FYI the Women’s March org is hosting “Free America” protests for the July 4th weekend. See the Women’s March site here. Some other groups may be organizing protests too, but from what I’ve read the WM ones are probably the biggest.

If there’s not a scheduled protest nearby there’s always the option to make a sign and take to a street corner for a solo protest. If you’re feeling especially ambitious there’s always making a giant sign to prop up against the chain link at an interstate overpass (I’ve never done this but it looks fun).

Understanding of course that it’s not just about the presence of amenities, but also the quality. Sure there might be a grocery store, but the fresh produce is questionable, it has limited brand choices, and doesn’t cater to specific dietary needs/preferences, like organic, vegan, gluten-free, etc. Sure there might be a hospital, but it’s chronically understaffed and/or lacking in certain departments. Sure there might be a dentist, but they’re so overbooked they’re not taking new patients. Sure there’s an airport, but tickets are twice as expensive and it’ll take two transfers to visit family every holiday. Etc etc.

This is a very strange time to want to move from one of the most politically progressive to one of the most politically conservative states in the country. I’m assuming your husband is an American-born straight white cis man?

Regardless of politics, has he ever been to Wyoming? It’s a huge state, and much of it is a dry, barren wind tunnel. The NW corner is quite pretty, but also quite expensive. Depending on your budget, he may be surprised to realize the places within financial limits are not anywhere near as nice to live as the photographs indicate, and that’s completely ignoring the issues re: remoteness that others have already described. Seriously you could not pay me to move to most places in Wyoming due to the wind alone; I cannot emphasize enough how windy the I-80 corridor (near the “population centers” of Laramie and Cheyenne) can get.

Basically what I’m getting at is “why Wyoming” of all places?

Good news: In America, there are currently lots of opportunities to go to prison (not an American? It’s even easier!)

Bad news: it’s not the kind of prison with gym and art.

My god our standards have cratered; just look at the second plane’s lettering. #MakeCursiveGreatAgain

FYI, reusable produce bags exist!

Rice grown in former plantation states tends to be very high in arsenic, a holdover from the cotton-growing days.

For US-grown rice, my understanding is that California-grown is much safer to consume.

This meme so old, 50" TVs ain’t shit anymore

Switching accounts over is a big issue for sure, but even bigger is when entire communities are lost. Those are much harder to switch over, both due to scale and moderation concerns.

I’m seeing articles about Japanese youth taking record advantage of temporary work programs like working holiday visas, but living abroad for 1-3 years is quite different from leaving Japan altogether. The bigger issues seem to be what’s causing both the temp work abroad and low birth rate issues: high CoL relative to wages, poor work culture, and general perception that the “traditional” life trajectory is unfulfilling/unrewarding.

I don’t disagree with the sentiments behind these statements, but you’re basically asking a fish to leave their large school to join a smaller school because it will benefit the species as a whole if the species is divided into multiple schools rather than one giant school. While it might be true that the species is safer that way, it’s much more dangerous for the individual fish to be in a smaller school than to stay in the large school.

In other words, it’s safer for the fediverse for users to diversify, but is safer for the individual to join a “too large to fail” instance. If a user’s instance goes belly up and they lose their account and everything associated with it, it’s functionally similar to the entirety of Lemmy going down as far as that individual user is concerned, because unless you’re a serial lurker (in which case it doesn’t even matter what instance you’re on if you’re not contributing) who wants to invest years in a social media site just to lose your account? Most folks are going to leave rather than start all over. And most folks are going to make the decision that is in their best interests over those of some website. I know every time I see another instance get shut down or defederated, I’m relieved I decided to sign up via .world, even if it’s sluggish at times.

“Joining the fediverse isn’t hard bro, your instance doesn’t matter, just pick one.”

“Stop using Lemmy.world, we need to redistribute to smaller instances.”

The number of times I’ve heard these fucking lines when people discuss why Lemmy/the Fediverse isn’t growing like corp-owned alternatives…

archive link

I can’t tell if you’re being humorous here, but historically babies were baptized shortly after birth out of fear that anyone who died without being baptized would be unable to get into heaven.

