No, as non-experts, we must dismiss the knowledge of experts because their approach is not non-magical pseudoscience bullshit that consists mostly of evocative imagery.

I don’t need no boring particle accelerator! I want an atom smasher that’s been combined with cutting edge AI and the latest in superconducting magnet technology to tame matter down to the subatomic level so it can shoot a laser made of protons into radioactive materials to fundamentally alter its elemental properties so it no longer emits _{(as much)} radiation!

I had a threesome with an HR lady! Her hair is purple and she has a polyamory infinity symbol wrapped by bands around her wrist in the colors of the bisexual flag.
She’s a cool lady. Great friend and hates being a tool for the man. She’s cool people’s version of Ron Swanson.

Yeah. I’ve been trying to ‘pick my battles’ more carefully, as it were.
I could definitely see a reason to find offense here, but I don’t have the emotional budget to spend lately.

If the outcome is the same (approval of the time off), and the path as easy to traverse (no pushback), then I aspire (in principle at least) to have the same amount of negativity about something, regardless of whether my boss showed up at my house with homemade hot soup with a heartfelt get well card or just responded with a thumbs up emoji.

I string together way too many words, edit them, add more words, edit them, add more words, get frustrated with myself, edit the thing, then send it off in a huff and realize I accidentally a word or failed to connect two concepts that were clearly connected at some point, but now my whole email is a conceptual and linguistic mess just like this sentence.

Your comment made me think of a video my wife showed me last week. I’m linking to an article about it, but the article contains a link to the video, which is hosted on X.

‘Long live everyone’: Everyone’s obsessed with this Indian teen’s reply to a reporter who tried to make him call for Pakistan’s destruction - DailyDot

Perhaps my understanding of how these are used is incorrect.

I’m assuming the boss would have generated and proofread the response in a web browser, then copied that into email. Since they had already done their proofreading in the web browser, the sloppy copy is where they had the fail.
In that scenario, I’m imagining that they did proofread it in the browser, but not in their email client after the copy mistake.

Hm. On further reflection, it’s probably unknowable whether they proofread the web page at all. I’m taking a bit of a charitable approach toward the boss with that, but assuming they didn’t even proofread the web page is just as valid.

I guess I don’t have a problem with this.
I struggle to write emails and would potentially use an LLM if that were an option. (Maybe.)

The message accepted the request, and was polite, showing concern, even. I assume it was proofread and deemed acceptable to the boss/reflective of their sentiments (although perhaps not copied well).

I guess I don’t see the offense here. Anyone who does see it care to explain why this is a negative?

I was just thinking about Adafruit, and how pissed they must be.

This is a weird connection to make, but since this started happening, my wife and I have been unintentionally saving money.

I don’t think we’re doing it ‘on purpose’, but instead of the usual stream of random frivolity, we’re just sort of trimming back, and as a result, find ourselves with extra money to transfer to savings when we look at our accounts.
I think we’re both just trying to be ready, should we need extra resources for whatever reason.

That’s a great answer, but I’d like to proffer “Why don’t you find out?” as a response - assuming appropriate context, situation, and preferences, of course.

People will know you as the man with swagger as big as your … feet!

I know of an organization attached to a prestigious university that solely exists because at the end of some billionaire’s life, he decided he wanted to chuck some cash into a foundation to try to burnish his image.

But he was so morally corrupt that his version of helping others was to mandate that the foundation focus on “helping” people in developing countries find business opportunities.
Read: they assess how people and environments can be exploited for capitalism while focusing on telling stories about how that exploitation improved the quality of life for people there.
Most of the professors who work with the foundation are very wealthy from their non-academic pursuits.

Not only do I have an increased range of motion, but I (very recently learned) that an old injury is causing spinal stenosis – my spinal canal is narrowing due to bone overgrowth on my vertebrae. (Car accident. I was rear ended.)

