Don’t be a dick to service workers. Your entire life will be better.

I mean, SSL certs are free now:

https://letsencrypt.org/

https://certbot.eff.org/

Maybe not worth $50 a year to change your setup but there’s no reason to pay for them anymore.

I wouldn’t overthink it. It’s just a youthful rebellion/protest thing. Old people banned an app young people like and young people were like, “Ok, fine. We’ll use a different app, assholes.” And they found one even more Chinese just to be obnoxious.

But to answer your primary question, Instagram is a bloated app with a terrible algorithm made by a garbage company owned by a garbage person. But just as important, Instagram is also where TikTok users’ parents are. Youths don’t want to hang out with friends where their parents are watching. Hell, I’m middle-aged and I was annoyed when my mom followed me on Instagram. Like, “Stay on Facebook, mom. That’s the boomer app.”

I’m sure almost every TikTok user is a YouTube user too. But YouTube Shorts isn’t the same as TikTok. Shorts are basically a way for established creators who make longer, professional videos to make little casual ones between their main video releases. It’s not a drop-in replacement for TikTok. The vibe is different. (If Shorts had been released as a totally separate app with a separate algorithm, it’d be a drop-in replacement for TikTok but they just duct taped it onto YouTube proper.)

Plus, the data and national security excuses were always horseshit. Congress was trying to protect American dominance in social media and during the debate, members of Congress said their issue with TikTok was that it didn’t have an Israel boner. https://forward.com/culture/688840/tiktok-ban-gaza-palestine-israel-antisemitism/

Forward is a publication aimed at a Jewish audience, for the record, so that’s not some antisemitic conspiracy theory.

Wait until they find out the SNAP program (aka food stamps) is run by the Department of Agriculture because it’s about increasing demand for agricultural products, not helping the poor. For comparison, TANF (aka welfare) is under the Department of Health and Human Services.

Hegemony over Europe? That seems laughable when they’re borrowing troops and buying bullets from fucking North Korea. This isn’t the height of the Cold War. Russia’s economy has been hollowed out by decades of kleptocracy and misrule. I’m pretty sure at this point any one of France, Germany, or Britain could win a conventional shooting war with Russia.

No one wins a nuclear war, obviously. Russia can still be a threat. But being a nuisance in the Baltic Sea and screwing with Moldova doesn’t make them look powerful enough to be a hegemon over shit.

I don’t want to rain on everyone’s parade but I think the law bans all apps with over 1 million users that are based in China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea (“foreign adversary controlled applications”) where you can make a profile and share content. WeChat would definitely count. So, Red Note is probably/possibly going away soon too. I guess VKontakte is Russian and still in the app stores.

The media is focused on creators and TikTok, obviously. But a WeChat ban would probably suck for people with grandparents in China since that’s the “everything app” there. (I don’t know what China bans but even if there’s other messaging apps allowed in China, teaching your elderly Chinese grandma to use a different app on a ~12h time zone difference is probably not a fun activity.)

I’ve been thinking about buying a pellet smoker because my grocery sells the pellets now but I have two smokers and my friend is a big dude — a former offensive lineman — and he loves nothing more than drinking beer and tending to a fire. He loves monitoring the temperature and soaking the wood in water to get it just right. He probably should/could smoke meat for a living and be happy forever.

I like to keep it simple and am into technology so I have wireless thermometers and love my barrel smoker where, once you learn the quirks, it’s basically set it and forget it and get perfect ribs. But I feel like I’d be taking something from a friend if I didn’t also have the 12 hours of beer and monitoring to the temp/fire part. That’s his form of meditation.

Level 1: just doing it on a regular grill like a Weber kettle grill or similar.

Level 2: a pellet or electric smoker where you’re not really in control

Level 3: a small dedicated smoker where you tend the fire

Level 4: A second, complementary dedicated smoker (e.g., if you have a horizontal one for brisket and the like, maybe you buy a vertical one for hanging ribs and doing stuff like that.) It’s a new level because you’re now an obsessive who buys things you don’t strictly need but now it’s your hobby and you can tell the difference.

Level 5: A professional grade, expensive smoker, possibly welded to a trailer for tailgates or family gatherings. Alternatively, building a brick smoker in your backyard or something like that.

Level 5 (special recognition): The guy who made the filing cabinet smoker

Every time I see a climate change sea level rise projection.

Fresh but familiar. Maybe like farm-to-table Soylent Green instead of the packaged Soylent Green.

Well, now I can not know or care who that lady is in a whole new light. Good for her for hating Elon Musk, even if it’s probably for some terrible reasons.

Seriously, how many conservative “influencers” can there even be? I don’t even know what Ben Shapiro is yet. It’s too many. Cut it down to like 5 good ones and I might be influenced once, maybe. I’m not checking out 40,000 podcasts in an effort to give a shit about fascism.

And his idiot failson started beef with Charles Oakley.

I only had 7 kids last year so don’t blame me.

Worth it.

/s in case anyone doesn’t notice. I’ve never been married.

I don’t know about the court of public opinion but there is a Tesla “gigafactory” there and some sort of research lab. SpaceX has launched some military satellites for Germany and Starlink is valuable militarily with no viable competition yet (though plenty is apparently on the way). X is still valuable for propaganda and my guess is people aren’t as sick of his shit outside the U.S. yet.

I don’t know if Neuralink did any monkey torture there. But that probably isn’t valuable to Germany anyway. They can probably source monkeys without anyone’s help.

I came from your mom’s house but she seemed over 17.

The author bends over backwards to be even-handed and still can’t make an argument that across-the-board tariffs are good economic policy. She basically just switches to, “I guess they can be politically advantageous over taxes that are more obvious? Maybe? But there’s no real economic upside.”

Belle Époque Paris sounds pretty nice. I sure hope nothing bad happens immediately after that ruins my vision.

I know people have spent longer on the ISS but at some point, I’d come back in a Home Depot bucket wearing a spacesuit with some scuba gear.

And for those who want to argue about the heat shielding on a Home Depot bucket, I’d be responsible about it. I’d glue all kinds of shit to it. Steal a parachute from the Roscosmos side. I’d be fine.

“You’d land in the Indian Ocean."

This isn’t rocket science. It’s the opposite. I’ll land where I want. I’d aim for your mom’s house and land in her bedroom. Injuries would include a crushed pelvis and not from the fall. That’s just what happens when I visit your mom.

I wish these articles would note that Congress gets a say. I know there’s a slim Republican majority in both houses but that’s not enough in the Senate.

Obviously, a lot can be done by executive order and that reconciliation exists. The tax credit would qualify for reconciliation bills and could easily be doomed. But half these articles act like Trump won’t face any resistance, even from within his own party.