The world is cruel and ugly. There are plenty of justifiable things to be upset and distraught over. I don’t want to hear about those. I want to know what bizarre out of left field takes you have that infuriates you.
I’m still upset about Tenochtitlan falling and being buried. I’m a gringo, I shouldn’t have an opinion about Lake Texcoco being drained centuries ago.
Okay, if you’re looking for weird?
Bad perforations. Drives me insane. Any product that is perforated to tear easily, 9 times out of 10 they fucked it up and the perforations may as well not even be there or even make it worse
My vitamin packets: I try to separate one out but then accidentally tear open another vitamin behind it.
Cardboard food packaging: I start tearing a strip to open but then the strip breaks and leaves 3/4 still stuck on the packaging.
Plastic food packaging: “This bag is resealable!” Or, what they mean to say is that if you try to tear it open using the pre-cut line, you’ll tear below the resealable part.
Glass bottles/jars sealed with plastic: You’re lucky if you can even tell where they perforated it. Try ruining your nail pulling up every edge you can find until maybe it tears eventually (likely not where the actual perforation is, either). Or you can ruin a knife scratching your own tear against the metal cap instead.
Toilet paper: You’d think the sections that are already partially punctured would be the weakest point to tear most easily, but it’s actually the middle of the goddamn sheet, as we all know.
Bonus points for other packages where a top film or foil covering a container is weaker than the glue used to seal it around the edges, so you’re left with little bits of lid that can’t be removed except surgically with tweezers.
If you can’t fucking do food packaging right, save some money by not even trying and just tell me I need to use scissors or a knife, because that’s what ends up happening most of the time anyways. Fuck.
Exactly what I wanted. Good job.
Omg, the resealable bags that don’t reseal INFURIATE me.
There’s a wonderful bit of fiction writing where an armourer (I think, it’s been a while) had that exact thought: paper never tears where the holes are, it only tears between the holes. Therefore, the holes must be stronger than the paper. Therefore, to strengthen a material, add (impervious) holes. Ultimately, the strongest material is all holes.
Glass bottles/jars sealed with plastic
Everything listed is valid but this one stands above the rest by a lot personally. Fucking hate this practice.
That ring of glue and plastic and foil on top of bottle caps is so infuriating, gee thanks another wee bit of plastic that could end up in my body accidentally
banning permanent lights aimed at the sky would allow millions more people to see stars at night with no downsides. but nobody seems to care.
have you not heard of darksky.org?
it’s not like no one cares. just not enough
During covid or right after they turned off every other street light to save energy. It was great, they turned them off after 22h or something. Pretty much everyone hated it for no reasons. “It’s dangerous for the children.” The children that plat on the streets in the middle of the night? It wasn’t even pitch black or even close to. We still had more streetlights at only 50% running than many other places.
One of the many benefits of only living in major metropolitan areas.
How am I supposed to care about a series that takes 4 years between seasons
4 years? What the f do you watch? Three Body Problem?
One Punch Man 😭
I just rewatched this last weekend, immediately thought of it.
Hopefully the new seasons are quality, and therefore worth the wait
Stranger things
Maybe Severance? Was only 3 years between seasons 1 and 2 though.
The only show I ever liked enough for that was Venture Bros, and it was only that bad once.
I love cars. I also love this planet. Cars are bad for the planet.
Moderation my guy. If everyone had a car they only drive on weekends or as a sport, there wouldn’t be an issue. So cars are not really the problem per se, it’s how we designed our world to revolve around moving in a car.
Sane take.
I’m also very much a “car guy”, but I fucking love that since covid and work-from-home I don’t have to do day-to-day driving anymore. I do less than 20% of the mileage that I used to do.
So yeah don’t get mad at car owners, get mad at return-to-office mandates and such.
How I feel about motorcycles.
It said weirdest. This is common and I see it a lot so not weird at all.
I have never felt so seen on the internet!
I love cars and the environment. I really want EVs to be cool / better but we just aren’t there yet.
They still have issues with tire dust, but yeah they’re a lot better.
I mean better at being cars not better for the environment. I want a greener car but I don’t want to have to own a worse car to accomplish that.
If ICE cars were banned for everything but racing/recreation I’d be very happy.
Racing series’ do not need to make their race cars green. They need to make their logistics fleets green. Race cars need to be able to remain loud and dirty. The sights, sounds, and smells of racing combine to create the majesty that is racing.
I look forward to a future of efficient public transit, no new ICEs on the roads and V12s back in F1.
Oddly, the wake-up call that made me realize I needed to step back from cars was at a racetrack. I was standing on pit lane with our race about to start, and was looking up & down pit road. There must have been 1000 gallons of gas all stored in 5 gallon jugs (100+ teams, each with 20-30 gallons, so probably closer to 2500 gallons in hindsight). And it made me realize we were all going to burn it all just for fun.
