Real @ 1:24

these birds are so r-slurred. first, which pervert ornithologist named them this? disgusting. boobies, tits, peepees, shags. what is wrong with these people?

second, i HATE that their beak is concealed like that. they look fricked up and deformed. also disgusting. beakless freaks. debeaked. GIVE HIM HIS BEAK BACK!!!

they are lekking birds, which basically means to Get B-words, a bunch of males gather in a group (called a lek) and desperately display for the females. however because they are r-slurred they often forget about the females and start fighting each other.

also, peepee-of-the-rock leks are fundamentally useless imo because there's a single Chad Male that gets almost all the females, and the rest of the incel males get nothing. lmao

more pics of these frickers:

https://old.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/1iir4uu/newegg_just_restocked_5090_via_6000_bundles/

Not only JewEgg selling a $2K card for $6k Bundles

The AIBs have decided to join in the scalping game

MSI

https://old.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/1iii706/msi_just_raised_all_5090_prices_on_their_website/

And ASUS

https://old.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/1ij34aj/msi_and_asus_increase_nvidia_rtx_5090_and_rtx/

And CaseKing

https://old.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/1iioc0s/caseking_still_no_supply_but_raised_the_prices_by/

!g*mers are currently

Me with my 4070

What is even going on anymore pic.twitter.com/mQYO88jRi0

— captive dreamer (@captivedreamer7) February 15, 2025

!latinx !moidmoment !male feminists !coomers

Neighbor has already been arrested, TMD:

https://www.infobae.com/mexico/2025/02/05/detienen-a-hombre-que-mordio-a-mujer-en-un-gluteo-en-guanajuato/

An armed man arrested at the U.S. Capitol said he planned to kill Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, and burn down The Heritage Foundation, federal authorities say.

Ryan Michael English, 24, of Massachusetts (), was found with a knife and two Molotov cocktails on Monday afternoon near the south door of the Capitol, U.S. District Court records say.

"I'd like to turn myself in," English said after he approached a U.S. Capitol Police officer, the records say.

Officers detained and searched him and found he had a folding knife, a lighter and two 50-mililiter bottles of vodka with a gray cloth attached to the top.

English told officers he went to the Capitol to kill Bessent, who was being confirmed as Treasury secretary. He said he had more Molotov cocktails in his car.

He said he left home on Sunday with the intention to kill Hegseth, who he called a "Nazi," and Johnson, as well as burn down The Heritage Foundation. He said he aimed to "depose" the officials and send a message, records say.

As English headed to D.C., he stopped at a library in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and saw Reddit posts about Bessent's confirmation hearing. He then altered his intended target, the records say.

Read more @nbcwashington

!trump2024 !trump2028 !project2025 !the_donald !chuds !accelerationists !fedposters

What did he mean by this??

Most Based Comments

Basedness: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔘

I keep thinking the exact same thing.Why isn't that acknowledged even a little bit, even a little bit? (147)

The right living in the 1950's when the concept of token minorities was still new (-33)

Basedness: 🔥🔥🔥🔘🔘

So you're saying women in the administration should be hidden in the backroom. That sounds a bit misogynisty.Edit: missed word (24)

Ah yes, the condescending "no U are!" comment from the rightoid. Positions of authority are rarely in the spotlight, they are leaders at the local level. Stop acting like a child. I know it's tough when your whole personality is built around it, but I believe in you. (-19)

Basedness: 🔥🔥🔥🔘🔘

Thats a LOT more women and POCs to be considered "token" (36)

The way he shoves them into positions of high attention while quietly gutting women and POC from their previous roles of real authority is what makes them tokens. But yeah you got a blonde woman press secretary again, you did it lads. (-28)

Angriest Comments

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

Ohhhhhhh. I get it now! It's okay to give preferential treatment to minorities and women because shit was unfair for them, checks notes, fifty years ago. And because there's an unproven possibility that some employers are being racist in one direction, we have to not only allow, but encourage, the rest to be racist in the other direction. Cuz balance. Yeah, man, makes total sense. This is good racism. (0)

