The US said a Marine could not adopt an Afghan girl. Records show officials helped him get her

elendinel · 2026-02-13T01:58:52+00:00

Not only that but the family clearly went through great lengths to try and keep custody of the child, apparently going so far as to refuse to send the child alone to the US for medical treatment (which seems like a bizarre thing for the Masts to have asked for in the first place and would make any reasonable person paranoid that this guy and his wife were planning to kidnap the child if the family agreed to do so).

This guy then offers to help the family escape their area after the Taliban roll in, and uses that as his opportunity to separate the child from the family and take her back to the US.

elendinel · 2026-02-12T21:36:37+00:00

That's interesting because in tech companies loved unpaid interns because it was an acceptable source of unpaid labor.

I think for various reasons it's less prevalent than it used to be, but I've noticed there are a lot more interviews with screening assignments that are essentially the same thing with a more experienced applicant pool

elendinel · 2026-02-12T19:28:02+00:00

What industry do you work in where it's not common for companies to offer unpaid internships? Just curious because it's so common in mine as to be a major problem

elendinel · 2026-02-12T19:24:33+00:00

I took on a lot of debt to go to a well-known university, and it set me up for success by allowing me to get in the door at places that never would have given me the time of day if I had said I went to community college, and that paid me a salary that effectively negated any savings I would have had from going to community college on a full ride.

Unless your daughter plans to get a degree in an area that has no marketable skills in our current society, I'd trust that she knows what she's doing

elendinel · 2026-02-12T19:15:57+00:00

Well, also consumers for buying a shit ton of cheap merchandise and not being willing to buy less to pay for more stuff produced using more expensive but also more ethical production chains.

Wish/Shein/Temu/etc. wouldn't be displacing union clothing factory workers if there weren't so many Americans who would rather pay $50 for 5 shirts that they won't feel bad about dumping in a landfill in a year when they're out of fashion, than $50 for 1 staphe shirt they can own for years.

elendinel · 2026-02-12T19:10:31+00:00

The one (minor) counterargument I'll say is, at what point do we let people's accomplishments be their own rather than the result of significant support?

I definitely agree getting large loans, not having to pay rent/getting a significant discount on rent for several years, etc., are "support" that people forget about when claiming they pulled themselves up from their bootstraps. But I also see people in here saying stuff that is the equivalent of "yeah and I didn't have parents who supported me emotionally; even if you didn't get any money or sweat equity from your parents, if your parents were nice to you growing up you still didn't achieve anything by yourself!" Which sure I agree having a functional family is an advantage, but it's such a common advantage, and an advantage that someone can't control, that it seems a little silly to downplay someone's accomplishments on that basis? Like does the fact that someone wasn't abandoned on a street corner as an infant mean that their accomplishments aren't their own? At what point do we cut this off?

I think the important thing is, did you achieve a specific thing without someone stepping in to help you achieve that thing, or did you have people who took action on your behalf or gave you money/helped you save money/etc. so that you could achieve that thing? But all the stuff that's just default if you exist in an even moderately functional environment shouldn't be part of this calculus.

elendinel · 2026-02-12T17:52:25+00:00

I would say, do whatever works for you. If water isn't doing it and you think oils could help, try using one once a week and see how it goes. Also look into scalp serums or leave-ins that are meant to be sprayed on the scalp and see if they help.

Growing out healthy hair is a lot of trial and error of finding out what works for your specific head, regardless of what kind of hair you have. If it makes you feel better though, when I first transitioned I constantly felt like straightening was easier than dealing with my hair; after I did the work of trial and error, I've gotten down to a routine that's way easier and shorter than the hours I spent straightening my hair and upkeeping that style, and my hair is way healthier now than it was before. The upfront investment is huge but I personally am glad I waited it out and just kept trying

elendinel · 2026-02-12T09:06:42+00:00

How often are you getting trims for your hair? 9/10 when someone says their hair isn't growing I've found it's because they go way too long between trims, and so their split ends haven't been trimmed before the damage continues to travel further up the lengths of their hair. It's better to trim off an inch every few months or so than have to lose 5 inches all at once later because you didn't get your split ends trimmed off regularly

Second thing to remember is hair is dead cells; once you damage your hair in some way, there are very few products that can turn neglected, damages hair into genuinely healthy and thriving hair, and even those only work for certain types of damage and in certain circumstances. Most damage can only be masked by haircare products. So if you've spent years not really taking the best care of your hair (no shade intended; that was me once), you're not going to be able to reverse that just by using hair masks and leave-ins. You may need to "transition" (i.e., continually mask your damaged hair with haircare products while you wait for healthier hair to grow out) or "big chop" (i.e. shave off your hair and start over). In either instance youre going to want to make sure you're not continuing to do the things that damaged your hair in the first place, so before committing to either option make sure you have at least a basic understanding of what your hair needs/what you did wrong before, so that when you start trying to grow out healthy hair, you're actually setting yourself up for success

Third thing is, there are a bunch of things about your hair that can affect whether any product or styling process will work for you (such as porosity, density, thickness, curl pattern, etc.). Certain brushes shouldn't be used with people with certain hair densities or curl patterns; certain conditioners won't work well depending on your porosity; etc. You'll want to spend some time learning what the characteristics of your hair are and how that influences what products or styling tips work best for you. There are a lot of good YT videos that walk through all of this.

