A ground assault is imminent. People are worried what the reaction is going to be. We get our information from direct sources: diplomats, people in special forces, tanks etc. My oldest friend’s son is IDF infantry, she’s losing it. Spending tomorrow with them. A close mutual friend of ours in London lost a son at the festival. We were meant to be in Israel now, my wife and brother-in-law had arranged a big family birthday dinner in Tel Aviv for this evening. My wife was in town today and speaking to people at the demo, Corbyn-types, the amount of misinformation and propganda is unbelievable. It doesn’t matter what you’re selling, hifi or revolution, the truth is flexible and often alternative facts prevail.
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I feel for you and all of your kin and friends.
You are right–truth is weak now and lies have power. It’s maddening!
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Most threads morph at least a bit. It is the nature of conversation. 
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Maybe not a random thought now that it’s being backed by the Webb telescope, but I’ve long thought that time exists as a whole with the past, present and future coexisting. So the flow of time being a purely antropocentric perspective.
Even Dr. Penrose is now supporting this!
So could we be somewhat eternal after all, forever mirrored in the structure that is… space…(-time?), or should we use another term for this manifold if indeed time does not exist in the commonly thought sense?
The whole of it is still a 4D manifold of course but what should we call the 4th axis if not time? We could continue saying “time” but with an emphasis on it being whole.
have you read Heinlein’s Number of the Beast?
(nowt to do with religion or any end times silliness) - an interesting take on multidimensional geometry and a cracking’ story 
I’ll put that behind the ear, there’s a plethora of textbooks that should be read before allowance for novels yet.
A smoker’s saying, if ever I heard one 
I know what you mean re. textbooks, but gotta have some fun too, and for me at least, I am not going to cram multiple specialist maths and physics disciplines into my head at this late stage!
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Art and science are really important.
Read both.
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Will do. Just feeling so behind with my dearest ambitions that there’s a bit of a mandatory push.
Along those same lines of anthropocentricism, this debate of the Multiverse Theory with, Penrose, Kaku and Hossenfelder will really “bake your noodle”. A long, but lively discussion from three very different physicists and how each bases their interpretation.
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Tough situation for manufacturers in general. Yes inflation is indeed an issue, and has been one IME since the Jimmy Carter Administration’s WHIP campaign. For many households a dual income home is mandatory to just get by. I consider myself fortunate to have access to the gear I own.
Regarding new gear pricing, it seems to be spinning out of control. For those seeking a value proposition, and not adverse to lightly broken in gear the Used Component Market may offer a better option.
Fortunately PSA continues to seek out ways to maintain pricing control.
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My new project is a better-than-new Garrard 301. I have bought a donor machine, a new chassis is machined from aluminium, all parts including the motor are restored as new, a new bearing is machined (and run in for several days), the thing is assembled, then a new plinth made from 10 layers of ply is machined, veneered and finished. The total cost compared to a new Gold DAC or Pre-amp is only 10% more (£4,400 compared to £4,000 for the DAC or pre).
On the other hand, I could go to SME and buy one for 7 times the price.
The difference is not just parts costs, is that the £4,400 unit comes from two businesses operating from home workshops and selling direct, whereas SME have a big overhead, lots of staff, marketing costs, dealer margins, distribution costs and a nice profit for the business owner. Plus of course a brand margin.
The irony is that the Garrard brand used to be owned by Terry O’Sullivan, who also made the Loricraft machines, who did the restorations for the sensible price and often he sent them to my guy to do them for him.
So there are far more factors than inflation. But I suspect for price-sensitive products like Stellar a company with USA costs just isn’t going to be competitive to one with Chinese costs. The problem is that the technology gap is reducing or gone, so the higher price is harder or impossible to justify.
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