Having lived and traveled both "places" (and speaking in jest):

• America's cities are vastly more uniform than European ones, especially the mid-size ones. The approach goes big box stores > strip malls > suburbs > trendy strip malls > abandoned downtown > highrise downtown complex. In Europe, it's more quaint medieval village > commercial area > medium density living > high density living > medieval city core

• America's landscapes are vastly more uniform than European ones, outside of a few highlights. Driving cross-country is city > farm land > more farm land > desert > National Park (yay!) > desert > farmland > city. Europe is more city > shrubs > border wait > mountains > border wait > lake > valley > border wait > city

• Europeans think of any European country as an equivalent to America as a whole. That's simply stupid. America as a whole is equivalent to Europe as a whole, and American states roughly equivalent to European countries. States are on average half as big as countries in Europe, but America as a whole is roughly equivalent to the EU. So, yes, a European should know what the capital city of Florida is if they expect an American to know the capital of Poland. (Only Germans and people from Montana can reliably tell you the state capital of Montana, though.)

• American regional cultures are almost as diverse as European ones. Europeans seem to think that it is the language barrier that keeps regional cultures intact and diverse, but an American from California and an American from Texas use the same language but might as well be from different universes. People from Utah think drinking coffee is sinful and drown their uncaffeinated selves in thinly diluted sugar while next door in Colorado climbing 14ers (4300 meter mountains) is a social event that requires crowd control and permitting.

YOU CRIMINAL are the reason the neighbors complain about my crazy laughing! 😀

Thanks for the link!

Apparently, the guy had stage 3 colon cancer when he murdered the victim and died of it in prison. Almost as if nature had decided in advance this guy was no good.

I love how if the government reads this post, then all Flock cameras will henceforth be outfitted with coal-powered steam generators.

Why, it's easy! Wyoming is the rectangle above the Best Rectangle!

Whose state capitals? I am European.

It's as a European that I say Europeans have to get over internal differences and stop thinking European countries are equivalent to the big players in the world.

The UK thought it was super special and better than the rest, and it got exactly what it deserves. We Europeans are probably better off forgetting the "geopolitical clout of Poland" and considering it embedded in that of Europe as a whole. It's no coincidence that Europe's enemies fan the flames of nationalism in European countries.

Appreciate the warning! I think the real problem is that Europeans never accepted they are becoming a single political entity and still don't necessarily consider themselves European. I think that's sad, as Europeans are extensively closer to each other than to nations outside of Europe. Also, the EU is a decent model for how smaller entities can work with larger ones without being suffocated or absorbed.

The last point does not mention Montana?

If you mean the point above that, then the comparison is between Poland and Florida. Florida's large Cuban community has been a driver of the support of Republicans in Congress. It is both a reason why the President is a Republican right now, and why America is thinking of invading Cuba. So, yes, Florida is very important to international geopolitics.

if you meant Montana, then let me point out that the population of Montana is somewhere between Cyprus and Luxembourg and has the geopolitical clout of either.

I am not a mocha kind of guy, but I discovered that oat milk makes phenomenal mochas, better than cow milk! 💕

I am in Kona, Hawaii. I am waiting for my flight to Los Angeles, connecting to Denver. I sit there and see they are about to board the direct flight to Denver. There are maybe 100 people there, so the plane is half empty. I jump to the airline's site to see how much it would cost to switch flights. Only carry-on, so it is doable.

They would make me pay the same as the entire trip Denver - Kona and back just to get on the direct flight, that is half empty. Notice that if I went on this flight, they could theoretically sell the seats on the other two flights, so they'd rather lose money than let me get home early.

There is something deeply wrong with current Capitalism.

100%. I don't miss mine, because I still have it, but sadly don't use it anymore. Nokia really screwed up, they had the next generation of tech in their pockets and let it be crushed by Windows Phone.

It's one of the massive screw-ups in tech that anyone in the field was absolutely horrified by back in the day. It was worse than Zuck's legless Metaverse, or today's vibe coding changes to production servers. Alright, no, the latter is worse.

You said way more than the other ones, namely that the Jeff Bezos of the world believe themselves part of a superior humanity that allows them to treat the rest like garbage.

The reason Mozart became a great composer is that he pissed on his employer's working conditions and went rogue. His Bezos treated him to a kick in the ass, literally, administered on his behalf. Allegedly.

The reason Einstein became a great physicist is that he got an outstanding public education and then worked a government job to make ends meet. The same government jobs that Bezos and Musk wanted to cut last year.

Bezos is not part of a special superhumanity. He is an extremely privileged lottery winner that is too vain to admit he got lucky and now pretends his opinion matters. As the meme states, the only useful thing he can provide is tax money.

I do understand why the state wants to prosecute him, but I also think the public deserved to know what Snowden revealed. It's definitely the kind of thing the pardon power was created for, not for drug lords to bribe their way back into freedom.

Get outta here with your sensible, practical solutions! ;-)

he had displayed an improper “political” message in the workplace during his assignment in California under President Joe Biden

The gay pride flag was displayed during his assignment in California under President Joe Biden? That is completely ridiculous. Thought crime is one thing, but retroactive thought crime is delusion.

I remember arguing for days, in 2024, that the whole "Democrats are bad because Palestine" thing was clearly a psyop by Russian bots trying to mess with the election. I really need to improve my persuasion skills. Like by a lot.

By a wide margin the many different projects for an open source phone OS. From GrapheneOS to PostmarketOS, from Ubuntu Mobile to Plasma Mobile.

I am sick and tired of corporations telling me how I can use my phone. I am sick and tired of corporations deciding what apps I can install, from where, and what data they are allowed to collect. I am done with enshittification and the gradual disappearing of all useful information, either behind a paywall, or replaced by monetized content.

The last straw was when Google Maps decided to replace the "gas station on the route" feature that sent you to the cheapest gas station to some other logic it didn't disclose, but that stinks of affiliate preference.

Weird how the articles say, "swap" when they really mean Ukraine will bé forced to give up land. That's not a swap.

WE understand that. Someone deluded themselves into thinking that a couple bombs would magically produce peace. This is not a Harry Potter movie, so Explosio Nocturna did not work.

Imagine you are so dumb, you decide to rename your company for its biggest failure, and then you get to fire everybody else because they are redundant. Facebook renaming itself Meta is like Tesla changing its name to Cybertruck Inc.

I can't wait until the AI bubble is over and drags the worst people under.