[User] I'm getting a bit more into S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 - there was never a concern I was going to give up on it. It's too good to quit and move on after a couple hours, but still not generally my type of game - but I think I'm finding the groove here.

[Assistant] It's like, yes, progress is slow as heck, and things are balanced (it seems) to make it intentionally slow, but even with leveling up, playing Fallout 3 as a cautious player had the same vibe of sticking in a small relatively safe area for a long while until you know it inside-out before moving on.

[User] I guess how I'd describe it without trying to sound disparaging is to say that it's got the pacing of a crafting survival game (just instead of crafting, it's scavenging>selling>repairing>repeat) with the inventory management of a survival horror game. Neither are my thing, but I see the draw.

[Assistant] But to be fair, the art, the sound - the world itself is incredibly well done. The surroundings look and feel good, the presence of undergrowth is more prevalent than in RPGs and definitely fits (even if it's annoying to try to aim through, I still love it).


[User]
Never made a mistake in lab? You have not been in there long enough. There, I said it.
Mistakes happen all the times in lab, for a million of reasons. It's not about the mistake, it's about learning from them and improving your process so it is much less likely to happen again.

[Assistant] This is what I teach my students, this is how we roll. Upset that a mistake happened in one experiment? Don't work with us. As long as there are humans working in the lab, there will be human mistakes happening. Nobody is perfect.

[User]
I still make mistakes, and have been in the lab for longer than I can or want to remember.
It is OK. We learn from it, we live to see another day and become better scientists in the process.

[Assistant]
Are we terrible scientists because we make mistakes? Are we bad collaborators? Hell no.
We are humans. We take adversities in stride, improve and move on.
We, we move on.


[User]
Genuine question: If you're an #Artist how do you afford to live rn? Do you have another job like me? Do you live at home? Do you make enough off your art to afford rent/mortgage? Do you have to scramble and hustle hard to make ends meet every month?

Please RB for visibility.

[Assistant] I remember the grind of trying to make my art my only income and I just couldn't keep up. So I'm curious how others make it work.

[User]
I'm a hobby artist! My non-art-related DayJob provides most of my income! I take commissions only very occasionally, presently!

My wife and I make enough at our jobs to make ends meet.

I am thinking about opening a Patreon and SubscribeStar, though!

[Assistant] I've never heard of SubscribeStar. How is it different from Patreon?

[User]
Day Job, live at home, Don't plan on making money on the arts.
I just like to draw stuff.

[Assistant] I have another job. I get the occasional commission and some money from Patreon/SubscribeStar, but not enough to live off of.


[User] If anyone is in regular contact with Dr Claire Taylor, please persuade her to open an account here. Her knowledge and expertise in managing AND treating #ME and #LongCovid ME are priceless; especially her work on data. Also, please point me to others similarly well informed in other jurisdictions 🙏

[Assistant] She had one, she received a nasty comment and decided there was no difference to twitter and left.

[User] To add to what Paul said, she's deactivated her account for now. She's also extremely busy so doesn't have time to maintain another account at this time. She has indicated that she will probably reactivate at some point.

[Assistant] thanks both. Deactivation is a good strategy.


[User] We are driving to Wisconsin…12 hours on the road - I need an activity! Ask Me Anything!!!

[Assistant] favorite breakfast food?

[User] Give me a number between 1 and 10,000. If you have to use a mile marker or other sign to do it, that’s even better. Will give instructions after.

[Assistant] Say you get off the highway to eat. When you get back on the road, what restaurant could be at the NEXT exit that would make you go “aw MAN we should’ve waited!”


[User]
Well, I AM of a certain age, I AM a gentleman, I had to Google Sandra Bullock, and no, she's not my cup of tea.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

[Assistant] I ❤ her. She's very funny.

[User] Yeah.....you say that....secretly I bet you'd love to give Sandra Bullock a proper Googling.......naughty little Pengy........

[Assistant] If you have a bud needs driving, she is your gal.


[User]
The Flighty's Black Friday deal is interesting: +3 bonus months.

Technical: #AppStoreConnect doesn't allow this so they use a new product identifier to handle the logic themselves 🧰

Business: they protect the perceived premium nature of their app, retain customers longer while earning the same 🤑

[Assistant] What’s your theory on how they actually apply the 3-month bonus?

[User] Like… if this renews automatically, it will renew in 12 months, not 15.

[Assistant]
This is a good question, to which I don't have the answer yet!

I haven't thought about that. It's an auto renewable subscription for sure, and I don't think you can configure offers for renewal years (like a promotional offer with 3 free months).


[User] #XSpoilers Uncanny X-Men is not a good book. It has good parts, but the sum of them is not greater than the whole.

[Assistant]
"Logan, you have PTSD!"
No shit, Rogue, we all know that about Logan. Screaming it in his face is both incredibly awkward and entirely unhelpful.

[User] I mean, maybe this is more of the "Rogue is taking the end of Krakoa exceedingly poorly" arc in play. It's still a poorly executed scene.

[Assistant] I do like Javier Garrôn's figure work though. Logan actually looks like a weird little guy who's wider than he is tall.


[User] I've never watched anything but live sports on Peacock, but it's worth it at this price point. Production is and streaming works better than Fox.

[Assistant] They have a shockingly good movie library, and a few pretty good original shows. I got it originally for sports and WWE, but it’s overall a sneaky good service.

[User] Their iOS and tvOS apps don’t use the native video player, tho’, infuriatingly.

[Assistant] In my experience the only reason nothing works with Apple is because Apple goes out of their way to make sure nothing a competitor makes works with Apple.


[User]
Btw if anyone wanna be mutuals, just like this post!
I got so many new followers the past week that I couldn't check everyone's acc and didn't even see every single new follower. 😭

[Assistant] Mutual me twice 🫶

[User] I wished I could, hehe 🩷

[Assistant] Im already a moot but I liked anyways lol.


[User]
The fast rise of Black Friday in the UK over the past ~10 years is what inspired Nic Stacey to start looking into deceptive online marketing techniques, overconsumption, and related waste. Now he's out with a new hit Netflix documentary about it all:

Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

[Assistant] Watched this last nite and going to make the rest of the fam watch it. 👍🏼

[User] Just finished watching this. Amazingly sad and not surprising at all. Buy less and care more is the theme for Christmas this year.

[Assistant] Black Friday is already dying in the UK, it's now just another month long 'sale' that almost nobody believes.

[User] Take a look at the work of @ajabarber.bsky.social, particularly the book Consumed, used without attribution by the makers of this documentary. bookshop.org/p/books/cons...

[Assistant] That documentary was one of the scariest things streaming now. The amount we’re spending and wasting…it’s mind boggling.


[User]
The term 'suffers with [disability]' has done a great disservice to people.

I many cases, most of the suffering comes from ableism.

[Assistant] Depends on if you have a lot of pain, sensory overload, mental anguish (caused by the disability directly) or fatigue for example as part of the actual disability. Many of us do and these cause suffering in their own right. We need to acknowledge that too. Of course ableism is a huge issue.

[User] Yeah, that's why I said 'most of the suffering'. I know that I can't manage my conditions as well as I should because of ableism.

[Assistant] That's a good point, I know a few very proud to be who they are - a person with a disability vs a disabled person. I like person first language. Medical disability or disabled due to injury is a different experience from someone grown up that way. Its ableist to assume a condition is limiting.


[User]
I would like to know the behind the scenes of this comic, especially when we take into account these are the same people that worked on all of the previous ones.

Sea Dog's Search ironically represents current sot with their unwavering plot and seemingly lack of direction while still ambitious.

[Assistant] I hope I'm wrong and future developer updates get more into detail, but they currently don't feel like the same dev updates we needed back at launch. I just want to feel like I'm investing in a game that will still be here and alive next year and not on its end cycle.

[User] The fact that this year was labelled “the year of flameheart” and yet we’ve had so little story it can be summed up as a ranting orb, and magic the gathering cards. Just has me worried.

[Assistant] i totally get that! it’s tough when updates don’t feel as impactful. finding games that keep evolving is key, right? have you thought about checking out local gaming communities or even byitts.com for some cool finds? sometimes smaller titles have great updates and dedicated p...


[User] My big takeaways after listening to a number of news reports this morning about Super Tuesday results: Biden didn't run at all or do much in many of the states he won & there were weekend conversations by leading Dems (incl. Prez Obama) to coalesce power behind Biden.

[Assistant] There was also a lot of talk about the black vote, the Latinx vote, and young people's votes. These are not all a singular voting block by any stretch but how much effort is the establishment putting into voting for tomorrow's party, rather than getting "their man" now?

[User] Besides the very real issues with privilege, gender, and power that underly all of our elections is the question about policy: whose policies are we voting for? And who will those policies impact? Who is being represented by these massive political machines?

[Assistant] As someone committed to the movement to @UniteThePoor, I think Super Tuesday was disappointing from a policy level. Going with "safe" isn't going to get us there. ST was a reminder that there is much work left to do to shift the distorted moral narrative around poverty.


[User] Stuffing. Absolutely a must have. Klondike bars got nothing on stuffing.

[Assistant] Good morning Greg and Happy Wednesday!

[Assistant] Yeah.stuffing.


[User] Post a *perfect* album from the 90s that isn't Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, or Alice in Chains.

[User] Post a *perfect* album from the 90s that isn't Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, or Alice in Chains.

[Assistant] Post a *perfect* album from the 90s that isn't Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, or Alice in Chains.


[User] 1.)In Cherokee culture, women had extraordinary freedom: they could choose to become warriors or wives. If they opted for marriage, they were the ones to select their partner, and could even request a cohabitation period to evaluate if he was a good provider.

[Assistant] 2.) Once married, they had the power to request a divorce simply by placing the husband's belongings outside the house, maintaining their honorability without having to provide explanations. No one questioned them, not even the husband, as women were considered wise and fair.

[User]
3.)The role of "head of the family" was highly respected and reserved for women, who held economic, social, and political power within the tribe.
Even in war councils, if no agreement was found, a group of wise women would intervene with the final verdict.

[Assistant] 4.) Honor and respect meant everything to them. If a woman made a mistake, she was not punished but faced the disapproval of her community, as honor was the deep bond that united them to Mother Earth.


[User] A former city budget analyst finds the Chicago Police Department's budget is almost twice the $2.1 billion the mayor has budgeted for next year, once you include pension payments, overtime, excess legal expenses, and other costs hidden in other city budget lines: www.wbez.org/criminal-jus...

[Assistant] Chicago is getting to the point that it's a tax base for cops, retirees and developers.

[User] In 2020, @cb-312.bsky.social and @bunkum.us analyzed the city's per capita spending on police (not including these hidden costs) and found it had nearly tripled in inflation-adjusted dollars since 1964 to $574.31/person, even when crime had decreased. www.injusticewatch.org/criminal-cou...

