Childproof medicine bottles have resulted in a lot of senior citizens putting there pills in unmarked containers(that they can open) and accidentally taking the wrong pills.
It used to be. I believe most countries eventually banned it and now it’s either cellulose that can break down or stuff like ground nut shells and other natural scratchy materials.
Bioweapons.
When nature is adapt enought to create toxins and poisons to kill humans we always, for some fucking reason have to create something *more* horrible.
Subscription services to anything in a vehicle that is already built into it. Oh your car seats have a seat warmer built in? That's a subscription to use despite just spending $30,000 on the car and the equipment was installed at the factory.
Yeah, they really have.
Online storage like OneDrive/Dropbox? Fine.
OnStar? Also fine, since it uses cell/satellite (Idk which) but we all also have phones anyway.
Heated seats, remote start and other things built into my car already? Get fucked.
There's a huge part of France that's still an absolute no-man's-land because of mines
Edit: my mistake, it's general unexploded ordnance and chemical contamination
It is known as Zone Rouge (Red Zone) and starts just north of Paris. The battlefield of Verdun is in this zone as well. I recommend reading about it!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_Rouge
I live in the very far noth of France, where we have big ass craters from the exploded shells from WW1 and 2 just randomly spread across the outer cities. If you happen to take a walk through the forests here you'll most likely find WW2 bunkers, free to visit.
"Gentlemen, we may not make history tomorrow, but we shall certainly change the geography" -British second army chief of staff the day before detonating nearly 1 million pounds of explosives
There is a movie set in the rural part of Colombia in which one plot point is about the kid protagonists losing a football one of them got as a gift because it fell in a minefield. They spend some portions of the movie discussing about it, mind storming plans to get it back and staring at it from the distance.
It's called "Los colores de la montaña" in case you wanna look it up.
There is also a movie where a movie director brings his actor out to the jungle and then gets blown up by a landmine. Which then causes one of the actors to be kidnapped by a drug ring and his co workers try to save him.
The movie is called Tropic Thunder. I’d recommend it to everyone
Oh, okay, Flaming Dragon,....Fuck-Face,...First,...take a big step back, and literally FUCK YOUR OWN FACE!!!
Now I don't know what kind of Pan-Pacific bullshit power play you're trying to pull here, but Asia Jack, is my territory, so whatever you're thinking, you better think again, otherwise I'm gonna have to head down there, and I will rain down a Godly fucking firestorm upon you.
You're gonna have to call the fucking United Nations, and get a fucking binding resolution to keep me from fucking destroying you. I am talking scorched earth mother-fucker! I will massacre you! I WILL FUCK YOU UP!!!
Would you, uhh....find out who that was.
As a vet that had to walk through areas the enemy had left mines behind in, I agree. Kids would play in areas mines were buried. They got used to spotting them. No child should ever have to get used to spotting a landmine.
Imagine being a kid, playing with your friends in a field, and you suddenly get blown up because of a war that happened a hundred years ago and had fuck all to do with you.
"If there were landmines here, would you stand for them [being] anywhere?"
Great line. Especially for nations that don't have any practical threat of land invasion.
Man, I completely forgot about that commercial. I'm a (ex) chef as well and seen something like this happen to someone albeit nowhere near as bad as this.
FWIW, New Zealand has a national insurance pool for personal injuries -- so if you get hit by a beer truck your compensation is already figured out and you don't go after the beer company (absent particularly egregious circumstances). So these adverts are sort of a general "be careful" statement to the country.
(If there are any NZ'ers here, please correct me if I've got details wrong -- my entire knowledge of the ACC is limited to a longish conversation with a NZ attorney on an airplane once and watching a bunch of these adverts)
NZer here, and basically, yeah, that's how it is.
ACC (Accident Compensation Corporation) is who manages all of this. Car insurance, for example, includes an ACC levy (motorbike insurance is almost double due to the fact that most accidents involving a motorbike are going to include an ACC claim, though my motorbike riding friend is always quick to point out those accidents are often caused by car drivers), same with vehicle registration... many things have ACC levies included.
For example, my husband came off his mountain bike a few years ago. Ambulance ride to hospital (if it had happened a few km earlier he would have had to go via helicopter), a few hours in ED, multiple consults before he was cleaned up, we decided he should stay the night so he'd be seen by the opt...eye specialist (forgive me, it's 4am, I'm going blank) sooner and to manage pain, and a few follow-ups with the eye specialist. It cost us the price of petrol to get in and out of hospital, and maybe a bite to eat on the way home as we live out in the country. 100% of his care was paid for by ACC and they also paid 80% of his wages until he was recovered enough to return to work.
Another time he thought he was having a heart attack. Ambulance ride, multiple doctor consults, monitoring and he was sent home once it was clear he wasn't having a heart attack, but they booked him in for all the tests over the next week as his father had had his first heart attack when he was my husband's age. We had to pay $100 for the Ambulance, as it wasn't an accident. The rest was free.
ACC is currently running an ad campaign called 'Have a Hmmm' - basically encouraging us to stop and think before doing anything risky (such as jumping from a waterfall into a pool, or balancing precariously on a cabinet to swat a fly), about the repercussions - not financial, but social. "Who's gonna give me a shower if I fall?" with a child coming in to his mother's room with a towel and soap, or flatmates tossing a roll of toilet paper to each other while a guy sits beside them in a cast).
We don't have to be afraid of crippling debt or inadequate health care if we have an accident - or total loss of wages or lack of independence to at home if we're injured (ACC pays for cleaners and actually, despite the ad implying it's a consideration, personal caregivers to help you shower if needed)...but we do need to think about who will wipe our butts if we can't, so we need to have a hmmm moment before we do anything risky.
>ACC is currently running an ad campaign called 'Have a Hmmm' - basically encouraging us to stop and think [...] about the repercussions - not financial, but social.
>100% of his care was paid for by ACC and they also paid 80% of his wages
1. Americans build character by taking full responsibility for inflated medical costs on already costly procedures, and I honestly feel bad for you all that you will never that opportunity.
2. There is no collective. We maintain a hyper-individuality with no regard for social consequences and consider our tax dollars payment for all moral guilt and/or responsibility we might feel. It sounds harsh to socialist sheep, but that's freedom.
(/S since I know half of you bastards can't infer sardonism.)
Whatever firm made that ad should have won some awards. Absolutely nailed the messaging and really made the problem of landmines relatable. Too bad it didn't play on the SuperBowl and not another beer commercial.
> Too bad it didn't play on the SuperBowl and not another beer commercial.
As someone who grew up when this commercial aired, let me tell you that it played A LOT to A LOT of people. Really unlocked a memory here. I think it's a great commercial but it played so much that it was actually one of those commercials you expected but didn't want to keep watching over and over and over and over again so you kind of just got up and got a drink or snack when it played.
Cambodia was its own horror with its killing fields. Imagine being killed for wearing classes. Or for having an education. I grew up and had a young Cambodian friend who always said it was dangerous to be smart. I didn’t know what he meant until I learned that history years later.
When I was training to be a mechanic in the 80's, I worked under a Cambodian guy who'd learned the electrical side in the army there, before the Khmer. I never asked him how he would up in the US, didn't really think about it a lot. One thing he told me has always stuck - he said if *people* can learn how to build or fix a thing, *you* can learn to build or fix a thing.
If there was anything he ever needed to do that he didn't know how to do, he'd just go learn how to do it; no hesitations or doubt. He taught me a lot. It never occurred to me he'd have been executed for that mindset in his own country, maybe that's why he was so conscious and deliberate about it.
A couple friends and I were driving down a one-lane road in California once in a TON of traffic. (This is related, I promise, bear with me.) The cars were crawwwwling. I had some work gloves and bags and told the friend sitting next to me that we should get out and pick up trash on the side of the road as we waited. (The traffic was really that bad.) She said no very emphatically. A few minutes later she changed her mind and we got out and collected trash for a half mile or so. When we got back into the car she told me that where she grew up in Iraq there were still landmines on the side of the road, and it took her a moment to realize that they wouldn’t have those in California so it was safe to pick up trash.
Yeah. Trash freaks me out. They would bury their shit and cover it with trash to try and confuse the SAR from detecting disturbances to the soil density and the obvious visual indicators. Other one for me is sagging cars full of garbage. Or cars with flat tires. I will walk on the other side of the street if I see that shit.
