Comeback Mid

@resetbasis @Rus_Khairullin better 🥨

@Rus_Khairullin Would rather live in Pittsburgh

Let me be honest about Dubai. No income tax. Zero. You keep everything you earn. Safest country on earth - Numbeo 2025. Crime index 16. London is 45. Paris is 50. Sun 365 days a year. The city never sleeps. Infrastructure that makes European capitals look like they’re still in 2005. You can build a company in a free zone with 100% foreign ownership and zero corporate tax on most structures. World-class hospitals. Best malls. Restaurants from every corner of the planet. You want a Michelin-starred dinner at midnight - done. Every major crypto exchange, fund, and Web3 company is setting up here. The ecosystem is real. And the people? 200 nationalities living in the same city. Nobody cares where you’re from. Only what you’re building. People ask me why I came back here after the recent situation. The question should be - why would I leave? There is no better city on earth right now for someone who wants to build, earn, and actually live well. That’s not marketing. That’s just the reality of living here. 🇦🇪

@StraightLineUSA a mk84 (training) rolled across my foot. when cold weather is coming I can feel it. it's a normal pain from living life - I am not disabled.

@Cline4Virginia according to these people on reddit Virginians who aren't in NOVA are: anti-education, christian fascists, who only have paved roads because the people of NOVA pay for them and blindly hate whomever they are told by the Republican Party. reddit.com/r/nova/comment…

How fired up is rural Virginia? We’re here in Augusta County at 8AM with a PACKED HOUSE. Remember to text 10 friends to vote NO to this extreme gerrymander today!

@LaGrecca333 It’s always a wonderful surprise.

I just got off the phone with customer service with Comcast and the women helping me was American. She had to walk me through pairing a remote to the television. I am not a technical person and we had a few bloopers and laughs and I realized it was such a pleasant experience because it wasn’t some call center in India. This lady got my humor and I could understand everything she said. I can’t remember the last time I had such a great experience.

@bgcts @scratchyjohnson Heck yeah! Thank you! We’re doing American prehistory with the kids. This is a great addition to our timeline.

This morning @scratchyjohnson tweeted an important factoid. Squanto, the Indian who spoke English and helped the pilgrims survive, was sold by John Smith to a Spaniards and the deed exists in the city we're in for Excursion. Rather than rolling our eyes, Alan, Gavin & I went to the state archives in Málaga to see if we can find said recorded deed of 20 Indians sold by John Smith to Juan Bautista Reales. We get to the Archives (see Alan's picture below), and a small genial white lab coat wearing gentleman who speaks no English says this is impossible to find. His new boss, the head archivist, Carmen, comes in and says it certainly exists but may be difficult to find. If you only had the year. We tell her it was 1614. She pulls up a list of the books from 29 notaries whose work they have from 1614. She asks who the notary was. We have no idea. They say they can't go through 29 archives to look for it. Also it's all in old Spanish which nobody speaks and it'll be hard to locate even if they know the Notary. So Alan and Gavin get to work. Gavin finds an article in the internet archive that seems to have a partial picture of the document. Carmen and the other archivist decipher the name after 15 min. They find that name in their cross reference. Carmen goes to the vault to look while the lab coat gentleman asks for my life history, driver's licence number and a lien on my grandchildren. Totally worth it. Carmen comes back to say she found the volume. It is tremendously delicate. Opening it may break some pages. Does it have to be today because if so the answer will be no. We ask her if this is interesting to them. Both very seriously nod their heads. We tell them this is very important to the United States and many of our friends. Carmen tells us she will find it but that it takes time. White linen gloves and patience. We tell her to take her time. She says she will take a picture and email it to me. So here's why all this is important: after Squanto was sold by an Englishman to a Spaniard names Reales, said Spaniard brought Squanto and 19 other "inios" to Málaga. He recorded the deed in the state archives. Then a Franciscan priest ransomed Squanto. Squanto became Catholic. Was baptized and confirmed in Málaga. He then made his way to England where he worked and learned English. He paid his passage back across the ocean and found his Wampanoag tribesmen. Then when the Pilgrims landed they found a Catholic English-speaking native who helped them survive their first winter. It is entirely possible that but for a Franciscan priest who ransomed Squanto, the Pilgrims may not have survived their first winter in New England. That's history. American history. And the record of it is in Málaga. In a book. One of 29 books kept by notaries in Málaga in 1614. That are still searchable. This image, when it comes, belongs in the US National Archive. This is Cultural Debris. x.com/i/status/20349… cc: @alancornett @gwbled @Gonnassaurius_ @wrathofgnon

@DemolishSEblvd personally find this place to be ring of hell adjacent consumerism. but the former rotting fish emporium and imported crab ball buffet wasn't a huge draw. definitely a win for the city.

