Merv's Politically Incorrect Audio Blog

Short sellers are dialing it up. Maybe WallStreetBets will give them a pump before they hit zero.

 

People watch too many sci-fi movies. Remember when Stanley Kubrick made 2001 in 1968, thinking we'd be doing all that crazy exploration by then? It's a pipe dream. Most novel stuff just doesn't happen and things mostly remain constant and any real progress is stopped or slowed severely by political influences. The space race just ended up being paranoia about Russia dropping nukes on us from orbit.

The incel market isn't big enough to sustain a multi billion dollar business... and who wants to hang out with incels in anything other than a forum like environment which allows the anonymity they crave? Other incels? There's a reason they're incels. There's no growth market there.

Something like 80% of twitter users are inactive, meaning they actually socialize in real life. And how many of that tiny social media market that is active wants to wear VR gear for any length of time? I'm sure you can find similar numbers with fb and IG.

The vast majority of people are casual social media users, and want nothing to do with VR. Even kids using VR today still want to be popular in their peer group, and that means socializing in real spaces, having real sex, which means real procreation, which means real job to support the eventual family, none of which leaves time for VR for maybe anything other than video games. If you're going to spend time in VR, and only have a limited window, are you going to spend time with VR Call of Duty or be in some dumb, virtual hangout area?

I think any real future with VR will be augmented reality/holograms, because it allows for real socialization in real spaces without wearing machinery.

 

But Japan

 

I'm an occasional user of instagram. If I was less lazy, I'd post more, because most of the musicians I photograph are there. I send them concert pics: I'm happy if they post them.

I can see what Instagram wants me to be interested in everytime I do a search. As I also follow some classical dance, I get plenty of suggestions that are ahem, not quite classical. Especially if I do click on something because, hey, she's pretty and I'm human. I've learnt it's worth making a big effort not to do that!

Under another account, I mostly follow engineers and machinists, because that's one of my kinds of porn. Of course, it is ADstergram, really... but what gets me is that, for all Zuck's money going into following, analysing, targeting, etc, they are actually lousy at it. I'd take one look at that account and say, hey, send that guy machines/tools ads! But Zuck's programming isn't that clever, so I just get misc. crap most of the time.

There is heaps and heaps and heaps of content on Instagram (probably facebook too?) that is very far from the stereotypes mentioned here, although I can believe that Zuck would love to get rid of it!

I guess instagram started with photographers. There's still a lot there. I find it hard to take something which is essentially tiny-display-bound as a serious way to browse real pictures (which I do on a couple of photography forums every day).

And it's more than tiny-display-bound: it is tiny-device-bound. If I take a photograph, I'm going to post-process it. My library of pics is always going to be on my PC. Duhhh... If I then want that to go to instagram, I have to transfer it to the phone and then upload it. Damn. . I understand there's workarounds, but hey, I'm lazy.

I won't say I have a love/hate relationship with Instagram, that would be too strong, I have a casually-enjoy/hate relationship with it! There's plenty to hate. As
@purr1n says:FB-instagram. Is probably the root of the problem and why it can only get worse.

 

reading more about the FB I had to revise my opinion: VR actually had a lot to with the stock demise.
Apparently their meta division lost 6 billion 2020, 10 billion in 2021. That got attention of some big investors.
So it is a combination of factors but lack of appetite from the market to loose money for the next 5 years on VR for unspecified benefits in the future is a part of it. And TikTok is apparently hurting FB a lot

 

Got my "super immunity" back in March 2020. Then after 3 shots I've had tons of extended unmasked close contact with people and never went positive.

And if Texas suddenly gets a new ultra variant we are going to name it MARV-22

 

Patiently waiting for the gender reveal party on FB.

 

Marv is pregnant.

 

Pregnant man emojis are apparently a thing now.

 

If the internet can produce a Batman+Shrek pregnant with Sonic image, surely the mpreg emoji is really no shocker at this point.

 

This is a thing?!

 

Gonna link you to a reddit post, because a google image search brings up even more questionable things...
https://www.reddit.com/r/TIHI/comments/c0ex2a/thanks_i_hate_batman_shrek_waynze_gretzky_and/

 

I might have changed my mind. I now kind of wish COVID had killed us all. Maybe there is a huge meteor on it's way instead?

 

This is best time to get it with milder omicron. We all just got it in my family. Probably from son’s school since it hit him first. Wife has seen dozens of COVID patients in clinic but PPE works.

I was the last to get it. Haven’t felt too bad but got a bitch of a sore throat.

 

Somewhere out there there's an entire rule34 gallery with an anthropomorphized planet earth getting slammed by an asteroid, but I'll just leave this instead:

(only NSFW in the technical sense)

Spoiler

 

Link broken. Can't help but feel the universe is trying to tell us something here.

 

works for me