Here's one out of my many "what was I thinking?" moments, this one from the eighties: A friend had this album that I taped and often listened to for at least a few months.
Andreas Vollenweider... "New Age" music with a harp at the front and center.
Technically it's correct, but before finding out in this thread that in the UK they're "fish fingers", I was picturing guys so square they had corners in their 1950s' labcoats and suits... "It's fish. It comes in a stick form. We call it The Fish Stick."
Meanwhile, a name like "chicken nuggets" is catchier, draws one closer.
Nugget = bite-sized gold (well... two bites). Very clever marketing. Perfect marketing, in fact.
I have a friend who has been using an e-cigarette for 10+ years. He doesn’t seem any less addicted to smoking as back when he was using old-fashioned cigarettes....
I smoked for a long time, switched completely to vaping several years ago and still do it. I started at nicotine level 24mg - supposedly the equivalent of a Camel or Marlboro - decreased gradually to where I'm now at the lowest nicotine level widely available in pre-made juices, 3mg.
Remember that nicotine at these doses is not harmful, nor is it a carcinogenic. What it is, is addictive, and the documented harm from the cigarette as a nicotine delivery system comes from the combustion.
With that in mind, I admit that I'm still comfortable with vaping after several years, my health has improved dramatically since then.
I can breathe much better, easier. Now I don't catch every single throat infection and flu of the season, and if I do catch one, it's now usually so mild that I don't even need medication to sleep with a clear nose.
What keeps me on edge is the pervasive anti-vaping sentiment, caused by the anarchic environment of the fledging vaping industry at the beginning, many nicotine delivery systems packaged EXACTLY like candy. A greedy gold rush attitude poisoned the well at the outset.
As an analogy, think Bitcoin and crypto.
"Live on, survive, for the Earth gives forth wonders. It may swallow your heart, but the wonders keep on coming. You stand before them bareheaded, shriven. What is expected of you is attention."
Salman Rushdie, from The Ground Beneath Her Feet.
A more recent one, meditation-related, short and simple and I have no idea who said it, I just happened to catch it a couple of years ago on a website-that-shall-not-be-named:
And here's the other thing I try to visualize:
Matter - both dark and "normal" - falling like water into these gravitational canyons that we see as giant strings, while the empty spaces in between expand and accelerate. The dynamics of this thing are mind-breaking.
I bring this up because it seems to once again be gaining traction in the zeitgeist: I cannot comprehend why UFO hunters put so much time and effort into trying to force governments to "reveal the truth about extraterrestrial contact", but I also cannot fathom how they think aliens even have a chance of successfully contacting...
This is why I hate the constant bombardment of trump/musk/reddit/etc posts. Or toxic-flavors-of-the-month like Andrew Tate.
People feeding the noise, and I bet you most of them are convinced that "It's okay if I do it, because I'm being ironic, I'm above it all".
No they're not, they fixate on the most negative shit that floats across their field of perception. And there are always enough of these "I'm special, I get a pass" people to make the noise reach maximum level all the goddamned time.
An amphibious and paratrooper assault in this day and age, as well as the inevitable international sledgehammer of sanctions, makes it look to me like the expense and risk outweighs the potential benefits.
There is a balance of peace and trade in the region. Who in their right mind would overturn this balance? There has to be an unholy alliance of sense of power-tripping entitlement plus a strong self-loathing inferiority complex. But goddamn it, we've seen too many hollow, noisy, vulgar, aggrieved billionaires and orange millionaires in the past decade or so, haven't we?
But you are also looking at a universe that was much more compact then, with galaxies and structures bunched much closer together than now. It may be a narrow field of vision compared to the current size of the universe, but that narrow field of vision has also expanded in the subsequent 13+ billion years.
Those initial Population III stars do not have the same size limitation as current, metal-rich stars. Those things were short-lived gargantuan monsters compared to any and all subsequent stars.
She’s almost 70, spend all day watching q-anon style of videos (but in Spanish) and every day she’s anguished about something new, last week was asking us to start digging a nuclear shelter because Russia was dropped a nuclear bomb over Ukraine. Before that she was begging us to install reinforced doors because the...
