And just categorically saying any alternative must be just as bad is just a non-sequitur, there’s no reason that should be true. Cookware is a good example, cast iron works just as well, is not as bad, the only downside compared to teflon is weight. But it’s not like sending us back to the stone age or anything…

You can have your own opinion here, but anything which performs like PFAS compounds, in the variety of uses that PFAS is used, will almost certainly be bad. In general when you make new compounds and materials which are more complex their potential health impacts are worse. PFAS is already an extremely complex material and while broad sweeping statements might not be 100% accurate, I wouldn’t bet that it’s replacement would be better for people.

It’s another thing altogether if you are recommending going backward in the development chain, cookware is a good example here but it’s limited case underlies the ubiquity of PFAS. Hell, PFAS is a major component in computer part manufacturing and is part of the reason computing technology has progressed as it has.

Um, no it doesn’t… maybe you’re confusing micrograms for nanograms?

I don’t have a lot of thoughts on the matter, I know a good bit about PFAS, not microplastics. Grams vs Nanograms is a huge difference, but I don’t know if that’s detrimental or not. Looking over the link you provided the study provides it’s own description of limitations which may or may not be trivial.

You can’t have it needed in some stuff and critically dangerous if it’s a bio-accumulating chemical that virtually never breaks down. To reduce it enough to not be a hazard world wide you would functionally have to stop using it everywhere.

I haven’t seen any definitive results on dangerous health levels, 4.4 ng/kg might be it, but then other studies show people with mg/L of blood concentration. Overall the effects of exposure seem to depend on more than just the concentration, such as health status, exposure duration, magnitude of exposure, and how lucky you got with the genetic lottery. Even then we are fairly certain it is bad, we just don’t know what or how specifically. I would also throw caution at any study using ng as a serious measurement here, especially over prolonged exposure. The problem with measuring on such a low level is that you have far too much uncertainty to claim any true accuracy, at best these studies are guessing when they throw out numbers. Hell, the EPA just came out with a standardized method for analyzing PFAS last year.

At those levels of exposure you’re probably getting it just from eating commercially grown fruits and vegetables, because it can bio-accumulate in those as well.

In reality no one can say for certain, but a lot of research is pointing to long term exposure being bad. The problem is that the research to determine how bad will take decades (and has been going on for decades at this point). Right now it’s being used as the boogeyman for every sort of ill from causing cancer, infertility, issues with lactation, liver failure, high cholesterol, thyroid disease, and auto-immune disorders. Basically the preliminary research says that it at least in part impacts all of these things, we just don’t know how much.

On the flip side bacon also causes cancer and high cholesterol at some level. That’s not to make light of the situation, but it does give some credence to your earlier statement.

The thing people are missing in these discussions is what are they willing to live without if we don’t use these chemicals. Going without non-stick cookware is literally the tip of the iceberg. How do we feel about cars, furniture, and mattresses being more flammable because they don’t have the fire retarding forever chemicals? How do we feel about stain resistance, oil resistance, water resistance, and slip resistance in everything including shoes, umbrellas, clothes, oven mitts, jackets, and more? How do we feel about needing to clean everything including clothes, appliances, and floors more often. How about in industry where it’s used as a fume suppressant so smelly chemicals don’t waft as far or fire fighting foams the next time an electric car catches on fire? This stuff is even in the wrapping of your food so the it doesn’t go through the packaging and cause a mess as easily.

Dupont coined the phrase “Better Living Through Chemistry” and that chemistry is PFAS. It’s in your clothes when you buy them, it’s in your detergent when you clean them, it’s in the cleaner that you wipe your washer off with, it’s in the floor sealant of the laundry room that washer is in, it’s in the gloves you wear while cleaning that laundry room, it’s in the carpet in the room next to the laundry room, and the list goes on and on.

Dropping PFAS chemicals fully would probably send us back to the 1960’s or we’ll end up replacing it with something just as bad that we don’t know the effects of yet.

Yo, we’re in Trump land now, Fascism already won my dudes. Biden is just seeing the writing on the wall and adapting to the change. Trump already pardoned Jared Kushner’s criminal dad, so why not pardon your own son now? The game is changed and if you’re still holding on to ethical ideals you’re a fool. At the very least Biden is making sure they can’t chase his son as part of a witch hunt next year.

People voted for Trump or failed to turn out for Kamila, either way everyone now needs to get used to the new norm.

EDIT: The irony of blasting Biden for going against his word in his son’s best interest while Trump is about to become president is the most laughable hypocrisy I’ve ever seen. If this group is actually just a bunch of super leftist and not foreign manipulation then I look forward to watching y’all eat crow as Israel wipes out Palestine, the US leaves NATO, and western democracy collapses.

From the mind behind the design of the Cybertruck and naming his website X. God that’s going to be some grade A cringe.

Omg you are a legend!

Oh wow, that cheating bit is interesting and something I would not have thought of. The games I play are prominently online, do you know if this is an issue with them?

I’m preparing for a new computer build and I have some questions. I’m feeling really scorned by Windows 11 and its incompatibility with my current hardware as well as the overall sense of that my privacy is being invaded. I’m not super familiar with linux, but I have messed around with various distros.

The build I’m planning to put together will likely use an AMD processor, but I’m uncertain about the GPU (definitely AMD or Nvidia). With my current build, RX 480 and i5-6500 I have found that in recent years I get massive artifacts in relatively old games such as Planetside 2 and Path of Exile (I also play Magic Arena quite a bit, but haven’t experienced any issues there). I even get screen tearing when watching youtube or amazon prime. It’s possible that my card is just dying, but considering that I don’t consistently see these issues across multiple applications I feel like it might be a driver issue.

