Without mosquitoes many birds and bats (also both great pollinators) would die out :(

Bees and butterflies don’t pollinate all by themselves, FYI. Things that bite/sting also do a lot of pollination work! Flies, wasps, etc

I hope OP learned to use a paper/dish towel from now on if that’s the case lmao

Sure, there are those parents. And there are a lot of parents like the ones in the article. Saying it isn’t so and covering your ears doesn’t change the fact that this is an experience a lot of people are having.

We won’t have it directly because the boomers have decided consistently across the decades to leave younger generations with nothing. This is just the latest version of that, except now they’re doing it directly to their own children and yeah, it can smart. It’s valid to express frustration at a generation that was handed everything, is leaving nothing, and now they’re doing it in a more personal way.

Every other generation before and after them seem to be on the same page as far as accumulating enough to leave for the next generation so they can have better lives than you had. But not the Boomers, never them. They’re going to get theirs and they deserve to have ALL of it. The next gen can earn their own way just like they had to, after all. Even though they voted away all opportunities to do that, and passing along generational wealth has always been a big key to any kind of success.

So tangential storytime: my husband recently discovered one of these channels (not sure if it’s this one or just a similar one), and specifically this goddamned song called “I glued my balls to my butthole again.” He will. Not. Stop. Playing it. He thinks it’s fucking hilarious, especially the more I roll my eyes.

Anyway, yes these channels are a blight, something needs to be done about them, and if anyone needs a husband they can find mine on the curb blasting that song on a loop lmao

I would definitely urge you to consider what @Dark_Arc is saying. I was one of the kids they’re talking about, whose parents micromanaged all internet access and didn’t end up doing well. Obviously you know what’s best for your family, but as a product of that environment, it hindered me more than helped. I would hate for you to be doing all the work you’re doing trying to keep them off of what you deem inappropriate, too, when it doesn’t really help in the long run.

Just something to consider.

Amazing comment, thank you. Saving it for future use :)

I wonder if that will be at all improved with the new model coming out? I do like that Kobo doesn’t have ads on its home screen, as well; I’d probably be willing to put up with less optimal performance if that stays the case. Anyway, thank you for the response! It’s definitely given me stuff to consider before buying an e reader myself

I know nothing about this topic, but was thinking of grabbing a Kobo. What about the software would you say is meh?

Sorry, I haven’t made the jump into an e reader of my own yet, so I may be missing something, but could the same not be said for phones and B&W e readers? Phones can basically do everything an e reader can on its face, but there’s still a niche to be filled by e readers, so I’m not sure lack of demand would exactly be the problem?

My exact reaction to Starfield. Will almost certainly be the same for ES6

US National Central Cyber Security Security Command Agency Service

Haha, “why so defensive”?

Right, but if the person I was talking originally to had said “I’m not from the US so I know nothing about it” it woulda been fine and I would have immediately apologized and we’d go from there. Having a nice chat.

That’s not what happened. Someone new chimed in with a pretty rude non-sequitur in the vein of ‘stupid Americans’. I don’t think I was particularly defensive or angry, but maybe it came off that way.

I definitely don’t? I was just providing my experience for the place I live. Obviously not all places are the south…? And good for you on your ‘more civilized place’, but we’re not talking about those areas.

Seems to me that, to solve rent crisis, Americans should just move into Europeans’ heads, since we seem to live there rent free already.

I’m not sure where you live, but living/growing up in the south… I can tell you that those beliefs run deep. Deep deep deep. Deeper than you can fix by just being pleasant to your neighbor.

If you try to talk to them with kindness and openness, they dig in their heels and start spewing fox news talking points like it’s the most obvious thing in the world (I’m pretty sure they like it so much because it confirms every awful belief they already had). Try to present different sources, they’re rejected as fake news. I’ve tried everything with people around here since before 2016 and nothing seems to help. Mostly I just keep to myself.

Living in the south, if you’re not indoctrinated, is very isolating. Even living in the cities doesn’t really help. You still need to dig deep and look carefully for people who don’t think you deserve fewer rights.

Edit: thinking about it more, I think the isolation is the point, and it’s how so many people in my state believe some of the same basic things when it comes to religion and politics. You learn pretty young around here that if you don’t get with the program, you’re not going to have many friends. If you didn’t go to church, especially, you lost out on most of the community’s socializing for the week. It feels very cliquey in the smaller towns especially, almost by design.

Super not enthused with how centrist this is. Comes off as more of the “can’t we all just get along and live in unity??” stuff people say, when really they mean “the left needs to chill and stop making everything a big deal.”

Kinda hard to just ‘get along’ when the other side is trying to destroy democracy and strip large portions of the population of their basic human rights.

Now that I’m canceling Max, I’m basically just left with Crunchyroll and Shudder as streaming services. They’ve all become so shit, I couldn’t stomach giving them any more money.

There is so much to unpack here holy moly. Ignoring the religious stuff, there are lots of alternatives to the things you’re listing, if you’re concerned. You say truth is bitter, but overlook some glaring ones provided by the modern era: vitamin supplements and alternative leather made from plants.

Those things might have been true when the monk spoke them, but time marches on and modern advancements leave some pieces of wisdom behind in the past.