cynar

No, we are perfectly fine at reading. We just don't accept the bullshit excuses as cover anymore.

Unfortunately there are too many people who dog whistle online. When they are called out, they claim they were sarcastic or trolling and "why can't you take a joke?". It can make many of us quite reactive to it.

Given how much of today's political hell grew out of "jokes", it's akin to walking into a veteran's PTSD support group and firing off a cap gun. There are grounds where it could be a funny prank, but it's 100% on you to not cross the line.

Faster, with more power is better. You will almost always get discolouration however.

The goal is to vaporise the paper before the heat can spread to the edge and discolor or ignite the rest of the paper.

Basically, get your machine moving as fast as possible, without skipping etc. Then adjust the power to a bit above the 'just cut' power. You also want to make sure your focus is as good as possible, and your paper is as flat as possible. Good suction also helps remove the debris before it can spread the heat or defocus the beam.

Also check your alignment. The unfocused laser beam is remarkably wide. If any light is not on the proper path it can deflect weirdly. This creates secondary spots just of the main one. These normally don't matter much, since they lack the power to melt acrylic etc. The can be strong enough to discolor paper however. You want the beam to hit the lense dead center at 90 degrees. Paper allows very little margin of error. Make sure your mirrors and lens are clean and unclouded. These can create the side scatter I mentioned.

I've not used it on card, but masking tape on the cut lines helps a LOT with plywood. The discoloration is ejected material falling back down. The masking tape catches it and can be peeled off later. Depending on your card and design, this could work.

Hope that data dump helps.

I ran the numbers extending this. It would be 500,000km, or 0.004AU to vaporise meat. This is well inside the star, possibly within the core itself (making the maths even less reliable).

This is countered by the fact that neutrinos almost never interact with normal matter.

Based on the xkcd discussion posted, you would get a 4 severts dose (lethal radiation) at around 2.3AU. About the orbit of Mars. This is radiation damage however. You likely wouldn't feel it directly, let alone be vaporised. This is also already inside the star going supernova.

To vaporise meat takes about 1500000j/kg. This would equate to 1,500,000 severts. Assuming a point emitter, this would be with 0.004AU, or about 500,000km away. This is likely well within the core of the star, so the maths likely breaks down before this point.

Both can get expensive, at least for some. If your needing to flush it every couple of hours then £/$5 a bottle gets expensive.

It's better for people to have an easy option given, than have them figure "I can get away with tap water" can make it worse.

It depends on the reliability.

If you announce it, there are often counter measures to the counter measures. Once the enemy knows, the reliability begins to degrade. E.g. mirror finishes can disperse laser strikes, jinking can doge orbital rail guns, or dummy submunitions can overwhelm interceptor shields. Yes, these can be countered in turn, but you now have a new technological arms race.

There's also the first strike problem. If you are going to be invulnerable, then a first strike might be reasonable, before the system comes online. This was actually part of the reason the "Slam" project was stopped (a viable, but utterly batshit insane weapon system). They were worried that if the USSR got wind of it, they might decide a first strike, before it came online, was the only reasonable response.

It could be argued that the government "owns" the whole country. It gives you unlimited use, for a 1 time fee. The existence of property laws, property taxes, and eminent domain implying this.

It depends on how pedantic the vampire is about it.

I still don't get why "rich lists" aren't done using tax returns. It's a clear yardstick to compare egos by.

It also has the side effect of encouraging civic contribution via taxes. By the time you're that rich, money is just a score. Make it worthwhile not to dodge taxes, and tax dodging will drop off.

If someone is attempting to drop turds on you, from 20 floors up, you've REALLY pissed someone off. That takes dedication and ingenious planning to pull off.

Congratulations on your arch nemesis!

Can you imagine the reverse? A "female tears" mug, being used to mock a woman after domestic abuse. It would have caused an unbelievable amount of outrage! The fact that the situation has deteriorated enough that I'm not sure it still would, shows the flaw in the mentality.

Was lunch included?