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Going to LA for a few days in Dec. Anyone have recommendations for a sportier rental place? I can get a 328i from Midway for $100/day, which is pretty decent.
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Nov 3, 2015 04:58
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Boaz MacPhereson posted:Anybody got a preferred manufacturer/source for LED replacement bulbs? 1156s, 194s, etc. I sit here surrounded by the carcasses of inferior automotive LED lighting. You see, finding a good set of automotive LED bulbs has been a passion of mine for many years now. It all started with my father. My father, an electrician, is the type of person that always wears a belt, and his belt always has three things on it: a Leatherman, a shortened About a decade ago, however, cheaper LED flashlights started to become available. First it was the standard 3mm LED style. The market moved and shifted and evolved through the LED array flashlights, the single LED-in-a-useless-reflector-housing, and finally to more modern COB LEDs with bespoke lenses and focusing mechanisms and housings instead of second-hand filament housings. Through all of these changes, my father (and I, through birthday/Christmas gifts) would try out a new design. Nothing captured the durability, simplicity, and brightness of the venerable Mag-Lite for many years. Only recently, I believe, has he found a flashlight worthy of his belt. I have gone through a similar evolution. It started when I got my first car in 2001, a 1988 Oldsmobile Delta 88. Because I grew up in a small town in Idaho, but had a legitimate electrician for a father, I was raised with a 50/50 Redneck Engineering/"Do it right once" mentality when it came to electrics. Couple that with a lovely, old, unbreakable car, and you have essentially given a young amateur engineer his first testbed. The oldsmobile was the perfect platform for electronics and lighting fuckery. It was the type of car that chewed through $100 alternators every two years, so it gave young me motivation to run with as light of an electrical load as possible, lest it crap out in the middle of the Idaho mountain road at night and I have to limp it back two hours on battery alone. It had large lighting housings, which afforded plenty of room for amateur hot-snot and breadboard assemblies. It was the base model of a much more expensive platform (the "royale brougham") so it had extra wires running to the taillights and headlights for things like front and rear fogs and backup sensors, so I didn't have to do any wire monkeying to get things running most of the time. I started off building my own turn signal and brake light assemblies with 3 and 5mm LEDs. I tried arrow patterns, overlaid grids, etc, but nothing really hit the mark. Around 2005, though, LED bulbs started becoming readily available for cheap off of ebay. At first the only things available were socket adapters going to grid arrays (still the best option for a lot of installs, like trunk or dome lights), but eventually bulbs themselves, that fit in bulb housings, started entering the market. On every vehicle I've ever owned, I've attempted to do LED conversions on everything except for the headlamps. Headlamps have very specific beam patterns, and while a lot of "DRL" LED bulbs you can put in throw out almost enough light to drive by, I guarantee that you're blinding every other fucker on the road. Here's a short list of the vehicles I've owned (not complete) and the LED bulbs I've swapped: 1988 Oldsmobile Delta: corner marker lights, brake lights/turn signals, center cyclops brake light, front and rear fog lights, dome light, trunk light (wouldn't work at the time with the mercury trunk light switch for some reason, probably low-current LED + corrosion) 2004 Dodge Ram: Dashboard lights ("custom" enclosures with hot glue, as bespoke LED holders weren't available), rear turn signals, license plate light, front "fog" bumper lights that my mom leaves on all of the time (this is her truck now) 2009 Royal Enfield: Everything but the headlight, including the indicator bulbs. For the brake light/tail light, I use a 36-LED red dual-brightness grid, and I surrounded it with some red LED gel strip lighting in an oval. So when the lights are on, it's a dimmer red square in the housing, but when the brake is on, the red square gets bright AND a red oval ring of leds lights up, increasing not just the brightness but the size of the illuminated area. Note: a good BA9S bulb is difficult to come by, and the enfield uses 4 in the speedo, and two in the "pilot lights" on the nacelle. 1979 Honda CB650: Everything but the headlight and front turn signals. Also uses BA9S bulbs in the dash. At the time, good multidirectional LEDs weren't available for cheap, so front turn signals are still bulbs. Also simplified the flasher problem. 1972 VW Beetle: Reverse/Turn/Brake lights, front and rear. Dash lights, dome light, courtesy light installed underneath the glovebox. Note: Dash bulbs are BA7S bulbs, which have a few LED replacements, but are reverse polarity, so I had to separate the base from the LED and flip the wiring around, Very tiny and tedious, only needed four, but purchased 10, and broke 3 of them on the conversion. Used "star" bulbs for the brake lights, ended up being complete low-quality poo poo and falling apart. I have changed out every bulb on the beetle at least twice trying to find something that is both bright an durable, as some of the brighter bulbs for the cost ended up literally vibrating apart due to shoddy quality. 