This is definitely the only memory I have of it, yeah. Brightly lit room after running hither and yon across base all night… and being too tired to give a shit what was going on…

They are being trained.

To escalate, that’s why they “need” all that military kit.

Sure but it could also be simsimulation and maybe they can play as us on a grand scale and if so they maybe can tweak the war, dissent, and natural disaster settings down a bit… you know for the sake of recovering from the fun part.

Cuz idk if you ever played simcity and set loose disasters, recovering from them suuuuucked when it got out of hand.

Men do sometimes have boobs, and women tend not to find them attractive (some do ofc) because they are a sign of a poorly maintained body.

If they were a normal feature both sexes had regardless of health, like women sort of do (tho it is still absolutely based on health and hormone levels so this is kinda disingenuous) it would probably be like nice legs or nice butts; one can appreciate nice ones but it wouldn’t be a secondary sex characteristic anymore, so neither sex would be likely to have the present level of obsession with them.

I don’t think women would be particularly concerned with breasts if men had them, too… for one thing even lesbian women don’t tend to get super giddy about breasts now because they are exposed to them a lot more readily and less sexually than men are, so they just aren’t special in any way, even if they are a lesbian’s preferred physical characteristic. This would become true for men as well re:female breasts, but more than that, I can’t really think of any male physical trait that similar numbers of women like the way men like breasts. And I doubt breasts would end up being it for women.

It’s kinda amusing if you think about it but men are absolutely obsessed with genitalia and sex in a way women just aren’t, usually, and that translates to being absolutely obsessed with one’s own penis, such that it -is- a big chunk of the male personality (for the record I’m not saying this disparagingly, I find the differences to be fascinating as a fellow ace, and just listened to a book about erectile dysfunction where this exact tendency is mentioned many time for its usefulness as a diagnostic tool to determine if ED is caused by physical or hormonal issues). And along with that obsession with their own genitalia being the obvious appendage of all their musings, comes a twin obsession with a single highly obvious female body trait, breasts.

Women just don’t operate like that at all. Maybe it’s socializing, maybe it’s inherent, but either way, I don’t think breasts on men for women (or any other trait, frankly) would or even could be like breasts on women for men. I think the problem is that male secondary sex characteristics are basically optional. Men basically get body hair, bad smells, a lump on the throat, and the ability to put on muscle more easily. Other than the Adam’s apple, which isn’t particularly prominent, none of those things are necessarily permanent. You can shave and shower and if you don’t use your muscles they fade, so men don’t have “one major trait”, like breasts, and women are thus more varied about the trait they find most attractive.

For the other questions - women shirtless normal? I mean that’s just a socializing thing. There have been cultures where women are topless just as readily as men and it’s nbd. This is entirely puritanical nonsense.

For breast cancer color - did you know pink used to be a boys color and blue girls? I see no reason the color couldn’t stay pink. But if it was a big deal for both sexes I don’t think it would ever have risen to the sort of prominance it has in society now. Breast cancer as a big deal is because of women making it a big deal because it disproportionately impacts women and men don’t tend to advocate for women’s issues. But if both sexes were impacted it would be more like lung cancer or something, just sort of non-gendered PSAs about your boobs trying to kill you.

Here’s a fun thought experiment in similar spirits.

If complex intelligent life evolved an an encrusted ocean moon (like Europa, which has liquid ocean topped by miles of ice crust, preventing any light or anything from penetrating to the depths), what would their technology look like, and what would their view of the universe be like?

That’s about what I was making in Wisconsin to canvas as well.

Problem with that for me is that I’ve been boycotting theaters for so long over their prices and loudness and 45 min of advertisements… that I’m no longer considered a paying customer… so they don’t care what I want. Same with everyone else who has been put off by their decisions in the past.

At this point I expect theaters to flop before they change their model. I’ll continue not to give them money, but it kinda sucks.

Aww man I’ve never been to a two-floor+ Menards :( none of the ones around me are (they do have the lumber loft but that hardly counts).

Now I feel like I’m missing out.

The University of Wisconsin system of schools is well known for being good for the sciences, while still being state colleges, and thus more affordable for average individuals, particularly residents of the state.

However, in pursuit of profits, some of their academic hiring decisions have been…. Unfortunate. I won’t name the specific school this occurred at as the problem occurs across the board for associate+/-lecturer positions. And it occurs in most states. Education as a whole in the US has been commodified, and thus reduced.

Nope, I’m also a brown thumb due to having the attention span of a newt :) but I’m trying to figure out a way to make that tendency work anyway. Lazy indoor gardening. $10mil idea, which I’ll never profit from :)

If I can, literally everyone can (with freely available plans I’m developing! Because I like creating but the follow through… oof, nope…)

If you want to grow herbs, specifically, tho, I highly recommend water beads. You can get them on amazon for water bead blaster things, some 4x120,000 for under $10, which makes like a couple gallons of beads? They are also available at various retailers if you don’t want to support Amazon, expensive when bought for plants, cheap when bought as a toy. Go figure. You can mix your powder nutrient solution (10/10/10, with whatever additional nutrients you may need) with water, soak the beads in that water, plant the stuff in the beads, and then just sort of let it do its own thing, top it off with plain water as needed to retain the volume. If the herbs die, meh, just extract the nutrients from the beads with distilled/ro water for a day or so, let them dry, remix the nutrient and plant new ones!

You’ll get a good feel for what plants need and how lazy you can be with them. The water beads dry out as they are used up, but don’t really evaporate, so it’s a super clear sign to replenish them, with none of the disadvantage of organic soils (poor drainage, poor moisture retention, nutrient overload, etc.)

I’m planning to try the beads as a medium for strawberry rhizomes in the spring… I think they will do a decent job for some of the everbearing varieties. Or they won’t ^_.

