Even as a white guy with citizenship, coming back into the US was a pain in the ass 10 and 20 years ago. And my friends with student visas and green cards were occasionally hassled for no clear reasons. I can’t imagine how stressful that experience would be now, especially for anyone without a US passport or who lands on the wrong end of the color card in that Peter Griffin meme.

Product R&D engineer here. I have a product manager who only knows how to give one piece of feedback: make it smaller and slimmer. What requirement is driving this? Can’t say. What user need are we trying to address? No idea. But smaller=better for some reason.

That sounds maddening! Best of luck keeping your head above water.

The candy canes on The Festive are all upside-down.

The European mind can scarcely comprehend the soul-crushing sadness of suburban America.

It’s 100% done, but I need you to keep waiting…

Still 100% done. Keep waiting…

Okay, actually done now.

OMFG BANNED

^j/k

I have been enjoying sparkling water flavored with hops. It’s distinctly different from non-alcoholic beer, and much better IMO.

Unsweetened iced tea and cold brew coffee are also standards in my kitchen during summer. My significant other likes kombucha enough to make it at home sometimes, but I never liked the stuff myself.

Articles of Interest. It’s nominally a fashion podcast, but they tie it into lots of other topics: history, culture, identity, religion…

Our friends are all aboard!

clubs here are filled with MAGAs and plastered with Republican propaganda so I don’t feel as welcome as I used to.

As a kid, my dad and I occasionally went to the local gun show just to look around at interesting stuff. The collectors selling antiques, fancy custom pieces, and guns with historical interest were always fun to chat with. But at some point it turned into crazy town. I don’t go to those events anymore.

I always assumed the translators were simply doing a heroic job. Getting puns and wordplay to work across languages is hard. I would not be surprised if some jokes had to be significantly changed for different languages or countries.

Thanks! This has become a January tradition with my kids. We are trying a different winter camp location in 2026, and I really hope there will be enough snow to do this again!

Pile the snow into a big mound, pack it down, then hollow out the middle. Camping overnight is optional.

Getting an engineering degree is generally a good thing. Demand and pay tend to be above average. A certificate can be helpful, but I have watched people hit a “paper ceiling” in their careers; people stuck with the title of “designer” doing an engineer’s work without an engineering degree, and never getting an engineer’s salary for it.

Whether a bachelor’s degree is beneficial for you personally will depend on a lot of things, not all of which are within your control. 20 years ago a BS in computer science was a golden ticket. Now the industry has shifted and the job placement rates for new CS grads are awful. It’s hard to predict the future.

I agree with the other commenter that going to university is good for the whole self. I was exposed to people, ideas, and experiences that I would never have encountered elsewhere. That alone made the effort worthwhile.

The sun’s shining bright
Everything seems all right
When we’re poisoning pigeons in the park

Wrong community. You need to ask in !perchance@lemmy.world

Too long; didn’t read.

Maybe related to the Sunshine Act? The intent of the law is to prevent companies from bribing doctors to use their products or drugs. I have seen companies extend it to other employees to be extra cautious.

They are all in medical or medical-adjacent careers: nursing, radiology, pharmaceutical R&D, medical device R&D, etc. These fields seem to attract empathetic people who want to do good.