By now it is beyond apparent that corporations cannot be relied upon to regulate themselves. In the mindless dynamic they have set in motion, the mindless endgame is to keep us in a perpetual state of anguish.
How this type of vulgarly cynical content is not considered obscene and banned, is a failure of the highest magnitude.
You watch this one thing out of curiosity, morbid curiosity, or by accident, and at the slightest poke the goddamned mindless algorithm starts throwing this shit at you.
The algorithm is "weaponized" for who screams the loudest, and I truly believe it started due to myopic incompetence/greed, not political malice. Which doesn't make it any better, as people don't know how to take care of themselves from this bombardment, but the corporations like to pretend that they people can, so they wash their hands for as long as they are able.
Then on top of this, the algorithm has been further weaponized by even more malicious actors who have figured out how to game the system.
That's how toxic meatheads like infowars and joe rogan get a huge bullhorn that reaches millions. "Huh... DMT experiences... sounds interesting", the format is entertaining... and before you know it, you are listening to anti-vax and qanon excrement, your mind starts to normalize the most outlandish things.
Gardener's World, the way the show is presented is soothing yet fascinating at the same time. There are a lot of full episodes on YouTube, and it is healthy content for a 70-year old mind... or much younger, even.
they will at first lure you in with cooking, travel, and credit card tips
Holy crap. I had no idea. We've heard of a slippery slope, but this is a slippery sheer vertical cliff.
Like that toxic meathead rogan luring the curious in with DMT stories and the like, and this sounds like that particular spore has burst and spread.
"Today, we'll learn how to make an asparagus and crabmeat omelet with mozzarella cheese. Also be sure to check out our other channels in the links right here (points to the upper left hand corner of the screen) and here (lower left hand corner). Please remember to like this video and suscribe, it really helps our channel."
One wonders if the people now throwing the term "humanitarian concerns" around ever bother to look at images of Bucha, Mariupol, Bakhmut, Kherson, etc. Images of destroyed hospitals, schools and parks in Kyiv and elsewhere. Images of the ecological and humanitarian CATASTROPHE that was the Nova Kakhovka dam. The sign on top of that Mariupol theater saying "CHILDREN HERE".
There is an ongoing EMERGENCY in Ukraine that is superseding any and all other arguments. Clutching pearls after all this makes one a useful idiot for the kremlin.
Tl:dr: Perhaps I am just uninformed on the issues, but I don’t see what the big deal is with a company like Meta joining the fediverse. If anything, I think it is a very good thing, as it puts more attention and dev time into making it a more functional and better place. So what is the issue?...
Even if you don't mind the insidious invasions of privacy that these companies have undertaken with relentless determination:
Because everything these companies touch, they sooner or later enshittify.
Because the past decade has shown that Facebook's intentions cannot be trusted.
If russia does not recognize the sovereignty of Ukraine, their "idea" of "negotiation" is for Ukraine to submit, and there cannot be meaningful negotiation with such a bad-faith actor, it is a waste of time and energy and resources... but sadly the charade must be performed at some level, for the "benefit" of international eyes, even when many of them are russian "useful idiots".
In such circumstances, Ukraine understands that it is essential that they not cede an inch.
EDIT: I want to put the severity of Ukraine's situation into clear terms here.
russia stole their land, and any negotiation is an attempt by russia to legalize their theft. Now add to that how russia terrorizes and brutalizes everyone and everything they touch, and the moral imperative to NOT negotiate becomes overwhelming.
It wouldn't surprise me if the constant loud and vulgar presence of the orange shithead and the hashtag-maga shitheads, splashing their shit all over the place, was the main catalyst to dishearten and drive away many of those who wanted to make Twitter a positive experience.
I’m just curious what you folks think. The whole idea of the Fediverse seems to go against everything Meta has stops for with their existing platforms (Facebook and Instagram)....
I can agree with all you are saying, while also agreeing with the stance that Meta's presence is corrosive by its' very nature.
There will be a sugar rush up front, diabetes down the road.
EDIT: They WILL find a way to insert themselves more severely if and when this thing grows.
We all either love horror films, or hate horror films. What's that film that kept you up at night? The one that you re-watch all the time? The one that made you groan at 'the big reveal'?...
While not really a fan of horror movies, there are plenty that I have loved, as films in the general sense and not specifically as any genre.
