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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: August 15th, 2023

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  • Even with a free forum host, it’s difficult to keep things running for a long time.

    Awhile back I was unsatisfied with how quickly my (new) furniture was degrading, and found a furniture forum run by a guy in the biz. So much knowledge on there about different furniture and how to actually find quality stuff that will last decades.

    The owner retired this week, and he had been paying for an IT contract to do basic maintenance / upgrades on the forum (I think he started on a free host, but as it got bigger he eventually had to move it). He needed IT help basically to apply security patches and do upgrades. He’s stated that he no longer plans to pay for the maintenance contract. I’m guessing the forum will disappear soon.



  • Is there someone who understands / can explain the tax principles behind the removal? I see the term impairment charge mentioned in the article. Best I can tell, the company is saying their book value is higher than the actual value of the item, so they can take the loss and write it off. But why does that necessitate removing it?

    Is this also the reason that Disney used to put stuff into “the vault” back in the day?

    I’m all on board with piracy-first (I don’t even bother to figure out how to pay for movies/TV anymore because piracy is so much more convenient), but I want to be able to explain to a layman why things are getting worse.



  • Thanks a ton, all of what you wrote is super helpful!

    I think I’m doing pretty similar things, but you’ve definitely given me some food for thought.

    I estimated my TDEE (energy expenditure) around 2800cal, and I’ve been aiming for 2000cal. Like you it’s a little aggressive, but also gives me wiggle room in case I’m not estimating calories correctly.

    I actually really like counting calories along with intermittent fasting (I only eat between noon and 8pm every day. I also don’t really like “fad” diets or even worrying too much about macronutrients, though I’m making an effort to get more protein, and stuff like cucumbers helps a ton with satiation like you’re saying. Your way of meal planning simplifies things a lot, but I don’t know if I could really do that because I like a wide variety of food.

    I’ve been doing strength training (3-4x per week), but you’re giving me motivation to add some cardio. I hate cardio but deep down I know I need to train because the outdoor activities I like the most (hiking, skiing) require it.

    I’ve been following my plan for a little over a week so far. Not a lot of time, but seems like I’m down about 0.25kg. Scales are pretty inaccurate though, and my weight does fluctuate over 1kg in a single day.

    My motivation is perhaps a bit different… I’ve done strength training before and am trying to get back into it, but at this point in my life I’m at about 24% body fat (according to U.S. Navy calculation) which is right on the verge of obesity, so I’m thinking to drop down 10% before seriously trying to put on more muscle. I’ve read it’s slightly easier to put on muscle at low BF%, but more importantly I think I will just look better, since I don’t think I look great at 24% BF.

    Whenever I get blood tests done though, I’m usually just barely in the “healthy” range when it comes to cholesterol and stuff, so that’s definitely a secondary motivation. Plus lots of people in my family have diabetes, so it’s better for me to take steps now to prevent it.

    Thanks again for your reply, it gives me validation that I’m on the right track, and definitely gives me some food for thought.










  • I’ve definitely had that feeling before. I was really into Chinese rock bands and bought a bunch of CDs. I’ve been slowly uploading them. I mean China is a big country with lots of people, so it’s not like these bands are completely unknown, but when I used to go to concerts in China some of the groups that I thought rocked the hardest didn’t tend to pull big crowds. And when you look on Chinese Internet for this stuff, you usually find crappy MP3s, not rips following proper procedures.

    I still think about the band where I showed up late because the train to Beijing was delayed and then the taxi driver couldn’t find the venue address, so I just barely caught their last song. Then afterwards I was hanging out chatting with people and they were like, since you only got to hear one song you deserve to meet the singer. And they were friends with the singer so they called her to come out. It seemed like she was blown away that any foreign fans at all are into her music, and when she found out I didn’t yet have a place to stay for the night and was planning to find a last minute hostel or hotel she said “no, you’re not doing that, you’re staying with my friends who have a spare room”.

    Whenever I rip & upload Chinese rock, I think about those people who were so friendly and gracious towards me. Like who tf invites some random stranger at a rock concert over like that. And none of those bands, even the ones that made it “big” really got the attention that I thought they deserved. They were pouring their heart and soul into their music.



  • I mean look at this dumpster fire of a comment section… I don’t think we as a community are really making a good case.

    Personally I think the bot is a bad idea because I always hated that kind of shit on Reddit. I’d rather have discussion with real people than just have a bot that always comments.

    But the people attacking MBFC are really coming out of left field in my view. If I was a mod, I don’t know if I’d want to listen to feedback either.


  • Look, honestly I don’t really know who Ryan Grim is, but I googled “Ryan Grim” and “The Gray Zone” and apparently “the grayzone crowd comes after [him] all the time”.

    https://twitter.com/ryangrim/status/1696331666980053126

    I also don’t know enough to really get into a discussion about Israel / Palestine, and I don’t know anything about the drama with WaPo in the article you linked so I can’t say whether or not it’s 100% factual as you say.

    Maybe in this specific instance, The Gray Zone is correct, and in agreement with Ryan Grim. I don’t know. But the thing is, you are I are in a discussion about bias and source quality. And I’m saying to you that, in my view, The Gray Zone doesn’t pass the smell test.

    That’s the whole point of MBFC: to get a smell test of whether a source is worth considering or not.

    What I am saying is, I’m not going to spend hours of my life going through your source to check it out, and possibly verify it, or refute it point by point. Especially when the first paragraph of the Wikipedia article on it is:

    Coverage of The Grayzone has focused on its misleading[25][26] and false reporting,[27] its criticism of American foreign policy,[1][4] and its sympathetic coverage of the Russian, Chinese and Syrian governments.[4][21][28][29] The Grayzone has downplayed or denied the persecution of Uyghurs in China,[33] and been accused of publishing conspiracy theories about Xinjiang, Syria and other regions,[34][35][36] and publishing disinformation about Ukraine during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which some have described as pro-Russian propaganda.[32][36]

    The article about Xinjiang that I linked to you was just from a random source I clicked from Wikipedia.

    I realize that I am probably coming across in a rather dismissive way, but honestly I think that’s the point – if I can convince myself this quickly that a source looks suspicious, it’s in my interest to dismiss it just as quickly. In the past I’ve spent dozens of hours doing deep dives on random sources that friends have sent me, and in every case it’s been a waste of time because I ended up coming to the same conclusion that I did in 5 seconds of reading Wikipedia.

    I know some people love doing these deep dives, but I’ve realized for myself – like back in 2010 when one particular person was sending me crap from Natural News – that unless I truly get “this needs the benefit of the doubt” vibes, all that time I spend just makes me feel bitter and angry at the world, and I end up having gained nothing and learned nothing from the experience.

    So again, I’m sorry. Your source may be correct. But it looks seriously suspicious. Personally, I’m not willing to look any deeper than that.