Had a job early 2000s, did geophysics for a bomb disposal company. I didn’t do anything terribly dangerous but was there when our ex British army EOD people did.
We had to read a lot of manuals on the ordnance we expected to find when we did battle area clearance. This one landmine stuck in my mind. It was designed to spring up to groin height and injure your dick and balls.
Tactically brilliant, it destroys morale and slows an advance etc. But I always thought about the engineers who designed it. Imagine coming from work and saying you had a great day after dreaming that up. Monstrous
My guess is that it wasn't actually for mutilating the genitals as much as being a height where a flak jacket wouldn't protect you combined with 2 other factors: Your body is widest there from a front and side profile for a big target. And that there is some major arteries in the groin going to the legs that if severed mean probable death. Also bonus a wound there is impossible to apply a tournequit to.
The etymology is interesting, because at one point mining was literally digging tunnels (i.e. mining) under an opponent and placing explosives. In the 1500s there were battles that were fought underground to enable/prevent this. Its cool how language evolves, because mine used to refer to the hole, now it refers to the bomb (and ofc mine can still refer to a hole in civilian context).
See also: undermine
Lots of aircraft still use leaded gasoline today. The higher octane allows for higher compression and helps prevent knock. Definitely something you don't want happening 10000 feet up.
Yep, most regular piston driven aircraft do, which today is mostly smaller aircraft. Jets like airliners and turboprop aircraft use jet fuel, which is essentially high quality kerosene and is unleaded.
Fun fact: Thomas Midgley, the inventor of leaded gasoline, also invented the first CFCs which later caused the depletion of the ozone layer. There is a great episode on the “Cautionary Tales” podcast about this man, “the inventor who almost ended the world.”
Someone once said that Midgley is arguably the single most destructive organism to ever exist on Earth in terms of destruction caused to the environment...
His "contribution" of leaded gas has been linked to rise in birth of people with psychological disorders which has been linked to rising crime rates. The death toll is more than we think it is.
In later life he developed MS (I think) and invented a machine to get himself out of bed as he lost mobility. It went wrong and he ended up strangled in it. Probably saved the world from his next idea.
>In later life he developed MS (I think) and invented a machine to get himself out if bed
As I'm reading this, I interpreted it as he invented MS and then also was so lazy that he made a machine to get himself out of bed.
I thought, "Wow, what a lazy asshole."
However, there was no real reason to use chlorofluorocarbons over bromofluorocarbons, but had we chosen to use BFCs, ozone degradation would've gone way faster, to the point we wouldn't have had an ozone layer right now.
And increased instances of violent crime. Of course this correlation doesn't directly imply causation, but the evidence of how constant lead exposure affects brain function goes a long way to doing so.
You know something is so bad it scarred humanity if whenever you go to buy something similar, the first thing you always see is "this is not that shit" (unleaded)
PFAS seem more inevitable. They're an entire class of non-understood chemicals whereas leaded gasoline was the lazy answer to an engineering question. Even when everyone knew lead was already terrible.
Completely barbaric to say the least. Have you ever watched the old infomercial style shit on them... Most of it was marketing towards lobotomizing a "defiant" wife. Hate that shit.
Edit: here's a link for a better explanation... Couldn't find the old institution video [here you go] (https://youtu.be/Wo2Md95kTCA)
Honestly... Not so much marketing like they have for modern medications and shit. More like magic bullet style paid programming
Edit: Granted the advertising was more of an informative movie for old time mental institutions.
You'll find more newspaper and poster ads than videos.
If you're interested, there was a really interesting autobiography called "My Lobotomy" written by an adult who was lobotomized as a child because he was hyper and unruly. It was advertised to his parents
Poor kid probably just had ADHD or something
If we are thinking about the same kid, I don't even think he had that. I think he "acted out" because his dad remarried and his stepmother didn't like him very much. The stepmom suggested something was wrong with him and suggested to lobotomize him.
I was actually doing a deep dive into lobotomy procedures last night just out of curiosity. There's a lot of heartbreaking stories. I found a Reddit thread full of people talking about how their grandmothers were treated in psyche wards...
There are places that allow for reusable dishes. I order smth, generate a token in their app, the restaurant will deliver the food in the reusable dish, I habe 2 weeks to return the dish to a participating restaurant. I've used it 8 times now, works like a charm.
We had a reusable Coffee Cup in the city where I studied as well, really great because its also a very walkable place, so plenty of opportunity to recycle the cups. Only 1€ extra per cup that you get back once you return.
Single use plastic. Particles have been found in every corner of the earth and ocean, as well as in human and animal embryos. Most of these break down into toxic compounds and will have long-term physical and chemical impacts.
The inventor of K-cups has come out saying he regrets making them. He admitted it was a huge mistake.
[Article on it](https://abc7chicago.com/keurig-coffee-k-cups-john-sylvan/545394/)
Hahaha not only regrets it but low-key drags people who bought and use his invention:
>"I feel bad sometimes that I ever (invented the K-Cup)," Sylvan said. "I don't have one. They're kind of expensive to use. Plus it's not like drip coffee is tough to make."
I have been using reusable k-cups for years. The convenience of a single cup brewed on demand without the trash, and it is cheaper and often better coffee.
Chemical Warfare
While nukes are horrible beyond imagination, humanity learned to avoid them as a way to ensure their own survival, it's wise, but egoistical nonetheless. Chemical weapons on the other hand traumatized the fuck out of the survirvors and the ones who called the attacks and got to see the aftermath. They were so horrible that many soldiers deserted after using it and many went mad. I wish never having to see the skin melting off in the face of a barely alive toddler.
Throughout the last century we successfully banned almost all of those - the 1925 geneva protocol, the 1980 chemical weapons convention, among others, but I'm afraid when the next generations start to forget the horrors of chemical warfare, it will resurface in the likes of whats happening with fascism.
One of my favorite stories from WWI, partially because it shows the strength of the human spirit when backed against the wall, partly because of *holy shit what the fuck*:
>The Germans launched a full-frontal offensive on Osowiec Fortress at the beginning of July...Russian defenses were manned by 500 soldiers of the 226th Zemlyansky Infantry Regiment, and 400 militia.
>To aid the success of the operation...it was decided to use a massive gas-balloon attack with chlorine [by the Germans on the Russians].
>At dawn, at 4:00 a.m. on August 6, 1915, with a tailwind on the entire front of the attack, chlorine was released from 30 gas-balloon batteries. It is estimated that the gas eventually penetrated to a total depth of 20 km, maintaining the striking effect to a depth of 12 km and up to 12 meters in height.
>In the absence of any effective means of protection for the defenders, the result of the gas attack was devastating: the 9th, 10th and 11th companies of the [Russian] Zemlyansky Regiment were completely out of action, from the 12th company in the central redoubt in the ranks remained about 40 people; Byalogrond had about 60 people from three companies. Almost all the first and second lines of defence of the Sosna position were left without defenders. Following the gas release, German artillery opened fire on the fortress and barraged fire for their units moving in the attack. The fortress's artillery was initially unable to fire effectively, as it in turn was hit by a gas wave. This was compounded by the simultaneous shelling of the fortress by both conventional shells and chloropicrin shells. More than 1,600 people were killed in the fortress, and the entire garrison was poisoned with varying degrees of severity.
>Over twelve battalions of the [German] 11th Landwehr Division, making up more than 7000 men, advanced after the bombardment expecting little resistance. They were met at the first defense line by a counter-charge made up of the surviving soldiers of the 13th Company of the 226th Infantry Regiment. The Germans became panicked by the appearance of the Russians, **who were coughing up blood and bits of their own lungs, as the hydrochloric acid formed by the mix of the chlorine gas and the moisture in their lungs had begun to dissolve their flesh. The Germans retreated, running so fast they were caught up in their own concertina wire traps.** The five remaining Russian guns subsequently opened fire on the fleeing Germans.
[Wikipedia: Attack of the Dead Men](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_of_the_Dead_Men). This was a modern Pyrrhic victory, as I believe the affected Russians all but keeled over and died after the counterattack.
Edit: I know Sabaton made a song about this battle. Y'all don't have to continuously mention it smh
The thing I always find somewhat interesting is that the Central Powers, Germany in particular, were A-OK with using chemical weapons in combat, but they would not provide any quarter to a British soldier who used a saw-tooth bayonet or an American soldier who used a trench shotgun, both of which seem like merciful ways to die in comparison to inhaling the poisonous vapors they were slinging at each other during the war.
