Samson's Wig

I don't follow this shit closely as I'm neither a fanboy nor its inverse. The haters seem to be most prevalent here. Is this based on politics of some kind? Everything else is these days, so I assume the hatred of Musk is based on his having different political opinions than his detractors. Is he a pro-life, thin blue line loving, fundie weirdo or something? Whatever it is, the love and hate for this man is fascinating. Maybe the dislike is based on our reliving the 1890's, complete with insanely wealthy individuals who don't have to play by the same rules as the rest of us? That bothers me too, especially when I think about what that type of culture and economy led to last go round (WWI and WWII). All I'm hoping this story does is shine a light on how insignificant Twitter and other social media truly are. The sunshine pumping bullshit that has so many people convinced that these platforms actually have any kind of meaningful impact (even Musk seems to buy into this notion) are insane. If you're an active user your head is so far up your own ass you can't see it for what it is. That tech bros can still peddle their lackluster products to people under the guise of somehow making the world a better or more connected place is mind boggling. Seemingly intelligent people actually believe this shit. Bill Burr's send up of Steve Jobs (linked upthread somewhere) was on point. These people don't really create anything. They don't add value. They suck value from their customers. They've made the world a worse place. But that only happens because a segment of our society actually give credence to the value of these shoddy products. Of course Twitter is full of bots, just like every other social media. The percentage of criminals looking to scam people likely makes up a significant portion of the actual human users. These platforms do not add value. They lure you in with bullshit and keep you engaged while they suck out your soul for profit.

Why on earth would they shut this down? Russia sure doesn't give a fuck about all the criminals there who are hacking and stealing from westerners. Modi and Kovind can fuck off with their Russia apologist strategy.

The mayor of ABQ is a friend. On paper, he's exactly the type of guy you want in office when dealing with an out of control police department. He's liberal but not a deluded progressive, he's got charisma, and it's a strong mayor system so he has more leeway to try and get things done. Before becoming mayor he was a state senator and repped the International Zone, which locals (at least used to) refer to as the War Zone and with good reason. He lived in the neighborhood with his family and genuinely cared about improving it. He was also a honky well loved by his district, which is a rare thing in that area. He's a rising star in the Democratic party and I expect to see him on the national stage soon. But even he hasn't been able to do much of anything to reign in that rogue police force.

The feds have been overseeing that police department going back to at least 2010 or so. Unfortunately, we lived there for a brief stretch. Had the windows busted out of my downtown office three separate times by people protesting the police. It's a mixed bag of shitty people and shitty cops in that state. I don't think that's a coincidence.

Was down by campus around 3:30 and it was raining then. Not much, but still.

FIFY Who the fuck knows what will happen, but the only thing that would shock me regarding those two games is if the Longhorns win both.

It's sad, for old-timers, to watch college football die. But let's be honest, it's been dead for a while. ESPN spotting an opportunity to milk mouth breathing SEC fans, and making the moves they did to turn the SEC myth into reality, was the nail in the coffin, but it was only the final nail. Money corrupts and there is nothing new under the sun. It was a fun ride while it lasted, but college football is little more than watered down NFL at this point, and the only thing keeping people tuned in is brand loyalty. The unintended consequence of professionalizing amateur sports by actors like ESPN is the erosion of brand loyalty. Couple that with college students not giving a rip, relative to past generations, and college football is already at the point of squeezing out its last golden egg or two before the slaughter. What's left will still be entertaining for the same t-shirt SEC type fan, but will always be a lesser version of the NFL. T-shirt fans will eventually just migrate to the NFL when the only difference is the quality of play on the field. It won't be a bad thing, but it will never be as good as it was. The options for entertainment are too vast now, and football at all levels has already begun its downward slide in popularity. The more interesting aspect of all this is how it will impact all collegiate sports a few decades from now when football isn't able to prop up Olympic sports and women's sports in general. Fewer and fewer schools will even have football programs in the not so distant future. Few athletic departments operate in the black as it is. Once you fully convert college football from a community and brand building element of a university into a solely money generating endeavor, you've rendered the vast majority of football programs pointless.

Maybe a normal person will be able to purchase a house in the Austin area sometime soon. Nah, probably not.

We're long overdue.

I believe you are referring to Freedom Juice, and I only drink it if sourced locally.

