Time or technical challenge are not the issue. The issue is that the utility of a social network is a function of the number of individuals in that network.

That’s why Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit all still have dominant positions in their regimes. If you want to see what your friends are saying you need to be on the same network they are on. And if they are on Twitter, signing up for Bluesky doesn’t magically get you their content. I’m off twitter, never really used insta, I have my FB account, but I only log in now when I need to check on specific things (like seeing if people were OK after the wildfires swept through the town I used to live in), and I guiltily admit I still use reddit, largely because a lot of the niche subs I frequent aren’t here. I know the solution to that last problem is for someone like me to step up and make them, but… I’m tired boss. I can either be a volunteer firefighter, or I can admin a firefighter com on Lemmy. I can’t do both.

I built one back when I lived in California during fire season, and then again during the pandemic. They do such a nice job making the air less gross.

I think that’s about what mine looked like after 3 or 4 weeks too…

*measurable if you have some damn good instruments.

It will put off about as much heat as a single incandescent light bulb

Tell us you’re not paying attention to the rest of the world without telling us you’re not paying attention to the rest of the world.

I’m working on it too. I’m part way there. (47 year old telecommuting engineer and off grid homesteader hoping to retire to do farm stuff full time as soon as I can)

I’m not saying you’re wrong, because I don’t know enough details about their economy at that time, but people have been saying that about the US economy for decades and it hasn’t happened yet (not that I think it wouldn’t under Trump, because he’s really going nuts on it, but…).

Do you have anything you can point to that makes the case that the situation was so precarious that collapse was inevitable, or just that they were precarious (as the US has been since GWB at least)?

I’m not op, but I like speculative fiction. I was really into Ministry For The Future. I also liked Termination Shock.

What have you got?

I think it’s pretty rad that you offered to recommend books. You’re alright.

Primaries!

If more people voted in primaries we would have probably had president Sanders instead of Trump the first time around

“We love America just as much as they do. But in a different way. You see, they love America like a 4-year-old loves his mommy. Liberals love America like grown-ups. To a 4-year-old, everything Mommy does is wonderful and anyone who criticizes Mommy is bad. Grown-up love means actually understanding what you love, taking the good with the bad and helping your loved one grow.”

-Al Franken

As long as there is substance to the reasons for pride, yes…

Yeah, and the problem isn’t the trains, it’s the politics, and ultimately the voters.

The train would make things better, and we could build it, but the will to do so isn’t there.

Yeah, it’s not extinct yet, but free worksite coffee is endangered where it was thriving 3 decades ago

In the US most employers used to provide coffee and some kind of creamer free for employees.

About 25-30 years ago the capitalists realized their employees wouldn’t quit over not having free coffee, so they stopped providing free coffee.

Maybe you got the custom from them, but they have decivilized while y’all have maintained?

I don’t like violence.

But some people need to get punched in the mouth

Some brave patriot needs to test it and demand a jury trial

Assuming the election wasn’t hacked, yeah…

I have my doubts about the election (and I’m a big data engineer with a cyber security cert)

There are a lot of people who wear the label catholic because they always have, not because they identify with other catholics or believe that the pope is the earthly voice of god.

JD Vance is a fascist white supremacist who happens to be catholic. The fascism and white supremacy being more important to him than the catholicism…

Currently unavailable on amazon, but this is where I bought it:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XXTY1XT

I have this drying rack, and… I LOVE it!

But the knife holder is the biggest problem. All the bits are modular so you can set it up with the knife holder not having something right above it, but my favorite knife is too long to sit in the knife holder without stabbing the countertop. I solved the problem by getting one of those magnetic knife holders and mounting it to the side of the rack.

Also, when people who come over to my place for dinner or hanging out, about half of them make a comment about how awesome the drying rack is.

(I’m 47 and I got this rack about 5 years ago)

I would argue that the deployment orders for the 2003 Iraq war were illegal, but the people who refused to follow them are the ones who got in trouble.