My bad! You're so right! I forgot one of the core tenets of the MAGA cult is that you must believe racism and sexism ended the day we put the bill up. RACISM IN THE WORKPLACE?! Not in 50 years my guy! All of the "proven possibilities" died that day! Evil Libs in 1972 were not only building weather weapons, but they were pushing TITLE IX as an anti man bill then! Disgusting! Didn't they know racism and sexism was exhausted by 1970!50 years to educate and mobilize a workforce in a male dominated field. 50 years later there's still men in Blizzard and RIOT making the workplace heck for anyone without a peepee.But yeah. We only had problem's 50 years ago. Lmfao ludicrous. You said it in your last part that you feel the system is racist. And that's fine! I think you should feel a bit outraged that white people are losing opportunities. Every American should have opportunity. But since you admit that there's racism occurring in both directions and still feel necessary to burn the direction ... (1)

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

Sure, racist actions like this?https://apnews.com/article/c4834e48841d97c5a93312b1bf75302a Trump signs bill restoring funding for black collegesOr would you rather say that something 51 years ago is more relevant?😂🤦 (1)

Not renting to black people for years is always racist no matter when it happened. Especially when he has never apologized. And saying Obama was born in Africa over and over again without a shred of evidence, is racist. It's pandering to racists. Which is just as bad as being a racist. There is no difference. And defending it is racist. You can say dumb things trying to whitewash it will silly language like he was just "exaggerating" or he wanted attention by saying. Doesn't make him any less of scumbag racist. (1)

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

God the bee is literally just 90% Trump propaganda now. This is literally used so the right can spread misinformation but when argued by people on the left they can just say "duh you stupid, it's satire". It's exactly like when Tucker Carlson was knowingly spreading misinformation people actually believed, then got brought to court for it, and the argument was no reasonable person would believe what he said. People do believe this shit and it's damaging the country (1)

Biggest Lolcow: /u/RavenOfWoe

Score: 🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮(+0🐮)

Number of comments: 24

Average angriness: 🔘🔘🔘🔘🔘

Maximum angriness: 😡😡😡😡🔘

Minimum angriness: 🔘🔘🔘🔘🔘

NEW: Subscribe to /h/miners to see untapped drama veins, ripe for mining!

autodrama: automating away the jobs of dramneurodivergents. Ping HeyMoon if there are any problems or you have a suggestion

The Cat Returns (2002) pic.twitter.com/p2QkZNBqzE

— Retro Anime (@retro_twt) February 12, 2025

Pirate: https://nyaa.si/view/1225344

Shit butt FRICKING BUTTON MAKING ME STRESS AND ALMOST TAP WHY DOES THIS EXIST WHY IS IT AT THE TOP OF THE FEED AAAAAAAAAAA

🇬🇧 British farmers protested today!

In addition to tractors, military equipment appeared on the streets of London. Tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.

It is unclear where the farmers got them from.

1/ pic.twitter.com/gvdLo4DEvM

— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) February 10, 2025

Those can be bought by any individual

— Gutsa (@gutsa_ma) February 10, 2025

Can't buy pointed knives but you can legally buy a tank from Temu, what a country

I think they were discussing philosophy or quantum computing or Red Hat Linux or something.

!gaystapo !besties who else would do this

News thread is FILLED with redditors suddenly caring about "muh freeze peach"

CUAD about to get evaporated with a 2000lb bomb

https://old.reddit.com/r/columbia/comments/1id0pom/trump_administration_to_cancel_student_visas_of/

Neolibs snarky as ever

https://old.reddit.com/r/Destiny/comments/1id0mxf/propalestine_students_on_visa_are_getting_deported/

DNC Headquarters secretly love it but still gotta rail against orange man

Personally this is the guy I want to see deported most:

https://canarymission.org/individual/Abdullah_Akl

Mr. -ACKl over here was responsible for this chant at Harvard, which I found quite revealing at the time:

With no shame, @WOLPalestine leader & @Harvard grad student Abdullah Akl calls for mass murder of Israelis, asking Abu Obaida, Hamas' military spokesman, to bomb Tel Aviv. WATCH: "Ya Abu Obaida, ya habib, udrub udrub Tel-Aviv! (Abu Obaida, my love, hit, hit Tel Aviv!)"… pic.twitter.com/7Jn6UvGD6S

— Canary Mission (@canarymission) April 1, 2024

!nms

Or maybe it's actually good this time?

