keep buying stars

[laqueus]

oh hp deskjet 2710e we're really in it now

[johnnysmissingass-deactivated20]

😭😭😭

[your-dewey-decimal-number-is]

793.85

card tricks

[kaida427]

what's the dewey decimal number for foreskin. coward

[your-dewey-decimal-number-is]

611.642

the prepuce (aka foreskin)

is a simple "please" too much to ask?

[kaida427]

prostrating myself at your feet for my lack of composure thank you for your wisdom

[your-dewey-decimal-number-is]

179.92

forgiveness

[sandmandaddy69]

[liltoaster]

[exeggcute]

one of my favorite this american life segments of late is about the people who played orchestra pit for phantom of the opera on broadway and how, like, a sizeable majority of them had literally been playing the show since it opened in 1988 (on broadway. I know it opened in 86 on the west end, you random pedants, but I am specifically talking about broadway musicians) because their contracts stipulated that they'd have jobs throughout the show's entire run... but nobody anticipated that phantom would become the longest-running broadway show of all time.

and none of these people wanted to walk away from a guaranteed job, so very few of them ever quit. they just kept doing the same show eight nights a week... for twenty or thirty years... and by the time it finally closed last year most of these musicians (who had been working together for DECADES) hated each other and really really fucking loathed phantom. I can't stop thinking about it. it's indescribably hellish to imagine but also the funniest thing I've ever heard in my life.

[exeggcute]

can you imagine.

[bisexualshakespeare]

[ID: excerpt from an article reading: One of my favorite stories, which should drive anyone who has every played in a band crazy-- there’s this bassoon player who has sat next to the same clarinet player since 1988. She’s convinced he plays half a note4 flat on every note he’s every played. He denies this. /]

[cleverlittlefox]

[cleverlittlefox]

[cleverlittlefox]

[jpeg-dot-jpeg]

721: The Walls Close In - This American Life

Here's the link to the full transcript. An absolute goldmine. The section on Phantom of the Opera starts in Act 2.

[tackminyard]

affirmations for my printer:

you are not out of paper

you have so much paper

it’s okay to function as intended

you are not out of ink

i just refilled that cartridge last month

you can connect to that computer you’re supposed to connect to

you’re allowed to print things

[lena-oleanderson]

also a poem from the new, unreleased collection. very possibly my own all-time favourite.

[shortwaveradioenthusiast]

[kingedwardsapphires]

Me stepping out of the optometry office after slamming four lokos with the doctor and immediately meeting the love of my life (but I have social anxiety)

[asmrgaret]

it’s weird that professional letters are supposed to start with “dear.” i don’t even call my mom that

[asmrgaret]

my darling hiring manager. my springtime rose. if hired i will bring a strong work ethic to this position

[hylianane]

functionally suicidal character saying “I would die for you” to their significant other and its like. I get the sentiment, honey, but if a hot dog vendor told me he’d sell hot dogs for me, I wouldn’t feel very moved now would I

[maseratus]

Now a functionally suicidal character saying “I will live for you”. Now that’s a dynamic I can sink my teeth into.

[mousidy]

now how about a functionally suicidal character saying "I will sell hot dogs for you"

[mousidy]

[bisthefairy]

Hotdog vender lays down their life to protect their suicidal partner, who then takes over the hotdog stand to carry on their memory...

[sztupy]

Landmark German ruling declares Google's AI Overviews are Google's own words and makes it liable for false answers

A German regional court has ruled that Google is directly liable for the content of its AI search overviews. According to the court, previou

[ayeforscotland]

Let’s fucking go

[made-in-manetheren]

This is HUGE.

1. The court holds Google responsible for statements made by its AI, considering them Google's statements (search engines have limited liability for results in their engine as they're the words of other sites/companies/people), meaning when their AI lies/hallucinates they're liable for the defamation/harm resulting from those statements.

2. Google's defense that customers are generally aware of the lack of reliability and are responsible for fact checking was dismissed. As the court pointed out, that would "significantly diminish" AI Search's stated purpose and it can't be distinguished from Google's business practices/statements as a search tool.