I do not regret my time racing at all, in fact I still encourage new folks to get out there & actually do it (check out ChampCar & 24 hours of Lemons!). I learned so much, had way too much fun, and made some simply irreplaceable memories. But I also feel it’s an irresponsible use of a limited resource. Still haven’t found a way to balance that equation in my head. For now, I’ve hung up the helmet.
Solar powered cars when?
Get an EV. Get a garage charger. Put panels on your roof. The future is now!
Didn’t the 2nd gen Prius have a solar roof? It could only power the ac and accessories iirc.
I wfh so my car is 99% of the time outside my house. It’s in the shop for a few days and no one is choosing to park in front of my house! I swear to God they must think I’m a raging hambeast or something, ready to screech out the window if someone parks there. It’s not MY spot. I don’t own it. Please park there when my car isn’t there! So annoying!
😕
Okay, you are winning the thread so far.
Maybe there are simply enough places, and people can park in front of their own houses, so there’s no need to park in front of your house?
all of my hatred and disgust is perfectly and completely justified
bingo.
like LED headlights that are obviously way too bright. no, I don’t care that you bought it like that. you chose to buy it like that. you are the consumer and you have responsibilities. you are therefore an asshole. perfectly justified and reasonable take.
Bicycle drivetrains keep getting more complex and expensive. A 3x9 drivetrain is beyond adequate, bulletproof, and inexpensive. But NooOoOoOooo, it’s nearly impossible to get a quality bike with 3x9 now, without a full custom, DIY build. Everything has to be 1x11/12, which is expensive, touchy, and very particular, all while still lacking the gear range of 3x9.
It all seriously sticks in my craw.
I don’t know what this all means, but I do know my son blows through bikes like crazy. The chain always, always get fucked up and falls off. Even with a cover, even if it’s a more expensive bike, they don’t last.
I had the same bike all my childhood needing nearly no repairs, yet my kids bike is constantly broken.
The root cause of what you describe is a build or maintenance issue. Properly built, tuned, and maintained bikes don’t drop chains.
Lol The root cause is a 12 year old with ADHD.
As someone who has a 1x11, all I have to say is:
Push click, push click, push, push… push…
I’m sorry, 1x11? I’ve never really shopped for a bike more expensive than like $500 and the idea of getting less gear options for more money is wild to me.
There’s surprisingly a fair bit of overlap on the gear ratios of a 2 or 3x that makes a 1x11 or 12 have a similar range of ratios. However you do have to sacrifice either a bit of top end speed or climbing ability so you see a few more 2x on road bikes. I’ve never found myself wanting more from my 1x mtb drivetrain
Wait, you said a 1x can have a similar range, and then immediately followed up with:
you do have to sacrifice either a bit of top end speed or climbing ability
It is impossible for both statements to be true at the same time.
Or some differences in gear spacing. I’m not an expert in it, but tried my best to summarize a succinctly as possible
Invasive species.
My region is absolutely infested with Siberian Elm and Tree Of Heaven (A.K.A., the “semen tree”). You cannot cut them down, because they will resprout like a hydra from the stump. You cannot dig them out, because the smallest root left behind can and will resprout wherever it is, leading to a many-year game of whack-a-mole.
I have near-daily fantasies of going around with a powerful backpack sprayer filled with glyphosate (Round-Up) and an application wand that can extend from 1m to 10m, and hitting everything just as they’re sending nutrients to the roots for winter.
The problem is, Glyphosate is highly restricted to purchase and own in Canada unless you have both the appropriate class of Pesticide Applicator’s License (an agricultural variant, for example) as well as the venue to use it in (own or manage an orchard, for example). Thankfully my family owns an orchard, and I am starting the process for the former.
But still. It’s an absolutely bizarre thing to be obsessing over and I. Just. Cannot. Help. Myself. Every time I drive and see clumps of those disgusting trees, I start to uncontrollably strategize how I could hit them with glyphosate in late September.
blue gum here, cali doesnt want to get rid of this invasive species, because its “iconic” its a huge fire hazard, and they are designed to burn due to massive amount of oils they produce in thier native environment of australia. they also grow very fast compared to montery pine and cypress. Also thier leaves and bark drop very frequently and that is also a fire hazard because of the oils, and they have allelopathic affects near the trees.
I hate the spotted lanternflies! When they’re small and black and white they hop and scare me! When they’re a bit bigger and red they’re more scary! Then they get WINGS. Eurgh.
We also have the tree of life around which is what they enjoy munching on. I’d like both gone!
I found out all the ladybugs here are the invasive ones. And if I want to buy ladybugs for pest control, I can only buy the invasive ones. Annoying.
We do at least still have some native pollinators and other bugs.
also people mistaken the asian lady beetle for native ones, and those are also invasive and very noxious.
