Our society structure. Society is still structured with a few persons living extravagantly like kings on the top, while the masses are mostly content with mediocre scraps.
Patriarchy
Ohhhhh yes
Paper visas. You have my passport number, is it not enough to check if I have valid visa?
Rudy Giuliani
Hammers, irrigation systems, smithing… etc
Not sure if any of it counts as surprising after rereading the prompt
Moneygrams
Fax machines.
The amount of “modern” companies I had to fax shit too when my dad died was infuriating! Hyundai, Target, etc etc etc. Email is a thing dumb ass companies! Fuck me.
Many government departments and private companies consider faxed documents as a duplicated “original”, instead of a copy. Because that totally makes sense.
IT MEANS FASCIMILE GOD DAMNIT
Totally… 🤦
I can’t exactly recommend the service which can be a bit annoying but clicksend allows you to send faxes and actually letters for pretty cheap. the letter thing is pretty nice when something demands a physical one. you upload a pdf and it gets printed and mailed out. fax works same way. fax is way cheaper obviously.
winfax.exe is looking at you and sneering…
we did all this, in a cave, with a 14.4 baud modem on windows 3.0
Why would someone need that instead of just printing it and mailing it themselves?
just faster. you have to have a printer and paper for it and envelopes and stamps. with the service you just upload the pdf and put in the address and hit send. I mean I think most could see how it can be useful. Bit cheaper to print and fold and seal and stamp and drop in the box but with as unoften as I need to send a physical letter I like it.
Then you need a printer, printer ink, an envelope, and stamps. If you really don’t send mail out that frequently, I can see the appeal of it. Could easily be cheaper. I also imagine it might have some utility to ADHD folks.
It just occurred to me: I doubt my 26 year old son has ever sent anything in the mail himself. If he wants to send a message, it’s email or text, and if he wants to send a gift, he’ll order it on Amazon and have it delivered. I’ll have to ask him if he’s ever actually mailed anything.
Can’t exactly trusr anyone with such sensitive documents that I’d have to print out and mail.
youd be surprised. most required mail stuff is straight up bullshit type stuff and not really that senstitive. its usually just hoops they through up to slow down and stymie anything your entitled to.
Why did target and Hyundai need to know your dad died?
He had accounts with them, that’s part of the probate process. Letting them know.
Fax may outlast landline telephony.
It already has. Vast majority of companies still handling fax are using VoIP fax modems with digital receivers that turn it into a PDF. I haven’t seen a functioning copper landline probably since 2015…
Did you know that it would have been possible for Abraham Lincoln to send a fax to a samurai?
I think the reason I didn’t know it is because it isn’t true.
Unless you’re a Lincoln truther who thinks he wasn’t killed in 1865 way before fax machines were available in the USA and Japan.
there was a period of around 12 years where it would have been possible, given that they had both been in scotland at the time. between 1853 and 1865 it would have to have been an ex-samurai.
I see the potential for a historical fiction masterpiece here
Erotic Lincoln-Samurai Fax Fiction
The first fax machine was invented in 1843.
But of course they had to wait for the second one to be invented…
Also maddening and frustratingly!
They still have some uses (Invidious: mirror selection or Nadeko).
Faxes are common in healthcare facilities and hospitals. I would imagine that they’re safer when it comes to sensitive data.
They are analog modems on a telephone line. There is no encryption at all, because they still need to be compatible with fax machines from the 1970s.
There was also an exploit where someone sent a manipulated image via fax, which would exploit an old bug in a jpg library that is used in the software stack, so you can run your own code.
comes to sensitive data.
not really. there’s no encryption to faxing, and the software to fax from pc’s directly (enabling faked records for example) has been ubiquitous since the 90s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinFax
THANK YOU.
You know another fun thing that can happen? A doctor moves practices and changes fax numbers, and the old number gets assigned to a new, completely unrelated non-medical group. But no one told the medical entity that sends faxes, and no one updated the relevant records. All of a sudden several months worth of PHI has been getting sent to a women’s clothing store.
Fax in the medical field needs to die. Between the possibility of this happening, higher probability of transmission failure, paper (where offices are still using physical faxes) getting misplaced before getting filed in charts, etc., it’s just a plain bad way to send medical information in 2026.
