Everyone makes fun of California’s prop 65 warnings, but this is exactly the situation they exist for: knowing which colorful plate sets to avoid at Crate & Barrel.

You say this like we don’t still have kitchenware with lead (or other nasties like cadmium) in them, often for purely aesthetic reasons. Most of these are discontinued products still in circulation, but some are still being produced (in theory they’re “safe for use” because the heavy metals are sealed behind something nontoxic, but scratches and chips may expose them).

No sugar. It’s important to start with good coffee (freshly ground beans of decent quality), then I will often add milk. While I do enjoy black coffee the milk makes it even better, and more importantly it helps temper the caffeine (especially if I’m drinking it on an empty stomach). I picked it up in Japan where “milk coffee” and “milk tea” are popular (although they often add sweeteners, but I find the milk is sweet enough).

Have you tried exploring the wonderful world of tea? There are SO many kinds and varieties, so maybe that’s more your thing than coffee. My advice is to go to a local tea shop rather than buy from the grocery store; the quality difference is astounding, and don’t be afraid of looseleaf tea. Same thing with tea as coffee, you can add milk for a richer, creamier taste; because there’s so many varieties of tea out there milk won’t taste good with many of them (clashing flavors, or the milk overpowers the subtle tea flavor), but I’ve also tried some where the milk made the flavor of the tea stronger somehow. Milk + Jasmine/English Breakfast are great starting points.

(Edit to add: poor-quality and oversteeped tea will taste bitter and you’ll be tempted to add sugar; I used to be lazy and drink my tea out of the same mug I was steeping it in but I now am diligent about keeping steeping time to 3-4 minutes.)

I don’t abuse coffee because it’s a stimulant, I abuse coffee because it’s fucking delicious.

I’ve heard there’s another reactor in the Willapa Hills that was constructed but never activated. Like some ghost story it still sits, unused, to this day.

Washington State checking in. They don’t call us “the evergreen state” for nothing!

All it took was sacrificing our river ecosystems and invalidating native tribes’ entire way of life

All I want to know is: will this push companies to rethink infinite scroll? Like, even to make it a toggleable option.

I really appreciate that Lemmy still has distinct pages. “I’ll stop at the end of this page” is the easiest way to quit a social media session, which is why most companies have eliminated it.

That would be great IF you could convince the city that thoroughly-entrenched tools like leaf blowers and lawn mowers and motorized vehicles fell under nuisance laws. Chances are the mayor and most of city council use these things (or pay someone who uses them). The problem is that most people either love these things or don’t find them obnoxious enough to warrant action. Even if you somehow could get them to fall under nuisance laws, enforcement would be complaint-based, and who’s going to risk pissing off their neighbor for being a snitch Karen?

I know everyone hates HOAs because they’re usually petty and dumb, but this is where I think they’d actually be helpful. Designate certain neighborhoods as “quiet zones” where similarly obnoxious activities (that have reasonable, quiet alternatives) are banned: no motorized leaf blowers, lawn mowers, souped-up motorcycles or muscle cars. If you want to own one of those things, don’t move into that neighborhood.

I’ve come to realize many people feel “forced” to move to incredibly space- and resource-inefficient (and thereby ecologically-damaging) places like suburbs and exurbs for basically two reasons: better schools, and in an attempt to escape asshole neighbors. Sometimes it’s so that they can themselves be the asshole neighbors, but generally people are trying to live in a “nice” neighborhood not over usual HOA things like house siding color and properly-concealed trash cans, but rather for a general desire for peace and quiet. I know I dream about living on 40 acres not so I can start a dairy farm, but to escape the various forms of pollution (primarily noise, air, and light) emitted by my current neighbors. But I wouldn’t feel the need to do that if my neighbors had similar desires as I and limited things like car idling, porch lights, and landscape-related noise. Meanwhile the neighbors upset at me for keeping my yard wild to support wildlife could have a neighbor with similarly bland yard maintenance standards.

Fukisima

Possibly a stupid question, but is there anything toxic in the solar panels or their infrastructure that could contaminate the plants or soil below? Particularly if the panels were damaged in, say, extreme weather, but also as a result of general wear and tear. I’m thinking heavy metal dust, carcinogenic liquid components, that sort of thing. As per the article this seems like it could be a good land use pairing, but not if it renders the soil unfit for agriculture due to a buildup of contamination.

Fun fact: cats don’t just purr when they’re happy! They use it as a method of self-calming and healing when feeling anxious or unwell. Amazingly they purr at a frequency that stimulates healing, which is one possible reason as to why the behavior evolved in the first place. Each individual is different of course, but generally you can get a better sense of a cat’s emotional state by observing their eyes (that’s how cats smile!) than by whether they are purring or not.

https://www.petmd.com/cat/behavior/why-do-cats-purr

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2023/05/05/do-cats-smile/11761709002/

Someone gets a (mind) plague

“Geordi doesn’t get some tail”

Coming from someone who has seen all of the older (pre-Discovery) stuff but only a smattering of the newer stuff:

This is such a difficult question because I think TNG and DS9 were peak Star Trek (along with movie IV) and are where I would point newbies, but both series have such off-putting starts. I grew up on TNG, so it was easy to get past the rough edges of the early seasons on my start-to-finish watch. However I hated DS9 when I started watching it, and only powered through because I was on a “watch all of the franchise” mission (this was back in 2015). Having finished it though, DS9 is now my favorite series in the franchise.

I think my recommendation for newbies is a curated list of a handful of TNG’s standout episodes, followed by “if you liked this, start TNG from the beginning,” followed by “if you liked this, watch DS9 but PROMISE ME you’ll watch the first three seasons before giving up, yes I know it’s a lot to ask but trust me,” followed by “if you’re still with me, start from the franchise beginning and watch in air order, although feel free to give up on TOS if it’s not your thing and skip to movies II+.”

I would actively dissuade anyone who hasn’t watched at least 20 seasons of Star Trek (any series) from starting Lower Decks. Even I feel like half the jokes and references go over my head.