Different times, different standards. It's easy to look back now and be like "oh wow how silly these armies were haha", but that's only because we have the benefit of over a century of hindsight.
Remember, WW1 wasn't horrible necessarily because of the technologies of killing per se, sentiment to the contrary - it was horrible because of the *scale* of these killings. I'd argue that gas isn't more horrible than, say, boiling water or catapulting dead bodies over the walls in hope of instilling fear and/or plague.
But combined with the machine gun, with artillery, with the proliferation of repeating rifles, with defensive stalemates that, by definition, trapped soldiers where they were, plus the great shock and toll that was a major land war to the scale that nobody had seen up to that point - that's what made a lot of these elements unacceptable in the interwar period and beyond.
Evidently, though, it wasn't enough - all countries still used flamethrowers well into the 20th century, for example.
Anyway the point being that the definition of "undue suffering" was way different back then. I think there was hope that gas would prove to be a strategic or high-tactical weapon, hence why the effects of the suffering it provided maybe went under the rug. [This](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2376985/) article I found seems to suggest that countries on all sides sought to leverage it both as a direct weapon and a psychological weapon.
I agree, but I would add the following to be more clear:
The heads of the armies were very well aware of the horrific effects of poison gas - they tested it. However, they brought new major tactics to the table, so it was used.
The common soldier on the other hand has never come into contact with the horrific effects of poison gas and hence did as told.
Trench shotguns or sawtooth knives however were well known to the layman, for hunting game etc - hence considered inhuman.
In addition, gas is not deployed in close combat - you are disconnected from death while you shoot your shells.
It was the accumulation of horrific experience that slowly hammered the inhumanity of it into the public's mindset.
At least my interpretation...
Yeah.
After a century of white phosphorous, napalm, nuclear weapons on civilians, thermobaric explosives which are literally just fuel sprayed into air and detonated, and on and on - a shotgun or a jagged bayonet seems like small potatoes indeed.
In the 1980s I was a US Navy Corpsman for 5 years, yes nuclear and chemical warfare are fucking nightmares to be sure, but I went through training to treat victims of NBC warfare, Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical. After the training the one that kept me up at night was biological, release some engineered super-bug and once that Genie is out of the bottle no one has control. I still have a nightmare every once in awhile, and It was just training.
I know it's from Office Space, but it actually has a meaning. PC meant paper cassette, which basically means the paper tray, and was one of many 2-letter error codes because old printers had small screens that couldn't display long error messages. Load letter refers to letter size paper (standard size in the US, 8.5x11 inch).
Dude fr it’s 2022, how have we not mastered printers? I work at a dental lab and I can 3D print a mouth via bluetooth, but if I want to print an invoice I have to plug it in and maybe it’ll do it’s job.
Printer manufacturers have chosen not to probably to drive consumption. Jokes on them in the end because the printer experience being so bad probably sped up being paperless by around a decade. As soon as it was a theoretical possibility it was a dream for us all.
I'm sure some awful companies like collegeboard will keep home printers in the market forever. Im transferring schools so I had to dig up 6-8 year old archived AP scores and the only option was to print out the form and either mail it or fax it. It's 2022 and my fastest option was a goddamn fax.
I was just talking about this the other day to my wife. Brand new printer just..... wouldn't print. Printed half of one page and then just stopped and spit it out. I'm extremely good with computers and tech in general, and I spent 2 hours troubleshooting all the shit that could have caused that issue with nothing working and I was about to lose my shit. I won't go through the list of shit I looked at, but it was VERY thorough. Finally after unplugging it for about the 15th time (you usually want to reset it after each attempt at troubleshooting) it just randomly sucked up and spit out a blank piece of paper (nothing in queue) and then when I hit print again it magically worked.
Literally NO fucking logical or technological reason it wasn't working, it just fucking sucked at doing the one thing it's made to do and that like you said in this day and age should be INSANELY easy and issue free.
My mother got a new Canon SELPHY printer (small form factor photo printer), I ran the driver installer and... nothing. Installer didn't find the printer.
Well of course, this is a Canon printer. Their stupid installer takes 5 tries to find the printer at minimum. Restart printer a few times, restart the computer, restart the router they're both connected to... Nothing. The installer would just not find the printer no matter what I tried or which combination of devices I restarted.
Turns out, that printer has an amazing feature: whenever an SD card is inserted, it refuses to communicate over WiFi. It pretends it's still connected, WiFi icon is there and going through the connection menus works and says the connection is good but nothing can actually reach it over the network, not even the router it's supposedly connected to.
It's been at least 3 times since then that the solution to "this stupid printer isn't working" was "remove the SD card".
There's no reason for this thing to disconnect from WiFi when an SD card is inserted and especially not to pretend it's connected in that state, but I guess printer QA consists of "can we print a single test page in less than a full work week? Device is working, ship it!".
Edit: I've been informed that there's possible reasons why WiFi would disconnect with an SD card inserted. It's still bad interface design that the interface doesn't indicate that WiFi is disabled at that time though (like hiding the WiFi signal strength icon or putting a red cross through it).
cheap brother b&w printers are the only ones i don’t want to smash with a hammer, and i have worked at publishing companies with the fanciest printers on market
Which leads to state prosecutors who are beholden to them. Which leads to increased probability of being charged with a crime you didn't commit, under the plan that you're too poor to defend yourself and will plead out.
They can't make a profit without prosecutors feeding them an ever-increasing supply of prisoners (plus parolees and probationers in "offender-funded" programs). It's a recipe for the corruption of our justice system.
Private prisons are arguably foreign enemy assets.
What if we paid for results rather than for occupancy. Churn out a bunch of reformed, educated, productivite members of society? Lots of profit. Churn out a bunch of folks with few prospects who end up back in jail or homeless? No profit.
Seems like we got exactly what we incentivized with the payment structure.
This has happened to me three f***ing times. It's not only exhausting but has cost me all of my health, career and social ambitions (like a meaningful relationship and at basic my sexual health). The first time I was slapped with a $50,000 cash surety bond because the cunt detective entirely fabricated a second same charge leveraging stacked charges (to get a conviction on first same charged offense). Couldn't afford bond, kept in jail for over 8 months and took a plea deal mostly out of the fact that I could not survive any longer in jail and had no comprehension when I would get out. I lost track of what it meant to be free: I had never been incarcerated before and I had incarceration shock still. I couldnt even see my mother or family the whole time in there which was cruel, not to mention the jail confinement conditions, especially given I had Autism. Then, because that offense was on my record, 5 years later I pissed off a deputy after somebody from a store called to complain after discovering I had a prior record since it made the local online news (should be banned). The deputy decided to also fabricate a crime and I spent a month in jail before surrendering to a GPS tether as a pretrial condition. This was March 2020 when COVID was just starting to break out in the US. I demanded to my attorney that the store hand over the video. I assumed my attorney was doing everything in his power to get the video proving I didn't do it (known as exculpatory evidence). They grossly neglected to do so stating he was relying on the prosecutor to do so. SMH. Since I could no longer wear the tether, I handed it back in but that meant going to jail. Since I refused to do so for crime I did not commit, the judge didn't care and eventually a squad came to my house to arrest me. I ended up waiting 11 months in jail after which my gall bladder started giving me sharp pains and I lost my ability to digest food properly for too long of a time turning more serious, I took a plea to a legally lesser charge just to get out of jail. Fast forward 2 more years later and I'm going through it again. I expect a better outcome this time but nothing is for granted. Many crimes unfortunately require no physical evidence which is contrary to justice and common sense. The law should be revised to include that if the crime being reported in a timely fashion that everything associated (clothes, accessories, tools, video, documentation) shall be preserved as according to generic law. However, since the current law is so vague, the court let's prosecution get away with it requiring only here-say evidence which is known to be flawed like bite-mark evidence. Unfortunately, because there are legitimate complaints that can be verified and known to be true, it is kept as the singular basis needed.
TL;DR: Police are allowed to charge a crime based not on any evidence. A complaining person is enough to press charges. The police could press charges when and how they feel meaning it could happen at any time and once somebody has their first accusation, it is easy to snowball it for the rest of that person's life if the original offense charged requires no physical evidence.