1973 VW Bus: Here's where things started coming together, and I spent a little more money than normal to get acceptable brightness first-try. Reverse lights are 36-LED white grid panels using an adapter, as they fit the housing perfectly and give a "bigger" light than a point-source bulb, which is important when reversing. Brake lights are "JDM Astar" bulbs, as well as the turn signals. A lot pricier than I normally go for, but for once they are bright as poo poo even in daylight. With LEDs, you definitely get what you pay for. Turn signals, brake lights, reverse lights. The dash lights have no equivalent LED replacement, but I will probably put in some LED strip lighting for that later. tl;dr Until very recently, and I mean like 2012-recently, every single LED replacement bulb you could purchase for under $30 was a piece of poo poo. Trust me on this, I've been through the song and dance before. Even now you really need to step up with a lot of them. For interior / dome lighting, I go to superbrightleds.com and look up what styles of bulbs are available, as they have good listings with size measurements and lengths and stuff for things like festoon bulbs. Then I go to ebay and buy the cheapest one available in the same style that ships from the US. I know when I get them from the US that they're still Chinese made, and I'm okay with that. But US sellers both get the item to you a little faster, and tend to be a tiny bit more picky with stock quality, so the chance of getting duds is 1/20th that of buying direct. Queen_Combat fucked around with this message at 05:11 on Nov 3, 2015 |
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Nov 3, 2015 05:09
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I've been wanting to build some LED headlights out of a couple CREE flashlights and a regulator
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Nov 3, 2015 05:11
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Phillips actually has an H4 LED replacement coming out fairly soon (though I doubt they'll market it in the US), and already have a drop in LED replacement for H8/H11/H16 fog bulbs
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Nov 3, 2015 05:18
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At this point I'd be happy to get a Neo Wedge T3 LED that's slightly less than 8mm across at the base and a proper height. I've tried at least three kinds from different sellers only to find that none of them really fit a Subaru foglight switch - the base is always like "8.0mm +/- 0.1mm" (always + in practice) or the top has lovely glue/soldering and the bulb is way too tall to fit. The stock Subaru bulb is 7.5mm wide at the base and 11.6mm long (including the base), but I've yet to find something that fits. Might have to order some bare LEDs from digikey and hack up my own ones. I've tried:
Seat Safety Switch fucked around with this message at 05:42 on Nov 3, 2015 |
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Nov 3, 2015 05:22
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That point at 12:15am on a work-night where you are getting correct readings finally on a photo sensor because you've been super dumb and incorrectly set it up and have been battling it for 6 hours, but gently caress it that motherfucker works now and I'm not going to end up failing this lab and class and have to drop out of school and lose my house and live under the overpass and one day end up as a dirty hobosicle that kids piss on for fun. That's a good moment 
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Nov 3, 2015 06:21
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Welp, just ruined my friend's life. I saw a comment on FB, did a double take and saw it was the guy who raped a friend of mine years ago and got away with it. That friend later killed herself. I clicked on his profile and it was mostly private aside from mutual friends. He's friends with a very good friend of mine, one of my closest friends. I asked her why she was friends with him, we discuss what he's done in the past to people in my life and she hits me with a bomb. This was the guy she lost her virginity to. I am such a loving prick.
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Nov 3, 2015 06:31
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Rhyno posted:Welp, just ruined my friend's life. When you pull the lever, the trainwreck becomes your fault. You have to let it happen, watch it happen, collide, explode, destroy. You have to let it happen, because trying to intervene just nets you the blame. Especially there. People can live on lies and ignorance forever. Let it happen.
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Nov 3, 2015 06:39
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N is for Nipples posted:When you pull the lever, the trainwreck becomes your fault. You have to let it happen, watch it happen, collide, explode, destroy. You have to let it happen, because trying to intervene just nets you the blame. Especially there. People can live on lies and ignorance forever. Let it happen. I've wanted to kill this guy for a long time, I pretty much went into a blind rage when I saw his name. I absolutely regret it now.
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Nov 3, 2015 06:41
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Rhyno posted:Welp, just ruined my friend's life. well at least you didnt rape anyone
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Nov 3, 2015 06:42
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I don't remember that Macklemore song.
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Nov 3, 2015 06:43
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Rhyno posted:Welp, just ruined my friend's life. Like you could have known. gently caress that guy and better that you brought it up in case the same had happened to her and she might then report it since others had.
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Nov 3, 2015 07:00
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I mostly post statuses on Twitter now because Facebook makes me grumpy I still post cute puppy pix on Facebook and Instagram but Mostly because too many yosposters follow my Twitter and I can't be arsed to make a separate one
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Nov 3, 2015 07:02
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El Jebus posted:Like you could have known. gently caress that guy and better that you brought it up in case the same had happened to her and she might then report it since others had. I know there's no way I could have known. Doesn't make me not feel like a shitheel.