At the top of the list for me, it has to be the original The Wicker Man, and in second place it's Evil Dead Pt 2.
As least favorite, not one specific film but the entire slasher film realm.
I still have my reddit account to look up local news. Over my time on reddit I joined several chat groups and over the past week I’ve noticed that people are being mass added to these groups. Even ones that have been dead for years suddenly have people posting and commenting on them. It’s very obvious that this is been done...
I'm going to repost here what I just write wrote elsewhere:
Meta's presence is corrosive by its' very nature.
There will be a sugar rush up front, diabetes down the road.
They WILL find a way to insert themselves more severely if and when this thing grows.
I’ve seen lists of songs with deep lyrics, songs that are upbeat but depressing at the same time, songs not on the radio, and other things like that… But I have never seen a list of songs that are just super fun to sing....
But imagine the joy of blasting out in a crowded room: Devil, just come on back if you ever wanna try again 'cause I told you once you SON OF A BITCH I'm the best that's ever been!
Sorry for being dramatic, but I feel absolutely awful right now and things seem to be moving in the wrong direction, I genuinely don’t know what to do next....
Don't start with a full pill/dose.
Nibble on a fraction, see how it works that night, fine-tune the dosage so it hits the right spot.
For many people the full dose of melatonin in pills is too much.
Start low, increase slowly and notice the results.
Hope you read this:
On YouTube, search for full episodes of the BBC show Gardener's World.
The tone and rhythm are soothing, but it's also entertaining if you choose to pay attention and get into it.
Like with Twitter, it's a rapid-fire series of knee-jerk reactions, like a hammer, as in - "When you are a hammer, every problem looks like a nail", destined to get caught, to not fix what you were supposedly trying to fix, to generate deeper and more baffling situations in the process, to fail.
He's just scrambling to cover his ass from a blatantly poor and criminal decision.
While at the same time still performing a never-ending stream of the same fidgety, impulsive, entitled behavior and decisions that put him into this mess in the first place.
his existing investors will crucify him, they're just biding their time on a lawsuit already.
One wonders how big of a chunk of Tesla and/or SpaceX they've got their sights on, after they really get their knives out and go to Attorney Town on this narcissistic imbecile.
Hi there! So I'm two weeks in to kbin and I think I have a layman's understanding of the fediverse, but I'm still not the most technical person, so I thought I'd just post my questions here....
I remember many years ago, there was a popular Blogspot-style page called Internet K-Hole that did periodic massive dumps of random found photos from the 70s and 80s. Back in those days of slow DSL, the page took minutes to load. All images were old and from scans. Many Polaroids. Some of the images were pretty faded, giving a sense of patina. In some the camera was out of focus, so they were blurry. Peppered throughout were scans from erotic magazines that were already defunct at the time, such as Oui, Chic, High Society, Gallery, etc.
Internet K-Hole was the first page of its' type and size with that kitschy aesthetic sense. Whenever there was an update of images, word spread around the forums of the day, like Boing Boing and Slashdot.
Absolutely, every iteration of the term k-hole is making reference to that ketamine state. And now there's a drug we haven't heard about in a while.
Remember the band Placebo? They had a lyric: "No hesitation No delay You come on just like Special K"
That sounds scary as fuck.
Now, I think the k-hole refers to a bad trip, where you just disappear into a ketamine-induced void for two or three eternities.
Yeah, no thanks, I ain't touching that with somebody else's hundred-foot pole. Same goes for stuff like Jimson Weed, Salvia Divinorum and Amanita Muscaria mushrooms.
“When you use Signal, your data is stored in encrypted form on your devices. The only information that is stored on the Signal servers for each account is the phone number you registered with, the date and time you joined the service, and the date you last logged on.”...
"I don't want to give Zuckerberg all my information for free, or ever, at all" - is what I've said to people when they ask why I don't have Whatsapp. For the most part, they shrug as if to say "fair enough". By and large, it's become an acceptable reason.
Through the past few years, I've been communicating with my five best friends via Signal. They installed the app and started using it just to stay in touch with me. Like I said - best friends, they did that for me.
But their gesture have been rewarded...! ...with Twitter-thread-style text walls from Yours Truly! About whatever subject is on my mind that night.