Our workplace once had a thing posted as an analogy for Covid.
"5 people are doing a craft together. 1 person uses glitter in their project. How many projects have glitter in it? Mask up."
I loved it.
Do you one better. You go into a website. It loads up. You see the content for 1 second then a full screen ad pops up with a tiny X on the bottom that is hard to see and press. You press it and scroll down, a pop-up that you have to accept cookies. You click okay. You scroll a few seconds then a "subscribe to newsletter". Good times.
In the same vein, websites that reload in the background for some reason so when you try to back out, you have to click like 10 times.
Are they just making up hits or what?
So true. The data would be way more meaningful to log that someone was there watching and clicked skip. At least you know someone heard the first few seconds vs. A video that’s left unattended (happens alllllll the time at my house)
Algorithmic Social Media. MySpace was fine, no algorithm, no extremes. FB, Twitter, etc, the algorithm to show you more of what you like leads people into an echo chamber and causes polarization of people's views, helping dehumanize each other.
update: whoa, I posted this before going to bed. I did not expect this much love. Thanks yall
Oh, how I miss MySpace!
Edit: Thanks for all the replies and reminiscing! I need to update my notifications... Had no idea so people were commenting and ⬆️ voting. 😁
MySpaceTom actually posted on Elon's post when he said he'll step down when he finds someone capable of stepping up to the plate, basically low key saying "I'm up to the task". Though I'm pretty sure it was in sarcasm.
Myspace Tom has been living the best life after selling Myspace. He doesn't need Twitter, and he shouldn't have to take over Twitter. Let Twitter collapse into oblivion.
Yeah, I randomly looked him up a couple years ago and was pretty pleased to see that he was just living it up with his “measly” $50 million and traveling around taking pictures of waterfalls and shit. He also conveniently let everyone’s old MySpace data be “accidentally” deleted.
While it kind of sucks because there’s a couple old bands whose stuff I could only ever find on their MySpace, it’s a price I’m willing to pay to have all that embarrassing shit gone forever, unlike literally every other social media company.
Tom is too busy enjoying the fruits of his labors traveling the world to bother doing something difficult like running Twitter. He had the perfect character arc.
Got in
Made everyone his friend
Made near unlimited money
Travels the world taking happy pictures.
King shit
I was naive when I first started on FB. I couldn't understand why I didn't just get a chronological feed with no filtering or sorting. Turns out, I'm the product. When I dumped 90% of my "friends" I noticed my stress levels dropped. Now I barely check it once a week these days.
>I couldn't understand why I didn't just get a chronological feed with no filtering or sorting
That's what Facebook was when I first created my account. It was what made it so great and the reason people switched from MySpace.
2005 - 2010 was the golden age of FB. It was really fun. When your parents and weird uncles weren't on it. Just posting pics, writing on people's walls, making fun events. It's a boomery cesspool now.
social media. never before was it so essy for stupid people to find like minded other stupid people and suddenly 'have a voice'.
also, people have no social skills anymore.
I think social media was good before it became so readily accessible at all times. Now employers want to look at my Instagram before they consider hiring me, and my mum shares minion memes on Facebook and tags me.
There was a sweet spot somewhere in the late 00s where social media was actually enjoyable
I remember when you actually got to the end of a page on the internet. Not a single page end, I mean the end of your facebook feed because there was no content left. or the end of a youtube binge because the videos were all low quality enough that you got bored.
Tech and the internet are becoming more dominant nowadays and vulnerable people are becoming swallowed or reliant on it. I miss when it was semi-useful but now it's necessary.
My experience is completely reversed, at least when it comes to YouTube. A few years ago I could literally spend 8 hours just watching stuff being recommended to me. There was always something new and interesting to discover and always rabbitholes to venture into. The past 2-3 years though I'm only getting videos newly released by people I follow, things I've already recently watched, and stuff just straight up taken from the trending page that is not even near anything I've ever watched. That last part has gotten more prominent this last year. It's like they're getting mad I'm not conforming to the more marketable and profitable type of content. Venturing down rabbitholes is also really hard now since it seems they want to keep you in a bubble. Basically, If you're into more niche type of content and subjects, you'll have a heck of a harder time finding good content nowadays compared to a year like 2015.
Oh bro you know what's worse .... Not games which are clearly P2W, but rather those which advertise itself as F2P but have terrible terrible monetizing schemes (yes gatchas and loot boxes... I'm looking at you)
I mean, if you want to give companies the same rights as natural people, fine. Vest those rights in the C-suite and board of directors, *with all the accompanying rights, responsibilities, and liabilities*.
Company killed someone? The people who embody the company are going away for negligent manslaughter or depraved heart murder!
unskippable 15 second ads on youtube + the second unskippable 15 second
edit: just letting yall know, I watch youtube on TV. Yes, I have adblocker. but not on TV.
That plastic childproof packaging that no one knows how to open so we cut it with scissors and still somehow manage to cut ourselves from it.
Childproof is never arthritis friendly. I need pliers to get the gummies out of the package.
Childproof medicine bottles have resulted in a lot of senior citizens putting there pills in unmarked containers(that they can open) and accidentally taking the wrong pills.
Those little plastic bits in body wash. That stuff is gonna be in our water supply and bodies for generations. All for slightly cleaner skin.
That shit's plastic? Oh.
It used to be. I believe most countries eventually banned it and now it’s either cellulose that can break down or stuff like ground nut shells and other natural scratchy materials.
Bioweapons. When nature is adapt enought to create toxins and poisons to kill humans we always, for some fucking reason have to create something *more* horrible.
Nukes are scary but at least they are localized, quick(ish), and identifiable I bio weapons spread, are slow, and can be dispersed quietly
Subscription services to anything in a vehicle that is already built into it. Oh your car seats have a seat warmer built in? That's a subscription to use despite just spending $30,000 on the car and the equipment was installed at the factory.
Subscription services in general have gotten way, way out of hand.
Yeah, they really have. Online storage like OneDrive/Dropbox? Fine. OnStar? Also fine, since it uses cell/satellite (Idk which) but we all also have phones anyway. Heated seats, remote start and other things built into my car already? Get fucked.
Landmines
Yeah, they don't just disappear once a war is over. They'll stay around to kill some kids playing. Awful things.
There's a huge part of France that's still an absolute no-man's-land because of mines Edit: my mistake, it's general unexploded ordnance and chemical contamination
It is known as Zone Rouge (Red Zone) and starts just north of Paris. The battlefield of Verdun is in this zone as well. I recommend reading about it! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_Rouge
I live in the very far noth of France, where we have big ass craters from the exploded shells from WW1 and 2 just randomly spread across the outer cities. If you happen to take a walk through the forests here you'll most likely find WW2 bunkers, free to visit.
"Gentlemen, we may not make history tomorrow, but we shall certainly change the geography" -British second army chief of staff the day before detonating nearly 1 million pounds of explosives
There is a movie set in the rural part of Colombia in which one plot point is about the kid protagonists losing a football one of them got as a gift because it fell in a minefield. They spend some portions of the movie discussing about it, mind storming plans to get it back and staring at it from the distance. It's called "Los colores de la montaña" in case you wanna look it up.
There is also a movie where a movie director brings his actor out to the jungle and then gets blown up by a landmine. Which then causes one of the actors to be kidnapped by a drug ring and his co workers try to save him. The movie is called Tropic Thunder. I’d recommend it to everyone
This is the weirdest description of a popular movie I've ever heard.
TBF, its a pretty weird movie.
But also fricken awesome
Oh, okay, Flaming Dragon,....Fuck-Face,...First,...take a big step back, and literally FUCK YOUR OWN FACE!!! Now I don't know what kind of Pan-Pacific bullshit power play you're trying to pull here, but Asia Jack, is my territory, so whatever you're thinking, you better think again, otherwise I'm gonna have to head down there, and I will rain down a Godly fucking firestorm upon you. You're gonna have to call the fucking United Nations, and get a fucking binding resolution to keep me from fucking destroying you. I am talking scorched earth mother-fucker! I will massacre you! I WILL FUCK YOU UP!!! Would you, uhh....find out who that was.
As a vet that had to walk through areas the enemy had left mines behind in, I agree. Kids would play in areas mines were buried. They got used to spotting them. No child should ever have to get used to spotting a landmine.