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Nov 3, 2015 07:05
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Going to a good friend's baby shower on Saturday. Quite pleased with the gift I found. Oh my god gently caress phone posting MustardFacial fucked around with this message at 07:21 on Nov 3, 2015 |
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Nov 3, 2015 07:13
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Honestly mate you need to choose between saying exactly how you feel about something and caring about the aftermath that may occur from that Like on one hand it's good to say what's on your mind about certain piece of poo poo people in your area, but on the other you need to not feel bad when what you say changes what the person thinks or feels about it or whatever Idk I know I just say whatever and if someone has a problem with it oh well I don't give a gently caress but it needed to be said for me to have said it, yah know? Sorry this may come off as hostile I just came back from a pizza party that involved 45 pizzas and a lot of cider
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Nov 3, 2015 07:16
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MustardFacial posted:Going to a good friend's baby shower on Saturday. Quite pleased with the gift I found. Fixed that for you. (need an i. before imgur.com, and an l.jpg at the end)  [
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Nov 3, 2015 07:18
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I know, but the loving imgur app wouldn't let me get the image source url, and I kept fat fingering the loving keys so I got pissed, submitted the post and went to my desktop to fix it because this is a real computer.
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Nov 3, 2015 07:24
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I don't use the app, I use the mobile website.
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Nov 3, 2015 07:30
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I don't even bother trying to phone post, my fingers are too fat to break 15 WPM on a phone. Give me a regular keyboard and I bang out 100+ WPM, so I get frustrated in a hurry with a touchscreen keyboard.
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Nov 3, 2015 07:33
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some texas redneck posted:I don't even bother trying to phone post, my fingers are too fat to break 15 WPM on a phone. Once you get your brain good and compatible with a swype-like phone keyboard, you can hammer out mobile shitposts at a good 30-40 wpm. it just doesn't do swearing well.
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Nov 3, 2015 07:36
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MustardFacial posted:Going to a good friend's baby shower on Saturday. Quite pleased with the gift I found. If you need a follow-up, my daughter still loves this one three years in: http://www.amazon.com/Racecar-Alphabet-Notable-Childrens-Younger/dp/0689850913
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Nov 3, 2015 07:44
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CAT INTERCEPTOR posted:You will need to explain that one to me, because pay by the hour is always cheaper and leaves you with more retirement money? retired in the sense that i quit them not retirement money
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Nov 3, 2015 07:46
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Rhyno posted:Welp, just ruined my friend's life. So even though he's a rapist, he gets a pass with her because she lost her virginity to him?
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Nov 3, 2015 08:26
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Buddy of mine told me his facebook horror story today. An ex girlfriend who he very *tentatively* reconnected with posted pictures of herself with her new baby. He read the comments, pretty generic supporting stuff, so he chimed in "congratulations, you're gonna make a great mom". Two days later a mutual friend informs him that he just congratulated her on a stillbirth. The pics were of her grieving with a dead baby. Edit: The moral of the story Rhyno is it happens all the time. Facebooks sucks because it increases the quantity of communication while lowering the quality. As you and my friend learned this week. LloydDobler fucked around with this message at 09:00 on Nov 3, 2015 |
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Nov 3, 2015 08:57
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Anyone on facebook that chats wth me knows how fast I can bang out messages and that's using 2 thumb taps I hate swype
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Nov 3, 2015 09:25
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Tusen Takk posted:I mostly post statuses on Twitter now because Facebook makes me grumpy What the gently caress are you doing on Twitter, you are too smart for that shitfest. Nodoze posted:retired in the sense that i quit them not retirement money Ahhh gotcha. Tell me AI.... why am I supposed to be impressed because a female jockey managed to beat the poo poo out of a horse and forced it to exhaustion better than a bunch of male jockeys, all for the purpose of gambling and boozed up shitfucks getting off on animal cruelty? I would have thought said jockey should be hanging her loving head in shame at being part of a industry that spits out hundreds of thousands of perfectly good horses for glue and human gambling misery? Honestly, horse racing and Australia's loving obession with the Melbourne Cup is truly hosed up. Let alone constantly dodging drunk idiots all afternoon on the bike. For fucks sake how goddamn loving stupid. I'd rather have Halloween than the Cup anytime - and my opinion of Halloweeen is so low it could walk under a toilet door with stilts and a top hat. Just absolutly loving disgusting, the whole lot of it. The fact it's just for gambling really is just the pinnicle of hosed up reasoning to flog horses. It would be slightly okay if the losing horses were slaughtered and fed to starving kids, at least there would be some marginally acceptible purpose to this insanity.
