Plastic brush vs. poly brush for clay flue liners - not even close

I used a plastic bristle brush for like 3 years on clay liners. Thought it was fine. Then last week I grabbed a poly brush from a guy I was helping on a job out in Arlington. Night and day difference. The poly got through a layer of crusty creosote in half the passes. Plastic just kinda slid over it. The poly actually dug in. Now I gotta buy one. Anyone else made the switch and felt dumb for waiting?

Overheard a kid at my LCS say he only buys comics for the variant covers

Made me realize half the people in the shop probably haven't read a full story arc in years and I wonder if that's why the new writer on my favorite title keeps getting canned after 6 issues, what's your shop looked like lately?

Friend told me I was overcrowding the basket. Game changer.

Found out barbers used to do surgery too, wild history fact

That time I rolled my eyes at the whole 'shifting rivers' theory about ancient cities

I remember reading about how they think the Mississippi River used to flow right past those old Cahokia mounds back around 1100 AD and I thought yeah sure, another wild theory. But then I actually drove out there to the site near Collinsville, Illinois last fall and walked around. The ground is lower in certain spots and you can really see where a channel might have cut through. The park ranger showed me these core samples they pulled up from the ground with layers of sand and silt that only come from a big river. I guess after seeing that and the fact that no major river runs there today, it finally clicked. Kind of wild to think those people built a whole city right on a river that just up and moved on them. Has anyone else been to a site where they changed your mind just by seeing the physical evidence in person?

Found a trick for getting rid of those tiny air bubbles in shellac

I've been fighting with pinholes in my shellac finishes for years. Tried thinning it more, tried different brushes, nothing worked great. Then an old timer at a hardware store in Columbus told me to warm the shellac up by putting the can in a pot of hot water for 15 minutes before using it. He said cold shellac traps air. I tried it on a walnut desk I was finishing last weekend and I'll be darned if it didn't work almost perfectly. Anyone else do this or got another trick for bubbles?

That one week I tried meal prepping every single breakfast and lunch got weird real fast

I spent $80 on Sunday buying all the containers and ingredients, then by Wednesday I was eating cold quinoa at my desk because the microwave at the office broke, has anyone else had a meal prep plan fall apart due to something totally random like that?

The Orion Nebula photo trends are missing the Horsehead's real detail

I keep seeing these super bright Orion Nebula shots flooding the feed and everyone loves them, but almost nobody captures the Horsehead Nebula right next to it with any real detail. People are boosting exposure so high that the dark nebula gets completely washed out. I took a 30 minute stack last Tuesday with a stock DSLR and got clear dust lanes in the Horsehead that most of these popular shots don't show. It's not about making everything bright, it's about balancing the contrast so the dark regions aren't lost. Am I the only one who thinks people are sacrificing the real structure for a flashy look?

Overheard a thru-hiker say maps are for old people

I was at a gear shop in Gatlinburg and this kid said GPS on his watch is all he needs. Made me think about all those paper maps I still carry out of habit, anyone else still stuff a folded map in their pack?

I used to just eyeball the torque on head studs until a 6.7 Powerstroke in Boise blew a head gasket

That was three months ago, and the customer's bill for the tow and full teardown was over $4k. Now I use a Snap-on TechAngle wrench for every single one and follow the factory torque sequence to the letter. It takes longer, but I'm not eating that cost again. Anyone else get burned by skipping a step on a modern high-pressure diesel?