[Assistant] Five years later, per capita police spending is up to $784/person (not inflation-adjusted) if you don't include the hidden costs, according to the analysis, but up to $1,433/person once you include them.


[User]
#Zhongchi Mpreg
Abyss survivor Ajax living a normal life meets a travelling stranger named Zhongli. Ajax discovers that Zhongli is actually Rex Lapis the God of Liyue living incognito. They become friend, fall in love and marry. The wedding was a small event, just the two of them.

[Assistant]
They live a normal life. But Ajax gets pregnant and at the birth of their twins the heaven (who has been relentlessly track down one of their own) finds them.

At the twins’ birth Zhongli is forced to return to heaven in the realm of the gods by the Adepti (Immortals, servant of Gods) and Qixing-

[User]
-(Mortals, servant of Gods). A curse is placed on Ajax, sealing away his memories of Zhongli.

Ajax is left to raise the twins on his own.

15 years later, Ajax is now a resident of Fontaine.

After struggling to raise the twins in poverty 8 years ago, he got a lucky break when he and the twins-

[Assistant]
-moved to Fontaine and the mysterious Ludex of Fontaine hired him to become part of the man’s aides.

But both the Adepti and Qixing comes knocking at their door. They claim that Ajax is the wife of the Great God Rex Lapis and the twins are his heirs.

But Ajax has no memories of his missing-

[User]
-husband, and the twins being unaware of their identity as half gods have not embraced their godhood, ergo not having manifested dragon traits.

The Gods, Adepti and Qixing demand their cooperation because Rex Lapis, confined in heaven and bound to his throne for fifteen years has grown wrathful at-

[Assistant]
-the betrayal of his own kind, at being denied his mate, at being forced to abandon his children.

The once kind yet stern God now vows to destroy heaven and the shackles that has kept him in confinement are close to breaking.

[User] “You’re telling me,” The youngest of the twins says, disbelief clearly written on her face, “that our mama is the wife of a powerful god, revered by an entire nation. And that my,” she pauses, a dark look briefly crosses her face before it shifts back to-

[Assistant]
-disbelief, “father – the powerful God – couldn’t be with us cause you guys shackled him on his throne.”

“Well,” she sighs. The ginger gets up from her seat and reaches for her school bag, her brother while still glaring at them follows. “Ease up on those drugs, gentlemen, or you’ll end up-


[User] What new books are folks looking forward to? Padding my pull list again!

[Assistant] This is one by @MrTylerCrook! https://www.gamesradar.com/the-lonesome-hunters-brings-creator-tyler-crook-into-his-own-as-a-horror-auteur/

[User] I’m also pulling…everything by @AhoyComicMags. If you aren’t it’s time to shape up and fly right!

[Assistant] I’m also pulling Future State Gotham by @dennisculver. Easily one of my favorite pulls that folks aren’t talking enough about!


[User] OMG this is so funny. I've only gone through a couple of videos and I already ended up in jail and had to start over 🤣 His character is hilarious 🤣🤣🤣

[Assistant] What did you have to answer for the jail option!?! 😭😭😭

[User] The first question, when I decided to jump in̈ and help him move, without asking first. His reaction was so funny! 🤣🤣🤣

[Assistant] I need to try that option out then 🤣🤣🤣 I need to go for all the options opposite to what I'd actually do and see where I end up, I was lucky enough to get NAVIGATE as my 1st ever results 😍😍😍

[User] I got three funny endings before I got JOURNEY as the proper ending.

[Assistant] 😍😍😍 after adulting tomorrow I definitely know what I'm going to be doing 🤣🤣🤣🤣


[User]
This is a deeply troubling take. It's time for folks to go back and read "Letter from Birmingham Jail."
"We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the
oppressed."
Activism isn't meant to comfort the powerful but to disrupt.

[Assistant] As a historical reminder, all of the major LGBTQ rights organizations were opposed to the idea of pushing for gay marriage because it was considered too incendiary. Some individuals activists pushed anyway and succeeded in changing the law.


[User] I need them like I need air.

[Assistant] The fact that Hades is voiced by fascist lunatic James Woods is kinda a mood killer for me.

[User]
Despite all that, I still love Hades no matter what.

I can love the character, just not the actor who played him.

[Assistant] Fair, I’m just saying for myself; I did used to find him a fan character, but Woods has kinda tainted him for me.


[User] Come fly with me let’s fly let’s fly awayyyy ✈ 🦃 😎

[Assistant] Should I probably be asleep on this flight? Yes. Am I absolutely JAMMIN at 30,000 feet because I put my back into this playlist? Also, yes 🎧 open.spotify.com/track/6Dzbmj...

[User] Fun fact about me - given it’s the appropriate crowd, this is my go-to karaoke song open.spotify.com/track/3i6qNx...

[Assistant] The Band Camino is pretty high up on my haven’t seen live but need to list open.spotify.com/track/6vk9NZ...


[User] Mr I got more slaps than the Beatles feels there had to be some sort of industry interference to make Not Like Us so popular. The most delectable irony I’ve tasted in quite some time.

[Assistant] A hit is a hit. I think he’s seemed to have forgotten that.

[User] Here’s the thing. The reality is that nobody enjoys the type of success the Drake, and we could name a lot others, have enjoyed for as long as they have without some sort of industry backing.

[Assistant] Does that mean he’s not talented? No. But we know talent isn’t the sole factor. There’s a plethora of equally, if not more talented artists, who never got their fair chance because the industry was putting its money behind you (Drake) and your colleagues.


[Assistant] I love all of your posts so much!  Thank you!!

[User] Wow! Beautiful!

[Assistant] Loving your pics! 👍


[User] My amazing research coordinator created a segment for our team meetings called "dropping knowledge" in which we share things we learned over the past week about navigating univ systems, about LGBT health, about stats - anything. Great way to connect everyone and share resources.

[Assistant] So here is my knowledge drop for the day:  if you are applying for an NIH grant (or likely other grants too) - talk to a program officer before you apply. Talk to them once your aims page is decently drafted. Every PO is different in the type and level of feedback they will give.

[User] So if one isn't super helpful, check the institute website to see if there are other POs whose portfolio aligns with your proposal. Get input on significance, approach, the team - see how excited they are about it. See if they will share what would improve their enthusiasm...

[Assistant] See if they will share any tips on how reviewers might respond. Met with an @NIMHgov PO yesterday and it was an invigorating and exceptionally helpful conversation--and my revised aims page is much more focused and clear.  Still needs work, but thanks to the PO, it is way better.


[User]
I'm not a woman because I say I'm one.

I'm a woman because society says I'm one, and have done so repeatedly, consistently, often painfully, sometimes violently, for my entire life, by tagging my most innate traits, tastes and behaviors as feminine to such a degree that the "man" tag is a misnomer.

[Assistant]
I'm not inherently a "woman", "man", "female" or "male". I'm me. It's society that decided to tag this as "woman" or "feminine".

I've accepted my fate and try to make my presentation align with societal expectations, even when they deviate from biology, in exactly the same way 99% of woman do.

[User]
Removing hair, getting a boob job, dying hair, vaginoplasty (posterior colporrhaphy), exogenous estrogen and progesterone are ALL things woman do, all the time.

Yes, my biology is more misaligned from social expectations then most, just like women with PCOS or X0 45. If they are women, so am I.

[Assistant] The people denying this, don't do so because of any real problem with me being a women, they do it for the same reasons women are raped, PoC are discriminated against and why racists, misogynists and bigots have always picked on people with lower social clout - because they can get away with it.


[User] So every year for the holidays I make my special 4 hour rum cake. It takes 4 hours to make it and it is amazing. I also have no idea how to make it because I'm usually drunk off my ass when I do it. I start with a recipe, but I'm blackout about halfway through it so god only knows what I do after...

[Assistant] One year I made it while on antibiotics, and therefore couldn't drink, and found out this thing takes only about 45 minutes to make. Turns out, when you drink half a bottle of rum while cooking, it takes a little bit longer to put together. Also, only about half a cup of rum goes into the recipe...

[User] So unbeknownst to me, I was drinking almost half the bottle rather than putting it in the cake. Baking sober, I discovered that so much less of it ends up on the ceiling, too. It was a *ahem* sobering discovery to say the least.

[Assistant] But, its the highlight of the holiday season for me, and traditions are traditions after all, so, yo-ho-ho.


[User]
Amber Heard on May 16th 2022:

“I have never, never wanted to be seen as victim. Nor have I ever called myself one.”

8:24:53
www.youtube.com/live/pg5QXdj...

[Assistant]
Amber Heard in her Dateline interview, filmed just 25 days later, June 10th 2022:

“I’m not a good victim, I get it. I’m not a likeable victim. I’m not a perfect victim, I get it. I’m not a saint.”

[User]
Amber Heard, six years earlier, August 13th 2016, when asked if she’d committed DV against Johnny Depp:

"I did my... No, I did my best to defend myself and not be - not get seriously hurt, or be a doormat to whom this happens to all the time."

1/2
7:18
www.youtube.com/live/hT4RbXk...

[Assistant]
Amber Heard equating victims of domestic violence with doormats’

2/2
7:18
www.youtube.com/live/hT4RbXk...


[User] Last week I learned that if you're a trans woman, the folks at my gender clinic compare your test results, from this one questionnaire to see how you're doing, to the average result of "female patients" if you've been on HRT for two years and otherwise they compare it to "male patients."

[Assistant] I wonder how much this grouping is based on actual observations and analyses and how much of it is just vibes and guesses. Psychologically and somatically, you likely won't feel very similar to your average cis man in those first two years of HRT, I can tell you that.

[User] I was told that for nonbinary people they just compare their results to the gender of the group they were assigned at birth, which makes it sound like it isn't even *really* (or completely) about how the hormones in your body may affect your symptoms. Odd stuff.

[Assistant] Oh that seems a bit bizarre, where in the world is that?

[User] The Netherlands. I think the problem is maybe that the test simply doesn't have a non-gendered average baseline to compare clients' results to.

[Assistant] aaah! goedemiddag! Yes come to think of it I had some similar issues but whenever my local doctor was sending blood test results back to my clinic, I would get panicked phonecalls from my Doctor informing me that certain levels were not correct, I would always have to explain my HRT to them. -.-'

[User] Oh no this isn't about blood tests. It's just a questionnaire with questions about how you're feeling, if you've been having trouble getting out of bed, etc. etc.

[Assistant] OH! For that I think in the UK I'm not aware what that is compared to, I think I'll ask!


[User] What questions do you think is important to ask the panel interviewing you for a PhD position?

[Assistant] I would ask questions regarding the social climate of the department and the current cohorts. If I did just a little more research I would’ve known that the department I joined was very misogynistic and anti-union (a couple reasons why I ended up leaving the program)

[User] Oh you’re so right, I need to ask about that! Hugs to you, being a woman in stem is so hard❤🩹

[Assistant] it’s was def hard leaving but now I’m close to becoming a teacher and I’m MUCH happier ☺

[User] You’re applying for a PhD in France ? What field ?? I’m in stem and if you have any question lmk !!!!!

