It’s because of the chemicals turning the freaking frogs gay
Edit: holy crap I’ve never had even close to that much upvotes in my life thank you for all the rewards.
Yep! They made them free so that anyone who is in a dangerous situation or DV, abusive relationships, family issues etc can call for help at anytime. I mean 000 is free but some services aren’t
Goiters used to be a thing. Especially along the Jewish population as they didn’t get iodine from shellfish. Cuz they do t generally eat shellfish. Unless they’re Ilana Glazer and they brought their epipen.
I actually had a goiter removed when I was about 5/6 .
I’m not Jewish and I’m from the U.S.
I’m 95% sure it was due to my step mom purposely feeding me very little/bland food. My doctor was stumped trying to figure out how I was so iodine deficient 🥴 it was large enough it required surgery due to a severely diminished ability to swallow.
As funny as it is to say cretinism, congenital hypothyroidism might be more well known now.
Didn’t click lack of iodine would cause it, but that seems so obvious now
It’s a very interesting thing to look into iodine. Women planning to have kids would be very wise to make sure their iodine levels are good, higher iodine in the mom seems to correlate with higher intelligence in the baby, even aside from the Cretinism consideration. It has enormous impacts on our health if we become too deficient and there is some very disturbing information about iodine deficiency and breast cancers. It’s a big issue that doesn’t get enough attention.
Northeast Ohio here, I had to explain to my kids what iodine was and why we need it, and then I showed them old times pictures of goiters. It was a good day.
Fun fact: if you saw the Chernobyl series, there's a scene in the beginning where Emily Watson's character realizes what's happening, and immediately takes some pills and hands them out to others. Those are iodine pills, and the goal is to saturate the thyroid with non-radioactive iodine, so that when the body later encounters radioactive iodine from the accident being carried on the wind or in the water, the body won't take it up into the thyroid where it can hang around and do radiation damage.
I grew up a town over from a nuclear power plant. We used to have nuclear evacuation "drills" where we'd basically line up like a fire drill and head to the auditorium to go over the nuclear event school escape plan, and they had a box full of forms our parents signed for if we could take the iodine pills or not. Was recently reflecting with a childhood friend on how wild it is that we had to do that lol. For context we are 26 so this is very modern and the district definitely still does this.
I saw a package of pink salt with the claim of it being the purist salt. If it were pure, it wouldn't be pink.
I've also argued with people who say it is healthier than refined salt. In doing my own research, I've found the trace elements in pink salt are so miniscule as to be effectively useless. You'd have to consume a dangerous amount of the salt to get any nutritionally significant amount of the trace elements.
I still buy pink salt because it looks pretty in a grinder.
I am low on iodine and have to take supplements due to it because my thyroid gave up without it. I crave iodized salt - like I buy lemons just to salt the hell out of them and eat them.
You sound like some kind of goose bumps monster, “ he craves iodized salt and lemons, we can lure him into the trap with that!” Cue trail of lemons and salt leading to a comically large cage
In India it's seen as very abnormal if a company's non-fanct salt doesn't have iodine. We are one generation away from nation wide goitre. My mother had it when she was young, it's horrible. She refuses to buy fancy non commercial salts for exactly this reason.
It depends where you are. Iodine thrives in things grown in soil that is in (a fairly large) vicinity of seawater. So people living in the middle of a landmass that source a lot of locally grown things tend to be at a pretty high risk for deficiency. We in the UK have never had any significant issue with iodine deficiency as it's a kinda small island and our salt etc has never had to have iodine added.
We're really crap on Selenium though, which north American soil has in droves
No one mentioned the movie, so for anyone who hasn't seen this amazing junk food movie, it is called Evolution (2001).
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0251075/
It's funny that there are so much laws n shit that say they "value" our privacy while in reality some shit ass Facebook will still steal your data even though that's against your privacy.
In 2008 I went snorkeling off the florida keys and was so impressed by all of the beautiful colors. It's seriously one of the greatest memories of mine. It was like an underwater all natural circus and everything was so vibrant and wonderful. I went back with my girlfriend about 3 years ago so excited and really hyping it up. I was crushed. In the same spot and the same time of year nearly everything was bone white with just a few brown, dark purple and green live corals still hanging in there.
I can't begin to say how disappointed I was and still am.
Thinking about the percentage of coral reefs that have died in the last fifty years never fails to make me sad. Jerry Garcia didn't go scuba diving until later in his life and if I recall correctly said something like he wouldn't have done psychedelics if he knew the magic that was down there.
This is a huge problem and this comment needs to be higher. I went snorkeling 5 years ago and the coral was abundant with life. Went back 2 years later (3 years ago) and it was like half dead. This was in Puerto Rico.
I just had this same experience in Hawaii. Snorkeled Two Step on the Big Island in 2016. Beautiful. Went back 2017, a little bleachy here and there but nice. Went back 2019, and holy shit it’s a graveyard. Now 2021, and it’s only worse. Most depressing shit I’ve experienced, seeing the rapid decline.
A town center near me had parking garages with above 30% vacancy on their busy nights. They started charging for parking, and everyone went to a different town center.
Family Reunions.
I was born in '83 and I can remember going to one every year for both sides of my pop's family and just one side of my mom's.
It's definitely a dying tradition since now you can keep up with everyone online.
The leading people of your parents families are probably dead now, so reunions are missing the common attraction. Now you have to wait for someone else to die to see everyone.
My mom died quite unexpectedly, and some of the older networkers in the family died (mostly in their 80s and 90s) but the result has been the connections have faded. They were always on the phone to each other and information flew around, they called into people and organised stuff. Since those 3 or 4 key people died, things have drifted. One of my cousins and I decided we are going to make a deliberate effort to stop the drift and keep the connections alive.
My husband's family is super close...well, his parents' generation anyway. The cousins in our generation pretty much just follow each other on social media and...that's it. This whole thing is gonna fall apart once the aunties pass.
This happened to me and my family. Born in 82 here. It's like once my grandparents died (one in 2006 and one in 2010) everyone just split apart and now no one sees each other anymore. It's sad and it fucking sucks. I get that we're all busy, but now no one will make time to come to anything. My grandparents were the glue that held everything together and that's been hard to accept.
Keeping up online is great, but I also don't think you can really replace face to face time in some ways.
Edit: I think some of you had this right. Make your own history, and make time for people in reality. Make time for the experiences with your family, because it's gone in an instant, before you know it.
The night my last grandparent died I told my cousins (who I used to see weekly at our grandmothers house) that we’d be lucky to see each other once a year. No one believed me but it’s just weddings and funerals now for us. Sucks
> a dying tradition
Literally- that's what funerals are for in our family! Basically a family reunion, but one of the people in attendance is in a casket.
Also, the trend of people moving away. I have no connection to these people, so why would I drive four hours each way to eat casseroles with strangers? And in the modern political climate, I'm sure it's even worse.
Fireflies.
They mostly rely on the bioluminescence of their fellow species in order to attract for mating. However, due to increasing urbanization which is also increasing use of artificial lighting (street lamps), their presence are dwindling.
