This is the nineteenth of an ongoing series of book discussions here on Tildes. We are discussing The Poisoners Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine by Deborah Blum. We will be discussing We are Legion (We are Bob) by Dennis Taylor at the end of November.

I don't have a particular format in mind for this discussion, but I will post some prompts and questions as comments to get things started. You're not obligated to respond to them or vote on them though. So feel free to make your own top-level comment for whatever you wish to discuss, questions you have of others, or even just to post a review of the book you have written yourself.

For latecomers, don't worry if you didn't read the book in time for this Discussion topic. You can always join in once you finish it. Tildes Activity sort, and "Collapse old comments" feature should keep the topic going for as long as people are still replying.

And for anyone uninterested in this topic please use the Ignore Topic feature on this so it doesn't keep popping up in your Activity sort, since it's likely to keep doing that while I set this discussion up, and once people start joining in.

Add awesome game deals to this topic as they come up over the course of the week!

Alternately, ask about a given game deal if you want the community’s opinions: e.g. “What games from this bundle are most worth my attention?”

Rules:

• No grey market sales
• No affiliate links

If posting a sale, it is strongly encouraged that you share why you think the available game/games are worthwhile.

All previous Save Point topics

If you don’t want to see threads in this series, add save point to your personal tag filters.

This topic is part of a series. It is meant to be a place for users to discuss creative projects they have been working on.

Projects can be personal, professional, physical, digital, or even just ideas.

If you have any creative projects that you have been working on or want to eventually work on, this is a place for discussing those.

This is really just a follow-up update to my old post, Did NPR just shut down support for RSS?, but that post is a week old and I wanted to make sure this update gets eyes on it.

I heard back from NPR this morning, and they indicated that this was not a policy decision, but an issue that they have now fixed. NPR RSS links once again work outside of the US/Canada.

Passingly curious how this kind of thing happens accidentally ... any informed guesses? My best guess is that they intentionally geoblocked something else, and it accidentally got extended to the RSS.

What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started a new diet or have a new recipe you want to share? Anything else health and wellness related?

What have you been watching and reading this week? You don't need to give us a whole essay if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to talk about something you saw that was cool, something that was bad, ask for recommendations, or anything else you can think of.

If you want to, feel free to find the thing you're talking about and link to its pages on Anilist, MAL, or any other database you use!

I'm looking for a USB hub that:

• Has at least 4 usb ports
• The USB ports are all along the same edge of the device. (For easy access even when the hub is behind my monitor)
• Can be bus-powered (i.e. doesn't need to be plugged into an outlet)
• Has a detachable cable for the connection from the hub to my computer

It'd also be nice if it:

• Was USB 3.0
• Cost less than $50 USD
• Had a mix of USB-A and USB-C
• Didn't look ugly

I've spent a couple hours looking, and the only hub I've found that hits my hard requirements the 4 port and 7 port variants of a hub from StarTech.com . I was curious if anyone was aware of anything better in this price range, before I just pull the trigger.

For those who are unfamiliar, Subway Takes is a popular short form internet talk show "in which the interviewees present and defend a unique or controversial opinion, called a 'take'" Takes are usually halfbaked and/or tongue-in-cheek. Some popular examples include:

There are too many states in America

Everybody in New York has rich parents or is selling drugs

Spirit Airlines does not deserve the hate

Italians became white after 9/11

So what's your take?

For the past several years I’ve been knee deep involved in Ukraine and as several people on Tildes know, a lot of my earliest days were spent donating, tens of thousands. All in all I’ve donated enough to nearly bankrupt myself when my situation changed.

As I got more involved (and now I’m an active investor in the sector), I want to share something I’ve learned since that I wish someone had told me when I started:

Every dollar you have that you want to put to work can, on average, be 10x’d by the time you put it in.

That means if you want to donate 10k, you may well be able to end up putting 100k to work towards your goal.

You may have seen this take the form of donation matching — some fame seekers sometimes do it (I’ll donate 10 dollars for every dollar you donate), but this isn’t necessarily what I mean.

Speaking on an investment side: on average, 10% “skin in the game” makes it very easy to get the remaining 90% as long as there is a net positive outcome possible. So by positioning your donation as your skin in the game to a larger fundraise, you set yourself up for multiplying your impact by ten.

What’s more: let’s say you don’t want to donate 10k in bulk but you have a good job that allows you to set aside 1k usd per month. You want to donate half of that (500 usd). This means per year you can donate 6k usd.
Are you able to take a two year engagement? Congratulations, that means you are donating 12k and can now raise for 120k with 10% skin in the game (as long as the money isn’t needed faster than at the rate it can be committed).

I had this discussion with an acquaintance who has been in finance for a long time and got a very good job. She was trying to figure out how to “invest” 40k per year, that would otherwise be lost to taxes. On a 7 year engagement she has now setup a 10M climate fund (around 2% SITG which is standard for funds).

I was floored she didn’t know this. I figured the reason I didn’t was because I didn’t study economics, but it seems so fundamental that I want more people to be aware that this is a thing.

So, yeah, apparently a lot of folks don't know about this website. Didn't want to put it on the link because I wanted to briefly explain: I use duckduckgo and put a !justwatch after any movie or show I want to know on which service it is available.
But basically, go there, search for what you want to watch, and it'll tell you where it's available (if it is), and for how much!

Bit of a negative post or rant, so feel free to skip if not in the mood for a kinda sour take.

Apparently this week is transgender awareness week and while it's obviously about more than just being aware of the thing (like breast cancer awareness month is also about educating etc.) I still feel like the purpose is so far removed from what it's supposed to be that it may as well be satirical.

From that link:

While most of the discussion of trans folks online can often be centered on negativity, Transgender Awareness Week gives us the opportunity to uplift positive and insightful stories of trans people across the country.

Does it though? gif

Is anybody outside of our community going to actually learn anything this week?

Are they going to an extra event or something just because someone decided this week is special for us?

Because I think it's nothing except detrimental to us. It only gives more ammunition to those who already hate us and already at best want us to go away.

(Day of remembrance, also this week, is on the other hand an important day I think.)

Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like steam frame, tildes and pleasures. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was mystified.

But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!