My 15 year old dishwasher makes a happy little jingle when it’s done to let me know it’s finished. Alternatively, I can just look at it the next time I’m in the kitchen and see if it’s done. I can’t think of any scenario where I am so pressed for time that I must be notified the second my dishwasher is done, but also be far enough away that I don’t hear it’s pretty loud jingle. All so I can… What? Do another load of dishes? Who would ever need that?

Yea, I’d agree with 7th and 8th. 13-14 year olds are old enough to be relatively smart and know what things can hurt others, but young enough that most haven’t fully developed a sense of empathy. While most kids are relatively good, more than a handful will exhibit literal psychopathic tendencies that would get any adult labeled as highly dangerous or criminally insane. And they locked us all inside with them.

I’m not exaggerating when I say those were the darkest days of my life. High school wasn’t much better, but holy shit middle school was definitely responsible for the majority of my childhood trauma at the hands of my peers.

While I understand the desire for medical confidentiality, I think when it comes to space travel, the public, or at very least the scientific community, deserves to know some details. It’s not like we’re swimming in data about medical emergencies in zero-G, every little bit is important.

So this brings up an interesting question, what qualifies as “tool use”? Google’s answer seems vague and too broad. Are hermit crabs tool users? What about those crabs that carry around sea anemones to use as weapons? What about lacewing larva, also known as trash bugs? They carry a lot of debris on their back to use as camouflage.

What about beavers? They build dams. What about birds? Yea, crows and parrots obviously, but almost all birds build nests.

Oh, so the US is not getting a single drop then. Everything Trump says is a lie. Everything.

This may come as a surprise to you, but you can both condemn Trump’s actions AND recognize that Maduro was an illegitimate leader that stole an election according to every third-party audit. And not just like “well it was close, who’s to say who really won?” but like the votes went 2-1 to his opponent. He lost BAD, but decided to lie, cling to power and attempt to imprison his opponent. Maduro is a vicious dictator and calling him an illegitimate leader is not just a claim, it’s a fact.

And yes, it’s also true that Trump’s actions were an illegal act of war. Full stop. No questions at all there. But the people trying to condemn this by making Maduro out to be some innocent saint are either trolls ignoring his corruption, or people so ignorant as to the situation that they should maybe just shut the fuck up until they spend more than 2 minutes learning about it.

Yea? How’s that lookin currently?

And then we should get all the world leaders in a big room and tell them they’re being bad. Then they’ll all sing and hold hands and stop all wars. And then later my mommy can make us all dino nuggies and we can watch Trollhunters on Netflix.

And do what exactly? They aren’t going to get punished for it, so what’s the fucking point?

I’m not disagreeing with that, but saying they “wouldn’t lose much by switching” is laughably untrue.

I’m not on either of them, but I’m also not confused as to how a group that’s wanting to run ads might prefer an audience of hundreds of millions of people instead of tens of millions.

Except, of course, for audience size. Which, if you are running ads, is sort of the main goal.

They still wipe their shit with their bare hand. I am ok calling any society primitive that can’t figure out how to use some form of water to wash their ass, or AT LEAST toilet paper.

Unfortunately the aforementioned list will never contain the most “stone cold killer”, most dangerous predator species of 'em all, because it’s a list kept by that very species themselves.

nods knowingly

Wallabies…

Boiled in a big pot with potatoes, carrots, and a large slab of corned beef and spices for several hours.

If it’s all propaganda and nothing happened, then why the fuck is China so draconian about preventing any and all conversation about it?

I mean, if it was all made up lies, certainly they would want people talking about the truth of the matter, rather than banning and prosecuting anyone who dares mention that it was anything other than a normal day.

Now, some people might see this and easily be able to tell that something stinks and clearly there is something they are trying to cover up. We call this “Not having the critical thinking skills of a dead goldfish”

Do they? I mean, I’m sure some people do. But some people also think shoving chili peppers up their anus is pleasurable. We don’t go around saying “People now think shoving hot peppers up their ass feels good.”, because while it’s technically true, it’s disingenuous considering how few people fit into that category.

I want you to do a little thought experiment with me…

Sports make a shit ton of money. They have advertisements crammed anywhere they can. When you go to a stadium, the shots of crowds are almost always pre-recorded, or actors, so they can package the emotions they want to convey without risking a genuine moment from genuine fans not going exactly how they want it to.

They gouge you with ticket prices, they gouge you with food/drink prices, the gouge you for parking. If you’re watching at home, you have to subscribe to their specific streaming platform, and even then it doesn’t guarantee you’ll be able to see the game they want.

They recruit kids in high school and college and use them knowing full well that less than 1% will have anything resembling success. They spend millions upon millions exploiting these kids.

They give quasi-legal performance enhancing drugs to their athletes. Ones that are labeled as supplements and aren’t technically against the rules, but do the exact same thing.

They hide studies that say their sport causes long-term injuries. They bribe local officials to get huge tax breaks on building new stadiums. They have teams of lawyers and PR personnel to cover up all but the most extreme controversies from their players. They have people working night and day to find new ways to keep people’s attention and have them consume more. They found a way to make gambling legal again and have been pushing HARD for it.

Now I want you to look at all these underhanded and slimy tactics they use, and really ask yourself: “Are the games themselves rigged?”. If your immediate answer is “No, of course not! They would never mess with the integrity of the game itself!” why do you feel that way? Why do you trust organizations, that have shown they hold nothing sacred if it means more money, to NOT mess with the game itself? You know they would if they could get away with it; and with the state of the world today, do you really think they COULDN’T get away with it?

A 144hz monitor has been the biggest upgrade to my computer since switching from an HDD to a SSD. It’s that big of a difference.

Better ban the ocean then. I heard millions of people decide to go swimming in it every day and some of them drown.