https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/18/magazine/national-blackout-power-electricity-outage.html

https://fortune.com/2026/10/26/pentagon-fortress-bases-90-days-off-grid-uk-be-ready-stockpile/

i’ve been seeing some stuff on social media lately and a family member of mine just called and asked if we’d heard anything. i’m in america and our midterms are coming up so i know it’s a strange time. apparently there’s supposed to be a 90 day black out??? there’s only a few things i can find online. our government is requiring the military and its bases to be able to sustain itself with no outside help for 90 days. the mid atlantic and east coast were under a temporary emergency period for three days, october 13-16. the last thing was our power grid is at risk of a 18 month blackout which sounds totally unrealistic.

can someone pls help me figure all this out lol like what’s real and what’s just fear mongering??? like should i be stocking up and telling my loved ones to do the same? is this even worth giving the time of day??? i have ocd and anxiety so this is all i’ve been able to think about and unfortunately i’m starting to panic. i’m trying to ease myself by thinking of it as like, well we’d all be going through it together should it actually occur. i know britain said something too buttt i don’t think that would affect us across the pond too much. idk i think i’m wigging myself out over (hopefully) nothing. life is weird, thanks in advanced! 🫩

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPLAK5hQP/

I am curious if the people in these respective countries have any idea what’s going on. Is there a specific event they are preparing for or is this a general guidance like how the Midwest gets reminders during tornado season.

https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberpunkgame/s/wnKGg6yJKD

Since the last two to one days my Twitter feed has been flooded with business saying they are firing multiple people and that they are going to stop doing charity programs

Some examples https://x.com/renancaixeiro/status/2114735718195220814

https://x.com/SidnelsonEu/status/2114828448476623168

I saw that Dictionary.com picked "maxxing" as its 2026 Word of the Year:

https://www.dictionary.com/articles/word-of-the-year-2026

I thought I understood the term from seeing "looksmaxxing" on TikTok. Basically trying to make yourself more attractive, right?

But now apparently people are sleepmaxxing, fibermaxxing, cozymaxxing, and even doing something called tokenmaxxing at work.

What's confusing me is the reaction. Some people are treating this as perfectly normal internet slang, while others seem genuinely bothered by the word being recognized by a dictionary. I've also seen comments saying it originated in incel communities, which seems like a pretty big leap from people joking about optimizing their breakfast.

Where did the double-x version actually come from, how did it spread to basically every activity imaginable, and why is the Word of the Year announcement controversial?

I watched this video

https://www.instagram.com/reel/De5QJJZPlWI/

The original vanity Fair reporting is here https://www.vanityfair.com/story/jared-kushner-hacked-phone-secret-negotiations?srsltid=AYCX9vI7zB45SAuS-g5k996CfBvOD8jEAz0SJxF3m3vx0AkZnyYB59Zj

The video alleges that Kushner is compromised and is taking a bunch of money (vicinity of a billion dollars) from leaders in the Middle East. It also alleges that Trump pulled out of the JCPOA right after Kushner got a bunch of money from a head of state in the Middle East. It's a hell of a story, it involves Dutch secret agents and a double agent in the GRU.

There's a community note on the video that none of the charges are verified and of course Kushner denies it but that doesn't mean anything to me.

People have died because we pulled out of the JCPOA.

Obligatory "if Obama had done this he'd already be out of office" but these are the Trump years where corruption is ignored.

Have any members of Congress pledged to investigate this? Why would Saudi Arabia want America to pull out of the JCPOA?

Important edit: when you share a link from Instagram it appends your account ID to the end of the URL so you have to take it off, thanks to u/_HGCenty for catching this

I've seen tiktoks and read about Lula's presidential win in Brazil. But what I found interesting is the collective effort to vote him in. Many people traveled far to ensure he wins office. Why was this vote so passionately driven, especially from the indigenous people?

Here is context:

https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/10/stay-alive-brazils-indigenous-people-mobilize-to-vote-for-lula-to-protect-their-rights/

I am reading mixed news that the Serbian PM has resigned after losing elections to a student protest - I'm so puzzled by what this means. Did the students run for parliament and earn a majority? How does this happen

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cw5yn3xlprpmo

I have seen a lot of memes and post but i'm pretty lost

https://x.com/i/trending/2114629549640081737

I searched Japanese on twitter and I was astounded by the amount of memes that have been posted in the last 2 days and their like counts. I've seen some posts mentioning the French being responsible but I'm not sure if that's true or why it started. Some posts for context:

https://x.com/Bappa_195/status/2114024045620412659?s=20

https://x.com/Haeldian/status/2114050142181425545?s=20

https://x.com/Morazzla/status/2114056321079398874?s=20

It seems like 50% of all articles that /r/science puts in my feed are about this chemical and it's effects on... well everything brain related.

