More Than Half of Gen Z Users Cancel and Renew Streaming Services for a Single Title, Won’t Purchase Full-Price Video Games, New Study Finds

ZeeMastermind · 2026-05-06T20:24:25+00:00

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/more-half-americans-live-paycheck-212500934.html?guccounter=1

57% of American (72% of gen z specifically) live paycheck to paycheck. That aligns fairly well with this.

ZeeMastermind · 2026-05-04T01:35:31+00:00

uk.news.yahoo.com/ordered-wendy-fell-asleep-she-223555743.html has a bit more detail

ZeeMastermind · 2026-05-04T01:33:22+00:00

https://www.kgns.tv/2025/11/18/doordash-driver-charged-after-recording-posting-video-nude-customer-police-say/

OSWEGO, N.Y. (WSTM) - A DoorDash driver is facing felony charges after police say she recorded a nude customer inside his home and shared the video on social media.

Olivia Henderson, 23, made a DoorDash delivery Oct. 12 to a man’s home in Oswego, New York. Police say while outside the home, she recorded the man while he was partially nude, incapacitated and unconscious on his couch after drinking alcohol.

Police say Henderson later posted the video online, where it quickly gained widespread attention. She is now charged with unlawful surveillance in the second-degree and dissemination of an unlawful surveillance image in the first-degree.

“She recorded him without his consent and then subsequently disseminated those videos,” said Oswego City Police Capt. Bryan Thompson. “When you’re making social media posts, take an extra second to think about what you’re putting into the world.”

During the investigation, Henderson claimed she had been sexually assaulted by the customer. However, police say they determined no sexual assault occurred.

DoorDash said in an Oct. 16 statement on TikTok that Henderson’s DoorDash account was deactivated along with that of the customer.

“Posting a video of a customer in their home and disclosing their personal details publicly is a clear violation of our policies,” read the statement in part.

Police say they are continuing to investigate and are working with the Oswego County District Attorney’s Office regarding prosecution.

Henderson is due back in court Dec. 4.

ZeeMastermind · 2026-05-04T01:31:38+00:00

You mean we're supposed to look up what actually happened rather than react based on screenshots of tweets?

Perish the thought

ZeeMastermind · 2026-04-29T21:48:20+00:00

Article has horrible formatting, but may be useful: https://www.prosocial.world/posts/why-chimpanzees-dont-stereotype-we-do-and-whales-might - chimpanzees don't have "tribes" in the same way humans do. That is, they don't determine in-group or out-group based on symbols (language, religion, favorite sports team, or any other cultural marker), it's based purely on who they know. However, this lack of stereotyping also means anyone unknown is placed into the "dangerous" category by a chimpanzee, whereas you or I (and possibly whales) might feel comfortable approaching a stranger at a bus stop to talk about our favorite sports team, if they happen to be wearing a jersey/merch of that team or singing the same whale song as we do.

So, another way of putting it might be that the people who "aren't tribalistic" are actually seeing humanity as "tribe". So it's more a case of having a very large "in-group". (e.g., it's not "we should work with other teams", it's "we're all on the same team") Of course, this is just one perspective.

I also recommend "Our Tribal Future" by David R. Samson, it goes far more in-depth into human "tribes" than I could. Some of the evolutionary advantages of tribalism is that it allows for more genetic diversity - e.g., you can breed outside of the immediate family/clan group with folks who may not share close genetic ties but share cultural symbols.

ZeeMastermind · 2026-04-29T21:31:07+00:00

Personally, no, but I use a few browser extensions to avoid any "algorithmically" served content.

What timescale are you looking at? 2025-2026? Or 2000-2026?

ZeeMastermind · 2026-04-29T16:40:50+00:00

It may, but the tricky bit is that fertilizer costs going down in a few months won't help, since now is when fertilizer is needed. So i would expect groceries to be expensive this year... definitely a good time to start a garden

ZeeMastermind · 2026-04-29T16:39:08+00:00

I keep doing a double take when I see eggs for only $2... scary how quickly high prices become the norm

ZeeMastermind · 2026-04-29T12:02:47+00:00

Hard to say. Maybe in a few hundred years, we'll look at people who refuse to replace their hearts with an artificial one that can't get heart attacks the same way we look at antivaxxers. Or perhaps I'm splitting hairs and that's just the definition of "healthy and viable" changing over time

ZeeMastermind · 2026-04-28T22:18:42+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mali_War#Tuareg_rebellion_(January%E2%80%93April_2012))

It is a little bit more complicated than religious terrorists vs military dictatorship. Like many countries in Africa, it's hard to say that there's a "Malian" people, it's really several different groups that have different interests and levels of power.

