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10 votes
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The Pacific’s plastic catastrophe
4 votes -
Hong Kong airport cancels Monday flights amid sit-in protest
9 votes -
Ta-Nehisi Coates talks to Jesmyn Ward about writing fiction, reparations, and the legacy of slavery
4 votes -
Kathleen Hanna on the reign of 'Rebel Girl'
3 votes -
The Two Generals’ Problem
7 votes -
Ars Technica's list of the hottest new board games from Gen Con 2019
14 votes -
Highlights from the 2018 State of the Climate report
6 votes -
The door problem of combat design
14 votes -
Norway mosque attack suspect inspired by Christchurch and El Paso shootings
5 votes -
Lady Gaga to fund 162 classrooms in Dayton, El Paso and Gilroy
15 votes -
Imported cheese prices are about to double due to proposed US tariffs
12 votes -
Aussie drank more than ten bottles of vodka before Bali drunken rampage
8 votes -
Horticulturists have planted five palm trees in Laugardalur to investigate how these plants respond to Icelandic weather conditions
9 votes -
Can we show number of not-label-collapsed comments instead of plain number of comments?
Right now, there is number of comments visible when on main/group page. What would you think about excluding comments that are collapsed by default, such as those labeled as noise? I'm...
Right now, there is number of comments visible when on main/group page. What would you think about excluding comments that are collapsed by default, such as those labeled as noise? I'm disappointed when I see 7 comments at an article, but there is none actually relevant to the article itself. The disadvantage of this is that the site could feel more dead, especially in low-activity groups.
10 votes -
Scientists from the University of Borås are exploring the possibility of converting old pieces of glutinous waste into yarn
4 votes -
Police are turning to commercial genealogy databases to track down murderer – hoping to solve the double murders of a boy and fifty-six year old woman
10 votes -
United Nations' Social Impact Investing Initiative (S3I) has opened a new office in Helsinki – further bolstering the UN's presence in Finland
3 votes -
Kirkenes, the Arctic town at the centre of a Norway-Russia spy war
4 votes -
Marxism, Buddhism and socialism
8 votes -
Denmark's second-biggest city is home to the world's biggest wind-turbine maker and a thriving hub for power trading
3 votes -
Arming the cartels: The inside story of a Texas gun-smuggling ring
6 votes -
New Zealanders surrender thousands of firearms five months after Christchurch massacre
10 votes -
A legendary Ozark chestnut tree, thought extinct, is rediscovered
5 votes -
How the ‘IKEA effect’ subtly influences how you spend
6 votes -
Orwell knew: We willingly buy the screens that are used against us
10 votes -
Certified mess: Even Rotten Tomatoes admits that movie-review aggregation is biased and broken. Is anyone ready to fix it?
14 votes -
The tragic story of Jimmy Aldaoud, deported from the streets of Detroit to his death in Iraq
7 votes -
Consumer Reports' testing finds that many wireless routers lack basic security protections
12 votes -
Eldritch Love.
Longest piece to date? Last night I saw a beast four different heads with blackened eyes. Not black in metaphor, but from the blood that dried inside. Each of seven legs was mangled and the beast...
Longest piece to date?
Last night I saw a beast
four different heads with blackened eyes.
Not black in metaphor, but from
the blood that dried inside.
Each of seven legs was mangled
and the beast was blind
but she could fly.
.
Once upon a night so dreary,
and so dreadful I
came across a weathered bar
a woman stood inside.
She sat me at a table, there was
not a soul in sight
but I felt fine.
.
Then she brought a glass of dark with
something new inside.
Leaned in close and whispered to me
"Baby, close your eyes."
I parted my lips and drank as
her hand guided mine.
My guard resigned.
.
She said "I know a place where you can
truly feel alive.
Each one of your problems fall
defenseless by your side."
And she wrapped her arms around me
I contently sighed
as she took flight.
Her wretched and misshapen legs
held me close to her chest.
She let out her warning cries
i inhaled every breath.
Her claws were creeping out I
fell upon them like a bed.
I laid to rest.
.
