Which makes me wonder, are there literally no alternatives in South America itself? I know Argentina has gone to shit, but what of the other countries?

I think all mowers except non-motorized push mowers should be illegal for home use. You want a big, manicured lawn? Well then you gotta work for it, buddy.

Most properties where I live have huge grass lawns, but I almost never see anyone actually using them. The only time anyone is out on their lawn is to mow it, and they all use these low-effort riding mowers. Every single nice day (and I live in the maritime Pacific Northwest, so warm and sunny days are precious things) is always filled with the din of mowers, leaf blowers, hedge trimmers, and other gas-powered tools of ornamental landscaping. And for what? An ecologically-devoid patch of land that even the landowner isn’t utilizing.

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.

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 alternatives for tortillas would be purchase from a bakery (made fresh so no preservatives), purchase frozen (so no need for added preservatives), or make at home (surprisingly easy to do).

You might want to consider a priest for the damned lakes (which were presumably corrupted by the damned rain?)

In virtually every way that can be measured, Gen Z’s mental health is worse than that of previous generations […] What’s gone wrong?

Answer: Shit’s bad and getting worse (especially for younger generations) while the old & rich people in charge twiddle their thumbs because “I got mine, fuck you.” Any other questions?

I definitely wouldn’t conclude that anything the mental health industry did or didn’t do has anything to do with the mental health of youth today; given current circumstances the kids who are alright are the abnormal ones.

Wow that map of the wiggly London-Singapore flight route really drives home how many airspaces these Europe-SE Asia flights have to skirt around.

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“With very high competition in the workforce and expensive housing prices, you need more time to get ready to settle down and start a family,”

JFC are there any countries left in the world where this isn’t the case?

Meanwhile, I bet with the right branding “Jesus” socks could be a major hit with the Christian crowd.

Potential marketing slogans:

I walk with Jesus™, do you?

Born too late to have my feet washed by Jesus; born just in time to have my feet swaddled by Jesus™

WWJW: What Would Jesus™ Wear?

[Paired with the Jesus hat line] I’m a devoted believer in Jesus™ from head to toe!

With 38 square meters on average per person, London homes are even more cramped than those in New York City

Maybe Londoners have more roommates/family members living with them? Given the “per person” part of this statistic.

Firewatch is more in the visual novel category. I did in fact give it a replay with completely different choices to see how it changed things, and was disappointed to find that all choices are merely for aesthetics and make zero difference in the plot. However it’s a well-made enough game (especially dialogue and voice acting) that it was still kinda fun to play again.

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I would somewhat disagree with Subnautica. There are lots of different settings you can tweak to make the game harder or more survival-oriented that might warrant a replay (although probably only one) if your first play-through was on a simpler/easier mode. Plus there are the creation modes where you can create your own base without restrictions, which sort of counts as replay? Mostly though the setting in Subnautica is quite unique, and short of playing Below Zero you won’t be able to find that vibe anywhere without playing the game again. However as a story-oriented game I’d agree it has lower-than-average replay value.

Them: use wildshape to explore tight spaces!

Druid:

Them: wait no not like that!

Where did you get that idea? The Soviet Union didn’t even lose one dozen-million in all of WWII. Ya know, the war famously won with “British intelligence, American steel, and Russian blood.” The Ukraine war has been devastating, but it’s nowhere near the scope of the largest war of the twentieth century.

Edit: to be crystal clear because for some reason my fact-based post (see: Wikipedia’s WWII fatality records) is getting down voted, Russia bad, slava Ukraini.

I’ve been to Singapore. You would have to pave every square inch of the island just store all the vehicles if everyone owned a car. The problem isn’t that cars are too expensive: it’s that the government pussy-footed around the issue and soft-banned vehicles through high fees rather than the more equitable approach of outright banning them for most private use. It’s like the saying: if the only punishment for breaking a law is a fine, then that law only applies to the poor.

Being a dense city and tiny island, life would be much improved for everyone if vehicle ownership and use were limited to businesses/workers that can demonstrate a work-related need for a vehicle, taxis, and people with disabilities that prevent them from utilizing public transit and/or taxis.