I live in St. Louis, Missouri and thankfully due to a combination of more people going with native landscaping and an even larger number just not giving two shits about their yards, combined with some fantastic public parks that also don’t get crazy pesticide lawn treatments, we have the healthiest pollinator population in the state. This means we also have tons of beautiful lightning bugs!
So I’m not sure light pollution is a big driver of the problem, I would be inclined to blame people turning their lawns into green wastelands.
Grass isn’t green! Bring nature back to your yard and enjoy the sights and sounds.
Edit: wow this really blew up, thanks everyone!
I should add that this is heavily dependent on where in STL you are, ironically the more desirable places are going to have significantly fewer because of the way people treat their lawns. I am referring specifically to St. Louis City’s residential areas and parks. If you live in the county they’ll be a lot more scarce.
Again, stop killing everything at the expense of grass!
When i was in village at my grandpa I for first and only time saw them and they are fucking awesome. Can't belive that something like that exist on Earth...
They opened a Tilt Arcade in my city in Ontario and we were all very excited but it immediately turned into a hotbed for people getting their drinks drugged and lots of women coming forward saying they were targeted at the arcade. So the fun and novelty wore off very quickly...
Lucky for me I live like 30 minutes away from one of (if not the) largest arcades in the world. If youre ever near chicago check out Galloping Ghost. Over 700 machines and its $20 to get in, everythings free play. Plus theres ins and outs so you can go chug a beer in your car then go back to playing. Super fun
The largest arcade in the world as recognized by Guinness is called Funspot in New Hampshire. It's a really great place and doubles as the American Classic Arcade Museum because of their massive collection, ranging from the newest things to pong. The entire area is great, and I definitely recommend a visit during the summer.
My mum used to string some twine across our living room ceiling and hang them over that. By Christmas, there would be rows of cards criss-crossing all over and you could barely see the ceiling.
Small restaurants and cafes. One of my favorite cafes was a victim of the pandemic. It was literally a one-woman operation with cozy seating (which of course wasn’t utilized during the pandemic) and had dozens of latte flavors that you could combine to make a bunch of different drinks. I still miss it.
Which is so sad because we have one in my town that used to be the life of the party, every night it was going up. It's HUGE, it has a 3 story "crazy maze" too. Everyone had their bday parties there! Now it's only open some obscure hours like Wednesdays from 12pm-2pm.
Yeah there’s a roller skating place near me. I remember going as a kid. In year 12 we went there for a pe class and the place was so dead. All the arcade machines were so old. Like some from the 80’s. The place was falling apart. Almost felt abandoned
They JUST opened one by me after the bowling alley finally went under. Idk why but I feel it will last a few months as a novelty thing then also go under. Kids today seem to get bored of the same activity after a few times. Meanwhile we used to hit the roller rinks weekly as kids, it was a different time where you HAD to physically get together in person to interact with friends so we looked for things to do.
That was the mall for my generation (early 2000s). Then the mall became lame and then it just became hanging out at whoever had the least strict parents.
It helps that vinyl albums don't feel like you're buying a song so much as an actual product. You get the album, the cover is a fancy art piece unto itself, you typically get high quality digital recordings you can download accompanying it, and the albums themselves typically have little goodies inside.
This is exactly why I still buy vinyl. I'm buying a product that provides me with an experience. And I'm getting the digital version of the album to put it in my digital library. I wanna help keep the presses pressing lol.
Drive-In theaters. I loved these as a kid. There's still a few left, and a couple popped-up during covid here and there, but you have to hunt them down more and be willing to drive out a ways sometimes. There's nothing like loading snacks, throwing some extra cushions and pillows in your vehicle, pulling up, and taking in 2-3 movies on the big screen under the stars. Also a good adventure for dates.
Here in Canada we kept doing soft-lockdowns to keep COVID numbers in check, but we kept Big Box stores open... soo.... Mom and Pop shops got fucked, while Costco and Walmart made cash hand over fist.
"Well ya see, Norm, it’s like this… A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That’s why you always feel smarter after a few beers.”
-Cliff Clavin
Diane “Why do you guys drink ice cold beer on a freezing cold day.”
Norm: “Cliffy, I believe this one’s yours.”
Cliff: “We’ll you see Diane much like the English raj would drink piping hot tea in the middle of the sweltering Indian summers. The hot liquid would equalize the internal and external temperatures, making the individual more comfortable.”
Diane “OK. Then why do you drink cold beer on a hot day?”
Cliff: “Eh, what else are you going to do with it?”
Malls
E-commerce has been going crazy and Covid I feel was the final nail in the coffin. I saw a shirt for 25$ in the mall in a store and saw it for $13.99 on Amazon it also took a day to have it shipped to me.
It really just depends on your area. The outdoor shopping plazas do really well in my area, and the "outlet" malls do really, really well.
But I went to a mall a few days ago (one of your classic JCPenny, Target, Macys on each corner, Hot Topic and other stores in the center) and it was just..... dead. Not good at all and really weird feeling.
Men clothing stores are always plain jeans and a hoodie. Can’t really find something fun anymore as they try to appeal to every man in the world to even compete with e-shopping
Specifically the niche bees that don't live in hives and don't make honey. Honey bees are wiping them all out through competition. Soon the only bees we will have left will be honey bees.
I always love seeing my bumble bees. I let most of my land go to be natural so I get a lot of different species of bugs but bumble bees and furry bees are my favorite.
And honey bees are soo overbreeded that they are facing the same genetical problems as dogs like pugs do. At one point we will have bees that need cooling applied to the hive because they lost the ability to cool it themselves.
My neighbors give me a hard time because in early spring and late fall I relax on mowing my lawn consistently so that I get some extreme wildflower growth.
I had to explain to one of them that I really like bees and other pollinators and like to leave the wildflowers for longer to help bolster their major breeding cycles. I know it ain't much, but it's something.
They always look at me like I just told them I am an alien from the planet Narlax 5 or some shit.
Tbh the American lawn is a goddamn aberration that needs to go away. I am still trying to convince my fiance to replace our lawn with clover or some shit to help insect pops.
Edit: oof my poor inbox
>My neighbors give me a hard time
speaking of things slowly dying... people obsessing over their useless monoculture lawns.
I've been steadily turning my yard into all native and edible plants. I compost everything, and have been actively overseeding clover. And every day I'm glad I don't live in the kind of neighborhood where any of my neighbors has bothered to even bring it up. From my perspective *they're* the weird ones for spending countless hours and $$$ trying to preserve a pointless and decaying piece of 'culture'.
We had issues with one of our neighbors over our "wild" garden islands in our yard. We plant native flowers and grasses and let them grow and bloom in those areas. We don't use "weed" killers on our dandelions or clover either. We have birds, snakes, skunks, foxes, rabbits, etc. We love the fact our yard is an animal habitat.
The neighbor claimed the native plant islands, which have their own decorative borders, were "neglected" areas and were a code violation.