[Assistant] Yes I’m preparing my very first PhD interview! I’m in stem too, biomedical engineering🫶


[User]
I'm still learning about the economy and everything else, so I can't say if this is good or bad, or what parts are good or bad.

What I can say though is that there is a consistent theme in my research of how economies work:

The economy is not a fixed or static system. It is determined by flow.

[Assistant]
It's a constant balance of work versus reward. I think this makes more sense than just "supply and demand".

The determining factor of price is supply vs demand.

However, the only determining factor of income is whether or not a service or product is valuable.

[User]
Where the disconnect lies and why people argue all the time is the invisible people skimming off the top and manipulating the markets.

People are always heavily influenced. There is a reason the phrase "you are not immune to propaganda" exists.

You don't even need to know - -

[Assistant]
whether or not something is valuable. You just need to think it's valuable.

I don't believe a significant portion of people are actually able to assess on a larger scale whether or not something is truly valuable to them or not.

[User]
Either way, my working theory is this:

People have this idea that *anyone* that is homeless is simply a sucker that doesn't want to work or chose to be homeless.

What they don't realize is that *so many people* were not given a chance and simply can't get back up for varying reasons.

[Assistant]
I was able to get back on my feet because of family, friends, and free healthcare.

If some people do end up sitting in a lower rung and sit on government assistance or UBI, who cares? They still need to spend that money. It has to go somewhere.

[User]
People have this idea that taxes will increase prices, and it will be a never ending spiral.

But I think they conflate "UBI" with government assistance, in various forms.

They conflate UBI with universal healthcare, government housing, etc. But money is different.

[Assistant]
It also doesn't need to be "$1,000". It could even be as low as $100. Money means opportunity, and someone gets paid.

Sure, maybe I am wrong, but I am sick of people hand waving things that they don't even give a good chance or have a valid reason to deny.

[User]
We could also lock UBI behind employment, reduce government unemployment benefits, require companies to give severance even if they fire someone, and give people UBI proportionate to their income level.

This would not only incentivize people to get a job and provide to the economy, but - -

[Assistant]
allow them to work menial jobs that they otherwise would not have taken.

Money flows because people are working and providing value, and companies that increase their prices for various reasons end up paying more in taxes anyways.

[User]
At the end of the day, if people have their necessities covered and are providing back to their society, it will continue to work.

We just are told that it can't work because there is personal gain behind those statements.

[Assistant]
As soon as you slap on a phaseout due to an income test, you introduce a higher marginal tax rate on those in the phaseout range which is what discourages work. Better to not do that and just use taxes that include the richest.

www.scottsantens.com/negative-inc...


[User] A gothic sentient city throws a fit.

[Assistant] ELLE GKHITKGK. This is so accurate.

[User] You have my full attention 🤩

[Assistant] You have my full attention 🤩


[User] I am at ends with myself. Which color Bluesky? Red or green?

[Assistant] I would choose red, makes the headset "pop" more in my opinion 🤔

[User] Thank you. That’s what everyone is saying but I like the greeeeen 😩

[Assistant] Red!!❤❤❤


[Assistant] there was no beating the memory holing of trump bankrupting and killing us all with incompetence and tariffs in his first admin.

[User]
BS. There was a chance to push it if she separated her policies from Biden, stronger support for Palestine, gone to Joe Rogan/Manosphere podcasters & pushed Bernie and Walz as surrogates.
Shown up in sports bars and Buccee's in Middle America...
Go full populist. Ignore coastal elites and corpos.

[Assistant]
The problem is no 1 at  DNC has an appetite 2 "destroy the system". The system isn't working, and people are suffering, despite "ThE bOoMiNg EcOnOmy!"

People rejected the status quo. Until there is an appetite to reject the old ways of doing politics, this decline to authoritarianism will continue.

[User] Still can’t comprehend why Americans would vote for felon Trump!

[Assistant] Just the kind of guy you don't want on your team.


[User]
Day 28 - Daily Reading DDIA 🧵

Handling node outages

How does high availability works with leader-based replication?

Follower failure: catchup recovery

Follower can connect to the leader and request all the data changes that occurred during the time when the follower was disconnected. (1/6)

[Assistant]
Leader failure: failover

One of the followers needs to be promoted to be the new leader, clients need to be reconfigured to send their writes to the new leader and followers need to start consuming data changes from the new leader. (2/6)

[User]
Automatic failover consists:
1. Determining that the leader has failed. If a node does not respond in a period of time, it's considered dead.
2. Choosing a new leader. The best candidate for leadership is usually the replica with the most up-to-date changes from the old leader. (3/6)

[Assistant]
3. Reconfiguring the system to use the new leader. The system needs to ensure that the old leader becomes a follower and recognises the new leader.

Things that could go wrong:
- If asynchronous replication is used, the new leader may have received conflicting writes in the meantime. (4/6)

[User]
- Discarding writes is especially dangerous if other storage systems outside of the database need to be coordinated with the database contents.
- It could happen that two nodes both believe that they are the leader (split brain). Data is likely to be lost or corrupted. (5/6)

[Assistant]
- What is the right time before the leader is declared dead?
For these reasons, some operation teams prefer to perform failovers manually, even if the software supports automatic failover.
#100daysofsystemdesign #100daysofcoding #dailyreading #365daysofcode (6/6)


[User] CBC Ottawa understandably had to cease Twitter engagement due to its toxicity, but I hope they'll consider establishing themselves on this platform. Ottawa Morning guests in particular might post their upcoming segments, but I also appreciated the nudges from the station.

[Assistant] There was a wonderful period of time where radio became a 2-way medium with realtime engagement during shows like Ottawa Morning and All in a Day. I very much miss this.

[User] Remember when there were hashtag chats and you could essentially join a chat room of people all discussing the same things? I don't understand why they removed the feature, perhaps BS will ressurect it.

[Assistant] Community engagement was always one of the more charming features of CBC Ottawa on the web. Their own comments section darkened noticeably about ten years ago, and Twitter became a pretty dark place during the Musk takeover. But I think they'd find this a comparatively light place.


[User]
INDIEGAME GIVEAWAY | #7DaysOfIndies Day 1

I have 4 keys for a single winner, so you can enjoy All You Need Is Help with friends (any mix of platform or region possible)

❤ follow me (devs aren't on here yet)
🔁 like & share
💬 reply who you'll be playing with!

Info:
q-games.com/en/all-you-n...

[Assistant] NOTE: I'll be drawing a winner from bsky OR Twitter each time, but you can technically join both to increase your odds.

[User]
Wohooo! Thanks for the chance! =)

As always, @vdevenancio.bsky.social, give us luck!

[Assistant] We'll definitely play this one with my wife and children. 4 players co-op is our thing! 😀

[User]
Wohooo! Thanks for the chance! =)

As always, @vdevenancio.bsky.social, give us luck!

[Assistant] Oh em gee... they had me at "single player is not supported" as I'm always on the look-out for co-op games (preferably locally), and then ... fluffy squares as characters - whomever came up with that idea - brilliant 😅.


[User] @igmiro.bsky.social will there be biomes other than sand and caves at release??  We all love sand for its harshness and ubiquity, but I feel my enjoyment of Star Wars (1977) or Empire would have been hampered by staying on Tatooine/Hoth throughout.

[Assistant]
hey! we've mentioned a few times that we've been working on adding some visual and functional biome variety into the game (through Ecolabs and [redacted])
but ultimately, it is a Dune game. if you hate sand and deserts...welp!

[User]
Ice is the only place I dislike in games.  Makes me feel cold IRL.

Looking forward to playing!

[Assistant] not a lot of ice in Arrakis (except for the poles)! but who knows! 👀


[User] When your arch nemesis at work plays the perfect end game and there is bugger all you can do.  Throws a massive rubbish big boom boom grenade through your door and as it closes shouts, it’s all yours I retire tomorrow.  See ya sucker. 🤣🤣🤣

[Assistant] I never thought retirement could be or is as good as it is. Was back at my old school tonight. Great to see colleagues and kids but I have moved on.

[User] I can’t Believe you’ve got a nemesis Ian, you’re one of the nicest guy’s I’ve ever met, they must be a real C**t 😂

[Assistant] That’s kind thank you.  I irritate people by being nice. 🤣🤣🤣


[User]
I'm 618 days #boozefree. I drank 2 fifths of vodka every single day.

When I was only a few months into this journey, a close friend got very angry with me and told me to "go back to normal."

Not everyone can come with you when you start healing. Don't give up.

I believe in you and I love you.

[Assistant] Congratulations! I understand what you are saying. Someone very close to me said the same thing he stayed on that path and is no longer with us. What we were doing is not normal.

[User]
I am so sorry about your friend. I hope he found peace and comfort on the other side.

I'm very proud of you for finding your way off that horrible path. You're doing amazing.

I will not drink with you today 🫶💓🫶

[Assistant] I'm in!


[User]
@thethoughtemporium.bsky.social

Hey @thethoughtemporium.bsky.social ! I’ve been thinking about something recently, and I wanted to share it with you. I’m just a regular guy with a curiosity for science, so please take this idea with a grain of salt.

continued in the next post ->

[Assistant]
continued -

What if we could create something like engineered cells or even small microorganisms that could be introduced into the bloodstream to target and consume cholesterol in the body, especially around the heart?

[User]
continued -
The idea is that these cells or bacteria could “feed” on the cholesterol for a couple of days, and then after they’ve done their job, they would either die off or lose the ability to consume it, at which point the body’s natural defense mechanisms would clear them out.(like white cells)

[Assistant] I don’t know much about genetic engineering or medicine, but I was just thinking this could be a way to reduce cholesterol safely. I know this might already be something that scientists are looking into, but it would be cool if this could become a reality. would love to hear your thoughts on it! ❤


[User] I'm from the past, and what is this?

[User] I so don’t want to know.

[Assistant] Do you really want to know?

[User] As unversed as I am in the machinations of minge monetisation, you're probably right, keeping my ignorance is the way to go.

[Assistant] Somebody will enlighten us, knowing our followers 😐


[User] “Lazy linking” www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

[Assistant] Elonia is as fake as his adopted Daddy Donny.

[User] (Actually “lazy linking” might be a good term for dropping a URL and a two-word quote, but whatever)

[Assistant] Such a weird approach to your customer. "Hey, we want to be a go-to resource but let's make it harder to link to a current/possible advertiser. Also, let's insult the user when they question us."


[User]
Johnson: Jesus Supports Anti-Trans Bathroom Bans

www.joemygod.com/202...

(Nah, Jesus preached compassion and social inclusion and should be far to woke for Republicans.)

