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33 votes
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US-based Haas team have decided to drop Kevin Magnussen for the 2025 Formula 1 season
16 votes -
Bob Newhart, comedy icon, dies at 94
22 votes -
Objects of Our Life: Steve Jobs' talk at the 1983 design conference in Aspen
7 votes -
IT staffing agency traps tech workers in their jobs, US federal lawsuit alleges
38 votes -
The rise of the ‘union curious’ - support for unionization among America’s frontline workers
28 votes -
Why Donald Glover is saying goodbye to Childish Gambino
28 votes -
Emmy nominations: 'Shōgun', 'The Bear' and 'Only Murders In The Building' lead field
14 votes -
What the all-American delusion of the Polygraph says about our relationship to fact and fiction
27 votes -
Escape from the box: new technology and old tactics have made buying a car a death march of deception
51 votes -
Phish: Tiny Desk Concert (2024)
7 votes -
Neon takes worldwide rights to Chris Stuckmann’s horror film ‘Shelby Oaks’
4 votes -
US judge dismisses classified documents case against Donald Trump
64 votes -
Record climate disasters are putting FEMA aid to US cities at risk
20 votes -
Atlanta man drives to South Carolina to lower Confederate flag on interstate, deputies say
19 votes -
Martin Scorsese's favorite films
14 votes -
I was an MIT educated neurosurgeon. Now I'm unemployed and alone in the mountains. How did I get here?
34 votes -
Bruce W. Nelson - The Heritage Foundation's 2025 Song (We Don't Think We'll Have to Kill You) (2024)
10 votes -
Meet Anita Velveeta, the ‘Big Sister’ of the Twin Cities trans music scene
12 votes -
Donald Trump whisked off stage in Pennsylvania after apparent gunshots rang through the crowd
144 votes -
Hundreds of fans breach security before COPA America final
What happened yesterday has no place in any sport! I hope that those that created the mayhem and the stadium managers are held accountable. Scenes like what we saw yesterday has happened before in...
What happened yesterday has no place in any sport! I hope that those that created the mayhem and the stadium managers are held accountable. Scenes like what we saw yesterday has happened before in other parts of the world in big football events like yesterday's game. I am surprised more people didn't get hurt. What a disgrace! I don't know if this stadium has a general manager and a security manager but both should be fired. What I saw from social media posts and TV was a complete lack of crowd control and unpreparedness by this stadium. Loved the game, could have gone either way if it wasn't for an incredible play by Argentina. Quite frankly I am surprised that the game was played at all but I suppose the mighty dollar comes first among all.
6 votes -
Dr. Ruth, renowned sex therapist and Holocaust survivor, dead at 96
42 votes -
A celebrated bike path might revert to being a breakdown lane for cars
20 votes -
Actress Shannen Doherty, best known for roles in hit TV shows like Beverly Hills 90210 and Charmed, died on Saturday from cancer at 53
20 votes -
Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of July 8
This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate...
This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.
This is an inherently political thread; please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.
10 votes -
Redbox owner (Chicken Soup For The Soul) to liquidate in Chapter 7 bankruptcy shift; workforce of 1,000 to be let go and 24,000 kiosks shut down, lawyer says
24 votes -
Kevin Costner’s ‘Horizon 2’ pulled from August release in theaters
12 votes -
u/RNG investigates bitcoin town
EDIT: Album available here Note: I'm writing this post as I go through my day, taking note of anything interesting. I try to do this with my diary, however for once I'll actually share my thoughts...
EDIT: Album available here
Note: I'm writing this post as I go through my day, taking note of anything interesting. I try to do this with my diary, however for once I'll actually share my thoughts with strangers.
This was inspired by u/arqalite's post on the topic.
I'm not a journalist. I didn't even take a class on journalism in college. I'm also not a writer, but at least my text is human generated. I have an audiobook I need to catch up on and a day to spare, so I'm going to bitcoin town.
I'm not a crypto guy, but I'm not going because I think Bitcoin is bad (even though it is). I'm going because I'm curious: how loud is this bitcoin mine really? When I read the initial post I wondered about the nocebo effect, Havana Syndrome, sociogenic illness, etc. Most of the reports are anecdotes of locals, and the null hypothesis doesn't make for a sharable news article.
