Stamets has been on here, for multiple years across multiple accounts. He’s made and moderated a decent amount of communities. He’s active in the “side communities” like instance related matrix chats. His pedigree is proven.

He’s also had some pretty intense emotional moments (could call them crashouts) from time to time. He’s also done drastic detective work (with mountains of fucking receipts) on ne’er do wells in the fediverse. It’d be pretty hard to fake all of it.

He might be using a script to schedule his posts out, but I’ve not seen any floating around, and karma doesn’t accumulate here like on reddit. There’s no end game with a cash out option for “being vaguely known on the fediverse”.

Look, no one’s above skepticism or investigation, but If you’re going to go after a well known member of the community, at least bring some receipts rather than telling people to look for themselves.

This would go great in reactionmemes too.

So, reading the short article, only one infected monkey escaped, per the sheriff’s office. Then the University they are from clarified that their infected monkeys are not contagious, and there were no infected monkeys on that truck.

The monkeys are for primate virology research.

Nice reminder of just how hard spun headlines are.

You know you can link accounts as family to share prime right? You don’t need to let her on yours. I think it’s a limit of two “adults”.

Oof, I was already having trouble with the MC’s last fucking minute heel turn that didn’t seem to be built up quite enough. Guess I’ll just skip that ending.

If you’re talking about the more recent, serious show, I understand where you’re coming from, but I binged through the series a few years ago during the lockdowns and I feel like they were signposting the weird religious sort of ending the whole way.

Gaius and blondie being angels was weird as fuck, but the whole show had a pretty heavy religious undercurrent. Maybe I’m too used to time travel shenanigan stories, but the whole “it’s all kind of a loop” concept didn’t feel like an out of nowhere ass pull to me like it seemed to for a lot of people.

Republicans are traditionally, and on paper, the party of “small government”. “Fuck off feds, it’s none of your business” type shit. Some just wanted a small central government that let states and local government make their own choices, some wanted as small a government as possible at all levels.

Which is also why you see a minority of old school republican voters refusing to call Trump’s clown show republican.

That capitalization style is meant to be mocking, because the current dipshits in power clearly don’t have any intentions of “small government”.

Based on what? Plenty of studies are showing that generation by generation, people are having less sex, and are losing their virginity later. Gen Z particularly so.

Here’s one such study I found with a quick Google search: https://ifstudies.org/in-the-news/adults-are-having-less-sex-than-ever-with-gen-z-seeing-the-steepest-decline-study

Anecdotally:

In the late 00s I started dating an 18 year old and lost my virginity at 16. I’m not saying that to rub it on or anything. My experience was not the norm and I probably would have been better off waiting longer. The important part is that I found out that nearly everyone talking big game was all talk. If you’re actually confident and comfortable in your ability to get sex, it just doesn’t come up outside of private talk between you and your partner very often.

When I got to college I was wrongfully surprised that most of my friends and peers were still virgins. Some of my closer female friends talked to me about being nervous about getting sexual for their first time with their boyfriend (all mutual friends of mine) like a year into their relationship(s).

I talked with people on my floor in the dorms who were partying like 5 nights a week and they weren’t getting any. They didn’t like it when I asked what was so fun about partying, where everyone was getting drunk and trying to hook up, but no one was actually hooking up. It didn’t make sense to me, but that story/situation matched what I was hearing from nearly everyone partying that much.

And before you reiterate that hookup culture is specifically zoomers, Tinder launched while I was in college. Before that there was Craigslist, OKCupid, and a handful of other sites. My college was “known” to be a party school too.

The biggest manwhore of my social circles had a grand total of 6 whole sexual partners in 8 years, and his first was when he was 20. He would have had you believe he had a new girl each month, but I got to know him better than that. Would have been my best man except he moved to fucking Australia, the cunt.

Every manwhore/slut/person who got around I’ve ever talked to has also agreed: hookups normally range from ok to disappointing, rarely if ever great. Sex in long term relationships, where you each care about bringing the other pleasure, and you’ve had time to learn each other, ranges from mindblowing to good, rarely if ever just ok. Getting laid is a shitty goal on it’s own.

