A trebuchet builds trust.

"I wouldn't trust him any farther than I could throw him."

"That will no longer be a problem."

I've been struggling with how to make sense of what the far right likes to call patriotism. Our democratic system of government is at the core of what defines America, but many of them are willing, and in some cases eager, to destroy that.

It finally hit me that what they love is not their country. They love their control of it. That is why racism, misogyny, homophobia, and other irrational hatreds are so deeply tied into far right movement. Only people like them should be allowed to have a say. The acceptance of diversity that began as religious freedom and has expanded to encompass all differences, directly threatens their control.

I wish that insight pointed a way to deal with the problem, but it really points up how intractable the problem is. There is no compromise that will satisfy both sides when one side is demanding complete control over the other.

This may be one of those problems that can only be solved by newer generations, who tend to have less rigid views of the world, gradually replacing the hard liners.

I always carry a couple of good knives with me, but I have lately gone on a utility knife kick. I'm not sure I want to carry one, but I definitely like having them around the house for opening boxes.

I don't think I've found the perfect one yet, but I do have some a like quite well.

The Oknife Otacle Pro is my favorite. It is small and very slim, but provides a good grip. The blade is completely covered, so I can use hook blades without worrying about exposed edges. The mechanism provides one-handed deployment with excellent safety. There is a neat little clip that works well and doesn't get in the way.

The mechanism is actually very good, but it gets terrible reviews. That's because it desperately needs to be lubricated and it comes from the factory dry. Mine was pretty much unusable until I sprayed it down with ToughGlide. Now it's one of the smoothest I've used.

My second favorite is the Nexland Sliding Utility Knife. The mechanism is very clever. It involves just a few pieces of titanium with no fasteners or springs. It should be pretty much indestructible. It's easy to use with one hand. Changing blades is simple and quick without tools. It also gets extra points for preventing the blade to drag along the track when it slides.

My honorable mention is the Screwpop Ron's Utility Knife 3.0. The mechanism is incredibly simple, but it works beautifully. I can deploy it one-handed, although it takes some practice. Changing blades is obvious and easy. There is also a magnet that can be used to attach it to things. The price is low enough that you can keep several in strategic locations around the house.

It is also worth pointing out the Outdoor Edge Slidewinder, which may be the best choice for the average person. The mechanism is more complex than I prefer, but it works well. There is a spring that retracts the blade as soon as you touch the button, which is a nice safety feature. It's a little bigger than the others, but still small and handy. There's a decent clip. There is also a slotted and a Phillips screwdriver.

I have also discovered some annoying limitations along the way. I put Lenox Gold blades into all my utility knives, but I've run into several that don't work with them, or with many other standard blades. They frustrate me.

The Oknife Otacle (non-Pro version) uses a different mechanism from the Pro that requires holes through the central axis of the blade. That rules out most utility blades.

Milwaukee Utility Knives are among the best, but the Compact Slide, which I wanted for its relatively small size, will not work with blades that have more than two notches at the top. I couldn't believe it and ended up taking it apart, but it really won't accept them.

The Manker UTI Edge is a nicely minimalist design, but it is just a tiny bit too short for a lot of standard blades. A fraction of a millimeter difference would have solved that problem. I also have some concerns about how well its lock holds.

Has anyone else gone down this particular rabbit hole?

I'm pretty sure I used to get emails when I received a notification, but that hasn't been happening for a while now. I do have the "Send Notifications to Email" checked in my settings and I have verified that my email address is set correctly.

Are email notifications working for others? Can anyone suggest things I should change to get them working?

The rules seem to imply that pocket dumps are required. Can we also post reviews / comments / discussions of EDC items here?

I am experiencing a technical issue that I can't even explain, let alone fix.

Short Version: My laptop's video link to our television regularly drops out for 10-15 seconds when anyone steps too heavily on a particular area of the floor.

Long Version (because I don't know which details might matter):

My wife and I regularly participate in video meetings with friends, so we have a setup for it in our living room. My laptop serves as the computer. It is connected to a Thunderbolt 4 hub on a side table to the left of my easy chair.

There is a video adapter connected to the hub. 20' HDMI and USB cables run along a wall to the left of the table to connect the hub to the television and the camera that's mounted on it (Logitech Brio 4K). Another 20' USB cable runs behind the chair and forward along the right side where it connects to a microphone (Logitech Yeti X). The microphone is on another small table that extends out into the room just in front of the chair arm.

My wife uses an easy chair immediately to the right of mine. The microphone wire runs between the chairs, but does not touch either. None of the cabling or devices are in front of, behind, or to the right of that chair.

The problem is that when my wife gets up, the tv picture often goes black for 10-15 seconds. The television indicates that it no longer has a signal during that time. Then the picture comes back and things return to normal. During that time, the camera and microphone both continue to work normally.

The drop-out happens when she puts weight on the floor immediately in front of the chair, not when she puts pressure on the chair to get up.

Occasionally the drop-out will happen when one of our dogs (50-75 pounds) jumps down from the chair onto the same area or when someone walks across the area. The section of floor where this happens is no more than a couple of feet square, starting at the front of the chair and extending out in to the room. There are no cables or wires in the immediate vicinity on the floor and there is no electrical wiring under that section of floor.