I'm using this app "Sound Meter" to see how loud it is in my small suburban house. It peaks at 40dB. If you, like me, don't think in decibels, Google says that's as loud as a refrigerator hum. I'm skeptical about the accuracy of a phone app, but it's what I have.
Outside my house there are some birds loudly chirping. I would have missed their song if I wasn't writing this. I decide that I should take a measurement. The app reads 55dB. Google says it's the loudness of a residential street. Spot on.
I'm entering Granbury, TX and a massive American flag hanging from a crane greets me along with a pro-Trump billboard. There's a large lake running through the town. Seems like every house has a dock. Lot's of folks on boats and jet skis are visible.
Downtown is an old court building with a clock tower. The streets are lined with mom-and-pop shops for furniture, clothing, and trinkets. To my surprise, there are a lot of shoppers here with arms full of bags. They seem cheerful. They are all white.
The GPS takes me outside the city limits. I stop at a gas station a half-mile from the mine. I ask a couple of people about the mine while I grab a water. They've never heard of a bitcoin mine, and didn't know there was one around here.
As I approach the destination, the bitcoin mine looms over the horizon. The sheer size of the facility cannot be overstated. This facility looks like it should be pursuing some massive scientific endeavor. I wouldn't guess in a million years that all of this infrastructure exists to mine bitcoin. My car reads 98°F (what I expected based on forecast.) I imagine cooling systems will be as loud as one can expect on a day like today. And yes, it is loud.
Across the way, I see signs saying "Bitcoin sux" and "Bitcoin Noisehood". I take a lot of photos. I pull out "Sound Meter" and take measurements. It consistently reads 81-83dB, peaking at 88dB. Google says 85dB is the limit of safe hearing, and is comparable to the sound of a snowblower. This seems perfectly accurate to me. I'd be pissed if I lived across from this place.
I'll be in Granbury for the next hour or so, if anyone has a specific question about the mine I'll see if I can answer it. I took a lot of photos if there is interest.
121 votes -
Turning brownfields to blooming meadows, with the help of fungi
12 votes -
Credit at last for female screenwriter airbrushed from Hollywood history
12 votes -
Richard Simmons, who believed fitness is for everyone, dies at 76
36 votes -
It seems to me that movie studios, production and distribution companies are to blame for the decrease in attendance in movie theatres
disclaimer that I haven't done much research into this thought and it's mostly anecdotal but I doubt I am wrong? I personally don't go to theaters, except for comicbook movies. and the only reason...
disclaimer that I haven't done much research into this thought and it's mostly anecdotal but I doubt I am wrong?
I personally don't go to theaters, except for comicbook movies. and the only reason I go to theaters for comicbook movies is just cause I liked to discuss the comicbook movies on social media as soon as possible, but honestly, either I am getting really old or the redditors on /r/marvelstudios are getting young and younger everyday cause i go to those comments and it's not really a place I'd describe as open to a civil and non-memey discussion of the latest Marvel movie but I digress.
Point being, I personally prefer to wait for movie to arrive at streaming services. why?
- I don't have to deal with other people.
- I went to watch Creed 3 near the end of its theater run. 3 people chose to sit in front of me when the whole auditorium was basically empty (they looked to be in their mid-late 20s, maybe even early 30s.) I didn't care. What I did care was that one of the dudes spent half his time on his fucking phone. To the point that I literally had to bend over and ask him to put it away and he still didn't. this idiot just attempted to angle the phone in a manner such that I couldn't see it, or so he thought, the light still was there, just less. At that point, I just got too resentful of theaters to tell him off again but felt very stubborn about not moving away from my seat.
- I went to watch Aquaman 2 (iirc on opening weekend). I knew the movie was not gonna be great going in, just wanted to mark the end of the DCEU in theaters. 3 young girls were sitting in the middle section. as the movie started, these girls started taking selfies of themselves for the grams or snapchat or whatever the fuck it was. The light from their phone was bright. There was a couple sitting a seat or 2 to my right. the dude and I collectively rolled our eyes at the girls. They took 1 picture. I was like "OK, thank God". 2 pictures, I think "let's hope the second take works". Third picture "this is ridiculous". by this point, I wanted to throw something at them and just leaned over and asked them to put their phone away. I may been asshole cause it seemed like I scared them with that comment and to be quite frank, I took pleasure that I scare them, even accidentally.
