Tag: How We Live Now

Denver Water – Good Stuff

Damn Denver, you guys have some real scrumptious water. Even the stuff coming out of the shower in my cheap motel was delightful. Thanks for paying the taxes that make this possible!

(Also, please don’t tell me that your water has dangerously high levels of mercury or is implicated in regular cholera outbreaks. I need to believe that at least one thing in this world is pure.)

https://www.reddit.com/r/Denver/comments/1tk6sru/denver_water_appreciation/

pmurcsregnig
That was one of the first things I noticed when I moved here. Fresh and crisp

wineandwings333
It is good. Every time i travel the water disturbs me

Everyone Is Lying to You for Money – Official Trailer

In Everyone Is Lying to You for Money, actor and author Ben McKenzie turns investigator, pulling back the curtain on the cryptocurrency industry and the culture of hype, misinformation, and speculation that fueled its explosive rise. What began as a promise of financial freedom has evolved into a volatile ecosystem rife with fraud and reckless gambling, carrying with it devastating consequences for everyday people.

Denver – Record Breaking Heat in 2026

As of May 13, 2026, Denver is experiencing its hottest start to a year on record, with the January-through-April period surpassing previous records by a wide margin. Driven by La Niña and a warming climate, 2026 has brought record-breaking temperatures, including a 130-year high-temperature record broken in March.  
2026 Record-Breaking Heat Highlights 
  • Hottest Start to Year: January–April 2026 was the warmest on record for Denver and Colorado, with average temperatures > 2 degrees F higher than previous records.
  • March Records: March 2026 was the warmest on record in Denver, with temperatures reaching 85 degrees F on March 19, breaking a 119-year-old daily record.
  • March 24th Heat: On March 24, 2026, the city reached 77 degrees F, breaking a daily record set back in 1896. 

via Google AI

Ryan Gosling – Gen Z Slang – Dialogue

@jeremylynch If Hollywood movies used Gen Z slang 😂 #ProjectHailMary ♬ original sound – JeremyLynch

Google AI:

“No cap” is a popular slang phrase meaning “no lie,” “for real,” or “truthfully,” used to emphasize that a statement is genuine or serious. Originating in Atlanta-based hip-hop and African American Vernacular English (AAVE), it spread to mainstream usage in the late 2010s to denote sincerity.Key Aspects of “No Cap”:Definition: “Cap” means a lie or exaggeration; therefore, “no cap” means the opposite—telling the truth.Usage: It is frequently added to the end of a statement for emphasis, e.g., “That food was great, no cap”.Origins: Rooted in early 2010s Southern hip-hop, often associated with rapper “NoCap” (Kobe Vidal Crawford Jr.), who is an American rapper known for his emotional style.

War Crimes in the News

DETROW: That’s what the press secretary says. The Pentagon has repeatedly said, the United States does not deliberately target civilians, and yet the president is talking about attacking a desalination plant. Would that be a war crime?

RONA: Absolutely, Scott, both under international law and U.S. law. We have a War Crimes Act that prohibits precisely this kind of thing. It would also be a violation of laws against terrorism. It’s prohibited to engage in attacks in armed conflict where the primary purpose is to spread terror among the civilian population. If you’re targeting a desalination plant, then that would be an act of terrorism.

DETROW: Help us understand a little bit more just ’cause I think you cannot overexplain this enough, right? Like, here’s an example. In the early days of the war, it seems like the United States accidentally bombed a girls school. What is the difference between something like that and deliberately attacking civilian infrastructure like a desalination plant?

RONA: So the difference is that even though one might have been mistaken and the other intentional, under U.S. law, both intentional and mistaken attacks that aren’t pursuant to due diligence can be war crimes.

https://www.npr.org/2026/04/01/nx-s1-5766235/who-is-held-accountable-if-a-war-crime-is-committed-in-iran

No Kings Protest – March 28, 2026

In big cities and small towns across the world, protesters gathered for thousands of rallies against President Trump and his policies and actions, with the self-stated goal of fighting dictatorship.

Chicagoans gathered at Grant Park, where Saira Bensett, 60, a retired zoological worker, described the turnout as cathartic.

“When I watch the news it’s often too much — the emotions I feel make me feel like I’m alone,” she said. “So I wanted to be here to feel like I’m not by myself.”

A Show of Defiance Across the Nation
It’s the third time that the coalition behind the “No Kings” movement has organized events to protest President Trump and his policies. In the United States, more than 3,000 demonstrations were planned.

