You might get some downvotes for mentioning that book. The author makes a few sloppy assumptions, and the anthropology/sociology/history communities love to hate him for it. His overall thesis is still generally good though, IIRC.

One thing I don’t think is in Diamond’s book: once Europe had realized they could sail far and wide to get things, the Dutch invented the idea of a stock market to fund voyages (the British took this idea and really ran with it). This system made long, risky trips easier to finance. Instead of a single monarch funding a single expedition, many people could pool their money to fund many expeditions.

I agree that none of this means Europeans have some special intelligence or attitude. Any other civilization that developed in similar conditions could have followed the same path.

I don’t even try to hide it anymore. My manager and I send each other memes during the work day.

I remember an mp3 going around where a guy turned it into a song, complete with the chorus, “I don’t like the DMCA.”

And it continues up to the present day. There was a Ukraine war fundraiser where you could pay to have a custom message written on munitions.

https://signmyrocket.com/

Originally, fire departments only dealt with fires. In the 1960’s and 1970’s it became clear that a rapid response health service would be beneficial. Rather than create a whole new system from scratch, that function was tacked onto the existing fire service by having EMTs and paramedics on staff. And the initial focus was primarily on providing rapid transit: delivering the victim to a hospital as quickly as possible. Response time was the dominant metric used to grade emergency medical providers. It took more decades to fully appreciate that treatments applied at the accident scene or in transit could be as important as, or more important than, response time.

There’s an argument to be made that fire departments are somewhat obsolete. They spend most of their time dealing with medical and mental health issues, not fighting fires. We would probably benefit as a society by replacing a lot of firefighters with house call nurses to help manage people’s long-term health issues before they become emergencies.

I am 100% in favor of the message behind this flag, but holy crap it’s a real eyesore. Same with the Progress Pride flag and some of the other LGBTQ flags. I keep hoping some skilled graphic designers out there will come up with cleaner designs.

One of the main Lemmy devs is working on a federated wiki project called ibis:

https://ibis.wiki/article/Main_Page

I only know that it exists. I have not used it so I can’t give any opinion of its maturity or usefulness.

V-TECH toys. Noisy, annoying garbage that people love to gift to infants and toddlers.

After that it’s a toss up between a phone, tablet, or Chromebook.

I Am A Rock by Simon and Garfunkel

A winter's day  
In a deep and dark December

I am alone  
Gazing from my window to the streets below  
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow
I am a rock I am an island

I've built walls
A fortress deep and mighty
That none may penetrate
I have no need of friendship, friendship causes pain
It's laughter and it's loving I disdain
I am a rock I am an island

Don't talk of love
Well I've heard the word before
It's sleeping in my memory
I won't disturb the slumber of feelings that have died
If I never loved I never would have cried
I am a rock I am an island

I have my books
And my poetry to protect me
I am shielded in my armor
Hiding in my room safe within my womb
I touch no one and no one touches me
I am a rock I am an island

And a rock feels no pain
And an island never cries

Yep, Alaska.

I agree with OP. Anyone remember Adam Sandler’s “Ode to My Car” song, for example? The radio edit is so much funnier than the straight version. Swearing is boring and gauche, but a little bleep over the obvious course word adds a bit of silliness or maybe a hint of taboo depending on the execution.

As far as dealing with reports and removing inappropriate content, it scales exponentially with the popularity of the community and the contentiousness of the topic. Most communities require little or no effort on this front. A community like [email protected] might get a couple reports per year as people argue about whether specific posts fit the genre. A larger community like [email protected] gets a few reports per month due to users bickering. Really big communities like [email protected] or [email protected] get targeted by trolls and spammers and are a daily chore.

You should look at the community modlogs for a few communities that are similar to the ones you want to start. That will give you a feel for how busy you may be.

The bigger burden is going to be keeping your new communities fresh with new posts. That work is much harder than moderation, in my experience. Look at [email protected]: it has 4.9k subscribers but most of the content comes from a single user with a passion for the topic. Same with [email protected] and many others.

Every kid in my high school knew the “half your age plus 7” rule for bounding age gaps:

Age of younger person in the relationship = (Age of older person in the relationship / 2) + 7

So if you are 30 then you can date from 22 to 46. Science!

Though, really, beyond your mid-20s I think you can date as old as you like. As long as everyone is consenting, open, and honest, then have fun.

Inflation means cash is losing value, so prices will rise. You don’t want to have a pile of cash sitting in your bank. Here are some possible options. (I am not a professional, do your own research, etc. What works in one situation may not work in another.)

• Convert your cash into more stable stores of value. Buy physical property (homes and land), invest in gold or other precious metals, invest in agricultural commodities, etc. People always need places to live, food to eat, wood to build, clothing to wear. These sorts of things tend to stay in demand.

• Convert your cash to a more stable currency. You could buy a foreign country’s sovereign bonds, or exchange some of your cash for Euros or whatever. Over the past 80 years US dollars and US government bonds have been popular for this, but those feel a bit risky at the moment.

• Spend your cash now on quality, durable goods that will last a long time. The new roof you need on your house will only be more expensive after inflation has eroded your purchasing power.

• Buy investments that (hopefully) return an interest rate greater than the inflation rate. Stock funds can sometimes do this, but not always.

• If you have stable income and are confident that it will remain stable, you can gamble with debt. For example, borrow money today at X% interest, and if future inflation is >X% then you benefit by repaying the debt with cheaper future money.

There are a couple, but they don’t roam very far.

https://detroitzoo.org/animal/african-lion/

[email protected]

Though it has been dead for two years. Maybe you can be the person to start posting and bring it back to life.

When making small talk, ask for opinions farther down someone’s list. Like, “What was the third best trip you ever took?” It catches people off guard in a good way, and garners better answers than asking for their top choice.

You can do it the other way, too. Saying, “that was the fourth funniest thing I have ever seen” immediately prompts questions from your audience. Just be ready with a good follow-up story if you try this.

Another option is to learn little party tricks that don’t require much talking. Learn to fold simple origami, or some coin tricks, or whatever. When you’re with a group of people and you don’t know what to add to the conversation, you quietly do your thing until someone notices. Suddenly a banal moment becomes a memorable moment and you didn’t have to say anything.

Yep. Robert Putnam’s book “Bowling Alone” turns 25 this year, and it’s as relevant as ever.

That’s just the new range staffer holding the target. Materials are expensive with the tariffs and all, so you gotta cut costs somewhere.