Lookin

Seems to me that, given greater gender fluidity, the use of gender-specific pronouns will fade over time.  It's easy enough to keep track of preferred pronouns for a friend or relative, but it's not so easy to keep track of preferred pronouns for the dozens or hundreds of people someone interacts with on even a somewhat regular basis.
Unless, of course, the pronouns become part of one's name.  Joseph could become Joseph-he-his-him.  But that might lead to an invitation to "Just call me Joe-he-his-him."  
I do believe that folks should be able to ask others to use preferred pronouns, just as I believe folks should be able to ask others to use a preferred name.  It's certainly a courtesy I'm willing to respect.  But I think it would likewise be courteous of the other person to overlook a mistake on my part if I get it wrong.
I expect gender fluidity will become more common over time (another post for another day), so I think the likely solution will be gender-neutral pronouns.  Till then, I'm willing to try my best to get it right for everyone I meet or communicate with.  But I will ask for a little patience and understanding when I mess up.
In the meantime, if someone asks me to specify my preferred pronouns, I'll just say, "Surprise me."  

Mine's a fairly recent low-to-the-ground sedan with a horizontal strip of LED's.  I get flashed occasionally and flash my brights back to let them know I'm not trying to be inconsiderate.  I've got to work with the headlights I've got.
With the incredible range of headlight shapes, sizes and elevations these days, I find it hard to believe that regulations are as tight as they used to be.  I'm often staring directly into the headlights of oncoming cars or trucks and blue-white LED's are harsh.
That said, they do light up the road quite nicely.
There's been a lot of evolution in LED technology and it's now possible for LED lights to have warmer wavelengths.  I'm hoping that regulations will likewise evolve and create tighter standards for roadway illumination as well as for oncoming driver comfort and safety.  The last thing we need is a blinded driver coming at us. 😳

I agree that it seems the regulations are not as tight as they used to be regarding headlights.  Also, I bet there is very little enforcement to ensure headlights are in compliance with the regulations.  I am sure there are aftermarket headlights sold that are not compliant with the law.  30-50 years ago, police would stop people for things like this (overly bright headlights).  I doubt that happens much today.
...and don't get me started on another pet peeve of mine regarding vehicles:  Windows tinted so dark that you literally cannot see the person inside.  Again, the police used to stop cars for having their windows tinted too dark.  Today, the police would be too afraid to stop such a car out of fear that the driver might have a weapon they cannot see.

Mine's a fairly recent low-to-the-ground sedan with a horizontal strip of LED's.  I get flashed occasionally and flash my brights back to let them know I'm not trying to be inconsiderate.  I've got to work with the headlights I've got.
With the incredible range of headlight shapes, sizes and elevations these days, I find it hard to believe that regulations are as tight as they used to be.  I'm often staring directly into the headlights of oncoming cars or trucks and blue-white LED's are harsh.
That said, they do light up the road quite nicely.
There's been a lot of evolution in LED technology and it's now possible for LED lights to have warmer wavelengths.  I'm hoping that regulations will likewise evolve and create tighter standards for roadway illumination as well as for oncoming driver comfort and safety.  The last thing we need is a blinded driver coming at us. 😳

I've flashed my headlights a few times at others, thinking their high beams were on, then their REAL high beams come back at me. I'm sure they know they have badass LEDs that bother others.  Some of these are after-market modifications for those who want to become badass. 
Yes, they are bright and bothersome. 

It appears that, for the present, the most convenient remedy is to wear a pair of the many night-vision glare-resistant eyeglasses that are advertised:

I'm comfortable driving at night, but the bright headlights are frustrating. It's typically still dark when I go to work. There are times when the bright, white lights make it uncomfortable to look in my rear view mirror. I was wondering what was going on and feel validated by this thread.

American drivers have a blinding headlight problem. It could last for years.
Madison Hall Feb 13, 2023, 10:33 AM ET
The Business Insider 
* Drivers say they're routinely getting blinded by surrounding cars' headlights.
* This isn't because headlight regulations have changed — regulations on brightness haven't been altered in decades.
* In reality, it's due to misaligned headlights, taller vehicles, and the changing hue of the lights.
 
