Nepenthe

Nepenthe, 5 days ago

Well yeah, of course the problem here would be child support and not divorce is functionally impossible in Missouri.

Nepenthe, 6 days ago

That was very nearly my exact same thought. Maybe not for curious children with carrot-sized fingers, but for adults, how convenient! Business competitor's body won't quite fit in your fancy frunk? Just while away on your phone for about 10 minutes, let the cat do its magic, and off go the legs! Travel-sized!

Nepenthe, 16 days ago

That's what got me, too. The fucking gall. They didn't devolve somehow into proto-humans, they have brain damage and he himself knows they have brain damage.

For all the specific type of damage is explained in the article, I was going to guess that it could be a simple balancing issue and a basic google search proved that correct: the siblings who walk like this all have a congenital defect that causes mental retardation and difficulty balancing, in addition to other things like muscle weakness and impacted speech and coordination, the latter two of which are normally present but they don't happen to suffer from. Hence why they won't stand upright, but they will do embroidery.

Motherfucker just referred to a handful of mentally disabled people as the missing link between human and ape. Out loud.
I only hope he sees academic humiliation for this.

Nepenthe, 21 days ago

I mean, I know I'm raining on an already pretty despairing post, here, in times that very well do lend themselves to despair, but that sentiment has been around as long as I've been alive and I'd bet good money decades longer. It's probably one of those sentiments that's as old as people.

But no one (or at least, comparatively very few) was rewarded for hating Elvis. He hasn't been a thing in a long time. Same with any other risque entertainer that was also satan, they fall by the wayside after everyone gets bored. People are rewarded very well when they bend over for billionaires. As long as sociopathy is rewarded, there will always be rampant sociopathy.

I'm not saying it's so ingrained that there's no point in fighting it -- forcibly changing the culture is of the utmost importance, especially now. But that sentiment, the battle plan can't just be "wait around and it will work itself out." It's not like billionaires either of the actual or the temporarily embarrassed sort don't have kids. I'm starting to see that's the fatal flaw the more liberal-minded seem to have. It's like we believe so hard that everyone is inherently good and that things will work out in the end that we never bother to make a move. It's the death of us.

Nepenthe, 25 days ago

Nah, fuck Briaden, marry Hogby (she seems nice), and kill Hobem. Hobem definitely looks like he would make clown noises when hit.

Nepenthe, 26 days ago

Ah yes, the only two functions, reproduction and opening jars /s

Recently, scientists successfully induced the stem cell of a male mouse to transform into an egg instead of sperm.

The resultant litter was in all respects normal and, while we are talking about baby steps (ha) with mice instead of humans, I'm sure that would be a when, not an if.

The biggest immediate concern would probably be depression and osteoporosis. Pretty sure the depression wouldn't be very new, sadly, for anyone still paying attention to anything around them at all, but it doesn't need to be added to the pile for a demographic that already doesn't tend to reach out.

Nepenthe, 25 days ago

Uh....then you have kids? If you want them? I do not think I understand the question.

Nepenthe, 27 days ago

Fanning slowly -- "I am married."

Fanning quickly -- "I am engaged."

Using as a fan -- "Introduce me to your company."

.....?

I have to wonder who came up with this. One would imagine it was just some idea someone had and they published a whole etiquette book about it, and it slowly but forcefully caught on from there, because otherwise I can't imagine this just being a thing that evolves spontaneously in a way everyone equally understands. Imagine sitting all the way across the room at a ball or something and witnessing someone break up with their boytoy through body language. With perfect clarity for all to see. You might as well just say it out loud.

Nepenthe, 1 month ago

From the US: I'm over 30 and this is the first time I've heard surrogacy referred to as human trafficking. And now I need to sit and think.

It's always felt a little bit creepy to me, but I've also never wanted kids and the idea of pregnancy for any reason would be traumatic. So I'm starting out heavily biased. I think if you take the money out, it no longer counts....?

But the idea would be so out of left field that it would mostly be dismissed out of hand, probably even by most women.

Nepenthe, 1 month ago

Middle-age would be in your 40s-50s. Not to diss my dead relatives too hard, but you're thinking of old fucks that would have any solid opinion on that. In a handful of years, the music middle aged men will be up in arms about is *NSYNC.

Nepenthe, 1 month ago

So apparently if you smack it all around the sides of the lid with a spoon or something, you can loosen the vacuum seal.

It sounds fake but it worked the other night on a jar of salsa I was legitimately considering just breaking, and I'm still kinda mad that I never knew that til now.

Nepenthe, 1 month ago

Yeah? And how many removed the lid that way?

Nepenthe, 1 month ago

Remember, if the thick cloud emitted by the egg only drifts upwards, it's probably no good.

No, this graphic really is solid advice for people to know, but damn if it could have been designed with a little more forethought. Imagine, for instance, if the reader is yellow/blue colorblind. They could make a guess at what's happening, but they may not quite be sure. Arrows are doing 99% of the lifting, here.

Nepenthe, 1 month ago

I would be very concerned if one did not at least break even, but we can always bulldoze the bulldozing company at the end.

Nepenthe, 1 month ago

God, the taste their AI is about to garner for coconuts.

Nepenthe, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago)

I agree with all your other statements, but offer you this one counterpoint: you're getting the interesting ones.