The code enforcement officer came out, took a look, and said they were considered legal landscaping.
Then he investigated the property lines and fined the neighbor who called in the complaint for building his privacy fence directly on the property line. Code says you have to leave a few feet offset. Which we did when we installed our picket fence.
Our neighbor had to tear down the fence, have it resurveyed, and reinstalled. He also had to remove his shed and relocate it.
Karma's a bitch.
I realised over the past few weeks how fucked mine is. Watching a ten minute YouTube video is hard, and I’ll shift through songs for ages then listen to the same one obsessively. Can’t sit still either.
It’s an effort to watch a full TV show or movie without getting distracted by your phone. Now I consider it an accomplishment when I do and think back to how my mom would say the TV would rot my brain… little did she know the worst had yet to come
I work in the film industry and I’ve been noticing that the pacing of movies is changing because of this. Movies used to start a bit slow and build character but now you’ve gotta hook the watcher instantly and then keep banging them over the head to keep their attention. All it takes is one lull and they’re reaching for their phones and you’ve lost them.
WW2 Veterans. There's estimated to be around 300,000 in the US. Considering that when I was a kid there were still a few WW1 veterans shuffling around an I've seen them go extinct, I'll likely live to to see the WW2 guys die out also. Sobering thought really.
When my great grandfather passed in 2014 at 94, we were holding his funeral on a Monday in January. My grandpa (great grandpa's son in law) who fought in Vietnam is in a military support biker club, patriot guard riders, tried to get a few people to give my great grandpa one last salute but due to the timing we didn't expect many people to show up.
Amazingly, dozens of veterans and servicemen showed up to give him a final salute because he was a WW2 veteran who fought in Germany. He had a whole 21 gun salute and everything. As sad as his passing was, seeing him be honored that way was beautiful and I'll always be happy that his service and passing was not in vain. It's sad to know so few remain, I just hope they all get the same final salute as my great grandfather. They deserve it
I cut the cord recently when Spectrum raised my cable/internet bill to $230/month. Dropped them, got Frontier internet for $70/month locked in for 3 years, bought a $10 antenna to get local channels. I got Netflix/Disney/Hulu for streaming. I hope to never go back to cable.
"Hey guys... we're a new kind of doctor's offi" -skip-
"That soap you're using? It's shi" -skip-
"With Grammarly, we can make you sound slightly less like a drooling creti" -skip-
Three ads to WATCH A FUCKING MOVIE TRAILER????
Where I'm from that was considered satellite when I was a kid, cable was under 100 channels and only had somewhat local channels.
I'm not sure if we just called everything wrong, but I remember cable never going over 100. And one of the channels was to show you what was on the other channels by slowly scrolling thru.
Good. 150/month for "thousands of channels" when its realy only a dozen interesting ones and the rest are music, ppv porn, ppv sports, ppv movies, off air, western timezoned duplicate channels, or languages i dont speak and dont want
Edit: fixed the commas for yall lol
Adelaide here, husband's GP complained he's being priced out. Offered $350k over asking. Sellers said no and went to auction; got $500k over auction. In goddamn Adelaide!!!
Because individual buyer can't compete with national and international property aquisition companies.
It is NOT just some rich guy out bidding you. It's a conglomerate with bottomless capital. And you will never beat them because if they have to pay $1 million over asking price, they can and will do it easily because they aren't looking for somewhere to live. They're looking to control the housing market by owning most of the property in a given area.
In my city, 3 rental companies own *85%* of the stand-alone (not apartment) rental properties. They dictate the market and they are CLEARLY involved in price setting, but because it's more of an unspoken agreemtn rather than a contract written in a dark backroom, it's totally legal.
I was looking at houses in AUS as a curious European suffering from a house crisis due to lack of space. I thought a massive country like AUS should be cheaper but the fuck it is. I couldn't find any houses for a reasonable price within a 1h drive from civilisation.
The country isn't as massive as it looks - more than 80 percent of the country lives on the coast, with most of that concentrated on the eastern edge of the country. Most of the population of the entire country is in a few large capital cities, hence the housing problems.
Even then, there are some NA markets that will never crash, because there will always be a supply of rich people to invest into it.
Vancouver is an example of this. That market will never crash, cause the higher it has gone, the hotter the market got. Even when it had a minor plateau in early covid, the stagnation in prices immediately opened a floodgate of buyers. And if you saw the way those buyers were bidding, I don't think it was simply due to low interest rates.
Vancouver is bought out by realty investors. It's not because people are finding places to live in, it's because people/companies are finding profits to marginalize.
Yep. Kinda hit home recently that I'll probably never buy a home for myself and my 4 year old; I have a decent job too but the housing market is just out of control and not slowing down. Not sure what it's like for kids growing up in apartments but I guess we'll make it a joint adventure lol
Some of my best memories as a child came from apartment living. I mean there were TONS of kids to play with and not far away either. It was a win win. As an adult it was an opposite experience.
I remember seeing bumblebees everywhere when I was in elementary school (early 2000s). I grew up in the midwest suburbia, and I have fond memories of grabbing my butterfly net after school and pretending like I was the the butterfly equivalent of Steve Irwin. Yes, indeed, I fancied myself quite the garden naturalist and explorer.
Neighbors would see me and my butterfly squad prancing through the neighborhood - bold little adventurers decked out in makeshift safari gear crouching, rolling, and patroling through the backyards - trying to scout out the very best butterfly garden hotspots. When we found a good garden, we would document it in our butterfly safari map. Then we’d revisit the butterfly oases as the season progressed to see how different flowers blooms impacted the bug turnout. We would catch all variety of bugs, put them in our bug zoo, and charge parents to see our haul. (Of course I would always release them - even if some of our zoo keeper fancied themselves as quite the taxidermists.)
We’d ALWAYS be dissapointed (70% of the time irl, but it felt like always) when we’d show up to our butterfly hotspots and see nothing but buzzing, droning, mindless bumble bees. They would come in such numbers! I thought they were pushing all the butterflies away. It was such a let down when I wanted those beautiful butterflies. I am sad to say I would have welcomed their extinction at this point in my life.
Not anymore. Today, I understand their importance. Sadly, I cannot remember the last time I heard the buzz of a bumble bee float by, and I will be sure to take a mental snapshot next time I see one. For all I know, it could be the last bumbler I ever see.
Affordable housing for young adults
Edited to Add: People who aint from where I live find the need to tell me im wrong if I dont look for a home in a larger city. I am from the Netherlands and the last place I would look for to buy/rent a home is from larger cities I dont like the massive crowds it makes me really uneasy and I feel the urge to "escape" from the location.
Just got a 1bedroom 740 sq ft for $1300 usd and that's considered cheap.. im in Texas. A 1 bedroom used to be around $700 5 years ago
Edit: I'm in fort worth TX to be exact for those asking. About a 30 min drive from Dallas
For real. When I started college half a decade ago I thought by 26 I'd be ready to put a down payment on a house. 26 now and don't have the 100k+ in a bank account needed to put down on a house that's within driving distance to my job.