Since moving away from the suburbs and into Chicago, Ashley Seery's been blinded by headlights more than ever. She said she doesn't even drive at night anymore in an attempt to remedy the problem.
"It's to the point where I will avoid driving at night because some headlights are just so bright," Seery said. "They can literally blind me. I have to turn my mirrors away so that I can drive in peace without the glare."
Seery's not alone. There are entire communities and online petitions devoted to discussing blinding headlights. 
This isn't because headlight regulations have shifted — they haven't changed in decades, according to Greg Brannon, AAA's director of automotive engineering. But the lights themselves have.
John Bullough, the program director at the Light and Health Research Center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has been sounding the alarm on the topic for years. Bullough, who works closely with headlights and vehicle manufacturers to try to address the issues, said there are three primary factors that have shifted in the past few decades that caused headlights to appear brighter and cause more glare. 
First off, vehicles, especially in the US, are getting taller and taller. Adding to that, the color of many headlights has shifted from a warmer, yellow hue to a harsher, blue-white one. And finally, most cars have at least one headlight that's misaligned. This isn't a new problem, but other shifts have made it into a serious issue.
The misalignment problem
The most important factor, Bullough said, is how common it is for cars to have headlights out of alignment.
"We actually did some measurements not too long ago and found that probably about two-thirds of every car had at least one headlight that was either aimed too high up, which is something that creates a lot of glare for other drivers, or too far down, which essentially limits their visibility."
A key issue is that, as cars are produced, there isn't a specific entity tasked with ensuring alignment. 
Matt Brumbelow, a senior research engineer at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, explained that the federal regulations over car headlights are "equipment-based standards only," meaning that the headlight is certified independently of the vehicle itself.
After installation, "there's no testing to make sure that it's still aimed properly or that it's putting out enough light on the road and it's not glaring other drivers," Brumbelow said.
Americans love a big truck
Another contributing factor, Bullough explained, is the size (and height) of the average car is increasing. And as cars get taller, he said, the placement of the headlights rises alongside it. This, in turn, can lead to an increase in drivers getting blinded.
According to JD Power, a consumer intelligence company, 52.7% of vehicles sold in 2010 were either SUVs or trucks. By 2021, that number was to up to 78.5%.
American cars are bigger than vehicles from many other countries for several reasons, according to MotorBiscuit, including larger streets, lower gas prices, and the desire for more room.
Higher vehicles mean the band of light is raised up by foot or more, Bullough said. "That means that there's going to be more opportunity to create glare for other drivers as well."
The changing hue of car headlights
As cars have modernized, many manufacturers have moved away from the standard halogen bulb — which produces a yellowish light — in lieu of LEDs, which usually produce a bluer, white light. 
According to Mark Rea, a professor at the Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine, there is a fundamental issue with how light is measured: There's bias against certain blue hues in the spectrum.
A warm, yellowish hue of light is gentler to the human eye.
This is where, to many, the problem lies: the shine of an LED light — due to its added blue light — appears to be brighter than a warmer yellow halogen headlight despite generating the same amount of candlepower, a unit used to measure light.
"The eye is sensitive to those blue wavelengths, but the light meter is not," Rea added.
There's a solution, but it's years away
In February 2022, after being required to by Congress' Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a rule officially allowing automakers to install adaptive driving beam headlights onto new vehicles.
Adaptive driving beams automatically adjust the high beams emitted from LED car headlights in real time to avoid blinding pedestrians and other drivers. 
The tech has been legal in most countries outside of the US, and experts say they could make a noticeable difference once rolled out.
But don't expect to see it anytime soon on American roads due to the complexity of the NHTSA's regulations around adaptive driving beams, which differ tremendously from Europe.
"We're still not aware of any that are available in the US, so it might take a few years for the manufacturers to make sure that their high beam or their adaptive driving beam technology meets the requirements that the NHTSA has released," Brumbelow said.
But there isn't any legislation or regulations in place that'll force manufacturers to implement adaptive driving beams into their vehicle lines by a certain date.
So prepare for the immediate future to be even brighter, as the blinding glare problem may get worse before it gets better.

This was quite the ride. I think where you landed was fair but more so, kudos on how you approached the conversation with him and didn't take advantage of his guilt by giving him nothing or just the 2 that he asked for. You're a dream client, from what I can tell.

Regardless of the cause(s), the chronically obese have my sympathy.  Life in general must be pure hell when obesity progresses to the level displayed in the above images.

. . . . . Weighed?  I thought you said I'd need to get laid.

August 1st is here, and it's @Cooper's birthday. May you have a glorious day!