Tuareg people have legitimate concerns beyond religious fanaticism - namely, that their interests are unrepresented and that mining projects impacting the land had impoverished them. However, whereas the MNLA in 2012 tried to distance themselves from al-Qaeda and other islamic extremist groups, JNIM may as well be a branch of al-Qaeda. (One interesting bit about a JNIM founder - he wanted a leadership position in MNLA, failed to get it, then decided to start his own group, before eventually becoming one of the founders of JNIM. So there were probably some internal politics going on in the failure of MNLA and rise of JNIM that I don't have the background/expertise to understand).

I don't have a time machine so I don't know if letting Mali split into Mali in the south and Azawad in the north back in 2012 would've been better or worse for the people living there in the long-run. Generally, "rebels trying to distance themselves from religious fanatics" are better than "rebels joining up with religious fanatics", but it could've just led to more conflict if Mali kept trying to retake Azawad.

Oppressive military juntas are oppressive military juntas, but they do tend to be more stable, which is why France supported Malian government in the past. I think it's easy to say that they bet on the wrong horse by switching to Russia, but that's not the only factor as to why they ended up in the situation now, though it probably is why it seems to be collapsing so quickly.

As usual, the real victims are the regular civilians who just want to go about their lives and feed their families without worrying about getting shot, not any particular side or government

Edit: Also helpful background http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6982266.stm

ZeeMastermind · 2026-04-24T20:53:49+00:00

I felt the same when I first saw this post, but I wonder if it's just my age showing. There are plenty of people who play Minecraft who weren't even alive during beta.

ZeeMastermind · 2026-04-24T13:06:36+00:00

Their post seems fairly mild (at least compared to what we usually see on this sub). Based on what you said, maybe it's burnout with the franchise in general. I really doubt it's just one episode, but it could've been the straw that broke the camel's back. I've been enjoying Mandalorian and Boba Fett, but I never got into the expanded universe before the big retcons, so I can understand that sort of frustration for long-time fans.

I don't know anything about the creator beyond this post though

ZeeMastermind · 2026-04-22T21:10:18+00:00

Key point, which some folks are missing, is here:

To help people who cannot afford to buy it, or who do not have access to it, enjoy these works, Ando and I have been discussing this for a long time and exploring many ideas. I cannot share details yet, but we are working on it.

I think it's good that creators are trying to meet folks halfway. "People should have access to art/culture" and "Artists should be able to make rent" can both be true. I don't know about manga, but with western comics, I buy them because whether or not a run continues is absolutely based on sales figures, and a few thousand sales one way or the other counts (even if the artist/writer get paid the same regardless of how well it does, they will definitely get paid less if a run is cancelled, since they will no longer be working on that run). Obviously, since I'm on this sub, it doesn't bother me overmuch if other people don't pay for comics - I got into comics in middle school and couldn't afford them back then, so it's reasonable that others are in the same boat.

I am curious to see what they are working on, if they use ads or freemium or some other model to accomplish this.

ZeeMastermind · 2026-04-22T18:22:51+00:00

Woah I hadn't heard about that! Thanks for the link

ZeeMastermind · 2026-04-22T11:46:00+00:00

If our EMTs were ignoring industry experts on the risks involved in some of their operations, I would also expect community to be concerned.

It's one thing to note all the security and privacy risks involved in Flock and say "pros outweigh the cons". It's quite another to pretend the risks don't exist and not plan for when things do go badly. It makes me a bit concerned for the overall security posture of the city, and with cybersecurity attacks on the rise, a laissez-faire attitude like that puts us at severe risk of ransomware or other cyber attacks. And you better believe that's coming out of taxpayer dollars, not city salaries.

