My last Ford was a Focus with the dual clutch transmission, it was a complete fucking lemon (to the point where they were successfully sued over it and have done multiple recalls to fix it). I can excuse an automaker for the occasional shit car if their overall lineup is good and they’re honest with customers, but they knew the transmission was majorly flawed and continued to manufacturer vehicles that used it anyway. I’ve had it refuse to shift while I was driving on the highway before, which left me redlining at maybe 45 MPH. Dangerous and it could have gotten someone killed. I will never buy another Ford.

https://www.freep.com/in-depth/money/cars/ford/2019/07/11/ford-focus-fiesta-transmission-defect/1671198001/

Something I’ve learned as a vegan is that it’s pretty socially acceptable to kick vegans (and I guess vegetarians?) even among leftists. To the point where it’s almost a meme in some vegan social media circles I used to frequent.

I don’t expect shit from anyone. That said, when I’m at one I’m still going to ask if there are options, because why wouldn’t I?

AI-generated articles, books, coloring books for example, are all a thing now. Behind the Bastards did a podcast episode on the latter two.

Remote workers are overall more productive, report a better work-life balance, and suffer less from occupational burnout. It also saves companies money because they don’t have to spend as much on office space.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/intentional-insights/202303/the-surprising-truth-about-remote-work-productivity

My time is the most precious commodity I have. Unfortunately I’m in a career where I can’t work remotely, but if I was I would refuse to go back to the office. Life is too precious to waste it sitting in traffic if you don’t have to.

From what I can tell, a lot of jobs are already like that. It’s almost like society isn’t designed to make people happy 😑

I agree with you. Imagine a country starts rounding up and murdering some ethnic/religious minority. Doctors shouldn’t be like “ahh we must help the government kill them in the most humane way possible!” If anything that’s enabling it.

Partway through the article:

Smith was convicted in the 1988 murder of Elizabeth Sennett. Sennett’s husband, a pastor, allegedly paid Smith and another man $1,000 each to kill her.

A jury voted 11-1 to sentence Smith to life in prison, but the judge overseeing the case overrode that decision and sentenced him to death. That practice, called judicial override, has since been eliminated in all 50 US states.

Some of Sennett’s relatives attended the execution and told reporters they had forgiven Smith.

“Nothing that happened here today is going to bring Mom back,” sais Mike Sennett, Elizabeth Sennett’s son. “It’s a bittersweet day, we’re not going to be jumping around, hooping and hollering, hooraying and all that, that’s not us. We’re glad this day is over.”

deleted by creator

I have very little faith in businesses to do the right thing for the right reasons. Publicly traded companies in the US literally can’t do that legally if they think it will hurt their bottom line.

Go vegan. It’s better for the planet too.

the elderly are not always mobile enough for public transport

They should just do what Japanese elderly people do and use the (free) ambulances as taxis!

https://www.nbcnews.com/better/health/how-often-do-happiest-couples-have-sex-it-s-less-ncna828491

Once a week or so is the average. I’m at about the same amount of time in a relationship as you and we’re about once a week. Personally I feel like sex is nice but it takes time and effort and I’m not always in the mood to spend time pleasing someone else (and I’m not going to initiate unless I’m willing to do that). I could see myself having sex a little bit more often if I had a better work-life balance where I felt less pressed for time. This gets me thinking that I should check in with my partner about this topic though!

This entire YouTube channel is amazing, highly recommend watching more.

https://youtu.be/1UlJ4IVVAss

https://youtu.be/aboeZMyBP4w

I just started grad school so this is very fresh for me.

• Practice mindfulness meditation. It helps me stay on task when I need to work and avoid rumination or letting work seep into relaxation/recreation when I’m taking a break.
• Learn to be strategic with your attention and perfectionism. For example in undergrad I could basically afford to give every assignment my all, but I’ve found that now there is just not enough time for that. If a task is low-stakes, try to do a good job but get it done quickly. Reserve your motivation for bigger more consequential tasks.
• Constantly work to become more efficient. Ask yourself if a task can be automated or multitasked without much loss in quality. E.g. I have to listen to podcasts for class sometimes and will play these while I am driving around doing errands.
• Take time off. There is a saying in IT that either you can schedule maintenance or it will schedule itself. That applies to your body too. I have occasionally taken zeroes on less important assignments or taken a vacation day at work just to give myself an opportunity to recover. If you are really giving your all, then there is nothing to be ashamed of in taking breaks.

Yes, in the US they have gone so far as to lobby against EV adoption and run anti-EV commercials in favor of trying to get people to buy their hybrids. They innovated earlier with the Prius but then stagnated and are behind now and instead of trying to catch up, they spent time and money trying to block competition. Really made me dislike the company despite the stellar reputation of the quality of their vehicles.

I’m honestly starting to feel like it might be a net benefit for the barrier to entry to be higher. Since I switched to the Fediverse I have found that post quality is higher here than on Reddit, there’s less flaming, fewer low-effort overdone joke comment chains etc. Also it reminds me that there is better shit to do with my life than spend 3 hours a day reading a bunch of hyper-specific subforums that I’m subscribed to.

It’s certainly possible they’ll have to reassess their strategy in the face of new applications rising so much, but I think up to this point they’ve just felt that community quality is more important than growth. I just recently joined this server and I didn’t find the application to be that onerous. I just spent perhaps 15 minutes or so thinking about why I would want to be a part of a community like this and crafting a response that showed that I do care.

I forget if there’s a term for it but I think it’s intentional because it raises the expectations for what people think the minimum acceptable tip is.

I never tip with takeout. The only way to stop the cancer of tipping from spreading is to refuse to buy in to it. Pay your damn employees a living wage and then they don’t need tips!