The new Starbucks CEO announced that Starbucks isn't a free hangout space anymore. That means you can only be in a Starbucks if you pay for something. This stops homeless people from living in a Starbucks and getting:

• Free water

• Free restrooms

• Free all-day hangout space

A common complaint on /r/starbucksbaristas is that the staff are tired of having to deal with homeless people - they spend all day in the stores, lock themselves in the bathroom for hours at a time while shooting up, and they often have to call the police. For example:

we STILL get annoying incidents, because our DM told us we cannot deny the bathroom to anyone unless in extreme situations. so even when a homeless person wants the restroom, we have to let them in, and most of them take anywhere from 40 mins to an hour in the restroom and it's our only restroom. so partners AND other customers are stuck waiting. we've had to call the police multiple times because they refuse to come out or are doing hard drugs inside. someone has left needles in there before. it's a weird situation.

So you'd assume that there would be unanimous happiness at this news? You're wrong! The thread is 99% against this change.

water is a human right and the private company that I work for must supply it for free!

The third place is a concept for paying customers, it's not a social club for the homeless.

Banning homeless people from keeping pets is the right option here.

I'm not going to sit in a Starbucks if there's a in the corner.

I'm waiting for the lawsuits!

lol no it's about making Starbucks a decent place to be a customer again.

I'd give anything to not be shadowbanned on /r/starbucksbaristas anymore. These guys piss me off so much.

A year into their relationship, Jess and Nate got engaged next to the sea. "It was a golden, sandy beach – empty and secluded," says Jess, 26. "It was just us two there, so it was really intimate."

Except that the couple were actually hundreds of miles apart – and they were role-playing their engagement in the video game World of Warcraft.

Nate, 27, was living just outside London – and Jess was in Wales. After meeting briefly at an esports event in Germany in March 2023, the pair developed a long-distance relationship, playing the game together "from the moment we woke up to the moment we went to bed", says Nate.

The couple still play the game daily, even though they've been living together in Manchester since March 2024. And they know other couples who have found their partners through video games: "It's a different way of meeting someone," says Jess. "You both have such a strong mutual love for something already, it's easier to fall in love."

Nate agrees. "I was able to build a lot more of a connection with people I meet in gaming than I ever was able to in a dating app."

A selfie of Nate and Jess on the left, and on the right, a screenshot from World of Warcraft showing Nate proposing with the words, "Will you marry me?"

Nate and Jess (pictured, alongside their virtual engagement), found love online - but not on a dating app

Nate and Jess are not alone. According to some experts, people of their generation are moving away from dating apps and finding love on platforms that were not specifically designed for romance.

And hanging out somewhere online that's instead focused on a shared interest or hobby could allow people to find a partner in a lower-stakes, less pressurised setting than marketing themselves to a gallery of strangers. For some digital-native Gen Zs, it seems, simply doing the things they enjoy can be an alternative to the tyranny of the swipe.

Internet dating at 30 - a turning point?

Since it first appeared with the launch of match.com 30 years ago, online dating has fundamentally altered our relationships. Around 10% of heterosexual people and 24% of LGBT people have met their long-term partner online, according to Pew Research Center.

But evidence suggests that young people are switching off dating apps, with the UK's top 10 seeing a fall of nearly 16%, according to a report published by Ofcom in November 2024. Tinder lost 594,000 users, while Hinge dropped by 131,000, Bumble by 368,000 and Grindr by 11,000, the report said (a Grindr spokesperson said they were "not familiar with this study's source data" and that their UK users "continue to rise year over year").