Why is it getting so much attention in PopSci articles? I get that its an active ingredient in Magic Mushrooms, but why is it getting so much attention over the last few months?

Examples this week:

* https://www.reddit.com/r/science/s/f3wJGYJjWk

* https://www.reddit.com/r/science/s/nFNUadMwXF

I came across this thread in r/technology:

https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1xbq8vy/youtube_is_testing_hiding_the_dislike_button/

From the headline and comments, it sounds like YouTube is getting rid of the thumbs-down button on regular videos. People are talking about it like it's another major change.

But then I saw other comments saying the screenshots were misunderstood and that the change only affects creators looking at their own uploads.

I remember YouTube hiding the public dislike counts years ago, and apparently something also changed with Shorts recently. Now I'm not sure which of these things people are actually discussing.

Is YouTube really removing the dislike button for regular viewers, or did an interface change get reported as something bigger than it was? And why are there still articles saying different things?

I've been seeing warnings about these weird CAPTCHA pages that look like regular Cloudflare verification screens, except instead of checking a box or picking pictures, they tell you to press Windows+R, paste something, and hit Enter.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

https://www.umass.edu/it/news/scam-alert-fake-captcha-prompts-users-run-commands

I get that it's some kind of malware trick, but the part that's confusing me is that people are apparently encountering these on completely normal websites, not just sketchy download pages.

How does a fake verification screen end up on an otherwise legitimate website? Does that mean the entire site has been hacked, or can something like an ad inject it?

And why does this particular scam seem to be getting so much attention recently? Is there something new about how it works?

What are the reasons they did this?

https://newrepublic.com/post/217060/white-house-intervened-shut-down-epstein-files-investigation

“These records show that Kash Patel worked hand in hand with the former White House deputy chief of staff on the 2025 DOJ-FBI memo, which stated there would be no further investigation or release of the Epstein files,” Chris Swartz, senior counsel and deputy director of ethics and anti-corruption at the Democracy Defenders Fund, told Raw Story.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Palestinian_Violence/s/CrXNqYlMXG

https://www.reddit.com/r/chyberpunk/s/ovxwc48y5d

(inb4 "iT's tO oPtImIzE fOr sOcIaL mEdIa")

I ve heared that internet is in danger but I m not sure why people keep talking about to on Twitter but nobody expalins why

Example:https://x.com/i/status/2113451700761620512

Every article I see talking about people who are living on the streets calls them something like "unsheltered persons" or "people experiencing homelessness" or "unhoused individuals" or something equally awkward like "persons who are temporarily without residence" instead of simply "homeless," as if its somehow offensive to say someone is "homeless" now. Why? How and when did this become something we aren't supposed to say, and how is saying someone is homeless offensive? All of the other terms sound weird and unnatural. I genuinely don't understand, there is no ill intent here, I just don't see how that word is particularly egregious or disrespectful to anyone. Please help me understand. Here is an article for an example of what I'm talking about.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DexlYC5mvbV/?xtok=c2V5ZTZjMm40azcw

Not the best example but i saw more of it : https://www.instagram.com/reels/DbISM8rOYHW/

I don't understand the thing here, real or not how is this something to be worried about ?

https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/ai-stocks-could-crash-2027-092648686.html

Lately I keep seeing headlines and posts about an upcoming AI crash or the AI bubble about to burst. I get the general idea that people think AI is overhyped, but I don't understand what would actually crash if it happened.

Is it the stock prices of companies like Nvidia, Microsoft, and Google? The startups that have raised huge amounts of money? The data centers being built? Would AI tools like ChatGPT stop working or get more expensive? And would it affect regular people, like through retirement accounts or jobs, or mostly just investors?

I'd appreciate an explanation of what the "bubble" is made of and what a burst would look like in practice.

All the instagram comments are saying how this game is CIA propaganda, how North Korea is the main victim of US aggression when in fact it was North Korea that started the Korean war. People saying are how NK is better than Usa Dude what? Millions of people are trying To move to USA on the other hand many North Koreans are risking their lives to smuggle out of NK.

Since when did people start to defend North Korea of all the countries?

one example

https://www.instagram.com/reel/De1mvHlPGkb/?xtok=MWprcnBma2V2eHZ6OA==

Saw a post about their show not happening any more and their subreddit seems to be on panic mode? Screenshot of h3 announcement

I know it's related to this PHP vulnerability fallout, and the memes are hilarious, but what does 4 have to do with it?

Image posted to the political humor sub: image. The title said that this was related to a Ramaswamy ad.

There's so many stories of Republicans being awful in this election cycle, somehow I missed this one.

So what's going on here?

I keep seeing references to something about the number 4 being cryptographically secure, anyone familiar with what they are talking about?

https://www.threads.com/share/BAsbEWviuK/