I really need a friend who can keep a schedule so I can try my ideas… 😅

The kind who uses their platform to spread misinformation, in my experience. :)

I mean… my bachelors was largely neglectful tbh… if I didn’t know what I wanted to learn and how to learn it, it would have been nothing more than an extension of k-12.

They will let just any old shitbag teach certain credits… like my natural science 101 class, taught by a guy who bought into “organic is better”, “mindfulness will fix all your problems”, and various other pseudoscientific bullshit… such that my final essay (science is my auti special interest; I couldn’t ignore it…) was dedicated to pointing out each and every one of the pseudoscience claims he made in class which were demonstrably false (with citations). He initially gave me an A on the paper and then thought about how much I was insulting him and downgraded it to a C. That C was so worth getting. Fuck that guy. I learned more disproving his nonsense than I ever would have listening to him about anything…

But I also took a biostatistics course where the professor led by asserting creationism. Dropped that bitch right quick and complained to faculty about it (feel free to believe whatever nonsense you like, but I’m not paying tuition to hear your pet theories about thermodynamics proving creationism). Fortunately that was day two of the class, and still within time to drop. Unfortunately replacing that class fucked up my schedule for the semester big time.

And those are just two of a handful of issues with higher ed, and my school was actually one of the better for science curriculum… I started a masters program and dropped it when I got bad grades on papers for using accurate but simplified language (I’m a science communicator; using esoteric language is not something I do, even if I can easily do so. My life goal is to make science approachable for the masses, not a clusterfuck of specialized terminology that doesn’t even resemble the same term from another field)

I wish I had easy access to fresh food like this… actually I’m a lot closer to having that now, since we actually have a real grocery store again where the one from 10 years ago closed down… for the past 10 years it was 30 min by highway to the closest, now it’s 20 min by bike (assuming being in shape for it) or 10 by car, which still isn’t super close but it’s a lot better. (The closest farmers market that isn’t just people selling junk they made is still half an hour in either direction)

My friend lives like 10 min walk from a grocery store and goes daily as a result. Gets good discounted foods and fresh produce regularly.

But I’m working on some indoor gardening systems that… might… assuming they work nearly as well as I hope… might make a difference to my tastes. (Tho I do strongly prefer veg already, and don’t eat a lot of meat. It doesn’t agree with my stomach. Tummy likes fiber.) I just got a batch of oyster mushrooms started on cardboard (because why the fuck not compost my trash into food???), and 50 radishes are sprouted for a weird attempt that probably won’t work. worth a try.

I’ve gotten several things like this, especially in the last week or so. Same with texts. I’ve gotten dozens. Reported them all as junk and blocked them. Idk how many of the unknown calls have been get out the vote; I don’t answer unknown calls, but there has been a dramatic uptick in that number as well, including a number listed as “survey call” every 2 days for the past 3 weeks.

I already submitted my vote on 09OCT… so much for useful public record, I guess.

Living in a swing state fucking sucks around election time, leave me alone, damn. Let’s get rid of the electoral college just so we don’t get fucking hounded for 3 months every 4 years by a bunch of complete strangers who don’t know a damn thing about us. Spread the love. (Yes it would be good to get rid of the EC anyway, but I want it purged for purely selfish reasons)

I did this with my shark(nado) bagless vacuum. :)

Mmmm you gotta do the twist break, where you push sideways on the bottom part to see if you can snap off the entire clip piece, rather than having that shitty nub left.

But if you end up with the shitty nub by accident, you gotta bite that bitch off.

In college I bought myself a 50 pack of those cuz I lose shit a lot, and that clip never lasted more than a few hours on any new pencil…

Oh. I’m not familiar with that, but I appreciate the additional context. Thanks :)

I really appreciate this comment because I never understood that phrase before, glass onion…

No you weren’t being unreasonable. They absolutely weren’t trying to help you out of the kindness of their heart, they were trying to seamlessly get your info by just keeping the conversation moving, and not asking if you -want- to sign up, to which yes or no are the only answers. When they ask for your number it’s weird to answer as though they asked a yes or no question, and that’s intentional.

I’ve worked retail, I was trained on canvassing sales (just trained, I quit before I started because it was super shady tactics I wasn’t comfortable with), that tactic is 100% intentional to get the info without you thinking about it. Some places even give bonuses if the employees sign up a certain number of people. Nothing altruistic about any of it.

When you don’t follow their script they get confused… because it’s a script. Not because they think you are mad; they don’t care about you as long as you don’t yell at them. You are just nameless face #545 of the day.

Whenever someone asks for my number or email I smile and tell them “oh, I don’t have an account with you, and I really don’t want one, but thank you all the same.” It’s direct and maybe a bit rude to some people, but they typically apply whatever discount anyway, and if they don’t, meh.

If they ask for zip code or address, I tell them they don’t need it, and with those I will get rude if I get pushback. This includes when I call for product support or something and just have a question. “No, you don’t need to know anything about me to answer my questions, and I won’t be providing it unless I feel you need it, regardless what you think or what your system says.”

I submitted my ballot to my county clerk waaaaay back on 09OCT, it shows as counted. It was ahead of when drop boxes came out, but any time after 03OCT is valid.

I know a lot of other people who just haven’t dropped it off yet, but basically nobody I know is willing to actually mail them back due to that bullshit with the post office maybe dumping ballots back in 2020… much safer to bring them directly, or vote early in person.

However, when I was canvassing, tons and tons of people said they were planning to vote on Election Day (and I didn’t bother asking Trump voters about their voting strategy plan, fuck ‘em, don’t care.) or had mail absentee that they were going to use.

Do our territories pay tax? It looks like they do… and they definitely have no representation (non-voting delegates, non-autonomy, the only thing they get is the ability to raise issues and vote on committees, and frankly that’s nothing.)