Gentrification is good actually.

@4nt1p4tt3rn absolutely bonkers response from a financial institution

While everyone's once again on the whole "USAA is garbage" warpath (they are), it's time once again for me to share a little story from 2013: As some of you know, I do computer security stuff. Not just professionally, but for fun. One day in December 2013, I got some spam email. It was a phish. Purporting to be from USAA. Since I was taking 2 years off from working (voluntarily; I'd just gotten married and wanted to focus on me for a while), I had ample time on my hands. So, I started digging. Long story short: I located the threat actor -- full name, address, photo, front door, and all his infrastructure. I infiltrated that, and obtained full details of every USAA customer he's successfully tricked into handing over everything: PII, credentials, account details, credit/debit card info, the works. Along with his other campaigns running, pretending to be other banks. I packaged this all up professionally and approached the appropriate people in USAA about it. Explained who I was, that I'd done this professionally for decades, that I'd been a long-standing customer of USAA, etc. I was told, in no uncertain terms -- in fact, in these exact words -- "It's our policy not to pursue fraud". I was a bit taken aback. I had to have them repeat, and then explain that. I couldn't've possibly heard that right. Here I was, a security professional, handing them a fairly large threat actor on a silver platter, along with a decent-sized list of USAA customers that either had been victims of fraud, or were about to be. And they not only said they weren't interested, but that they intended to do quite literally nothing. Absolutely nothing. Earlier that year they'd stopped underwriting motorcycle policies, so I had already pulled my auto and bike insurance from them. So, I spent Christmas Eve night that year (because I wasn't about to wait) sitting in the office of a local bank opening new accounts, transferring everything out of USAA. The following week we took it to the State Police. They were interested, but had no idea what to do with the information, even after I politely suggested various avenues to pursue. And I was talking with the officer who was in charge of "all the computer stuff". The report remains on file. The threat actor remains at large. His victims remain screwed. USAA doesn't give two shits about you, and hasn't for quite some time.

navy federal has been on a similar path for some time. over a decade ago looked at moving business banking to them. the absolute incompetence made that a nonstarter. just because you put on a suit and sit in the bank does not mean you know what you’re doing. The change in culture there has been obvious to see as they’ve revamped branches, the people (and level of training)they’ve staffed with and the products that they’re now pushing. absolute enshittification.

@4nt1p4tt3rn Been thinking about switching for a while. Is Navy Federal or PenFed any better/worse?

@DimensionsODust @_Regenaissance A place where it’s apparently grown and juiced properly. (Turkey)

@ComebackMid @_Regenaissance Yeah but who does Trader Joe’s buy it from?

I had no idea about this, literally had a glass of this juice today. Paraquat is far far worse than glyphosate, have heard of plenty folks personally affected by it. If you drink POM I strongly suggest you find an alternative like a hand held juicer along with actual pomegranates or Lakewood Organic Pomegranate Juice.

@RobProvince Dumped those parasites years ago. Coasting on reputation. NFCU heading in the same direction. They’re all the same.

Anyone know of a good insurance company I can switch to?

I worked for the gov - but it’s not relvant to the fact that there are many many forms of pay that are not considered salary. Many of which are not taxes. an o6 in the dc area will have addtl pay of almost 5k/mo for housing and food. this is not salary, nor is it taxed. a discussion about being posted overseas and salary should include this info as it’s unlikely most Americans know this.

@WilliamsonRT @ComebackMid @EdTheOSINTer "oh, you didn't work there, therefore everything you know is bullshit" -taylor oh good grief

I met an American expat in 2007 that was making over $200k working for USAID in Albania. Lived like a king He had no idea how to do the most basic aspects of his job. The Albanians he worked with complained that they had to do his job for him, while making 1/10 as much

Correct - organic is an administrative/ marketing function that smaller farms cannot/do not want to pay for. There’s a real organic movement. But it’s not super widespread. If you really care about this, get to know the farmer and see what they offer. If they’re obsessed the soil health and seem constantly on the verge of poverty, you might’ve found your people. the fruits and vegetables will taste incredible. They will seem slightly flawed “ugly” and inconsistent in size compared to conventional or ipm (integrated pest management) operations. another huge giveaway is packaging. do they try to reuse or do they casually throw it away. finally beware the “truck farm” that is buying from local auctions / produce distributors and simply selling in a marlet setting.