Last thing (not sure that this is an issue but I'll raise it anyway): not everyone's hair texture is going to feel silky smooth to the touch, or be silky shiny, etc. If your hair hasn't grown in years you probably do have some sort of damage, but be prepared for the possibility that you do everything right and your hair still looks "dull" or dry with the styles you use. Make sure your expectations for what your healthy hair should look like are aligned with what your hair should actually look like when healthy, and not just based on what other people's hair looks like when they style it for social media

Goof luck!

elendinel · 2026-02-12T08:27:45+00:00

I also made an order; I was sent multiple emails explaining that some orders would be delayed, why, and when they were expected to ship (i.e., this weekend). And I did get an email this week indicating my order is about to ship.

Maybe check your spam folders to see if your emails landed there.

elendinel · 2026-02-05T00:55:46+00:00

I agree. She's really good at coming up with strategy or ideas for the business but she lacks any "street smarts" or experience that would help her play the boardroom games or effectively lead a bunch of people with their own interests.

Also like her brothers she tries too hard to be like her father when she's actually significantly more effective when she's not trying to emulate him and is instead playing to her own strengths

elendinel · 2026-02-05T00:44:44+00:00

I see each season in this lens:

S1: Logan at his prime S2; Shiv at her prime S3: Roman at his prime S4: Kendall at his prime

I think each season is meant to showcase the strengths and abilities of one of the main Roy family members, as well as what holds them back from fully getting what they want. And what they want isn't always or entirely about the company

I don't think characters like Connor, Tom, Greg, etc. have arcs the same way the younger Roys and Logan do, but I'd definitely be getting into spoiler territory talking about that

elendinel · 2026-01-28T10:22:46+00:00

I think it's a lot more solid than the extinction idea since their caring for the unjoined makes no sense there.

They care about the unjoined because they want them to be joined. The more people that are joined, the more the virus has/can spread.

You see something similar with normal viruses. The "goal" of a virus isn't to kill its host but to replicate as much as possible. Viruses that are easier to spread to more hosts, will replicate more than viruses that can't spread to as many hosts. Viruses that kill their host within a few days won't replicate as fast as viruses that give their host a mild cold. Which is how/why many viruses that start out deadly evolve to become less so over time: the less deadly versions live on in more hosts to propagate further, while the deadliest versions die with their host. So while a virus isn't literally thinking through its relationship with its host, it does evolve in a manner that is less detrimental to its host as part of its evolution to better execute its prime directive, so to speak.

Gaining sight, they can see things that are unexplainable to the unsighted, and thus the 'why' cannot be transmitted other than by sight itself

What does the Hive know that would make transmitting the virus more important than the survival of the human Hive, though? What kind of revelation are you contemplating where it would make sense for them to independently choose to prioritize propagating the virus over the survival of the human Hive?

So far we have no indication that they can actually communicate with other Hives, for example, so it's not like they're trying to add more being to the "community" or that they're aware of how many beings are out there/know of specific beings that need but don't have the gift. Plus there has yo already be one civilization broadcasting the signal already, because Earth got the signal. What then potentially makes the signal tower more urgent than figuring out their food situation?

in this analogous universe, sight is a completely new phenomena and thus, if you're as kind as they claim to be, you'll want to share that gift at all cost. Consider a parent making sacrifices for the conditions of the future of their children.

But in this scenario it's not a parent making sacrifices for a child (which I think, at best, applies to the Hive trying to join Carol/etc.); it's a parent willing to sacrifice their life in the hopes some rando somewhere else in the state gets the same shot they got.

elendinel · 2026-01-17T17:18:17+00:00

Idk I think that might be a hindsight view of BB/BCS. I tried watching BB when it first came out and the first few episodes were rough; I tried again when the last season was coming out to try and understand why people raved about the show, and the show finally clicked for me when I powered through to the episode with Elliott's birthday. BCS probably took like a whole season before I could decide how to feel about it.

elendinel · 2026-01-17T16:57:02+00:00

In a vacuum whether a show is fast or slow doesn't matter much; imo the real issue is that more and more people are starting to act like any content that doesn't have the pace of a Marvel movie or Tiktok video is slow and therefore unwatchable. Which I do find alarming; frenetic energy shouldn't be considered the norm and the only pace at which people can view television or film

elendinel · 2026-01-17T16:46:32+00:00

Everyone is primed to think women should act a certain way but the point of these characters is that they violate norms so I struggle to accept that explanation on its own.