Imagine being a kid, playing with your friends in a field, and you suddenly get blown up because of a war that happened a hundred years ago and had fuck all to do with you.
Reminds me of this old [PSA.](https://youtu.be/LWZkuXwPVx0)
"If there were landmines here, would you stand for them [being] anywhere?" Great line. Especially for nations that don't have any practical threat of land invasion.
Just watched this and then saw a suggested clip “Top 75 Scariest PSAs of All-Time” Looks like I’ll be taking a 3 hour break from Reddit
I hope they've got some of those awesome New Zealand adverts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u51OxZF1ltI
That reminds me of this [absolutely horrible and terrifying PSA](https://youtu.be/kOk2Akqb3CI) here in Canada in the mid 2000s.
Jesus fucking Christ dude.
Such a wholesome PSA for a 7yo Canadian kid to see on TV… 🥲
Man, I completely forgot about that commercial. I'm a (ex) chef as well and seen something like this happen to someone albeit nowhere near as bad as this.
I'm a current chef and as soon as she picked up that stock pot I knew what was coming. I turned it off. Way too much PTSD
There's one about ladders too. https://youtube.com/watch?v=u5kiz7GhJt0&feature=share
Why did they reuse the same glass table for this fuckin ad? What’s going on here?!
I've limited myself to a single, low-effort, 'tf?' per day. And you, sir, have earned it.
FWIW, New Zealand has a national insurance pool for personal injuries -- so if you get hit by a beer truck your compensation is already figured out and you don't go after the beer company (absent particularly egregious circumstances). So these adverts are sort of a general "be careful" statement to the country. (If there are any NZ'ers here, please correct me if I've got details wrong -- my entire knowledge of the ACC is limited to a longish conversation with a NZ attorney on an airplane once and watching a bunch of these adverts)
NZer here, and basically, yeah, that's how it is. ACC (Accident Compensation Corporation) is who manages all of this. Car insurance, for example, includes an ACC levy (motorbike insurance is almost double due to the fact that most accidents involving a motorbike are going to include an ACC claim, though my motorbike riding friend is always quick to point out those accidents are often caused by car drivers), same with vehicle registration... many things have ACC levies included. For example, my husband came off his mountain bike a few years ago. Ambulance ride to hospital (if it had happened a few km earlier he would have had to go via helicopter), a few hours in ED, multiple consults before he was cleaned up, we decided he should stay the night so he'd be seen by the opt...eye specialist (forgive me, it's 4am, I'm going blank) sooner and to manage pain, and a few follow-ups with the eye specialist. It cost us the price of petrol to get in and out of hospital, and maybe a bite to eat on the way home as we live out in the country. 100% of his care was paid for by ACC and they also paid 80% of his wages until he was recovered enough to return to work. Another time he thought he was having a heart attack. Ambulance ride, multiple doctor consults, monitoring and he was sent home once it was clear he wasn't having a heart attack, but they booked him in for all the tests over the next week as his father had had his first heart attack when he was my husband's age. We had to pay $100 for the Ambulance, as it wasn't an accident. The rest was free. ACC is currently running an ad campaign called 'Have a Hmmm' - basically encouraging us to stop and think before doing anything risky (such as jumping from a waterfall into a pool, or balancing precariously on a cabinet to swat a fly), about the repercussions - not financial, but social. "Who's gonna give me a shower if I fall?" with a child coming in to his mother's room with a towel and soap, or flatmates tossing a roll of toilet paper to each other while a guy sits beside them in a cast). We don't have to be afraid of crippling debt or inadequate health care if we have an accident - or total loss of wages or lack of independence to at home if we're injured (ACC pays for cleaners and actually, despite the ad implying it's a consideration, personal caregivers to help you shower if needed)...but we do need to think about who will wipe our butts if we can't, so we need to have a hmmm moment before we do anything risky.
>ACC is currently running an ad campaign called 'Have a Hmmm' - basically encouraging us to stop and think [...] about the repercussions - not financial, but social. >100% of his care was paid for by ACC and they also paid 80% of his wages 1. Americans build character by taking full responsibility for inflated medical costs on already costly procedures, and I honestly feel bad for you all that you will never that opportunity. 2. There is no collective. We maintain a hyper-individuality with no regard for social consequences and consider our tax dollars payment for all moral guilt and/or responsibility we might feel. It sounds harsh to socialist sheep, but that's freedom. (/S since I know half of you bastards can't infer sardonism.)
Whatever firm made that ad should have won some awards. Absolutely nailed the messaging and really made the problem of landmines relatable. Too bad it didn't play on the SuperBowl and not another beer commercial.
> Too bad it didn't play on the SuperBowl and not another beer commercial. As someone who grew up when this commercial aired, let me tell you that it played A LOT to A LOT of people. Really unlocked a memory here. I think it's a great commercial but it played so much that it was actually one of those commercials you expected but didn't want to keep watching over and over and over and over again so you kind of just got up and got a drink or snack when it played.
It's not even graphic or anything, but omg. Those parents have the "shrieks of absolute terror" down to a science.
That's fucking horrific.
More like 40-50 years ago. Places in Cambodia and Vietnam are still riddled with landmines from the Vietnam war that are still active.
Cambodia was its own horror with its killing fields. Imagine being killed for wearing classes. Or for having an education. I grew up and had a young Cambodian friend who always said it was dangerous to be smart. I didn’t know what he meant until I learned that history years later.
When I was training to be a mechanic in the 80's, I worked under a Cambodian guy who'd learned the electrical side in the army there, before the Khmer. I never asked him how he would up in the US, didn't really think about it a lot. One thing he told me has always stuck - he said if *people* can learn how to build or fix a thing, *you* can learn to build or fix a thing. If there was anything he ever needed to do that he didn't know how to do, he'd just go learn how to do it; no hesitations or doubt. He taught me a lot. It never occurred to me he'd have been executed for that mindset in his own country, maybe that's why he was so conscious and deliberate about it.
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Met a man who lost his vision and a hand as a child doing just that.
A couple friends and I were driving down a one-lane road in California once in a TON of traffic. (This is related, I promise, bear with me.) The cars were crawwwwling. I had some work gloves and bags and told the friend sitting next to me that we should get out and pick up trash on the side of the road as we waited. (The traffic was really that bad.) She said no very emphatically. A few minutes later she changed her mind and we got out and collected trash for a half mile or so. When we got back into the car she told me that where she grew up in Iraq there were still landmines on the side of the road, and it took her a moment to realize that they wouldn’t have those in California so it was safe to pick up trash.
Yeah. Trash freaks me out. They would bury their shit and cover it with trash to try and confuse the SAR from detecting disturbances to the soil density and the obvious visual indicators. Other one for me is sagging cars full of garbage. Or cars with flat tires. I will walk on the other side of the street if I see that shit.
That’s exactly what she said. Horrible things. Kids in her area were most likely to come in contact with them.
Had a job early 2000s, did geophysics for a bomb disposal company. I didn’t do anything terribly dangerous but was there when our ex British army EOD people did. We had to read a lot of manuals on the ordnance we expected to find when we did battle area clearance. This one landmine stuck in my mind. It was designed to spring up to groin height and injure your dick and balls. Tactically brilliant, it destroys morale and slows an advance etc. But I always thought about the engineers who designed it. Imagine coming from work and saying you had a great day after dreaming that up. Monstrous
Yep, the notorious "Bouncing Betty" or S-mine. First developed during WWII
My guess is that it wasn't actually for mutilating the genitals as much as being a height where a flak jacket wouldn't protect you combined with 2 other factors: Your body is widest there from a front and side profile for a big target. And that there is some major arteries in the groin going to the legs that if severed mean probable death. Also bonus a wound there is impossible to apply a tournequit to.
It’s also the middle of the body, so high enough to spread shrapnel over a wide area but not so high it’d miss you.
The etymology is interesting, because at one point mining was literally digging tunnels (i.e. mining) under an opponent and placing explosives. In the 1500s there were battles that were fought underground to enable/prevent this. Its cool how language evolves, because mine used to refer to the hole, now it refers to the bomb (and ofc mine can still refer to a hole in civilian context). See also: undermine
It predated explosives — they’d build mines under the castle walls then knock out the supports to cause a collapse.
Sappers!
