The American Experiment is well and truly coming to an end, and I think we can mostly agree that it is ending an abject failure.

The big question is: what comes next? Will it be the age of the American Empire, or the start of America’s Century of Humiliation?

Mind you, neither answer is a particularly good one - seeing as how the rest of the world has basically built itself up based off the foundation of a unipolar world.

We are cursed to live in interesting times.

I wonder if this has anything to do with the r/art mod tantrum that MoistCritical covered recently?

Just to clarify, the alkaline batteries like below are not rechargeable, and if you try you will have a bad time:

Energizer have their own range of rechargeable batteries, that look like this:

If you have an IKEA nearby, their LADDA (I think?) branded rechargeable batteries tend to be a quite affordable entry point.

…lol, yes! Unless it’s the EU, they managed to get on the USB-C standardisation pretty early - there’s a chance we might see something like this out of them before 2050 🤞🏻

I do worry about the Monkey’s Paw nature of capitalism though, with the regulations on vaping here accidentally causing a surge of ‘disposable’ vapes equipped with lithium ion batteries - ending up having something similar occur as a result.

Duplicating charging circuits also seems a bit wasteful, especially if manufacturers cheap out and use the lowest quality components - rather than having a high-quality centralised GaN charger or similar.

You have missed my point entirely. OP is disappointed that the Steam Controller doesn’t use AAs, while the Steam Frame controllers do.

Easily replaceable, rechargeable batteries are the best solution we as a society currently have for electronic devices. We can’t force people to not use disposables - so internals like that on the Steam Controller is the best-fit solution currently.

As an aside, we currently have ~20 or so AA Eneloops in circulation in our household currently, from TV and AC remotes, to children’s toys, to IOT devices.

In a world where every household has rechargeable AA batteries, absolutely - but until and unless we successfully regulate away disposable batteries this solution (internal battery, easy to replace thanks to Right to Repair) will likely remain the most realistic, environmentally friendly one.

Dang; thanks for finding that!

I keep keto/low carb to control my weight and appetite, hence the ask originally. At 8g/serve it’s still do-able as an occasional treat!

Again, I think it’s mostly because it’s iOS - but Brave seems to be the only browser that allows both Picture-in-Picture and background play while also blocking ads.

Both Safari and Firefox display ads, and struggle with PiP.

I’m on iOS so my options are rather limited, but I’ve had decent luck using Brave. Is there anything that the others do that a browser wouldn’t?

As long as their macronutrient profile resembles beef (ie. near to no carbs); I’d happily switch over!

While the Gaza Strip may have been reduced to rubble, its people still live on.

Additionally - the West Bank also exists, even if it too faces its own onslaught from the IDF and colonisers masquerading as ‘settlers’.

I meant it as Special Autonomous/Administrative Region, akin to how Hong Kong used to be prior to the Chinese Government crackdowns.

So ostensibly a self-governing region.

It’s a nice fantasy, which I’ll happily share with you.

Honestly feels like this should be a given once Putin falls, in the grand scheme of things.

Biggest question is whether it would be absorbed into Poland or Lithuania, or become its own SAR under the EU.

Here is an Australian Broadcasting Company (Aussie ABC, not to be confused with the US/Disney one), explaining what this all means: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-21/australia-recognises-state-of-palestine-two-state-solution/105799276

I don’t want to miss-state what is in the article, but it is a move in part to distance ourselves from the US position, and to help embolden other nations to also do so. With sufficient international backing (Australia is too small to be able to swing things by itself), recognition of a legitimate Palestinian government would include things such as embassies, passports, trade deals etc.

Unfortunately, although our brains have become desensitised over the past decade by over-the-top political bullshit - this is how things used to be handled in a more civilised time.

I hope that this is just a misunderstood pun?

Surely it’d be cheaper for them to switch to a more common media like cheap, crappy flash drives than sourcing out floppy drives?

I remember having to juggle something like 6 floppy disks just to load Dune II on our family’s old, hand-me-down Amiga 2000 back in the early-to-mid 90s. How is this still a fucking things 30+ years later?!

You are incorrectly conflating two different things:

The word holocaust existed in the English language prior to the 1930s, and was only later appropriated into the proper noun you reference to describe the Nazi’s systematic persecution and extermination of Jews, Poles, Romani and other ‘undesirable’ minority groups.

It derives from the Ancient Greek words “whole” (holos) & “burnt” (kaustos); and was used to describe large-scale destruction, either literally by fire, or figuratively as a descriptor for widespread ruin.

I used it intentionally to draw the attention to the similarities between the crimes that Israel are now perpetrating on the Palestinian people, to those perpetrated on Jews by Nazi Germany in the 30s & 40s.

Modern day Israel does not have exclusive rights to the term, nor the ability to use it as a bulwark against criticism for their current barbarism.

genocide holocaust

You remember those old “In Soviet Russia” backwards jokes? It’s like that, but unironically.

Putin has consolidated power to the point that he doesn’t serve at the behest of Russian billionaires; they only exist due to his whims - and they can cease to exist just as quickly.

‘Blowout’ by Rachel Maddow touches on this, it’s an interesting read/listen.