And even with how young I lost my virginity, I’ve only ever had two partners. My wife has had three.

So go jerk off, calm down. Try to build yourself into the kind of person the type of girl you want would like.

As far as hookup specific advice? Take good care of yourself, be well groomed, reasonably dressed. Be confident but not a douche. Be interested in her without being desperate. Be fun to simply be around and to interact with. The sort of attitude you want to put out is “I’m doing fun stuff with my life. I’ll enjoy it on my own but I’d love to share it with you.” Trustworthy, confident, caring, interesting, interested in them, but not needy.

You’ve gotta be comfortable and happy with yourself before most people would want to come along for the ride, even for just a night.

Good luck and I hope you find what you need. It might not be what you think you want though.

Not sure it’s underrated so much as not well known, because I’m not sure I’ve heard of anyone who knows it but doesn’t like it: Venture Bros

It’s kind of hard to describe. It starts with a simple goofy premise: What if a boy adventurer like Johnny Quest grew up and was stuck living in his dead father’s shadow for the rest of his life? He’s a failure, a single father coasting on dad’s legacy, his two sons are so dumb they buy the whole “cartoon boy adventurer” schtick 100%, and his bodyguard is a frustrated black ops guy just itching for any excuse to spill blood.

Just… anything I say couldn’t do it justice. Here’s some choice scenes that stand pretty well on their own.

The dreaded candiru! This one really covers a lot of the tone of the series in about two minutes.

No Hank, like this.

Why there’s a system - covers some world building and some of the legacy of the main character’s dad.

Getting the gang back together. Covers some more of THE MIGHTY MONARCH and two of his henchmen. 21 (Gary) has a character arc throughout the show like you wouldn’t believe.

And it dives in further than the core concept: What kind of PTSD would growing up like that leave? How would the world’s idea of his dad differ from reality? What kind of father could put his son through that sort of shit? What would a world with ridiculously campy superscience be like with real people in it?

That makes it sound more serious than it is. It’s irreverant, ridiculous, nonsensical, referential to some real deep cuts pop culture wise, campy as all hell… and also heartwarming, touching, and messily human. So, so fucking much of the plot is shaped by the trauma and lingering aftereffects of the MC’s dad.

So many things that would be a throwaway gag on another show are followed up on, and build up episode to episode, season to season. That’s not super rare now, but when they started the show in 2003 it was. It also deconstructs a lot of comic book and TV tropes, which was also far more novel at the time.

And it’s earnest. So many characters that would be just the butt of a joke are treated like actual fucking people instead of only just their stereotype. They’re totally that fucking stereotype, 100%, but they’re also people and have more too them than only that.

It’s very much an auteur work, and it often went multiple fucking years between seasons as the two show runners figured out what they wanted to do, but the result is probably one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.

I have to give some strong, strong warnings though. The show started in 2003 and holy shit does it show. Stereotypically flamboyant gay men, incredibly insensitive word choices and portrayals, weird side plot about a special forces general getting mtf top surgery to escape the military but its actually a deep cover op but maybe they’re actually trans but maybe not… and in the later seasons they try distressingly hard to make a (not offending, medicated) pedophile into a likeable character. They… kinda do in the end too?

All I can say is stick with it, it’s worth the burning sensation and the doctor can totally get you something to clear that right up. I think.

And watch the movie, Crimson is the Blood of the Baboon Heart, at the end. The show was cancelled suddenly, and the creators regretted ending what became the final season the way they did. Baboon Heart isn’t amazing, it doesn’t wrap up every plot point, but it hits the big ones and is a good send off.

Don’t forget the ancient skits up on Brad Neely’s youtube that were the precursor for it.

Babycakes

Professor Brothers

China, IL

When I was in University, Adult Swim brought one of their “traveling carnival” things through. I know I got rid of my Venture Bros SPHINX! shirt from it, but I’ve got a China, IL pennant flag stashed away somewhere. Hadn’t even watched it at the time, binged it probably half a decade later. Didn’t mean to, but I couldn’t turn it off. Hilarious shit.