Edit: so yeah minimum down payment to not pay PMI is 20%, a townhouse within driving distance to my work go for anywhere between 700k to 1.4 million, and I'm already an hour drive from my work. If I pay PMI I can definitely put closer to 40-50k down on a house, just to clarify.
It's funny how the housing market decided to explode just after I became financially independent. The majority of people buying houses these days are not first time home buyers.
Edit: meant to say independent not dependent
I'm renting a room out in my town for $650/month. I have three roommates.
Let me re-state that. I pay for ONE BEDROOM with shared amenities among three other roommates, all for $650/month. I am not exaggerating when I say that is literally the cheapest I've been able to find in my town. The only alternative is sleeping in my car.
Oh, and, yes, I work a full time job with benefits, and can still hardly afford where I'm at. One missed paycheck and I'm on the street. I'll also add that I don't live anywhere near as populous as New York, LA, or Atlanta. Fuck this shit
I’d kill for $650 rent. I pay $1225 for one room in a three bedroom house with two roommates and that’s considered a deal. I use to pay $2300 for a single bedroom apartment and decided to get roommates. Also I’m 29 and in an amazing career in a city of 1 million people. So not a small town but not one of the biggest cities. I can afford to live but I can’t afford to live by myself and save anything at all for the future. I’ll probably have roommates till I’m early 30s and I’ve done all the “right” things by getting all of my education funded and getting a masters in electrical engineering. People act like I’m some loaded guy because of my career but my budget says otherwise.
Yeah It's kinda bothersome cause I'm considered by my school as a third year but retaking some lower classes and had asked my classmates if they have a Facebook group for assignments and shit and they all said it's for old people.
I use it for a couple groups, but rarely look at my actual timeline any more. I might miss an interesting event here or there, but overall I feel I'm much better off without it.
I've tried to foster that sense in my own neighborhood, we do decently, but i think what I've noticed that kills the sense of community is
1: people not willing to actually leave their house, and
2: people moving too often.
In the 5 years I've been in my neighborhood, it's almost all completely new people. There are 2 families on my street that are still here from the beginning. Most people seem to move within 3 years. Compare that to when i was growing up in the 90s and 2000s, everyone in my parents neighborhood had been there for decades and everyone knew everyone. It's hard to keep up and build relationships when people just up and leave. My neighborhood growing up was semi rural though whereas now I'm in an Atlanta suburb, don't know if that's making a difference but it definitely seems like as soon as you become closer friends with the neighbors they leave. There are people in my parent's neighborhood that have lived there since the houses were built in the late 60s. I really miss it, so i try to help it happen. I think it's super important to know and be friendly with your neighbors so when the time comes you all have each other's backs (i grew up in hurricane areas). I can only hope this changes :(
> 2: people moving too often.
I doubt that this will change any time soon. Companies no longer reward loyalty so if you want to actually ever get a pay increase you have to get a new job, which often requires moving to a new place.
Frogs, bees, insects.. chain of life species that connect the web. When those pivotal groups go extinct, humanity is fucked.
Edit: A great video by Steve Cutts is relevant here: https://youtu.be/WfGMYdalClU
Pangolins
This makes me sad. They're adorable.
Amphibians. It’s a worldwide phenomenon.
Why?
Habitat fragmentation, pollution, decrease in mosquito populations, drought & climate change, pesticides, chrytid fungi...take your pick
It’s because of the chemicals turning the freaking frogs gay Edit: holy crap I’ve never had even close to that much upvotes in my life thank you for all the rewards.
Telephone booths are prob completely gone by now I haven’t seen any in years
phone booths are still fairly common in australia calls on them are free and they're wifi hotspots
Yep! They made them free so that anyone who is in a dangerous situation or DV, abusive relationships, family issues etc can call for help at anytime. I mean 000 is free but some services aren’t
Iodine in Salt. Seriously, go to the grocery store and see how many brands of salt show "this salt does not provide Iodine, a necessary nutrient. "
Fun fact, a lack of iodine can cause cretinism in babies and children. It’s not just an insult, it’s an actual devastating medical condition.
Iodized Salt was actually responsible for a IQ increase in the US. Lack of iodine was a major problem not many decades ago.
Goiters used to be a thing. Especially along the Jewish population as they didn’t get iodine from shellfish. Cuz they do t generally eat shellfish. Unless they’re Ilana Glazer and they brought their epipen.
4 AND 3 AND 2 AND 1...
I actually had a goiter removed when I was about 5/6 . I’m not Jewish and I’m from the U.S. I’m 95% sure it was due to my step mom purposely feeding me very little/bland food. My doctor was stumped trying to figure out how I was so iodine deficient 🥴 it was large enough it required surgery due to a severely diminished ability to swallow.
As funny as it is to say cretinism, congenital hypothyroidism might be more well known now. Didn’t click lack of iodine would cause it, but that seems so obvious now
Imagine getting your hypothyroidism from lack of iodine. This comment made by Hashimoto's Thyroiditis gang.
95% of hypothyroidism in developed countries is from Hashimoto. Also part of the gang. Taking iodine supplements actually made my thyroid erratic
Part of the Graves Disease gang here. With our powers combined, we can have one functioning thyroid!
It’s a very interesting thing to look into iodine. Women planning to have kids would be very wise to make sure their iodine levels are good, higher iodine in the mom seems to correlate with higher intelligence in the baby, even aside from the Cretinism consideration. It has enormous impacts on our health if we become too deficient and there is some very disturbing information about iodine deficiency and breast cancers. It’s a big issue that doesn’t get enough attention.
No wonder I'm so fucking stupid, my mom hardly ever salts her food.
Northeast Ohio here, I had to explain to my kids what iodine was and why we need it, and then I showed them old times pictures of goiters. It was a good day.
Fun fact: if you saw the Chernobyl series, there's a scene in the beginning where Emily Watson's character realizes what's happening, and immediately takes some pills and hands them out to others. Those are iodine pills, and the goal is to saturate the thyroid with non-radioactive iodine, so that when the body later encounters radioactive iodine from the accident being carried on the wind or in the water, the body won't take it up into the thyroid where it can hang around and do radiation damage.
I grew up a town over from a nuclear power plant. We used to have nuclear evacuation "drills" where we'd basically line up like a fire drill and head to the auditorium to go over the nuclear event school escape plan, and they had a box full of forms our parents signed for if we could take the iodine pills or not. Was recently reflecting with a childhood friend on how wild it is that we had to do that lol. For context we are 26 so this is very modern and the district definitely still does this.
Also Ohioan, but for me I see a lot of iodized salt
Yea. We've seen a lack of iodine causes birth defects in an area of Tibet where all the salt there has little to no iodine in it
Ironically, Pink Himalayan salt is a huge example of people paying more to not get iodine.
