What kind of horror weapon smears out soldiers like that? It looks painful.
Singularity bombs? It looks like spaghettification.
Well, it’s been noted that RFK Jr. seems determined to bring back iron lung machines.
But yes, a campaign to ignite MAGA outrage over Anything That Has Ever Been Changed is sure to succeed. That’s their psychology.
Currently reading Mary Roach Replaceable You. Prior to the 60’s before flouridation, it was a commen wedding gift for the bride and groom to have all their teeth pulled and replaced with dentures. Sounds awesome!
I’m currently reading Sam Neill’s memoir, and he mentioned that it was common in New Zealand to do it to kids! I guess the idea was you’d have dentures inevitably and eventually, so get it done when you’re young.
We laugh about pulling teeth preventively, but it’s still routine to pull out wisdom teeth even when they’re perfectly fine.
Wisdom teeth are semi-vestigial. Like an appendix, the best thing they can do for you is sit quietly doing nothing useful for 70-80 years. The worst? Ugly death.
Good riddance to that risk.
AIEEEEEEEEEE!!! 
As for pulling wisdom teeth: most of the time, I believe, it’s because if left in place they mess up the orientation of the rest of the teeth. To get what’s considered a nice smile with nice straight teeth, we need fewer teeth. (I realize there are pain problems with impaction, too.)
Here are the opening sentences from a New York Times article (gift link to the whole article) about how a Louisiana state law was modified in the draft phase (i.e., before being voted upon) to change it from a tax rebate for fiber-optic equipment to a tax rebate for equipment used in data centers. The reason was that Louisiana was attempting to secure a $50 billion data center proposed by Meta (parent of Facebook) that would consume seven times the power of the city of New Orleans. The secrecy was to avoid local opposition. The whole thing sounds profoundly anti-democratic. (And my mind boggles at the dollar amount, although even with that massive investment, I doubt very many direct permanent jobs will result. Perhaps not as many as a typical big box store.)
A Louisiana state legislative committee was about to consider a bill in April 2024 when Richard Nelson, then the state’s revenue secretary, received an urgent message from Gov. Jeff Landry. Get the bill passed, the newly elected Republican governor told him, because they needed it for something else.
Mr. Nelson walked across a room in Baton Rouge’s towering State Capitol to the bill’s author, Chris Turner, a Republican state representative.
“‘Hey, we need to hijack your bill,’” Mr. Nelson told Mr. Turner. “‘I can’t really tell you what it’s about. All I can tell you is that it’s important.’”
There are a few of us (yes, I include myself) with large enough jaws so that our wisdom teeth come in straight, without impaction and without crowding/shifting other teeth. I guess that’s proof I have a big mouth. 
As mine came in without a problem there was no need to extract them unless/until they started having a problem. In my 50’s two of them started to deteriorate so they were extracted. Although you sometimes hear dire warnings about how they’re harder to extract later in life that did not apply to me because, as I noted, they came in straight and without interacting with other teeth. The extractions were straightforward and without complications.
I still have the remaining two. One of which is starting to show potential signs of problems but the cracked molar on my right side is of more pressing concern and I will have that attended to first. Like, next month. Or early September, depending on scheduling.
Nonetheless, I am an exception to the usual rule and my decision(s) was made after consultation with an actual dentist.
Thank you so much for the gift link, as the whole article should be read to truly see the utter corruption and the brash bravado in which it is defended. Actually I wouldn’t even say defended, but rather, boasted about. I sure hope the flood plain on which this is built lives up to its name in an epic manner.
And the situation is a classic example of privatizing (potential) profits while socializing (potential) losses.
Treasury secretary says don’t bother saving for retirement because Elon Musk is going to end scarsity.
End scarcity of what? We’ll have an abundance of what?
I just get sympathetic embarrassment whenever that walking joke speaks.
Cricket flour is pretty good though (made when they grind up dried crickets). I used to eat tortilla chips made from it, and weirdly good chocolate chip cookies.
Progressives do push the idea of crickets as a food source, since it’s a very sustainable way to produce food high in protein, iron, and Vitamin B12. It doesn’t necessarily mean eating crickets any more than eating wheat products involves eating stalks of wheat (though some people do eat whole crickets - I am not).
So yes, the left is in favor of eating crickets because it’s a good idea that would help the planet. Though of course, nobody is forcing anyone into anything, and it’s not like it’s a major agenda item for the left.
I am appalled by the inquisition being held on Dr. Fauci by the Republicans, led by that scum-sucking asshole Rand Paul. This man is widely considered to be a hero of the pandemic and they’re trying to make him out to be a fraud and a criminal. This is the guy who tried to stop Trump from murdering a half a million people by speaking truth to power. He wisely chose not to let them goad him into making any remarks that they could then turn into an indictment. Instead, what they got was a man quietly defending his 5th amendment rights and not allowing them to gain any traction other than “what kind of innocent person uses the 5th amendment?”, which is weak sauce. I think/hope this obvious attempt to distract from Trump and to try to make this an election year issue is going to backfire badly. A disgraceful attempt to smear a person who gave his entire professional life to protecting the public.
It’s another test of our American Experiment, and I wish I didn’t feel that there is a genuine chance that Fauci does time.
It is a travesty there is any chance at all it could happen.
The silver lining is it reeks of desperation. There aren’t any issues they aren’t underwater on, so it’s a replay of past hits - communism, COVID conspiracies, it’s all Biden’s fault, etc. Worse, none of them have gotten any real traction. Sure, among the MAGA crowd, but none of it is really moving the needle with anybody else.
They’re coming for your Roomba. Not quite yet, ICE would need retraining.