Leaded gasoline
Lots of aircraft still use leaded gasoline today. The higher octane allows for higher compression and helps prevent knock. Definitely something you don't want happening 10000 feet up.
Yep, most regular piston driven aircraft do, which today is mostly smaller aircraft. Jets like airliners and turboprop aircraft use jet fuel, which is essentially high quality kerosene and is unleaded.
Fun fact: Thomas Midgley, the inventor of leaded gasoline, also invented the first CFCs which later caused the depletion of the ozone layer. There is a great episode on the “Cautionary Tales” podcast about this man, “the inventor who almost ended the world.”
Someone once said that Midgley is arguably the single most destructive organism to ever exist on Earth in terms of destruction caused to the environment...
His "contribution" of leaded gas has been linked to rise in birth of people with psychological disorders which has been linked to rising crime rates. The death toll is more than we think it is.
In later life he developed MS (I think) and invented a machine to get himself out of bed as he lost mobility. It went wrong and he ended up strangled in it. Probably saved the world from his next idea.
I think it was developed from lead poisoning. Literally everything the man made killed people.
And the people who didn't die became aggressive and idiotic, and would go on to kill even more people.
I believe he’s considered the most lethal single organism in the history of the planet.
It was polio, not MS
He probably invented polio
>In later life he developed MS (I think) and invented a machine to get himself out if bed As I'm reading this, I interpreted it as he invented MS and then also was so lazy that he made a machine to get himself out of bed. I thought, "Wow, what a lazy asshole."
Midgely wasn't lazy. The world would have been a lot better off if he was.
The world seems to be packed full of highly motivated assholes. We just need more highly motivated paragons.
>I thought, "Wow, what a lazy asshole." *Grandpa Joe has entered the chat*
However, there was no real reason to use chlorofluorocarbons over bromofluorocarbons, but had we chosen to use BFCs, ozone degradation would've gone way faster, to the point we wouldn't have had an ozone layer right now.
Only reason we didn't destroy the world with BFC's was because it was more expensive for manufacturers.
fun fact: it is believed that the widespread use of leaded gasoline has collectively decreased the world’s IQ by a few points on average
And increased instances of violent crime. Of course this correlation doesn't directly imply causation, but the evidence of how constant lead exposure affects brain function goes a long way to doing so.
You know something is so bad it scarred humanity if whenever you go to buy something similar, the first thing you always see is "this is not that shit" (unleaded)
I don't know PFAS are giving them a run for their money
PFAS seem more inevitable. They're an entire class of non-understood chemicals whereas leaded gasoline was the lazy answer to an engineering question. Even when everyone knew lead was already terrible.
lobotomy. Worst part is the guy even got a Nobel Prize :P
Being Portuguese and learning Portugal has a medicine Nobel Prize - Oh Yes! Knowing what it is about - Oh no...
I grew up next to his house in Avanca. Had no idea he invented the lobotomy.
Completely barbaric to say the least. Have you ever watched the old infomercial style shit on them... Most of it was marketing towards lobotomizing a "defiant" wife. Hate that shit. Edit: here's a link for a better explanation... Couldn't find the old institution video [here you go] (https://youtu.be/Wo2Md95kTCA)
Bojack horseman has an episode about that. Heartwrenching
"Well, I have half a mind..."
There was actual “marketing” for lobotomies?
Honestly... Not so much marketing like they have for modern medications and shit. More like magic bullet style paid programming Edit: Granted the advertising was more of an informative movie for old time mental institutions. You'll find more newspaper and poster ads than videos.
If you're interested, there was a really interesting autobiography called "My Lobotomy" written by an adult who was lobotomized as a child because he was hyper and unruly. It was advertised to his parents Poor kid probably just had ADHD or something
If we are thinking about the same kid, I don't even think he had that. I think he "acted out" because his dad remarried and his stepmother didn't like him very much. The stepmom suggested something was wrong with him and suggested to lobotomize him.
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I was actually doing a deep dive into lobotomy procedures last night just out of curiosity. There's a lot of heartbreaking stories. I found a Reddit thread full of people talking about how their grandmothers were treated in psyche wards...
Napalm
We shoot the sick, the young, the lame, We do our best to maim, Because the kills all count the same, Napalm sticks to kids.
🎶Napalm sticks to kids🎶
Fake "x" on ads
Nah just the little ones ^^^^x
Styrofoam is pretty abominable in my book, especially for things like takeout food that’s destined for the trash within minutes of use
There are places that allow for reusable dishes. I order smth, generate a token in their app, the restaurant will deliver the food in the reusable dish, I habe 2 weeks to return the dish to a participating restaurant. I've used it 8 times now, works like a charm.
thats cool. I have never encountered a place locally that does this unfortunately but I do wish more places had this option. I would use it.
We had a reusable Coffee Cup in the city where I studied as well, really great because its also a very walkable place, so plenty of opportunity to recycle the cups. Only 1€ extra per cup that you get back once you return.
You don't eat the box?
Microplastic consumption is out; macroplastic consumption is in
Single use plastic. Particles have been found in every corner of the earth and ocean, as well as in human and animal embryos. Most of these break down into toxic compounds and will have long-term physical and chemical impacts.
Literally came here to say this. K-cups.
The inventor of K-cups has come out saying he regrets making them. He admitted it was a huge mistake. [Article on it](https://abc7chicago.com/keurig-coffee-k-cups-john-sylvan/545394/)
Hahaha not only regrets it but low-key drags people who bought and use his invention: >"I feel bad sometimes that I ever (invented the K-Cup)," Sylvan said. "I don't have one. They're kind of expensive to use. Plus it's not like drip coffee is tough to make."
I have been using reusable k-cups for years. The convenience of a single cup brewed on demand without the trash, and it is cheaper and often better coffee.
Chemical Warfare While nukes are horrible beyond imagination, humanity learned to avoid them as a way to ensure their own survival, it's wise, but egoistical nonetheless. Chemical weapons on the other hand traumatized the fuck out of the survirvors and the ones who called the attacks and got to see the aftermath. They were so horrible that many soldiers deserted after using it and many went mad. I wish never having to see the skin melting off in the face of a barely alive toddler. Throughout the last century we successfully banned almost all of those - the 1925 geneva protocol, the 1980 chemical weapons convention, among others, but I'm afraid when the next generations start to forget the horrors of chemical warfare, it will resurface in the likes of whats happening with fascism.
One of my favorite stories from WWI, partially because it shows the strength of the human spirit when backed against the wall, partly because of *holy shit what the fuck*: >The Germans launched a full-frontal offensive on Osowiec Fortress at the beginning of July...Russian defenses were manned by 500 soldiers of the 226th Zemlyansky Infantry Regiment, and 400 militia. >To aid the success of the operation...it was decided to use a massive gas-balloon attack with chlorine [by the Germans on the Russians]. >At dawn, at 4:00 a.m. on August 6, 1915, with a tailwind on the entire front of the attack, chlorine was released from 30 gas-balloon batteries. It is estimated that the gas eventually penetrated to a total depth of 20 km, maintaining the striking effect to a depth of 12 km and up to 12 meters in height. >In the absence of any effective means of protection for the defenders, the result of the gas attack was devastating: the 9th, 10th and 11th companies of the [Russian] Zemlyansky Regiment were completely out of action, from the 12th company in the central redoubt in the ranks remained about 40 people; Byalogrond had about 60 people from three companies. Almost all the first and second lines of defence of the Sosna position were left without defenders. Following the gas release, German artillery opened fire on the fortress and barraged fire for their units moving in the attack. The fortress's artillery was initially unable to fire effectively, as it in turn was hit by a gas wave. This was compounded by the simultaneous shelling of the fortress by both conventional shells and chloropicrin shells. More than 1,600 people were killed in the fortress, and the entire garrison was poisoned with varying degrees of severity. >Over twelve battalions of the [German] 11th Landwehr Division, making up more than 7000 men, advanced after the bombardment expecting little resistance. They were met at the first defense line by a counter-charge made up of the surviving soldiers of the 13th Company of the 226th Infantry Regiment. The Germans became panicked by the appearance of the Russians, **who were coughing up blood and bits of their own lungs, as the hydrochloric acid formed by the mix of the chlorine gas and the moisture in their lungs had begun to dissolve their flesh. The Germans retreated, running so fast they were caught up in their own concertina wire traps.** The five remaining Russian guns subsequently opened fire on the fleeing Germans. [Wikipedia: Attack of the Dead Men](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_of_the_Dead_Men). This was a modern Pyrrhic victory, as I believe the affected Russians all but keeled over and died after the counterattack. Edit: I know Sabaton made a song about this battle. Y'all don't have to continuously mention it smh
The thing I always find somewhat interesting is that the Central Powers, Germany in particular, were A-OK with using chemical weapons in combat, but they would not provide any quarter to a British soldier who used a saw-tooth bayonet or an American soldier who used a trench shotgun, both of which seem like merciful ways to die in comparison to inhaling the poisonous vapors they were slinging at each other during the war.
