You got newts and salamanders (somewhat) backward:

From Wikipedia: Unlike other members of the family Salamandridae, newts are semiaquatic, alternating between aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Not all aquatic salamanders are considered newts, however.

“Ah, but I have relentless endurance!”

How would one go about successfully burning down a building with a sprinkler system?

To be 100% clear, this question has nothing to do with the linked news story, I was just spontaneously reminded of a plot hole I’m trying to work out in a story I’m writing (in Minecraft).

The allegations are literally the only reason I had any idea that the band is still ongoing (and that all the members has swapped out, several times apparently).

Newsboys, a major Christian rock band founded in 1985. All original members have been replaced.

Fun fact about 1884! There was a fellow by the name of Orge Georwell who in 1848 wrote a novel titled “Eighteen Eighty-Four”, predicting what the world might be like then. While he was laughed out of every publishing office that he tried giving his transcript, his work was eventually vindicated by history. To be fair, in the 1840s it was considered highly unlikely that the Pope would join the Freemasons (and in 1884 specifically!), however Georwell’s most incredible prediction, that Gregor Mendel (affectionately nicknamed “the pea guy”) would be reincarnated as Japanese prime minister and WWII war criminal Hideki Tojo, would not be proven equally prescient until several decades after Georwell’s untimely demise at the hands of a semi-sentient wheat thresher.

For chillwave/synthwave ambient music, I absolutely love:

https://youtube.com/@OdysseusOfficial

and

https://youtube.com/@INEXED

I feel like I gave it enough of a try to know that this isn’t an “at first” issue, and as a grown-ass adult I’m not going to throw an unknown number of hours at practicing something I don’t know if I’ll ever get the hang of enough to properly play the game.

This is an accessibility issue; many games include “cheat” modes so as to allow a much larger audience that may otherwise be physically or otherwise incapable of playing the standard mode to still enjoy it. As far as I know, this game has provided nothing of the sort. Given that OW is marketed as an adventure/exploration game rather than a technical game, I don’t know why they refused to provide this, but regardless this is a gate-kept game, which is fine, not every game has to be easy or accessible, but please don’t pretend otherwise.

I got a recommendation for the Canadian show North of North here on Lemmy, and while not the best show ever, it was quite enjoyable, and IMO a great example of the importance of DEI (sounds like a lot of support went into making the show happen at all, but precisely because it wasn’t the typical concept/setting to get greenlit it felt really fresh).

The first season was pretty good, a bit too goofy at times (clearly aimed at a somewhat younger audience), but it had potential. The second season definitely dropped the ball.

I heard amazing things about Outer Wilds, was under the impression it was an adventure game but “make sure to go in blind!” was the universal advice so I didn’t look up more, downloaded it, started to play, and really struggled with the controls. I wasn’t raised with video games as a kid and I don’t play platformers and such so my coordination is shit. When I went to the net to find a solution (because a lot of games have at least mods you can download to make things easier) but all I got was “get gud.” I asked a friend who was like “oh yeah, I watched a stream of someone playing and it seems like a technically difficult game.” So that’s a pretty important warning to include with any Outer Wilds recommendation.

One of the rare “10/10, no notes” series from start to finish. Amazing finale too. Fantastic rewatch value.

Seconding this. PBS has a TON of YouTube channels for all kinds of interest areas. Not all are going to be geared to a middle school audience, but much like the TV stations themselves, at least you don’t have to worry as much* about the potential content as a parent (in terms of quality or appropriateness) vs random YouTube channels.

*I would say all their stuff is high school appropriate, but some of the more local/news-related stuff could be a bad fit for younger audiences depending on the kid, only because we don’t live in a world that’s child-friendly. Also channels like PBS Terra do a lot of videos about how fucked we are re: climate change (not in so many words of course) and although they do try to put an optimistic spin on it, sensitive kids might get freaked out by how bad things are (which would be an accurate response of course, so it depends on how much you’ve been trying to shelter your kid from this kind of thing I guess).

looks at post, looks at community, looks confused

I saw a clip of the performance… It was a really bad lip sync. As in he kept pulling the mic away from his head well before the lyrics were over. I’d heard the controversy and was like, I’m sure it wasn’t that obvious he was lip syncing, and was floored when I saw the actual performance.

Too bad the spell components are a bitch to get ahold of

“Kitten cuddling” is a euphemism. They are chaos gremlins with needles permanently affixed to their feet.

Still cute tho.

I’ve never used Blender before, but sixty hours is a lot of work! Which part of the process was the most laborious/fiddly? (I saw the 40hr mark shot in another comment, which kind of gives me an idea)

No, this is Patrickortland

Literally the first I’m hearing of Tuta.

Are they legit?