Lost and Battlestar Galactica aired approximately in parallel. Being a sci-fi fan, I watched BSG, of course, but many friends watched Lost. It definitely had more mainstream appeal and a higher profile. But from the sounds of things, it really lived up to its name! I’ve always been glad I got into BSG, even if it also went off course for a while.

IIRC BSG got screwed in part by the Hollywood writers’ strike. Did that impact Lost as well?

Not great, IMO.

Lemmy seems to have stabilized, if not stagnated. There are a few active political and tech communities, but they’re not particularly diverse in their viewpoints. Most of the other communities I used to follow on Reddit (local/regional discussion, US sports, cycling, etc) never really reached critical mass here and are basically ghost towns.

Mastodon is similar. I’ve observed a number of moderately high profile accounts move back to X/Twitter in recent weeks/months. I’ve been on Mastodon since 2017 or so. I think 2023 or 2024 were probably the high-water mark for activity. Things may look different from other perspectives.

I’m still here, and have no intention of going back to X/Twitter or Reddit any time soon, but the fediverse increasingly feels like usenet. Still inhabited by a few diehard lifers, but generally irrelevant to the broader population.

I’m not sure that it is a matter of time. Maybe I’m just being pessimistic, but I think the fediverse wave has crested already. There’s a reverse migration from Mastodon back to places like X/Twitter under way, and lemmy really never even saw the scale of adoption or attention that Mastodon saw.

I’m not worried that lemmy will go away any time soon, but I’m not sure it’s ever going to be mainstream enough to attract enough users to really support vibrant and diverse communities.

I'm not sure that's the problem. Maybe it is, but from what I see, most people never even get far enough into considering lemmy for its decentralized nature to become the blocker. I don't think it really even registers as an option for most of them.

The big commercial sites would do things like research studies and marketing campaigns to try to attract new users. Fediverse mostly relies on organic growth, driven by things like word-of-mouth. That's fine, in that it gives us a core group of users who really want to be here and know why, but I think there's an upper bound to our ability to attract new users that way.

I'm sure some will prefer that it works this way, but for me, I consider users of Reddit and X/Twitter to be something along the lines of hostages needing to be rescued. We can't save them all, but I'd love to get more people off of those sites.

Do keep in mind that Trump still enjoys something like 90+% approval among Republicans. Some people remain convinced that they like turd soup.

Its use of a single letter app name did, too, and we see how quickly they bent the rules to accommodate the name change.

Well, had the Biden Justice Dept actually done their fucking job, Trump would be in prison right now and our munitions stockpiles would be where they should be. So sure, Biden should shoulder some of the blame.

“I’m gonna tell my daddy on you. Then you’re in real trouble!”

That's not limited to EVs, though. Most modern cars have the same antifeatures.

Just ask ChatGPT; it's better than humans at proving its humanity with these stupid things.

Exactly this. An arraignment of a former president has become a non-event. This is ideal for Trump, regardless of how MSNBC tries to spin it.

“Low poll ratings and scarce campaign funds” sounds like a great way to go into the general election. Sounds like Wisconsin dems prefer a republican governor over DSA.

I consider electric only to be a commuter car at best. It’s not going to be able to do a road trip. And depending on the car and the commute may even not be able to do a grocery run after work some days.

I really wonder what kind of car you drive. Sounds like a Nissan Leaf or something.

I'll share a couple of anecdotes regarding my experience with EVs:

My parents live on a farm in rural Maine. They are on their second Chevy Bolt (first was a lease, and they liked it so much that they upgraded to a later generation when the lease expired). It's an inexpensive, no-frills EV that is their primary means of transportation. Living in the country, the shortest trip they take is likely to be at least 20 miles round-trip. In the past, I've borrowed that car for an overnight trip to Vermont. We made sure to charge it at home before the leaving, and drove to Vermont without needing to stop. I don't recall the exact distance, but it was about 4 hours of driving through rolling hills. We charged it again in Vermont, and drove home the next day.

My partner and I have a 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 5 that we bought used for $28k. It's all-wheel drive and has a battery warmer, both of which are helpful in cold climates. We do not have a charger at home. My wife's commute is 20 miles round trip, and we are able to charge the car where she works, which we do roughly once a week. Although the car itself is capable of charging very quickly, the charger available to us is a low-power home charger, so it's nice to be able to leave it plugged in during the full work day. We don't hesitate to take this car on longer trips, especially if they take the interstate highway system or pass through major cities, where faster charging is always available.

When I bought the car, it was 150 miles away from my house. It was charged to 100% when I picked it up, and the car estimated 300 miles of range. We arrived at home with 50% charge remaining, so I'd say the 300 mile range was pretty accurate.

With this car and our charging habits, daily driving doesn't really require any special thought or planning at all. For longer trips, anything less than a 150 mile round trip requires no more planning than "I should make sure to charge it within a day or so of the trip, if possible." For a trip in the 250 mile range, I would definitely prefer to start fully charged, if possible, otherwise I'd want to explore charging options along the way. Only if going over that would I definitely feel the need to investigate charging options at my destination or along the route. A home charger would make things even simpler, but as it is it's so low-stress that we don't feel a lot of urgency to get one installed.

I recommend reading Tim Bray's experiences with several years of EV-only ownership, including some long (1000+ mile) road trips in Canada. Here are a couple:

• 5 year retrospective
• An in-depth report of a 1000 mile trip from Vancouver, BC to Regina, Saskatchewan

Most of David Lynch's Dune.

Bush's 2000 campaign is largely responsible for mobilizing the evangelical Christian voting block in the US. So in no small way, we have him to thank for the rise of Christian nationalism that we've seen over the past 20 years.

I won't judge him as a person, but there's no rehabilitation possible for his presidency.

at least three congressional Republicans

How does that compare with the number of congressional Republicans actively spreading this disinformation?

We should be passing bills that make President Trump’s executive orders permanent.

It's not like she suddenly woke up sane or anything.

Sometimes you need to check your tire pressure, too.

The general reduction in scheduled maintenance requirements is really wonderful.

I've owned two Kindle devices over the years, and the ability to directly load content, without involving a third-party service, was a big part of what made them usable for me. If that feature is gone, these devices will no longer be viable for my needs.

And the enshittification continues...

That's kinda the point