Your penultimate statement is an absolutely textbook example of survivorship bias.

https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2025/03/01/do_household_appliances_really_not_last_as_long_as_they_used_to_1093575.html

The average lifespan of a washer has declined a little but the frequency of use during that lifespan has increased measurably.

Survivorship bias is a heck of a drug.

No link, just an image.

You kids with your fancy “tapes!” In my day we had to watch whatever the hell was on the three or four channels we could pick up with the rabbit ears, and we were damn glad to have it!

Once a year they’d show a Bond movie or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, or maybe even that Willie Wonka movie. Such an event!

VCRs didn’t exist until I was a young adult. Doggone spoiled kids!

Most or all of the GMO crops will both pollinate and germinate. The requirement to buy new seed is legally enforced, rather than a biological necessity.

There have been cases already where pollen and/or seeds have blown into neighboring fields and hybridized with non-GMO crops. At least one grower has been sued by Monsanto for harvesting and selling Roundup-ready soybeans that were hybridized that way.

That’s true, as far as it goes, but the amount of phenylalanine created is incredibly minute and is matched by other, “natural” foods. In the vast majority of people, the body quickly metabolizes excess phenylalanine. The only genuinely well-documented danger is for people with phenylketonuria, because they have a genetic variation that breaks that ability to metabolize.

Last I checked, which was admittedly years ago, the studies that showed direct harms were flawed, not statistically significant, or have not been repeatable. The early studies that led to its ban in the EU used absolutely massive doses of aspartame, well beyond what you could possibly ingest in a day.

I’m not saying it’s safe for sure but it’s safer than obesity or massive doses of sugar on a regular basis.

In dietary terms, literally nothing is wrong with it. There are economic concerns because the business model is to patent (copyright?) the GMO stuff and force growers to buy seed every year, instead of saving seed from each harvest. There’s also some concern that really successful GMO crops, such as Roundup-ready corn, will dominate planting and become a monocrop which could lead to massive crop loss if a blight or other disease evolves to target that particular strain.

The other things in the picture vary between probably-but-maybe-not-harmless (aspartame), definitely harmless (MSG), to actually helpful (fluoride and Prozac).

Bottom line: the meme, when interpreted correctly, implies that pop songs are generally good but somewhat artificially manipulated.

You mean today? Today is Wednesday.

The scumbag known as Marc Andreessen is a right-wing accelerationist. He and his cronies, including Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, want to destabilize and eventually destroy nation-states so that everyone lives in corporatocratic city-states. These are the people who think late stage capitalism is a step in the right direction.

I don’t have a race in this fight.

It’s definitely not in keeping with his politics in later songs, so I can believe it. On the other hand, it’s still a song I enjoy

“Government Cheese” by The Rainmakers"

Cananas

As far as I know, input-remapper will handle any mouse, regardless of how many buttons it has, since they just show up as human interface devices.

I use, and really like, the razer naga v2 hyperspeed mmo mouse, but it’s about $100 USD. I’ve never tried them, but the Redragon mice are inexpensive and generally get good reviews.

All of them should work just fine with Linux, though any rgb bullshit might not be adjustable with anything that isn’t razer.

I’m that weird guy who prefers the cooked taste of UHT pasteurized milk.

GULF OF MEXICO

Not that I’ve been able to find. I rarely notice but when I do it’s quite frustrating.

I’m using a Shield TV Pro with the default launcher disabled, replaced with FLauncher, and the netflix and voice search buttons disabled via button mapper.

I’m 1000% happy with it and absolutely would not go back to an actual HTPC.

Oh, I also uninstalled youtube and replaced it with SmartTube Beta

Thank you! I’ll give that a go!

My firewall is closed, nothing is forwarded. This is all on my LAN only. I just don’t want the non-https ports available at all, even on the LAN.