If I’m being completely fair and objective, not all birds eat “bird seed” and not everyone is well-informed about the diets of various types of bird. But also, at least where I live, some parks have signs that specifically say not to feed the ducks/geese at all, and I can totally understand how that might lead people to conclude that it’s not safe to feed them.

On the other hand, I’m reminded of the time that I was at an insect exhibit when one of the educators running the booth referred to “these animals” and the woman behind me asked something like “bugs is animals?” And it still leaves me perplexed that otherwise seemingly fully functional people make it to adulthood thinking that insects are not animals.

People living in cities sometimes leave and many have not lived in a city their whole lives. Additionally, the power can go out at night in cities. For instance, where I live we sometimes get tropical storms, winter storms, and other disasters that can knock out power for hours (and even days) even inside the city – I imagine that’s not uncommon elsewhere. A lot of cities in poorer nations ration power or only have electricity available during certain hours.

So, overall, I would say that it’s probably not the case that “most” people have never seen a full starry night unless you’re getting super technical and pedantic about the word “full” to where you’re specifically asking about a completely unobstructed view with 0% light pollution, in which case then I would say that almost nobody has seen a full starry night in that case, regardless of whether or not they live in a city.

This is a bit tangential, but several months ago I was waiting in line and overheard a couple of men talking about a local chicken farm that is hiring for $12 an hour and how they can’t find any help except for “Mexicans”.

While I don’t know if that’s the average wage for that type of work in my area, I do know that even the dollar store starts people out at $15 an hour because they have signs outside stating that. I’m sure it’s part-time only and you have to pass a drug test, but still.

I’m out of work at the moment, and while I certainly wouldn’t be jumping for joy over a temporary job at the chicken farm, I can tell you that I’d definitely consider it for the right price. But $12 and no benefits is not the right price, even if it’s unreported (i.e. untaxed) paid in cash.

Cormorants?

Intentionally inflammatory posts? I haven’t noticed an uptick, honestly. Doesn’t mean there isn’t one and doesn’t mean I won’t notice now that you posted it.

But I will say that I’ve basically stopped checking my notifications because all of a sudden it seems like almost every time I go in there, I’ve got at least one insufferable, hostile, negative, etc response or message in there. It didn’t used to be that way.

Mostly I assume we must’ve recently gotten an influx of new users from Reddit or someplace similarly toxic. Things usually get a bit unfortunate for a time when that happens.

My granny used to snatch them things out the air with her hands and shove them in her mouth. Said they tasted good. But she stopped after one time she accidentally caught a palmetto bug instead and bit down before she realized what was happening.

Low pressure front will be moving in from the west early next week so we can expect things to be a few degrees more abysmal and overcast.

Are you asking about antiperspirants specifically or are you using that term to more generally refer to things like deodorant, perfumes, etc?

That’s my precious little Sssussssan.

MMMMM My favorite flavor, too! Blue Raspberry Pi

I have doubts that any credible and serious scientific discovery would involve this degree of anthropomorphism when it comes to assigning motivation to an animal’s behavior.

But let’s say I ended up with a hecking case of brain worms who devoured the vast majority of my critical thinking skills and was able to completely ignore that first point, this still doesn’t quite compute. If you’ve ever had cats and/or dogs in your life, then you are probably also aware that each one has its own unique personality and behaviors. Even if we assume that they have human-like rationalizations and emotional capacity, does it even make sense to believe that they all uniformly perceive people in the same uniform manner?

They look young. Probably not voting for anybody.

Interesting info, thank you for sharing. In some ways, I wish I had been a better steward of my rights a decade or more ago when Amazon essentially stole my money and I feel like some of this information might’ve been useful.

I’m not sure that red tape is what killed it for me, to be honest.

Up until about 5 years ago, there were state and federal programs (IIRC mostly in the form of tax rebates) where I live such that panels and installation were essentially 50% off. In addition, the power company paid 1-to-1 for the excess energy. The folks who were lucky enough to be able to buy solar in those days were breaking even in the 5 to 7 year range and they get grandfathered in to the power company’s 1-to-1 buy back basically forever from what I understand.

Now, there’s only the federal incentives, the power company buyback is some ridiculously low amount that it makes you wonder why they bother at all, state incentives are gone, and the cost of panels + installation has sky rocketed. We looked into it several years ago, and with all the recent changes, it was going to take 15+ years for us to break even under fairly optimal conditions. A lot can happen in 15 years and we just weren’t comfortable enough financially for it to make sense.

That’s me. It takes me awhile to get to the point of saying I’m hungry, but once I’m there everything gets foggy, extremities start going numb, I get tingly sensation in my face. My brain will not work, the only thing it will actively think about is food, and even that’s kinda shaky. If I can do something completely mindless, that’s okay, but if you expect me to answer questions, make decisions, or do anything mentally taxing then that’s not going to work out very well for either of us. Yes, diabetes 1 & 2 run in my family.

Boss: I know your dad just died, but can you login and submit your September time sheet before noon? Otherwise I have to email HR and ask them for help and they’re honestly so much to have to deal with.

I bet he’s got a magnificent, luxurious bush or maybe he’s a torso fuzzball like moi.

I’m here, so keep that in mind, but as far as I’m concerned and objectively speaking, Lemmy does not offer what most casual users / general public want nor does it really operate the way people expect. Whether or not that’s a good thing or bad thing or something in between is more subjective, so I’ll leave it at that.

For example, if I want to scrap my account and start new, fine. But with Lemmy, it’s been forced on me at least 4 times, and several other times I have done it because the instance I was on was unstable, had unacceptable technical issues, or just too much outage. Reddit definitely has outages and other issues like that, but those are generally addressed in minutes to hours, not days/weeks/months.

I’ve long given up on finding a place here for my main hobbies. There are communities, but I don’t enjoy talking to nobody, posting to myself. If I wanted to do that, I’d just get a Twitter account and tweet into the wind. So, honestly, I can see the appeal of going to Reddit so you can actually discuss things and share with other people.

Those are just two examples of things that might keep the average person away. Of course, there are plenty of issues and concerns with Reddit and other social media platforms, but as long as they continue to work in a manner that people understand and expect and offer what folks want, most people aren’t going to go seeking out alternatives that have many more downsides, relatively speaking.

What was the recovery from that surgery like? Any pain / discomfort / concerns?

I am considering getting lens replacement for my dog if I can come up with the money, but financial concerns aside, my other biggest concern is how stressful / painful / risky that kind of procedure might be for her.

I’ll probably butcher this fact, but 20/20 vision does not mean you have perfect vision. It means you have average / normal vision.

I’ve always had 20/20 (or perhaps better) vision. But now that I’m on the downhill side of ancient, I’m noticing that my vision is blurry. Especially while watching TV, reading, etc.

Yet, at both my primary care provider and at the optometrist, I’m able to accurately see all the letters on the vision charts and based on that I have 20/20 vision.

The optometrist (or maybe it was an assistant) explained that it’s pretty common and that 20/20 is just average vision. It doesn’t mean your vision isn’t blurry and it doesn’t mean you won’t benefit from glasses.

The more you know!