I speak not a word of Ukrainian, but that’s the stuff right there.

If RTO (return to work) mandates are driving senior talent away, then where is that talent going and who is replacing them?

I am the senior, top talent. I work from home and will never go back to an office again. I told my immediate manager and anyone else who would listen that if there ever was an RTO mandate enforced on me, I’d quit immediately (like, sign off right that second and never log in again) with no handover. Nothing. That was well over a year ago and I’m still here (and paid 20% more than I was then), so it had no adverse impact on my career.

If RTO were ever enforced, I’d be able to find another remote role in a few weeks. That’s what having rare certifications, expertise in 7+ areas (most IT people have 1-2) and 20+ years of experience gets you. My manager said — accurately — that if I were to go, they’d need to hire several people to fill my role as I handle everything from difficult networking, design and architecture to regulatory compliance and security. I also meet with customers routinely and do very well at this. I can schmooze with customers and then solve problems other IT people have spent weeks failing to fix. This set of skills is very, very, very difficult to find in one IT person.

I’ve worked hard to get where no one can tell me what to do. And no one will about RTO or any damn thing else.

Scrabble world championship 2023: Breaking down a nail-biter.

I absolutely could get this good at Scrabble but have no interest in doing so because it doesn’t pay enough. If the prizes were millions of dollars, I’d be there and killin’ it.

Why do men catcall women in the streets but you never see women do the same to men?

Women do it as well — depends on the context and environment. I’ve been catcalled by women from cars before, when walking alone at night in the army (when I was also really fit). It’s rarer but it does in fact happen.

Women almost always catcall in drunk groups, in my experience. Men do it in groups or alone.

Peregrine Falcon attacks a mallard in real time.

That is riduckulous. (Obligatory “Damn, nature, you scary.”)

The first ten on today’s playlist:

If I had kids, I’d not allow them to have social media until 16 and a smartphone till either 14 or 16. Sure, they’d try to sneak around it but there’s still a lot you can do without going full authoritarian.

Smartphones and social media (including TikTok) are just too obviously harmful. This is just the same as that I’d attempt to keep my kids from developing a raging meth habit. There’s about the same level of potential harm there, so you must do what you can.

By the way, again, that Nature anti-Haidt piece is just such utter shit. It commits more argumentative and factual errors than Trump speaking off the cuff. There is so much money involved of course Facebook, Apple, et al. will be spewing propaganda from any outlet that will allow it. And Nature hasn’t been worth a damn in many years.

Yeah, only complete doofuses bought anything in that Facebook-sponsored Nature hit piece. Lord, what a pile of shit.

Before the pandemic and then the predictable RTO push, I don’t think I really understood just how much of many people’s social needs were being met by work and office contact and activities.

I did not realize this because zero percent of my social needs are met in an office and never have been. Nearly none of my friends come from any workplace of mine and I actively attempt not to make friends where I work (with a few rare exceptions). Because why would you do that?

Put simply, I had no idea just how important shitty workplace interactions and friendships were to otherwise-deprived people. And it makes me sad that now I do know this.

I know this person is joking, but in terms of the left’s fucking insane power discourse, this is more actual power over someone than others they talk about incessantly (age, wealth, male/female, etc.).

Microsoft is Getting Stricter on Spam in Outlook.

This is actually a good change, and contra the fucking idiotic concealment of URLs in major browsers — which of course was to be friendly to ads and BS websites by making it harder for users to determine what site they had landed on. “Security” my ass. Only an absolute dipshit could believe that (many did, because propaganda works).

Kelly Clarkson reveals she started weight loss drug after her ‘bloodwork got so bad.’

So HAES is just bullshit? Who could have known? LOL. HAES was always a sad and transparent cope. I am legitimately glad these drugs are helping people. And she looks great. I bet the Fat Acceptance movement is probably scrambling now. Eggs, with heaps of cheese. And they are probably nervous, too, I’d guess.

Horror movies where the villain is so sympathetic that you root for them.

Lilly/Mr. Wriggles* in Late Night With the Devil. You just want her/it to lay waste to all those clowns exploiting her. And you’re not disappointed. Ingrid Torelli as Lilly is utterly terrifying in that film. Best performance in a horror I’ve seen since Toni Collette in Hereditary.

*From the context clues in the film. I believe that Lilly/Mr. Wriggles is now a single entity, so there is no longer a practical difference between them.