Overheard a librarian say Signal is banned in 12 countries now, is she right?

She was talking to a patron about how some governments block encrypted apps for 'security' but others use them to hide from surveillance. Which side do you fall on - is encryption more about freedom for activists or a tool for criminals to avoid the law?

My sewing frame snapped mid-signature on a 150 page restoration job yesterday

I was working on this 1880s hymnal for a client in Portland, right in the middle of sewing the third signature when the crossbar just cracked clean through. The whole thing collapsed and the pages went everywhere, took me an hour just to get them back in order. Has anyone else had a frame break on them like this or am I just using cheap equipment?

Shocked at how many people skip referencing the job posting in interviews

I've sat on six hiring panels this year and almost half the candidates couldn't tell me what the job description actually said. One guy straight up said he didn't read it because "it's all the same stuff." How do you handle candidates who clearly haven't looked at your posting?

That $400 creosote removal spray was a total waste of money

I bought a big jug of that creosote remover spray from a supply catalog last spring. It cost me about $400 and I figured it would save me time on some heavy buildup jobs. Used it on three different chimneys over the summer and it barely did anything better than my regular brushing. Now I'm stuck with a half full jug that I probably can't return. Has anyone actually had luck with those chemical treatments or am I better off just sticking with my steel brush and more elbow grease?

Debate: Is Terraforming Mars actually overrated or am I just bad at it?

I've been playing board games for about 5 years now and Terraforming Mars always seemed like this sacred cow in the community. Everyone raves about it but I tried it 3 times with different groups and each game felt like a spreadsheet simulator that dragged on for 4 hours. My buddy swears it's the best engine builder ever made and says the complexity is what makes it great. On the other hand I keep thinking maybe I'm missing something or not playing with the right expansions. Has anyone else felt this way and later flipped and started loving it? What got you there if so?

Used to fight with impact guns on lug nuts until I switched to a torque wrench for final tightening

For years I just blasted everything on with the impact gun and moved on, but after snapping a stud on a Ford F-150 last winter I started doing final torque by hand. Got a cheap digital adapter off Amazon for like $30 and it's wild how many over-torqued wheels I was sending out. Anyone else switch to a torque stick or did you just learn the hard way too?

Tried frozen wings straight in the basket vs preheating for 5 minutes first, night and day difference

The preheated batch came out way crispier and less greasy, even with the exact same temp and time on the same brand of wings, has anyone else noticed that much of a difference from just preheating?

Appreciation post for the old guy at my local shop who showed me how to bag comics properly

Last Tuesday at Midtown Comics in NYC, a regular named Jerry spent ten minutes teaching me the right way to use a backing board so the spine doesn't crease, and now my collection actually looks flat instead of warped has anyone else gotten a random lesson from a stranger that fixed a basic habit?

Vent: Customer asked me to match a paint color from a cell phone photo

Guy came in yesterday with a 2012 Honda Accord. Fender damage. He pulls up a picture on his phone of the car from 50 feet away in a parking lot at night and says match it to this. I explained why that doesn't work three times. He got mad and left. How do you deal with people who think phone cameras are the same as a spectrophotometer?

I noticed a shift in how people talk about anime endings after a forum thread last month