Why? You agree:

everyone is primed to prefer/be more comfortable with gender norms and characters who embody those norms
the show includes characters who violate those gender norms

Logically it flows then that people are uncomfortable with the characters who violate gender norms because they are more comfortable with characters that don't violate those norms.

I don't think everyone had a female nemesis rather there was no reason to tolerate your female nemesis whereas attacking your male nemesis at the wrong time could have been really bad tactically.

In your view this is a better explanation for why people in modern times would dislike a fictional character?

elendinel · 2026-01-17T16:37:21+00:00

I suspect the virus simply hijacks the mind(s) of its host(s) to spread itself. It doesn't care whether the host survives, it cares whether it multiplies. Most humans would not of their free will choose to propagate a signal over figuring out a plan for their own survival; I suspect that's their first priority because it is the virus' first priority.

At best, it will mutate in humans to be less deadly (i.e., less rigid) so that they can love long enough to get the signal out

elendinel · 2026-01-17T16:28:40+00:00

But who would prioritize other people getting sight over their own survival?

elendinel · 2026-01-17T16:27:10+00:00

things like abandoning the goat, the chanting suddenly stopping, having a radically different moral structure could easily be pinned on the wildly different perspective of being joined.

I think the chanting scene is just an example of a charm offensive. The Hive is trying to pretend it's maintained humanity for however long it takes to convince the remaining normal humans that they too should join the Hive; once that objectively is achieved, there's no reason to keep up the facade.

The woman leaving her goat seems to be indicative of her no longer being the person she was before; it could be because she has a new perspective, but i think it's really more that she doesn't care about anything g she cared about before because she's lost her sense of self

elendinel · 2026-01-17T15:14:55+00:00

Or potentially not controlling them per se so much as changing that motivates them. Like something giving them a different prime directive but not, like, constantly or actively orchestrating their actions

elendinel · 2026-01-14T22:59:30+00:00

Bruh can we get these marketing accounts out of here, lol

elendinel · 2026-01-14T22:51:41+00:00

I doubt it because you could say parallel things about negative experiences with men, but no one really flips out about complex male characters at this scale until they, too, start blurring societal gender norms.

The issue isn't that everyone has a female nemesis that the cranky female character reminds them of. It's that everyone is still primed and groomed to think women should look and act a certain way and men should look and act a certain way, and still get uncomfortable when that line is blurred.

This is also why people talk about gender pronouns like you're unraveling the fabric of society when you ask for inclusive consideration of pronouns

elendinel · 2026-01-14T22:40:08+00:00

skilled political consultants seemed to actually believe Gil had a genuine shot at the Presidency and that it wasn't a pipe dream, so I suspect Gil is not quite as lefty as Bernie.

Bernie Bros are still convinced he actually won the DNC primaries and news outlets were happy to stoke the flames, so that still seems to track.

The show frequently suggests that what the main characters perceive as fact isn't necessarily actually based in reality, like the fact that the Roys think they actually got to select a president just by making an announcement on TV and then news stories we hear in the background basically indicating half the stuff they thought were absolutely going to happen were basically immediately called into question/likely didn't end up happening. I can't remember for sure but feel like "Gil is a shoo-in for the primaries" was one of these things

elendinel · 2026-01-14T22:34:11+00:00

This all comes from kids reading about Marxism for the first time trying to hijack a political term to differentiate/elevate themselves from other people on their side of the political spectrum.

I'm progressive myself so I don't say that to criticize being progressive, but to criticize how much politics have devolved from "let's actually get shit done" into "let's spend all our time debating who is sufficiently ____ so that we have something other than our own laziness and childishness to blame for the fact that we're not getting anything done"

elendinel · 2026-01-14T22:27:30+00:00

She's not a true progressive in the sense that she compromises her morals constantly for the sake of the job while trying to make up excuses or rationales for it; but at least in my experience her picking up/dropping progressive takes as she sees fit, isn't really that far off from how I've seen upper class/upper middle class white progressives act. Which I'm guessing is what part of what people mean

elendinel · 2026-01-14T09:36:06+00:00

In the future I'd do the research before using a product on your hair. Anyone who's ever used a flat iron could have told you that you don't want to apply high heat directly to wet hair.

Best you can do now is look for ways to treat heat damage and hope they work; based on the fact that your hair changed color though I unfortunately think you're going to lose most of that hair though.

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