I’d really like feedback and to know more about Linux gaming (especially with the games mentioned) as well as experience with AMD, Nvidia, and Intel hardware.

Thanks to anyone who responds.

You might be right that it is an implicit threat and as a threat it constitutes verbal assault, but you’d have a hard time making any real headway in court with that, especially in a he said/she said situation. It might be a crime, but it’s one which will see almost no prosecution.

Part of the problem is that polling has been fundamentally flawed for a while now. Polling in 2016, 2020, and 2024 all showed Trump as losing and the polling agencies had to artificially weigh pro Trump supporters higher in the polls because they weren’t being adequately represented. It seems that a major portion of the problem is that some number of liberal/socialist poll respondents don’t end up actually voting and some number of conservative voters don’t end up responding to polls.

That’s the thing though, what’s amazing about planes really depends on your knowledge base or what experience is specifically being enjoyed. If you don’t understand how planes work then the difference is moot because whether seeing or doing the entire thing is magical. If you do understand how planes work you might know that the crazy thing isn’t flight, we knew how to do that since approximately 1800 when the first gliders were built, the crazy part was generating enough power to make powered flight possible. If you understand how flight works and are still enjoying the experience of flight is where wonder still exists.

You know the wonder of flight still exists because some number of kids and adults would pick flight as a super power if given the choice.

The argument being made is a rather poor one. In the example given, the waiter walked 10 feet to you, I would agree that you shouldn’t have to tip.

I’m ambivalent on tipping culture, if we can institute a fair minimum wage then I’m fine with getting rid of it, if not then shut up and tip. All that said, the things we tip for has gotten way out of hand. Tipping used to be 15% for good service while some people were giving 20% because prices had remained low. Now with food prices increased businesses and wait staff are encouraging 20-25% and tipping options are being added everywhere.

My rule of thumb now is 20% for standard wait service (taking my order, bringing my meal, refilling beverages, and cleaning the table afterwards). If any of those elements isn’t being fulfilled then I do not give a percentage, though if someone is going around filling drinks I’ll probably leave a dollar or two. I also don’t give a percentage tip for drinks that don’t come with free refills, instead I will calculate the 20% tip without those beverages (typically alcohol) and then leave $1 per drink.

The right believes that the 2nd amendment exists so that the public can overthrow a corrupt government, in this faulty logic they believe that some normies with AR-15s can overcome the US military. Unlike January 6th the current political right also wouldn’t hesitate to use that military might to crush a violent revolution. At best what you are talking about would result in a civil war, assuming the military splits evenly as well, and at worst would result in the obliteration of the rebels. Given the number of Punisher symbols I see on military persons I wouldn’t bet on them supporting leftist revolutionaries.

I’d like to add that in the US people rarely think of it as extra either. In most places in the US we also don’t include taxes on the menu listed prices, but you know they will be on the final bill going in. The semantics of whether there should be tipping or not is hardly the line people should be arguing. What should be argued when discussing tipping is management abuses around tipping (like paying out others, stealing tips, or forced tip sharing), mandated minimum tipping, what items should be tipped and how much.

There is a ton of room to debate tipping culture in the US, but complaining about doing so isn’t the right place.

Ok, how do you propose doing that? A violent revolution?

And then he’ll either walk away glad he dodged a bullet or slip drugs into her drink and probably not face any real consequences. People don’t seem to understand how the Rogan/Musk/Tate loving Trump supports think. Just a reminder, a higher percentage of women voted for Trump in this election than last so I don’t think the political right is going to be significantly impacted by this.

Eh, I’ll concede that she wasn’t screaming her ideals as loud as possible, but that goes back to my original point. The political left is a fickle voter base. Kamala had good ideas, she had policies, she had been part of the successes made under Biden, but she put most of her focus into attacking Trump. It sounds like the argument being made is that uninformed voters weren’t encouraged enough to vote and more liberal disenfranchised voters didn’t turn out because they didn’t like her policies. If this is the case which makes more sense:

1.) Making some policy changes so they can get people who don’t historically come out to vote to do so or,

2.) Making some policy changes so that people who historically come out to vote will vote for them.

Someone threatening not to vote, when they historically don’t anyways, isn’t much of a threat or motivation.

I don’t know, at this point I’m starting to ask myself if it’s the Democrats fault if the majority of the people agree with the opposition? If she had won the popular vote and lost the electoral college I might have believed that it was simply appealing more to the Democratic base or appealing to less enfranchised liberals, but she lost the popular vote by a long shot. Not only did she lose, but she lost after the other guy has had 4 years of public attack, federal crimes, rape convictions, Project 2025, and basically promising that Palestinians and Ukrainians will get fucked. Hell, the percentage of women that voted for Trump went up in this election.

If people didn’t turn out because Democrats aren’t appealing to leftist ideals enough I fear the message heard by the DNC isn’t to appeal to even more progressive or socialist ideals, but to adopt even more moderate policies. Just facing the facts, but the political left is an unreliable voter group and it’s extremely entitled. Instead of trying to be a foil to Republican ideals Democrats are more likely to try more moderate options. Think of it as creating an alternative instead of being an opposite, Coke and Pepsi instead of Coke and Sprite. It feels like the needle of America’s social equilibrium has permanently moved to be more conservative.