Edit: OH, and don’t get me started on fancy, marketing-designed lab reports that use colored indicators to communicate treatment-critical information that no one checked for legibility in black and white, yet still get sent by fax. Like, fucking WHAT??
on’t get me started on fancy, marketing-designed lab reports that use colored indicators to communicate treatment-critical information that no one checked for legibility in black and white, yet still get sent by fax. Like, fucking WHAT??
holy fuck
Not really safer, they just work with the existing infrastructure. Personally, I think there’s still a place for fax, it’s essentially a convenient way to scan and transmit, and these days you can get them to your email or phone (not in healthcare because that’s not HIPAA compliant). Sure, not anybody’s first choice, but I think it’s still valid.
It’s only convenient if you have access to a fax machine, which the majority of us don’t
My comment was in context of existing business infrastructure. You’re right that most of us don’t have a fax machine, but many organizations still do and therefore it can be very convenient for B2B communication. And in the case of orgs that want faxes but you don’t have one, ifax is a thing as well.
I’m not making an argument for faxes, I’m just saying for an outdated technology it’s stayed quite useful in the modern era.
With a mail-enabled printer, you can send your scan directly to an email address.
I fail to see what you’d need a fax for.
Needed it just yesterday.
The baths on the Titanic still hold water today
There are more hydrogen atoms in a single water molecule than there are stars in the entire solar system!
That’s good I’ll admit it took awhile.
Did you mean water drop? Because I thought it was precisely two hydrogen and one oxygen atoms that make up a single water molecule…
Take another minute to think about just how many stars are in the solar system…
Whoosh…
Incredible
There’s an even more fucked up joke in there somewhere about the shared bathwater still belonging to the same people
A 5-day, 40 hour work week “standard”
Somebody saying “bless you” to someone else who sneezes
The president
Bless you is such a weird way to respond to a sneeze though. Fitting for the clusterfuck the english language is tbh.
From ancient Rome when they thought sneezing was an omen and may dislodge and expel the soul from the body (Pliny the Elder, Suetonius, Homer).
We know know sneezing can wake the small elf living in your stomach. According to RFK.
Sure feels like that sometimes.
Still weird that english uses it. Most other languages I k ow just say something about your health.
In Germany we say (literally) “Health” as in “Get better”
Love the joke from (probably not actually) nazi times
“Heil Hitler!” “Seh ich aus wie ein Arzt?” Or " Heil ihn selbst!"
In english: “Heil Hitler” “do i look like a doctor?” Or “heal him yourself”
Love it
I know. We do the same
The english language has a lot of religious language hidden away in expressions
For example, goodbye is just a shortening of “god be with ye”
“langaige”
Seinfeld suggested: “You’re soooo good looking!”
David Attenborough, and I hope he’s around for as long as he wants to be.
It’s his hundredth birthday in 2 days!
Can some one ask him how feels without lego?
homeopathy. you’d think germ theory would have killed it, but no.
To be fair my old high school acquaintances swear their oils made from magic plants literally healed their child’s cancer and my kid is only autistic because we took her to a doctor one time years ago.
I once told a homeopathy person that my sister had a normal kid, then took the kid to a homeopath and now the kid is badly disabled.
If they can make up shit, we can too.
It’s honestly troubling. I’ve seen homeopathic ‘treatments’ sold right next to real medicine in mainstream stores, with similar packaging, similar pricing, and only tiny fine print on the bottle saying that it’s homeopathic. And you have to know what ‘homeopathic’ means in order for that to have any impact; many don’t. It would be very easy to accidentally buy the homeopathic ‘treatment’ instead of one that actually works. I’ve almost made that mistake before myself, before I read the package more closely.
(For anybody who doesn’t already know ‘homeopathic’ does NOT mean ‘herbal’ or ‘natural’ or anything like that. It’s not alternative medicine – it’s not medicine at all. Homeopathy is old, very debunked, and very bullshit psuedo-science that a traveling conman made up after supposedly having it supernaturally revealed to him in a drunken dream. The idea is that for any ailment, you take what causes that ailment, massively dilute it in water (or another substance) so much that there likely isn’t a single molecule of it left, and then the water will ‘remember’. Homeopathic medication is literally nothing. It’s plain water (or, in stores, often plain sugar pills). It contains no active ingredients of any kind, and it’s – at best – a placebo. It’s always a waste of money and may be dangerous if you fall for it and take it instead of actual, effective medicine.)
