Things looked bleak for Joe, but they were even worse for mankind.
As Joe and Rita lay dormant, the years passed… and mankind became stupider at a frightening rate.
Some had high hopes that genetic engineering… would correct this trend in evolution.
But sadly, the greatest minds and resources… were focused on conquering hair loss and prolonging erections.
The music is much more evolved now and there isn’t really one specific genre (ie techno) any more. The four-to-the-floor beat you describe was (and arguably still is) the core of most electronic/dance style music. And yeah, it’s usually the start of most of the stuff I write in Fl Studio (aka Fruity Loops), as a simple and driving core beat is what is the best for the largest possible group of people to dance to. (It’s universal, regardless of genre.)*
Example from NTO here: https://youtu.be/xF0Qx9XQCNI (This is technically in the electronic/techno genre, but really can’t be classified that way anymore. The FttF beat is still driving that song though…)
Probably the pinnacle of where techno and synthesizer music has evolved to is music by Mr. Bill. It’s more of a full sound design thing now, and less legacy Fruity Loops’ish now. (https://youtu.be/WCrgI4ne1Kw) TBH, Mr. Bill isn’t, and probably will never be “my style”, but I respect the hell out of his music though. Fucking genius stuff.
Alas, I could find a million-and-one examples of modern trash-club music and it’s never going to go away. Strongbad summaries that genre the best: https://youtu.be/JwZwkk7q25I
You do you, and making fun of what still is the core rhythm of nearly all electronic music ain’t exactly a hard thing to do. ;)
I just thought it kinda sucked that you sounded like you might not have been exposed to, or were even aware of, how that type of music has evolved. “Techno”, “90s House” or whatever, is actually dead for the most part though. The modern iterations of the scene are still massive and probably 80% of those people don’t realize that the core rhythms have been exactly the same for +30 years or more.
And nah, I ain’t butthurt about you making fun of “my” music and not at all trying to be argumentative. The music is so much better now, even if you can still cleanly overlay an untz-tsh. :)
producing thick plumes of oily smoke.
That’s what happens when oil burns. Specifically, when oil storage tanks burn. Burning oil makes big plumes of thick, oily smoke.
In the video below, a shot-down drone can be seen jettisoning its special FX package.
Ukraine managed to get a drone through three (or more) layers of air defense around Moscow, only to drop an FX package? Look… Even I make fun of Russian air defense, but it’s not entirely useless and it does work.
It now makes perfect sense how Ukraine was able to fabricate such an eye-catching mise-en-scene
No. It doesn’t make any sense at all, per the above reason. If you send a drone to Moscow, make it through the air defense and have the opportunity to bomb a refinery, just bomb the fucking refinery. Burning oil is your FX package, dipshit.
The actual damage to the refinery itself turned out to be disappointing, as only a few oil storage tanks were actually destroyed.
Oil tanks are big, contain a fuck-ton of oil and burning tanks are a pain in the ass to extinguish. Heat damage alone can shut a refinery down if any high pressure tanks or lines were exposed. They would need to be inspected properly and that isn’t a small task. So yeah, a couple of destroyed tanks is kind of a bad thing. (Also, he just confirmed that is wasn’t an “empty strike”, employing “FX packages”. Shit got blowed up, dawg.)
In fact, much of Ukraine’s recent narratives
… narratives, propaganda or whatever… Those are likely Russian videos of Russian oil tanks on fire. No narrative is needed. (I stay away from most state news sites and steer clear of most opinion-based news, blogs or videos. Getting actual information about a conflict is hard enough, thanks. My point: I don’t know the narratives and reading a blog like this just lets me know that the propaganda engine is having to chooch really fucking hard about this.)
Alas, these propaganda blogs are just made to sow doubt with large groups of idiots. It doesn’t matter if they are true or not, what matters is that their future front-line meat waves stay dumb and that .ml posters have another hyperlink to add as a “source”: These links are also for idiots to click that don’t validate any of those sources. This stuff fuels confirmation bias, consciously or not, and regardless if any of it is true.
Compliance audits are usually handled by a third party and I am only familiar with SOC2, SOX, PCI and ISO27001. GDPR is a beast, from what understand. I do suspect it’s also ran by a third party during an audit period.
Most of the above compliance programs require network architecture reviews and checks to ensure that their policies actually match how their internal processes and software actually works. This typically includes compliance enforcement mechanisms, such as what we were discussing.
More often than not, GDPR data deletion requests work for just about anyone. Companies don’t really have the time to validate what country you are currently in so these kinds of processes are usually just generic. (It’s a compliance requirement and usually only gets the bare-minimum effort and funding to develop correctly.) Since any company asset is in-scope for compliance regardless of the country, companies that reside in the EEA must also purge any data for servers that may be outside of the country.
It never hurts to attempt a data deletion under the context of GDPR, regardless of your country, is my point.
But just to clarify “it depends on the country”: Of course it does, but the country where the company is based out of, not where their servers are located. (Of course there are one-offs or weird situations. That kind of “data protection” is expensive and reserved for bulk data that companies really need to hide or keep out of scope of compliance.)
I would normally say this is a parental issue. However, the quirky combinations of vitamin b, caffeine, massive amounts of sugar combined with whatever else is even slightly rumored to boost energy should be, at minimum, slightly regulated for youth.
I am not doing deep-dive research for this comment, but I would speculate that the above drinks are simply not healthy for developing bodies and brains.
I also suspect that the biggest issues are with lack of moderation.
That’s basically a tunafish sandwich without the sandwich. Add a bit of lemon juice and it’ll knock down the fishy taste. Add a bit more lemon juice for a bit more citrus excitement.
