For being a science meme community, it’s a place people can vent about things that they can’t vent about elsewhere. We can understand psychological phenomena, but still be personally frustrated by it.

Though I do wish this post weren’t targeted toward Boomers. Younger people buy into this type of thing, too.

I will never not upvote Hitchhiker’s Guide quotes

Don’t they already have shadow profiles on all of us, even if we don’t use Facebook? I long ago figured that they’re able to get ahold of all the info they want on us without our consent. Is tracking our habits and relationships not enough? Even if the idea is to use this as age verification, I highly doubt Facebook’s as clueless as to not have a ballpark estimate on all of us by now. (Or did the introduction of AI break things so bad that they can no longer deduce the sort of data they want? Hey, I can dream.)

We’re Lemmy. The best we can give is the hug of coma.

Nebulae: “In fact, forget the wire!”

Spins and condenses into a star

“Bugs” even refers to errors on computers. Funny how the pedants don’t go into computer forums and berate the coders for using “bug” incorrectly.

To build on this, this usage is called a non-count noun. Less beer, less water, less air, less sand, etc. all refer to non-countable quantities of some substance. Beer could be counted, if referred to by some metric (“one glass of beer,” “24 ounces of beer”), same as “a bottle of water,” “one tank of air,” “a truckload of sand.”

Which is all to say that you’re right. “Less beer” makes far more sense than “fewer beer.”

I asked this same question to my older coworkers back when I was 20. The main answer I got was: travel, travel, travel! “Travel before you have kids.” “Travel before you start a long-term career.” “Travel before you buy a house.”

Naturally, being a Millennial, all three of those things became non-issues. 🙃

So let me give some advice for the ages instead, regardless of what the future may hold for you:

• Never stop learning

• It’s okay to not know what you want to do with life

• And, especially in a post-truth, AI-infested world, question everything!

Take the time to learn what logical fallacies are (at least the common ones.) You WILL encounter them, and knowing when you or someone else is using faulty logic can keep you from harm, whether it be from another person (like what we see in politics) or from yourself (like the “Sunk Cost Fallacy,” which might otherwise lead you to stick with bad jobs, bad relationships, and more.)

Tangentially, it’s okay to say, “I don’t know.” Nobody knows everything. Anyone who expects you to know any given thing (unless you’re known to have studied it, of course) isn’t someone worth the admiration of. People with realistic expectations will see you as genuine, and being genuine can carry you far.

I could probably think of more if given the time, but those are the most important things off the top of my head. I’m open to questions in the comments; I’ve lived quite a peculiar life, so I’ve got a range of experiences, from being a homeless vandweller, to being a pilot, to pivoting 90° to working with kids and making art. I’m more than happy to answer any questions that might help people out!

There’s an apparently-eternal rose bush outside my childhood home. My parents wanted to change up the landscaping decades ago and have tried to remove it several times since. Each time, it sprouted back up.

My dad managed to dig it up from the root last time. Yet somehow, it still grew back!

I told them - clearly, this house does not and never has belonged to you. It belongs to this rose bush. It has decided that it lives here and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.

I work with kids, including a bright little boy who told me that “Why?” is his favorite question. I explicitly tell him that I hope he never stops asking it. His questions challenge the depths of my knowledge and compel me to look up questions I never thought of before. I love it.

I call him my “little scientist.” He’s only 4 and he teaches my coworkers new things all the time. I feel so lucky to get to work with a little knowledge-sponge that’s as curious as I am!

Minutes ago, I was hoping to get laid by the new person I’m texting. However, it’s past 9pm on a Friday and they went to sleep. Totally understandable, I think.

Now, I’m laughing at an obscure history reference that I just learned through a community called “Really Shitty Copper,” and my nerd-brain is telling me, “This is better anyway.”

Meanwhile, some distant voice in the back of my head is yelling, “Dooooork!”

… Being in your 30s is fucking weird.

Instructions unclear. Now stuck on a cosmic journey.

Well, they did show up at her door and asked to help her “come to Jesus.”

Aw, actually I did have pet cockatiels as a teen. (Sadly, not for long - my parents didn’t know how dangerous Teflon was, and my babies paid the price.)

They didn’t care to be held like this, but boy did they love face scratchies.

Who knew that even birds could be fans of bondage

Funny, I expect all penguins to have that name.

Maybe it’s because it’s still night where I am, maybe it’s because I’m on the spectrum, but those blue lights feel like an assault on my senses. I had to scroll it off my screen to type this because it made my eyes hurt. I can’t imagine having to deal with that every time I have to pee in public.

I also can’t help but wonder where people go to do their makeup. I don’t use makeup, but I often see others using the mirrors to touch up this or that. I can’t imagine blue lights are helpful in that regard.

Interesting, I think of the lyrics as describing the way a baby or toddler feels when looking at the stars. They don’t know what those bright lights are yet, they just know they’re shiny and too high up to reach.

If all the yeast in our bodies’ microbiomes could coordinate together to take us over, we’d be so screwed.

It isn’t common in the US, but I was lucky enough to grow up with it as a staple in my dad’s garden. Funny thing, our family referred to it by its Polish name, so I didn’t know the English word for it until I was a teenager.