Saw George's thread that brought me to this one. This article goes into the qualities that make a country safe. Of course wealth, education, justice system... I know Singapore comes to mind when I hear of safe countries. I've heard you could leave an Apple MacBook Pro out on a counter top in a coffee shop all day and it will not get stolen. That being said, there are hard to define (and politically incorrect, I guess) reasons why some countries are safe, too. I'd say very generally there needs to be a collective culture that expects safety and has a unified set of values. It's hard to have that in poorer countries, or countries with external conflicts, or countries (like the US) that is a melting pot a mixed salad of cultures with some resistant to assimilation for a more homo cultural experience. Homogeneous, of course. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/safest-countries-in-the-world

@Axtremus said in No cheating in Japan: Pwned by @taiwan_girl about a month ago: https://nodebb.the-new-coffee-room.club/post/261825 Sigh...

I'll shirley watch it.

Why bother? He wouldn't understand the results.

@Mik said in Adam Schiff's Achilles heel.: Sadly, publicly ignoring it while working in the background is exactly the right thing to do. If it can get rid of Schiff, well that's a bonus. Yeah, that's probably right.

I wholly agree. They are a problem up and down the line. Hell, we had a bruhaha over fraudulent use of proxies in an HOA here.

How much Borges does George Georges abhor if Borges made George Georges bored?

@Mik said in What’s in My Ink: Many of these folks are vegans, who would not dream of ingesting foul chemicals. "My body, my choice."

@Horace said in Chemically castrating prepubescent DOESN’T prevent suicide!: What a total shock that self mutilation isn't a cure for depression. Well put.

@George-K said in George Plays Piano: @LuFins-Dad said in George Plays Piano: No, George doesn’t play piano. George plays fortissimo. Non stop. As fast as he can. LOL, you're right. A few years back, the concert band I was a part of played Rhapsody in Blue with George as our special guest artist. I took the Gershwin Plays Gershwin piano rolls that had been converted into a MIDI file. His tempo was so all over the place that I had to add a click track to the file for the conductor. Also “smoothed” a few tempo changes. It was still FAR different than what you are used to. The band sucked… a bunch of old high school band nerds that missed playing, but it was still interesting. Link to video

Perfect.

He and Hunter have a pen pal correspondence.

Got an email: No issues found We ran a series of tests. Unfortunately we couldn't replicate the issue. Since your product is working, we're shipping it back to you. I don't believe them. But now it seems we're at an impasse. I have a non functional robot, and they won't honor the warranty they sold me. :man-shrugging: I guess I will have to invasively do something to the robot to cause it not to work in even the simplest test, but not in such a way that they'll suspect foul play.

It’s so interesting how people who see themselves as more moral and virtuous are the first to rise to anger and violence. Horseshoe theory of human psychology. Anyway, opening one’s eyes at the human experience will always vindicate those of us who despise moralizing and self righteousness. It’s inevitably the gateway to all sorts of destructive stupidity. People aren’t nearly as smart as they think they are, and they damn sure aren’t as moral as they think they are.

89th's Just-us Department.

OTOH, government employees operate under much stricter rules. Some agencies do give them a wink and a nod, but most adhere to spending standards for travel, lodging and meals.