Lanternflies are so pretty! But there are so many of them again this year.
One of the hallmarks of a destabilizing and imminently pre-collapse ecosystem is when certain fast lived species like insects have sudden surges or collapses in population.
And I’m talking about short-lived species that typically have yearly cycles. Something that can respond very quickly to sudden surges or absences in food or environmental niches, but which does not normally see sudden population fluctuations in a healthy ecosystem.
insects, and plants.
We have Autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) here.
Ive been battling it for years. I mentioned bittersweet in my comment down thread, but I’ve won my battle with bittersweet. I pluck it everyyear and keep it at bay. I have not won with this fast growing (so fast) shrub tree. You cut it down, it grows back triple, relentlessly. It’s everywhere. I hate it so much. If it could just chill and be a bush, it would be fine, but no, ive a 40 foot tree bush in the back that was cut to stub 5 years ago. 40 feet tall, in five years. I hate chemicals, but when I get to the day I can afford to haul away 40 ft of tree bush brush, I will definitely be spraying this shit this time around. Fuck invasives. I go down the road and the forest edges are just bittersweet and autumn olive, also called japanese silverleaf. It’s ugly.
It’s Reese’s Pieces, not Reesee’s peesees.
You’re a fucking idiot if you say Reesee’s peesees. When have you ever used the term peesees elsewhere, you month breathing dunce?
If i drink too much i peeseas
I’m the opposite, I only trust you if you say reesees peesees. The other way you’re either a spy or a terminator awaiting activation.
I also don’t trust people who don’t pee in the shower, but that’s just because they’re lying.
I pee in that bad boy every time. Sometimes when it’s a real yellow one it smells like popcorn
Hmmm…
I half trust you then I guess but you’re still a spy!
I was perplexed when I found out this was even a debate, but then I realized one of the participants was an idiot.
Loud lawnmowers. Ass hats who maintain the classic American yard. Every Saturday morning on cue, the whole neighborhood erupts into noise. It’s so loud.
Everyone in my area has about a quarter acre of land, yet here come the zero turn riding mower guys, mowing their grass too low, every weekend, just to water it the next day.
They are loud, disruptive, and just remind me we are slowly killing the planet every day for vainity yards.
I have a reel mower from the 1950’s I found and fixed up. I got a lot of compliments the first summer I used it, it has self shapening blades and works mostly well. Folks were shocked I was using it, one lady stopped and even gsve me a “you get it girl!”, like what? It’s a quarter acre people, and takes me 30-40 mins. Why do they need giant gas guzzling, louds stinky mowers? After a few years with the reel mower, I did get an electric line trimmer, … I’m crazy, but sometimes I mow most of my very small lawn with it when I dont want to fix and use my reel mower. It’s quiet, it doesnt smell, and I have control to skip over dirt/sparse patches. I can leave areas longer where I see native plants popping up. I feel like im working with the land, not just decimating it.
They ride these giant mowers up and down the street, they mow dirt just the same as they mow field. I literally get triggered everytime I hear one start up, so often, it’s a running joke in the house. It’s a quarter acre lots here, not baseball fields.
Perfect lawns, but then its just bittersweet growing wild on the edges taking over trees.
I also hate bittersweet. Like, really really hate bittersweet. It kills everything and takes over gardens. Invasive garbage that may seem like a cool plant to the unknowing eye, but it is invasive garbage everyone just looks past as it kills our native trees and plants, suffocating the life forms they parasite off from. I have to stay vigilant to keep it from my yard. It is persistent, it’ll tear your house down if you let it.
I hate lawnmowers and bittersweet. These things make me feel distraught.
I can tell you’re not a homeowner.
What the fuck else are people supposed to do with their yard?
If you don’t cut the grass, it grows and eventually you’ll start getting brush. Not to mention lots of idiots have HOAs which mandate they cut the grass.
Plant native species! Anything but lawn grass!! For the love of insects and ecological diversity.
Have you tried this?
Where I live, native species is brush that will eventually cover my entire house.
Edit: yes I am trying this right now. I’ve planted a bunch of native species in one area of my front yard. They seem to be taking well, next summer I will plant some more in a other part. Mulch around the natives helps to keep the weeds and grasses down.
There are often more than one native species of plant. And repairing a yard ecosystem takes time and care and attention. I understand folks have little spare time with full time jobs and whatnot, but an imperfect naturalized yard is better than a sterile grass monoculture that requires a ton of mowing.
So… I should go through all of that trouble because you don’t like hearing lawnmowers?
I’m curious what planet you are from where you think anyone would do that.
Brush that will cover your house is likely not a native.
