VB Knives

Hollow Ground, Carbon Steel Knives and More:

[VB Knives @Empty_America]

I'm listing a limited number of these very cool Friction Folders for the holiday season.

Same carbon steel and grind that made our reputation in the fixed blade arena.

$80 shipped, there is no comparable knife in this price range anywhere.

Link in next post.

[VB Knives @Empty_America]

The academic year feels "normal."

Like a how a normal adult human life would be in a rich country.

You are off at Christmas and there is a Summer vacation, etc.

[LindyMan @PaulSkallas]

We all had that phase where we thought about becoming a teacher. Summers off. Pension. A workplace that isn't stressful compared to corporate America.

[C. Sandbatch @CSandbatch]

By any reasonable measure, I'm a pretty "urban" person, but like....I think every city and every person can be vectorized into a field whose poles are Los Angeles, New Orleans, Chicago, and New York.

[VB Knives @Empty_America]

Having "High IQ" doesn't allow you to just solve politics.

In fact, it may make you usually bad at understanding politics.

A lot of people who don't know how to build a rocket did know it was a very bad idea to go "all in" on MAGA.

[svgmzr @svgmzr]

@Empty_America Tech bros sold their birthright for an oatmeal. They should’ve kept distance from Trump and not go all-in for like five percent tax break

[VB Knives @Empty_America]

This is a crazy opportunity to own and restore a truly fine home on a decent sized lot (rare and critical).

But it's hard to imagine someone just moving to rural NW Indiana. That isn't a thing anyone does.

And locals almost never mess with these types of places.

[Old Houses Under 50K and Beyond @oldhouseunder50]

c.1866 #Indiana #GothicRevival on 2.32 #Acres – Ole Judy Brick Estate $150K. Originally owned by a wealthy cattleman. I can see his 3 sons sliding down that winding staircase and his 2 daughters doing needlepoint by the fireplaces!
https://t.co/zd7mVdaOZg

[VB Knives @Empty_America]

@PennMaxxing That's sort of true but on the other hand you can't maintain a house enough to make it worth more than 300K at most in most upstate towns.

Beyond a certain point you will never get your money back.

[VB Knives @Empty_America]

Major Universities are a hell of a drug.

This same house (which is a very nice house in good condition) might go for 250-300K in most of Upstate NY.

Less in some areas.

[Oldhouses.com @oldhouses]

1880 Victorian: Queen Anne For Sale in Ithaca, New York $2,490,000 · 10 br, 10 ba, 2 hb · 7,318 sq ft https://t.co/ySgvNZAOiK

[VB Knives @Empty_America]

@GRONreturns No, I saw it in the rural Northeast within recent memory.

[VB Knives @Empty_America]

I've personally seen widespread younger adult toothlessness in American rural communities, yet you rarely see any such thing in New Mexico, despite it being even poorer statistically.

I think it comes down to Mt. Dew culture starting in very early childhood.

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

In 1968 more than a third of adults in England and Wales did not have a single tooth of their own. In parts of the north a full set of extractions was a twenty-first birthday present, and a bride's father paid to have her teeth out before the wedding.

It was considered a kindness. The teeth were going to go anyway, everybody's did, so you had the lot out young, the good ones along with the bad, and spared your future husband thirty years of dentist's bills. A girl walked down the aisle in new dentures the way she might now have her hair done. If you are over 60 you probably knew the glass on your nan's bedside table.

Nobody thought it strange, because nobody could remember anything else. Britain was getting through about 2lb of sugar a head every week, in tea, jam, biscuits and white bread, and had been since Victoria. Mouths were rotten by twenty. The conclusion the country drew, across three generations, was that British teeth were weak.

Dig up a medieval English churchyard and most of the dead still have theirs.

Faced with a food destroying a body part, a whole nation kept the food and removed the body part, did it to its daughters as a gift, and called the problem hereditary.

We do it with stomachs now.

[VB Knives @Empty_America]

Malta is the result of a long-ago fusion event quite similar to what is currently happening in France.

[Tantric Turanist 🇫🇮🇺🇦 @cornu__copia]

It's still underappreciated how well Arabic and French (high) cultures blend.

[VB Knives @Empty_America]

This is often a valuable role, but it's true that when you vote R, you generally do so in order to *prevent* something from happening.

You don't want a longer school year or that new program.

When they do try to actively "do" things it rarely works.

[Zionspilger @PhilGarber5]

@Empty_America Maybe they see the issue as not so much what the government “does” but its ability to stay out of the way.

[VB Knives @Empty_America]

We will know that the "Long Reformation" has ended when the offices, courthouses and so forth are closed from Christmas Eve until Epiphany.

