So it is a pretty different situation compared to if they had been removing trash by hand, which is much less likely to cause unforseen harm. The heavy machinery will compact soil, potentially leak oil/fuel. The mechanized digging of the stream bed could disturb benthic species and stir up silt that could have negative impacts further downstream.

Without appropriate precautions, this fellow could easily cause more harm to the ecosystem, which is one of the reasons that this is not and should not be legal. It sounds like this group did do some background work to try to make sure they were doing the right thing, but I don't think it should be open season for anyone with a backhoe to dredge a local body of water based on their own judgement.

SOTD - 2026-06-21

• Prep: Shower
• Brush: West Coast Shaving Synthetic
• Razor: RazoRock Game Changer .84 closed comb
• Blade: Bolzano Superinox (3)
• Lather: Ariana & Evans Lavender Noire Shave Soap
• Alum: Stirling Travel Size Alum
• Serum: Ash Hopper Blueberry Serum
• Lotion: Humble Bee Botanicals Calendulove Face Cream
• Fragrance: Stirling Hipster EdT

1st pass WTG, 2nd pass XTG. Comfortably close shave.

Kinder Eggs were/are banned because of food safety.

In this 2016 example a girl died from choking on a piece of a toy from a kinder egg.

I think this issue reflects an interesting difference in regulatory philosophy and how we might choose to protect freedoms vs public health, and what sorts of items are seen as "too bad to be allowed."

SOTD - 2026-06-19

• Prep: Shower
• Brush: West Coast Shaving Synthetic
• Razor: RazoRock Game Changer .84 closed comb
• Blade: Bolzano Superinox (2)
• Lather: Farmcraft VT Sandalwood Shave Soap
• Alum: Stirling Travel Size Alum
• Serum: Ash Hopper Blueberry Serum
• Lotion: Humble Bee Botanicals Calendulove Face Cream
• Fragrance: Stirling Hipster EdT

1st pass WTG, 2nd pass XTG. Socially acceptable shave - I didn't have the lather dialed in very well, but I managed to avoid irritation and complete the shave.

Pretty soon you'll be hearing folks say things like "why are you worried if you don't have anything to hide" as if personal privacy has no value whatsoever. It's a slippery slope!!!

The article makes no mention of homelessness and thus I find the title disingenuous/misleading.

It's a good article though. I think the community would be better served with a title about how this study shows that we would be better off removing parking requirements from building codes.

Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

Film from the 50s just hits different some times. I think this movie is especially poignant given the ramping up of military action globally.

It is also the most serious contributor to acid rain.

https://www.gem.wiki/Sulfur_dioxide_and_coal

The EPA estimates that more than 65%, or over 13 million tons per year, of SO2 production in the U.S. comes from electric utilities, 93 percent of which is produced by coal power plants.

"Miners with black lung disease, meanwhile, have had to the Trump administration’s move to roll back safety protections for the coal industry..."

From OSMRE website:

Each year, OSMRE transfers more than $1 billion to the United Mine Workers of America Health and Retirement Funds to support health care and pension benefits for eligible coal miners and their beneficiaries.

The US spends billions every year subsidizing coal and paying for the toll it takes on coal workers' health. And yet, the MAGA folks I know seem to be more supportive of coal than they were 5 years ago. Like a lot more.

I don't get how this plays in MAGA favor when the coal miners themselves are getting shafted and when coal energy represents a complete and total grift - exactly the same type of stuff that had these same folks so excited about Trump and Musk cutting government programs. Any argument for coal falls apart immediately because natural gas is better in almost every way.

Why are these "coalfare kings" getting away with it?

According to the article the CEO is the only person who died in this crash, the driver was injured but survived.

I think on average beaver ponds promote more biodiversity than human farms, allowing for a larger number of specialized species to find homes. This article gives a breif view of how beavers help to boost biodiversity, including hosting beaver pond specialists. Some methods of farming promote biodiversity, but monoculture largely prevails - 80% of arable land plots are used for monoculture globally.

So we need to do better and strive to do as good of a job as the beavers do.

Am I being overly paranoid?

Yes, simply connecting to the Tor network is not a sketchy thing and browsing the clearnet using Tor is a smart way to preserve your privacy if you aren't in a hurry for your pages to load.

I used to browse the clearnet with Tor regularly but eventually I decided it was overkill and stopped (Tor really is slow a lot of the time so it isn't always a walk in the park).