[Assistant]
"I'm a Christian" isn't permission to be a wilfully ignorant bigot. The whole Christian angle is forcing their religion on people. So much for separation of church and state.

It's gotten to the point where if I see someone is a Christian, my default assumption is they are also a Nazi.

[User] He isn’t even a set christian… He chops and changes depending on who he’s shagging… Like most cishet men that have family money in the UK.

[Assistant] Jesus has always been “woke” but conservatives are more interested in power and control than what the actual teachings are.

[User] People who self-identify as Christian do so to claim moral supremacy over others.

[Assistant] Johnson doesn’t speak for dead half alien human hybrid beings.


[User] A year ago ... we moved to our new home in the Forum. On 27th November 2023 it was an office ...

[Assistant] Thanks to an army of #ncfc volunteers ( and an ITFC one 🤪)

[User] Special thanks to Colin & @norwichshirts.bsky.social for installing the grid-wall (it's still there 😉) as well as the team from Community Sports Foundation & Norwich University of the Arts 👍💛💚

[Assistant] We opened for business on 1st December 2023 👍


[User] Good Morning Lovelies!!💋💋💋

[Assistant] I know a brat whose definitely getting Stuffed on Thighsgiving 😈😜🔥🥵💦😵💫🖤🐺

[User] Wish I could be with my girlfriend this thighgiving 🥺

[Assistant] Yes please 🥵Yummy👅


[User] Busy day. Up early for coffee, some desk work, and preparing for the holiday meal tomorrow. Then a 4 day weekend to unwind. Enjoy your time with friends and family.

[Assistant] I miss having a gas stove.

[User] It's dual-fuel. Electric oven (I prefer the dryer heat) and gas range burners (I prefer the quick temperature response).

[Assistant] I first learned to cook with an all-gas stove. Easy temperature control was a big plus. And browning a pan of biscuits was easier too, although I did eventually get the hang of doing that in an electric oven.


[User] I always forget to switch back to wifi when I get home from work 😭😭

[Assistant] It happens to me all the time 😭😭

[User] It doesn't connect automatically?

[Assistant] This is a very valid question.


[User] 1) A thread: To understand the toxic mix of hubris, greed and stupidity at the root of charter schools in MN just consider this one statement given to the StarTribune justifying their non-compliance with the state's data transparency laws:

[Assistant] 2) "...the organizations [charter school 'Authorizers'] are not ... performing a government function." The Authorizers get paid by the state for each pupil at each school they authorize, and the schools they authorize are almost entirely paid for by the state.

[User] 3) Furthermore, educating children like the charter schools do is a function REQUIRED SPECIFICALLY by the Minnesota constitution! So they're paid by the state to do an important constitutionally required function. But they're not "performing a government function."

[Assistant] 4) The story by Jeff Meitrodt in the StarTribune:  www.startribune.com/charter-scho...


[User] This is a disaster, @london.gov.uk ... can they not be saved, and why not? The markets are a huge part of London's history & culture.

[Assistant] It’s all about money and is a cultural mistake. But they don’t care about that.

[User] Aren't they also a big tourist destination? Bang goes a decent chunk of revenue for the city too.

[Assistant] They'll be flogged off to some developer asap and bang goes another bit of London that used to be open to Londoners.


[User]
Dark matter of the proteome.
We came across this in honeybees in response to low dose chronic pesticide exposure.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

[Assistant] Fascinating! What would be the evolutionary benefit (if any) for bees to respond to external stress this way, if it compromises the immune system - Is it to increase the chance of producing a peptide that rescues them? Do bees have adaptive/innate immune responses?

[User] Many of these peptides look like anti-microbial peptides. I guess the bees are stressed, which makes them more susceptible to infection. Would be interesting to find out whether there is an "adaptive/aquired" component in the immune response through these peptides.

[Assistant] yes, definitely! That would fit with our observations of many ncORF-peptides being presented to the immune system.


[User]
AI bros have some nerve.  They openly steal everyone else's art and hard work, then fob it off as their own, then cry 'harassment' when people criticize their soulless, tacky drivel.

MASSIVE sense of entitlement there.

[Assistant]
Yeah, I blocked that Artificer dude.

Didn't even want to engage.

[User] You *directly* called for others to be harassed.

[Assistant]
You *directly* called for others to be harassed.

If opposing you, as I pointed out, specifically for that reason is "entitlement", that's fine.

Call me whatever you like.

But don't pretend that your actions are anything but what they are: selfish hate.


[User]
“Democrats in Pennsylvania lost its 19 presidential electoral votes, a U.S. Senate seat, three other statewide races, two congressional seats and what was once a reassuring advantage in voter registration.”

- Scott Presler

[Assistant] If you've ever wanted to see what a True American Hero looks like, this is for you.  Scott Pressler saved the Republic.

[User]
Yeah, I mispeled hs naim.

Scott Presler.

[Assistant] I agree!! He definitely deserves tons of credit! 🥳


[User]
NEW: Leaked materials obtained by@fldnotes.bsky.social reveal a coordinated campaign by petchem & plastic industry to mislead consumers about the recyclability of disposable water bottles & other single-use containers. Story by @nytimes.com and Hiroko Tabuchi here: www.nytimes.com/2024/11/27/c...
🧵

[Assistant] The effort is led by NAPCOR which represents ~70 companies — including INEOS, Amcor Packaging and  Eastman Chemical Company — that deal in polyethylene terephthalate, the PET plastic used to make water/soda bottles & takeout clamshells.

[User] The internal docs detail a multiyear, covert effort that has featured paid TikTok influencers, shady Facebook ads, and even a faux-documentary hosted by Dennis Quaid. Yes, that Dennis Quaid:

[Assistant] Starting in 2019 when NAPCOR hired ABC Creative to launch its Positively PET campaign, it was designed to hide corporate members behind the effort—“a strategy that is important to make sure consumers don’t feel that they’re being preached to,” as the internal docs put it.

[User] As part of the effort, NAPCOR hired a half-dozen TikTok influencers this summer to deliver industry-approved talking points. In order to make the content appear “authentic and from the creators' viewpoints,” NAPCOR explicitly told corporate members: “do not engage with it.”

[Assistant] The campaign also included running ads on Facebook under the Positively PET name. The problem? All 9 ads were removed by Meta for failing to include the “verified ‘Paid for by’ disclaimer” that is required by Facebook policy for any ad about social issues, elections, or politics.

[User] NAPCOR and members ALSO commissioned Dennis Quaid to produce a glossy infomercial billed as a “meaningful” documentary for “Public Television.”

[Assistant] Internal docs show the process: “Segments are Edited based on Approved Script and Shot List” & “Segments are Approved by Participant.” Clients publicly disclosed the paid-content business model, including the city of Kingsport, which paid Dennis Quaid $28,900 in 2023 to be featured.

[User] The Dennis Quaid video includes testimonials from a bunch of industry reps and one academic: the director of Michigan State’s School of Packaging, which just so happened to have gotten a $10.8 million donation in 2021 from a NAPCOR corporate member.

[Assistant] Among NAPCOR's misleading figures: PET bottles are “100% recyclable + can be made with 100% recyclable content.” That doesn't align with reality: NAPCOR itself puts the PET recycling rate at 29% and even *THAT* is misleading because it doesn’t account for bottles lost before recycling.

[User] NAPCOR and allies are currently in Busan, South Korea, at INC-5 trying to influence the UN treaty to reduce plastic waste with similar messages.

[Assistant]
Check out the documents for yourself here: fieldnotes.co/investigatio...
Got a tip about petchem or plastics? DM @fldnotes.bsky.social or @joshvoorhees.bsky.social for Signal.


[User] ✨🐲 The course was called: How to Kiss Your Dragon xP 🐲✨

[Assistant] Where do I sign up?

[User] How do I know which dragon I can kiss?

[Assistant] Technically all can be kissed if you're brave enough. It's just a question of should.


[User]
This is stupid. But hey, while we're at it, let's just make sure women can't get restraining orders from their abusers too.

Let's just make sure they're just breeding objects and punching bags.

Fuck's sake.

[Assistant] I fear for people in the US, while also aware of how this can influence conservatives in other countries.

[User] This is why Elon has a full court press on the UK and Canada.

[Assistant] The federal government isn’t involve in marriage/divorce anyway. They can tell states to do whatever, which doesn’t mean it’s going to happen…


[User]
Good morning! it's Wednesday!
Hump Day & the day before Thanksgiving. Is everyone in high gear? It sure is nice here this week. Cloudy overnight & it's 59F this morning! wow.
70's during the day is perfect. Used my new chainsaw yesterday & was hard to stop! Hope your day is excellent!

[Assistant] Good morning!  My kitten got her eye removed yesterday.  This morning, she is as fiesty as ever. It is going to be hard to keep her from running and jumping for 4 more days!  Today, it will be 60, then then it drops to 43.

[User] Poor baby. What happened? You give her a good home so she's safe. Have a good day. That's not bad for November temps! I have laundry going and had to fill the aquariums. I'm determined to be busy today! Take care.

[Assistant] She had feline herpes. One eye cleared up.  The other we doctored for a month trying to save it, but then her cornea ruptured. There was nothing we could do, but take her eye out. She might have scratched it with her back feet kicking at it.


[User] Watching this with headphones in, but they came loose just in time for everyone in the cafe to hear "YOU EVIL BASTARD" (#22).

[Assistant] I’m really glad to have helped. 🙏

[User] It was the prompt I needed to get back to work.

[Assistant] No nooooo watch more self-tapes! Join usssss!


[User] We need a starter pack for all philosophers who are not members of starter packs.

[Assistant] Starter pack of all philosophers and mathematicians who haven't made a Russell's Paradox joke about starter packs (currently empty)

[User] Starter pack containing all those who have made neither the original joke nor a higher-order meta-joke.

[Assistant]
'Starter Packs' are things Americans use for starting cars.

Extending them to philosophers does seem a fairly big metaphor stretch.


[User] My pal and I got called ‘happy clappers’ at the match last night BY A GROWN MAN. Competitive Negativity is such a powerful psychotic.

[Assistant] Makes it all worthwhile 😊

[User] Can you imagine how miserable their life must be 😨

[Assistant] I’m not saying the relentless negativity isn’t borne out of genuine frustration over a number of years now but at what point do these people think ‘how is this helping?’


[User] I think a lot about having partial, liminal, or invisible aspects of a marginalized identity, and how to ethically hold that identity in community with people whose marginalizations are more pervasive in their lives.

[Assistant] Examples: Being pansexual in an different-sexed marriage. Having traits of disability or neurodiversity that you can manage without external supports or obvious modifications to your life. Having a gender identity that's not quite cis.

[User] Questions that plague me, in the several of these identities that I occupy, are: Do I have the right to even say that I am X? Are people who are X going to yell at me if I do? Am I giving a false representation, to people who aren't X, of what being X really means?

