Bruh, tap here to edit text... a master stroke of shitposting.

I'm writing a thesis that has significant support that the United States is and has, with the exception of about 30 years of progressive policy, been a plutocracy. The divisions in put country are by design. Division among racial lines, political affiliation, religious affiliation, professions, etc. are used to prevent the unification of the laboring class and dissuade us from collectively recognizing and challenging the status quo. The working people of this country have far more in common than not, but the political and moneyed class sow division via these wedge issues to prevent radical change - which would likely shift the US toward Scandinavian style social democracy.

I want to just write lol, but that doesn't capture my actual laughter. I am glad to be here and hope these communities continue to grow and become a stable place that is unimpeded by corporate interests, data harvesting, and invasive monetization. But seriously, here's a rat.

Sounds frustrating. Thanks for doing what you do and letting us join your server! Hope the captcha works out.

Fun fact: this is the remains of an ancient volcano. The tower that you see here is what is left of a magma chamber or an intrusion of magma into the surrounding sedimentary rocks that solidified, creating hard igneous rock pillars (columnar joints). The rest of the volcano then weathered and eroded over a very long period of time leaving only the hardest rocks.

Thank you Ruud!

I don't miss a thing about reddit. I was using the platform for about 9 years and the whole debacle about who gets to profit off our content resulted in me moving to something less shitty. SO far, Lemmy has proven to be what the internet was before big corporations took over and I will stay here. I just started donating to the patreon for lemmy.world (or rather mastadon.world, but same dev) and I intend on staying here. I like the engagement so far and hope that the community sticks with this platform. Thanks to reddits malarkey I was introduced to the fediverse and for that I am thankful

That is a neat looking horse. I have gotten 3 different sets of tack. A merchant tack, lamplighter, and something else, but I cannot recall it off the top of my head. The lamp lighter is pretty cool though.

Goblins have been overall a disappointing show in D4. They drop mostly useless shit - may as well just drop 200,000 gold and call it, because that's basically all they are.

Pretty much this. Agriculture subsidies have their roots in the great depression and dust bowl, but we have long since passed the point of having a majority of small family dairy farms. Now the primary beneficiary of subsidies are corporate farms. The USDA and the federal government took a stance of "get big or get out" and that's what happened. We should not be subsidizing corporations.

The author makes several excellent points - the kind you would get from a humanities or ethnic studies course - that show how laws are enforced to target and oppress specific demographics. Initially these anti-"jaywalking" laws were put in place at the behest of the auto manufactures to remove pedestrians from the streets so cars can travel unimpeded, but as many laws in the Jim Crow era did, they targeted people of color, primarily in poorer parts of town. Removing these laws, followed by reclaiming these voids within our communities as public space, we will likely see improvements in our neighborhoods.

An interesting connection to this is community building through place-making. Streets and roads, etc. divide communities and removes what was once a common space and replaces it with a void of liminal travel lanes that pose a risk to everyone that is on it or even nearby. Removal of some roads and putting others on a kind of diet to slim them out and reduce their speeds can increase communal interactions. Increases in community interactions and development of personal connections has been shown to reduce crime and increase overall well being. That is without even touching the health benefits of reducing or eliminating car travel.

My big Agnes three person ultralight tent. It's big enough for me, wife, and two dogs to sleep in comfortably. Two doors for ease of access and does well in windy and wet weather. Light enough to carry by myself and the poles are easy to repair. Had a tear in the rainfly a couple years back and they fixed it for a fair price. Excellent tent

I'm glad you asked! Devil's tower is "one of a kind" because the formation of such features are rare. It consists of phonolite porphyry which is an intrusive igneous rock (meaning it formed from cooling magma inside the Earth). Most of the time when you see columnar jointing it is associated with basaltic igneous rocks which are much darker because they contain higher levels of Fe and Mg (mafic) compared to the more silica rich intermediate igneous rocks like the one in question. There are similar geological features, though, including some in Iceland and Scotland (see giants causeway) and as for the hexagonal shape it turns out nature just likes to naturally form them because its easy.
I guess to summarize, there are not many similar formations to compare Devil's tower to, but those that do exist were formed from different magma (more mafic) and did not erode as gracefully as this formation.

My brother is playing a druid and he absolutely smashes wt4. It was a rough start, but once his build came together he was shredding nightmare dungeons. I think you'd be fine playing a druid

I have been playing since the original release of Diablo around 1997 and, like you, enjoyed D2 thoroughly. D3 was a rough start, but the introduction of seasons and rifts was pretty great. I liked the feeling of overwhelming power that D3 offered. D4 is a lot slower, a kind of calling back to the original and D2. I am enjoying the game overall, but there are some things that I would change given the opportunity. I find gearing to be less intuitive - hard stats may have been a better way to do it rather than percentages, but I'm no game developer. Although even at level 67 I am missing the feeling of power, in time I am sure it will come. At least one can cope. The sorcerer in D4 doesn't feel as good as it had in the past. To be fair I am running with 4 defensive spells which doesn't leave room for much else. I am struggling in WT4, but the drops in WT3 have been less than helpful in making my character stronger. The stats I need simply aren't dropping.

Overall though? D4 is excellent. Balancing and changes will occur that brings the game together and I have no doubt I will be playing this game for another decade.

We live in a plutocracy - the richest people in colonial US were the ones who wrote our governing documents and since then the government has been run by and for the wealthy. Clarence Thomas, although not born of the capitalist class, represents the power wealth wields in our republic. A person who makes rulings on the constitutionality of our laws should be beyond corruption, but here is a lifting of the veil on the reality we must face as citizens - we are almost powerless to stop this. He will not willingly step down, nor will congress obtain the necessary votes to impeach. I believe we will not have real change until the working people unite under a common banner and put a stop to the obvious and massive power imbalances in our republic.

I'm with you there - need to get out. Working on a degree in forestry so I can (hopefully) get a job in a rural area that pays enough to buy some land with arable soil and water. Have you begun any kind of planning process? My spouse and I have a lot of planning already in place. We've even begun a business plan to help secure a loan for a market garden / homestead. Are you doing any urban gardening?

I just played a quest in Kehjistan that involved talking to a statue. The statue made reference to "the vibrancy of the world" and that you could "see magic in the air", which struck me as a clear reference to D3. The developers clearly have a sense of humor and I found the dialog both engaging and humorous. I have notes for the devs, but damn did they make a great game!

A volunteer! Basil is a hearty grower in my area as well, but I have never seen it come through concrete!

No emotes on this one! You'll see - it starts with a man being yelled at by a statue