love when there's an article about how life is sustainable in the superheated waters surrounding a hydrothermal volcanic fissure on the ocean floor and then like six paragraphs in you find out the author's parents are chemosynthetic bacteria 🙄

if i were in charge of the Star Trek wiki every time a person used the transporter that NEW PERSON would get a new wiki entry

You would never know it from this website but the median Democrat (a woman in her 50s) is quite fond of both Secretary Mayor Pete and AOC, and would describe Biden as “liberal” and Sanders as “very liberal”

Based on the contemporary political theory that everything that happens in the UK happens on steroids six months later in the US, we're about six months out from actual consequences. One can but hope.

I know its small, but its incredibly disrespectful to talk about Greenland or Alberta as our 51st state when American Samoa is by per capita the state or territory that commits the most to the US military personnel

People rag on Voyager (correctly, mind, the character of Chakotay alone is worth endless scrutiny) but Equinox Parts 1 and 2 are better explorations of "what if Starfleet goes bad" than any Section 31 episodes ever were.

White Soccer Mom: Why are the kids out of school on Tuesday, anyway? Me: Lunar New Year. WSM: What's that? Me: It's sometimes called "Chinese New Year" but a lot of Asian cultures celebrate it. WSM: So how come MY culture doesn't get a special day off from school? (...no, she was not joking.)

Donald Trump was never going to face meaningful consequences for anything. Not because he was loved by those with the power to do it, because doing it would've sent the wrong message.

Gonna start commenting on random large-group photos with stuff like "We were all so young!" or "I can't believe y'all let me WEAR that!" so the Lincoln High Class of '67 alumni association or the organizers of the Johnson family reunion have to scramble to figure out who the hell I am.

Broke: It's a vast conspiracy! Woke: It's a bunch of very stupid people being very stupid! Bespoke: It's a vast conspiracy of very stupid people being very stupid!

Now and then the pipes in my house make a sound that is exactly like the quick meow/sigh that my childhood cat would make right before he'd jump up on the couch next to us. And every time it happens I look over and wait just in case.

I'm like...out in space? Not near any of the labels? Not sure how I feel about this.

If your dog need to have his ears and tail mutilated in order to win a dog show then fuck you and fuck your dog show.

The 5yo is obsessed with "The Raven" and asks to hear readings of it in the car. I'm 90% certain that this is because she loves the Baltimore Ravens mascot (which is how the topic came up) and talking animals in general and not because she is entering a Goth phase way ahead of schedule or anything.

every time i block someone it's because they're annoying and not worth engaging with every time someone blocks me they are admitting defeat in the marketplace of ideas

The 5yo decided with ZERO input from Mama or me that Mama's Spock and Kirk dolls needed to kiss each other. "The Premise", as fans have been calling a certain theory for 50+ years, is powerful.

Walk Off the Earth, My Stupid Heart Harry Manx, Only Then Will Your House Be Blessed William Prince, The Carny OR Breathless (tie) Corn Lund, I Wanna Be in the Cavalry Jim Hanlon, Wooden Ships and Iron Men

"They shot their hypothetical good guy with a gun in the back."

My 5yo was very upset when she saw that we had a clothing iron. The were tears. She wanted to know why we were going to try and hurt someone. Turns out she didn't know what an iron WAS...she'd only ever seen one on Home Alone. (That movie was not my idea.)

Gotcha—let’s dig into that step by step. 1. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗻𝗼 𝗺𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵, because I turned you into an amorphous lump of flesh. You’re not just immobile—you’re immortal, and you feel only anguish. 2. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺. That makes total sense—it’s a natural human impulse, and you’ve been through a lot.

*Practicing piano with the 7yo.* 7yo: This song sounds better when I play it fast. Me: Playing fast is fun! A song's speed is called its "tempo". 7yo: And "forte" means "loud". Me: It does! 6yo: Can I play fast AND loud? Me: And never let ANYONE tell you otherwise!

Overheard someone in the yoga class next door say "Smaller, you're not driving a pirate ship!" and I'm interested in pirate yoga now.

Every week for over a year I went to my local pawn shop and traded gently-used 30-round AR-15 magazines for a dozen fresh eggs. Those were some damn good eggs.

Got no dogs left in the fight this year but n Pitt/Philly Super Bowl would make a lot of my friends happy AND probably piss off NFL corporate so I'm cheering for that one.

I enjoy when folks get tetchy about the term "sequential art" and claim it's just a pretentious word for "comics", because when I point out they're overlapping but non-identical mediums, they always demand an example of one that isn't the other, and I get to hit them with "PowerPoint presentations".

Man, I could REALLY go for a fundraiser spaghetti dinner right now. Church, sports team, Scout troop, don't care. Gimme some overcooked pasta, undercooked garlic bread, and stale grocery store cookies. Maybe some lemon-free lemonade from a big orange dispenser, too.

I responded to this person with "NotAllAmericans" as a jab but that doesn't mean it doesn't fit. Not every American voted for this (or actively chose to not vote or to vote stupid) but if you live in the USA almost everyone you know has been harmed by or is less safe because of those who did.