Not to be rude, but that shouldn’t be news, and it sure as hell isn’t something new specifically under Trump or the Republicans. Talk to some old heads, or read what they’ve written. US cops have stalked people for less, and there’s plenty of declassified (and leaked if you’re not afraid of being put on a list) guides out there from US intelligence agencies and their numerous contracted training groups that also train cops on how to infiltrate grass roots movements, rallies, etc.

This is what a chunk of these people literally do for a living.

And the guardrails possible on AI are laughably bad. For fun, look up some of the leaked system prompts for stuff like ChatGPT. They’re just using the same sort of “ask it nicely to do what you want” as the end users are, they just re-send it before almost every command.

The other big option is keyword based filtering, and anyone who’s played any MMO in the last 30 years can tell you how effective that is. People never find new ways around keyword filters.

I won an airtag for free in a work raffle a few years back. Wife is the one into the apple ecosystem, and she uses it to help find her keys every once in while.

If we ever traveled by plane, I’d pick up some for our luggage, and we’ve joked about strapping one on our toddler.

Which makes me frustrated that all the manufacturers have gotten too cheap to toss a miniscule DAC and headphone jack in phones anymore.

There were those “Live, Laugh, Lube” signs that were going around a few years back.

We count 1 to 10 like everyone else!

They still have glass fronts man. Five-ish feet drop onto the screen against concrete with no case? Doesn’t matter what the back is.

Glass backs mean that almost any fall will damage it, but non-glass backs only eliminate cases if you can somehow ensure it never lands face down or on a corner.

That’s why all of us Americans can quickly tell when someone is just trying to start shit when they get angry online…

There are ways to fight back. But they require patience, communication, planning, subterfuge, and more importantly OPSEC. Otherwise the regime just slaughters everyone like they want to.

Louder for the motherfuckers in the back!

There are so many fucking people online upset about this shit that amount to not much more than hot air. Chasing the perfect to the detriment of the good. Purity tests. Arguing for blatantly impossible courses of action, or at least ones that will nevet get enough buy in from the greater population to work. Sitting on their asses getting angry while worshipping some half-cocked idea of open revolution, full overthow of the government, and dissolution of the capitalist economic framework… without ever evaluating how the fuck the world could even get to that state except “magic unspecific mass violent revolution”, “complete apocalypse scenario then rebuild”, or “if we all wish upon a star really hard, all the bad people will have simultaneous fatal anuerysms”. Not to mention how the fuck could that state ever be maintained afterwards.

If it’s not outright impossible, it will require an astronomical amount of prep and planning. None of this is shit that just “happens” through sheer desire or will without slow supportive action to build what is neccessary.

People getting their emotional catharsis ranting, venting, and shit stirring without taking any true action. Stirring other people up into the same state.

Get offline, get involved locally, become an expert on the spaces and people around you. Form local connections. Accept that you aren’t an action hero, and if the US military is turned on you, as a civilian you cannot win through force. Build relevant skills for a crisis. Build relevant skills for ongoing resistance. Build skills for organizing locally and securely.

Most importantly: Shut the absolute fuck up. Just shut the fuck up. As far as it’s within your power, don’t make yourself a target and blend in.

I’m already not a good example, as my OPSEC on this account is abysmal. I take solace in that none of my plans or actions involve abject resistance, and are all local good type shit.

I had a decent stretch where I was just making comments and expected them to get bad replies, or I didn’t really have the space to care about any replies I got, so I stopped checking obsessively and they built up. I’m in my 30s with a wife, a toddler, and a job that alternates between “oh god you need to lock the fuck in for 8 hours straight” and “you’re being paid to be here if something happens”. I also have had some big life shit happen in the time since I started using lemmy that would pull me away from checking/responding.

Then I had some replies mentioning things I wanted to look into later, so those I made sure to keep as unread.

More recently, I find that I use my own profile’s comment page and the upvotes and downvotes on any of my comments in there to get an idea of what I’m about to walk into. Also helps remind me what the fuck I posted in the first place. So any replies I interact with that way don’t get marked as read either.

Kind of like email, once it passes something like 20 or 30 unread the count just kind of becomes visual noise.

Nope!