They also usually use some weasel words like “up to.” That way, if it doesn’t last the full 72 hours (which it won’t), they can claim that they stated “72 hours MAXIMUM” rather than just “72 hours.” It’s basically shifts the statement from “lasts three days” to “definitely won’t last four days.”

I’ve worked in retail, and… That’s not an actual RFID alarm sticker, and it’s not just there for the potential theives.

Some manufacturers will actually put an RFID tag on the inside of the box. These tags work exactly like the RFID stickers, and they’re deactivated the same way (usually a magnet underneath the store’s counter).

This sticker is actually a “chip away” anti-theft sticker. They frequently go on the same products that get RFID stickers, but all they do is tear apart instead of peeling off. They’re mostly an internal tool for LP to try to link thefts and fraudulent returns (that number is the store number that it came from). This one just happens to conveniently have “ALARM” printed on it as a secondary feature, letting thieves know that the item will set off the alarm without showing where the RFID tag is.

Edit: I should probably add that they also put them on high-theft non-alarmed items, but they probably didn’t get separate sets of stickers.

Wait… Y’all are talking about X-Wing: Rogue Squadron and Star Wars Episode 1: Battle for Naboo, right?

I owned those windows ports!

They worked great back in the day - I had such a blast with them that I begged my parents to get me a shitty Logitech joystick! If you want to check them out, it looks like Rogue Squadron is only $10 on Steam; and Battle for Naboo seems to be abandonware, but it seems to be hosted on a lot of “better spread than dead” game sites.

Actually… Yeah, that’s a really good point.

I had a nerf football as a kid that had fins on the back end - no matter how badly you threw it, the fins would help straighten it out and make it fly a bit better. Something like that would have probably fixed a lot of the “unpredictability” issues with this.

"…And this is the fire selector lever. It changes fire modes between ‘ouch,’ ‘owwww,’ and “AAAAAAAAAAAGH.'”

That makes a lot of sense, actually. I also saw “fully electric” and immediately thought of electric/hybrid/ICE cars, and my brain went straight to “hold up, did I miss the fully functional diesel-powered humanoid robot?”

…You’re sure that’s not a prototype Dyson V8?

I can only imagine what’s going through his head…

“Twice - twice now, we’ve just given up and switched sides. A few weeks ago, we were shooting at these guys; and now we’re buddies? Shit, this war is as much of a mess as the last one. Just six more months until I can retire… Six more months.”

I ended up going down a wikipedia hole because I was curious about the inventor also making a car muffler, and it looks like it might be a regional thing. Sort of. Like, we’re trying to make it one.

Originally, everyone called them silencers, but apparently “suppressor” started to gain traction in the US in the late '80s. Since then, most American firearms groups have picked up the newer term, including the ASA (formerly American Silencer Association, now American Suppressor Association); meanwhile Britain is starting to adopt the term “sound moderator.” Neither term is really wrong, per se, it’s mainly a matter of preference.

As a side note, it turns out that Maxim’s company is still around! It looks like they only make the boring kind of silencer, though.

I feel like I would use it voluntarily if it put the sponsors in the “add a destination” menu. I tend to use Google maps for longer trips, and I try to add any stops on the way to my route so I don’t miss them - if I hit “add destination” and it offered, for example, Citgo stations, 7-11s, and Dunkin Donuts on my route, then I would probably get gas and snacks at sponsored locations almost every time.

As it is, though… Well, just having a Dunks on the way to the laundromat doesn’t make me want to stop in and buy a coffee. Driving by ten of them “randomly” on my way to another state isn’t going to make me any more likely to stop at one.

That’s… Actually probably exactly how Star Trek would handle modern Earth. Part of the prime directive is that any species that gets contacted by the Federation has to achieve a certain level of technological and societal advancement first, and we’re close, but I’m pretty sure we’d get put on the “check back in a century” list.

So, if they’re nice aliens and they just watch us for a while and leave, maybe our first contact just got waitlisted?