From the 70s films of Robert Altman, to the impact of The Stone Roses on 90s British music, to the difference between Baroque and Rococo, to Major League Baseball rule changes, to Bitcoin miners in Xinjiang and Kazakhstan, to Neutrino Cosmic Background Radiation, to good ol' fashioned meme shitposting - surreal memes, recursive memes, dank memes, bone hurting juice... you name it, we got it.
So far, they don't seem to mind it too much. It doesn't happen every day and I gotta feel inspired, as opposed to bored texting.
He plans to keep it as a private foundation that is using a donation model to keep it going.
I abandoned Whatsapp several years ago and since then have used Signal nearly every day (to keep in touch with a handful of friends), have had a recurring monthly donation set up for a couple of years now.
One on the one hand there's the privacy, but what clinched it for me originally was the ability to seamlessly switch from my tablet to the cellphone to the desktop, all Apple. Signal was (and probably still is) better at this than Whatsapp.
I've been going for garlic and shallots lately.
In my fridge, there's nearly always a container with garlic butter and olive oil that I make, and another with chopped shallots with salt and pepper, soaking in olive oil.
Porn viewers in Virginia, Arkansas, and Mississippi are now met with a video imploring them to contact their representatives about age-verification laws.
Before REPUBLICAN politicians.
Is it REALLY so hard to get it more specifically correct?
It's shit like this that gets enough low-information people saying that bOtH pArTiEs ArE tHe SaMe.
The Euclid telescope, just launched today, will be able to observe galaxies out to 10 billion light-years. Here's the largest map I could find (1 billion light years) that includes the Milky Way, Laniakea, the Shapley supercluster, the Perseus–Pisces supercluster, and the South Pole Wall....
ParallaxNick, man! His videos - mostly about the history of astronomy - are spectacular, poetic, in-depth, thorough.
ParallaxNick has been doing a series of videos on the lives and works of Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, then Kepler, now Galileo, and I assume Newton is next.
what band/song are you kinda ashamed you listening to as a kid?
Youtube suddenly recommended me some music I listen to some 14 years ago. Unlocked some memories that didn’t need unlocking
I had never put the words "fish" and "nuggets" together before, until now. Fish nuggets. Why did everybody... erm... stick with "sticks"? Fish nuggets sounds catchier. (kbin.social)
It was my daughter who said it, in passing. My wife didn't catch it but I managed to... erm... fish it out, so to speak....
Do e-cigarettes actually work?
I have a friend who has been using an e-cigarette for 10+ years. He doesn’t seem any less addicted to smoking as back when he was using old-fashioned cigarettes....
What's a quote that has stuck with you for your whole life?
I always loved browsing such posts on reddit, so thought I should make one on lemmy too...
What is a beautiful concept or idea that continues to blow your mind?
For me it is Cellular Automata, and more precisely the Game of Life....
What is one generally common thing a lot of people do or believe that you cannot understand? (kbin.social)
I bring this up because it seems to once again be gaining traction in the zeitgeist: I cannot comprehend why UFO hunters put so much time and effort into trying to force governments to "reveal the truth about extraterrestrial contact", but I also cannot fathom how they think aliens even have a chance of successfully contacting...
If they decide to do another Tron movie, the new villain should be The Algorithm. (kbin.social)
Or would an idea like that be nixed, because as a high-budget movie it's too close to an entertainment industry product biting the hand that feeds it?
‘Ukrainian strategy has become a model’: Taiwanese beef up military to face China threat (www.theguardian.com)
Conscripts will serve longer in attempt to improve current crop of ‘strawberry soldiers’ who bruise too easily
¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯ (i.postimg.cc)
James Webb Space Telescope spots a supermassive black hole in the early universe, much sooner after the Big Bang than scientists can explain (www.businessinsider.com)
NASA's Webb telescope spotted an active supermassive black hole that existed 570 million years after the Big Bang. That's really early.
How to de-radicalize my mom's youtube algorithm?
She’s almost 70, spend all day watching q-anon style of videos (but in Spanish) and every day she’s anguished about something new, last week was asking us to start digging a nuclear shelter because Russia was dropped a nuclear bomb over Ukraine. Before that she was begging us to install reinforced doors because the...