We have speculated about static electricity, but there is no obvious way it would get into the microphone wiring across at least an 18" gap. I also replaced the microphone's USB cable with one that is better shielded, which made no difference.

So what could cause the video signal to drop-out when someone puts weight on a section of the floor with no apparent connection to any part of the system?

Any theories or suggestions would be welcome. We are genuinely mystified.

Is there any way to disable auto-play in Voyager? Video plays automatically even in the feed. I would rather nothing played without me telling it to. I feel like there must be a setting, but I can't find it.

There are plenty of politics communities, but they all seem to focus on posting and discussing articles. Is there a community for posting political ideas and opinions?

Has anything been heard about the Kuru Toga Dive in the last few months? It looked like a very interesting pencil, if somewhat overpriced. It was released, but never in more than small batches, and now seems to have disappeared.

I'm trying to find replacement barrel bolts to hold the scales on a fixed blade knife.

The dimensions, as best I can measure, are: Barrel Section: 6mm diameter and 8mm long Screw Thread: 4mm diameter and 6mm long Heads: 8mm diameter and 3mm thick with 2.5mm hex sockets

I have done a fair amount of web searching and I have looked at several of the large online tool and fastener companies. Almost everything I can find has a much thinner barrel and wider head.

Can anyone suggest where I should look for these?

I've had my GOAT multitool for a couple weeks now. It's big feature is swapping the tools, but it has other advantages as well. The spring-loaded pliers are great and they use a "frame-based" spring that should hold up to heavy use. The bit driver will hold every type of bit (standard, double-ended, Leatherman, etc.) reliably and is somewhat offset toward the center, similar to the Gerber Center-Drive. One end of the tool is flat and reinforced to act as a light-use hammer. All tools can be removed, which means you can adjust the GOAT with the built-in Allen wrench and sharpen it with the built-in metal file. It includes a replaceable-blade X-Acto tool.

An inobvious, but potentially huge innovation, is making the tool and scale templates open source. Anyone can produce additional tool implements that will work in the GOAT. That could be a game changer if it catches on. Think about specialty toolsets for different professions, for example. Likewise, optional scales can be produced in any material or design.

The downside is that the current GOAT is clearly a first-generation tool. The tools clump badly. The "tool removal levers" clump with the tools, which can be a real problem. The pivots have to be carefully adjusted so the "springs" (the frame backs) will hold them all inside properly without being too stiff to fold out. The lock release mechanisms are awkward.

I would not have been comfortable carrying mine as it came out of the box. Fortunately, most of the issues can be fixed, or at least improved, with very little effort. Maxlvledc did a wonderful video on YouTube that talks about the issues and provides suggestions on how to address them. It was a big help to me and I recommend everyone with a GOAT watch it.

The things I did to "fix" mine were fairly simple. I added a thin shim washer (5x8x0.2mm) between each of the "tool removal levers" and the other tools. I re-arranged which tools were where and removed the washer next to the wood saw. Finally, I loosened the pivots a bit to help hold the tools inside the frame. (It seems like that should work the other way, but the pivots need to be somewhat loose to let the "springs" do their jobs.) Now it works quite well.

What do the rest of you think about the GOAT?

Can SnapRaid restore the a lost drive in the case where the other data drives have been written to since the last sync? My understanding of the principles is probably just lacking, but I worry that using parity based on the other drive's data would only work if the data on the other drives had not changed since the parity was last calculated.

So do I invalidate my last sync as soon as I write new data to a drive in my arrray?

When I want a sensor watch I generally wear my newer Casio Pro Trek 3500, but I wore the Pathfinder 1300 for a long time and I'm still fond of it. I had screwed up the band a while back and finally got it fixed. It feels good to have the my old standby functional again.

I'm not sure this is the right place to ask, but I've been struggling with this for a while and would love any suggestions or info.

I live in the US, but I've had an account with Amazon Japan for years. The last few times I've tried to use it I have been unable to login.

I follow the same sequence every time. The site recognizes my login, but tells me I need to change my password and send me one-time code by email. When I enter that it tells me there is a problem with my account and I need to solve a puzzle. When I enter my solution to the puzzle I get a message that there was a problem connecting to the verification server.

I have been through this at least a dozen times over three sessions and a period of several months. The sequence is the same every time.

I have also tried to create a new account, but that also asks me to solve the puzzle and I run into the same error.

I would like to contact Amazon Japan about this, but you have to log in to contact their support.

Has anyone been able to use Amazon Japan from the US recently? Does anyone have suggestions for how to fix this or what might be causing it? Are the any other ways to contact Amazon Japan?

I would be grateful for any help.

Does it make anyone else angry that Janet Yellen and the Federal Reserve are trying to "Get Wages Down"? I would ask who these people work for, but that's fairly obvious at this point, and it certainly isn't any of us.

Wages have failed to keep up with the rest of the economy for decades now. The middle class belongs on the Endangered Species List. But paying people a moderately comfortable wage, or even a living wage, would get in the way of maximizing corporate profits.

Late stage capitalism is bad enough without having the government actively trying to make it harder on the average worker. We need to protest these policies!

I keep getting popups saying that I need to be logged in to do various things. I have never logged out and I don't see an obvious way to log back in. Is there one?

I have found that switching to another instance and switching back seems to work, but there must be a better method.