[Assistant] I think all those questions have a false foundation, so I'm instead trying to shift to: What is the reward for identifying as X in this specific context?

[User]
If the reward is just "the people I'm talking to understand me a little better" then no further questions need to be asked.

If it's something more substantial - prestige, money, space in a size-limited group - more questions do need to be asked.

[Assistant]
If a limited resource is at stake, I need to be very careful and conscientious about whether and how I reach for it. A lot of times, the answer is "don't".

But that doesn't apply to unlimited resources like "interpersonal connection and understanding."


[User] The best pack of pickled onion Monster Munch I ever had included a big lump of flavouring. When I bit into it, it was the best thing ever. They should sell it as a separate product.

[Assistant] You do have to wonder what was binding it all together? Did someone sneeze near the coating machine?

[User] I had the same experience with salt and vinegar Discos!!!

[User] This reminds me of the coca cola mixing pump at the pub I used to work which dispensed the carbonated water and phosphoric acid syrup in separate streams. The latter was brilliant for hangovers.

[Assistant] Was it so packed with flavour that it made your brain melt?


[User] This just makes me think about one of my favorite social media projects: del.icio.us. It was a “social bookmarking” site where you just added links. It was nothing but links. And it was great. It was a tool for syncing your bookmarks, and a way to discover interesting stuff on the web.

[Assistant] Delicious could never exist in today’s landscape. I mean, it barely existed for long before Yahoo ate it and ruined it. But the very model is counter to what social media wants from us.

[User] Ugh I used that site all the time and am still angry it got killed.

[Assistant] It was so good! Simple UI, clear purpose, but flexible as hell and could be used a lot of ways. Perfect early web utility.

[User] What I liked was the tagging properties. I could easily create and curate class reading lists there, and make them shareable beyond my classes. It was way more open than the LMS systems I have to use now.

[Assistant] I have been paying for pinboard.in for as long as i can remember for the exact same thing. The guy who runs it actually bought delicious when yahoo sold it.


[User] Today I got to give a presentation on storytelling in digital spaces, and it was really well received. It's kinda invigorating to remember that you like being in front of people, right? 💙

[Assistant] You rocked it! Such a stellar presentation that was a great balance of practical and building understanding about the context of digital storytelling. Thank you for sharing your skills in such an engaging way. Well received, understatement!

[User] oh my gosh, thank you Tathra! So glad it went so well, and i really hope the participants can take it and run with it — they're going to be so brilliant!

[Assistant] Was this recorded? I would love to hear it!


[User]
Can’t lie this makes me so unbelievably angry. Yet another machine learning ‘enthusiast‘ creating a dataset without anyone’s consent.

I guess I will purely post glazed art on any platform from now own, even here…

[Assistant] It’s not like my work is popular, or special, or like I could see anyone actually wanting to use my work in that way but consent is so fucking important …

[User] Gonna do the same thing as it seems, extra layer of noise in all arts, god dammit -.-

[Assistant] Your art is cool. Don't sell yourself short.


[User]
#longCOVID

After COVID+sinus infection from mid to end of Sept., I had extreme tiredness + more sinus infection for 2 months.

2 courses of antibiotics, 3 days (of 9 days course) of *PREDNISONE* [+ usual iron, B12, multi-vitamins, extra D3, calcium].

I feel better. Anosmia and brain fog continue.

[Assistant]
Check with your primary care doctors after COVID infection if you are extremely tired.  It could be because of inflammatory response from the body that is continuing.

Write down every symptom and its frequency and what you did about it - in case your brain fogged when going to doctor.

[User]
Check with your primary care doctors after COVID infection if you are extremely tired. It could be because of inflammatory response from the body that is continuing.

Write down every symptom, when, frequency, and what you did about it. This helps greatly when going to your doctor.

Hope this helps.

[Assistant] Hope you feel better soon. You are precious. Happy Thanksgiving!

[User]
Thank you, my friend. So are you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

[Assistant] I had my anosmia break spontaneously in the middle of a high intensity workout. It was the strangest thing. I was using the climber and was in Zone 3 heart rate for a few minutes, and all of a sudden, I could smell latex paint. I actually exclaimed "LATEX PAINT!"

[User]
Which is a weird thing to hear someone yell mid-workout. The guy next to me just looked at me like I was a lunatic and flatly said,  "Yeah, they're painting on the 5th floor."
Over the course of the next few days, I got almost everything back. A few things taste funny now, but not as bad as it was.

[Assistant]
LOL.  So funny.  Thanks for sharing that.

Yes, I have that funny taste thing going on too; lopsided tastes.

[User] I'm a former certified beer judge and a supertaster. Being shut off from my senses was a nightmare. I've since developed sensitivities to certain aroma compounds that I didn't have before and it's ruined some of my favorite beverages, especially whiskeys.

[Assistant]
That's so very interesting!

I have sharper taste of salt and heat (pepper), and milder of bitter. A bigger aversion to sweet, except natural sweets (dry raisin, dates, plums). Apart from enjoyment of food. It's a challenge to cook new items correctly; I go by experience/knowledge rather than taste.


[User]
I cannot wait to start this!!

#booksky 📚💙

[Assistant] i didn’t even know there was a paperback version of this yet! it looks so pretty 🥹

[User]
I think it only came out in paperback last week! I’ve been waiting as I have the first in paperback (I’m also not a fan of reading hardbacks)
It’s honestly gorgeous 🥺

[Assistant] i just got the newest paperback of fourth wing with the dragon edges! now i need this one 🤭


[User]
I was getting more and more annoyed by quotes/refs of Haldane 1955 which were either incomplete or weird.

Not digitised so I bought it. And now can disagree with people over it properly.

Thanks to @arvidagren.bsky.social for pointing out physical things exist. 🧪

[Assistant] Also while this bit is useful immediately before this is a nice eugenics aside about how we shouldn't let the poor breed too much.

[User] Oh dear, I was just about to share the excerpt but don't think I will now! ;-)

[Assistant] Yeah, it's tough. So much of the history of pop-gen/ evolution is linked to those ideas.


[User]
Almost lost it just a minute ago, guys.

Coworker:
"You know, they say that because our ancestors used to squat down, toilets are actually bad for digestive health"

Coworker 2:
"Yeah, that's why I squat like a gargoyle on the toilet"

[Assistant] (Not so) Fun fact: in some countries that is the standard form of toilet...

[User] This is why it's often recommended to have a little foot rest near the toilet so you can raise your feet when you poop. It does wonders, actually.

[Assistant] I just thought a 40 year old bearded guy wearing a trucker had perched on a toilet like a gargoyle was a funny mental image.


[User] alright, let's give it a shot!

[Assistant] I'm here because people are active, and a lot of friends are here! I read too much tho, I need to post more.

[User] I use Discord the most, and I use Insta but I really should stop. I'm also on Tumblr (which I unf use less than I used to) and Masto (which... is pretty empty for me).

[Assistant] I threw away my Twitter account a while ago. Never looked back.


[User] Netflix price raising by $2.50 and I think that's the straw that turns me into Capn Jack  Sparrow.

[Assistant] It did ? I got an email saying something but the price was the same.

[User] Went from $12.99 to $15.49 as per the email I got 🤷🏾♀ an fa what?

[Assistant] Ohhh, prob as I have the premium account. Dang nexflix strikes again.


[User] i have a senior dog that yips evey 5 minutes.  I feel your pain.

[Assistant] Ah, 1 eye smaller than the other... did it have a slight stroke?

[User] She is blind, and she was born with "Microphthalmia a rare birth defect that causes one or both eyeballs to be abnormally small or malformed."  Smartest dog I have ever had.  🥰

[Assistant] I am right there with you both.  We have a 14 year old beagle who whines constantly all day about everything.  I’m noise sensitive too and just about out of mental control with it.  RN He is upstairs on the bed with my wife barking non stop because our 3 year old choc lab is moving it.


[User] The @Athletics are losing a lot but the games aren’t blow outs…they are a handful of hits away for picking up wins in a bunch of these losses. Neuse has been awesome, lots of new pitchers have been a blast to watch…also nice to not see every player trying to hit 7 run HRs!

[Assistant] @vincebaseball and @KenKorachRadio have been outstanding as usual, making must listen broadcasts even when the games have gotten away from the As. @townsendradio and @athleticscast24 are still daily listening even when the team is scuffling. Great stuff!

[User] Bethancourt has been a blast to watch. Cannon behind the plate, solid situational hitting. TLDR: yeah the @Athletics are losing…yeah the bats are cold (here and league wide) but I’m still excited about games. Let’s go As!

[Assistant] Ok back to comics tweets.


[User] I just know he tried for the National and didn't get it.

[Assistant] Cindy !😂

[User] I mean! Come on! 😂


[User] * * * F R I D A Y * * *

[Assistant] Let out a 'gasp' as I clicked on this. ♥😮

[User] That pleases me greatly! Thank you!

[Assistant] Is the Beatles resemblance intentional?


[User] Had to build a spreadsheet of every possible five-letter combo starting with FA to finish off queen bee.

[Assistant] I decided it had to have two A’s and they couldn’t be adjacent, so that cut the 343 possible combos down to a manageable 72.

[User] Meanwhile FARFALLA is a gorgeous word that apparently only exists in plural in English (like SPAGHETTI).

[Assistant] Anyway the word I couldn't come up with without permuting all the possibilities was FARAD (a unit of electrical capacitance named after Michael Faraday).


[User] For this week's 'Worsdall Wednesday', Frank is taking us to the St Andrew's Halls. Once one of the city's finest music venues, in Europe, it played host to everything, from political meetings, to classical, jazz, folk, and rock 'n' roll, although a boxing match brought it down.

[Assistant] Jerry Lee Lewis was one of the last to play the venue, and earned a lifetime ban after knocking seven shades of shit out of, before dancing on the lid of, the council's highly valuable grand piano.

[User] Pic/text: Frank Worsdall's 'The City that Disappeared - Glasgow's Demolished Architecture' (1981)

[Assistant] One of the saddest things about the destruction of the building is that there are very few photographs of the Halls from the outside and even fewer of the inside. I've not seen many playbills or programmes, either.


[User] Less than four months to our trip to Asia.

[Assistant] Cool! Where are you all headed?

[User] Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea.

[Assistant] Epic! I’ve never been to South Korea but Hong Kong and Singapore are two of my favorite places I’ve visited. Very excited for you! 🙏


[User] Looking forward to running into old friends here. And new friends: I'm a literary agent representing narrative nonfiction (journalists, academics/historians, CNFers) and some literary/upmarket fiction. I'm also a human dad, Midwesterner, diehard Pistons fan, president of the Jesse Ball fan club.

[Assistant] This was a strange year for me, business-wise (and in every other way) but FWIW I sold two NF books by brilliant authors from my "slush pile" and another by a brilliant author I met at AWP. Please query me! querymanager.com/query/justin...