I fell into a home so oddly
shallow and recessed.
The walls were made of rock,
a water drop fell on my head.
There was no single light,
the ceiling lowered as she led
me to her den.
.
As I looked around the room birthed
questions in my head.
So opposite the warmth that she
had first on me impressed...
She stroked my cheek, claws on my chin
my heart fluttered, digressed.
I was possessed.
.
She laid me on the floor and stood with
five legs for each end.
One aside my head and feet
another at my hands.
Then she gently laid a blanket
down over my head,
"Shall we commence?"
I still feel it so vividly
each night I fall asleep,
the fused infatuated fear I felt
at a monster's feet,
when that heinous eldritch horror
drained my blood from me,
took me for libation, prayed a tithe
she poured me out.
Her heart could call the kettle as it,
too, went black in drought
She bore her fangs and lowered,
took my body in her mouth.
She then carried me cliffside, like a dog
she threw me down.
My corpse then fell so far, on
impact, no audible sound.
The final earthly thing I heard,
her shriek, "The Gods are proud."
Now upon each night so dreary, she
crawls out to find
a source of poor, defenseless blood
that she can sacrifice.
She'll lure them in with gentle kisses
and sapphire eyes.
We all will die.
Epilogue.
On my way to death, I was met
with a choice instead.
I could end my life or help
ensure the gods were fed.
In the heat of fear and pain I
then nodded my head.
The halls of purgatory filled with
screams and smells of death,
as my eyes dried from the inside
and I then begat
five extra legs.
6 votes -
Twitter unlocks Mitch McConnell’s campaign account after pressure
12 votes -
12:08
So what’s the deal with offices, amirite? What if we gave a building full of adults enough money to get by. Oh, and also they have to drive 30-60 minutes to get here. And that time they spend on...
So what’s the deal with offices, amirite?
What if we gave a building full of adults enough money to get by. Oh, and also they have to drive 30-60 minutes to get here. And that time they spend on the way here? Yeah what if they just gave us that for free, and we made them pay for parking!
I know, I know, fantastic right? But listen, it’s not over yet. What if we also made the work pointlessly constrained to a particular 8-hour block in the day, five days a week so that they never have any personal time, even though this is all work they could get done in four hours a day and is fully capable of being completed on their own?
Fabulous!
——
So yeah, I don’t have free time. That means I’ve got a few half-ass pieces that I’ve been wanting to finish up for awhile.
Apparently bars are open today, so I’m gonna get sauced and get to it. Prepare for a small dump today. (Also I got some dummy minor news imma share in another post. Stay tuned if you want. Or don’t ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ all’s well.
Anyway here’s that piece now.
——-
I remember that time I forgot your
birthday
And that time was today
At 12:08 in the morning
And for a moment
I felt great.
.
My dear that was the first sign
That you were
Slipping on out of my mind
Today I’m sober in the morning
Feelin okay.
.
Well well-butrin what a surprise
When it done
Come on back to my mind
Now it’s 12:09 in the morning
And ain’t shit changed.
.
And in those 60 seconds
Girl I swear
I learned a lesson -
Depression is a woman
With your name.
10 votes -
Say cheese: Ransomware-ing a DSLR camera
11 votes -
LGBT in Russia: smashing stereotypes and creating a queer future
7 votes -
Electric Youth - ARAWA (2019)
4 votes -
SubRosa - Cosey Mo (2013)
4 votes -
Disappointed love and dangerous temptations: Textile factories and true crime
4 votes -
How big pharma was captured by the one percent
4 votes -
The myth of the rugged individual
15 votes -
California man charged with murder even though he didn’t fire a shot
10 votes -
Suicide rate for girls has been rising faster than for boys, study finds
13 votes -
Denmark broadcaster uses meme-based journalism to reach younger audience
7 votes -
Apple Is Locking iPhone Batteries to Discourage Repair
23 votes -
As some locals claim sleep deprivation and environmental racism, I-70 construction will continue into the night for at least a year
6 votes -
Some thoughts on freedom on the Web, explained through a simple analogy
I'm writing this in an attempt to explain more clearly some ideas about the dangers of having an oligopoly in control of the Web, and the current difficulties of discussing that without being...