3. Studies have found about 91% of Google's everyday AI responses are accurate, leaving millions of searches per HOUR with potential liability for falsehoods. 56% of correct responses weren't supported by the sources the AI listed. Both of which mean Google is now liable for a LOT more AI "errors."

4. Google was held liable for 80% of court costs in this case and this precedent is expected to reverberate around the world. This is a massive shift from the 3rd-party search provider role Google has previously played and it comes right as they've tied ALL searches to their AI search.

TL;DR Google reeeeeally stepped in it this time.

[geniusbee]

these are getting weird

[glumshoe]

do Ents reproduce by sexual intercourse or by pollination

[glumshoe]

But if they reproduce through pollination how can they be sure they no longer reproduce? Maybe they’re anemophilous and are wind-pollinated and if they stand in a strong enough breeze an Entwife, somewhere, conceives an Entseed.

[glumshoe]

oh my god maybe the Entwives were bees

you are a mad genius

[glumshoe]

Ok, so, we have a few options:

1.) Ents reproduce exclusively through sexual intercourse, or something close to it

OR

2.) Ents reproduce via pollination and...

a.) are dioecious, with Ents producing only male flowers and Entwives producing only female flowers, and pollinated either by wind or by animals (or by hand?)

b.) have bisexual flowers, but which are so specialized that they can exclusively be pollinated by one specific species of pollinator...

The Entwives left the forest so long ago that the Ents no longer remember what they looked like. Treebeard says the Shire sounds like the sort of place they would have loved, with its gardens and flowers and agriculture. Hobbits have folklore of giant bees, named after bumblebees. Certain flowers only release pollen to “buzz pollinators”, like bumblebees.

Could it be that the Ents—who notoriously do everything slowly—failed to evolve quickly enough to compete with agricultural crops for the time and attention of their only pollinator species? Did the Entwives dump the Ents to evolve into regular bees faster than the Ents could even consciously process? DOES SAM GAMGEE THE GARDENER’S BOY KEEP ENTWIVES?!

I think we’ve done it. I think we’ve cracked the code. (Shut the fuck up, Jirt, no one asked you.)

[transfem-octopus]

It’s only in the movies that the Ents cannot remember the Ent wives. In the books they’ve described as having golden hair, red cheeks, and eyes like the Ents. Meaning the Entwives probably resembled the ents in appearance.

Likewise in the books the Ents were basically tree like giants instead of giant trees. As seen below

Peter Jackson reimagined the Ents as being giant trees instead of tree like giants so returning to the original question I propose a compromise:

Treebeard from the movies reproduces through pollination by the Ent Wives who are giant bees.

Treebeard from the books fucks. 

[glumshoe]

“Golden hair”?

“Red (butt) cheeks”?

Sounds like a rusty patched bumblebee to me.

[glumshoe]

[juney-blues]

stairs are so funny. falling 100 meters will kill you. solution? fall 10 centimeters a thousand times.

[markadoo]

they invented all those neat si prefixes and people still talk like this

[395nm]

falling a hectometer will kill you. solution? fall a decimeter a kilotime.

[npdclaraoswald]

A doll youtuber I watch has made a video about the history of Polly Pocket, and she's describing the plots of the dvd specials, one of which features an elderly woman named Ms. Throckmorton, and my reaction was

[wiisagi-maiingan]

It's 2026, can we just like. Be done with astrology. Like can we stop. Can we stop treating it like a legitimate way to decide who you should be friends or partners with. We've gotta move the hell on.

[wiisagi-maiingan]

This may seem contradictory coming from someone who is big on respecting other people's spiritual beliefs but I draw the line at things that say that a person's personality or life is determined by something that they have literally no control over and that makes no sense when you think about it for even a moment. I think it's actually really shitty to say that someone is two-faced or manipulative or just generally untrustworthy because of what the sky looked like when they were born and I don't think it should be something that is tolerated as a serious thing to follow in your relationships.

[wiisagi-maiingan]

"Tinder added astrology stuff!" Cool. Why is this relevant to your dating life.

[halosnothere]

well that can't be good

[loth-caatgirl]