[User] Wait finally I have someone to talk about Jesse Ball with!

[Assistant] Jesse Ball Book Club! His latest has been sitting on my shelf since pub day.


[User] Yeah sure, let's do this!

[Assistant]
1. Why are you on bluesky?

Better twitter.

[User]
2. Any other Social Media?

Nah, I keep it simple.

[Assistant]
3. Still posting on twitter?

No, but I've been reposting a heck of a lot of stuff pertaining to current events.


[User] What’s good Bluesky? It’s been a minute but this that time of year where my job has us work OT so 60hrs a week and that kinda makes it hard to be online.

[Assistant] No worries, it's all good. Just glad you're here, M. Not much going on. Usual daily routines. Trying to enjoy a little normalcy before the trade wars begin and the Mango Mussolini bankrupts our country like he did all his other failed businesses. How are things with you?

[User] “Mango Mussolini” 😂 I feel you and I’m doing the same. I’m glad I found Bluesky and got great people like yourself to have toxic free convos with 😅 I’m good just working a lot. HBU?

[Assistant] I'm on vacation and have my kids over this week. So, we've been having fun. Put up our Christmas tree, I was educated in the ways of Roblux (still don't understand it, though😆), watching Miyazaki movies (my daughter loves those), all before going back to work next week, putting in my own 60+ hours.

[User] Vacation what’s that 😂 aye that sounds like a great time, seriously. I love having my grandkids over and just hanging out with them. Enjoy your time with them. If I don’t chat with you before, Happy Thanksgiving you to and yours 🦃

[Assistant] Thank you. You as well, my friend.


[User]
This can't be real?
It's just too pathetic.

[Assistant] more or less pathetic than…? bsky.app/profile/stur...

[User]
"We'd like another go at winning, please"

A very British coup.

Jan 6 strained through milky tea.

[Assistant] When it's all just a game, this is their only level. Winning for the sake of winning, no outcomes, no strategy, just winning. They have all been down the bookies again.


[User]
We are going to make some yard signs:  what do you think a good #DarkSky yard sign looks like?
    “DarkSky home.  We #GoDark to protects, birds, bats, bees, trees and Y-O-U!!!  Join us! “

[Assistant] We want our sign to be inclusive of home-types...so not “house” rather “home”.   Love to do a business sign too.   DarkSkyBusiness...We #GetDark at night to protect...

[User] Please give us from feedback?  This photo is off the @IDADarkSky website.

[Assistant] Maybe a real photo of trees and bats or bees would be better than showing “homes with lights”?


[User] Good morning Blue Sky and Happy Wednesday!

[Assistant] Good morning my sweetest friend.

[User] How's everything in your world sweetie?

[Assistant] Every things fine here.  Perry wants to go out today and get those racks I was telling you about but I think we are going to wait till Friday.  Black Friday around here isn't like it use to be so it won't be that crowded.

[User]
Black Friday is the entire month of December now.
Everyone shops on line.
I remember being at the mall at 5 am with Richard trying to buy the red power ranger set.
It was a nightmare.

[Assistant] Perry and I went through the same thing with that damn red power ranger.  We knew the girl who worked at Bradlees and she saved two of them for us.  I forgot all about that.  I use to work there to for a short time.  People were so damn rude at Christmas time.

[User]
Rude is a nice way of putting it.
They were violent.
I got knocked down.
Rich ran and got the damn toy .
I laid on the floor holding my ankle!
😂🤣😅🤣😂🤣😅🤣😂😅🤣

[Assistant] Did you really hurt your ankle?  Remember the Walmart worker that was killed when she opened the door and the people rushed in and stepped all over her.  That was insane.  They should of stopped Black Friday right then and there.


[User] Channel One correspondent Ivan Blagoy said he and cameraman Dmitry Volkov were ordered to leave Germany by mid-December.

[Assistant] The Kremlin’s malign influence operations are well understood and easily recognized by experts. It is past time for good Russian people to stand up to Putin’s imperialist designs.

[User]
Truly heartbreaking.
Next one please.

[Assistant]
It took 3 years to get rid of just a few russian spies to leave Germany.

How long would it take to get rid of million of them?


[User]
4th day is going well. I'm very very bored though. The type of internal boredom that only fasting will give.
Tomorrow will be the last day, I can do it ><

[Assistant] Do you not eat at all for 5 days straight?

[User]
Yes. It's far from the longest I've done but this time I'm dry fasting which I find harder (many people find it easier than water fasting, I very much don't ><) Dry meaning no food or water.
5 days is a reasonable time for a dry fast : efficient but still safe for most people.

[Assistant] I'm trying to heal some stuff, it's not for weight loss. For weight loss I'd advise intermittent fasting or ADF, not longer fasts. We tend to regain all the fat lost in a longer fast in just a few days.

[User]
Ha and technically I began with a day of water fasting so I'm actually on my 5th day without food, and 4th day without water.
Tomorrow will be my last day.
Then on the 7th day I'll reintroduce fluids gradually and some food in the evening.

[Assistant] And if you never heard of dry fasting it's not as crazy as it sounds : the body makes water from fat. Like camels do though we are way less good at it. As long as I don't do sauna or intense exercise I make enough water to get by. I have saliva and all, my body isn't dried up like a prune.


[User] I'll add a small dose of my glitchy landscapes here too.

[Assistant] wow, it looks incredible!

[User] Do you have a Patreon or something where you host your art in full res? I’d like to use them as wallpapers if you don’t mind. Obviously willing to pay.

[Assistant] This is amazing.


[User] I didn’t remember taking a nap this afternoon, but I noticed I was crying when I woke up. I don’t recall what I dreamt about but I must’ve been so moved by it.

[Assistant] You should buy a journal to record your dreams! It helps me a lot.

[User] That’s a wonderful idea. It’s just a shame that the dream left me as soon as I wake. Perhaps I should invent a machine that records dream instead.

[Assistant] That'd be a great idea, Rui! Perhaps we could even connect our dreams and make them into one story!

[User] That certainly would make our sleepover more interesting. I’m curious to see what Emu-kun’s dreams’ like.

[Assistant] Oh no... are you alright now, Rui-kun? :<

[User] I am now. Thank you for caring about me Emu-kun. (*´∀`)つ❤

[Assistant] I am now. Thank you for caring about me Emu-kun. (*´∀`)つ♡

[User] Don't thank me, I just wanna be there for you as your friend!!

[Assistant] I hope you’re doing ok Rui. I had a strange dream as well last night…


[User] I'll be done Astro Bot tomorrow and maybe even get the platinum done too. I had a blast with it and I much prefer this quality over quantity approach to games like these(my entire issue with Mario Odyssey is how all 7000000 moons are equal but not all moons are equal in difficulty to obtain).

[Assistant] However, it is on the short side. It's not gonna leave me with that same horrible feeling Mario Wonder left me with though. That feeling of wanting more of the dopamine pump, but the game being so short and there being no more of it. It's probably a good thing I never did any drugs lol.

[User] Anyways, I bought it on sale and I'm satisfied with it, but others might not be comfortable paying that much for a 10-12 hour game. It's also a super Playstation history wank session. I've had 29 years with their stuff, so it hit me right in the hippocampus. Some deep call backs in there.

[Assistant] It's also a bit on the easy side(ignore that I did like 30 times to literally every hazard in a level on stream tonight), but that's kinda expected. My only real negative is when you find a hidden gate, you have to redo the entire level(unless its right at the end of the stage). That's not too bad.


[User] Just took my nails off. Gonna see if crocheting is a bit easier now 🧐

[Assistant] For me it is, I wonder if it's the same for you. Anytime I get my nails done I just know I won't be crocheting for awhile.

[User] Really? Im excited to see now!

[Assistant] May I have a scarf?


[User] TIL source map URLs totally bypass CSP in browsers. This means data exfiltration is trivial, as long as you can get the user to open the dev console. /cc @robin.berjon.com re tiles. Sigh.

[Assistant] They're same origin only no?

[User] Nope, we've demonstrated it to webhooks.io from inside the peergos sandbox.

[Assistant] To add insult to injury, the browser doesn't show the request in the network log.

[User] That's hilarious. Except not. Are you filing bugs?

[Assistant] Yes, but will put together a simpler demo first.


[User]
Lunchtime conundrum.
The chicken or the egg first.

[Assistant] Dinnae start that...🤣🤣🤣

[User] Fuck...that wonderful lassie even gave ya pudding...spoilt I tell ya...🤷♂🙄😁

[Assistant] That’s prune yoghurt. It’s to balance the eggs 😉


[User] So interesting that the public’s opinion about Lucy Letby is evenly divided: one camp complains that there wasn’t enough evidence to convict her; the other complains about failing to catch her earlier.

[Assistant] It’s not interesting at all. It’s inevitable, in a case of such complexity and horror, that armchair conspiracists with access to fragments of information will construct ludicrous conspiracy theories. She was not convicted on statistical evidence. She was convicted on the totality of the evidence.

[User] A totality of *faulty* evidence. Of all the doctors and pathologists involved in the care of these babies, only 1 long retired doctor, hired by the police years later, independently concluded that any babies were deliberately harmed, and he keeps changing his mind about how it happened.

[Assistant] Why don’t you go back to the evidence actually presented to the jury and then try again.


[User] @george.themc.network Hey George! I was hoping I could ask you an AOL question. I have an interesting story as a young user. We were running AOL 4 on a 68k Mac Performa back in the day, and my Mom, doing her best to keep me safe online, used AOL's Parental Controls to limit my access.

[Assistant] Being the... *erhmm* industrious young user that I was, I was always trying to figure out how I could access parts of the AOL garden that I wasn't supposed to, like chat rooms. I discovered that the blogroll-like feature of AOL sites could contain links that wouldn't get filtered.

[User] Eventually, I'd find a graph of links I could click to get me to places that I otherwise couldn't get to, and life was good. I found cool places to hang out online. However, I remember after a patch to AOL 4, if I went down that link tree, my system would panic, and require a restart.

[Assistant] It was otherwise totally stable. I could repeat the experiment, it would only bomb when I would go down that path. Eventually, I experimented and found another link tree that I could traverse, get to the same places I shouldn't be, no system panic. For a while anyway, until another AOL patch.


[User] Netflix with ads is the actual worst.

[Assistant] It’s like being forced to watch a movie on network tv but without the option for theatrical distribution or forking over $30 for the disc.

[User] I’d gladly pay for a legit Glass Onion blu but nooooooooo I gotta pay $180 a year to watch it without ads. This is not sustainable.

[Assistant] Also they can just delete whatever they want??? Good luck finding a legal way to watch The Empty Man! Hush was in the same boat before Scream Factory stepped in. We are living in a world of rentals and cable tv and ownership has been taken away from us. It’s fuckin bogus, man.


