According to market research firm Mordor Intelligence, nearly 1 trillion liters of water were consumed by AI data centers in 2025.

I'm sorry, the market research firm is named what now?

You do know that when Germans use the German flag when protesting they commonly support Nazis causes, right?

Oh, get off your high horse.

I listen to Bach's "Weihnachtsoratorium"/Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248) every year. I play it specifically on December 24th when my kids, my wife and I do the decorations. I don't even like the Christmas Oratorio that much. But at least my wife knows why I excuse myself at times.

When I was little, on the evening of Dec 24th, we used do decorate the Christmas tree and my parents were adamant on playing the Christmas Oratorio at full volume when we did so. None of us are/were religious in any way, quite the contrary, but both of them were huge classical music fans. Especially my father used to be a massive Bach fanboy.

As a child who grew up learning to sing and to play several instruments, I hated this thing of theirs with a passion. I couldn't stand this music genre. It was so far removed from what I liked and what life entailed for me; it was the sound of getting me the fuck away from home. I couldn't deny it was a part of me, but it was a part that I despised.

Then, when I was in my early 20s, my Dad came down with aggressive cancer. After his last Christmas, we tried one last therapy which the doctors admitted was kind of experimental because the medication hadn't been tried on patients with cancer of that type or that far advanced.

We don't know what exactly happened. But this dear man, who had collected several dozen CDs of his favorite versions of Bach's pieces, who had been searching and saving for rare editions just to get all the "right" recordings, he suddenly… didn't understand his favorite music. And if you know baroque music - it takes some understanding to fully appreciate it.

He just didn't get it anymore. Something in his brain got rewired during those last few months. "They're playing it wrong!" he shouted angrily. It didn't matter that this was the same CD he had listened to for ten years. My sister tried singing folk songs with him - which he used to enjoy - and while he himself sang pitch-perfect, he was perfectly sure that "nothing was right". Have you ever seen a bed-ridden person go beserk? He winced when he turned, but he was infuriated. Eventually, we all gave up. There was no saving his love for music, it just… up and left him. One of the things which used to define him as a person was simply gone. All joy for any of it, evaporated, poof, without a trace. Cancer finally broke him, broke us. We buried him a few weeks later.

This one, minuscule, thing that he had saved to enjoy when he was old… he couldn't. A part of what my father was, in the matter of a few days, just vanished. There was little left for and left of him. I can't blame him for leaving before saying goodbye.

But I will never forgive the god I had never believed in for taking that last bit of joy away from a dying man.

Verily: "Jauchzet, frohlocket! Auf, preiset die Tage! Rühmet, was heute der Höchste getan!"

Looking at all the things that make German hard to learn (e.g. 4 grammatical cases for 3 genders, tons of irregular verbs, different pre- and suffixes for the same meaning...), I don't get the joke "haha look at that long word".

They're perfectly readable unless you skip on learning your vocabulary. So what you're saying is you haven't been doing your homework.

Nahrungsmittelunverträglichkeit:

• Nahrung - sustenance
• Mittel - resource or means
• Nahrungsmittel - means of sustenance, foodstuffs (the s ist just a connector without meaning)
• un - negating prefix, as in English
• verträglich - tolerable, agreeable, so "unverträglich" = intolerable
• keit - a suffix making a noun out of the preceding adjective, so "intolerable" > intolerance

Me, as a European:

Culturally, not much has changed since.

The post alone makes me angrier than the cooking result, and that's saying something.

It looks like student cuisine. Is it really so reprehensible that someone improvises with limited resources? To me, it shows a lot of potential because the good will is there.

People have different skill sets and levels. So, instead of looking down on it, maybe next time you should cook with him instead of arrogantly posting a photo for praise from people who, unlike this person, have no influence on your life?

Pro tip: Cooking together is a fantastic date.

Václav Havel, Czech dissident, writer and statesman: “Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something is worth doing no matter how it turns out.”

(Quoted from Rewriting the Future by Susan Kaye Quinn)

Reframing hope as a motivator instead of a passive expectation has helped me gain a bit of footing concerning my outlook on the state of the world.

There is worth in small changes like this one. It is alright to acknowledge it when good things are happening, even if they don't (immediately or ever) lead to the desired outcome.

Don't be disheartened.

Thank you for elaborating, no notes. I am now perfectly at ease with the current state of affairs.

Edit: I'll note that almost every reply here is just insulting me.

No, they're not. We all know you're getting the reaction you wanted and expected. Stop playing the victim.

one side is saying how shit you are and how you deserve nothing. it's only women who are worthwhile and you should just fuck off and die.

Except this is a right-wing talking point and a misrepresentation of what left-wing ideals encompass.

the other side is saying 'do this and you'll be successful', it sucks right now but you will get there if you try.

Except that's not what they communicate, because while they offer "solutions" (mostly towards a rather suppressive and overly strict understanding of gender stereotypes) they immediately find in and shift the blame for young men's problems towards an out-group, such as the "radical left" and LTBGQ people.

In fact, I find it's the right that actively hates me for just being me because I don't conform to their idea of what a man is, even though I'm a cis-hetero white male.