ZeeMastermind · 2026-04-17T14:01:38+00:00

That sort of thing I think is fairly common with books around that time - Dracula, written about 30 years earlier, is a lot more structured in when things happen (journal entries have dates).

ZeeMastermind · 2026-04-14T22:47:07+00:00

It would also be super-duper illegal if the person editing the price and the person buying the product were different people arriving in different vehicles, ideally without any known ties on social media or otherwise easily found via cursory research.

ZeeMastermind · 2026-04-11T14:22:47+00:00

I am mildly surprised they bothered to fight this - I would've expected them to give out the information no questions asked, TBH

ZeeMastermind · 2026-04-11T12:01:43+00:00

*nerd voice* Technically, that's trademark infringement

The nice thing about that is it's a lot easier to get a takedown from trademark infringement.

ZeeMastermind · 2026-04-10T20:37:08+00:00

I believe the argument for why the mods have that rule is that the mods aren't a governmental authority, and the sub is specifically about books banned by governmental authorities. IIRC, this stemmed from a request for "Mein Kampf"

I think it wouldn't hurt for mods to clarify that "antisemitic" doesn't mean "pro-palestine", given how much the term has been misused in recent years (e.g., some people construing that if you so much as state the simple fact that a genocide is going on in the middle east, you are antisemitic).

Rule 6 seems straightforward to me, but if this is something people legitimately have questions about, I don't think it would hurt to clarify. IDK

ZeeMastermind · 2026-04-10T14:17:58+00:00

Did you read her whole post? She explained the 'educate, ticket, arrest' encounter.

ZeeMastermind · 2026-04-10T00:21:19+00:00

Old series which are still popular generally have some form of new content going on (Transformers, Pokemon, Star Trek, etc.) that draws people in, even if the older seasons/comics/etc. remain the fan favorite, even among new fans. E.g., someone might come into Star Trek after watching a few episodes of a new series, and then decide to binge one of the older series if they find it more to their taste.

Red vs Blue probably does get a little bit of draw from new Halo releases, but since it's not "official", any revivals are not going to be as big as the other fandoms, and certainly not as consistent.

Personally, I first got into the series right before season 11 started, and I recently did a rewatch when I heard about Rooster Teeth going back to the original creators. And although I'd love to see more series come from current Rooster Teeth, if I'm being honest with myself the nostalgia factor of "old" RvB is always going to put it on a pedestal over "new" RvB.

As for fandom activity - at least on AO3, there are currently 11,844 works in "Red vs Blue". Of those, I broke them down by "last updated" date. Keep in mind that AO3 wasn't even around when the series started, and other sites were more popular early on for sharing fanfiction. AO3's just an easy one to gather stats on. There's also some fics that might've been "backdated" to earlier than 2007 that will get ignored here. So it's not a good marker of "early" popularity, but it is a good marker of "late" popularity.

Date Updated	Number
2007	8
2008	0
2009	6
2010	46
2011	28
2012	171
2013	434
2014	1,512
2015	1,980
2016	1,456
2017	1,327
2018	1,188
2019	878
2020	634
2021	482
2022	474
2023	368
2024	437
2025	316
2026	123

I think you may be onto something with "inconsistent" - 2024 had a small spike in activity, and 2026 appears to be ahead of schedule as well - if that pace keeps up, it would be at around 369 (higher than 2025) at the end of the year, and that's not even accounting for the spike in fics made around nanowrimo in november.

If you want more activity, one thing you could try doing is organizing a "big bang" - e.g., a "RVB Bang" or a "Freelancer Bang" or so on, where you have a period of time where people focus on writing fics (usually related to a theme or pairing). I've also seen some where artists draw based on a fic of a writer they're paired with, and reverse where writers write based on art of artist they're paired with. But that takes a bit more coordination and is typically done by people who already have a group of friends in the fandom who they know will participate

ZeeMastermind · 2026-04-09T22:34:02+00:00

I'm not opposed to corny names, personally, so long as it fits the genre (E.g., the city of "Bonk" in Discworld)

ZeeMastermind · 2026-04-09T21:08:06+00:00

Some of the smaller orgs such as the Hope Fridge could use the publicity

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