hurts their bottom line. Unless you’re independently wealthy, a small scale reactor at home may become the only option a person has available. Definitely risky, but why not take the chance when corporate America has determined you’re not valuable enough to save?

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Scepter televisions are a great option, no “smart” features at all. Bought two of them about 6 years ago and no issues.

I was really enjoying this game for a couple weeks, and plan to go back to it after it gets a few updates. Just started to get Ground Hog’s Day fatigue after a while. The same critters keep spawning in the same places, over and over again. Gets tedious after a while. Had the same problem playing Small Land. Love the exploring and all, but monotonous critter spawns. Hoping they’ll implement some randomness once they develop the game more.

I’ve seen elderly folks do that a few times. Not on the shoulder, but still in their lane, backing up into oncoming traffic. (Yes, I did spend some time living in Florida.)

Paper straws would work great if they just coated them in plastic. Then they wouldn’t disintegrate before you finished your drink.

There used to be one in Kalamazoo MI on the west side of the WMU campus in the 90’s. Loved that place, burritos were really good. No, not really as big as your head, but it was a lot of food.

I wouldn’t doubt someone already has, on purpose, but behind closed doors.

I know shooting sports in schools used to be a thing, but figured after Columbine that those programs were all dropped and didn’t exist anymore. Gunfire near a school is no longer about academic competitions, but something tragic and far too common.

I’m going to make the assumption that is PETG you are working with. I had cobwebs like that when I tried moving over from doing PLA. There were a few things I had to work out to get better prints.

1. Slow down the print speed and work up once you get acceptable prints. Try 40 to 50mm/s to start.
2. Increase filament retraction. Default I think is like 0.2mm, try 1.0mm instead.
3. Increase the travel speed. I’ve used 350mm/s, which helps break strings, as someone else already suggested.
4. Drop the extruder temperature. PETG gets more stringy as it gets hotter. Lower temp may help, and if you aren’t trying to print at warp speed, bonding should still be good. Do small test prints to see where your cutoff is. Also, if the cooling fan on that Sovol is a bit anemic then printing cooler lets each layer solidify before the next one gets added. Hopefully you get things worked out, good luck.

I remember this happening, and the pet food scandal just before it. Melamine was being added to pet food and milk powder to falsely increase their protein values. Enough to cause kidney failure and sometimes death. I used to do protein analysis for food products, and could see how easy it would be for food companies to cheat like this. The percent nitrogen content in a sample is used to estimate the protein value. Melamine powder contains a lot of nitrogen, so it’s blended in to bump up the final protein values. Really shitty thing to do, knowing that it’s toxic.

Saw the question and thought of exactly this video. Great skit.

Quality control chemist testing pharmaceuticals. Most of what we do is for clinical trial use and research purposes. It’s been a good job.

Commodore basic on the PET computer, back around 1981-1983. My grade school had three of them in the library, and since my mom was a teacher, she would sign one out for summer break and bring it home if any were available.

His watch has ended.

I bought a couple Sceptre TVs six years ago, been great.

Not a laptop, but I had an old motherboard from over 20 years ago not doing anything. Screwed it to a board on the wall of my shop. Added an old hard drive and some components out of the same old box it was in, and now have it running Mint. Found an old wifi card that works too, so I can look up parts and repair videos while I’m working on projects. Works great.

Starblazers episodes used to air randomly on one of the local UHF channels when I was around 11 years old. For some reason I remembered it recently, and some quick online searching found that it was an edited and English dubbed version of Space Battleship Yamato. Binge watched the original subtitled episodes. It was nostalgic seeing the characters that I remembered from decades ago, but good to see the entire uncut story all the way to its end.