Spyke

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Buckle up, Reddit: Closed APIs cost more than you’d expect

Despite the protests, Reddit's Huffman has persisted in arguing that Reddit is "a living organism, this democratic living organism, created by its users."

No way can a democratic society last under a corporatocracy which, by default, is essentially a dictatorship. And corporatocracy is exactly what Huffman is pushing.

Y’know, it’s highly hypocritical that the article mentions the reason for the API shutoff is to force users to pay for the content while redditcorp doesn’t pay for the content users generate that reddit wants those same users to pay to access.

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evolution

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And the leather soles get mushy...and the salt used to melt the ice absolutely shreds the leather just above the stitching when it dries out. Western boots suck in the snow, and it's a quick way to ruin them. Even rubber-soled ones like some of Ariat's don't last, but they're better on wet surfaces.

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The Chandrayaan-3 mission has successfully landed on the Moon’s south pole

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All the countries with space programs have people in some form of dire strait. Starving, homeless, lack of medical care… Are you saying achievements like this aren’t allowed to take place at all until every problem is taken care of? I can assure you that at no point in civilization has there been times where someone wasn’t in a bad spot while society moved forward. Yeah, India has some big problems, and huge wealth disparity is a problem that many places face alongside India, but you can’t shut down progress because all the other problems can’t be solved.

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After 2-year-old girl shoots self, man becomes first person charged under Michigan's gun storage law

I'm 100% for mandatory safe storage laws and prosecution of those who fail to do so, especially if that failure leads to injury, death, of theft of said firearm and that gun is used in a crime.

Unsecured handguns account for the majority of firearm suicide deaths in the United States, study finds

Overall, firearms used in unintentional injury deaths were often stored loaded (74%) and unlocked (76%) and were most commonly accessed from nightstands and other sleeping areas (30%).

It is difficult to ascertain the exact number of guns that are stolen from individuals in the United States because many of these thefts are not reported to law enforcement. However, estimates from a number of survey studies indicate that roughly 200,000 to 400,000 guns are stolen from individuals each year....Whether taken from gun stores or from individual gun owners, a firearm is stolen every 2 minutes. These stolen guns are often diverted directly into illegal trafficking networks and end up being used in the commission of violent crimes.

The Largest Source of Stolen Guns? Parked Cars.

All stolen guns are available to criminals by definition. Recent studies of adult and juvenile offenders show that many have either stolen a firearm or kept, sold, or traded a stolen firearm: According to the 1991 Survey of State Prison Inmates, among those inmates who possessed a handgun, 9% had acquired it through theft, and 28% had acquired it through an illegal market such as a drug dealer or fence. Of all inmates, 10% had stolen at least one gun, and 11% had sold or traded stolen guns.

The Southern [of the USA] region has the highest percentage of house-holds with firearms and the least safe storage practices (Okoro et al. 2005). Not surprisingly, most Southern states are “exporters” of guns traced in crime (Mayors Against Illegal Guns 2010).

So the assholes that need to have guns with them, constantly available, unsecured, because the "might need to access them instantly" or some such nonsense are the very people feeding guns into criminals hands and causing death and injury via accidental shootings and suicides.

cooking

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Here’s Why Jalapeño Peppers Are Less Spicy Than Ever

Common refrain from my perspective. No wonder kids don't like fruit. It's bred to survive picking and transport with minimal damage, often seedless, and have as long a shelf life as possible while looking attractive. It's picked under-ripe by a big margin.

It tastes like shit. Pithy, flavorless, sour, etc. Some vegetables even fall into this trap. They're big, pretty, and pithy. Dry. Hard.

It's been a noticeable shift since I was a kid, and I was spoiled by growing up in a major fruit-growing area. Could pick up a flat of fresh strawberries for $6. Fresh melons, tree fruit, berries...all were available during the summer. Didn't have too much cooler-climate fruit like apples though. That fruit was better than candy many times.

I've been making an effort to try to locate as much fruit or whatever to grow ourselves that tastes right, looks be damned. It's a lot harder than I thought. Many of the seeds found at stores around this time of year are hybrids that often fall into the same commercial trap - big, showy, and shitty. You've got to go places like Seed Savers Exchange and buy the older varieties that are less fucked with.

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A Texas Dairy Ranks Among the State’s Biggest Methane Emitters. But Don’t Ask the EPA or the State About It

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To add on - the feed we give cattle exacerbates methane production in their gut.

Cattle fed high-grain, low-forage diets produce 42% more methane than those fed-low grain, high-forage diets (Boadi et al.,2004). Methane (CH4) is composed of carbon and hydrogen. The formulation of diet influences the carbon: nitrogen ratio of manure, which impacts the amount of methane released. Diets high in grain have higher levels of readily fermentable carbohydrates, which create methane to be released into the atmosphere. Grain type can also change the amount of methane emissions. During the finishing phase, cows fed a corn-based diet released less methane than cows fed a barley-based diet (Beauchemin and McGinn, 2005).

So there is nothing “natural” about the excess methane produced by cattle because if they were naturally foraging the amount produced is lower.