I may have something bigger in the van, if you'd like to help me look

It's a worthwhile and fascinating subject, that's for sure.  One of my favorite books, The Moral Animal, examines evolutionary psychology in some depth and this article, The Evolution of Empathy, looks at the role of empathy in particular.
Not that nurture - as opposed to nature - doesn't play a role in whether or not we care about others; it does.  It's just that the human species, among others, has found that empathy is important to the survival of the species and it's a characteristic that will persist throughout the generations.  Folks who lack empathy will tend to reproduce less.
Of course, there will be those individuals, like Heuermann, who lack empathy.  Whether it's because he's missing a gene, or because of his upbringing, or some combination, care for others either was never there or was ground out.
I expect it is possible to identify a lack of empathy through psychological testing or by observation.  The issue then would be what do we do about it?  Do we content ourselves with the knowledge that it's a recessive trait and affects a minority of the population?  Do we try to overcome it through training or punishment?  Do we remove people without empathy from society?
Personally, if I come across someone who lacks empathy, I make sure to keep far away.  Unfortunately, Heuermann's victims needed to make a living and were not lucky enough to avoid him.
Perhaps the only good thing about these tragedies is that others may start asking the questions that you have and trying to figure out how to keep these misfits from harming others.

My kinda guy ! 

Changing a well trademarked logo design to something that can't be registered as a trademark lifted from another source (possibly without any compensation to the originator) seems exactly like the genious level business marketing we've come to expect from Mr. Musk.

His efforts to make it an X social media platform are proceeding apace!

Perhaps you could tell him not to forget the thousand dollars you left under his pillow.  

Just reading your post gave me heart palpitations - my Saturday night consisted of sitting in front of the TV with a pot of macaroni and cheese.  The disaster for me was not soaking the pot in the sink and now having to scrub really heard this morning,

It's a worthwhile and fascinating subject, that's for sure.  One of my favorite books, The Moral Animal, examines evolutionary psychology in some depth and this article, The Evolution of Empathy, looks at the role of empathy in particular.
Not that nurture - as opposed to nature - doesn't play a role in whether or not we care about others; it does.  It's just that the human species, among others, has found that empathy is important to the survival of the species and it's a characteristic that will persist throughout the generations.  Folks who lack empathy will tend to reproduce less.
Of course, there will be those individuals, like Heuermann, who lack empathy.  Whether it's because he's missing a gene, or because of his upbringing, or some combination, care for others either was never there or was ground out.
I expect it is possible to identify a lack of empathy through psychological testing or by observation.  The issue then would be what do we do about it?  Do we content ourselves with the knowledge that it's a recessive trait and affects a minority of the population?  Do we try to overcome it through training or punishment?  Do we remove people without empathy from society?
Personally, if I come across someone who lacks empathy, I make sure to keep far away.  Unfortunately, Heuermann's victims needed to make a living and were not lucky enough to avoid him.
Perhaps the only good thing about these tragedies is that others may start asking the questions that you have and trying to figure out how to keep these misfits from harming others.

I believe parents and siblings can often spot a proclivity to this early on. It does show up in all sorts of ways in childhood. I’m no expert, but my brother from a very early age, helped himself to whatever he wanted regardless of who it belonged to. He was also “rough”, a code word for violent, with our family pets, to the point we could no longer have any. My mom tried to get him help or rehabilitated to no avail. 
 
As an adult, he is a thief and a serial abuser of women. He’s always in jail or arrested and extremely violent. That’s all been there since he was 3. 

Sorry.  I got a kick out of @Coolwave35's post about having a guy he couldn't stand on retainer and decided to have some fun with it.  I should have waited until there's a just-kidding emoji.  This one sometimes works in a pinch -  - but it didn't do the job this time.
I've actually never had anyone on retainer, probably because my canoodling cravings have never been that constant or predictable.  I stand in awe of those whose are.

So the Gilgo beach killer, the BTK killer and several others are motivated by sexual sadism. Torturing another human being for sexual pleasure is beyond my comprehension. I was trying to find what evolutionary factors lead to this type of proclivity in some humans. These days there is a trend to gender-identify and raise a child according to his/her/their gender-proclivity rather than the physical gender. Similar to that I wonder if society could identify sexual sadists early on and put them in some program precrime. I also wonder what percentage of population has similar fantasies, but does not act upon them.

His pre show up sexting is soooooo fun.
The sex is amazing.
The chit chat before and after is nauseating. 
I have never in my life met someone that I cared less about all of their hobbies and interests. Once he asked if we could play Mortal Kombat on my ps5. I told him the second controller was broken. He could clearly see 4 controllers and he said “none of those work?” And I said yeah they’re all broken. Then he said “why do you keep them?” And I just said yes. 
 
The good outweighs the bad but the sex is so affordable and great that we keep it up.