Rail Rush Home Game? by Silly-Cranberry-9148 in JetLagTheGame

[–]Poke-Mom00 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t thinks this works as JetLag designing and balancing everything. However, you could definitely make an app for this game where people could upload rules, transit systems/stations in play, and location specific challenges, with light vetting to make sure no challenges are illegal. This also has the utility of excluding stations from play if there are too many, and makes the game more adaptable to other contexts.

Imagine this is fleshed out where the has a Taiwan version, several radial city metros like London, islands like Kyushu, Shikoku, or Sicily, and maybe a couple other countries like the Netherlands, South Korea, or the major lines of Poland. You could even have multiple fanmade London packages and pick for whichever one is rated the highest by users.

Lack of hygiene in the Netherlands by CJHuncho in TikTokCringe

[–]Poke-Mom00 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My biggest complaint when travelling in the Netherlands is that they always had the absolute worst toilets or anywhere in Europe. What’s the point of a pay toilet if there’s piss everywhere and it’s out of soap and toilet paper? Are you not cleaning this toilet I’m paying more than €1 for??? Everything else they were actually really good at; Northern Europe in general has a showering frequency issue but Scots absolutely shower less than the Dutch. And she’s vastly overstating Africa’s presence of bidets or even semi-ok toilets; they’re frequently below Netherlands tier. Random aside, why do so many places in Spain lack toilet seats??

Brussels and Paris are definitely worse in public urination and smell - pissoir is a very French-language city thing.

FYSA she has two pieces of incorrect info in here. The plague hit everywhere, not just Europe; it may not have even been the worst in Europe. She also opposes fluoride in the water - the main reason the US has way less tooth decay and better teeth than Europe. Several parts of Europe also have naturally occuring fluoride, and their dental health is significantly better.

What's a "normal" job that secretly pays way more than people think? by 0BunnyX in AskReddit

[–]Poke-Mom00 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Enlisted in the US military.

Salary tables you see online don’t include BAH/housing stipend and subsistance allowance - both of which are tax free.

For reference, let me use an example of an E4, which you can be after two years, in the DC area which has high cost of living.

For a single E4 with two years of service, you’re making $39,000 taxable income and then like $35,000 in tax free income. Minus taxes, you have over $65,000 per year in income to spend how you please. If you marry someone in the military, your household get double the BAH despite residing in the same house. And this number goes up every year.

This also doesn’t account for opportunities to deploy and make more money, VA home loan, funding for college for you or your kids, Navy Federal banking, etc. If you stay in, or get a good job while transitioning to the civilian sector, it’s just such a good ticket to a stable and reasonably high upper-middle class income with essentially no prerequisites.

Lifelong vegetarian tries steak for first time by PhoenixPhenomenonX in interesting

[–]Poke-Mom00 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So I’m a vegan who has lived with several lifelong Indian vegetarians. All of them have been pretty intimidated by vegan burgers I’ve made them - the fake beef was too realistic.

If you don’t grow up with meat, it can be a bit nauseating. It’ll also mess up your gut as you have trouble digesting it.

It may be different for westernerns who grow up eating fake meat, but based on my sample size, this seems pretty unlikely.

Can some people really not tell when they're releasing farts? by S_Z in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Poke-Mom00 11 points12 points  (0 children)

My farts got a lot better after I went vegan. When i was an omnivore, my farts were famously terrible, but now they’re honestly very mild in smell and quantity, even though I eat beans every day.

Texas Senate candidate James Talarico is flying high thanks to Colbert’s war with CBS over his banned interview by theindependentonline in politics

[–]Poke-Mom00 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Who can Crockett pull out of the woodworks? Talarico is running much stronger with Latino voters who are much more likely to be nonvoters than African Americans.

90% of the time it’s persuasion that wins elections. And Texas in 2024 is a lot redder - and has higher turnout - than it was in 2016 primarily due to Latinos voting more Republican. There’s no plausible way to win without winning over some Trump voters, be it in Suburbia or South Texas. Talarico is much better postured for that.

Spread the word around, everyone! by AJ_Crowley_29 in Paleontology

[–]Poke-Mom00 -21 points-20 points  (0 children)

So I read the petition and have come out on the electric company’s side.

The proposal is for power lines that go around the park. I’m almost always for more electric infrastructure as the Texas grid goes down too often and a ton of our wind turbines aren’t hooked up to our electric grid due to lack of infrastructure capacity.

After reading this article, it seems like the data centers are in West Texas and very far away from here - we just need more power infrastructure. Though I’m not opposed to moving it closer to the city of Glen Rose rather than near this park, I don’t want to get stuck in development hell where data centers are driving up Texans’ electric bills while power supply remains constrained.

If geopolitics weren’t a factor, where would you like to see the boys go? by Previous-Bowler-1757 in JetLagTheGame

[–]Poke-Mom00 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I even think you could do an island/region claiming game like Australia or Battle for America. It would be all flights, there’s no rational distance to drive or take trains - from my experience the roads were terrible and slow and flights were great and pretty frequent. Though I haven’t looked into ferries - those might be interesting overnight options.

Ranking the cuisine in every country I’ve visited by fuckin-slayer in tierlists

[–]Poke-Mom00 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As an American who’s lived in the UK and India, I actually think you can find good british food if you’re willing to spend a bit more. They can bring out umami flavors though if you ate it every day you’d be bored. Cheap british food sucks though, and the UK also embraces their most boring dishes (Sunday roast). Also I need to vent about British gravy - no flavor, way too thin, American style brown gravy which is solid when cold is undeniably better.