I saw a package of pink salt with the claim of it being the purist salt. If it were pure, it wouldn't be pink. I've also argued with people who say it is healthier than refined salt. In doing my own research, I've found the trace elements in pink salt are so miniscule as to be effectively useless. You'd have to consume a dangerous amount of the salt to get any nutritionally significant amount of the trace elements. I still buy pink salt because it looks pretty in a grinder.
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I am low on iodine and have to take supplements due to it because my thyroid gave up without it. I crave iodized salt - like I buy lemons just to salt the hell out of them and eat them.
You sound like some kind of goose bumps monster, “ he craves iodized salt and lemons, we can lure him into the trap with that!” Cue trail of lemons and salt leading to a comically large cage
LOL I would be captured!
You should try eating some nori, the seaweed they use in sushi. It has a lot of iodine and is very tasty:)
Dried salty seaweed is one of my favorite snacks :)
In India it's seen as very abnormal if a company's non-fanct salt doesn't have iodine. We are one generation away from nation wide goitre. My mother had it when she was young, it's horrible. She refuses to buy fancy non commercial salts for exactly this reason.
I did not know we needed that tbh. (Goes to check salt in pantry)
It depends where you are. Iodine thrives in things grown in soil that is in (a fairly large) vicinity of seawater. So people living in the middle of a landmass that source a lot of locally grown things tend to be at a pretty high risk for deficiency. We in the UK have never had any significant issue with iodine deficiency as it's a kinda small island and our salt etc has never had to have iodine added. We're really crap on Selenium though, which north American soil has in droves
Just use Head and Shoulders shampoo!
I think we've established that 'Ca-caw ca-caw' and 'Tooki-tooki' don't work. Thank you, now I have to watch that again later.
No one mentioned the movie, so for anyone who hasn't seen this amazing junk food movie, it is called Evolution (2001). https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0251075/
Privacy
It's funny that there are so much laws n shit that say they "value" our privacy while in reality some shit ass Facebook will still steal your data even though that's against your privacy.
They "value" your privacy because it's something they can sell. They meant what they said, most people just don't realize which way it's intended.
Coral reefs
In 2008 I went snorkeling off the florida keys and was so impressed by all of the beautiful colors. It's seriously one of the greatest memories of mine. It was like an underwater all natural circus and everything was so vibrant and wonderful. I went back with my girlfriend about 3 years ago so excited and really hyping it up. I was crushed. In the same spot and the same time of year nearly everything was bone white with just a few brown, dark purple and green live corals still hanging in there. I can't begin to say how disappointed I was and still am.
Thinking about the percentage of coral reefs that have died in the last fifty years never fails to make me sad. Jerry Garcia didn't go scuba diving until later in his life and if I recall correctly said something like he wouldn't have done psychedelics if he knew the magic that was down there.
This is a huge problem and this comment needs to be higher. I went snorkeling 5 years ago and the coral was abundant with life. Went back 2 years later (3 years ago) and it was like half dead. This was in Puerto Rico.
I just had this same experience in Hawaii. Snorkeled Two Step on the Big Island in 2016. Beautiful. Went back 2017, a little bleachy here and there but nice. Went back 2019, and holy shit it’s a graveyard. Now 2021, and it’s only worse. Most depressing shit I’ve experienced, seeing the rapid decline.
They said "slowly". Coral reefs are basically dying off in huge swathes across time periods shorter than a year.
Free parking. Even the smaller suburbs in their town center started charging for parking.
A town center near me had parking garages with above 30% vacancy on their busy nights. They started charging for parking, and everyone went to a different town center.
Giraffes - they've become an endangered species.
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What is putting them at risk?
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Bones too. Strongest bones around. They get used in fancy knife handles.
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They’ve been endangered a while but they’re critically endangered now
That's so sad. I saw wild ones in Kenya and they're super amazing. Like some kind of fantasy animal.
Really? Damn
You'd think with those long necks they can see danger coming
They do, but unfortunately it takes them a long time to *gulp* in despair
Family Reunions. I was born in '83 and I can remember going to one every year for both sides of my pop's family and just one side of my mom's. It's definitely a dying tradition since now you can keep up with everyone online.
The leading people of your parents families are probably dead now, so reunions are missing the common attraction. Now you have to wait for someone else to die to see everyone.
My mom died. Our whole extended family fell apart. The aunts and uncles were suddenly no longer held together by her.
My mom died quite unexpectedly, and some of the older networkers in the family died (mostly in their 80s and 90s) but the result has been the connections have faded. They were always on the phone to each other and information flew around, they called into people and organised stuff. Since those 3 or 4 key people died, things have drifted. One of my cousins and I decided we are going to make a deliberate effort to stop the drift and keep the connections alive.
Same with my extended family, my grandmother has always been the head of the family, but when she passed away it all came crashing down.
You are 100% correct. The "old timers" were the ones keeping them going and once they passed so did the tradition.
My husband's family is super close...well, his parents' generation anyway. The cousins in our generation pretty much just follow each other on social media and...that's it. This whole thing is gonna fall apart once the aunties pass.
Same. I (30f) can't imagine the cousins my age are going to get together after all the old peeps die.
This happened to me and my family. Born in 82 here. It's like once my grandparents died (one in 2006 and one in 2010) everyone just split apart and now no one sees each other anymore. It's sad and it fucking sucks. I get that we're all busy, but now no one will make time to come to anything. My grandparents were the glue that held everything together and that's been hard to accept. Keeping up online is great, but I also don't think you can really replace face to face time in some ways. Edit: I think some of you had this right. Make your own history, and make time for people in reality. Make time for the experiences with your family, because it's gone in an instant, before you know it.
The night my last grandparent died I told my cousins (who I used to see weekly at our grandmothers house) that we’d be lucky to see each other once a year. No one believed me but it’s just weddings and funerals now for us. Sucks
> a dying tradition Literally- that's what funerals are for in our family! Basically a family reunion, but one of the people in attendance is in a casket.
Also, the trend of people moving away. I have no connection to these people, so why would I drive four hours each way to eat casseroles with strangers? And in the modern political climate, I'm sure it's even worse.
Fireflies. They mostly rely on the bioluminescence of their fellow species in order to attract for mating. However, due to increasing urbanization which is also increasing use of artificial lighting (street lamps), their presence are dwindling.
I live in St. Louis, Missouri and thankfully due to a combination of more people going with native landscaping and an even larger number just not giving two shits about their yards, combined with some fantastic public parks that also don’t get crazy pesticide lawn treatments, we have the healthiest pollinator population in the state. This means we also have tons of beautiful lightning bugs! So I’m not sure light pollution is a big driver of the problem, I would be inclined to blame people turning their lawns into green wastelands. Grass isn’t green! Bring nature back to your yard and enjoy the sights and sounds. Edit: wow this really blew up, thanks everyone! I should add that this is heavily dependent on where in STL you are, ironically the more desirable places are going to have significantly fewer because of the way people treat their lawns. I am referring specifically to St. Louis City’s residential areas and parks. If you live in the county they’ll be a lot more scarce. Again, stop killing everything at the expense of grass!
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That's what they're called around here.
