That’s not bad! I largely don’t drive anymore, unless there’s something I cannot do by ebike or train. I would like to get a used EV someday for those times where I really do need a car.

How much was it, roughly, if you don’t mind me asking?

You need more urban foxes to prevent the spread of rodents and wolves to prevent the spread of deer. Both of those predators can curb or slow the spread of ticks and tick-borne diseases. A lot of rodents serve as tick highways to spread into new areas, which is how the lone star ticks are starting to really make their way into new regions.

CWD, a prion disease, is spreading through deer and elk out here in the west, but wolves are immune to it and other diseases.

Modern glassholes

You and me both. It’s especially fun when you work in multiple timezones and some also have standard or daylight time on top of that. Really adds a layer to that shit sandwich of 12 hour time with 12am/pm confusion too

Install some solar panels!

Fwiw, you can’t see the sunrise from a windowless cubicle anyways. You now get a bit more daylight after work!

I just don’t really know how it’s really going to work. Couldn’t you just design your own parts with one weird bit of geometry and the computer wouldn’t recognize it?

Like, I get you don’t want ghost guns, but it seems like the bigger prize is going after illegal and currently legal guns that are actually used in mass shootings. 3D printed stuff seems like small potatoes compared to the daily casualty rates.

I used to be hard-core into cars. I loved driving. Traffic, staggeringly bad insurance, and idiotic driving have largely soured me on driving. Yes, I will always have a car so I can get out to the great outdoors, but I have largely stopped driving in urban environments. The bike, bus, and train are faster, cheaper, or straight up easier than fighting an hour+ through traffic to go to a fun venue nine miles away.

Nowadays, I vote gleefully for everything that improves mass transit, bike infrastructure, and third places. There’s an incredible knock-on effect with traffic reduction. The more bus rapid transit lanes, the more comprehensive the rail network, and the larger and safer the bike lanes become, the faster it is to get around the city- even if one or more options is out of commission due to highway construction or tunnel repairs. A decade ago, I sat in gridlock traffic for three hours to go two city blocks. These days, I can get across town on bike in 26 minutes. Traffic is down- it only takes about an hour to cross the city.

I don’t think even doing that now will save the them. They’ll have to bring in slave labor or stolen children to plug the gap, and it will have to be millions and millions of people.

Do plants feel pain?

From what I’ve read so far, unfortunately, it seems like they might. Plants can communicate with each other and form underground resource networks with other plants, fungi, and microorganisms. Including for illness, boring bugs and pain responses. The smell of fresh cut grass is one of those warning/pain responses.

I’ve wanted to do some bonsai succulents, but the process towards any living thing seems cruel and painful.

God, I’m so looking forward to a time when science, peace and environmental research are at the forefront of the world’s focus again.

Also the colonization of Africa to steal all their gold and minerals while propping up warlords in exchange for armed Russian mercs that crush dissent. That’s happening right now.

Ehhh, it’s still a thing. I had burn in on my S9, and I babied that thing explicitly to prevent burn in. And that was after 4-5 years. My desktop monitors are nearly a decade old starting next year (wow, 1440p still has amazing staying power).

I’d definitely worry about burn-in if you have Teams open for nine hours a day and the taskbar on. It’s crazy to me that phones still burn in from casual use. :/

Me hoping the AI bubble pops and significantly cripples the AI, data center, and AI cars industry:

https://youtu.be/w3gTKdJnMHk

Man, I dunno if you like ebikes, but do I have just the website for you. Clunky, open source, and very you-flavored x3

https://ebikes.ca/

It gives me hope for the future- we’ll weather this storm and come out with a better movement, most likely. But it takes time, annoyingly. I’m glad I read his book!

During the last lavender scare, the Russians were just as paranoid that their gay citizens were western inventions and persecuted them quite heavily.

…while the US did the same, thinking they were also security risks. This culminated in a society so fearful that people used to introduce themselves first by telling people that they had a wife and kids, then their name. A government official even killed themselves at their desk because their son was outed as gay. We even sabotaged our own ICBM program by firing one of the only astronomers we had capable of working on such things, because he was gay.

He went on to be the father of the gay rights movement as we know it today.

David K Johnson has a whole book about the whole lavender scare, it’s quite a good read.

Or worse, getting pushed by new colonial powers like Russia to ban “western” things like LGBT rights while they steal all the gold and other resources from them. I was hoping Prigozhin dying like a moron would have sapped the Russian’s colonial forces in Africa. Unfortunately not.

I have the moto g stylus 2024, and can confirm, it’s a great phone.