A reason that everyone should get behind:

AI = increased carbon emissions for a product that won’t even be useful because AI is really unreliable.

In Washington State (where most voting is done by mail) it doesn’t matter when officials receive your ballot, all that matters is that it’s postmarked by election day. This does mean that any race that’s even remotely close can take days to call (as ballots continue to arrive days after election day), but you never have to worry about how long the post office is going to take to get your ballot delivered.

In neighboring Oregon on the other hand (also primarily mail-in voting) they won’t count your ballot if it’s not received by election day, so every election they have to throw out stacks of otherwise legitimate ballots just because the voter either underestimated how long it would take for them to arrive, or because all they heard was “XX is election day” and didn’t know to consider mailing time.

I think Washington’s system is superior, and should be how it’s done everywhere. Washington also has same-day registration for the super-procrastinators! Literally no excuse to not vote here.

I actually think this is brilliant. Most Americans have no knowledge or personal connection as to where their food comes from and what goes into producing it. The ag sector is also, sadly, rife with worker abuse, farmers commit suicide at way higher rates than the general population, and our food system is getting increasingly industrialized and specialized, with small farms getting gobbled up by megacorps. But because agriculture usually happens away from population centers (sometimes far away) there’s not a lot of public awareness (or sympathy) of issues. Meanwhile soil depletion and unsustainable practices are setting the US up for all kinds of potential future disasters (second dust bowl, anyone?), and that’s before you factor in climate change.

So yes, let’s have all Americans get even a few months of experience with our food system!

The difference is if the primary (sometimes only) admin of your instance loses interest, goes to jail, or gets hit by a truck, your entire instance could be dead in the water, whereas there are way more safeguards to “established” social media like Reddit and Twitter. Plus the issue of “well shit my instance got defederated from most of the fediverse because it turns out the admin is an asshat” is completely nonsensical on platforms without instances. Example: before I knew that Lemmy had a tankie problem, I almost signed up on lemmygrad because I thought it was just a witty pun…

Plus when you say “point them to lem.ee” what scenario are you imagining? Because “you should join reddit” or “our business is on Facebook” or “Twitter is a great resource for artists” are all straightforward and easy pieces of information to convey and pick up. “Join Lemmy, a subset of the fediverse, I signed up via lemmy.world although I hear lem.ee is also good, but don’t let that stop you from picking another instance” is like… Dude, people just want to go to [site].com, click on “sign up”, enter a username and password (and maybe email) and that’s it. Just having to explain to people that “lemmy.com” isn’t a thing is already too complicated for most folks.

Lemmy (or at least lemmy.world) was bonkers levels of buggy last summer during the reddit blackout. Like, literally unusable levels of buggy. Getting the word out that it’s (mostly) bug-free now would probably be good, because I’m sure there were many redditors who tried it and quickly swore it off as a pile of shit.

Otherwise I’m in agreement that the instance-selection part of sign-up is a huge barrier, because what instance you choose is actually really important but it’s overwhelming when you’re just getting started. Plus not being able to migrate your account/communities/posts to another instance if yours goes to shit/shuts down/turns out to not fit your needs makes the fediverse feel really unstable.

For the curious, the first Native American governor was Johnston Murray, Oklahoma governor from 1951-1955.

Why sex bias in labs means women are the losers in research into ageing virtually all medical issues

FTFY

Apparently menstrual cycles (and the resulting fluctuating hormones) make the female body tOo CoMpLiCaTeD for researchers and they’d rather stick to the “default human model.” Bitch study some fetal developmental science: female is the default model!

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

Nestle is a Swiss company though? Maybe replace with Lockheed Martin

Handlebars by Flobots, White America by Eminem

You should make this a separate thread!

Except he didn’t just have a raspy voice. He was mixing up words, rambling, even struggling to put full sentences together at points. And when he wasn’t talking he looked to be spacing out at times, just trying to hold it together at others. His performance was as if he was fighting a very high fever, a migraine, and/or was trying not to puke the entire debate. I totally believe reports that he had a minor illness and was having an off day as a result, but unless he had something like the flu (in which case he wouldn’t have been allowed on stage, certainly not that close to Trump) it would be completely reasonable to expect him to perform much better even while sick.

I think that matters to voters, because as president you don’t get to take a sick day; shit goes down and you need to be there for it. Maybe he’s not too old to be president on days when he’s feeling well, but I think a lot of viewers last night thought he looked completely incapable of handling any kind of sudden crisis in his condition last night.

Obligatory: assuming he’s still the nominee I’m voting for Biden in November anyway because all the alternatives suck more.

So initially I thought AOC was too young to be president, but she turns 35 in October, so I think that means she’d qualify?

Historically most presidents were in their 50s or 60s when inaugurated; I struggle to see anyone who barely made the cutoff even being considered for nomination.

Archive link: https://archive.ph/7Z0VX

(The article is worth reading, IMO)

All I want to know is: will this push companies to rethink infinite scroll? Like, even to make it a toggleable option.

I really appreciate that Lemmy still has distinct pages. “I’ll stop at the end of this page” is the easiest way to quit a social media session, which is why most companies have eliminated it.

Make a post about it and let’s find out!

I don’t see why not

“Hiking” is like any other kind of outdoor activity: it can range from a literal walk in the park to scaling a mountain. You’re describing hiking the same way someone who wants to get into swimming might describe preparing to cross the English Channel; if you want to get into swimming, start with a shallow indoor pool and then if you feel like it, work your way up from there.

I will say that there is a lot of misleading hiking info on the web (as in, maps of trails that are inaccurate, don’t exist, or that go through private property); I’d recommend finding a book (as in, made of paper) of local hikes from your library or bookstore (if you live in an area with an outdoor store like REI that’s a great resource). Select an “easy” hike of 1-2 miles from the book, ideally a “popular” hike (as in, one that’s likely to have a lot of other people on it) that’s somewhere within a short transportation distance, and do that for your first hike. Short, easy hikes don’t require anything more than comfortable footwear, and maybe a water bottle if it’s a hot day. Until you start getting into very long, very remote, and/or technically difficult hikes, assuming you’re in decent health there’s really very little to hiking other than stay on the trail, keep an eye on the weather, and don’t push yourself beyond your limits… or more generally, “if in doubt turn around.” I do recommend getting an Open Street Map app for your phone, as it’s generally more accurate than Google Maps; some trails are marked better than others, and OSM is a good backup to have in your pocket if you get lost or turned around, although it’s mostly only necessary if you’re going into an area that has a lot of intersecting trails.

“The Bonk Song” (imbedded Xitter tweet near the end of the article) is an absolute mood

I’ve heard two good explanations as to why she’d publicize such a story:

1. She botched a common Republican technique by choosing the wrong victim to villainize (full explanation here)

2. There are witnesses to the puppy murder (construction crew) so this is her way of getting ahead of the story before someone else tells it (AFAIK so far we’ve only heard her version; maybe reality is even worse)

Wouldn’t even have to become a Democrat: the “independent” label exists