My point was more that a pickup’s core demographic live in places where range is absolutely a consideration. Some city folks do have good reason to own a pickup, but for most it’s an aesthetic/image thing. Which, given the environmental/traffic safety consequences of driving a larger vehicle than necessary, is plenty deserving of judgement imo.

Rural people, as in the folks who actually have a use for pickups. As it so happens, it is about 200 miles round-trip to my nearest airport/major city, so if this were my vehicle, I’d have to take a charge break when picking someone up/dropping them off at the airport, or making a shopping run, or going to a concert/special event, or seeing a medical specialist. And I’m not even that far off the beaten path; I have family for whom the one-way drive to their nearest major city/airport is over 200mi. Plus if you’re hauling anything, I’d imagine that range goes down quick.

*TVs

RIP science documentaries I guess…

US brans

OP is one of the foreign countries

I used to live in a city with a very progressive Episcopalian Church (lesbian pastor, Philadelphia pride flag, “protect our immigrants”, actively helped the homeless, the whole shebang) but they were struggling (in terms of congregation numbers and I think finances too) because even though their messaging aligned with the political attitudes of many in this left-leaning city, most of those folks had abandoned religion in disgust altogether. I saw the same with a progressive Catholic chapter in another deep-blue city: their congregation was shrinking because Christianity as a whole had become so tainted in the public eye that the people who would have been most aligned with their message was turned off entirely.

If anyone is wondering which of the Christian denominations popular in the United States are less shitty, know that Mr. Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister…

I think it depends on what you’re looking for in a restaurant experience. Having lived in Japan and being a second-language speaker of Japanese, I will sometimes seek out Japanese restaurants specifically so that I can chat with the wait staff or workers behind the bar and temporarily soothe the feeling of missing a place dear to my heart. I’ve had some great conversations with restaurant owners and employees who seem genuinely eager to talk with me about their old home as well as my experiences in the country. Also there is a lot of bad, inauthentic Japanese food out there, and usually if the restaurant is mostly staffed by Japanese folks they can provide the genuine article (or at least help you steer clear of Americanized dishes).

So for me this comic rings painfully true, but I’m a rather specific edge case. Generally I don’t care who made the food, as long as it’s good and authentic (I have been to plenty of restaurants where the staff were the same ethnicity as the restaurant, but the food itself sure wasn’t!)

Are you me? I would do this because I didn’t have anywhere else to practice Japanese outside of class. The first Japanese restaurant I went to the experience was great; the waitress was first or second gen and seemed tickled that this random white girl was trying to communicate with her in broken Japanese. The second place I went the waitress replied with embarrassment that she was Korean. I didn’t try again after that.

Article is from a month ago

Not to be a cynic, but I’m not sure how relevant data from two years ago (survey conducted spring 2024) actually is, given the fast-placed nature of AI development/adoption.

The timing of this probably didn’t do them any favors, doing away with standardized tests right before the effects of COVID-era “learning” (and then LLMs) began to take hold.

Obligatory “fuck AI,” however I’ve reluctantly found that the AI summaries can be helpful on occasion, such as when deciding if a video with a clickbaity title is actually worth watching, or when I’m on YouTube looking for a solution to a problem (in which case the summary can sometimes get me the content way faster than watching the video). So of all the dumb shit YouTube has done to their platform in recent years, I’d argue the AI summaries fall on the “actually not that bad” end of the spectrum.

For reference, the highest state* minimum wage in the US is Washington State at $17.13 (in Seattle it’s $21.30).

*not counting Washington DC

Wage laws across the US are all over the place. Meanwhile the federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 since 2009.

Spirit and other airlines have been struggling with high oil prices that have pushed up the price of jet fuel. The company’s woes predated the war in Iran, though, as the company has struggled to increase post-pandemic demand.

Well yeah, the population that would normally fly Spirit are now unable to afford flying at all.

Do you happen to live in North America? If so I’d highly recommend checking out the Xerces society plant lists for recommended species that support local pollinators. The plant lists include timing info for suggestions on what would bloom the rest of the year, because as you mention lilacs are fairly short bloomers (might I recommend my namesake, the humble fireweed, which is a late summer bloomer?)

I’m pretty sure this is a typo, but something about “just deserts for Trump” feels more appropriate.

Star Trek? (Specifically the original series movies)

Guardians, absolutely. First was brilliant, second starts to fall to Marvel tropes, and by the third I just couldn’t wait for it to be over.

Glass Onion was disappointing?