"Be Ready for Today" They're so supportive and enthusiastic, and because of this they're killing off most of (maybe all?) of their WeMo line:

But hey, at least we know that they're very appreciative of us, and that they wanted to provide us with simple to use accessories, and that they're proud. Their empty corporate words make up for the pieces of ewaste we now have.

I believe WeMo with a lot of hacking can be controlled locally via a direct IP connection if set up through Home Assistant. It's a pain, and it still requires their app, so maybe try to set it up now before they officially end support. Even without this workaround, it's pure enshittification and Belkin is back on the "Don't ever buy" list.

I don't believe I'd ever meet anyone so, well, insane, but here we are:

• not a doctor, no degree etc
• believes vaccines cause autism,
• everything is a conspiracy
• andrew tate was smeared because big pharma doesn't want us to know that vaccines cause autism
• that scientists are all in on the lie
• he knows the real truth, and you either with him and in on the 'real knowledge that big pharma doesn't want us to know', or are the enemy and he clams up to you.
• the government is trying to kill us all
• starmer is a lizard person!
• eats meat and eggs only. KETO!!! (but drinks lots of alcohol and is unable to give it up, so I'd label him an alcoholic?)
• former teen heavy smoker "who knew it was bad, but did it anyway " ... haven't even broached the subject that smoking cigs causes epigenetic changes in men causing development disorders in their children, because rfk hasn't said it.
• forces his very autistic, mentally retarded, children to take ivermectin because it cures autism - it's true, he's read and heard stories of it on facebook
• has forced his children to undertake harmful treatment like chelation (blood from one arm into the other), hyperbaric treatment (oxygen tank) and other cures-de-jour (that are illegal in the uk, so takes them abroad) because he read on facebook that it cures autism and saw other accounts that confirmed it.
• "Come here, it ain't that bad" as his youngest was crying after he forced something onto him and needed to do it again.
• has forced injections on them (this is starting to sound like the court of protection transcripts of some of the andrew tate kids and what their parents do, but this appears to be happening all around the world)
• buys drugs from abroad to give to the kids (that are prescription-only).
• i suspect has (ab)used his nhs position to obtain prescription-only dementia tablets (that a sh*t study said improved autism sympyoms) and diabetes medicine for the same reason
• doesn't believe in global warming (well... it's what 'they' say)
• anything that rfk jr hasn't said is 'what they say'.
• thinks fasting cures everything and big pharma doesn't want us to know because they can't charge for fasting and wanting his eldest to undertake a 7-day fast, and has forced-starved his youngest - or from his pov, his youngest (< 7 yo) has fasted for a day, with a proud smile.
• he thinks he cured an extremely rare form of parkinsons in seconds by asking himself... 'mhh what causes it? inflammation? what would treat that? fasting!' nodded his head and walked away.
• commits fraud aplenty
• has backache when work puts him on shifts he doesn't want to go to and is paid an obscene amount for it
• claiming benefits that they shouldn't
• ... and the infuriating part ... steals my food to feed his kids who stay once a week, unless you're the govt. and they live here all the time.

I'm going out of my mind that I have to pretend this has some sense of normality

I know, this is Actually Infuriating, but ... Also she didn't just leave the now-dead kid in the car, she left two in there to die, but one survived. My guess: with brain damage. "Always Beautiful Medical Spa" FFS. Duck lips were totally worth it.

A baby died after his mother left him and his 2-year-old sibling inside a car while she was getting lip filler at a Bakersfield medical spa on a 101-degree day, authorities said.

It is estimated that Hernandez’s children were in the vehicle without air-conditioning for 90 minutes, wrote Det. Kyle McNabb, noting that the internal temperature of a car can rise to a blistering 143 degrees in just one hour of 100-degree weather.

Hernandez told police she found her baby foaming at the mouth and having an apparent seizure after emerging from her procedure at Always Beautiful Medical Spa, according to the police report. She frantically dialed 911, and both her children were transported to a hospital for treatment.

By the time her 1-year-old arrived at Adventist Health hospital, he wasn’t breathing, had no pulse, his lips were blue, and he had an internal body temperature of 107.2 degrees

He's always wore sketchers. Like since he was 4. Recently, he got really emotionally taking about shoes he wanted for middle school. He said if he doesn't get Nikes he's going to get teased. Great fucking marketing work Nike.

Had a client today with a scanner issue and this happens.