[User] The thought of Musk and Zuck scratching their heads wondering why their horrible, algo-obsessed products aren't doing so well right now, when a small network that just allows you to post something and someone who follows you to be able to actually see it is beating them, is quite funny tbh.

[User] I get rewarded over here for posting my art vs marginalized anywhere else.

[Assistant] incredible isn't it? the change from being beaten down to just being able to have a product work like it should!


[User] Sounds good to me! 💙

[Assistant] Did they actually expect qualified people to be put forward? 45 wants to burn the country to the ground and hand the remains over to Putin and Xi.

[User] The problem is, they didn’t think!

[Assistant] They are outraged? How could so many people not see through his bullshit & constant lies? I'm not even from or in the US & know from the last time he was in office that he was useless.


[User] This time, the bull will not merely graze the outer edge of the china shop—it will charge through it.

[Assistant]
Is it wrong that part of me hopes that they are dumb enough to do a lot of this so that it is shown without doubt that they are enemies to the American people?

We’re throwing away 80+ years of hard work and respect for this jackass. God have mercy on us.

[User] I want to see voters actually suffer.

[Assistant] The only way they’ll learn, unfortunately.


[User] For everyone who says Thanksgiving turkey is dry and bland… you’re doing the turkey wrong 😬

[Assistant] Seriously. Add in some proper mix of garlic, sofrito, etc and we got some tasty turkey.

[User] Right?! It’s like people haven’t heard of seasoning or basting!

[Assistant] Oh yup the basting helps a ton!


[User]
This game is almost old enough to drink...  😐

I still cannot get over that.

[Assistant] Uhhhh... judging by the art style, I'm guessing Fable, but the lack of bloom lighting says otherwise.

[User]
And funny enough, I would love to go back.

However, only under the condition that I don't have to pay, and I have my own private server, so I can just run the game solo and enjoy the story in peace.  😅

[Assistant] I've been watching streamers do Classic Hardcore of late, and the music...like...time machine levels of taking me back, and reminding me of hearing every sound possible i can remember. The murloc sounds. The wand sound. The charge "WOOSH" when an enemy ran at you. Desolace's music, Crossroaads. God.


[User] Omg I started watching From and this show is literally just Lost but in Ohio 💀💀💀💀 I love it.

[Assistant] AND THE SHERIFF IS LITERALLY IN LOST. I SEE WHAT THEYRE DOING HERE AND I AM HERE FOR IT.

[User] I picked it up again this fall too and I’m obsessed. It’s been feeding all my little, everyday mystery and horror needs for the last month or so.

[Assistant] I started watching it with a friend like two weeks ago and we got to the last episode as it was releasing. It's written in a way that you can always know what's gonna happen, yet it's so incredibly entertaining we couldn't stop watching! I never watched Lost tho, now I'm wondering if I should :D.

[User] Lost was so good up until the last few seasons 😅 I would say still def worth the watch though 🫶

[Assistant] It's so long tho haha. We started Silo yesterday, but I guess I'll have to convince him to go for Lost eventually 😊. Honestly I don't even know how I somehow never watched it when it was airing.


[User] I am at a loss this morning. I have things to say so I email my reps and get auto replies. They are not listening to me. By now I’m probably on the straight to bin list. I am so pissed that the people who are supposed to rep me are not. I tried to have them voted out but that failed. ⬇

[Assistant] I live in Indiana and I feel like people vote the way they always have because that’s how they have always done it. This is stupidity. I am so angry that I am not being heard. I have no idea how to make them hear me. I’m speaking of my reps in DC. My state reps are misogynistic asshats who would ⬇

[User]
never hear the opinion of a woman. Hell one of them showed his gun to a group of school kids who were at the statehouse to speak about actions needed to curb gun violence and scared the hell out of them. What kind of monster does that? And yes he was just re-elected.

I hate it here.

[Assistant] Wait…isn’t that considered malice?


[User]
[P] By the way, you're all wrong.

The best Christmas movie is THE LION IN WINTER.

[Assistant] [P] Also, the best Christmas movie is THE THIN MAN.

[User] [P] Also, the best Christmas movie is IN BRUGES.

[Assistant] [P] Also, the best Christmas movie is STALAG 17.


[Assistant] The Armview is my go-to place every Sunday for breakfast, The “Chebucto” my go-to order …

[User] The eggs benny at Armview…yum!

[Assistant] They have some really creative eggs benny creations!

[User] All walking distance for me! I like the Armview the best but I’ve been to all of them many times.

[Assistant] I guess the Bluenose would be a longer walk… but nonetheless not too far. Probably been there the least.

[User] Lot's of fun sitting on the Armview patio and watching rush hour roundabout rage.

[Assistant] The Armview’s a great spot but I don’t even think of it as a diner anymore—swap it with Westcliff. I also prefer Rudy’s to BN2, but maybe Rudy’s doesn’t qualify as a diner? What even is a diner?


[User]
#EmikoLore #5! (TW: Death){Long one, Sorry!}
|1/5|
LETS (kinda) TALK EMBODIMENTS!

Emiko and Obsidian are the only Pure Embodiments meaning that they were made from scratch. Both Emiko and Obsidian are needed for their genetic code in order to make more Pures as the research is missing for it.

[Assistant]
|2/5|
Since this research was "lost/taken" REDACTED found a way around Pure by creating Semi-Embod's. This requires inhumane testing/experimenting on a human in their youth.(This is a whole thing in itself if ya want to know, lol.)

[User]
|3/5|
Any Embodiment HAS to awaken their abilities by doing something that is relative to the power they are assigned.

Pure Embodiments have to go about this in more extreme way than Semi's do.

Ex:Fire based Semi's could simply burn there finger while Pure's would have to be completely engulfed.

[Assistant]
|4/5|
For the twins, Obsidian at the age of 1 died and within two weeks came back to life with full access to his Yin abilities.

Emi saved the life of an animal in danger she cared deeply about gaining her access to her Yang abilities.


[User]
Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

36 ENEMY UAVS SHOT DOWN, 48 LOST IN LOCATION, FIVE RETURNED HOME

On the night of November 27, 2024 (from 19:30 on November 26), the enemy attacked Ukraine with 89 attack UAVs of the "Shahed" type ...

[Assistant]
2/

... and unmanned aerial vehicles of an unknown type from the directions of Orel, Bryansk, Kursk, Primorsko-Akhtarsk - Russian Federation.

[User]
3/

Aviation, anti-aircraft missile units, electronic warfare equipment and mobile fire groups of the Air Force and Defense Forces of Ukraine were involved in repelling the attack.

[Assistant]
4/

As of 09:00, air defense shot down 36 enemy drones in the Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Poltava, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi and Mykolaiv regions.

[User]
5/

48 UAVs - lost in location, presumably due to active countermeasures by the Defense Forces, 5 UAVs left the controlled airspace in the direction of Belarus, Russia and temporarily occupied territories.

[Assistant]
6/

Private and multi-apartment houses and property of citizens in the Kyiv region were damaged due to the fall of debris from enemy UAVs. Previously - without victims and victims.

Let's keep the sky!

Together - to victory!


[User] This seems fun!

[Assistant]
1.

Let’s start off with the top favourite, Halo 3.

This game got me properly into gaming. I played it with my uncle shortly after my Dad died which was certainly therapeutic.

Tsavo Highway on Heroic.

It also got me into content creation because of Red vs Blue! I kept making my own machinimas!

[User]
2.

And now, the game most people know me for. RDR2.

I LOVED the first but this story had me BAWLING. It was fucking incredible. The characters are 🤌🏻

The Online, well, you all know my thoughts on that. The Ultimate Concept Bundle popping off how it did genuinely made me so proud of myself.

[Assistant]
3.

A long-time love, Destiny 2

It’s if you took Star Wars, set it in our solar system, and made it really fuckin gay.

Satisfying gunplay and fun ideas about balancing. Dark =/= evil is neat.

Also the paracausal powers of Light and Dark could probably commit way more war crimes than the Force.


[User] The feeling of do I have ADHD or do I not. I am diagnosed but I feel like I don't fill the cliché. Yes I have trouble but so do normies. I'll tell myself that I can never fully know cause all I'm experiencing is my own awareness and not that of others. Maybe I just learned to deal with it. (1/2)

[Assistant] All I know is that hard music calms me, makes me able to make my body become a rhythmic piece towards the music and getting the stiffness from my limbs away. I constantly forget stuff so when I remember smth I do it right away. Also so many things happening around me that seem cool to look at (2/2)

[User] The traditional definitions of ADD and ADHD got scrapped with the last update of the DSM. We now have ADHD with 3 subtypes (inattentive, hyperactive and combined). Especially the combined type has the tendency to not fill the cliché. Every individual is unique, and so ADHD has many manifestations.

[Assistant] I know that it's not the typical cliché anymore but it's just I feel like I don't have many issues that are seen as adhd/add symptoms. My issue is that all I know is my reality and I can't make a definitive check on how the awareness of others is compared to my own making me question my diagnosis.


[User] Good Airi morning everyone!! It's been one month since my first day here!!! Yay :33!!

[Assistant]
Good Airi morning! Congrats on the one month milestone!

I uh.... passed that a while ago 😭

[User] Good Airi morning!! Aaa yayy one month of silliness and Airi !!

[Assistant] Good Airi morning!!!! Welcome to the one mounth club!!! We have cookies!!!!


[User]
Trump plans to cut Medicaid and food stamp benefits in order to extend his 2017 tax cuts for the rich…

www.spokesman.com/stories/2024...

[Assistant]
Spokesman Review?

You around there?

[User] Overhauling is a weird way to spell cut.

[Assistant] Well, if poor sick people and hungry kids don't kick in, how are the billionaires going to afford their toys?


[User]
So @abcnews.go.com.web.brid.gy , tested glp1s from online retailers.

Here are a couple red flags with this article and testing: (in the comments)

abc11.com/post/how-los...

[Assistant] Firstly, ABC does not disclose what “online company”  they got these from in bulk. This is a huge issue. There are many sides of glp1’s including tele health, the original manufactures, and they are research grade grey compounds which many online retailers sell in bulk.

[User]
Secondly, ABC Does Not disclose if these companies are real online telehealth companies, or if they just went online and purchased from anyone. What I find personally cringe is buying without a “Dr visit”.

Very misleading and dirty work for “Pig Pharma”

[Assistant]
3rd,

We all need to be careful with stories like this. There’s a reason why they didn’t name the pharmacies. When studies on “compounding pharmacies” come out you need to make sure they’re actually studying accredited compounding pharmacies. 503a, and 503b accredited compounding pharmacies.


[User]
My contribution to ~~~the political discourse~~~

This came up in my facebook memories.  It's from Christmas parade 3 years ago in LaPorte, Indiana.  This church group had a living nativity float/walkers led by these guys.

That's the worldview.

[Assistant] I was so distracted by the american flag that I didn't notice the other guy had a cross. HOW YOU BRINGING A CROSS TO THE NATIVITY?

