Ah That's Not Worth a New Thread News Thread

[Dark Lightning]

Yeah, growing up in small-town southern California, where I didn't a black person in a class until I was in middle school, we had a vast array of racist jokes. 

[Asmodean]

As long as it's in good fun, I don't really cringe at jokes unless they are designed to induce cringe.

As long as stereotypes are understood as such, having a bit of a chuckle over some is... OK.

For instance, in this case, something tells me that the two ladies what did the spacewalk and hastened our Kessler Effect related doom may themselves think that some light-hearted yet most righteous mockery of their satellite-spawning fuckup is well-deserved - and if they don't, then I propose that they should.

[billy rubin]

the town i went to university in had been a sundown town.

if you were black and were caught within city limits after dark, you were lucky just to spend the night in jail. if the wrong people spotted you first, you coukd end up dead.

the racist jokes arent intended to be funny for black people. theyre warnings.

that was oklahoma. texas was an order of magnitude worse. tennessee where my sister lived was similar.

[Asmodean]

Well, that's different. The warning part, that is. A joke having its audience is "nothing special."

I suppose there is a darker side of humor, and at the end of the day, it's the context that defines it - like so much else.

Race-related whatnots are far removed from my European daily matters, but I've heard of kids being arrested over jokes about planned school shootings, for example. One could argue that the authorities can't easily distinguish a kid being edgy from one being on the murderous side, and so they overreact - or do they? I think the broader context of what's been expressed can usually tell.

[Dark Lightning]

A threat to shoot up a school, given the astonishingly high rate here in the US, is alone enough to terrorize. Too many have been ignored.

[Asmodean]

I do maintain that whether or not it is a threat depends on the circumstances surrounding it being expressed.

A somewhat different sort of scenario from real life, but it demonstrates the issue, I think; it has been known to happen that the chastity of my own precious bottom was "threatened" with rape and murder, though in the broader context, the person making the "threat" invariably a. was unaware of my identity or location, b. lived on a different continent and c. actually liked me. So, pure shit-talk, and received as such. Bottom remains virgin for some lucky proctologist to violate at a later date.

There are jokes, there is shit-talk and then there are threats. The difference can be nothing more than contextual. That does not make the jokes and the shit-talk dangerous, however - or even undesirable, again depending on that whole context theme I have going.

[Dark Lightning]

^ Agreed.

[billy rubin]

https://cyberbeer.tesla.com/

elon is branching out.

for $150  you can get two beer mugs and two bottles of cyberbeer  modelled after his ugly electric truck.

the future is here

[Tank]

Apparently electric cars are giving fire departments a growing headache. The battery fires are virtually impossible to extinguish until the last erg has been exhausted in the battery. Lithium is highly flammable. The combustion gases are extremely toxic. All this and the battery packs themselves are on the underside of the car and thus inaccessible when exploding. They are making a good old petrol fire look positively benign. Here is bus just minding its own business that goes up in flames.

[billy rubin]

im re-thinking the lithium batteries i use in my motorcycles

[Icarus]

The current American craze for electric bicycles and scooters has its' downside. Way too many fires while charging the batteries. Apartments and houses aflame as a result.  The drill is to plug in the charger at days end. The fire breaks out while you/we are in the arms of Morpheus. Best recharge batteries while the scooter is out of doors. Impractical however.

Seems like there are some Tesla cars who exhibit unplanned pyrotechnic displays.............the better to stay warm on these frigid days?

[Anne D.]

the future is here

Indeed. Lol. What a hack.

[Tank]

There have been numerous cases of electric scooter batteries exploding during charging. Many if not most of these scooters and their chargers are built down to a price in Asia. It may only be a small percentage but with over a million in the UK a 1:1000 failure rate gives 1000 explosions. Again these explosions are becoming a regular feature of local news reports all over the country. My eldest grandson got one for Christmas. Fortunately his is kept and charged in a garden shed separate to the house.

[Asmodean]

I've seen some videos of those things ablaze in the streets of our cities as well. One should respect the "greek fire" potential of a lithium ion battery.

[Tank]

Imagine when the streets are full of lithium battery powered an hydrogen powered vehicles! I pile up could end up looking like Hiroshima!