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/new-illinois-bill-aims-to-increase-age-seniors-retake-driving-exam/3646023/?_osource=SocialFlowTwt_CHBrand

So this has been annoying me lately; drivers leaving excessive spacing when stopped for a red light. I get it, you don't want to be right on the next guys bumper, you should leave space to escape if the guy in front stalls or somebody tries to carjack you. But 2-3 car lengths? It really bugs me when they do it in a left turn lane causing a back up to the travel lane resulting in overall congestion. Or, if they're first at the light, they don't pull up far enough to reach the road sensors that trigger a light change. I haven't been able to isolate to a specific demographic, seems to be young, old, black, white, you name it. Maybe they're just stoned at the wheel. I'm tempted to roll down my window and ask 'wtf'? I'm in the Northeast US. Has anybody else witnessed this?

Waited weeks for this and was so excited it finally arrived today. Unboxed it, put it on charge, and....nothing. Won't boot up, no signs of life. He's dead, Jim.

Now I have to send it back and wait who knows how long if I want a replacement. Probably just going to ask for a refund; I can't wait another 4-6 weeks or wait for one to ship from the September batch. Ugh!

Mildly infuriating, highly disappointing.

Charlottesville, Virginia, spent most of a decade revising its zoning code.

It held endless community meetings.

It gave opponents ample opportunity to make their case.

They lost.

But a handful of rich homeowners sued and have gotten the new Charlottesville zoning code overturned on a technicality

https://communityengagement.substack.com/p/june-30-2025-judge-worrell-voids?r=blgf

https://www.cvilletomorrow.org/newsletter/nine-charlottesville-residents-who-own-expensive-properties-are-suing-to-stop-upzoning/

9 millionaire homeowners, who couldn't persuade Charlottesville residents and couldn't win at the ballot box, decided they would throw everything they had to nullify their defeat.

And it worked

For the first time in a long time, I have a woman asking me if I want to meet for a coffee.

I'd love to, but some fucking moron decided to dig without calling first and busted open a water main for the whole neighborhood and now I can't even take a shower. I am about to go to the store to buy a bunch of jugs of water just so I can flush the toilet.

No timeline on when it's going to be fixed, either.

Sometimes it really feels like the universe just likes to spit in my fucking face and then laugh at me.

A special "go fuck yourself" to Virginia Foxx and Mike Johnson.

Context

Alberta is a conservative Canadian province that is rich because they extract a lot of oil. The Alberta Government opposes all measures that could reduce oil-production or oil consumption.

For instance, when the Canadian Federal Government tried to take measures to reduce plastics pollution, the Alberta Government publically protested.

Calgary is the largest city in Alberta. The city has a traffic violence problem. Data shows it has the worse road deaths and injuries rate of any major Canadian city.

Jyoti Gondek, the Mayor of Calgary, recently suggested building more safe bike lanes to reduce car dependency. A few days later, her office received this warning letter

I'm using the 16's btw, so it's not like the older ones with the physical toggle

Of the 3 buttons in the red-outlined-box on this Brother printer control panel, which does what function? Grrr!

And from the glowing reviews it's clear that

1. W11 doesn't actually need a new PC to run and the limitations are completely artificial

2. For many people, a ten years old PC is fast enough (or even faster than a brand new Intel N100 PC that is officially W11 compatible). They won't even notice that's something from 2015, as long it has a shiny new case, enough RAM and SSD

3. Amazon doesn't care that the PC comes with pirated software, or that someone is scamming their customers, as long they get their 15% cut from marketplace sales (the cost of a genuine license of W11 pro and office exceeds the price of those ewaste specials)

It's a tube of glue that came with a phone repair kit. Thumb for scale.

I literally couldn't read it with the naked eye. Not that you'd want to, because once i saw the picture i realized that it's gibberish

And of course they had to shoehorn some AI bullshit in it

(why I installed this driver: because i can remap the two extra buttons as copy/paste)

I had $50 in venmo, which I used to purchase groceries, because my bank account is currently negative.

Instead of using the $50 in my bank account, instead, a week later the $50 came out of my bank account, not touching the Venmo balance at all.

So now I have an overdraft fee, effectively meaning I paid 1.5 times for those groceries.

I don’t have “overdraft protection,” I’ve told my bank I don’t want overdrafts to go through, but fuck me for being poor I guess.

Source: Duke Chronicle

https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2025/06/duke-university-national-institutes-of-health-cut-cancel-duke-research-nih-federal-funding-grants-trump-administrations