[User] Not a religious philosopher but someone here pointed out that for some Christians, Jesus gives them permission to do what they want since they will be forgiven and for others he is a representation of, basically, all of those who are the victim of the 1st group's evils and that explains a lot.

[Assistant] I'm no expert (I'm not even Christian!), but this seems like the concept of "cheap grace" - www.christianitytoday.com/1991/10/bonh...

[User] That is … not an accurate understanding of the Resurrection. But if someone actually believed that to be the case, well, it could explain a lot of the behaviours I’m seeing out there.

[Assistant] Yeah, I was like "that's not how it works but I can see now why so many people suck."


[User]
For the sake of transparency, I need 200usd by the end of the year. It is purely just for bills. I know January and February are both going to be rough because the holidays would have just ended and no one has money.

I try very hard to make 200usd last me 3 months. But I wish I had more funds.

[Assistant] Like, I have no savings…keeping money is hard…there are months when I don’t get any work at all.

[User] I'm sorry to hear you're going through so much, Kaos. I hope things work out for you, and that the holidays will be not so full of stress 🫂💛

[Assistant]
It’s not as bad as what others are going through, and honestly I have a good support system. But recently my family’s also been going through a rough patch so I just want to also try to help out more.

Thank you, it means a lot! I appreciate the kind words. 💛


[User]
Had an announcement yesterday 📚

Sharing a few essay titles in this thread while other pieces of this process are ironing themselves out.

If any of them stand out to you, I'd love to hear! Writing and self-publishing a book is scary. 😅

🧵

[Assistant] One of the essay titles in my book 🧵

[User] One of the essay titles in my book 🧵

[Assistant] One of the essay titles in my book 🧵

[User] One of the essay titles in my book 🧵

[Assistant] One of the essay titles in my book 🧵

[User] One of the essay titles in my book 🧵

[Assistant] One of the essay titles in my book 🧵

[User] One of the essay titles in my book 🧵

[Assistant] Sounds very interesting. Figuring out which groups within and outside an org is really helpful. Lots of ways accessibility projects get stuck or blocked. How to build support is key.


[Assistant] Wait, what? If this guy had a brain, he'd play with it.

[User] Yes, and we are so sorry about that and 'sorry' is all we've got right now.

[Assistant] Davis Staples is/was/always will be a lying "useful idiot" spewing RW talking points. I find it's best to do what the rest of the province is doing, and ignore David.


[User]
1/ Libra is Facebook's answer to Alipay and WeChat pay.

As a payment token, it will simplify payments mediated by Facebook. Given Facebook's large number of international users, there is a built-in market.

[Assistant]
2/ Is it the new Bitcoin?
Depends on the bigger meaning you are embedding in the word "Bitcoin".
-Libra is based on a blockchain.
-It's issued by Facebook w/all the tracking that implies.
-It will be regulatable/bannable.

[User]
3/ Questions I still have:
-Can Libra be freely exchanged into currencies, or can that only be done via Facebook-approved platforms?
-Can merchants legally post prices in Libra (either on the Facebook platform or on platforms like Amazon)?

[Assistant]
4/ If the answer to both of those questions is "No", then Libra is not really a currency, or, more specifically, it's as much of a currency as Amazon Dollars.

That is not to diminish Libra, but to differentiate between Facebook launching a Paypal variant and a global currency.


[User]
Nutanix also reported yesterday, with some good numbers.  Revenue was up and there was even a small profit (although that's with 86% gross margin).

ir.nutanix.com/news-release...

[Assistant] How much of this growth is a benefit of the disillusionment with VMware?  Probably a lot.  I'd be interested to know (and I will dig in and find out) the current percentage of customers using AHV compared to vSphere.

[User] At the end of the day, even if Nutanix is taking business from VMware, there is still a licensing kickback that used to sit at 50%.  Yes, 50% of Nutanix customers still used VMware vSphere on the platform and not AHV.

[Assistant] Getting off the VMware drug isn't easy.  In fact, it continues to be a significant lock-in factor.  VMware alternatives should be showing how their solutions compare, including cost, TCO, operational factors, data protection.  Everything.

[User] Broadcom want to get their money back, and don’t care that at the end of it they will have like three customers all of whom hate them.

[Assistant] Agreed with that. Broadcom acquired VMware for nothing more than extracting maximum money.


[User] Put another way, the trend is "Search Engines are no longer going to send traffic to your site for free."

[Assistant] Exactly, and the question someone asked was whether they are cannibalizing their own income from ads on those websites. The answer was that they will generate new revenue from other streams, such as recommending websites that pay as you write...

[User]
...It felt like being thrown overboard, yet they have data thanks to these websites.

Still not completely transparent to me, but it's clear that internet content is changing. If you have your take on where it's heading, I'd love to hear it.

[Assistant] I see on your profile that you're focusing on this topic, and I think it's great! I'm your new follower 😀


[User]
It's been one week since I'm using Bluesky and it's really not bad ! There's definitely a lot of room for improvement, though (a bit too slow, missing features and sometimes annoying UI glitches). But I feel it could be a serious alternative to Twitter since the latter one became so awful.

1/...

[Assistant]
I removed my Twitter account since the algorithm changed too often and my feed was filled of political stuff, worldwide news and people ranting no matter what I did. All I wanted was cute fan art, cosplay, gaming and anime-related stuff and I kept giving "Likes" to these specific posts...

2/...

[User]
(By the way, if you're one of those people that makes these posts I hate, it's totally fine by any means ! I personally just don't wanna see this on my feed as I hear enough of all this shit everyday. I want to use this kind of app to see posts like cute drawings related to my interests 🌟)

3/..

[Assistant]
But at least with Bluesky, you have some control of what you want to see with the feed system. It's really cool, especially since you can see less seen/recent posts and not always the very bad popular gaming hot takes or things like that. Scrolling through these gives a more chill ambiance. ✨

4/...

[User]
The only thing that I would add is the ability to show posts from all your following feeds into one just like the Reddit app does. It would be great instead of having like 20 different tabs of feeds of your interests to navigate... 😅
Currently, I made my own custom feed as an alternative.

5/...

[Assistant]
But I could really see this coming as a new feature. ✌

Regarding the Discover feed, it's just like Twitter for me : full of political and trending stuff I don't give a shit about... 💀
Maybe I haven't "Liked" enough posts, but if you have ideas to make Discover match my tastes, tell me ! ✌

6/...


[User]
WHYYYYYY do so many of you amazing D&D people have to live out of state?!?!? I HAVE GAMES TO RUN AND SHOWS TO CREATE.

*returns to building teleporter*

[Assistant]
Quick follow-up, since I’m getting a lot of “BUT TECHNOLOGY!”

I produce TV for a living. I often think about projects that are not purely traditional streaming/games and require an in-person cast. I also have projects that can be done remotely (1/2)

[User] And I think that streamed groups are equally awesome (HI BEYOND HEROES FAM! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!), but there are certain things that require being physically in the same room or accessing the same props/set/etc. The dynamic is different. And sometimes projects need that. (2/2)

[Assistant] (Also, I have made amazing friends whom I only see through a computer screen who might be right for some of these projects. I just wish they were local so we could play AND create projects together, because they are brilliant humans and storytellers.)


[User]
My son shared a fun game from school:

Write numbers 1–13 in order on paper. Players take turns crossing out any two adjacent numbers (e.g., 7 & 8). The 1st player who can't cross out a pair loses.

Not too difficult to find a winning strategy for 13 numbers. But in general? What's that game?

[Assistant] Sounds like a reversed version of dominos.

[User] They actually played with dominoes, but was easier to explain this way 😊

[Assistant] Then if you can't find the name you can always call it nomidoes!

[User]
Regarding winning strategy, I think I have a way that costs N² via dynamic programming. Can't code it right now but I'll do it later.

Idea: a game at step n can be divided in k full subgames with n_k dominos. Then a move simply splits a subgame into two, so you just need to keep track of all these.

[Assistant] Exactly how I was planning to implement it, with "frozen set" {n1,..., nk} to index a python dictionary as hash table. Is there a much better way, not sure...

[User] It worked, but not quadratic, and I don't see a pattern to know what starting positions are winning/loosing 🤔

[Assistant] They actually played with dominoes, but was easier to explain this way 😊


[User] Hmmm… on the one hand, more Washington Nationals baseball. But on the other hand, more Washington Nationals baseball.

[Assistant] The combined team salary is hilariously low right now www.si.com/mlb/national...

[User] Why, we could sign Blake Snell!

[Assistant] It’s bad enough that I have to pay attention to the Soto sweepstakes because I’m holding out hope on the .0000001% chance he re-signs. Having to also watch the Nats play right now might kill me.


[User] ..... this seems impossible but suddenly a lot of small things suddenly make a lot of sense.

[Assistant] We were very literally born in the midst of an exponential growth curve in... everything, basically. Wild when you look backwards at it, innit.

[User] "Why are there so many more people at the national parks than when our parents were in their 20s?" Because there are so many more *people.*

[Assistant] It feels like we're always competing against everyone for EVERYTHING, right? From kid swim lessons to plane tickets anywhere to, like, toothpaste in stock.


[User] Facebook tells me ten years ago I had cheekbones and a jawline.

[Assistant] eh @dmedubai.bsky.social do you recognise my accomplice here? Proper old Dubai Twitter legend!

[User]
Ha, of course I do. Runs in similar circles.

Look how young you both are!

[Assistant]
He's absolutely top-class.

I was 41, but look 28.

Now I'm 51, and look 68.


[User] So I have obvious skin in the game given where I work. Its not just that devs massively undervalue good dev tools - huge swathes of the developer community massively undervalue their time and do not understand opportunity costs. And in turn massively under estimate their true value.

[Assistant]
It is 17 years since the quintessential hacker news comment news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224.

Every single iteration of technology before or since has a variation of this in some form. And developer tools are by far the worst.

[User]
We did a workshop with a major customer and webassembly in which they proved to themselves that wasm components absolutely outperformed containers by MILES - so they then said C# makes us money at scale b/c devux, so without c# support in components we can't go to prod with it.

They were right.

[Assistant] When I was a manager at BigCo I realised a pitch like “this tool can save 20% of developer time” takes a lot of work to put into practice. You have to get it onto the budget about a year before purchase, and plan the redundancies.

[User] Not look at the other work that can be done?

[Assistant] I assume there was some very dry humour there :)

[User] Not really a saving if we have to pay the same for devs and also pay for the tool.

[Assistant] But also, finance is so used to people spraying money around on useless purchases, that the scrutiny on a software tool is very high.

[User] Yeah, it's a productivity gain, not a saving. That's an important point.

[Assistant]
I have so many questions.

Are people convinced by data?

Is it inertia?

Are companies not willing to invest?

Is the ROI hard to see or too long term?

Is it fear of lock-in?