Boomers getting mad at everyone saying ‘OK Boomer’ makes it even funnier

Boomers are doing what they do best: Shouting on the internet. 

The youth — and by youth I mean anyone who understands how to rotate a pdf — are firing back at disgruntled Olds with an all-encompassing “OK, Boomer.” The phrase has become a rallying cry for all who’ve had to deal with some old fart complaining about how younger generations are entitled and lazy. 

“Teenagers use it to reply to cringey YouTube videos, Donald Trump tweets, and basically any person over 30 who says something condescending about young people — and the issues that matter to them,” New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz explained in an article about the phrase. Read more…

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Worst reasons for Trump to quit the Paris climate pact, unranked

In April 2016, with his granddaughter sitting on his lap, Secretary of State John Kerry signed the historic Paris Agreement on Climate Change. It was a year that would soon become the warmest on record. 

Although every nation on Earth is a signatory of the historic pact — which brought together all the world’s countries to combat climate change — one rogue superpower has now officially started the process of withdrawing from the celebrated accord: the U.S.A.

Fulfilling President Trump’s climate-denialist, anti-regulatory campaign promise, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Monday on Twitter the United States’ exit from the Paris pact. This now-imminent withdrawal, however, becomes final in precisely one year — curiously, the day after the 2020 election — and can’t be undone unless a different president (perhaps in 2021, 2025, or later) decides to reverse course.  Read more…

More about Science, Global Warming, Climate Change, Paris Climate Agreement, and Trump Administration

Microsoft Japan’s 4-day work week boosted productivity by 40 percent

Microsoft Japan has announced the results of its 4-day work week trial, and it will shock no-one to know the experiment was hugely popular with the company’s employees. What may surprise people is that the shortened week increased productivity by almost 40 percent — thanks in part to shorter, more efficient meetings.

This August, Microsoft Japan trialed a 4-day work week for its entire workforce, calling the project the “Work-Life Choice Challenge Summer 2019”. Approximately 2300 employees were given 5 Fridays off, with no reduction in salary and no days taken out of their annual leave. 

Further, The Mainichi reported that Microsoft Japan also planned to subsidise employees’ family vacations or further education by up to ¥100,000. Read more…

More about Microsoft, Japan, Social Good, Work, and Work Life

Wikipedia citations get way more legit with the addition of books

Everyone knows that to legitimize anything you read on Wikipedia, the crowd-sourced online encyclopedia, you need to scroll to the bottom of the page and check out the references, notes, and citations (or click the little footnote link in the text).

The Internet Archive, known for its Wayback Machine, will now be a resource for book-based citations if that text exists within its library. Previously, only citations linking back to an online source were viewable. Now, some book references will be available online as well.

In a Tuesday post about “weaving books into the internet,” the San Francisco-based non-profit explained how it was taking digitized versions of books and matching them with corresponding Wikipedia citations, so long as those citations reference specific page numbers.  Read more…

More about Wikipedia, Internet Archive, Tech, Web Culture, and Books

Put away the drone and let the firefighters do their work

Southern California firefighters are still actively tackling as many as six wildfires. While your drone might catch some epic photos, they’re sharing the sky with air tankers, firefighting helicopters, and other craft that are flying to actually fight the devastating and destructive flames. 

The Maria Fire in Ventura County, north of Los Angeles, is only 50 percent contained and has scorched more than 9,400 acres since starting on Halloween. In the few days since, already two “unauthorized drones” have impeded water dropping efforts to quench the flames. 

At least three firefighting helicopters had to stop flying for for about an hour for both incidentsThe Weather Channel reported that law enforcement addressed the issue at a Friday news conference: “This creates a very significant hazard for our airborne firefighting assets and causes them to land and stop firefighting.” Read more…

More about Firefighters, Drone Footage, Faa, Wildfires, and Science

Popeyes chicken sandwich is back and people are officially freaking out

The wait is over. The Chick Fil-A shade is in the past. All that matters now is it’s Nov. 3. That means the Popeyes chicken sandwich is back. And it’s here to stay.

The baffling hype around Popeyes chicken sandwich – I just don’t how it’s better than a three-piece and biscuit? – has been spiked since late August, when it officially sold out. Up until that point, fans of the breaded and bread-wrapped chicken meal had been lining up in droves to get a taste of sweet Louisiana Kitchen bliss.

Why the excitement, you ask? Well, Popeyes released a chicken sandwich for the first time in its history back in August. It might come as a shock that the best fried chicken joint in the fast food never even tried to compete with all the lesser chicken sandwiches out there, but here we are. Read more…

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