I'm writing this in an attempt to explain more clearly some ideas about the dangers of having an oligopoly in control of the Web, and the current difficulties of discussing that without being taken as some kind of "free speech absolutist". It's an analogy and, as in any analogy, it's only valid to a certain extent. The important thing is for it to be valid enough to explain a point.
There was a city in which four companies had ended up owning every bar, except for a handful of them in the outskirts. Upon one moment, they started to regulate which kind of conversations could be held in their bars and which couldn't, something they had a legal right to do and felt was their responsibility. So they prohibited any racist, homophobic or sexually explicit conversation, as well as conversations which they thought could carry any risk for society as a whole. Almost no one could really object to that, after all who would defend that kind of behavior? Some far right gangs said it was against their right to free speech, but they were correctly answered that they didn't have any right to determine the conversation policy of bars that weren't theirs.
Others tried to point that, while that policy wasn't inherently wrong and those companies were in their right to implement it, in the past this was dealt with on a bar-per-bar basis, and although the immense majority of bars didn't allow that kind of behaviors, they had different degrees of flexibility about different topics so bars were more varied and diverse, and you were free to choose a bar which conformed to your interests.
But they were quickly accused of defending some supposed right of that people to be given a place to discuss and organize, and sometimes even accused of defending those ideas. "If you don't like how the Four Companies manage their bars, go elsewhere".
The problem is that the far right gangs and other kind of undesirable people, when forced to leave the Four Companies' bars, went straight to the bars in the outskirts, overflowing them. Some of those bars were already owned by far right people, others though the answer to the Four Companies was to keep a more tolerant policy, and were overtook by neo-nazis. The few independent bars that didn't accept to become far right havens were forced to implement policies not that far from those of the Four Companies, or else face a far right invasion. Their clients spent a lot of time discussing wether something was off-limits or not instead of just enjoying a good time like they did before, and those bars were also very small and far away. They were interesting places, to be sure, but they were cut apart from most of the night life of the city, which took place on the hundreds of Four Companies' bars.
But now, there was a growing problem. The Four Companies had started to prohibit other subjects, for several reasons that aren't really important. Some were distasteful subjects, other were against their political interests or the city council's. But, as the far right gangs kept stabbing people and trying to reclaim their "right" to be accepted into the Four Companies' bars, most people thought that the risk they posed weighed more than anything else.
But they were missing the point. In another nearby city, there were never a handful of companies owning most bars. Still most bars didn't allow far right gangs, and discussion was diverse and fun, and sometimes helpful to combat the excesses of the city council and local police. Still, there were some neo-nazi bars, and most bars had one or two unlikable people. Neo-nazi bars sometimes caused trouble and had to be closed by the police, most were not only under police surveillance but under the neighbors' surveillance too. And, as neo-nazis were a very small minority, if you didn't support the same team as the owner of your closest bar, you could go to another bar which supported your team without it being forcefully full of neo-nazis or otherwise disgusting people.
Both cities had neo-nazis and sometimes problems in their bars, although Four Companies' bars were quite more peaceful on average, as they were heavily policed in a uniform and homogeneous way. But they were lifeless too, and lots of interesting discussions and possibilities of neighbors facing local injustice together were lost forever. Everyone ended up thinking the same, watching the same, liking the same sports and supporting the same teams. Bars weren't a fun and exciting place anymore.
This is just an analogy, so it's limited. But I think it explains well my general view and worries on the subject, which have nothing to do with leaving free way to racists and neo-nazis. It has to do with putting an end to the oligopoly before it's too late.
6 votes -
Greta Thunberg takes climate fight to Germany’s threatened Hambach Forest
5 votes -
FKA Twigs - Cellophane (2019)
6 votes -
IKEA and the Queen of Sweden are designing homes for people with dementia
5 votes -
Cigarette butts are toxic plastic pollution. Should they be banned?
11 votes -
How private equity eroded the right to housing
6 votes