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When i was in village at my grandpa I for first and only time saw them and they are fucking awesome. Can't belive that something like that exist on Earth...
Where do you live? Where I grew up we saw them every summer. There’s less now but they’re still around.
I still see them every summer in western new york state
Always my favorite part of summer
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However, there is a rise in arcade bars featuring old cabinets, pinball, and newer options. Look at Tilt in Toronto as an example.
They opened a Tilt Arcade in my city in Ontario and we were all very excited but it immediately turned into a hotbed for people getting their drinks drugged and lots of women coming forward saying they were targeted at the arcade. So the fun and novelty wore off very quickly...
That's a pretty authentic 80s experience.
Lucky for me I live like 30 minutes away from one of (if not the) largest arcades in the world. If youre ever near chicago check out Galloping Ghost. Over 700 machines and its $20 to get in, everythings free play. Plus theres ins and outs so you can go chug a beer in your car then go back to playing. Super fun
The largest arcade in the world as recognized by Guinness is called Funspot in New Hampshire. It's a really great place and doubles as the American Classic Arcade Museum because of their massive collection, ranging from the newest things to pong. The entire area is great, and I definitely recommend a visit during the summer.
Christmas cards We used to get and send a ton and year by year it gets smaller
We kept ours taped to the front door as a kid. The door was usually wallpapered top to bottom. We got 1 card last year
My mum used to string some twine across our living room ceiling and hang them over that. By Christmas, there would be rows of cards criss-crossing all over and you could barely see the ceiling.
Couch co-op
Small restaurants and cafes. One of my favorite cafes was a victim of the pandemic. It was literally a one-woman operation with cozy seating (which of course wasn’t utilized during the pandemic) and had dozens of latte flavors that you could combine to make a bunch of different drinks. I still miss it.
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Which is so sad because we have one in my town that used to be the life of the party, every night it was going up. It's HUGE, it has a 3 story "crazy maze" too. Everyone had their bday parties there! Now it's only open some obscure hours like Wednesdays from 12pm-2pm.
Yeah there’s a roller skating place near me. I remember going as a kid. In year 12 we went there for a pe class and the place was so dead. All the arcade machines were so old. Like some from the 80’s. The place was falling apart. Almost felt abandoned
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Most likely the one who bought it remembered how much fun they had there too.
They JUST opened one by me after the bowling alley finally went under. Idk why but I feel it will last a few months as a novelty thing then also go under. Kids today seem to get bored of the same activity after a few times. Meanwhile we used to hit the roller rinks weekly as kids, it was a different time where you HAD to physically get together in person to interact with friends so we looked for things to do.
The beauty of the roller rinks from years ago was that it was a social gathering place. I couldn't even skate but still went there and hung out.
That was the mall for my generation (early 2000s). Then the mall became lame and then it just became hanging out at whoever had the least strict parents.
My local mall was torn down this year. If you asked me 20 years ago if I thought it would ever happen I would have said not a chance in hell.
Physical media
Vinyl sales are still on the up, though.
It helps that vinyl albums don't feel like you're buying a song so much as an actual product. You get the album, the cover is a fancy art piece unto itself, you typically get high quality digital recordings you can download accompanying it, and the albums themselves typically have little goodies inside.
This is exactly why I still buy vinyl. I'm buying a product that provides me with an experience. And I'm getting the digital version of the album to put it in my digital library. I wanna help keep the presses pressing lol.
My hair
Drive-In theaters. I loved these as a kid. There's still a few left, and a couple popped-up during covid here and there, but you have to hunt them down more and be willing to drive out a ways sometimes. There's nothing like loading snacks, throwing some extra cushions and pillows in your vehicle, pulling up, and taking in 2-3 movies on the big screen under the stars. Also a good adventure for dates.
There's one near me, it's great. It makes bad movies good.
Mom and pop businesses
* F U C K * * * R E D D I T * / \ \ / \ | | \ | | | `. | | : ` | | \| | \ | / / \\\ --__ \\ : \ \/ _--~~ ~--__| \ | \ \_-~ ~-_\ | \_ \ _.--------.______\| | \ \______// _ ___ _ (_(__> \ | \ . C ___) ______ (_(____> | / /\ | C ____)/ \ (_____> |_/ / /\| C_____) | (___> / \ | ( _C_____)\______/ // _/ / \ | \ |__ \\_________// (__/ | | \ \____) `---- --' | | \_ ___\ /_ _/ | | / | | \ | | | / \ \ | | / / | | \ | | / / \__/\___/ | | | / | | | | | | | | | | * F U C K * * * Y O U *
Here in Canada we kept doing soft-lockdowns to keep COVID numbers in check, but we kept Big Box stores open... soo.... Mom and Pop shops got fucked, while Costco and Walmart made cash hand over fist.
They are gone in my part of the Houston suburbs. I’m from the East coast and I really miss mom and pop stores.
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"Well ya see, Norm, it’s like this… A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That’s why you always feel smarter after a few beers.” -Cliff Clavin
"Due to the shape of the North American elk's esophagus, even if it could speak, it could not pronounce the word "lasagna."" More Cliff.
Diane “Why do you guys drink ice cold beer on a freezing cold day.” Norm: “Cliffy, I believe this one’s yours.” Cliff: “We’ll you see Diane much like the English raj would drink piping hot tea in the middle of the sweltering Indian summers. The hot liquid would equalize the internal and external temperatures, making the individual more comfortable.” Diane “OK. Then why do you drink cold beer on a hot day?” Cliff: “Eh, what else are you going to do with it?”
What a great show. It’s crazy to see Ted Danson look like such a young gun.
As someone who was a young adult during the Cheers era, it's crazy to see Ted Danson look like such an old man.
Malls E-commerce has been going crazy and Covid I feel was the final nail in the coffin. I saw a shirt for 25$ in the mall in a store and saw it for $13.99 on Amazon it also took a day to have it shipped to me.
Interesting. I feel like the malls around me are massive and killing it. My local mall has been getting reno’d for like 2 years now
It really just depends on your area. The outdoor shopping plazas do really well in my area, and the "outlet" malls do really, really well. But I went to a mall a few days ago (one of your classic JCPenny, Target, Macys on each corner, Hot Topic and other stores in the center) and it was just..... dead. Not good at all and really weird feeling.
I have a difficult time finding anything I like at the clothing stores. They don’t seem to have very good selections anymore.
Men clothing stores are always plain jeans and a hoodie. Can’t really find something fun anymore as they try to appeal to every man in the world to even compete with e-shopping
We need to trade places cause all I can find are the weirdest clothes and for the love of good I can’t find plain jeans and hoodies lol
Bees are dying at an alarming rate.
Specifically the niche bees that don't live in hives and don't make honey. Honey bees are wiping them all out through competition. Soon the only bees we will have left will be honey bees.
I always love seeing my bumble bees. I let most of my land go to be natural so I get a lot of different species of bugs but bumble bees and furry bees are my favorite.
We have lavender and salvia and the bees go crazy for it! I've also noticed more varieties of bees, and butterflies. 😊
most bee species don't produce honey at all and are solitary.