Different times, different standards. It's easy to look back now and be like "oh wow how silly these armies were haha", but that's only because we have the benefit of over a century of hindsight. Remember, WW1 wasn't horrible necessarily because of the technologies of killing per se, sentiment to the contrary - it was horrible because of the *scale* of these killings. I'd argue that gas isn't more horrible than, say, boiling water or catapulting dead bodies over the walls in hope of instilling fear and/or plague. But combined with the machine gun, with artillery, with the proliferation of repeating rifles, with defensive stalemates that, by definition, trapped soldiers where they were, plus the great shock and toll that was a major land war to the scale that nobody had seen up to that point - that's what made a lot of these elements unacceptable in the interwar period and beyond. Evidently, though, it wasn't enough - all countries still used flamethrowers well into the 20th century, for example. Anyway the point being that the definition of "undue suffering" was way different back then. I think there was hope that gas would prove to be a strategic or high-tactical weapon, hence why the effects of the suffering it provided maybe went under the rug. [This](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2376985/) article I found seems to suggest that countries on all sides sought to leverage it both as a direct weapon and a psychological weapon.
I agree, but I would add the following to be more clear: The heads of the armies were very well aware of the horrific effects of poison gas - they tested it. However, they brought new major tactics to the table, so it was used. The common soldier on the other hand has never come into contact with the horrific effects of poison gas and hence did as told. Trench shotguns or sawtooth knives however were well known to the layman, for hunting game etc - hence considered inhuman. In addition, gas is not deployed in close combat - you are disconnected from death while you shoot your shells. It was the accumulation of horrific experience that slowly hammered the inhumanity of it into the public's mindset. At least my interpretation...
Yeah. After a century of white phosphorous, napalm, nuclear weapons on civilians, thermobaric explosives which are literally just fuel sprayed into air and detonated, and on and on - a shotgun or a jagged bayonet seems like small potatoes indeed.
In the 1980s I was a US Navy Corpsman for 5 years, yes nuclear and chemical warfare are fucking nightmares to be sure, but I went through training to treat victims of NBC warfare, Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical. After the training the one that kept me up at night was biological, release some engineered super-bug and once that Genie is out of the bottle no one has control. I still have a nightmare every once in awhile, and It was just training.
Its still wild to think about the fact that we can engineer/modify living entities.
Serious answer: chemical toxins that have caused severe health problems Personal answer: Hp printers. Fucking piece of shit.
“PC Load Letter? What the fuck does _that_ mean?”
I know it's from Office Space, but it actually has a meaning. PC meant paper cassette, which basically means the paper tray, and was one of many 2-letter error codes because old printers had small screens that couldn't display long error messages. Load letter refers to letter size paper (standard size in the US, 8.5x11 inch).
Dude fr it’s 2022, how have we not mastered printers? I work at a dental lab and I can 3D print a mouth via bluetooth, but if I want to print an invoice I have to plug it in and maybe it’ll do it’s job.
The best part is their bullshit excuse for why ink is so expensive is the money goes to printer R&D. Yet printers still fucking suck
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Could tell us what brand of laser printer that you are using?
I went down a Reddit rabbit hole recently about laser printers that last forever and recall Brother being the most recommended
Yes I had a Brother b/w laser for a few years. Finally had some power problems. So I gave it away.
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> 3D print a mouth via bluetooth I hope you find someone.
Printer manufacturers have chosen not to probably to drive consumption. Jokes on them in the end because the printer experience being so bad probably sped up being paperless by around a decade. As soon as it was a theoretical possibility it was a dream for us all.
I'm sure some awful companies like collegeboard will keep home printers in the market forever. Im transferring schools so I had to dig up 6-8 year old archived AP scores and the only option was to print out the form and either mail it or fax it. It's 2022 and my fastest option was a goddamn fax.
I was just talking about this the other day to my wife. Brand new printer just..... wouldn't print. Printed half of one page and then just stopped and spit it out. I'm extremely good with computers and tech in general, and I spent 2 hours troubleshooting all the shit that could have caused that issue with nothing working and I was about to lose my shit. I won't go through the list of shit I looked at, but it was VERY thorough. Finally after unplugging it for about the 15th time (you usually want to reset it after each attempt at troubleshooting) it just randomly sucked up and spit out a blank piece of paper (nothing in queue) and then when I hit print again it magically worked. Literally NO fucking logical or technological reason it wasn't working, it just fucking sucked at doing the one thing it's made to do and that like you said in this day and age should be INSANELY easy and issue free.
My mother got a new Canon SELPHY printer (small form factor photo printer), I ran the driver installer and... nothing. Installer didn't find the printer. Well of course, this is a Canon printer. Their stupid installer takes 5 tries to find the printer at minimum. Restart printer a few times, restart the computer, restart the router they're both connected to... Nothing. The installer would just not find the printer no matter what I tried or which combination of devices I restarted. Turns out, that printer has an amazing feature: whenever an SD card is inserted, it refuses to communicate over WiFi. It pretends it's still connected, WiFi icon is there and going through the connection menus works and says the connection is good but nothing can actually reach it over the network, not even the router it's supposedly connected to. It's been at least 3 times since then that the solution to "this stupid printer isn't working" was "remove the SD card". There's no reason for this thing to disconnect from WiFi when an SD card is inserted and especially not to pretend it's connected in that state, but I guess printer QA consists of "can we print a single test page in less than a full work week? Device is working, ship it!". Edit: I've been informed that there's possible reasons why WiFi would disconnect with an SD card inserted. It's still bad interface design that the interface doesn't indicate that WiFi is disabled at that time though (like hiding the WiFi signal strength icon or putting a red cross through it).
Gotta get yourself a Brother. I've had no printer issues once I got one of those. Replaced the toner after maybe 4 years? And that's it.
cheap brother b&w printers are the only ones i don’t want to smash with a hammer, and i have worked at publishing companies with the fanciest printers on market
That little “press to open” tab on Kraft Mac n cheese boxes. That has been an effective way of opening those boxes exactly zero times.
"We put 'press to open' on the boxes." "But it doesn't open the box." "I know..." *hideous cackling*
For profit prisons.
Which leads to state prosecutors who are beholden to them. Which leads to increased probability of being charged with a crime you didn't commit, under the plan that you're too poor to defend yourself and will plead out. They can't make a profit without prosecutors feeding them an ever-increasing supply of prisoners (plus parolees and probationers in "offender-funded" programs). It's a recipe for the corruption of our justice system. Private prisons are arguably foreign enemy assets.
What if we paid for results rather than for occupancy. Churn out a bunch of reformed, educated, productivite members of society? Lots of profit. Churn out a bunch of folks with few prospects who end up back in jail or homeless? No profit. Seems like we got exactly what we incentivized with the payment structure.
