I recognize the name but don't remember why; who is this ghoul?

Reminds me of the Exploratorium in San Francisco. They have an exhibition that has a long rail with metal coil wrapped around it. On one side, the coils are warm to the touch. On the other side, they're cold to the touch. In the middle of the rail, the coils alternate hot-cold-hot-cold, and when I first touched it, my reflexes yanked my hand away because the nerves interpreted it as "so hot the 'burned nerves' feel cold". Took a few attempts to be able to hold my hands there, and the sensation was very confusing. Would recommend+

Oh good, soon we'll see a bunch of "experts on Venezuela" come out of the woodwork on social media

Here's what I learned from 2020:

Highly visible protest in public space: huge police presence, violent counter protesters, unable to build pressure to force change. Human Cost: 2,000 people brutalized, gassed, and doxxed.

Direct action by dedicated, anonymous covert operatives: inhibits, delays, and frustrates the state and it's ability to repress dissent. Human Cost: A couple of people throw away some incriminating clothes, lay low, then move on with their lives.

just wanna give a shout out to all the posters who made this 1000 comment weekly mega possible

That fucker on the right is called a "house centipede" and they take years to get to that pictured size. It's a really terrible experience to be using the bathroom and glancing over at the wall and seeing a 2-3" centipede skittering around. They're not very fast, so they're easy enough to kill, but ugh.

Should I watch The Wire?

In a year or two they'll all look like this and the drivers will discuss who has the nicest patina

Suburban psychosis. People are cooler in cities. I was out on New Year's in a major American city and saw at least a dozen high school aged kids out and about unsupervised, doubling up on rental bikes, riding the bus, etc. By comparison, I work in a white, conservative suburb of the city, and the amount of coworkers who are absolutely terrified of stepping foot in town is sizeable. A younger coworker (gen z) is mortified at the thought and is constantly repeating crime stories she heard/read.

When I was 23, I moved to North Oakland after a lifetime in white suburbs hearing the same constant racist/phobic drivel from everyone I grew up around. It was rough around the edges, and you could get in trouble if you were looking for it, but mostly it was just working class people trying to get by. Everything since feels like Disneyland by comparison

It sucks for kids now, more than before, but it sucked back then, too. The media plays a huge role. It's a symptom of suburban whiteness and fear of outsiders.

I guess I owe tiktok an apology

If social democracy is the moderate wing of fascism, the Democrats are it's frothing cheerleader

They spent so much money trying to cover this up/bury the picture