"Don't try to find your own way because this is what you need to be, and everything else is degenerate and shameful."

I know which I find more appealing.

This one made me feel a lot of things.

Many of the songs I sing are ones that once made others think of me. It still hurts.

Some of the images I draw from are what others made for me. I still dream of them.

Sometimes, there's a scent passing me by, from their kitchen, his hiding spot, her bedroom. I'm still there.

I may have to lay down for a bit.

Same, I'm also almost 19 months in, after so many tries.

How did you do it?

Turns out what I needed wasn't an iron will but to understand why I smoked. I tracked every cigarette for two weeks, writing down the time and the reason - boredom, a context switch ("I just arrived at the office, now I need to get ready"), anxiety, needed a break...

Once I had that, I could start identifying the reasons for my cravings more easily, which in turn made it easier to switch to a healthier alternative, knowing the craving would pass.

Another two weeks later, I had already cut down my consumption from like 20 to 5 cigarettes a day, which felt wildly empowering. At that point, quitting entirely felt doable, so I did. That feeling made me excited to quit.

I mean, it was still not a walk in the park, but motivation was so much higher than before. I still used nicotine spray for a while to help with the worst cravings.

I am. And don't call me Shirley.

Ich übe mich in Resilienz, in lächelndem Gleichmut und Achtsamkeit. Es ist mir nicht egal, was passiert, aber ich muss genau hinsehen, was mich erreicht und was ich selbst bewirken kann. Die Unzufriedenheit über Dinge, die ich nicht ändern kann, schadet mir.

Inspiriert vom Gedicht "there's laundry to do and a genocide to stop": Ich werde nicht die großen Probleme unserer Zeit lösen (können), sofern ich nicht mein Leben vollständig umwerfe - und das wird nicht ohne dramatische Einflüsse passieren.

Ich muss also lernen, dass ich mache was ich kann, und dass dennoch Dinge nicht in meiner Macht liegen.

Daher meditiere ich, übe mich im Freuen an meinen Hobbies und meiner Familie, engagiere mich in einer gemeinnützigen Organisation, lege öfter mal das Handy ganz weit weg und hole mir mein "Erspartes" von den grauen Herren zurück, indem ich mich ab und zu mal von der Langeweile einnehmen und die Dinge ihre Zeit dauern lasse.

Ich glaube: Ich versuche, in dem bisschen Zeit, die mir bleibt, für "meine Menschen" und mich selbst der beste Mensch zu sein, anstatt der für andere am wenigsten belastende Mensch. Die Welt wird nicht besser davon, dass ich nervös und wütend und zynisch bin - aber meine Welt wird es, wenn ich meinen Weg in Ruhe gehe.

Das schaffe ich zwar nicht oft, aber es wird.

Schritt, Atemzug, Besenstrich.

Dr Johnny Ryan said "Today's court's decision shows that the consent system used by Google, Amazon, X, Microsoft, deceives hundreds of millions of Europeans. The tech industry has sought to hide its vast data breach behind sham consent popups. Tech companies turned the GDPR into a daily nuisance rather than a shield for people."

That sounds refreshingly direct.

[…] und wie sieht euer Beitragszähler so aus?

Jessas. Dieser dahingeworfene Halbsatz hat mich auf eine mentale Odysee heute Abend gezwungen. Ich wünschte, ich könnte dir vorwerfen, dass du mich damit dazu zwingst, dass ich mein Zutun in diesem Leben mit Zahlen verbinde. Ich kann mich aber nicht ansatzweise mit deinen Beiträgen messen. Das hat mich wütend gemacht und das wollte ich dir vorwerfen.

Aber ich kann nicht. Ich möchte dich ablehnen, allein wegen deines Namens (mal ehrlich, JENS) und weil du von oben auf mich herabblickst.

Und dann höre ich dieses schiefe Klavier* und fühle mich wie dieses Instrument, das gegen Schreien und Lachen und Geschirrklappern angeht und nicht hierhin gehört und nicht da sein sollte und schon lange von niemandem mehr beachtet wird, bis irgendwer, WEISS GOTT WER, weiß, dass aus diesem kaputten Ding noch etwas zu holen ist, was irgendjemanden auch nur ein kleines bisschen fröhlich macht. Ein Jemand, der sich ein amüsiertes Schnaufen nicht verkneifen kann, wenn auf einmal doch eine Geschichte entsteht.

Und dann wünsche ich mir, dass es mehr Menschen gibt, die andere dazu ermutigen wollen, mehr von ihrem Wissen zu teilen, mehr zu machen mit den verstimmen Klavieren, mehr nachzusehen, mehr auszuprobieren, mehr zu lächeln, wenn das Richtige aus dem Schiefen kommt.

Tut mir leid. Ich brauchte heute Abend jemanden als Publikum. Offenbar gehörst du heute dazu.

* PILLARS - Coda

Most likely because International Men's Day was established in 1999 and this comic is way older than that.

She's pretty based, I'm sure this fictional figure would probably at least acknowledge it. But that's not what you meant, did you.

Camel Ham.