Or in Secular terms, December 24-January 6.

[Nicolas J Cassard @jaenicc]

Ancient holidays were a week long affair . More like festivals.

You can feel this is correct while at work today. People not really there. The whole world slowing down. You can just make the entire week a holiday and it's better than whatever is happening now.

[VB Knives @Empty_America]

Significant areas of Europe have wild Grizzly/Brown bears (Urus Arctos).

Not what you are expecting to encounter in that allegedly "tamed" countryside.

[Imtiaz Mahmood @ImtiazMadmood]

The guy refused eye contact at all costs to escape bear.

His reaction was picture perfect. A cub means mama is nearby. By standing still and making no sudden movements or attempting to run or interact with the cub, it shows he is not a threat.

You'll notice at the 0:36 mark, he actually gives a thumbs up to the person in the car. He was fully aware of the cub the entire time; he notices it right at the beginning when he turns his head. You see him go from relaxed to vigilant pretty much right away.

When the cub began jumping on him, he had to make a decision; if a cub is jumping on you, regardless of if it's curiosity or as a predatory behavior, that's all the green light mama needs to tear you apart.

And looking away, avoiding eye contact and keeping your arms as close to your body as possible is exactly the recommended course of action.

You can see perfectly well that it works – even the bear doesn’t know what to make of him as long as he stands there still, with the bear just ‘nibbling’ at him in confusion. But as soon as he moves again, the bear starts chasing after him once more.

So this bloke knows about what to do in this situation.

He is so remarkably calm even when the bear nibbles his leg.

[VB Knives @Empty_America]

@MartinHonnold Meth doesn't appear to actually make your teeth fall out, unless combined with all day sipping of Mt. Dew and snack cake type diet.

[VB Knives @Empty_America]

The emergence of the modern empathetic personality is an extremely interesting field of study.

[Pizza @number_pizza111]

In any case I'm writing a short article on why people used to drown kittens and why they stopped, with a good number of colorful characters and surprising facts emerging as I research the topic.

[VB Knives @Empty_America]

Just as the New Deal was never possible until after the Great Depression, the "Next Deal" may not be politically possible until we have endured multiple years of serious disruption.

You need to have a clear identity outside of your earnings, spendings, and "career."

[Lee Roach @leevalueroach]

I am not bullish on white collar jobs. I think if you sit in front of a computer you will not have a job in ten years. I am bullish on free time, hobbies and outdoor activities. Individuals will go through a massive identity crisis as they become obsolete from AI, but people will start going outside again and playing. I think UBI will eventually happen, but there is going to be some pain, unemployment and a big depression before that happens. We are living in unprecedented times. Get ready.

[VB Knives @Empty_America]

We speak of "RINOs" but "DINOs" are also a thing.

You can already see the DINO class scrambling to head off any talk of Medicare for all, to prevent the D's from actually doing any D things.

[VB Knives @Empty_America]

It's an incredibly American/Anglo thing to view major cities as a sort of questionable appendage to the countryside, rather than the core of the entire region.

[Stubborn Michigander @tantonist]

Chicago is not “kinda-sorta Midwestern”. It is Midwestern. It is the literal crown jewel of this region.

[VB Knives @Empty_America]

Might as well be the middle ages.

[Boris Bartlog @BorisBartlog]

@Empty_America Around 1995 I went to visit my brother in Italy and got on the wrong train, missing our agreed on rendezvous
When I arrived 5 hours late, he was still waiting at the Poggi Bonsi station, reading a book
Because there was no other way for us to deal with it at the time

[VB Knives @Empty_America]

One of my Dad's best takes on the 50's was that the "bill hadn't come due".

You could drive your chevy with no emissions along the CA coast, but the smog hadn't come yet.

The sexual revolution was low key happening, but 50% of kids were growing up in broken homes yet, etc.

[Reuben Rodriguez @ReubenR80027912]

Ppl have trouble w/ this concept but: 1950 - 2008 were a once-a-millenia aberration but within that aberration we followed the usual “strong men, good times” cycle

Our looong (if rapid) descent to “normalcy” will be hardest for those w/ strong memory of the aberration (1/2)

[VB Knives @Empty_America]

@ClarkeMicah So when you buy Cox's Orange scion wood, is some of it not the "real" old variety?

[VB Knives @Empty_America]

Tech futurists being R was always odd, because the R's are by nature an opposition party that doesn't have the capability to "do" anything.

If radical tech change requires radical economic changes and central planning, this can only be done via the D party, the party of FDR.

[Krystal Ball @krystalball]

Alex Karp now says that Palantir is progressive, he’s always been a Democrat, Trump went too far on immigration and his primary commitment is to economic justice. LMAOOOOOO