OH NO

(2/2) I suspect much of the stress you're responding to when using social media is about how the public square is interpreting data (e.g. labor stats) and picking a course of action.

That stress is grounded in societal dysfunction and wouldn't be reduced much by financial or professional security.

@zachweinersmith.bsky.social (1/2) You might not enjoy arguing, but you have a clear drive to contribute constructively to society and participate in collective decisionmaking.

Right now, the overwhelming majority of public debate occurs on social media. This compels the use of social media.

In colours of cocoa, coffee and creamy mascarpone, this Australian Boobook looks like a tiramisu, although she probably doesn't taste like one. Tiramisu is Italian for "pick me up", appropriate since the owl was found on the ground and unable to fly away; a clear sign of needing help. She's wrapped in a pale blue fabric and has green eyes fixed on the camera. As the original post says, she has some remaining fluffy down on the back of her head.

An Australian Boobook fledgling was found severely underweight and with parasites. Boobook Wildlife Shelter later posted she was looking much better and recovering well in rehab. Source: fb.com/638579802156... #owlsintowels 💛🦉

It's possible to put a thumb on the scale without triggering a walkout.

In this case, underestimating inflation makes it look like productivity has increased commensurately. And there's a LOT of political will to underestimate inflation.

Don't catch you slippin' now

An animated gif of fictional attorney Phoenix Wright looking thoughtful

They did actually put that show on

A friend of mine is a music teacher, and I recall having a conversation about that specifically a few months ago, and how there were nevertheless complaints about the "sexual" choreography (which was actually very tame). Any questions I should pass along?

Japan has bone-in sausages, where the bone works as a little handle, so why not bone-in caramel apples?

You could hand them out on Halloween and say "bone apple treat"

In this economy? Probably any kind of doctorate is plenty.

Papilio polyxenes - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papilio... I think.

You might be a parsnip. Maybe ask a doctor.

As soon as I opened the door, the vampire grabbed me by the neck and pushed me into my house.

"But," I croaked, "I didn't invite you into my..."

With his other hand, the vampire slapped the papers I had signed yesterday for a second mortgage onto my kitchen table.

"OUR," he snarled.

Man, these new CAPTCHAs are intense

(2/2) The figurative use of "sticky" meaning "difficult" apparently started gaining real ground in the 1930's, presumably because of time travelers at the site of the Great Molasses Flood who wouldn't stop making puns

(1/2) This post made me dive into the etymology of "sticky" meaning "difficult", which apparently first showed up in print as the phrase "sticky wicket" in 1882 and referred to the difficulty involved in playing cricket on wet ground.

My friends are my friends even though we don't buy things from each other. I don't NEED those relationships in any hard sense. And yet our communities persist, with wonderful and magical moments within them.

I think it's harder to have magic without economic development, due to lack of free time.

I don't think it's possible to eliminate rarity. We just shift what is rare.

Human connection doesn't require material interdependence. I think connection has been damaged by social media; parasocial relationships mimicking real ones, like junk food causing malnutrition. We're still in transition.

Reply guy? Or reply gAI?

I would also accept "replycant" from classic sci fi fans.

I find it interesting that you called this a scam email, because it doesn't seem to be in the category that I would personally use that phrase for.

Poor Bob's choice of name is def hilarious, though.

I'm far from an expert, but this was my immediate thought too.

Similarly, wealthy countries sometimes leverage short-term aid dollars to strongarm long-term concessions, and such "aided" countries then do worse in the long term. Does that mean the concept of aid is broken?

We should expect a disproportionately negative skew from corruption and abuse of the relevant processes, and we should predict that bad actors will attempt to asymmetrically corrupt the process of categorization as a way to hide their activities and avoid consequences.

(งಠ∩ಠ)ง

You could multiply one side by phi^2 and add phi to the other side. If you then divide both sides by phi (i.e. take a slice of phi) and simplify slightly, you get:

Phi*(e^i)^0 = (2*pi)/(tau*phi) + 1

Granted, that changes the equation from 1=1 to the definition of phi, which is less funny.

New game plus

If you'd then started singing "Eye of the Tiddy" I probably would have been less pleased, caught between embarrassment and amusement

If I had said that to you, and you'd said "Of course I remember you! But I'm terrible with names and I'm blanking on yours" I would have been chuffed regardless

This is so important.