@George-K No she was born right after the war. Her mother though served from 1939 through 1945 as a Red Army field nurse. She was first in the Winter War with Finland, the at siege of Leningrad and ended the war posted on the southern front. She mustered out with the rank of Senior Lieutenant. My wife always says her grandmother saw too much and rarely spoke about that period of her life other vague passing references. Not likely there will be any untoward consequences, hell even in Soviet times the authorities knew better than tangle with a pissed off over 70 year old babushka.

@Rich said in "Papers, please?": Many states have laws that say a store is required to ID for alcohol and tobacco anyone who “appears” to be 25, 30, 40 years old and younger…Failure to do so, can result in significant fines or loss of license to sell those products. I have zero problem with that. I am more than obviously older than 25, 55.... Go ahead and card me - no problem. Most of the people ringing you up for this stuff are teens/early 20 somethings earning around minimum wage—they are mostly annoyed at having to card people that are clearly 10/15 years older than them…and clearly of age to purchase the product. Cynthia (yeah that was really her name) told me that she's 61. She looked older than that, LOL. I should have asked her for ID. So whenever possible, they skip the bullshit, and just punch in a birthdate that the computer on their register asks for when age restricted purchases are made. (and ever so occasionally if a friend goes through the line.. ) To combat that, and ensure they don’t get a big ass fine, the checkout system at many stores now require scanning the ID to make the transaction go through. This is a lot harder (I assume) for cashiers to bypass, and allows the workers to not have to use any judgement other than “Sorry, it’s what the system requires.” That, pretty much is what Cynthia said. "I just work here, and them's the rules." Does anyone know what information is bar-coded on the back of a driver's license? @Jolly said "Database..." Yeah, which one, and managed by whom.

The excerpt is heartbreaking.

@George-K yea I’ve seen the video. Asked an endocrine surgeon about it. Seems it’s a thing.

Oh yeah, that's a good one!

@Mik It is also the day after moi own.

@Mik said in Your "Oh Crap!" moment of the day.: Yeow! When Mrs. George and I were on the way back from Portland a few years ago, we had an extended (planned) stop in St. Paul. It's a crew-change/refueling stop, so it usually lasts about 20 minutes. On this particular occasion, the train was supposed to pick up some private railcars which were going to be attached to the rear of our train for the trip to Chicago. The cars were spotted on a siding, and our train was backed up to couple with them. I guess we were going just a bit too fast for comfort when they coupled up. Must've been only about 3-4 mph, but when we hit, we HIT. I was standing in our room at the time, and was bounced against my chair. Some railman caught a picture of the train I was on as it approached Chicago. I was in the last Superliner ( the double level car). [image: 1645977552651-13116455_988173437904306_8796595280117382771_o-resized.jpg]

([image: 1645971393686-d0e73332-d1c7-4e5a-b81e-dcda849537bd-image.png]

Lol

@George-K said in Got $28K laying around? Take a trip!: Around the world - in first class. Many, many pictures at the link. For example: [image: 1645965887874-image.jpeg] "Etihad’s A380 First Class cabin is so big they call it an Apartment. The seat is enormous and there’s a bench seat which folds out into a BED." [image: 1645965912692-image.jpeg] This bathroom is bigger than the one in my house. Cheaper than I would have thought. Business Class (sorry, “Delta One”) on Delta from Dulles to Munich is $10K and that’s nowhere near the level of elegance.

This is a classic Guns Or Butter scenario. As much as the U.S. spends on defense, we've spent less recently as a portion of GDP, because of COVID and Biden's programs. Does Butter now suffer?

I think old Soviet doctrine and( maybe current ?) was that most simple grunts have no clue about the overall picture. Even down to the squad leaders and lieutenants. I know here in Israel a big thing is made about keeping everyone down to the low man on the totem pole having some idea of the general picture. Most enemies know anyway the general plan of things from intelligence. And this makes the units integrate better at a tactical level without needing strategic input. It’s only people really exposed to true secrets that are at risk when captured. And they usually don’t get captured.

Nah, we'll hire a Mexican cartel.

@Catseye3 Interesting thread. Unfortunatley, it makes me remember the times did something (that at the time seemed okay but) that later realized was not a good idea.

I guess I need to start researching the melt point of 316 SS again. LOL

Yes, they are very famous in Taiwan. I was reading an article about how "sofisticated" the machines were that made the chips. Not easy and super expensive.

Deeply irresponsible. Child Protective Services needs to step in.