Homeopathy is old, but like, not even that old. It was invented in 1796. It’s younger than the united states, and was invented while France was doing their first revolution. They like to frame it as ancient wisdom rather than some German in the late 18th century took one idea off Paracelsus way too far, then retooled it until it stopped actively doing harm (because it did nothing) and came up with some bs to explain why it “works”
Honestly vinyl records, and I say this as a collector with joy
I think it’s kinda surprising when you think that most people who enjoy music in 2026 have access to a good percentage of all music ever recorded as part of their music streaming subscription.
It warms my heart that there’s enough people out there who don’t give a shit about the level of convenience provided by streaming that ultimately erodes the work of an artist, and they choose to buy an expensive plastic circle instead
Tracks on an album are intended to be listened to in the context of that album. To normalise pulling pieces out and ignoring the rest is kinda destructive to the artists’ intent.
Vinyl records are kinda the antithesis to that mindset. You’re kinda forced to engage with the album as an atomic piece of art
So for me it’s not just surprising, but a thing of beauty
The album thing has bothered me for a long time. There are now tons of “internet artists” that all seem to release one or two singles every six months and that’s just how they release music.
Albums aren’t just about a limitation of the medium. It’s about putting a concept together that’s bigger than a 3-5 minute idea you had one day. It’s about capturing a time of that artist’s or group’s life and progress. It gives you the chance to bind all of those tracks together and organize them in a way that you think will help guide your audience.
With single-only releases, you may never really get to know the artist or what emotion they may be trying to convey in a greater sense. Or worse, all of their singles just sound like “them” and never evolve beyond that.
Albums are a great statement from artists but in the history of recorded music the LP phonograph or album is relatively new, introduced in 1948. Before then artists basically only released singles. In a way the album was originally a value purchase; instead of buying 7 different singles you could buy one LP for a lower price. It’s almost more like the modern “greatest hits” albums successful musicians release.
I don’t think it’s fair to outright dismiss someone who’s only releasing singles; it’s not actually a new phenomenon. Maybe they’re not saying as much as people releasing albums, but not all albums are really carrying a concept or bigger thought, either. Not everything needs to be a novel; there’s a place for short articles or random comments online.
I suppose my tone was a little off. I shouldn’t imply that it’s wrong to not pursue an album or that it’s a more correct approach to do so.
Except that it is.
And I will die on this hill.
most people who enjoy music in 2026 have access to a good percentage of all music ever recorded as part of their music streaming subscription.
For NOW they do. I suspect enshittification is forcing more capital investment in response.
If only the prices were not so 2026y.
New records are ridiculously priced! There are jewels hidden in thrift store bins or in some of the more “messy” looking record stores for very reasonable prices. Digging through the pictures and the names you may or may not know, to select albums based on their title and cover: there’s an incredible charm to that. I visit a lot of record stores, the ones that look too neatly organised and every single record is in a sealed shrink wrap, are the ones I leave rather quickly. I want my record store to look and feel like an old attic :)
I love them making a come back. If only the more enviormental friendly material would be used more widespread :(
Film production and development. Yesterday I dropped off a couple rolls of 120 film shot on a 60 year old camera at a lab to develop and print it for me.
We’re in a bit of a renaissance!
Kodak just put out brand new Kodacolor 200 and Ektachrome 100 film
I’ve not even got one developed yet!
Hell I just got my daughter a disposable camera for her school camping trip. No electronics allowed but they encouraged them to bring those. I was surprised to find one. I told her (11yrs) it was a one time use camera. The look on her face was priceless. She looked at me as if I were dumb and said, “so it takes one freaking picture?? That’s stupid, my phone takes all the photos I want!” She got further confused when I explained why there was no screen and how she had to get those photos lol.
Should’ve showed her the clip from The Office where Erin(?) takes a picture with a disposable camera and then throws the it in the trash and wonders why people use them, seems such a waste to throw it away and never see the pictures.
Film is infinitely upscalable. No video format has ever been able to touch it. You can take films shot 100 years ago and upscale them to 4K/8K/etc. You can’t do that with any video format.
Not infinitely. I had a film scanned at 14k and it’s starting to look a bit grainy.
Me
Came here to say this.
Now that’s rude :(
Twinings Tea has been in business since 1706.
Zildjian, the cymbal company, was started in 1623.