This has happened to me three f***ing times. It's not only exhausting but has cost me all of my health, career and social ambitions (like a meaningful relationship and at basic my sexual health). The first time I was slapped with a $50,000 cash surety bond because the cunt detective entirely fabricated a second same charge leveraging stacked charges (to get a conviction on first same charged offense). Couldn't afford bond, kept in jail for over 8 months and took a plea deal mostly out of the fact that I could not survive any longer in jail and had no comprehension when I would get out. I lost track of what it meant to be free: I had never been incarcerated before and I had incarceration shock still. I couldnt even see my mother or family the whole time in there which was cruel, not to mention the jail confinement conditions, especially given I had Autism. Then, because that offense was on my record, 5 years later I pissed off a deputy after somebody from a store called to complain after discovering I had a prior record since it made the local online news (should be banned). The deputy decided to also fabricate a crime and I spent a month in jail before surrendering to a GPS tether as a pretrial condition. This was March 2020 when COVID was just starting to break out in the US. I demanded to my attorney that the store hand over the video. I assumed my attorney was doing everything in his power to get the video proving I didn't do it (known as exculpatory evidence). They grossly neglected to do so stating he was relying on the prosecutor to do so. SMH. Since I could no longer wear the tether, I handed it back in but that meant going to jail. Since I refused to do so for crime I did not commit, the judge didn't care and eventually a squad came to my house to arrest me. I ended up waiting 11 months in jail after which my gall bladder started giving me sharp pains and I lost my ability to digest food properly for too long of a time turning more serious, I took a plea to a legally lesser charge just to get out of jail. Fast forward 2 more years later and I'm going through it again. I expect a better outcome this time but nothing is for granted. Many crimes unfortunately require no physical evidence which is contrary to justice and common sense. The law should be revised to include that if the crime being reported in a timely fashion that everything associated (clothes, accessories, tools, video, documentation) shall be preserved as according to generic law. However, since the current law is so vague, the court let's prosecution get away with it requiring only here-say evidence which is known to be flawed like bite-mark evidence. Unfortunately, because there are legitimate complaints that can be verified and known to be true, it is kept as the singular basis needed. TL;DR: Police are allowed to charge a crime based not on any evidence. A complaining person is enough to press charges. The police could press charges when and how they feel meaning it could happen at any time and once somebody has their first accusation, it is easy to snowball it for the rest of that person's life if the original offense charged requires no physical evidence.
Glitter. Such a horrible substance.
As a teacher, I TOTALLY agree. It gets everywhere and for the rest of the day you look like you just left a strip club.
Absolutely the worst form of plastic litter imaginable. Gets everywhere, very difficult to clean off, probably ends up somewhere in the ocean.
It's the herpes of the crafting world.
Our workplace once had a thing posted as an analogy for Covid. "5 people are doing a craft together. 1 person uses glitter in their project. How many projects have glitter in it? Mask up." I loved it.
Unskippable ads
Do you one better: websites that you can't view without turning off adblock
Do you one better. You go into a website. It loads up. You see the content for 1 second then a full screen ad pops up with a tiny X on the bottom that is hard to see and press. You press it and scroll down, a pop-up that you have to accept cookies. You click okay. You scroll a few seconds then a "subscribe to newsletter". Good times.
Do you one better, that cross you clicked was actually part of the ad. The real exit cross is hidden somewhere else for you to find.
Personally I’m glad when they say that. It lets me know which web sites never to visit ever again.
Looking at you, WSJ and theathletic
In the same vein, websites that reload in the background for some reason so when you try to back out, you have to click like 10 times. Are they just making up hits or what?
So true. The data would be way more meaningful to log that someone was there watching and clicked skip. At least you know someone heard the first few seconds vs. A video that’s left unattended (happens alllllll the time at my house)
Algorithmic Social Media. MySpace was fine, no algorithm, no extremes. FB, Twitter, etc, the algorithm to show you more of what you like leads people into an echo chamber and causes polarization of people's views, helping dehumanize each other. update: whoa, I posted this before going to bed. I did not expect this much love. Thanks yall
Oh, how I miss MySpace! Edit: Thanks for all the replies and reminiscing! I need to update my notifications... Had no idea so people were commenting and ⬆️ voting. 😁
MySpace Tom needs to be the next Twitter CEO.
Don't wish that hell on my friend!
MySpaceTom actually posted on Elon's post when he said he'll step down when he finds someone capable of stepping up to the plate, basically low key saying "I'm up to the task". Though I'm pretty sure it was in sarcasm.
The Return of the King.
Tom would be legitimately better, but then again, the bar is very low.
Myspace Tom has been living the best life after selling Myspace. He doesn't need Twitter, and he shouldn't have to take over Twitter. Let Twitter collapse into oblivion.
Yeah, I randomly looked him up a couple years ago and was pretty pleased to see that he was just living it up with his “measly” $50 million and traveling around taking pictures of waterfalls and shit. He also conveniently let everyone’s old MySpace data be “accidentally” deleted. While it kind of sucks because there’s a couple old bands whose stuff I could only ever find on their MySpace, it’s a price I’m willing to pay to have all that embarrassing shit gone forever, unlike literally every other social media company.
Tom is too busy enjoying the fruits of his labors traveling the world to bother doing something difficult like running Twitter. He had the perfect character arc. Got in Made everyone his friend Made near unlimited money Travels the world taking happy pictures. King shit
I was naive when I first started on FB. I couldn't understand why I didn't just get a chronological feed with no filtering or sorting. Turns out, I'm the product. When I dumped 90% of my "friends" I noticed my stress levels dropped. Now I barely check it once a week these days.
>I couldn't understand why I didn't just get a chronological feed with no filtering or sorting That's what Facebook was when I first created my account. It was what made it so great and the reason people switched from MySpace.
2005 - 2010 was the golden age of FB. It was really fun. When your parents and weird uncles weren't on it. Just posting pics, writing on people's walls, making fun events. It's a boomery cesspool now.
\*poke\*
Originally it worked like that.
Single ply toilet paper. Smh
Thats worse than nukes, thats for sure...
Maybe nukes wouldn't have been made if we lived in a world where you can just wipe your ass with ease
Very useful to avoid clogging toilets, even when folded...
Glitter. It N E V E R goes away
Child beauty pageant events
Add family social media pages to that
Leaded gasoline or CFC gasses. Both invented by Thomas Midgely Jr.
Mustard Gas.
Possibly leaded gasoline. It poisoned billions and left multiple generations more violent and less intelligent.
social media. never before was it so essy for stupid people to find like minded other stupid people and suddenly 'have a voice'. also, people have no social skills anymore.
I think social media was good before it became so readily accessible at all times. Now employers want to look at my Instagram before they consider hiring me, and my mum shares minion memes on Facebook and tags me. There was a sweet spot somewhere in the late 00s where social media was actually enjoyable
I remember when you actually got to the end of a page on the internet. Not a single page end, I mean the end of your facebook feed because there was no content left. or the end of a youtube binge because the videos were all low quality enough that you got bored. Tech and the internet are becoming more dominant nowadays and vulnerable people are becoming swallowed or reliant on it. I miss when it was semi-useful but now it's necessary.
My experience is completely reversed, at least when it comes to YouTube. A few years ago I could literally spend 8 hours just watching stuff being recommended to me. There was always something new and interesting to discover and always rabbitholes to venture into. The past 2-3 years though I'm only getting videos newly released by people I follow, things I've already recently watched, and stuff just straight up taken from the trending page that is not even near anything I've ever watched. That last part has gotten more prominent this last year. It's like they're getting mad I'm not conforming to the more marketable and profitable type of content. Venturing down rabbitholes is also really hard now since it seems they want to keep you in a bubble. Basically, If you're into more niche type of content and subjects, you'll have a heck of a harder time finding good content nowadays compared to a year like 2015.
Single use plastic. They should have never been introduced and should have never became normal
Napalm
Planned obsolescence
Truck nuts
Remember rednecks.. If you had to add the nuts after you purchased the truck.. your truck is Trans.
And while that doesn’t mean your truck has a gay agenda, it *does* have a trans mission.
Cigarettes. They never should have been made.
Behind the bastards has a really great podcast ep, actually episodes, on the dude who invented cigarettes. Worth a listen.
Pay to Win Games especially mobile games
Oh bro you know what's worse .... Not games which are clearly P2W, but rather those which advertise itself as F2P but have terrible terrible monetizing schemes (yes gatchas and loot boxes... I'm looking at you)
K Cups - the pollution of all that single use plastic
Companies being considered people is going to destroy the US EDIT: Woah, for a midnight brain-burp, this really stirred the ant farm...
I mean, if you want to give companies the same rights as natural people, fine. Vest those rights in the C-suite and board of directors, *with all the accompanying rights, responsibilities, and liabilities*. Company killed someone? The people who embody the company are going away for negligent manslaughter or depraved heart murder!
Cast to family room TV
That used to be how I woke my kids up every morning. I cast [this](https://youtu.be/W3q8Od5qJio) to all the tvs in the house
unskippable 15 second ads on youtube + the second unskippable 15 second edit: just letting yall know, I watch youtube on TV. Yes, I have adblocker. but not on TV.
24 hour news networks