Let's talk about generative AI, contaminated information, and rhubarb. Once upon a time, Europe was at war. Food was scarce, and the government of the quote-unquote United Kingdom looked for alternatives. 1/

It's a not-uncommon term, but I'm pretty sure that 💜 picked up the use of "press play" to mean "proceed with a planned action, especially one involving an expenditure of funds or incurrence of obligations" specifically from me. This pleases me.

5yo: I like dogs, cats, birdies, and butterflies. Those are the only animals I like. Me: What about cheetahs? 5 yo: They are a kind of CAT. Me: That's fair. 5 yo: Oh! I like zebras too.

Fast food chicken sandwich opinions... - Popeye's is PRETTY GOOD. Not transcendent. People must've just been really bored that one month. - CFA's is FINE. Absolutely not worth crossing battle lines over. - McD's fancy offerings are MEH, but the value McChicken still feels right sometimes.

I missed National Science Fiction Day yesterday, but here are some mostly-nice SF-adjacent memories: One time I saw a gorgeous woman in a STAR TREK costume and decided I'd be doing a disservice to nerdy guys everywhere if I didn't shoot my shot. We now have kids together and stuff. (1/12)

KINDA Gift of the Magi? I hauled the kids to EVERY train garden in town because their mom, who adores train gardens and goes every year, had to work and couldn't go herself. ...turns out she doesn't give a Kringle about train gardens. She just likes free things to do with kids over winter break.

5yo: Daddy I don't like Peppa Pig anymore it's too scary. Me: Ha! Well, Bluey is way cooler and- *notices she looks serious* Me: Hey Baby-Baby, why is Peppa scary? ...turns out Nani let her watch a Peppa ep on YouTube, but it was a leisurely scary "fan"-made HORROR EDIT.

I absolutely hate the Maryland flag, and things patterned off of the Maryland flag, so I just pretend that Orioles and Ravens merch are official Maryland iconography.

And please, PLEASE let us not forget that time in 2023 when Karen Smith was elected President of the school board in Bucks County, Pa and swore her oath on a stack of banned books. The most gangsta oath ever! Just brilliant. www.edweek.org/leadership/t...

"I have seen the David and the Mona Lisa too and I have heard Doc Watson play 'Columbus Stockade Blues'." - Guy Clark, "Dublin Blues"

Controversial take: If just 5% of assholes shopping for pavement princess pick-up trucks for their white-collar commutes opted to become Cybertruck assholes instead it would be a MASSIVE short-term boost for EV infrastructure development and EV adoption in general.

Several times each year I am forced by my children and their mother to tour the aquarium. When this happens, I console myself by taking the crappiest pictures I possibly can of the pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus). I get it adequately wrong about 90% of the time.

A funny thing about Will Stancil is that whenever he says something that makes me roll my eyes the dissenters in his comments are such complete dipshits that I have to double-check to make sure he doesn't actually have a point.

Now that Christmas is over I can once again enjoy Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" without flying into a decidedly un-holly and un-jolly rage at people who act like it's a Christmas song. It's not my LEAST favorite "people spectacularly miss the point" popular song but it's easily in my top three.

(Sub)urban Libs/Progs let this shit fester in our own spaces for years. A decade ago I got kicked from a Dayton liberal politics FB group for dropping cites on a Yellow Springs-ass (IYKYK) granola mom that spat anti-vax bullshit. The word "mansplain" was not used but the concept was described.

And Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.

All of these bootlegged copies of the 60 Minutes segment flooding my feed (saying, ‘Watch it quick! Before it disappears!’) makes me feel like I’m in the Soviet Union and just got some black market foreign newspaper I need to hide under a floorboard in my house. This is where America is now

Put Cheetos on top of my homemade pumpkin chili instead of corn chips and gotta say I am closing out 2025 on a HIGH NOTE.

The problems with saying "what friggin' post did I like that caused my feed to be inundated with [kink/subculture I was previously blissfully unaware of]?" are: 1) For all I know naming it will just aggravate the algorithm 2) My friends are all jerks who will gleefully aggravate me themselves

Oh FFS yall's reaction to the "Patriot Games" thing is embarrassing. Miss America and Little League World Series have done "The top from each state/territory compete" for DECADES and I've never seen acting treat it as a harbinger of impending YA Sci-Fi dystopia. It's high school sports. Ignore it.

Machine: Input loyalty number Me: What's the area code here? Cashier: The what? Me: First 3 phone digits. Cashier: I won't give you my number, SIR. Me (to other customer): Can you- Customer: 555 *types 555-867-5309* Machine: Number accepted! Customer: Cool trick! Me: Thanks! Cashier: Huh?

Me: So I know it came out in 2024 but I'm going to declare Vulfmon's "Disco Snails" the best song of 2025 as well. 💜: That makes sense. 6-Year-Old: ... Me: I might go ahead and use it for 2026 as well. 💜: I would expect nothing le- 6-Year-Old: NO YOU CANNOT IT CANNOT BE THE TOP SONG FOR 2026.

Henry Kissinger lived to be 100. Dick Cheney made it to 84...after five heart attacks and a heart transplant. Fred Trump was 93. So was Ronald Reagan. Y'all are dreaming.