Some program out there calculated once that *I* have a low to moderate chance of being female, but very little of anything else I look up could be considered advertiser friendly. Their only option remaining was to make all my targeted ads dumbass sweatshop clothes and feminine hygiene products forever.

Nepenthe, 1 month ago

Christ, do you understand how big this could be if anyone would let it? (they won't)

Even a ton of "more environmentally friendly" textiles are as bad if not somehow worse than their already destructive counterparts. I ran the numbers once in an argument and a recyclable shopping bag requires a little over 70 uses just to break even with the comparable pollution it took to make it, but most people who even use them throw them out after less than 20.

God, I wish it said anything about how resilient it is as clothing in comparison to regular leather. I've known about the making of lab-grown ghost hearts and stuff through a similar method for a while now, but this never even occurred to me. I know next to nothing about bacteria, clearly.

Sadly, there's still too much money in doing anything else, I'd bet. So many companies put too much effort into PR, greenwashing and general slavery to want to move over, and this would affect more industries than one.

Nepenthe, 1 month ago

Things like, say, an increased need for vitamin D supplements in colder climates, because you need sunlight to manufacture vitamin D to make serotonin and the increased melanin blocks what little sun is available way up north? Sure. That one is a difference off the top of my head that people really just don't think about.

Kidney function is provably not one of them and never was, so you're gonna have to fuck off with that. I usually make a conscious, concerted effort to be a better person than I was on reddit, but you already admitted in another comment that you don't know shit about medicine and you seem bothered in the opposite direction regardless.

So with the possibility of this topic being your emotional support knowledge base out of the picture, the only horse you logically seem to have in this is that seeing ethnic minorities demand that we stop allowing them to die by reason of nothing annoys you to have to listen to.

If that's not the case, I might be a bit quieter and rephrase everything you said forever, because it does not look like you want it to look. If it IS the case, get the fuck off my platform.

Nepenthe, 1 month ago

Really, it's babies' fault for not staying ahead of the game. With all the germs they roll in and all the poop they produce, they should have something to show for it by now.

Nepenthe, 1 month ago

That would pretty clearly be the "I picked up a pencil 15 years ago and never put it down." And it hurts me inside, that anyone would see that and jump to "obviously filtered to hell." It is exactly this interaction:

Nepenthe, 1 month ago

A lot of people you read about who grew to be leaders in their field by some ridiculous age like 25, spoke fluently in 5 different languages, etc. etc. did so because they had three things: dedicated one-on-one tutors, an appreciable collection of slaves and/or other general servants to free up their personal time, and enough family wealth to pay for both from the time they could walk.

Mozart was composing as a toddler, but he also came from a wealthy family of musicians that taught him basically nothing else. Ever. That was the one thing. He hyper-specialized in music and socially he was the guy that got bored and did cartwheels and meowed in public. If Mozart was in your position, with the kind of loving care and finances most students have today, he would have been the kid in class who beatboxes over the teacher.

I'm actually still coming to terms with this myself. with mixed success. I've always loved art, but I've never been where I want to be. I've been making strides again, but the further I take it, the more it becomes apparent that 90% of the problems I've ever had with it were not me, they were because no one ever bothered to teach me. And I'm pissed about the decades I lost simply because child me was never shown concepts that would have changed everything.

Do not judge your own accomplishments on the same scale as someone who had ample time to devote to their studies because their family had house slaves doing everything you have to do by yourself.

Nepenthe, 1 month ago

On the one hand, I feel really proud that I got under your skin so much that mine is the only contribution you've ever replied to in the 7 months that whole account has even existed. Someone just clearly isn't having a good day if that's the one thing that set off a professional lurker.

But also, like....I thought about this all through my quesadilla and it's just really sad? Is this like Incel Logic: Hobby Edition, where you're either born perfect and flawless or you're a permanent shit failure and therefore whichever way the coin falls, you never have to work at anything? Like Big Education is a trillion dollar industry now, and really society is divided up Airbender style and you just didn't get the CalArts gene?

There's only one kind of person I can see falling for this weak-ass angle, and it's the kind of person who's never taken up any recreation for more than 1-2 days in their whole life because they don't start out amazing at it and you can't fail at anything if you never do shit. And honestly, I'm kinda bummed out that you have to live like that. You know you can just look up tutorials for anything these days.

Nepenthe, 1 month ago

Guess what happened the two whole times I deliberately ignored the "paranoia."
Go on. Guess.

Nepenthe, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago)

You underestimate how much I value myself.

Does he? Does he, though? It might also be an issue of the difficulty I've experienced ever getting very much out of Wyll aside from "well met" in comparison with others who either never stop talking or have their reasons and open up slowly, but I've always had the sense that Wyll leans insecure.

The flashy theatrics in battle. Grew up idolizing his father with rather big shoes to fill. Wanted to be the hero, clearly damned the consequences, and it's still really important to him that other people see him that way. I know he didn't give himself that title, but that had a test screening of exactly one other person who was like 7 at the time, so it's honestly on par with giving yourself a nickname. A superhero nickname. Even when you meet, you have the option to say you've never heard of him in your life.

It's honestly one of the things I wish they'd dedicated more time to, and it really would have been interesting. It's a sad trait but also relatable. As he is, the guy has all the riveting personality of milk

Nepenthe, 2 months ago

It probably takes me that long just to wash and rinse my hair.