That was a lot of weight being thrown around that ship. Surprised this wasn't a story about a capsizing. I've never understood why anyone would board a floating intestinal virus. Staph infection doesn't care if you're rich or poor. Add in whale sized threesomes and the resulting buckets of flop sweat and other bodily fluids that must have been involved, and holy shit that Carnival was a floating disease pit. Meanwhile, this guy just read this story and is headed for the docks.

I gave my dog his monthly ivermectin a couple of weeks ago as well and he's also doing just fine. You should let him know.

Completely agree. I think I noted that she's been great in other projects. The casting was fine, but the writing, directing, and production quality are that of a low rent adventure series appearing on late night in the 90s.

Nah. And if by some miracle this worked and they managed to provide enough work to lure experienced crew to permanently move to Texas, those folks are not all Californians anyway.

lol

A large film studio will end up a giant empty building. Texas doesn't have a great history of subsidizing anything that isn't oil and gas related, especially the arts and film specifically. The film industry follows the money (tax breaks), and Texas has never done enough to entice any serious players here. There also isn't enough skilled labor living in Texas to justify a large studio. This has boondoggle written all over it, but the developers will pocket some cash if they can pull it off.

That is clearly a raccoon that has fashioned itself a pair of stilts to help get over the fence. Smart little fuckers.

Is it still the case that a kid can transfer to just about any damn school they want to so long as their grades are decent and they're willing to pay for it? As I recall this was due to the ranking systems not giving two shits about anything but the incoming freshman class. Has this changed?

In clappy's defense, filling your reusable water bottle from a well or city system pumping that Ogallala Aquifer slush is a gamble for your teeth and your health. By the time that water seeps it's way down from up north it's more like drinking mud (and tainted with Oklahoma sediment to boot). Many panhandle folks buy their drinking water and use the ground water for showering, flushing toilets, and watering the yard, which is about all it's good for. I grew up drinking well water up there and I don't wish it on anyone. Even in that scenario, of course, there are ways to minimize the plastic usage, but it's not as simple as filtering your Colorado River water (now infused with Zebra Mussel flavor!) and filling up a Yeti.

That was just as dumb as anyone being flagged for a Horns down. Big 12 was/is ridiculous. My point was really that being the big dog means you don't have the luxury of whining with impunity. The advantages for UT are already baked in. No one wants to hear Longhorn bitching, even when it is justified, and I get that. Aggy and Tech can bitch all they want and it won't so much as disturb the breeze. Why? Because they start from a severe disadvantage.

Meh. Aggy gon' aggy. The horns down thing gained steam when refs started throwing flags for it in football games. And that bullshit came from admin leaning on the conference. Penalizing athletes for a completely inoffensive hand gesture shows nothing but thin skin, and certain types of people were going to keep poking that wound because it is insane how offended some UT fans were (or at least school officials), to the point of whining to the conference. Add in the reality that no other school in the Big 12 would have received that white glove treatment, and the resentment attached to Horns down at least makes a little bit of sense. NCAA getting in on the act in this situation doesn't help matters. It will only inspire more mouth breathers to do this type of thing in the future. And you can bet someone related to UT with influence bitched about this aggy and made this happen. Whoever that is needs to grow up. Let aggy be aggy. It only makes things worse for them when they're allowed to behave naturally in public. There will always be people who thumb their nose at the rich/big/cool kid on the block. Acknowledging them only gives them what they're looking for.

WTF is wrong with BeardGuy? People like that deserve to be punched in the mouth. He and MultipleRobberyTeen should be forced to hang out in a cell together for a while. BeardGuy will end up dead after MultipleRobberyTeen has enough of his smug bullshit, and then we can can execute MultipleRobberyTeen. Everyone wins!

Whether or not we're talking about a public works project or private investment makes a big difference in terms of ROI relevance. Ole' T. Boone was working to build a pipeline for water to suck the panhandle dry before he kicked it. Glad it never happened for the sake of folks out that way, but he saw profitability in some capacity.

I'm also the parent of a child on the spectrum, and difficulty with spatial relationships is one of the number one common traits of those with autism, particularly ASD Level 1. I agree that the spectrum covers a wide variety of differences, and no two people experience it exactly the same way. I'm glad your daughter hasn't struggled with spacial issues, but that makes her an outlier. As for the interior decorating, I have no fucking clue.