chicote

From a seller’s perspective, I’d imagine they will be more than happy to take cash for as long as it’s possible, as credit card fees can eat up such a large percentage of their profit margins, particularly if they sell mostly low-value goods. A friend who runs a cafe in Seattle doesn’t allow card purchases for under $5 as his profit is basically wiped out in the exchange. I do think there are strong moves to wipe out cash usage in the West but can’t see it ever completely being eliminated; there are so many huge parts of the world where society is still largely cash based, and I believe it will stay that way as long as certain cultural structures (markets full of informal vendors, for example) stick around.

Wow, love the pocket combo!

Right behind you on the knee tears @Uncle Karl think this is post-wash #13:

Spent an hour today struggling to play along with the time changes in this... thought it was so straightforward. One of my favourite songs and albums of all time!

People under the stairs samples that gabor szabo track! Wow that takes me back lol. And szabo references donovan w the “translove airways” comment in the intro... and in that track Donovan name drops jefferson airplane, months before they had any international recognition! ... and Jefferson Airplane, of course, drops acid

Picked up the ol’ drum sticks again for the first time in five years and tried to pick up this beat... needless to say I butchered it lol. Nobody makes rhythms like fela!!!

Went a month without washing while i started a construction job - after washing early this morning they’re back to being covered in mud and drywall dust

^Oh man, that was my holy grail way back when... I’m disappointed I don’t live in a cold enough environment anymore. Whoever gets it, post tons of pics!!!

That length looks great to me @cesco10. You can usually have jeans hemmed in 1” increments at a minimum, as about an inch of fabric is taken up by the folds of the hem. So that’s another option if you just want to go a little shorter, without having to go through the trouble and expense of buying a new pair.

Also in case anyone wants to get sucked into a (quite beautiful) rabbit hole regarding treadle machines, I came across this incredible artist on youtube several years ago. It’s so incredible how detailed her work is!

To be fair, it must take significantly more time and effort to sew jeans on a treadle machine, especially if it’s not something the maker is familiar with. But yeah that price is crazy. It reminds me sometimes, when I think the clothes we wear here are expensive, that there’s a whole upper echelon of fashion brands selling $600 t shirts and $2000 pairs of pants, and that the community of people who buy that clothing probably dwarfs ours.

I think it might be international shipping generally; I mailed a book and some tattoo magazines to a friend in Spain a while back, the whole package was pretty compact and weighed maybe 3 kilos, but shipping was nearly $70!

Yes, exactly, among other countries which are doing the same thing. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/19/coronavirus-vaccine-diplomacy-west-falling-behind-russia-china-race-influence Now, the article suggests there might be some favour-buying behind this, as the name “vaccine diplomacy” suggests, and again I’m not disputing that. But I do think it is a better policy, and that our own countries refuse to follow suit because their vaccines are set up for profit is worthy of criticism imo.

I didn’t say the uk vaccination program is doing poorly; I said they are focusing only on their own citizens, which has the benefit of working well for its own citizens, but has several drawbacks as well. for example, several poorer countries have argued that there should be a temporary waiving of patent for some of the western vaccines so the world as a whole can begin to bring vaccine production online. UK and US governments, as well as their associated vaccine producing companies, refused. the guardian called it “vaccine nationalism”. Our countries’ current practice is working well for its citizens and for its pharmaceutical companies, but in my opinion it’s not the optimal solution. If our stated goal is to end the coronavirus lockdown everywhere, then china’s approach of international distribution is getting us closer to that goal than the us and uk’s approach has been. that’s all!

I think you’re missing my point, Maynard. I am not pro-China. I think that their citizens live in a dystopian surveillance state, their government has shown authoritarian and militaristic tendencies towards ethnic minorities and nonviolent protesters, and their nominally planned and controlled economy has largely been taken hostage by multinational corporations. Now, I would also say those things are true about the United States, where I live. Obviously these things are true to different degrees in the two countries, but in my opinion they are valid criticisms of both and there is substantial evidence to back it up. What im pointing out is that despite the many failures of china’s response to the coronavirus, they were able to contain the spread of the virus extremely effectively, and develop a vaccine that they have distributed hundreds of millions of doses of, both to their own citizens as well as to other countries around the world. Compare this to the US or UK, where lurching and contradictory lockdown procedures have done very little to stem the spread of the virus, and where multiple for-profit pharmaceutical companies are competing with one another to maximize profits of their vaccines, which our governments are critically limiting international distribution of in order to focus only on their own citizens, and in the process letting both vaccines and manufacturing capacity go to waste. Again, not praising China’s government, not shit talking everything about Western society. Just pointing out that something as big and complicated as a nation is going to have elements worthy of praise as well as criticism, and one does not preclude the other.