Exceptionally High Temperatures – Denver – March 2026

DENVER (KDVR) — Denver weather broke the all-time record high temperature for March hitting 85 degrees on Thursday, and heat in the coming days is expected to shatter that record, too.

Before this week, the highest temperature ever recorded during March in Denver was 84 degrees, set on March 26, 1971, according to National Weather Service data.

Denver had it’s hottest March day ever recorded with Thursday’s record-breaking high temperature

Borg – The Drink – Defined, Usage of

@grok explains in detail the situation in that video
The video shows a chaotic St. Patrick’s Day weekend scene on a downtown Chicago sidewalk outside Amorino gelato. Revelers carrying “Borgs” (gallon milk jugs filled with vodka, Kool-Aid-style mixers, electrolytes, and green food dye) dumped or spilled dozens of them, creating a slippery mess of white/green liquid, empty jugs, and cans.

Chicago PD officers respond: one in a black jacket bends down repeatedly picking up jugs and cans while another in a neon vest joins to help contain the spill amid the crowd of green-clad partiers watching and filming. The original post humorously calls the soaked officer a ” rat” looking rough after a “weekend in the sewers” from the boozy cleanup. Classic Chicago chaos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borg_(drink)

A borg (sometimes BORG, short for blackout rage gallon) is a mixed drink made in a plastic gallon jug, generally containing water, vodka, flavored drink mix such as MiO or Kool-Aid, and sometimes electrolyte mix such as Pedialyte. The drink gained popularity at universities in the United States in the early 2020s, spreading among members of Generation Z on TikTok in late 2022 and early 2023. A borg is designed to be held and consumed by one individual throughout a party, distinguishing it from older communally-served party drinks (which may have similar ingredients) such as jungle juice and punch. Drinkers typically label their borg jug with a nickname, often a pun on the word “borg.”

In popular culture
The 2024 Broadway adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, directed by Sam Gold, prominently featured a borg as a prop, held by Lord and Lady Capulet (portrayed by Sola Fadiran) throughout the play and used by Romeo (Kit Connor) to ingest the poison pill at the play’s climax. Described by Today as “Chekhov’s borg”, the jug was labeled with various Shakespearean puns at each performance, including “to borg or not to borg” and “William Shakesborg”.

Agentic vs Mimetic

The future will belong to people with a very specific combination of personality traits and psychosexual neuroses. An AI might be able to code faster than you, but there is one advantage that humans still have. It’s called agency, or being highly agentic. The highly agentic are people who just do things. They don’t timidly wait for permission or consensus; they drive like bulldozers through whatever’s in their way. When they see something that could be changed in the world, they don’t write a lengthy critique—they change it. AIs are not capable of accessing whatever unpleasant childhood experience it is that gives you this hunger. Agency is now the most valuable commodity in Silicon Valley. In tech interviews, it’s common for candidates to be asked whether they’re “mimetic” or “agentic.” You do not want to say mimetic. Once, San Francisco drew in runaway children, artists, and freaks; today it’s an enormous magnet for highly agentic young men. I set out to meet them.

Child’s Play
Tech’s new generation and the end of thinking
by Sam Kriss
Harper’s Magazine

Note – Interesting article on San Francisco’s tech culture

Somehow people manage to live here. But of all the strange and maddening messages posted around this city, there was one particular type of billboard that the people of San Francisco couldn’t bear. People shuddered at the sight of it, or groaned, or covered their eyes. The advertiser was the most utterly despised startup in the entire tech landscape. Weirdly, its ads were the only ones I saw that appeared to be written in anything like English:

hi my name is roy
i got kicked out of school for cheating.
buy my cheating tool
cluely.com

Colorado State University – Annoying Billboards and

After months of pressing forward with billboard installations around campus against the wishes of the city of Fort Collins and many residents, Colorado State University has paused installation of additional signage for the time being. CSU tells CBS Colorado they have elected to stop further installation of new signs until they can evaluate next steps.

https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/colorado-state-university-billboards-installations-backlash/

Mass Market Paperbacks – End of

Rest in peace, mass market paperbacks.

As reported by Publishers Weekly, book distributor ReaderLink will “stop distributing mass market paperback books at the end of 2025 … the latest blow to a format that has seen its popularity decline for years.”

There are several causes of death for the mass market paperback. One is the reduced cost of designing and producing books in the now ubiquitous trade market format. The cheaper price point for a mass market book is no advantage when it isn’t also cheaper to manufacture.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/27/biblioracle-mass-market-paperbacks/