A lot of the trees being cut down are old growth forests, there are nearly no old growth forests left on the whole continent and some animals specifically need old forests with their diversity of species and with different ages of trees throughout. Things grow back differently when you clear cut a section than when an old tree died and falls here and there or is harvested sparingly without destroying the surrounding trees and underbrush, so the lack of selectivity when harvesting is also harmful. Cutting down everything and replanting one species that grows ok in a clear cut area doesn’t restore the forest. Look at longleaf pine forests, for example. Nearly the entire southern US used to be longleaf pine and now it only exists in 3% of its former range. The southern US is still covered in pine, but it mostly got replaced with loblolly pines. You can replant some trees, but you can’t replant a whole complex forest ecosystem, and many of the trees people replant are ones they think they can personally profit from like the fast growing loblolly pines rather than slow growing species that need special care and land management practices to maintain good growing conditions.

It only passed the Senate, the House wouldn’t even look at the bill.

I hate potatoes, so mashed and drowning in gravy is my favorite presentation. The butter, milk, pan drippings, and seasonings really carry the day and mask the potatoeyness. I have no idea why fries appeal to so many people, they are bland and their crisp texture vanishes in a heartbeat to become a very sad heap of soggy trash.

If you said “I brought some guys back to my place last night”, do you really think people would be imagining a mixed gender group? Do you think they would ever imagine you brought a group of women back with you when you said that? Guys is masculine sometimes used to generalize across a group that includes non-males. It only applies when at least one male is around.

My boyfriend’s nephew calls me buddy and I am a woman about ten years older than him, we are both adults so he isn’t a confused toddler either. It might vary regionally. It simply means friend in our case. I don’t think he is trying to make me out to be younger than him. Maybe it is his way of declaring I am “one of the guys”, however.

If everyone starts using it, it won’t sound southern any more. C’mon, you know you want to.

The term upstate has no relation to the capital city, that was a mistaken assertion. It isn’t used very widely at all, it’s just a local term in a couple of states for their northern portions. Most states don’t have an area that is referred to as upstate.

I live in the US and sometimes German music on YouTube is blocked from my region because of their licensing laws, but it isn’t something I encounter often.

I have a cat that has been an overeater since birth. His siblings would nurse until they were full and then back off to take a little cat nap, but he would nurse until mom left the box the kittens were in and he couldn’t get to her anymore. I feed each of my cats on a schedule and each has a separate place to eat so they can’t steal from each other. Left over food from the other cats gets picked up before the overeater is let out. There are a lot of complicated slow feeders on the market, but a cheap and simple one has worked great for me. It is a narrow, deep bowl with a wide lip that he can only pull a few pieces of food out of at a time with his paw. Wet food hasn’t been as much of a problem with vomiting, so I haven’t tried any slow feeders meant for wet food. Mine eat wet food in the morning and dry food in the evening.

I am linking the feeder I own, I haven’t seen one by any other brands but the design is so simple that they might exist if this one isn’t available near you or you may even be able to craft a DIY version. https://catit.us/products/catit-multi-feeder

The median is the one that splits a data set in half and picks the middle.

I find it helpful to have the thing being imitated as part of the name, but not the full name. It makes for an easy way to know what the taste and texture should be and how it can be used in cooking. My kid developed a dairy allergy recently and vegan butter in particular is so easy to substitute in old favorite recipes without changing the flavor much or cooking method. As for meat imitations, a “vegetarian steak” (or ham) label conveys a lot about the texture, moisture, saltiness, and cooking techniques you can expect to use while a generic name such as “plant protein block” leaves you much more clueless as to what the texture and cooking method is meant to be for that item. I don’t think it should be legal to sell plant substitutes as only “steak “ or “butter”, but calling it “plant steak” or “plant butter” is way more straightforward and easy to fit on a label than a lengthy description of “plant patty with a fibrous, chewy texture and savory flavor resembling steak.”

If your partner is going to bully you while you are trying to learn a game, they are a lousy partner. It isn’t cooperative games that are the problem. I have a partner and several friends who all love cooperative games and are patient with anyone new to the game, I’ve never had issues with them being a jerk to newcomers. The more people you can welcome into learning and playing a game you like, the more likely you will have someone available to join you when you feel like having a game day. The best person to get into a game you enjoy is your partner who you likely spend most of your time with anyway, they are the number one best source of having someone to play with so long as you have some overlapping interests in games.

When I was young I only read fiction, but as I got older I realized reality is incredibly complex and disturbing and found non-fiction far more interesting. So much of the past remains relevant today and there are no shortage of times real people have not only imagined but also implemented ways to exploit each other and their environments, for good and for bad, often in ways that do come across as utterly crazy, so it is hardly a boring category. These days I would rather make sense of the world I am in than some fictional universe. I do like British humor though.

One option that is kind of a middle ground is to learn a craft. Knitting, crochet, making fly fishing lures, sculpting. There are lots of things you can do with your hands while listening to a podcast or audiobook, so while it still involves content consumption it also engages your motor skills and creativity and you end up with something to show for it by the time you are finished.

ICQ is still around, seems like it is mainly used by Russians now.

Have you not noticed the rise in groups like Proud Boys, Patriot Front, and the Three Percenters? Patriot Front has people on overpasses waving signs in my area and they are in the news several times per year for marching in different cities. Just the other day they were recorded in New York City, unable to figure out how to swipe metro cards to get into the subway, so dozens of them charged on through without paying, so it isn’t like they are staying holed up in rural militia compounds out of sight. Far right extremism is both active and on the rise locally and globally.

At one point I had every other Friday off and even having the three day weekend only every other week was really refreshing and such a nice break. I miss it, I’ve been hoping it becomes more common.

I remember Postal Service profitability being a political issue under the second Bush, too. Trump didn’t start that. He probably even benefited from the previous rounds because he bought a historic post office in DC when it was sold off and he turned it into a hotel. That’s the same hotel where people stayed during his presidency to curry favor with him.

My cousin visited Texas from Germany and took a train from Dallas to Austin. The track sharing with freight was insane, the trip took 9 hours due to freight having right-of-way on the tracks. It’s only about a 3.5 hour drive. He was not impressed at all.

I use the default PWA for my instance and whenever I go back to my home page it acts like I am logged out until I reload the page. It gets old fast because it switches me from subscribed to local posts. I may finally cave and seek out a dedicated app in the hopes it works more smoothly.