About 20 years ago a chiropractor popped my neck by twisting it, and it so freaked him out that he leapt back from the table and did the heebie jeebie dance.
He told me to never let a chiropractor pop my neck by twisting it ever again.
Reasonably certain I could kill myself showing off doing yoga, like in that Dead Like Me episode.

I’ve seen speculation it was a mechanical failure of the arrester system.

How a sailor shortage is crippling ship maintenance at sea – Navy Times

Perhaps plain ol’ mismanagement of resources.

I mean, everyone is already fucked, and that’s what keeps everyone else in check.

Russia has made great efforts to hack municipal systems all over the world, and may actually have some control over Microsoft systems, owing to that credential hack last year that Microsoft still hasn’t confirmed is contained. (Recent Russian hacking campaigns are using malicious signed MSI files, so my bet is no…)

China has all that communication equipment everywhere, with rumors swirling that it’s intentionally compromised. There’s also Tuya, a massive IOT company that produces its own products and also white label products. And there’s all the EV power inverters that can be hacked and used as a botnet to destroy electrical grids. Not that they need to, because apparently they can shut down the U.S. power grid remotely. And who knows what they’ve managed to do with the U.S.’s backdoor access into telecom systems.

The U.S. has its own devices, hacking, and infiltration efforts, although as a U.S. citizen, my awareness of them is decreased due to U.S. media.

But my core point is that there’s basically a digital Cold War happening. And the U.S. is all but surrendering, making successful surveillance, hacking, and sabotage campaigns more likely.
If a situation goes hot at the same time that large parts of U.S. see poisonings or health issues en masse due to tampering with water supply chemical or filtration systems or even the possible destruction of drinking water systems, the explosion of natural gas lines as C&C systems over pressurize domestic lines, followed by a prolonged grid-wide electrical outage, the U.S. will have basically no ability to do anything but focus on domestic issues.

It’s sort of ridiculous how dumb they are. I think you’re right, that they’ve staged a bunch of ships off shore like it’s WWII to be “scary” vs offering up surprise death from above by an enemy the Houthis cannot attack or anticipate, all brought to them by a partnership of their neighbor countries.

The latter is scary in many ways, whereas the former is result of people who confuse TV with reality.

He seemed to know of the shipments being halted after he ordered them to be halted.

I also see this as a move that increases U.S. isolationism. It will trigger reciprocal tariffs, and those will both bolster non-U.S. media production, but harm the U.S. film industry.

One of the U.S.’s greatest exports is its culture. Perhaps not great in a moral or any other objective measure, but the media the U.S. creates is one of its greatest sources of influence (read: soft power) in the world.

Isolating media and giving other nations room to grow is, well, fair play to them, but an unforced error. Another step in the direction of failed statehood.

I was just thinking that Stanley Tools should capitalize on Stanley’s success and release a line of replica ceremonial tools backed by a viral campaign instead of suing them for their success.

I would probably buy a replica pope whacker, the U.S. congressional mace if virally advertised, or even a golden shovel, engraved with a jaunty nihilistic saying, like “Digging my own grave!”

As many as it takes.

Sleep has always been a challenge for me. Unmedicated I will either not be able to fall asleep until 2-3 in the morning, or will fall asleep around 11-12, and wake up at 4-5 am.

Throughout the years I’ve tried various modifications to my sleep routine, and am no stranger to medications to help me sleep. (Doctor supervised, while paying attention to all side effects and interactions. Do not try to manage your own sleep without significant research. Case in point: Long term use of diphenhydramine (Benadryl) has been linked to dementia.)

I’ve found that of the things in my sleep routine, the melatonin is the best tool I have to facilitate falling asleep, and having an outlet for my energy during the day is the best way to ensure staying asleep.

It’s also useful to note your surroundings. During winter I’m woken up a lot at exactly 4:40 am, because a neighbor uses their remote start, which causes their car to beep 4 times. (It’s very annoying, because they park on the street outside of my place and start their car as they’re walking to it, so it’s not as if the beeping is for a useful purpose.)
Is something else environmental happening?