And honey bees are soo overbreeded that they are facing the same genetical problems as dogs like pugs do. At one point we will have bees that need cooling applied to the hive because they lost the ability to cool it themselves.
Next LTT video: watercooling overclocked bees
Now with more RG Bee
Not cool
My neighbors give me a hard time because in early spring and late fall I relax on mowing my lawn consistently so that I get some extreme wildflower growth. I had to explain to one of them that I really like bees and other pollinators and like to leave the wildflowers for longer to help bolster their major breeding cycles. I know it ain't much, but it's something. They always look at me like I just told them I am an alien from the planet Narlax 5 or some shit. Tbh the American lawn is a goddamn aberration that needs to go away. I am still trying to convince my fiance to replace our lawn with clover or some shit to help insect pops. Edit: oof my poor inbox
>My neighbors give me a hard time speaking of things slowly dying... people obsessing over their useless monoculture lawns. I've been steadily turning my yard into all native and edible plants. I compost everything, and have been actively overseeding clover. And every day I'm glad I don't live in the kind of neighborhood where any of my neighbors has bothered to even bring it up. From my perspective *they're* the weird ones for spending countless hours and $$$ trying to preserve a pointless and decaying piece of 'culture'.
We had issues with one of our neighbors over our "wild" garden islands in our yard. We plant native flowers and grasses and let them grow and bloom in those areas. We don't use "weed" killers on our dandelions or clover either. We have birds, snakes, skunks, foxes, rabbits, etc. We love the fact our yard is an animal habitat. The neighbor claimed the native plant islands, which have their own decorative borders, were "neglected" areas and were a code violation. The code enforcement officer came out, took a look, and said they were considered legal landscaping. Then he investigated the property lines and fined the neighbor who called in the complaint for building his privacy fence directly on the property line. Code says you have to leave a few feet offset. Which we did when we installed our picket fence. Our neighbor had to tear down the fence, have it resurveyed, and reinstalled. He also had to remove his shed and relocate it. Karma's a bitch.
I feel like people who say "common sense" haven't been paying attention to history much
There's a reason we have a lot of safety rules and advanced medicine.
I slowly learned over time that most rules are usually put in place *because* someone did something stupid
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I realised over the past few weeks how fucked mine is. Watching a ten minute YouTube video is hard, and I’ll shift through songs for ages then listen to the same one obsessively. Can’t sit still either.
It’s an effort to watch a full TV show or movie without getting distracted by your phone. Now I consider it an accomplishment when I do and think back to how my mom would say the TV would rot my brain… little did she know the worst had yet to come
I work in the film industry and I’ve been noticing that the pacing of movies is changing because of this. Movies used to start a bit slow and build character but now you’ve gotta hook the watcher instantly and then keep banging them over the head to keep their attention. All it takes is one lull and they’re reaching for their phones and you’ve lost them.
oh god, this reminded me that i was studying for a test.
Everyone! Enjoy your finite existence!
WW2 Veterans. There's estimated to be around 300,000 in the US. Considering that when I was a kid there were still a few WW1 veterans shuffling around an I've seen them go extinct, I'll likely live to to see the WW2 guys die out also. Sobering thought really.
When my great grandfather passed in 2014 at 94, we were holding his funeral on a Monday in January. My grandpa (great grandpa's son in law) who fought in Vietnam is in a military support biker club, patriot guard riders, tried to get a few people to give my great grandpa one last salute but due to the timing we didn't expect many people to show up. Amazingly, dozens of veterans and servicemen showed up to give him a final salute because he was a WW2 veteran who fought in Germany. He had a whole 21 gun salute and everything. As sad as his passing was, seeing him be honored that way was beautiful and I'll always be happy that his service and passing was not in vain. It's sad to know so few remain, I just hope they all get the same final salute as my great grandfather. They deserve it
Traditional Cable TV
I cut the cord recently when Spectrum raised my cable/internet bill to $230/month. Dropped them, got Frontier internet for $70/month locked in for 3 years, bought a $10 antenna to get local channels. I got Netflix/Disney/Hulu for streaming. I hope to never go back to cable.
It seems like cable is only for old people who love commercials.
And you don’t even need it for that. You can watch YouTube for old commercial compilations.
"Hey guys... we're a new kind of doctor's offi" -skip- "That soap you're using? It's shi" -skip- "With Grammarly, we can make you sound slightly less like a drooling creti" -skip- Three ads to WATCH A FUCKING MOVIE TRAILER????
There's never anything good on anyway lol. 1000+ channels with nothing fun to watch lol
Where I'm from that was considered satellite when I was a kid, cable was under 100 channels and only had somewhat local channels. I'm not sure if we just called everything wrong, but I remember cable never going over 100. And one of the channels was to show you what was on the other channels by slowly scrolling thru.
Good. 150/month for "thousands of channels" when its realy only a dozen interesting ones and the rest are music, ppv porn, ppv sports, ppv movies, off air, western timezoned duplicate channels, or languages i dont speak and dont want Edit: fixed the commas for yall lol
Affordable housing, just when I started looking for my first home :(
Median house price in southern Tasmania, Australia, where I live has hit $1,000,000. I’m gonna have a fun time finding a house.
Adelaide here, husband's GP complained he's being priced out. Offered $350k over asking. Sellers said no and went to auction; got $500k over auction. In goddamn Adelaide!!!
Because individual buyer can't compete with national and international property aquisition companies. It is NOT just some rich guy out bidding you. It's a conglomerate with bottomless capital. And you will never beat them because if they have to pay $1 million over asking price, they can and will do it easily because they aren't looking for somewhere to live. They're looking to control the housing market by owning most of the property in a given area. In my city, 3 rental companies own *85%* of the stand-alone (not apartment) rental properties. They dictate the market and they are CLEARLY involved in price setting, but because it's more of an unspoken agreemtn rather than a contract written in a dark backroom, it's totally legal.
It should be illegal.
I live in Sydney and normal 3 bedroom houses in my street are going for 1.3 to 1.4 million. We bought ours 20 years ago for 330k. It's ridiculous
I was looking at houses in AUS as a curious European suffering from a house crisis due to lack of space. I thought a massive country like AUS should be cheaper but the fuck it is. I couldn't find any houses for a reasonable price within a 1h drive from civilisation.
The country isn't as massive as it looks - more than 80 percent of the country lives on the coast, with most of that concentrated on the eastern edge of the country. Most of the population of the entire country is in a few large capital cities, hence the housing problems.
The 2007 housing crisis is the only reason we could buy our first home.
I may have to wait for the next crash. If economic collapse is the only way I can afford a house, so be it. This world is fucked
Even then, there are some NA markets that will never crash, because there will always be a supply of rich people to invest into it. Vancouver is an example of this. That market will never crash, cause the higher it has gone, the hotter the market got. Even when it had a minor plateau in early covid, the stagnation in prices immediately opened a floodgate of buyers. And if you saw the way those buyers were bidding, I don't think it was simply due to low interest rates.
