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Cake day: July 5th, 2023

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  • When I was working as a line cook in college, I was one of two white guys behind the line, with the rest of our BOH (Back Of House) crew being black. One day on the line we were all joking around like we always did. One of the black cooks, named Rose (he was an older guy, with coke-bottle glasses and strong, thickly calloused hands. He had a snaggle tooth and a big ol’ pot belly), was regaling us with stories about how he has a veritable harem of women at his beck and call. He told us he was supporting like 5 different women, and all of them were entirely devoted to him.

    I thought that he was being hyperbolic, and decided that I would poke fun. I was going to say something like “Rose, I can’t believe for a second that even 1 woman would be after your ugly mug.” But my midwestern-whiteness shone through, and before I could deliver that absolute blister of a line, I decided to use an exclamation so as to punctuate my lack of belief in his statement. I started with “Ooh boy,” and didn’t get to finish.

    I was immediately accosted by Rose, his spatula gripped tightly, and he was mad as hell. The other line cooks were instantly aware of the situation and reacted to hold him back, as Rose was about to knock my befuddled ass into next week. Eventually they were able to calm him down, and explained to my dumbass that calling a black man “boy” was explicitly racist, and derogatory.

    We were fine once he realized I had no idea it was racist, I just thought of it as an exclamation along the lines of “Boy howdy!” or something.

    It was a very eye-opening moment.



  • I think long COVID has impacted more Americans than we realize. Everyone out there suffering from diminished capacities thinking that the fascist sex-pest goomba is somehow more reliable than the nice black lady. I dunno about you guys, but I’ve just been seeing a whole lot of mistakes lately. On television, in News, in articles, just… everywhere.

    And while a lot of it is probably people quiet quitting and not giving a fuck, I think a lot more people are suffering from the extended brain fog of long COVID than we think, and it’s affecting everything around us. Unfortunately, that includes voting practices in elections.








  • I mean, I still think that having an operational moon-based spaceport is something we could see in our lifetime.

    And as with all things concerning global affairs, it takes time and consistent pressure to overcome the lizard-brain us-vs-them mindsets that is inherent to our human political sphere. We’ve already grown to the point that we could take care of everyone on the planet, shuffling off the shackles of a scarcity-based economy which so severely hindered global human advancement in the past. I can only imagine what the combined efforts of the American, European, and Chinese economies/governments could accomplish if they put aside their differences, and embraced a true lasting partnership.

    Also the website you gave is so incredibly interesting, I need to look at it more before I can appropriately sing its praises


  • I keep seeing this repeated, but it’s simply not true. Capitalism isn’t the problem, Oligarchy is. This article I linked mathematically proves that it doesn’t matter what form of governance your society uses, it inevitably falls into an oligarchy without strong recurring investments into social welfare.

    So, keep voting for the people that want to expand social security, expand job protections, expand medicare/healthcare, increase the minimum wage, while decreasing cost of living, education, and housing (progressive democrats, basically).

    If we can get Kamala in office, with a supermajority in the house/senate, we could finally pass some much needed shit, and stave off the inevitable turn to fascism that an oligarchal society seems to induce. It would have been better if we just elected Bernie Sanders, but can’t stall progress for perfection!


  • Woohoo!

    So not only does putin get a big fat L, but the EU continues to grow! I believe from the EU and NATO partnerships, we will someday see 1 global, unifying government that will formalize conflict resolution, leading to a lasting and sustained peace on Earth. And what does global peace mean? It means a massive increase in standard of living for all, as well as expansion into SPACE! When we can unify as one people, only then can we truly embark on the journey Star Trek promised us.

    I just wonder what our flag will look like.

    But staying in the present, way to go Moldova. As a terrified American, it does me good to see favorable election results.





  • Man, there’s gotta be something more to this.

    Remember all that fuss about how a retired general said that the U.S. and other governments have crashed alien ships they’ve been studying? Does isreal have, like, the least damaged ships or something? Like, wtf does isreal possibly have that the U.S. is so beholden to it? It just can’t be that isreal “is a historically important religious site,” because that’s just stupid. We don’t spend Billions of dollars a year to maintain the fucking Vatican, and we certainly wouldn’t while it’s actively engaging in genocide and aparthied. So why are we doing it for isreal?

    Gotta be aliens.


  • The UN Peace Keeping Force is there for a number of things, but mainly to Keep the Peace.

    They help citizens in a crisis, they monitor for illegal activity (including war crimes), and help with aid distribution. Their efforts are being hindered by the idf:

    UNIFIL has said previous Israeli attacks on a watchtower, cameras, communications equipment and lighting had limited its monitoring abilities. U.N. sources say they fear any violations of international law in the conflict will be impossible to monitor.


  • I hate this. When I was first hired, I really poured in a lot of effort. I took on extra projects, did extra work, trying to get ahead. But every extra project I completed would get sent to a supervisor and manager, they would absolutely wreck it asking for changes that made little to no difference, but took a lot of time to implement. And then they would just… keep requesting additional changes. for months. back and forth and back and forth.

    I got so sick of it, I don’t volunteer for fucking anything anymore. Oh, you want my input on this document you’ve changed as it affects how I do my job? Like I give a shit. Whatever I say will just get garbled and edited and ultimately you’ll just do whatever the fuck you want anyway so… No. I won’t suggest any edits or redline your document. I don’t care anymore. Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it till my shift ends.

    Just a bunch of middle managers who all want to look at fancy spreadsheets so they can appear to know what’s happening on the manufacturing floor instead of, ya know, actually going down to the floor. Then they all can pretend to know what’s going on to their higher up, who is in turn using that to pretend to know what’s going on to their higher up, each one knowing less and less, until you get to the CEO or Site head that knows absolutely fuck all about what’s going on, with even less of a clue on how to influence it, all because they don’t want to actually visit the floor or talk to the poors running their machines.

    I went from running my own business to this garbage, and although the steady middle class paycheck is nice, I regret it every day.


  • It began in earnest in the early 1960s, when a group of scientists embarked on a mission to drill down from a floating barge, called Cuss I, to the border between the crust, the Earth’s outermost layer, and the mantle, the next and thickest layer. Project Mohole, as it was known, was recorded by the novelist and amateur oceanographer John Steinbeck in an article for Life magazine. “This is the opening move in a long-term plan of exploration of the unknown two-thirds of our planet that lies under the sea,” he wrote. “We know less about this area than we do about the moon.”

    A scientific endeavor started over 60 years ago, that has been producing real invaluable scientific data to model our changing climate, is being axed.

    The NSF attributed its decision to end its funding to rising costs and a lack of financial support from the International Ocean Discovery Program’s partners. But many see the expenditure for the ship as paltry compared with its benefits. To put it in perspective, the total NSF budget for 2023 was close to $10bn (£7.5bn); the $71m spent on the Joides is 0.7% of that.

    For the amount of discovery we’re getting from the Joides, the cost of running it seems paltry in comparison.

    A bill proposed to the House in July asked the NSF to use $60m to continue operating the vessel for at least three missions next year.

    Hopefully this passes!