SOTD - 2026-05-16

• Prep: Shower
• Brush: Stirling X Zenith 28mm Boar
• Razor: RazoRock Game Changer .84 closed comb
• Blade: Gilette 7o'clock sharpedge
• Lather: Ariana & Evans Lavender Noir Shave Soap
• Alum: Stirling Travel Size Alum
• Serum: Ash Hopper Blueberry Serum
• Lotion: Humble Bee Botanicals Calendulove Face Cream
• Fragrance: Stirling Deton-8 EdT

1st pass WTG, 2nd pass XTG. Socially acceptable shave - not as close as some other blades would have gotten

I got engaged today :D

Got a source for this "Revinar" crystal business? I wasn't able to find what you are mentioning when I search for it, and it conflicts with my understanding of chemistry.

I think it's a "confirmation bias" type of thing, which likely originally evolved to "reduce cognitive load," so it is something that all human brains are designed to do unfortunately...

Or maybe it is fortunate? Who knows how torturesome it would be to experience no cognitive bias at ALL. How would you settle on a decision? Thinking of Chidi from The Good Place.

SOTD - 2026-03-09

• Prep: Shower
• Brush: West Coast Shaving Synthetic
• Razor: RazoRock Game Changer .84 closed comb
• Blade: Durablade SharP 7am platinum (1)
• Lather: Ariana & Evans Lavender Noir (Ultima) Shave Soap
• Toner: Stirling Unscented Witch Hazel & Aloe
• Serum: Ash Hopper Blueberry Serum
• Lotion: Humble Bee Botanicals "Calendulove" Face Cream
• Fragrance: Stirling Deton-8 EdT

1x WTG, 1x XTG. One of my best XTG shaves ever! Nice comfortably close shave.

Almost half my workplace got laid off today. Not me though... So far...

Happy 1000th SOTD

SOTD - 2026-03-01

• Prep: Shower
• Brush: West Coast Shaving Synthetic
• Razor: RazoRock Game Changer .84 closed comb
• Blade: Feather New Hi Stainless(1)
• Lather: Ariana & Evans Lavender Noir (Ultima) Shave Soap
• Alum: Stirling Travel Size Alum
• Toner: Stirling Unscented Witch Hazel & Aloe
• Serum: Ash Hopper Blueberry Serum
• Lotion: Humble Bee Botanicals "Calendulove" Face Cream
• Fragrance: Stirling Deton-8 EdT

1 pass WTG. Very comfortable. A socially acceptable shave.

In hindsight I used WAY too much soap, maybe 10x what I needed. Still getting used to loading different soap consistencies using different brushes... And this soap is nuts! Super different from what I have used before, so far I like it a lot a lot. The scent is intriguing, hard to describe. Very nice. My face feels awesome, if a little dried by my overuse of the soap.

In my experience I have come across people who presented as "stupid." I have worked with rotating casts of temps at a couple of jobs - the "stupid" people are just as common in management as in the temps.

Usually I think it is because they are not present in their moment/don't care about what is happening, so they aren't really stupid but are just... vacant. Once you get them talking about a project they are actually passionate about, you can see the light of their intellect. Some folks however really do have a hard time understanding the world through logic, even when they are really trying.

SOTD - 2026-03-14

• Prep: Shower
• Brush: West Coast Shaving Synthetic
• Razor: RazoRock Game Changer .84 closed comb
• Blade: Bolzano Superinox (1)
• Lather: Ariana & Evans Lavender Noir (Ultima) Shave Soap
• Alum: Stirling Travel Size Alum
• Toner: Stirling Unscented Witch Hazel & Aloe
• Serum: Ash Hopper Blueberry Serum
• Lotion: Humble Bee Botanicals Calendulove Face Cream
• Fragrance: Stirling Deton-8 EdT

1st pass WTG 2nd pass XTG. This was my first time using a Bolzano blade. It went great on the WTG pass so I really went for it on the XTG, I was a little (a lot) too aggressive. Definitely wish I had just kept it to the WTG pass.

SOTD - 2026-03-28

• Prep: Shower
• Brush: West Coast Shaving Synthetic
• Razor: RazoRock Game Changer .84 closed comb
• Blade: Bolzano Superinox (3)
• Lather: Ariana & Evans Lavender Noir (Ultima) Shave Soap
• Toner: Stirling Unscented Witch Hazel & Aloe
• Serum: Ash Hopper Blueberry Serum
• Lotion: Humble Bee Botanicals Calendulove Face Cream
• Fragrance: Stirling Deton-8 EdT

1st pass WTG 2nd pass XTG. Taking down 8 days of growth. Pretty good shave, not much irritation; CCS. Pleasantly surprised by how well the 3rd use of the blade went!!

Hopefully I can get my shit together and shave more frequently this coming week as I was definitely missing my shaves last week. I hate having to wear a beard net at work 😠