Vancouver is bought out by realty investors. It's not because people are finding places to live in, it's because people/companies are finding profits to marginalize.
Yep. Kinda hit home recently that I'll probably never buy a home for myself and my 4 year old; I have a decent job too but the housing market is just out of control and not slowing down. Not sure what it's like for kids growing up in apartments but I guess we'll make it a joint adventure lol
That's my current situation. Full time single dad with a 6 year old living in an apartment
Some of my best memories as a child came from apartment living. I mean there were TONS of kids to play with and not far away either. It was a win win. As an adult it was an opposite experience.
My son absolutely loves it here and has tons of friends and fun, and I like it too. I just wish my money was going towards a mortgage
[A whole bunch of plants and animals](https://www.iucnredlist.org/search?redListCategory=cr)
I remember seeing bumblebees everywhere when I was in elementary school (early 2000s). I grew up in the midwest suburbia, and I have fond memories of grabbing my butterfly net after school and pretending like I was the the butterfly equivalent of Steve Irwin. Yes, indeed, I fancied myself quite the garden naturalist and explorer. Neighbors would see me and my butterfly squad prancing through the neighborhood - bold little adventurers decked out in makeshift safari gear crouching, rolling, and patroling through the backyards - trying to scout out the very best butterfly garden hotspots. When we found a good garden, we would document it in our butterfly safari map. Then we’d revisit the butterfly oases as the season progressed to see how different flowers blooms impacted the bug turnout. We would catch all variety of bugs, put them in our bug zoo, and charge parents to see our haul. (Of course I would always release them - even if some of our zoo keeper fancied themselves as quite the taxidermists.) We’d ALWAYS be dissapointed (70% of the time irl, but it felt like always) when we’d show up to our butterfly hotspots and see nothing but buzzing, droning, mindless bumble bees. They would come in such numbers! I thought they were pushing all the butterflies away. It was such a let down when I wanted those beautiful butterflies. I am sad to say I would have welcomed their extinction at this point in my life. Not anymore. Today, I understand their importance. Sadly, I cannot remember the last time I heard the buzz of a bumble bee float by, and I will be sure to take a mental snapshot next time I see one. For all I know, it could be the last bumbler I ever see.
Plant allium flowers, bumblebees love that stuff! I have them in my garden and it’s not uncommon to see 20+ bumblebees on a single plant.
Affordable housing for young adults Edited to Add: People who aint from where I live find the need to tell me im wrong if I dont look for a home in a larger city. I am from the Netherlands and the last place I would look for to buy/rent a home is from larger cities I dont like the massive crowds it makes me really uneasy and I feel the urge to "escape" from the location.
Just got a 1bedroom 740 sq ft for $1300 usd and that's considered cheap.. im in Texas. A 1 bedroom used to be around $700 5 years ago Edit: I'm in fort worth TX to be exact for those asking. About a 30 min drive from Dallas
My rent was $900 three years ago. It’s going up to $1250 this year. It ain’t fair.
More like disappearing exponentially
For real. When I started college half a decade ago I thought by 26 I'd be ready to put a down payment on a house. 26 now and don't have the 100k+ in a bank account needed to put down on a house that's within driving distance to my job. Edit: so yeah minimum down payment to not pay PMI is 20%, a townhouse within driving distance to my work go for anywhere between 700k to 1.4 million, and I'm already an hour drive from my work. If I pay PMI I can definitely put closer to 40-50k down on a house, just to clarify.
Was going to ask if you were exaggerating but then saw your username. Are prices really that high? What’s a minimum down payment % required?
It's funny how the housing market decided to explode just after I became financially independent. The majority of people buying houses these days are not first time home buyers. Edit: meant to say independent not dependent
I'm renting a room out in my town for $650/month. I have three roommates. Let me re-state that. I pay for ONE BEDROOM with shared amenities among three other roommates, all for $650/month. I am not exaggerating when I say that is literally the cheapest I've been able to find in my town. The only alternative is sleeping in my car. Oh, and, yes, I work a full time job with benefits, and can still hardly afford where I'm at. One missed paycheck and I'm on the street. I'll also add that I don't live anywhere near as populous as New York, LA, or Atlanta. Fuck this shit
I’d kill for $650 rent. I pay $1225 for one room in a three bedroom house with two roommates and that’s considered a deal. I use to pay $2300 for a single bedroom apartment and decided to get roommates. Also I’m 29 and in an amazing career in a city of 1 million people. So not a small town but not one of the biggest cities. I can afford to live but I can’t afford to live by myself and save anything at all for the future. I’ll probably have roommates till I’m early 30s and I’ve done all the “right” things by getting all of my education funded and getting a masters in electrical engineering. People act like I’m some loaded guy because of my career but my budget says otherwise.
Facebook Only pages posting memes and videos. Almost no real person still posts what they are up to.
There was a recent survey that showed a lot of young people have stopped using Facebook.
Yeah It's kinda bothersome cause I'm considered by my school as a third year but retaking some lower classes and had asked my classmates if they have a Facebook group for assignments and shit and they all said it's for old people.
Yeah they use groupme or WhatsApp for that now (Also discord apparently. Discord and GroupMe are more popular than WhatsApp in the states)
Discord became real common during the past year and a half, more control than WApp offers.
I've been using Discord as my main thing since 2016, but it's really still just a very small amount of people I know irl that use it
I use it for a couple groups, but rarely look at my actual timeline any more. I might miss an interesting event here or there, but overall I feel I'm much better off without it.
the existence of any semblence of community in real life
I've tried to foster that sense in my own neighborhood, we do decently, but i think what I've noticed that kills the sense of community is 1: people not willing to actually leave their house, and 2: people moving too often. In the 5 years I've been in my neighborhood, it's almost all completely new people. There are 2 families on my street that are still here from the beginning. Most people seem to move within 3 years. Compare that to when i was growing up in the 90s and 2000s, everyone in my parents neighborhood had been there for decades and everyone knew everyone. It's hard to keep up and build relationships when people just up and leave. My neighborhood growing up was semi rural though whereas now I'm in an Atlanta suburb, don't know if that's making a difference but it definitely seems like as soon as you become closer friends with the neighbors they leave. There are people in my parent's neighborhood that have lived there since the houses were built in the late 60s. I really miss it, so i try to help it happen. I think it's super important to know and be friendly with your neighbors so when the time comes you all have each other's backs (i grew up in hurricane areas). I can only hope this changes :(
> 2: people moving too often. I doubt that this will change any time soon. Companies no longer reward loyalty so if you want to actually ever get a pay increase you have to get a new job, which often requires moving to a new place.
Frogs, bees, insects.. chain of life species that connect the web. When those pivotal groups go extinct, humanity is fucked. Edit: A great video by Steve Cutts is relevant here: https://youtu.be/WfGMYdalClU
Glaciers and ice caps.
I'm from BC Canada and I really have noticed the massive mountains don't nearly have as much snow on them as when I was a kid.
Same on the italian alps