Pretty ironic, given that Oregon Republicans are best known for taking the ball and going home…

I do this (I watch the first season when it comes out and then if I really liked it I’ll wait until the whole series is complete so I can binge it in one go, and if I just thought it was just okay I’ll watch the seasons as they come out because I don’t care that much if I miss stuff on account it forgetting what happened previously) and I know it screws with viewership numbers when it comes time to decide what to renew/axe but when the alternative is rewatching the entire series every time a new season comes out…

(Otherwise known as the tale of why I’ve watched Bojack Horseman S1 five times)

DS9 is a funny example because (relative to contemporary shows TNG and Voyager, but other TV of that era too) they oftentimes doesn’t wrap up the philosophical/moral/ethical conundrum neatly by end of episode and leave things more open or unresolved or ambiguous, which is simultaneously dissatisfying and refreshing IMO. Also, I think some of their best episodes from a conceptual perspective ended up a bit clunky in execution, like they don’t have enough time to properly explore the subject at hand in only one episode so they squeeze it into a more superficial plot that then as a result feels a bit drawn out (also Star Trek dialogue usually ranges from mid to meh–with a few standout lines sprinkled in–which unsurprisingly taints the acting too). There are a number of single-episode plots that were good but could have been great if they’d given them more time to marinade over multiple episodes, but they already had a huge number of balls in the air for an episodic show in terms of plot and character development, so maybe that would have been disastrous to attempt idk.

Absolutely wild ride of an article. Unusually long for The Guardian, but totally worth the read, regardless of your personal interest in birthing methods. Went in expecting medical woohoo beliefs, left with a better understanding of the growth and formation of radical online movements. Make sure to read to the end!

Currently anticipating the inevitable sequel once they get hit with manslaughter charges.

adolescence

I assume you meant infancy?

I would consider this mildly infuriating, yes.

You can thank the vehicular cycling movement of the 1970s for selling the idea that bicycles should operate like cars on American roadways.

(To anyone at all interested in this topic, I highly recommend reading the linked article for more context. Or watching the Not Just Bikes video in Boomer Humor Doomergod’s comment if that’s more your speed.)

The “some monarch butterflies migrate over the open ocean from Florida to Mexico” hypothesis has always seemed pretty bonkers, so it’s fascinating that we’re finally getting evidence. Also of great interest: whether the Western and Eastern populations mix, and if so how, for its implications on population stabilization west of the continental divide. As mentioned in the article, all monarchs are struggling, but the Western monarch is on the brink of extinction.

You may have seen my “I’m gonna repost this comment every time I see this type of submission in this community” comments recently. They received positive responses, but after realizing that this type of content is most of the community, I decided a full post would be more productive to the conversation and feel less passive-aggressive.

Great, now “Hitler micropenis” is in my search history.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/adolf-hitler-dna-reveals-nazi-likely-kallmann-syndrome-genitals-micropenis/

Me, browsing Lemmy, sees this headline:

“Ah yes, another c/theonion banger… Hold up, c/politics!?!”

21.5% of South Koreans have the surname Kim.

Not last night, they saw the Aurora down in fucking Florida!

Also >:( for AI image

Epstein asked Wolff what he thought an ideal response from Trump would be. “I think you should let him hang himself,” Wolff responded.

And the ironic statement of the decade award goes to …

I haven’t heard of (or personally experienced) hard water being a problem, but I’ve been told chlorinated/fluoridated water can be. Filtered water, or water that’s sat out for 24+ hrs (this allows chlorine to evaporate), is supposedly better for plant health. Some species are more susceptible to these chemicals than others, but I’m uncertain if chlorine/fluoride alone is enough to kill a houseplant.

I think it could work well if you’re the type of person who can follow a daily schedule better than a weekly or biweekly schedule (for instance, if you build it into your routine, e.g. “every day after finishing breakfast the first thing I do is water the houseplants”). It could also work well if having to make a judgment call (“water only when the soil is dry”) is too intimidating or can’t be scheduled into a calendar app with automated reminders.

I know of some plants that can tolerate irregular watering, but can’t think of many that thrive with it. Even in the wild, the seeming randomness of rainfall has at least a seasonal pattern to it, and the plants that are best suited to irregular watering are generally not ideal houseplants for various reasons, like they go dormant during dry spells and start looking ugly, or drop a bunch of leaves when underwatered and make a mess, or require huge root systems, etc. Probably the best houseplants for the truly incapable of following a watering schedule are the drama queens: those plants that have big, showy leaves that droop significantly when thirsty, but quickly perk back up after watering. Noticing this still requires attention, of course, but wilting leaves are much easier to notice than dry soil. I’ve never grown a houseplant like that so I can’t come up with specific examples, but I know they exist.

If you want a plant that does well in lower light and with frequent watering, I’d recommend the maidenhair fern.

Mine gets cranky if it’s not watered at least daily, and it would probably prefer twice a day! In the wild, these plants grow in places with constant water, e.g. alongside a waterfall. Still they’re fairly hardy plants somewhat acclimated to weathering dry spells; I’ve almost killed mine then had it return from the brink of death multiple times following a week of neglecting to water it. Ironically the maidenhair fern’s love of water means you won’t need a plant sitter to come over and water when you go on vacation: if you’re going to be gone for more than a few days, stick the pot in a tub of water a few inches deep; maidenhair ferns doesn’t seem to mind wet roots at all (I’ve done this for up to a month, no prob).

They do need at least a little light, such as an hour or so of direct morning light or hours of indirect light, making them a great choice for north-facing windows and other conditions where many houseplants would struggle.

Obligatory IANAP (I am not a paleontologist).

My understanding is that many (most?) living plants did die; what survived were seeds that could wait around for conditions to be a bit less apocalyptic before sprouting, kinda like what happens with major wildfires. Similarly, the animals that survived were a lot of creatures that could live off seeds and other remaining plant matter (such as small mammals, which had previously been an underdog in the Mesozoic).

Nice to know there might still be hope for me yet!

For me currently, it’s Ursula K LeGuin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. I’m a little over halfway through, but for whatever reason I can’t seem to read more than a few pages before I have to take a break, making progress really slow. I also struggled to get through A Wizard of Earthsea, even though I enjoyed the setting, plot, and characters, so I think the problem is simply a matter of not jiving with her writing style.

Fortunately the book isn’t in high demand at my library so renewing it hasn’t been an issue, but I just picked up three other books (holds that finally came in) and I’ve been struggling to justify starting them until I can get LHoD finished first. Ironically one of the new books is a long-time stuck book for me: as a teenager I dropped Xenocide midway through (IIRC it wasn’t as fast-paced as the first two Ender books so I got bored) and now years later I’ve challenged myself with finally finishing it.