- Theaters are extremely non-inclusive. This one bugs me a lot just cause of Eternals and CODA and Hollywood pretending they are woke. Not sure if anyone here has ever tried to use the closed captioning devices. I am personally not deaf, but I do have trouble processing words. I am the kind of guy who will often ask people to repeat themselves to fully understand what they said. Obviously can't do that with a movie but reading closed captioning helps me process. I finally decided to start trying the closed captioning devices in theaters around the time of Avengers Endgame I think. It's very hit or miss. either the theater forgot to charge the device so it gives out halfway through the movie, or it's just all old and it's neck doesn't retain it's form when I twist it into the good position and it ends up pointing the closed captioning at someone who is a good 1 foot shorter than me or it's fully charged and can retain its form but the studios behind the movie didn't put any serious effort into the closed captioning so half the fucking words are missing, rendering it pointless. My gf and I went to watch Mad Max Furiosa in theaters the other day and the theater didn't even have any remaining, they had given their to the studio to fix and didn't have any in stock as a result.
- Not sure about the states but up here in Canada, our big chain is Cineplex and they are so desperate to charge us extra that they now charge an extra "service fee" that you get charged only if you buy online.
- And the classic complaint of "just the snacks cost us a movie and a half nowadays"
However, I don't know if I blame the theater for my issues.
I've read the stories about how Disney have theaters over a barrel with how controlling they are with how much of a cut of a theater tickets goes to Disney and how Disney insists on how many auditorium the theaters devote to their movies. And how theaters charge so much for concession cause they are trying to keep the lights on to some extent cause the studios demand so much of the profit. And if it's a struggle to keep the lights on, I am not surprised they can't be more enforcing with the policy of no-phones during a movie.
It seems to me the studios, in an attempt to "maximize" their profit as much as possible, demanded as much as possible from theaters, while not realizing that the less of a cut that theaters take, the less theaters can invest in a welcoming environment where people actually want to go to and therefore people come less cause couple that with streaming services, why wouldn't people come less?
So I think the demise of theaters and the rise of streaming service can't just be attributed to how much more convenient it is to wait 8 months for a movie on streaming service but it's also attributable to the decline in quality at theaters which I think is cause studios are bleeding them dry.
So I find it odd that studios and production companies bitch moan and complain that people don't go to movies more in a time where a movie has to make 500 million $ just to be considered profitable but they've never really done any proper self-reflection on a possible reason why people don't go to theaters as much anymore.
23 votes - I don't have to deal with other people.
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A handful of US grocery stores now have ammo vending machines
24 votes -
Inside Ziklag, the secret organization of wealthy Christians trying to sway the US election and change the country
22 votes -
He secretly changed this freeway sign, helped millions of drivers
17 votes -
Dozens were sickened with salmonella after drinking raw milk from a California farm
42 votes -
Designed to fail: Chemical release at LyondellBasell
8 votes -
The death squads hunting environmental defenders
34 votes -
Best Shelley Duvall movies: The Shining, 3 Women, and more
5 votes -
AT&T says criminals stole phone records of ‘nearly all’ US customers in new data breach
26 votes -
The company that has a monopoly on ice cream truck music
22 votes -
Shelley Duvall, Robert Altman protege and tormented wife in ‘The Shining,’ dies at 75
21 votes -
US Soccer fires men's national team coach Gregg Berhalter
13 votes -
World’s first larynx transplant restores voice of a cancer patient
12 votes -
The American elevator explains why housing costs have skyrocketed
37 votes -
‘We’re living in a nightmare:’ Inside the health crisis of a Texas bitcoin town
65 votes -
Arlington Virginia missing middle trial heralds legal fight over suburban zoning
14 votes -
Doctors try a controversial technique to reduce the transplant organ shortage
30 votes -
The US will pay Moderna $176 million to develop an mRNA pandemic flu vaccine
29 votes -
The struggle to contain, and eat, the invasive deer taking over Hawaii
36 votes