According to a 2023 Axios study of US college students and other Gen Zers, 79% said they were forgoing regular dating app usage. And in its 2024 Online Nation report, Ofcom said: "Some analysts speculate that for younger people, particularly Gen Z, the novelty of dating apps is wearing off." In a January 2024 letter to shareholders, Match Group Inc - which owns Tinder and Hinge - acknowledged younger people were seeking "a lower pressure, more authentic way to find connections".

"The idea of using a shared interest to meet someone isn't new, but it's been reinvented in this particular moment in time – it signals a desire of Gen Z," says Carolina Bandinelli, an associate professor at Warwick University whose research focuses on the digital technologies of romance.

Getty Images Joggers running in a parkGetty Images

Many younger people are exploring alternatives to dating apps, from gaming to running clubs and other social activities

According to Danait Tesfay, 26, a marketing assistant from London, younger people are looking for alternatives to dating apps, "whether that be gaming or running clubs or extra-curricular clubs, where people are able to meet other like-minded people and eventually foster a romantic connection".

At the same time that membership of some dating apps appears to be in decline, platforms based around common interests are attracting more users. For instance, the fitness app Strava now has 135m users – and its monthly active users grew by 20% last year, according to the company. Other so-called "affinity-based" sites have seen similar growth: Letterboxd, where film fans can share reviews, says its community grew by 50% last year.

Rise of the hobby apps

And just as in the pre-internet age, when couples might have met at a sports club or the cinema, now singletons are able to find each other in their online equivalents.

"People have always bonded over shared interests, but it's been given a digital spin with these online communities," says Luke Brunning, co-director of the Centre for Love, S*x, and Relationships (CLSR) at the University of Leeds.

"It's increasingly difficult to distinguish between behaviour that's on a dating app and dating behaviour on another platform."

Hobby apps are taking on some features of social media, too: in 2023, Strava introduced a messaging feature letting users chat directly. One twenty-something from London explains that her friends use it as a way to flirt with people they fancy, initially by liking a running route they've posted on the platform. Strava says its data shows that one in five of its active Gen Z members has been on a date with someone they met through fitness clubs.

"[Online] fitness communities are becoming big places to find partners," says Nichi Hodgson, the author of The Curious History of Dating. She says a friend of hers met his partner that way, and they're now living together.

The same appears to apply to Letterboxd, too. With users including Chappell Roan and Charli XCX, it's a popular platform for younger people - two-thirds of members in a survey of 5,000 were under 34.

The company says it's aware of several couples meeting through the app, including one who bonded over a shared love of David Fincher's opinion-dividing 2020 drama Mank. "It could be that seeing other people's film tastes reveals an interesting aspect of themselves," says Letterboxd co-founder Matthew Buchanan.

Why the shift?

So what might be driving this? While dating apps initially appeared to offer "the illusion of choice", and a transparent, efficient way to meet partners, the reality for many has often proven to be different. The Pew Research Center found that 46% of dating-app users said their experiences were overall very or somewhat negative.

The recent decline in user numbers might also be a response to the way some apps are structured – in particular, the swipe feature for selecting potential partners, launched by Tinder in 2013 and widely copied.

Its creator, Jonathan Badeen, was partly inspired by studying the 1940s experiments of psychologist BF Skinner, who conditioned hungry pigeons to believe that food delivered randomly into a tray was prompted by their movements.

Getty Images A psychological experiment with pigeons conducted by BF SkinnerGetty Images

Tinder's swipe mechanism was partly inspired by Harvard Professor BF Skinner's psychological experiments with pigeons in order to understand the brain's reward system

Eventually, the swipe mechanism faced a backlash. "Ten years ago, people were enthusiastic and would talk quite openly about what apps they were on," says Ms Hodgson. "Now the Tinder model is dead with many young people – they don't want to swipe any more."