I accidentally added too much mayo to my tunafish the other day and fixed it with a bit of Panko, of all things. The extra crunch was super neat and was better than celery that some people add. (Panko, for those who don’t know, is a Japanese breadcrumb that is super close in texture to rice crispies. I thought it would help absorb the extra mayo, and it kinda did, but also kinda didn’t.)
Nicotine is removed from tobacco before it is reintroduced in a controlled way during cigarette manufacturing. This creates a consistent dose per cigarette.
Lower nicotine tobacco is not needed.
Same name, two different types of nuts. (Actually, there are several profiles for t-nuts used with extruded aluminum that I am aware of.)
Attestation approved. ;) (Legally prescribed Adderall and non-abused for about 16 years or so…)
I saw alcohol mentioned a few times in the comments and I get it, but please be careful with it. Neurodivergence and alcohol is a match made in hell. (For me it was. I have no right to speak for anyone else, TBH.)
Thankfully, it’s just the standard doses of amphetamines and caffeine for me these days.
(Alas, I am stuck in a hell of an anxiety loop right now, and can’t get some super important stuff done and can’t crack out of this, for whatever reason. Booze has crossed my mind a few times, but I am fairly positive my next bender would be my last.)
May 19, 2026 3:00 PM _Meta Employees Are Scrambling to Use Up Benefits Ahead of Ahead of Meta’s latest round of mass layoffs tomorrow, some employees are deserting offices, abandoning their work, and loading up on perks they might soon lose, several people at the company tell WIRED.
Two employees describe a widespread rush to use up an annual $2,000 flexible benefit, which can cover a variety of expenses including health and wellness activities. A separate triennial credit of $200 toward the purchase of audio gear has led to a scramble to purchase Apple AirPods and other headphones. Another source says Meta offices have been largely empty this week, as people prioritize polishing their résumés and gather offsite to commiserate with friends for what may be their final time as colleagues. Employees are variously “paralyzed,” “coasting,” and “panicked,” sources say.
Meta plans to lay off about 10 percent of its nearly 80,000 employees on Wednesday, with notices going out to affected workers’ personal and corporate email addresses at 4 am Singapore, London, or San Francisco time depending on their location, according to a company-wide memo sent on Monday. The cuts are coming at a time when the social media giant behind Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook is enjoying record-high profits.
But CEO Mark Zuckerberg insists that the company must free up cash to invest in AI data centers, and that Meta can perform just as well with fewer employees because of AI technologies that augment human labor.
Are you a current or former Meta employee who wants to talk about what’s happening? We’d like to hear from you. Using a nonwork phone or computer, contact the reporter securely on Signal at peard33.24 and ChaoticGoode.12. Meta didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment for this story. The company has undergone three previous large rounds of layoffs since 2022, including as part of Meta’s one-time “year of efficiency” drive in 2023. But even though the latest round is smaller than a couple of those, it is drawing widespread scrutiny because it comes at a time of societal anxiety about AI’s impact on jobs.
Inside Meta, the imminent cuts are among several concerns that have sunk morale to unprecedented depths, according to 16 current and former employees who recently spoke to WIRED. Employees also have been frustrated by being “drafted” onto a new AI team without any choice and the rollout of surveillance software that tracks US workers’ laptop use to train AI models.
Meta also plans to internally restructure as it conducts sweeping layoffs, transferring 7,000 remaining staff to “AI initiatives” and converting more managers into individual contributors. That would bring the total number of those affected—either laid off or placed in a new role—to 20 percent of the current workforce, Reuters reported on Monday. WIRED independently confirmed this reporting. Some parts of the company have been told they won’t be affected at all.
But in recent days, employees who are bracing for changes have shared checklists internally about benefits to take advantage of, and are saving documents such as performance reviews and pay stubs, according to one worker. Some teams are meeting up at bars and restaurants near Meta offices in New York and Menlo Park on Tuesday and Wednesday to eat and drink away their sorrows, several employees said. Management has encouraged employees not to come into offices on Wednesday.
Update, May 19, 11:40 PM EDT: WIRED corrected the time zones when layoff notices will be emailed. _
SearXNG is a local option and is fairly easy to get a container running for it.
It’s not the cleanest, but it will let you search about anything that is searchable if you allow it. (It’ll aggregate results from ~244 different search engines so beware. It’s a “metasearch” engine.)
It can be a bit slow at times (especially if all the things are turned on), and is a bit like Google in its infancy. However, there aren’t ads or promoted results. It’s fairly raw, if you are into that kinda thing.
Getting the API working with Python can be a pain at times due to its bot control mechanisms and strict header checks. (I believe they default these features ON if someone accidentally makes their instance public or something like that.)
You are not a 40 year old traveling nurse? I find it hard to believe that a nurse wouldn’t know this.
The only emojis I usually see now are exclusively in slop posts.
The opening comments are overshadowed by the Solow Productivity Paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Productivity_paradox
What exact is the goal here? You kinda just rolled right into install instructions without context…
It’s always been broken, disjointed and tribal. You can tell everyone, but many have already known this. Hell, most of humanity is like this naturally.
Almost every large organization is this way, really. Most of it is just covered up by goverment or corporate propaganda or some weird sense of duty people have to jobs or organizations.
This ain’t anything new, is my point. It’s new and shocking to you, sure. Welcome to the tribe of the disillusioned. It was always better in the past and new people are always going to make it “like it was” and “better”. (Quite literally the selling point myth of MAGA, to be honest.)
I seem to remember that phenomenon quite a bit in the late 80’s/early 90’s. Many of my memories from that time are mostly lost to time, I do remember specifically just buying singles for Top 40’s as I knew everything else was going to be crap. (MC Hammer comes to mind, but there were many more around that period.)
That is, quite literally, from The Onion.