Can we stop making posts to complain about new users complaining about reddit?
What is more mildly infuriating than reading a post complaining about someone else complaining? Adding another level!...
US approves cluster bombs despite humanitarian concerns (www.politico.com)
Why are people against big companies joining the fediverse?
Tl:dr: Perhaps I am just uninformed on the issues, but I don’t see what the big deal is with a company like Meta joining the fediverse. If anything, I think it is a very good thing, as it puts more attention and dev time into making it a more functional and better place. So what is the issue?...
Is it possible at all to negotiate, when Russia refuses to acknolwege Ukraine's sovereignty?
Does Ukraine need to give up some land (Crimea) at the end? Or is there something else for Putin to save face like what (?) they did with Wagner?
ParallaxNick is my favorite YouTube astronomy channel, his latest video is a quick one on the detection of the gravitational wave background. (youtu.be)
Corner Office (2023) Official Trailer - Jon Hamm, Danny Pudi, Sarah Gadon (www.youtube.com)
Twitter seeing 'record user engagement'? The data tells a different story (www.zdnet.com)
A quarter of Twitter users said they 'are not very or not at all likely to be on Twitter a year from now.'...
What reason could Zuckerberg and Meta possibly have for wanting to create a federated social media site?
I’m just curious what you folks think. The whole idea of the Fediverse seems to go against everything Meta has stops for with their existing platforms (Facebook and Instagram)....
Kbin: What is your favourite (or least favourite) horror film? (kbin.social)
We all either love horror films, or hate horror films. What's that film that kept you up at night? The one that you re-watch all the time? The one that made you groan at 'the big reveal'?...
Has anyone else noticed how active chat groups are after suddenly becoming in reddit?
I still have my reddit account to look up local news. Over my time on reddit I joined several chat groups and over the past week I’ve noticed that people are being mass added to these groups. Even ones that have been dead for years suddenly have people posting and commenting on them. It’s very obvious that this is been done...
JWST Has Now Captured All 4 Giant Planets (media.kbin.social)
Am I able to personally block .threads on my .world account? I want nothing to do with meta.
Title
Meta Threads is now the biggest Fediverse instance right now.. (kbin.social)
Let that sink in
What are some fun songs to sing karaoke to?
I’ve seen lists of songs with deep lyrics, songs that are upbeat but depressing at the same time, songs not on the radio, and other things like that… But I have never seen a list of songs that are just super fun to sing....
Can't Sleep, things going to shit and I don't know what to do
Sorry for being dramatic, but I feel absolutely awful right now and things seem to be moving in the wrong direction, I genuinely don’t know what to do next....
Reddit seems to be scrambling behind the scenes to try and limit the effects of the migration. Damage control: ChatGPT bots are spamming pro-admin, astroturfed comments (i.imgur.com)
Apologies if this is a repost. They’re scared lol....
Elon Musk Really Broke Twitter This Time - The Atlantic (archive.is)
Tl,dr: Musk is irratic and has no plan, per a journalist who has covered him for five years.
Why "kbin"? (kbin.social)
Hi there! So I'm two weeks in to kbin and I think I have a layman's understanding of the fediverse, but I'm still not the most technical person, so I thought I'd just post my questions here....
YSK: Signal is a great secure private messenger app comparable to others on the market. (restoreprivacy.com)
“When you use Signal, your data is stored in encrypted form on your devices. The only information that is stored on the Signal servers for each account is the phone number you registered with, the date and time you joined the service, and the date you last logged on.”...
Rather than a particular dish, what's your favourite food ingredient? (kbin.social)
Eggs for me....
Musk is undeniably just trying to run twitter into the ground at this point. (lemmy.world)
Pornhub Tells Users to Take Action Before Politicians Take Their Porn Away (www.vice.com)
Porn viewers in Virginia, Arkansas, and Mississippi are now met with a video imploring them to contact their representatives about age-verification laws.
Largest map of the universe I could find (kbin.social)
The Euclid telescope, just launched today, will be able to observe galaxies out to 10 billion light-years. Here's the largest map I could find (1 billion light years) that includes the Milky Way, Laniakea, the Shapley supercluster, the Perseus–Pisces supercluster, and the South Pole Wall....