@leo_szac Not organic but based on my research may small / local farms are not technically organic and many of the ones that are are a sham

Not real estate related, but; I just signed up for my first CSA with a guy who goes by “Farmer Jim” and I’m v excited. Anything I should know ?

@ClwnPrncCharlie These are very selective pictures

Basically impossible for a city to be this small and dense and non abandoned now but holy shit how much better off would we be w a hundred of these across the country

@mattbaran have a property we'd like to try this with. dm'ing you.

It really isn’t that hard or expensive. The cost of the exterior of a house is around 10% of its total cost, and landscape is around 1%. With a 50% increase on exterior and landscape, your building cost increases less than 5%.

there is nothing wrong with an afternoon beer now and then.

point is that salary and pay can be different numbers for gov employees. it’s unlikely that non-government employees would know this. but an honest discussion should include this fact. Temporary Quarters Subsistence Allowance (TQSA) Living Quarters Allowance (LQA) Extraordinary Quarters Allowance (EQA) Post (Cost of Living) Allowance Foreign Transfer Allowance (FTA) Home Service Transfer Allowance (HSTA) Separate Maintenance Allowance (SMA) Transitional Separate Maintenance Allowance (TSMA) Education Allowance Educational Travel Post (Hardship) Differential Danger Pay Allowance Service Needs Differential Representation Allowances Official Residence Expenses (ORE) Advance of Pay Consumables Allowance

In 2007, the Executive Schedule Level IV cap, which limits all non-SES federal pay, was $145,400. The Senior Foreign Service cap was $168,000 (EX-II). The USAID Administrator, the head of the entire agency, made $168,000. The US Ambassador to Albania, the highest-ranking American official in the country, made roughly $165k in base salary. Even adding Albania's likely hardship differential (~15%), the ambassador's total taxable comp topped out around $190k. Still under $200k. And that's the ambassador. Even maxing out every possible variable for a regular FSO (FS-01 Step 14 base of ~$121k + 16% overseas comparability + 15% hardship) you land around $155k in taxable comp. For someone who "had no idea how to do his job," they almost certainly weren't at FS-01. @WilliamsonRT is right.

@WilliamsonRT @schuttsm You might be unaware how government pay works when posted overseas or even in HCOL areas?

@schuttsm This isn’t true. CST, the maximum someone USAID paid a contractor or employee (excluding SES), didn’t top $200k until 2024. You’re lying about the salary or don’t know what you’re talking about.

@Matt_Pinner an airfryer is convection oven with marketing this is the answer to your next question breville.com/en-us/product/…

Can someone please explain WHY we need an air fryer ? Does an oven not do the same thing ? 🤔

@DustinBIZBroker @ChrisRamsey60 Neither Should burnish and treat surface properly for generic usage These are both options which only work for specific use/marketing cases

@ChrisRamsey60 So which is better?? …

Polished Concrete vs. Epoxy Floors 1. Cost Polished concrete: Usually 40–60% cheaper upfront. No expensive coatings, just grinding and densifying the slab. Epoxy: Higher material and labor costs, plus ongoing maintenance (recoating, patching). 2. Durability Polished concrete: Becomes part of the slab itself. No layers to chip, peel, or bubble. Can withstand forklifts, pallet jacks, and constant traffic. Epoxy: A surface coating. Strong, but over time it scratches, yellows, and can delaminate under heavy wear. 3. Maintenance Polished concrete: Minimal upkeep—just dust mopping and occasional burnishing. Epoxy: Needs periodic recoating. Stains and scratches show more easily. 4. Aesthetics Polished concrete: Natural, glossy finish. Reflects light (reduces lighting costs). Looks “clean and modern.” Epoxy: Can be customized with colors and patterns better look in many cases. 5. Longevity Polished concrete: Can last the life of the building with proper care. Epoxy: Typically needs replacement every 10 years in heavy-use settings.