I explained how I do my yard in the comment. I don’t let it go crazy, I maintain it. I have made four garden beds here since getting the house, and that’s in addition to the four already here. Both for flower and vegetables. I have a potted plant corner, and a “track” where the grass grows low or turns to dirt from my son doing laps around the house and playing baseball in the back. If I was a millionaire (I’d move) I’d like to put stone on the “track” he made because it follows the natural curves of the yard. The front yard is sparse, it’s so dry and like sand, I don’t have to mow that side, I hit it with the trimmer if it gets wild. I’ve seeded with clover and a native grass type. I keep a small patch over grown, circling around a tree, maintain it with weeding, and give space back for the insects. It’s filled with purple flowers most of the year. A typical lawn care person would just mow it over.
What I’m getting at, is folks with brown grass they still mow weekly. Whether its going to rain or not, weather their grass is long or not, they mow it to check it off their list. Every weekend. Then, if you look, some houses like this, there’s invasives just growing everywhere on the edges of their properties. So lazy. To mow ones lawn, fat ass on a riding mower for less than a quarter acre of lawn, just mow it and put it away, while thier tree line suffers with invasives.
My goal is to have no grass, but my son’s track and baseball area, and the rest garden. As it stands I only have to mow maybe 40% of my yard, and I’ll be damned if I’ll fall in line to get a riding mower to kill beneficial plants every weekend, while leaving the harmful ones.
Phil Collins pisses me off, I can’t explain why, I just fucking hate that guy.
A possible reason?
I remember when he was With Genesis. He split to become more commercial. Never liked him since that day.
I’m not even a fan of Genesis. I have no ire towards the band, though, and some of their songs I enjoy, Land of Confusion is a banger, and I don’t know enough of his solo work outside of the Tarzan soundtrack to really have any valid critiques of his musical style and approach. I just want to punch that son of a bitch right in the mouth for some reason. He just triggers a fight response in my dumb monkey brain.
Maybe he’s your real dad.
Maybe.
Anything text editing not supporting Vim mode, especially programming context.
Our prime minister couldn’t explain what prime numbers are
They should get appointed as the Composite Minister instead
In the '90s I had a phone call with the CEO of American Games and he didn’t know what a fraction was.
There are so many people who are fundamentally wrong about what the Fermi paradox means, and proceed to present their shower thoughts about “what if everyone just, like, decides not to colonize the universe” as if they were profound or novel insights.
Explain then
No. I get enough of this in the subreddits and communities where it comes up naturally, I’m not going to get into a debate about it here in a thread where the subject is specifically how annoying it is to debate this stuff.
I’m not looking to debate. I just don’t know what you are talking about
Well, alright, but I’m not going to argue about any of this.
The Fermi paradox basically says “based on what we think we know about how the universe works, we should be seeing obvious signs of alien intelligence in it. But we don’t, so we’re wrong about something we think we know.” The problem is that we don’t know what we’re wrong about.
It is common in various science fiction and space related subreddits for people to confidently sweep in and declare that obviously the reason that aliens aren’t around is <insert some vague shower thought here>. As if all the thousands of researchers working on these concepts were all just a bunch of idiots who hadn’t thought of whatever they’d thought of.
A common class of these sorts of shower thoughts involve assuming that every single alien species and culture, throughout all of time and space, conform to some particular notion they have of how aliens should think. Some sort of “prime directive” or Nirvana-seeking conscious refusal to go out into the cosmos to colonize new solar systems, or conversely some kind of pessimistic self-destruction that everyone dives into without exception. I try to explain why these sorts of explanations don’t work well, I question their basis for making these assumptions, and I usually get some form of “oh, so you’re saying you know how all aliens are going to think and behave?” Shot back at me. Which, of course, is exactly the opposite of what I’m saying.
Another common theme is the “nothing will ever be possible in the future unless we’ve already done it now and have an economically practical example” approach, usually to try to argue that space travel or colonization is impossible. The other day I had someone who ultimately argued that it was impossible because steel would evaporate over time in a vacuum, so building spacecraft that lasted longer than a few centuries couldn’t be done. I pointed out the examples of billion-year-old metallic meteorites and he dismissed them because “meteors don’t need structural stability.”
I try to address these arguments rationally, with math and references to actual research, but end up butting into a position of pure faith. It’s incredibly frustrating. As befits the topic.
k
That was an absolutely fascinating rabbit whole. Thank you so much for explaining!!!
You’re welcome. I’m still dreading that someone will respond with a “but what about…” though. This is a debate that haunts me in so many other communities, I want to think I can escape it at least a little while. :)
I got so frustrated at one point that I had an AI make a song about it.
Those plastic bags at the grocery store, to put loose fresh produce in? Why the fuck do they never open easily? With all these whizz-bang technologies we’ve developed, you’d think someone would design/make bags you don’t have to wrestle with to open.
I want to bring reusable ones but everything is measured by weight and that fucks up the scale
Weigh the produce before putting it in the bag.
Yep. We are ruled by idiots.