In the middle ages* in Europe, baptism was usually scheduled a few days after birth, and often the historical record includes baptism dates and death dates for individuals, so historians estimate birth dates to be a few days prior to the baptism date. Babies that died pre-baptism were thought to go to purgatory instead of heaven, and considering the high infant mortality rate pre-modern medicine, there was a bit of a rush to get your offspring baptized pronto to save their itty bitty souls. Generally this is no longer believed, at least not by most mainstream Protestant sects, and many Christians nowadays opt to wait until their children are old enough to “appreciate” the event more.

*Not sure exactly when, and maybe this was mostly a Catholic thing? Again, this is not my area of expertise.

I don’t know if I’d call it “easy” reading, but this is a well-regarded college textbook that’s popular in “Christianity 101” religion classes (so at least it’s entry-level and doesn’t assume prior knowledge on the topic):

https://www.bartehrman.com/the-new-testament-a-historical-introduction-to-the-early-christian-writings-4th-ed/

For something much lighter, Extra Credits did a video series on early Christian schisms that mentions the circumcision debate:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=E1ZZeCDGHJE&list=PLhyKYa0YJ_5BuNVhOt8Ls82Cr20yo6Y_p&index=32&t=1s&pp=iAQB0gcJCYQJAYcqIYzv

I’m far from a religious scholar (just someone who enjoys history from time to time), so I’d be curious if other folks have additional recommendations.

Actually there was a huge debate among early Christians whether circumcision was still required because Jesus never spoke on the issue (or if he did, there was no verifiable record of it).

To crudely summarize:

The earliest Christians were primarily Jews, so they were already circumcized as required by Judaism so it was a non-issue. However unlike Judaism where you’re almost always born into the religion, Christianity actively encourages adult conversion, so as more non-Jews (e.g. Greeks) began to identify as Christians, the circumcision issue became a conundrum. Some felt Christianity was a branch of Judaism and as such Jewish practices like circumcision were still required, whereas others objected because they saw Christianity as a new approach to Judaism, or even as a separate religion altogether (circumcision specifically was hotly debated due to such issues as adult circumcision being more, shall we say, unappealing than infant circumcision, plus getting circumcized would “out” non-Jews in nude spaces like bath houses, which was at best awkward and at worst deadly).

The earliest followers of Jesus thought Jesus was going to return in their lifetimes, so these types of issues were not discussed (or at least not resolved) by the original founders and proselytizers (researchers have determined the Gospels weren’t even composed until well after everyone involved was dead), but as generations passed it became clear that the Second Coming actually may not happen anytime soon, so practical issues of “how to establish a new religion (is it even a new religion or just a Jewish sect???)” turned into gigantic internal debates for the community. That’s what much of the New Testament is: letters back and forth trying to interpret the words of Jesus to resolve doctrinal conflict. In other words, the New Testament is basically four different versions of the story of Jesus (Mark, Matthew and Luke which were based on Mark and a lost “Gospel X”, and John), followed by a curated back-and-forth commentary section debating issues of the day such as circumcision and women’s role in the church, and controversially capped off by the (theorized) hallucinations of a hermit tripping balls off donated moldy bread.

The history of the New Testament (how it was written and later compiled, early texts that were lost or discarded, and all the doctrinal conflicts that boiled over into variously incidents of geopolitical chaos) is fascinating and seriously worth exploring.

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For urban environments I 100% agree, but e-bikes and public transport can’t help farmers* get their produce to market. I don’t know much about this truck, but if it can fill a similar niche as the Japanese kei truck, I think it’s great to provide people who actually need a pickup with an alternative to the F-150+ behemoths currently available stateside.

*Yes there are some urban farms that totally could operate via ebike/other form of micro mobility, however most farms, even small ones, are located >10 miles outside urban centers, usually in areas only accessible by roads and highways that are currently very dangerous for non-motorized transportation modes. Fixing this problem would take decades and hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars even if the government were fully on board with the transportation network and/or land use changes necessary to allow for a true car-free society (which of course they aren’t). I’m not such an idealist as to poo-poo a significant short-term improvement to the “oversized working vehicle” problem.

Somewhat amazed they’ve rebounded this much given the VW emission scandal some years back. Guess it wasn’t that brand-damaging after all.

That they were. I was so confused as a kid, because I was a big fan of donuts but had never seen one with a rectangular hole coming out the side (how would that even work?)