fireweed

joined 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

There's a webcomic called Just Roommates that's based on this concept of the suits themselves taking on a persona.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (11 children)

There are vegan blood meal alternatives out there to resolve this exact conundrum.

But the reality is, unless your plants are being grown hydroponically in a sealed warehouse or similar, chances are real good that they are feeding on decaying animals (either directly or indirectly) whether you like it or not. They're mostly insects and annelids and such, but still animals.

I think the issue for vegans is more about whether animal slaughter was involved in making their fertilizer. Dead pillbugs in the soil is just nature doing its cycle of life thing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

JFC covid booster rates are already hovering about two inches from the floor

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago

Not a paleontologist, but these renditions seem shockingly consistent for a dinosaur. T-Rex for example went from full upright to balanced to covered in feathers in half this timeframe. And let's not even talk about poor iguanodon...

[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (8 children)

Feeders are okay, but the real joy comes from watching hummingbirds feed at flowers. In my experience they're big fans of fuchsias, and I've also seen them at fireweed.

Edit: dropped an h, misplaced an s

[–] [email protected] 80 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (6 children)

Sooo are centipedes like fruit flies and not engage in any real form of sexual selection, or is the female going around judging the fuck out of every jizz pile she encounters?

"Mmm-mm, look at that poor viscosity, obviously from a low-quality male. This one on the other hand: deep color, firm texture, nice and sticky... clearly produced by a male with the superior genes I want to pass along to my offspring."

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It really depends on mode of transportation, especially if a car is involved or not. I suspect a number of people in this thread are folks who drive most/all places and aren't including all the stuff they have stashed in their cars, available if needed. Also, driving means minimal exposure to the elements, so even less stuff is needed to stay comfortable/presentable than if you are walking, biking, waiting at transit stations, etc.

As a former Tokyo resident I'll also add that I used to carry a folding fan around with me in summer when I lived there, but I have no need in the US where air conditioning is so prevalent (to the point of overuse). I also stopped needing a fan so much, regardless of temperature, when living in less humid places.

Also, shocked more people aren't mentioning a water bottle. I bring a reusable water bottle with me any time I have to leave the house for more than a couple of hours, especially if I'm cycling somewhere but even if I'm driving. How are y'all staying hydrated sans water bottle???

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Okay but if Arizona and New Mexico's mountain regions get forest cutouts, central Washington needs a grasslands cutout to represent its shrub-steppe habitat.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Obligatory "wet food is much better for cats if for no other reason than the moisture content"

Cats are apparently one of those species that's used to getting most of their fluids via their prey, and can be bad at drinking enough water when fed a dry food diet (in my experience this is highly dependent on the individual cat: some are "picky drinkers").

[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Audiences aren't sick of superhero movies, they're sick of BAD superhero movies.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

This appears to be a case of "best practices" that's perhaps so good it's excessive when put together. I'll try to explain as succinctly as I can.

As you can see in these two examples, having the pedestrian crosswalk to a bus stop raised where it crosses the bike lane is a standard design. The floating bus island reduces bus-bike conflict and speeds up bus time by removing the need to merge in and out of the travel lane. Meanwhile it also preserves the protected bike lane and, depending on design, gives folks waiting for the bus a nice space not immediately next to automotive traffic to sit/stand. However this design introduces potential pedestrian-bike conflict, especially in urban contexts where road space is cramped, visibility is poor, and/or people exiting the bus or moving from the sidewalk to the bus island do not have a lot of space and may unexpectedly (from the perspective of bike riders) enter the bike lane. Rushing to catch a bus that's about to depart especially can cause people to have blinders and suddenly enter into the bike lane without looking because they're too focused on the bus. For accessibility reasons it's best to have the path across the bike lane raised to sidewalk level but only for the duration of the crossing (otherwise you end up with people walking or even standing around waiting in the bike lane).

Finally there's the fragile political alignment of people on foot and people on bicycles; these two groups should be allies in the fight against car dominance but our road and even recreational systems have often pitted the two against each other: it's very common to hear pedestrians especially complain about near-misses with bicycles, particularly on shared paths ("I was walking my dog and this speeding cyclist appeared out of nowhere and almost ran us over!" "I was riding my bike and this inattentive pedestrian's dog abruptly jumped into my path and I had to swerve to avoid them both!"). Reducing conflict between these two groups of road users to keep them allied is critical for political reasons in many places, and this means slowing cycling speed near the conflict zone (via the speed bump) while also keeping the conflict zone reduced to just one or maybe two specific crossing areas (indicated by the elevated crossing).

All the above seems like overkill in the example cited above because these "best practices" were designed for cramped urban environments, such as major automotive corridors with multiple lanes through city centers that recently had a lane or two converted to bike/bus/ped infrastructure via a major "road diet" or bus enhancement project. But here there's a huge bus island, an extra wide bike lane (because it's for two-way use), great visibility, the waiting area is on the bus island rather than the sidewalk, etc. so while these best practices probably are still effective, they aren't as necessary for reducing bike-ped conflict as in other contexts. As to why there's no speed bump in the automotive lanes, the bus island itself may provide sufficient traffic calming by breaking up the monotony of the roadway, and most importantly, a speed bump would greatly reduce comfort of bus riders. Speed bumps are not meant as "punishment" to one form of transportation or another; they're a tool that's only rolled out to solve a specific issue.

I hope this helps explain why this spot is designed as it is, and why this is a poor example of "unfair" road design.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 month ago (6 children)

The episode predicted the situation down to her needing to pull the country out of the mess left by former President Trump

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