They were definitely a major player for a long time prior to smartphones becoming the number one GPS solution (for most cars). Garmin, TomTom, Magellan, etc
> Idk I used to look at em to remind myself/ground me of what I am
You doing ok? I embrace my cosmic insignificance for sure but it's more freeing to me that I don't have to measure myself by anyone's standards (within reason) except my own and those who I love vs to remind myself that I'm just going to be less than a blip in the timeline.
I'm alright, I'm distracted in life by debt/trying to meet a partner.
But I can get the overview effect looking at the stars/unplug from the system I know I sound like a crackpot. System being the 9-5 standard life, I want to not have a job/be retired I guess (although I would do what I want to do full time eg. work on robotics hobby).
I mostly mean hard to empathize when the pain is not in your face like watching combat footage of what's happening in Ukraine. People shooting themselves in the head instead of waiting for the grenade to drop from the drone and mangle them. Other stuff to watch Cartel videos just brutal stuff damn, separates animal from civilization/higher mind when you experience trauma like that.
I might just be jaded from reading the news everyday time to go back into the sand.
Yeah there's a lot of terrible shit happening everywhere all the time and it's made worse by the fact that news outlets know they get more interest by showing the horrors instead of focusing on the good. I'm not saying that we as a people should put our heads in the sand and ignore or minimize what's going on outside of our sphere/echo chamber, but there's a lot of wisdom in the serenity prayer.
Again, no one forced anyone to vote for her; they chose to do so of their own volition. Bernie did not win because, for whatever reason, not enough people voted for him. I say this as someone who voted for him in 2016
To muse he would have beaten Trump is like saying the Bills could have beaten the Eagles in the Super Bowl. Maybe they could have, but they didn't beat the Chiefs. It's not a forgone conclusion that he would have beaten Trump, but even so it really doesn't matter because he lost in the primaries
Why wouldn't they? He's the president. As an official of the state he shouldn't say it if he doesn't mean it. The president isn't supposed to be fun or jokey
I graduated in '05 and some of stuff my contemporaries were doing then wrt sports and trying to get to the next level was already crazy (playing for the school and doing travel ball as well, so many practices/camps/extra workout sessions) and don't get me started on the craziness wrestlers had to go through. I've heard it's even worse now as it has become more competitive to get to the next level, whether that's trying to get a good NIL deal or trying to play professionally
Behind the Bastards recently did a two part podcast on the blood industry in America, particularly how lack of regulation and taking advantage of the incarcerated (focused on Arkansas) led to the spread of blood borne illnesses and how it killed a lot of people. I had no idea blood was such big business and that it was in our top 10 domestic exports
Incorrect, yes, but to be fair .67% and 2% occupy the same "wow, that's a large proportion of the economy" order-or-magnitude band of surprise (for me). Obviously not as charismatic/sensational, but still significant and surprising (to me).
It's a big scandal in the UK. Over 30,000 people were infected with HIV or Hep C from US blood stock in the 70s and 80s. The UK Government will be paying almost £12bn as compensation, which to put into context is over a third of our education budget.
I remember reading that the presence of for profit prisons in an area increases the rates of incarceration in that area. So many of them have heavily under minimum wage, almost free forced work, and now blood harvesting. Modern USA is so dystopian in a lot of places
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u-sGHMivwo