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Cake day: July 29th, 2023

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  • I suppose it depends on how you’d define “solved”. If we’re talking about basically eliminating homelessness, Cuba has done immense work in that regard. Say what you will about the Cuban government, but Cuba has a near-zero homeless population because the government has built a ton of housing and caps rent at 10% of individual income in that state-owned housing. Cuba is also a country with a tradition of multi-generational extended family homes, so there’s a greater chance that you’d be able to move in with a family member if you fell on hard times. Home ownership rate is around 85% compared to 65% in the US. All of this is nothing new, though, so it’s hard to say if it’s the answer to current issues of housing that’s largely driven by corporate greed, but it certainly sounds like it couldn’t hurt. Granted, I’ve seen people give examples of homes that are rather small and spartan, where the walls are made of bare cinderblock and generally aren’t very pretty, but that’s way better than being homeless even if some of the housing isn’t as nice as others. I’ve also examples of state-owned housing lived in by the same kinds of people, but are really quite nice as well. Whether the US government would ever do this, though, seems unlikely. Not at the scale we’d need and not for so cheap, anyway, especially not with Trump coming to office. I can’t really speak for the governments of other countries, however, and I’m no expert on Cuba either, so I could have gotten some things wrong. The US embargo to Cuba since the 90s also means that Cuba has had a more difficult time procuring building materials for the low-cost housing that’s helped so many, which has led to an increase in size and number for those extended family homes over the years.


  • I’ve never noticed such a pattern myself and I’m not sure I’d agree that most kings are depicted as red-headed. It would be a little odd considering the relative rarity of red hair in people. What specific depictions are you talking about? Could you give us a list of examples? If you google “cartoon king”, you’ll find only a few redheads among dozens of brown or white-haired kings, which is what I’d expected to find. Maybe if this is a legit trend you see, it could be regional thing? Are there many red-headed people in your country?








  • Nah, son. Thylacines have, in a way, become cryptids since their extinction, complete with cheesy travel shows where some bogan tells you all about how they totally saw one time and they’re 100% sure it was a thylacine they barely saw from a distance running away through the tall grass after sunset. I’ve seen similar shows about Bigfoot, Nessie, Mothman, and others. They don’t exist anymore, making your chances of seeing one alive no more likely than seeing Bigfoot, which is the point I was making. Animals thought to be extinct being officially rediscovered is a pretty rare occurrence; I assure you it doesn’t happen “regularly”. It’s a big deal when it happens because it’s quite rare. Yes, I’m familiar with the stories of all the other extinct species you mentioned as well. The ivory-billed woodpecker is still considered by most ornithologists to be extinct, and the last widely accepted sighting of any individual was in 1987, despite some supposed (but not universally accepted or entirely conclusive) sightings every once in a while. In 2020, a guy working for Fish and Wildlife claimed to have ID’d one in video footage, but it must not have been very compelling because the very next year Fish and Wildlife proposed declaring it officially extinct. People claim to have sighted the ivory-billed woodpecker not infrequently, much like the thylacine. What is infrequent is any compelling evidence whatsoever, however.


  • There have been many sightings and footprints found of Bigfoot, too. I live in the Bigfoot sighting capital of the world and new sightings are routinely reported. If the “Portland” in your name is in reference to the one in Oregon, you do too.

    The last widely accepted sighting of a wild thylacine was in 1933, nearly a hundred years ago. Even if any tiny, isolated pockets had managed to escape extermination (which is unlikely on an island without much mountainous terrain or dense forest, especially when everyone and their grandma was out hunting them for the bounty the government put on their tails), they’d be in big trouble owing to genetic drift by now. You always hear people say “I know what I saw,” but do they really? It makes me circle back to the Bigfoot thing. At least some of the people who claim to have seen Bigfoot genuinely believe they really saw him.







  • Nah, it’s not much better during the day, either. HC runs either crackpot history/paranormal docs, reality shows, discussion about niche topics such as toys/modern architecture/etc., or war docs almost 24/7. In case anyone is wondering, here’s the next three days of programming scheduled for History Channel.

    Saturday (Veterans’ Day):

    12:03-1:06am - The UnXplained

    1:06-3:04am - The Proof is Out There

    3:04-4:01am - The UnXplained

    4:01-7:00am - Paid Programming

    7:00-1:00pm - WWII in HD

    1:00-7:00pm - Vietnam in HD

    7:00-8:00pm - Special, Variety Salute to Service 2023

    8:00-10:03pm - Beyond the Battlefield

    10:03-12:03am - Special, 761st Tank Battalion: The Original Black Panthers

    Sunday

    12:03-2:04am - Beyond the Battlefield

    2:04-4:01am - Special, 761st Tank Battalion: The Original Black Panthers

    4:01-7:00am - Paid Programming

    7:00-3:00pm - Modern Marvels

    3:00-12:03am - The Toys that Built America

    Monday

    12:03-4:01am - The Toys that Built America

    4:01-7:00am - Paid Programming

    7:00-12:00pm - History’s Greatest Mysteries

    12:00-4:00pm - Ancient Aliens Special Presentation

    4:00-9:00pm - Ancient Aliens

    9:00-11:05pm - Ancient Aliens Special Presentation

    11:05-12:03am - Ancient Aliens (continues until 4am Tuesday)



  • Depress_Mode@lemmy.worldtoMemes@lemmy.mlSociety
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    1 year ago

    This chart really makes no sense at all. How does Lord of the Flies lie at the intersection of The Handmaid’s Tale, 1984, and Fahrenheit 451?

    One’s about an ultra-conservative theocracy, one’s about government surveillance and propaganda, and one’s about destroying books because people’s attention spans have reduced past the ability to read and they’re too long/confusing/depressing. I guess authoritarianism might lie at the heart of all these? Meanwhile, though, Lord of the Flies is more about the dangers of unchecked groupthink and how it can lead to violence and cruelty.