When there’s no one in the movie to root for, nobody that’s likable… it makes me wonder why the f I’m even watching it. I can watch assholes being assholes for free, it’s called looking around outside.

The amazon warehouse near me went for a union vote, and they voted against it 🙃

I almost took a day off work just to go yell at them, but decided against it.

CopLand (1997) - An iconic cast doing what they do best. Stallone as Sheriff Freddy was fantastic.

The Drop (2014) - The late, great James Gandolfini supporting Tom Hardy in a well thought out gangster drama.

Oblivion (2013) - Tom Cruise plays a drone technician in a post-alien-invasion Earth. Olga Kurylenko is the most beautiful woman. Entertaining.

The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947) - A feel-good ghost story about dying alone (somehow).

Prisoners (2013) - Hugh Jackman and Terrance Howard have a real rough week, with Jake Gyllenhaal giving a masterclass as the blinking detective.

Prisoners of the Ghostland (2021) - Nicholas Cage gets his balls blown off because he thought about having sex with a woman whose chin could beat Jay Leno’s in thumb wrestling. Movie was and hour and a half too long (runtime 1.43)

Maybe in this trolley problem, someone pulls the lever. Stanislav Petrov did the right thing, perhaps others will too.

Fukin’ awesome. Science! I can’t help but wonder what his pulse felt/sounded like 😶‍ Would it be just a continuous “woosh” or would it even have a “beat?” His EKG must’ve looked WILD. And knowing it can work for that long… well, who’s to say it doesn’t become the preferred option in the future!

The site doesn’t even allow you to “like” posts. “It seemed to us to be a kind of high school popularity contest, a way of creating a dependency on the platform,” said the founder, holding a mug of tea.

On Facebook, Instagram or X, likes are also used to help algorithms identify users. Here, there’s no need: There’s no algorithm. “On Front Porch Forum, content isn’t infinite, so we don’t have to choose what we show,” said Wood-Lewis. Doomscrolling – mindlessly consuming a flood of negative news – is impossible here: Browsing through the posts takes just 10 minutes.

“Sometimes nothing much happens, just like in real life.”

Sounds lovely!

Take a multi-day trip beforehand. You should at least experience an abbreviated version of living together before you actually do.

Having a direct brain interface game, that’s realistic enough to overcome the Uncanny Valley, would destroy peoples lives. People would, inevitably, prefer their virtual environment to the real one. They’d end up wasting away, plugged into some machine. It would lend serious credence to the idea of a simulated universe, and reduce the human experience by replacing it with an improved one. Shit, give me a universe wherein I can double-jump, fly, or communicate with animals, and I’d have a hard time returning to this version.

We could probably get close with a haptic feedback suit, a mechanism that allows you to run/jump in any direction, and a VR headset, but there would always be something tethering you to reality. But a direct brain to machine interaction would have none of that, it would essentially be hijacking our own electrical neural network to run simulations. Much like Humans trying to play Doom on literally everything. It would be as amazing as it was destructive, finally realizing the warnings from so many parents before its time: “that thing’ll fry your brain.”

Sigor Ros. Saw them live and, despite their melancholy music, put on a helluva show. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed them live!

That and The Flaming Lips. Their live shows are always spectacular, seen them twice

When AI decides to destroy the human virus, it now knows exactly how to create a bug capable of it. Probably more likely than pumping out a bunch of humanoid robots with guns, just create a bug, spread it around, and mess with our ability to communicate in time to stop the spread. BAM. Easy-peasy, humans are now down to a manageable 1 billion or so individuals.

I know they will be there for me when I need it

Here’s the thing, relationships take work. Not just marriages or romantic ones, they all take work. Effort needs to be made by both parties, or else the relationship will die. I had a friend that affectionately called it “friend work,” where they would spend a bit of time each day putting in the effort needed to maintain a healthy friendship, because if she didn’t, then the relationship would suffer for it.

Not wanting to engage in the world right now is very common, and downright reasonable considering the general state of things. If a relationship you have with someone is mentally stressing you, or sapping your energy, consider whether or not that relationship is valuable to you, and act accordingly. If the relationship is important to you, and you want it to continue or grow, then you have to put effort into it. If the relationship is one-sided, and feels draining, and you want it to end, then put forth zero effort into it, and it will naturally go away.

protesting is where you meet these communities and working groups.

Same. I was there for the Women’s march, there for BLM, after George Floyd, and most recently for the 50501 (which was surprisingly well attended despite it’s quick set-up). Let me know if there’s another one, and I’ll be there too. All it takes for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing.

Between this and the asteroid scheduled to (maybe) hit Earth in 2032, I’m beginning to think that we’re in for a rough time.

the graphics seem worse somehow

This really is the only right answer.

When I was young, myself and a group of friends were being accosted by a disheveled man on our walk home from the bar. We didn’t really understand what he was saying, but we were able to discern one phrase, as he told us to “Put the pussy on a chain wax”

We had no idea what it meant, and thought it was hilarious, so we’d oft repeat it at random.

Thinking about it now, I suddenly realize what he meant. He was referring to the woman in our group, telling us to pimp her out, by putting her up against a chain-link fence that were so plentiful in rough neighborhoods where we grew up.

So now I’m telling you, so that if you ever encounter this gentleman, you’ll know what he’s talking about 😶‍👍

I have just as much sympathy for those poor individuals as I would for health insurance employees that would lose their job as a result of U.S. universal healthcare. Well, a little bit more, as they at least made people smile on occasion.

What has social media like tiktok or whatever done to improve peoples lives?

Man, just use Lemmy and stay off those toxic apps. I’ve had multiple people send me tiktok links and guess what, that shit stays unclicked. I want no part of it.

When I visited Europe, I had a great time talking with strangers there. One in particular said something similar, in that he thought Americans were just inherently more violent.

Listen, the reality of the situation is that we’re just as friendly and kind as we ever were. Americans are literally the most charitable population. But we’re also living in times of great wealth inequality, while our health insurance is still tied to employment. Something like half a million of us go bankrupt every year from medical debt. We are also all uniquely aware that some people will randomly get lucky, and get a massive windfall of money. Money here doesn’t just mean comfort, it means security, because if ever our luck runs out, there is no social safety net waiting to catch us. People can and often do go from the highest echelons of the social ladder, to living under a bridge, dying of some easily cured disease.

In America, it’s dog eat dog. It’s a zero-sum game. Whatever money you make, is money that I won’t. And when money = security, it means that however secure you are, is how less secure I am. 300 million of us all playing the prisoners dilemma. If we work together we could all have a good outcome, but there are so many of us that have fully bought into the me vs. everyone mentality, that it’s a near impossibility of getting all us prisoners to work together.

But a big mistake, is looking at boomer news (fox news, newsmax, oann) and thinking it reflects reality. It doesn’t. That is 100% hateful news for hateful people. If you like getting a dopamine rush from looking down on others, or doomscrolling, or in being afraid, then faux news is what you watch. Don’t mistake it with America, because it isn’t. It is actively poisoning Americans, but if ever you were to get an active faux news watcher to turn it off, sit down, and have a chat, you’d be surprised at how friendly they were. They are people who bought into the zero sum game, but even they know how/when to be charitable.