Very well done and nice color! Any time I try it looks like a crime scene.

Seems a bit suspect to me. "Bay Area" isn't a city. It IS a metropolitan area but contains over 100 municipalities. Let's see how that compares, apples-to-apples.

US Chamber of Commerce is a Conservative lobby group with a name meant to sound innocuous. Local CoCs run the gamut but are generally for small to mid businesses to network and collectively engage when the local government. Kinda like a union but for bosses.

Also that whole "NaN ≠ NaN" business...

See that's one of the parts that is actually almost in line with other languages. In Go, for example, nil ≠ nil because nil is, by definition, undefined. You can't say whether one thing that you know nothing about is at all like something else that you know nothing about. It really should raise an exception at the attempt to compare NaN though.

You're welcome! Best of luck and definitely try breaking any perimeter adhesive. It is crazy how much of an impact that second gluing surface can have.

Oh indeed. Like I stated, I doubt that many would take that option. Humans just tend to be too driven to do something to dedicate their lives to idleness. They would also likely feel social pressures to do otherwise. And when I say "idle", I really mean it. It would take effort to avoid producing anything at all - not even art (Steevo and Bob in SLC Punk comes to mind).

Would some be inclined to be idle? Probably. Would many want to spend their whole lives idle? The data does not suggest this.

No. That's the defining factor of democracy which is derived from the Greek words "demos", meaning "the people", and "kratos", meaning "rule". That is "the people rule" or "rule of the people".

Republic is derived from the Latin phrase "res publica", meaning public affair. A republic does not, by definition, need to be democratic, just a form of government where representatives hold the political power to conduct affairs for the people, rather than being explicitly granted it by heredity or "divine mandate".

That is not to say that non-democratic republics are a good, desirable, or have any sort of track record suggesting that they are good for their citizens. Just that the semantic meaning of words is important.

Could the US, and conservatives have been bleating for decades be a republic and not a democracy? No. The US Constitution clearly lays out that the system is intended to be a government of the people, for the people, making democracy a required component under the US Constitution.

Definitely on the same page. Humans tend to opt to do things with their time without need for coercion, whether necessary for survival or not. I WOULD argue that in an ideal, highly automated world, idleness could be a valid option but, I don't suspect it would be as popular as some may think.

I'm absence of sufficient automation, people will tend to pursue what interests them or what they're good at, which allowed our species to thrive long before social constructs introduced coercion to extract value from others' labor.

I'm not familiar with shave brush construction but have a good deal of experience making things and taking them apart.

As others suggested, temperature's influence on the properties of the material could be useful. Also, there is glue along the perimeter, it may help to use a thin metal tool to "cut" the glue if you can do so without causing damage.

Don't underestimate the influence of adhesive along the perimeter of a cylindrical joint on the influence of a joint's strength, especially if it is also glued on the back surface. The perimeter gluing both a substantial amount of surface area in a small space AND constrains the joint in a second axis. Most adhesives are weaker against shearing forces so, preventing rotation helps prevent glue on the back/blind surface from being subjected to shearing force via rotation (it's already constrained against translational movement that could cause shearing forces).

Beyond that, I'd suggest taking notes from machining and automotive tasks that are similar. Use and make tools to help overcome the problem that you're not succeeding at beating with your body alone. If you have a vice or strong clamp, you can probably "brute force" a bit more easily. With one end secured in the vice, and any perimeter adhesive seen to, you now can apply force needed more readily.

If that doesn't do it, it might be time to make yourself what I'll call a "knot-pulling jig" (note that this is theoretical, I've not built one of these but it should work).

0. Obtain two bolts and matching washers and nuts. These should be fairly beefy and at least 1.5 to 2 times the length of the brush handle. Optionally, also obtain matching cap nuts.
1. Drill holes in square-ish wood scraps slightly smaller than the handle and knot, respectively. (Scraps should probably be at least double the diameter of the handle).
2. Cut both wood pieces across the holes in the center in the middle of one of the pairs of sides (should end up with 2x arch shapes per square)
3. Glue grippy material (leather or silicone) across the inside of the holes. You now have two clamps.
4. Pick one clamp and drill a hole wide enough for your bolts in opposite corners of the face (one on each "arch").

Now, you're ready to pull. How to use:

1. Place the clamp halves over their matching components and screw the halves together. This should result in the handle and knot being tightly clamped in their respective clamps.
2. Secure the half without bolt holes in a vice or strong clamp. You don't want it to move.
3. Slide the bolts through their holes so that the threaded end can touch the clamp that is in the vice.
4. Slide a washer into each bolt so that it is in between the two clamps, then thread a nut up to snug it. Optionally, now add a cap nut to each bolt.
5. Using a wrench to hold the nut in place against the washer (which is against the inside of one of your clamps), take turns tightening the two nuts. They should push against opposing clamp and eventually pull the knot out.

This may be a bit of overkill but, if you have hand strength limitations, this jig could give you a massive mechanical advantage.

In the US, manufacturers are not required to give all vehicles tow ratings and towing with those without one may cause warranties to be voided. That's why I ended up with a hybrid "SUV" that has nearly the same size as a Prius (1620mmH x 1825mmW x 4460mmL vs 1490mmH x 1760mmW x 4540mmL; it's 130mm taller, 65mm wider, and 90mm shorter giving it a slightly SMALLER footprint than a Prius while being tow-rated).

I interpreted it as implying "being coerced into selling one's labor is degrading, regardless of occupation" rather than "labour is without dignity".

(And just realized that I mixed European and Simplified English spelling there... I'm going to leave it.)

Yup. I keep saying this about places like Hexbear. From my interactions, the majority seem to be True Believers™. People keep mistaking the "authoritarian first, and leftist maybe third or fourth (but sometimes nothing but lip-service)" attitudes as fascism. However, they are two completely different forms of authoritarianism. Sure, both tend to celebrate summary executions and use LGBTQ+ people as a means to an end but, the desired end is different.

Strong disagreement on №2. That kinda thinking is how you get devices on your home network to join a malicious botnet without your knowledge and more identity theft. ALL network communications should assume that a malicious actor may be present and use encryption-in-transit for anything remotely approaching private, identifiable, or sensitive.

I suppose it does depend on which definition one is using. The more academic definition puts them as contrasting with monarchies. With that, the DPRK and other autocracies world not be a republic, not due to a lack of democracy but due to a lack of representative-based government. "Representative" here meaning multiple individually who are ostensibly representing the public interest (frequently, this is someone that they fail to do).

What makes a republic democratic or not is HOW the representatives are appointed. In a theocratic republic, they could be appointed by the state church, for example.

Instructions unclear. Unintentionally started sectarian conflict over whether mole poblano or salsa verde is the correct sauce for baptism.

Fun facts: The "later consequences" of super spicy food comes from the anus having similar sensory cells to the mouth. The only way to avoid the burn is desensitization from repeated exposure and this desensitization is not permanent. It has to be maintained by regular consumption of spicy food.

Not the ones carrying Y. pestis.

Just a technicality: Not all republics are democracies. A republic could be an oligarchy or a theocracy. The main division is between monarchy and republic.

for no clear reason

JS That's the reason. The language has an awful type system.

Good point.