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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2024

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  • Things you can do yourself. Select those that are right for you:

    • Most trips are <3 miles. Use a bike or e-bike where it makes sense, or public transportation if it’s built out.
    • Take steps to avoid the consumer-for-the sake-of-consuming mindset. Get things secondhand or from buy nothing groups.
    • Eat less meat. Vegetarian dishes can be flavorful. Even a grilled cheese and some soup is delicious. Miso also has that essential umami kick. As a reformed “need meat with every meal” type person, it’s doable, you just have to rewire your mind and gut. It’s a thing you can do to both save you and your environment.
    • Donate to climate advocacy groups and call your political representatives.
    • Recycle - it’s oddly getting a bad rap these days, because we’re the downstream consumer to the folks designing and making crap, but we still also have responsibility in the chain.
    • Avoid things like fast fashion - buy things with sustainability built in and leave intense shipping logistics out.
    • compost and grow your own food if you have the space and time. Less transport and typically better for you. At the very least, you’ll know what you’re eating.
    • purchase personal carbon offsets from reputable organizations
    • consider investing in a heat pump and insulated glass windows when it’s time to switch the older ones out if you have a home.
    • Avoid buying items that are simply packaged water. Try to buy concentrated items and then add water at the point of use. Soaps, detergents, bottled water, flavored drinks are easy ones.
    • Use a smart thermostat and set it between recommended standards for your region. You can always wear slippers / more layers to warm up when slightly cold, or run fans, hydrate and wear light clothes when a little warm.
    • Procure preventive maintenance on big ticket items and use your built in paid warranties. So many pieces of equipment fail due to some minor thing that could have been addressed earlier.
    • encourage others, evangelize sustainability. Political movements need to meet certain thresholds to turn into action.





  • It’s not too much unlike Obama. There’s going to be a power vacuum. I’m not saying Obama was a cult leader, but he was a cult of personality. He was able to rally the 3 major factions of the dem party behind him and bring in independents as well.

    When he left, no one was left to pick up the pieces, and worse, he fostered so much animosity that we got the backlash that we are still dealing with today.

    The left needs to rally and find their champion, just like the tea party did.




  • Think of that one guy in the office who is just average. Does their job OK, but your life is better when you don’t have to interact too much with em.

    Not really all that interesting to talk to. Maybe has some dull hobbies, probably not all that deep into them. Drives a midsize sedan or a minivan. Can do some household repairs so long as it involves a hammer or duct tape: Probably likes to mow the grass as a good pastime. Sits a lot, enjoys watching the TV. Hasn’t read a book in years.

    Now realize that 50% of the population is him or worse.

    Hell, 16% of people think nuclear war would be a good idea. So yea, morons.

    This one goes out to you, Dan.





  • Also user:

    • I like my mediocre house that I’ve lived in for years. Sure there may be some rotting boards and I don’t like the way the neighborhood is changing with all the new billboards, but it still feels like home.
    • That other house may have a lot more doors and windows but it’s out in the sticks. Not all the utilities have been connected yet. It’s hard to find a bike lane and I can’t even get NFL Sunday Ticket over there.
    • Even in the sticks, the house is in a left leaning town. My word, some of them don’t wear bras! And some of them even own tanks!

    It looks promising though! Maybe I’ll get a little plot over there as a second home.






  • There’s a growing wisdom gap coming in America. The people who are already well versed in company practices and culture are going to use AI to complete the tasks that they would have otherwise given to assistants and junior resources.

    The junior resources are going to struggle to find jobs because they are lacking in the KSAs that schools simply cannot provide training for. And that means when us Gen Xers and later Millenials retire there could be a major gap where we have few people with that inherent knowledge to replace us. And where there’s no work and no hope, you get something akin to what is starting to occur in China right now…or revolt.

    My hope is that schools will be rethought and there will be a lot more focus on getting an internship early and for the long term. Something more like apprenticeships, which the blue collar workforce maintained, but it’s something we’ll likely need to bring back to white collar jobs.

    This isn’t to say that schools should diminish a well rounded education. I think it’s extremely important for students to take electives outside of their focus for a multitude of reasons, one being that it helps students realize the importance of how others contribute to society.

    Apprenticeships can help to fill the knowledge gap, but the white collars that are in the jobs now will also need to be retrained and made comfortable to work with a large influx of apprentices to make this approach a success.