According to Mr Brunning, the gameifying interface of many dating apps is a turn-off. "Intimacy is made simple for you, it's made fun in the short term, but the more you play, the more you feel kind of icky."

The pandemic may have had an impact, too, says Prof Brian Heaphy at the University of Manchester, who has studied dating-app use in and after the lockdowns: "During Covid, dating apps themselves became more like social media – because people couldn't meet up, they were looking for different things."

Although that didn't last after the pandemic, it "gave people a sense that it could be different from just swiping and getting no responses – all the negatives of dating-app culture," says Prof Heaphy.

And in that context, the fact that video games or online communities like Strava or Letterboxd aren't designed for dating can be appealing. By attracting users for a broader range of reasons, there's less pressure on each interaction.

"Those apps aren't offering a commercialised form of romance, so they can seem more authentic," says Prof Heaphy.

The World of Warcraft characters of PurplePixel and Wochi

The humans behind Wochi and PurplePixel (pictured) met while playing World of Warcraft, though they say finding a partner wasn't their original intention

It's a type of connection free from the burden of expectation. A different couple who met on World of Warcraft – and go by the names Wochi and PurplePixel – weren't looking for love. "I definitely didn't go into an online game trying to find a partner," says Wochi.

But although initially in opposing teams, or guilds, their characters started a conversation. "We spent all night talking until the early hours of the morning, and by the end of the night, I'd actually left my guild and joined his guild," says PurplePixel. Within three years, Wochi had quit his job and moved to the UK from Italy to be with her.

According to Ms Hodgson, "While some dating apps can bring out the worst behaviours, these other online spaces can do the opposite, because people are sharing something they enjoy."

Because of these structural elements, she doesn't think the recent decline in numbers is temporary. "It's going to keep happening until dating apps figure out how to put the human aspect back."

New kinds of dating app

The dating apps aren't giving up without a fight, however. Hinge is still "setting up a date every two seconds", according to a spokesperson; Tinder says a relationship starts every three seconds on its platform and that almost 60% of its users are aged 18-30. In fact, the apps appear to be embracing the shift to shared-interest platforms, launching niche alternatives including ones based around fitness, veganism, dog-ownership or even facial hair.

They're also evolving to encourage different kinds of interaction. On Breeze, users who agree to be set up on a date aren't allowed to message each other before they meet; and Jigsaw hides people's faces, only removing pieces to reveal the full photo after a certain amount of interaction.

It means that it's premature to proclaim the death of the dating app, believes Prof Heaphy. "There's now such a diversity of dating apps that the numbers for the biggest ones aren't the key indicator," he says. "It might actually be a similar number to before, in terms of overall membership."

And there's a downside to people going to more general-interest apps looking for love – people might not want to be hit on when they just want to talk about books. Dating apps, at least, are clear about what their purpose is.

What might the future look like?

In an increasingly online world, the solution to improving relationships might not simply be to go offline. Instead, apps that can offer an experience which more closely mirrors the best of IRL interactions, while tapping into the possibilities of digital ones, might also show a way forward.

With the imminent integration of AI into dating apps, we are "right on the cusp of something new", says Mr Brunning. "It's interesting to see if we'll end up with specific apps just for dating, or will we end up with something a bit more fluid?"

He points to platforms in China that are more multi-purpose. "People use them for chat, for community, and conduct business on them – they can also be dating platforms, but they're often not exclusively for that."

In the meantime, the interactions possible in less mediated communities like World of Warcraft could offer more of a chance to connect than conversations initiated by a swipe.

Jess and Nate's in-game engagement on the beach might not have been real, but the couple are hoping to change that soon. "It's a matter of when, really. There are a few things we need to tick off the checklist, and then she'll be getting her ring," says Nate. And there'll still be a gaming element.

"You can role-play getting married," says Jess. "So it could be funny to get all our friends together at some point in the World of Warcraft cathedral, and we could have a marriage ceremony."