3 out of 5 stars A disappointment compared to expectations

I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately, it fell flat for me. The ingredients of a great espionage/heist thriller are present and, the author is clearly talented. However, the book suffers from a few flaws:

1. The plot has no true conflict for the characters to overcome. Yes, they pull off a high-stakes heist through a shootout with cartel soldiers, but nothing goes wrong. They have a contingency plan for everything. The problem of moving over a billion dollars in cash half way around the world hits no snags. They easily buy gold bullion and launder the rest of the cash into banks with barely a pause. It all goes exactly as planned or is quickly mitigated through extensive planning. Nobody slips up, and nothing really unexpected happens, which makes stealing a billion dollars of cash seem like a low stakes operation in the end.

2. Every person the characters run into has some kind of encyclopedic knowledge of history, gear, conspiracy theories, etc., and wants to flaunt that knowledge immediately and at length. It ends up taking up a portion of most chapters and ultimately halting or entirely derailing the pacing and plot. I personally enjoy descriptions of the gear, weapons, and methods used but when relevant. Unfortunately, this turns into a recitation of items/manufacturers/people famous in those circles with no real relevance to the plot at hand.

There are other things in the content of the book that I personally disagree with, but I'm not going to knock the author for those. It reads a bit like a self-insert for the main character, but completely divorcing your own thoughts and views from the characters, especially in your first book, seems like a huge undertaking. Overall, I finished the book hoping it would improve but am disappointed with where it ended up. Hopefully the other books in the series are better than the first, but I'm not sure I can power through to find out.

Oops, forgot that part. Door Number Three by Dan Kemp.

If you want a decent military thriller series, Tier One by Brian Andrews and Jeffery Wilson is a good place to start. Their spin off series Sons of Valor is also solid.

Isn't this simply tolerance?

That was a solid read

Likely a form of spalting.

Yeeeeaaaahhhh, I'm going to go ahead and stick with a one time payment for proven 250+ year old technology instead of what would very likely be a subscription based privacy nightmare that can revoke my access to clear sight whenever they update their T&Cs. Hard pass, get fucked with a splintery utility pole.

I have a project at a former surface mine/quarry and saw an area where recent rain eroded away sediment surrounding the gravel but not directly under it. Each rock was supported by its own column.

Short answer: Get an evaluation by an audiologist, if possible, to determine if something can be done.

Long answer: Depending on the personal cause of tinnitus, solutions range from nothing to getting hearing aids with specific software that provides tinnitus relief. I have genetic, moderate to severe hearing loss in higher frequencies and have very noticeable tinnitus. The complications from hearing loss with tinnitus can vary, but personally were resulting in increased sensitivity to noise throughout the day, irritability, and diminished ability to communicate (I couldn't hear what my spouse or kids were saying when there was any kind of background noise present). It led me to never want to go anywhere or do anything outside our home because I couldn't hear or enjoy anything.

I went to an audiologist, had a bunch of tests, and was prescribed a set of hearing aids. Said hearing aids play soft ocean noises in addition to boosting the frequencies I have diminished hearing in. The ocean noises allow the brain to train itself to treat the tinnitus as a routine background noise instead of a panic inducing "danger" sound. Over time, it has helped in significantly reducing my attention to the tinnitus. It will never go away, and I have to sleep with ocean sounds playing so I don't go insane.

I have worked in environmental consulting for the past decade and have routinely dealt with Ohio EPA on both hazardous waste investigation/remediation and NPDES permitted discharges. I have been part of teams preparing and submitting antidegradation and NPDES permit renewals, as well as maintaining compliance with existing permits. After reading through the news article and then the actual draft permit, the news article is very sensationalized. I am in no way defending the data centers or operators. The news article correctly states the discharges are untreated but fails to mention the strict monitoring requirements that would in place to maintain antidegradation and conform with Ohio Water Quality Standards and public water supply standards. There is also a Notice of Intent that requires the applicant to meet a list of requirements to even be considered for discharging under the general permit. NPDES permitting is a federal program that is also administered by the states. Ohio EPA is setting some pretty stringent limits under their authority in their draft permit, and the public and news organizations are cherry picking and/or don't have the background to understand the permit requirements.

Draft permit and fact sheets here.

Man, I see this hot take pop up repeatedly, and it's so easy to say from the outside. Americans are doing things. Why do you think the fascist pigs just murdered another person? Beccause he was doing something. There were crowds of thousands of people marching in protest in Minneapolis today. What's the next step in "doing something" to you?

America is a large country, where most of the states are as large or larger than most European countries. People are organizing locally, because that's what they can do. Labor strikes are great, but there are no protections for that in this country. Many employers can fire employees at any time for any reason. Paid time off is not guaranteed, healthcare is not guaranteed. State governments typically do not provide those benefits, and the federal government does not provide those benefits. People striking risk losing their jobs, homes, and healthcare, and many cannot afford to go without income for any period of time without risking homelessness or being unable to affort basic necessities. People are so ground down from the burden of simply existing in this environment.

So what's the next step? I'm truly, genuinely asking, what can Americans actually do about a federal government that is utterly poisoned from the inside?

I spent an embarrassingly long time trying to figure out what kind of backpack you are wearing, thinking to myself, "why are the straps so uneven?"

When all of the Civil War Confederate generals walked free instead of standing trial and being executed for treason. When the era of Reconstruction was allowed to be ripped away and ground into nothing. When minorities were openly lynched and the perpetrators went unpunished. When, and when, and when....

In January 2025, the US EPA was literally days away from having a ban go into effect on the manufacture, import, and domestic use of TCE, with very specific time-based phase out exceptions for critical applications. All general industry use/import would have been banned within 1 year, and 4 specific industrial uses would have been required to test and qualify less harmful alternatives and replace TCE uses on specific time frames. The Trump administration prevented the ban from going into effect, and it has been under judicial review for over a year now. It can't be fought in court to be put back into effect becaise it was never allowed to in the first place. Absolutely infuriating.

No thanks, I only date my wife.

I flat out love cilantro. I think the courteous thing to do would be bring a small bowl of it and place it next to your potluck dish so people can put however much they want on it. The correct amount is a lot.

Pirate bay, search for "9 2009”. You can find it about 3/4 of the way down the page

Knowledge and wisdom are not the same. Wisdom is knowledge compounded by experience. The examples you list are not wisdom, nor are they necessarily knowledge. They are parenting techniques with obvious flaws.

As for 18 being the magic number, that's pretty societally arbitrary. Sure, one is legally an adult at 18 in many societies, but that doesn't mean they have life experience to amount to having wisdom. Many 18 year olds know enough to function in society, but they're realistically still children from a developmental standpoint. There's no magic age for anything.

Maybe they're asking where you want to commit armed robbery first?

Oh man, I had something similar a few years ago. I was bent over tying my shoes, and my oldest goes, "Wow, you have PopPop hair!" Acceptance and emotional recovery took a few

The rectal to keyboard interface has had huge bandwidth advancements