The ado is the commotion/activity/fuss that is unnecessary. So “without further ado” is just another way of saying “without any more unnecessary fuss [let’s get down to the important business we’re all here for]”

Also bombing Yemen is a presidential tradition that every president in the past 25 years has done. Yes, Trump probably bombed them more in his first term than all his predecessors combined, but no matter what kind of president is in office, American’s are very normalized to hearing that the president bombed Yemen. And because they are generally just periodic attacks, it gets hard to keep up the push to get the government to stop because the answer is always “well, we’re done now anyway, national security reasons, bla bla bla.”

So instead Americans vote for candidates who say they’re going to get us out of foreign wars, which Trump knows to do on the campaign trail, and he talks about it more than any other candidate and people keep believing him, even though he’s lied before.

Fluoride occurs naturally in many plants and if you drink tea you are drinking a similar amount of fluoride to what they add to water. It won’t do as much for your teeth if it’s sweet tea, and some other aspects of tea can stain teeth. But humans have been drinking fluoride in beverages for thousands of years, it’s not some new poision we invented and started adding to the water without being sure it was safe.

And they probably never properly explained map projection methods and he thinks Greenland is way bigger than it is. Has anybody bothered to show it to him on a globe?

Relatively few musicians are counting dollar bills. Publishers are, Spotify and the tech-bros who have inserted themselves between musicians and their fans are. But the musicians writing protest music are busking on TikTok in the evenings after working day jobs to afford rent. I hate to recommend a sinking ship, but unironically, if you are looking for music about the current moment, it’s on TikTok. Some of it makes it’s way to other platforms, but the average person won’t find it because music discovery on the mainstream music platforms is curated by corporations who are out to make money for the big record labels.

When Dodge released the Caliber, the first one I noticed was on a billboard, and from a distance I said “oh that car looks kinda cute” and when we got closer I was able to read that the rest of the billboard said “The all-new Dodge Caliber: It’s anything but cute.”

Oops.

Couldn’t find the exact one I ordered a few months ago, but this type of pressure sensor aliexpress link is apparently a common bed occupancy sensor type used when building medical beds for hospitals and care homes so staff can be alerted when a patient gets out of bed. I’m not sure the specific model I linked is quite right specs-wise, but the idea is that it goes on a slat or other surface between the matress and the frame that doesn’t necessarily get the full weight of the occupant, but still gets enough to measure on the sensor.

Dirtier than the ones I’ve been to within the last couple of years, but I’m also comparing a Wichita KS area Steak-N-Shake to Seward and Columbus Nebraska Amigos/King Classic - so maybe not the most fair comparison.

I bought a silicone soldering mat on ebay a few months ago, deliberately bought it on ebay to avoid Amazon. It was delievered by Amazon, in an Amazon envelope, the ebay seller had just used their Prime to have it delivered to my address, and charged an extra couple dollars over the Amazon price. Wasn’t very happy about it, but what a hustle that person is running.

The thing is, I think our attention spans are too cooked to be overwhelmed like that anymore. A new crisis every 20 minutes? I can get through 40+ tiktok videos in that time, and half of them will be about something they are trying to terrify with (trans rights, science defunding, bird flu, racism, palestine, the oligarchy, luigi, etc.)

The old media can’t keep up, but I’m in my mid-thirties and even my old brain can handle being pulled in dozens of directions and still think about/remember Luigi, unprompted, multiple times a day.

To add to this, if the stock takes enough of a hit, Elon may either step aside as Tesla CEO, or the board may replace him. If that does happen, don’t let up. As long as Elon is a shareholder, he benefits from Tesla’s stock price - even if the people who are brought in to turn it around are saints and the polar opposite of Elon. As long as he’s a shareholder, he’ll still benefit.

Probably not a great option considering how Nightreign is built around online multiplayer more than any other Fromsoft game. I guess there’s maybe a chance for a selfhosted multiplayer server, but otherwise the likelihood of a pirated version actually working seems slim.

JD Vance and Mike Johnson are strong deterrents to that though. Because both are equally dangerous as Trump in their own ways, and at least a tiny bit more competent. Vance would be more pro-oligarch than Trump, and Johnson would be more Christian Nationalist/Handmaid’s Tale. If anything Trump’s erratic nature keeps those factions off balance because he’s so self-serving.

Glad they clarified. To me the “selling data being defined broadly” argument made sense in the context of Google paying them to be included as a search provider. Because there is an argument that Google paying Firefox, and then the user entering a search and that being sent to Google’s servers could be legally seen as Mozilla selling data to Google.

I “broke” about 8pm ET to donate to Ukraine. I know we were boycotting Visa/Mastercard too, but after yesterday’s shitshow I felt like solidarity was worth more than my boycott.

Otherwise, it was fine. I’ve already been heavily limiting my spending since the inauguration anyway, after admittedly overspending at the end of the Biden term to prep for impending tariffs.

Gotta start somewhere with people. The point is that anyone can do this, and it’s easy to do, but it isn’t really any more difficult to show up to a town hall. And while yes, you and I can (and probably do) take larger, more effective steps, longer boycotts, etc. We need numbers, and that, I think, is the real value of this.

Another thing it does is helps people realize what power they have, even if one day of boycotting has zero impact on the economy or businesses. It gets those people who are participating started taking action, and thinking about their actions in the context of politics.

It’s a very easy first step, and if people find that they can do a day, maybe they’ll be okay with trying a week next time, or maybe showing up at a town hall seems easier. This is arguably more about getting people involved in the movement than actually sticking it to the corporations/oligarchy. That will come. But asking people who live paycheck to paycheck to boycott corporations for more than 2 weeks would be a huge ask without building up to it first.

Be kinda fun to hire a chopper service to bring a bunch of boats in. No trespassing involved getting in, but to leave would require trespassing. Play it like you’re being detained/forced to trespass to leave.

When I first got a Bluesky account, back when it was invite-only a whole bunch of the Physicists and Astronomers I used to follow on Twitter were already there. If anything it seemed like scientists were early adopters.

Even as a straight, young boy I was disappointed for her. I vividly remember announcing “but he’s MORE ugly now!” Somehow, none of the conservative, Christian adults in the room liked me saying that.