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Nov 3, 2015 09:47
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Do I want to buy a 2l petrol Mazda e2000 van this week or hold out for a 2.2l diesel e2200 van?
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Nov 3, 2015 11:45
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Geirskogul posted:
...this is why I want to learn electronics, I feel the need to play with car lights and make them prettier, better. There seems to be a few people modding Japanese light setups, mostly in Japan and coming up with some cool looking stuff. This is the only one I have to hand right now but there's some interesting stuff about.  .My friend's just bought this Prelude and I said we need to look into lighting up the arse of this thing completely 
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Nov 3, 2015 11:56
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The LEDs I got from Amazon started flickering and burnt out (I guess?) now in my glovebox which is a pain to get to. drat it. It's probably a 194 but I don't remember.
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Nov 3, 2015 12:13
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From what I've seen, the Japanese-style (bosozoku-esque?) light setups make clever use of LED strips, diffusers, and custom reflectors. At least, from what I've seen on YouTube recently.
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Nov 3, 2015 12:19
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CAT INTERCEPTOR posted:Let alone constantly dodging drunk idiots all afternoon on the bike. Yeah, this past week has reminded me why I stopped riding for a while. Even in a small city drivers are loving aggro at any perceived inconvenience. It is hilarious when someone blows past and has to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting the car in front, but after the fifth time that ride it gets old.
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Nov 3, 2015 12:23
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leica posted:So even though he's a rapist, he gets a pass with her because she lost her virginity to him? No but it's information she really didn't need to know at this juncture in her life.
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Nov 3, 2015 12:28
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Rhyno posted:No but it's information she really didn't need to know at this juncture in her life. Why is it so important that he was the first person she banged? poo poo, that's usually nothing more than an anecdote in anyone's life, and most often that person ends up being an rear end in a top hat, anyway... Unless she's like 18 or something, in which case, hang with chicks your own age, Rhyno.
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Nov 3, 2015 12:43
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EVERYWHERE 
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Geirskogul posted:From what I've seen, the Japanese-style (bosozoku-esque?) light setups make clever use of LED strips, diffusers, and custom reflectors. At least, from what I've seen on YouTube recently. Any linkies? That's the sort of thing I'd quite like to play with.
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Nov 3, 2015 12:58
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Can anyone who might have a Physics background explain what the hell is going on with that EM Drive Eagleworks is testing? I understand it's gone from "Huh..... that's weird" to "Huh..... we ruled out those thigns and we still got a That's weird" and they have more testing to rule out thermal effects - but there's now some belief that the EM Drive might really defy Newton's laws and no one has a clue how it is able to produce thrust? From what I have been reading the new round of testing has a few people more interested as clearly something odd is going on. Is that true?
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Nov 3, 2015 13:21
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CAT INTERCEPTOR posted:Can anyone who might have a Physics background explain what the hell is going on with that EM Drive Eagleworks is testing? I understand it's gone from "Huh..... that's weird" to "Huh..... we ruled out those thigns and we still got a That's weird" and they have more testing to rule out thermal effects - but there's now some belief that the EM Drive might really defy Newton's laws and no one has a clue how it is able to produce thrust? Basically it's a situation where I'll believe it when we put a working model in orbit and can verify thrust production by trajectory changes. Until then I'm chalking it up to unaccounted-for procedural error and magical thinking.
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Nov 3, 2015 13:31
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CAT INTERCEPTOR posted:Can anyone who might have a Physics background explain what the hell is going on with that EM Drive Eagleworks is testing? I understand it's gone from "Huh..... that's weird" to "Huh..... we ruled out those thigns and we still got a That's weird" and they have more testing to rule out thermal effects - but there's now some belief that the EM Drive might really defy Newton's laws and no one has a clue how it is able to produce thrust? The last round of testing results I saw was that NASA Eagleworks tested it and got a "thrust" that was outside the error range of the torsion pendulum they were using to test it, meaning something strange was going on. It was still 1/1000 the thrust the inventor(s) claimed, though. As for what's going on, it's almost certainly not what the original people claim, and something that's not fully understood yet. As there's no complicated math or engineering behind it yet, it's a darling for self-proclaimed internet smart guys to talk about.
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Nov 3, 2015 13:31
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I like the idea of challenging what we know, and am excited no matter the outcome of the EM drive. It's fun to think about!
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Nov 3, 2015 14:04
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CAT INTERCEPTOR posted:What the gently caress are you doing on Twitter, you are too smart for that shitfest. Mostly for the unbiased news that comes in (like I saw the KKK poo poo on twitter way before on the local news) also it's really great to be able to tweet at celebrities and know they may have just read your opinion about their terrible careers appreciate the sentiment though 
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Nov 3, 2015 14:42
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