Your ‘timing’ thing would probably work, but if not, mounting the the ring away from the gun would only protect the gun, not the ring. I could see a timing or slowed effect could allow the ball to pass through before it expanded

Would be fun watching him each time he carefully loaded it too… Probably a broken toe or two if he isn’t careful :)

No, is just a reaction from two molecules into two other molecules. Oversimplification, but you know how vinegar and baking soda react when the come together all fuzzy and bubble? It’s the same when oxygen and hydrocarbons meet, except that it take heat to get it going, and conveniently releases more heat, which is usually enough to cause more reaction, often until it runs out of either oxygen or the hydrocarbon.

It would be an even better parallel if vinegar and baking soda didn’t react if they were both below a certain temperature, and if the bubbling created heat, which warmed up the stuff next to it. If that were the case you could see a cool thing where you could keep them could, and just touch one spot to start them reacting, and it would spread like ‘fire’

Or, if you want to shut it down, the plan works, but since the magic effect has a range, to ball begins expanding before it makes it to the ring, taking the end of the barrel and the ring with it. If the ring is indestructible the character has to go on a search for the ring at the point of impact every time, it i expands within the ring, meaning you have a canon ball that explodes at the end of your gun with shrapnel, or you have to melt the ball down to retrieve the ring downrange.

If it dispels magic before it gets to the ring it’s going to be an issue…

I think the engineering part kicks in once the cannonball leaves the ring, or maybe around the mass of the shrunken ball. If the cannon ball retains it’s mass in it’s shrunken size does the gun have enough power to move it? If it does, then the gun is a ship cannon already, just a convenient size. If it doesn’t and can only shoot because the balls are as easy to fire as regular shot, then as soon as the ball exits the ring it is a cannonball being moved with the force of a small shot and likely drops to the ground an inch or so past the muzzle.

I think you might be on the wrong side of the argument here, as others are pointing out the ‘quiet’ part of that sentence isn’t meant to be low volume, but more along the lines of secret or unspoken, and the ‘out loud’ part doesn’t mean volume, it means ‘spoken’.

If it helps, it’s like when someone says something they were thinking and goes ‘oh no, did i say that out loud?!’… They’re not specifically worried about how loudly they said it, but that they said it audibly at all when they meant to only think it.

Maybe you don’t only need vitamins?

Might have to look at that though, it’s possible once the funds have been allocated to a department Congress extra less control over how there are used. As long as there’s some loophole where the money can be spent on severance, and it doesn’t cost more money than was allocated for the year(how can it? It’s just paying people for not working)

That’s kind of my point though, nothing is every really designed for the food of humanity, we evolved in an environment and adapt or die. It may seem hopeless while we’re living through it, and it may be ‘different’ than the past, but it’s always different, from the wheel to agriculture to the printing press to mass production, things are always taken advantage of by those with the means to do so, and we always come out different in the other side, were just living through this one and everyone feels special in the time they’re living through. Just imagine the days of the printing press and how powerful those who owned the press would appear.

It seems obvious that the whole thought experiment is just semantics. One of those things that interesting to think about the first time, but after awhile it’s just illustrative to point out how we just define things imprecisely and that I’m almost all cases it is far more convenient and practical, but if you look at anything from the right perspective, the lack of precision stands out. Even ‘walking out of a room’ doesn’t have a perfect description if you slow things down far enough, but practically it’s pretty useful to describe it as a distinct event.

I still consider us in something like the teenage years as a society, just discovery something big like the Internet and social media and we’re going to handle it poorly until we learn to handle it responsibly.

Heads or tails whether we make it to adulthood before the powers that be manage to wrangle things in their favor first. Signs point in a bad direction, but there’s no saying that the tools that worked on society before won’t break when the next thing comes along. Maybe ai will take a form that liberates, or hits the powerful far more negatively than it hits the masses.

Absolutely nothing wrong or unusual about the way you feel. It may be a little excessive and obsessive, but that is a normal thing for people to get themselves into. Since you don’t have a lot of reference it’s good to understand that there are other people out there and you may be disappointed that she doesn’t feel the same, but that isn’t really driven by your other traits. You may likely have to deal with the fact that it won’t go further, just enjoy what you have and that there are people that can make you feel this way and allow yourself to explore other relationships that you may have overlooked, or at least be open to the possibility.

Only option really is to show her how to reset her password. Sounds like she’s already doing it, just tell her that’s how you log in, you let it autofill, and if it doesn’t work you click forgot password and check your email and that’s how passwords work now

I’m sure the genie will be happy to explain all the intricacies… Maybe when you are approached you can just ask him for a picture or a list of options.

Not sure what you’re attempting there, trying to make it so his choices aren’t useful?

Like just printing it as is?

Whoever said the onion’s job is getting harder because reality is catching up to them on being satirical is so, so correct.

Basically nothing

Problem with a single time zone is working across them. They’re a huge pain in the ass, but it would be even worse without them. Keeping track of who is in what time zone is difficult, but keeping track of everyone’s schedule without using them as a placeholder would be horrible. ‘what time is a good time for breakfast where you are’ and then doing the math anyway just isn’t as convenient as ‘oh, it’s already 5pm where you are’

What? Whatever else it is, it is nothing like your car example