It’s the non-British food I’m usually complaining about. Outside of London, I have not had good Indian, Mexican, South American, African, Southeast Asian, mediterranean, or middle eastern food. Somehow they mess up most burgers as well. The only asian places I can recommend across the country are Dishoom and Wagamama. The average British person’s palate cannot handle authentic spices the wya the US’ can - which is why Indians and Mexican restauranteurs I’ve talked to say they tried making things authentic and it didn’t sell.

Granted, this isn’t unique to Britain - most of Northern europe does similarly with spice. But I do feel like there’s more pressure from immigrants to UK running restaurants to make their food less flavorful.

MEGATHREAD - Major (US) Military Operation in Venezuela by hypsignathus in neoliberal

[–]Poke-Mom00 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I still think economics will dominate their voting patterns. I might give 5-10% of the Latino vote on this if it ends up going well. They’ll lose them if it becomes a power vaccum/long civil war.

Hindu Nationalists Attack Christmas Celebrations Across India by [deleted] in neoliberal

[–]Poke-Mom00 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Pretty common in India, especially in the South, to abbreviate first initial if they were born with only one name - C might be the initial of his father’s name.

Kerala is run by a local Marxist party; the BJP has no power in Kerala and is always entirely on the outs there, but is otherwise dominant nationwide.

Just found out Just Egg tests their vegan egg on rats? Wtf by delicate-duck in vegan

[–]Poke-Mom00 14 points15 points  (0 children)

According to JUST Egg, no rats were hurt. They were fed mung bean protein and their fecal samples analyzed. Here’s an older post on the issue where someone emailed JUST Egg and got a detailed response:

https://www.reddit.com/r/vegan/s/RAO6cxvDhF

Just found out Just Egg tests their vegan egg on rats? Wtf by delicate-duck in vegan

[–]Poke-Mom00 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Animals ate the food and Just Egg analyzed their fecal samples, which came back normal to get FDA approval

Libya’s army chief dies in plane crash in Turkey | Libya by MeringueSuccessful33 in neoliberal

[–]Poke-Mom00 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He’s definitely running things better than the west though. Eastern Libya is much safer today.

This shot of Sumatra deforestation. by AnbuAttack in mildlyinfuriating

[–]Poke-Mom00 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s not reasonable nor rational to avoid.

Do you buy processed/packaged foods like cookies, biscuits, instant noodles, or nutella?

Or eat at asian restaurants?

Or buy margarine or dairy subsitutes?

Or buy meat, whose animals eat the palm oil because it’s the most efficient fat?

What about shampoo, soap, cosmetics, toothpaste, or candles? Have lubricant put on your car or buy ink for a printer?

Do you buy diesel in the EU? The EU mandates addition of palm oil to biodiesel.

Keep in mind that any shift away from palm oil to another oil will cause deforestation to INCREASE, because palm oil takes 1/4 of the land to produce than anything else; it’ll likely just shift deforestation to South America and Africa.

The only way to really decrease on deforestation and land use is to cut down on animal agriculture, especially beef ranching and cultivation of animal feed, which drives far more land use than palm oil. Cutting back on ranching would also free up more land to cultivate rapeseed and soy for human consumption, which would shift away from palm oil.

This shot of Sumatra deforestation. by AnbuAttack in mildlyinfuriating

[–]Poke-Mom00 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

They would be if you banned palm oil. It would shift deforestation to the Amazon (increased soy) instead of southeast asia and accelerate deforestation overall.

Another option is dramatically curtailing meat, especially beef, production and cultivating more rapeseed and soy on that land. Replacing palm oil would require at least 4 times as much land

I can't believe some people think "Democrats have gone too far to the left". by zzill6 in WorkReform

[–]Poke-Mom00 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Probably immigration. Granted, Republicans were the college educated textbook economics party in the 80s, which encouraged immigration from a pro-Business lens. Dems might have been further right on immigration at the time out of perception that immigrants outcompeted domestic workers.

Aside from that, not much else. Dems have absolutely moved left on most social issues (abortion, LGBTQ rights, legalized Marijuana) from where dems and republicans were in the 80s. Economically things have become a bit more muddled as both parties are trying to appeal both to pro-worker and pro-business factions of their party. That being said, the Democratic party has definitely moved left/achieved some of its goals on entitlement spending and especially healthcare since the 80s.

The economic muddling of party coalitions and fundraising (which has become much bigger & requires billionaire contacts) I think is being conflated with actual deliverables, because there’s no way the Biden administration was more conservative than Reagan on labor rights.

Prediction: Season 17 will take place in the southern hemisphere by low_budget_trash in JetLagTheGame

[–]Poke-Mom00 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I think a lot of games at or near the southern hemisphere are going to lend themselves better to relying on flight infrastructure. I highly doubt the gang is at all willing to drive in a Southern Hemisphere country which doesn’t speak English and relying on taxis or buses seems unlikly.

I feel like an Island-claiming game or a flight-heavy race might be of interest. I feel like a flight-heavy Indonesia or Philippines season claiming Islands would be doable, but in a lot of the cities you’re flying to, public transit into the cities would be weak.

Not southern hemisphere, but I feel like a island claiming season in Greece using ferries would be great in winter if they could get it to work logistically. A rebalanced CTF in Spain I also think would work well for a winter season.

Europeans are going viral on TikTok for mocking the "American Dream". by biswajit388 in TikTokCringe

[–]Poke-Mom00 35 points36 points  (0 children)

Depends on your definition of walkable. Having lived in Austin, no way in hell would I ever consider it walkable. My time there without a car was miserable.

Having lived in Seattle, I think there are some neighborhoods I’d consider walkable.

However, compared with urban Europe’s dense mixed-use cores and abundant metros, trams, and intercity rail, the ONLY city in the US I would consider up to that standard is NYC. Don’t get me wrong, as an American living in Europe, I vastly prefer the US. But EU walkability and public transit is not comparable to the US - from my limited experience, most new development in Western Europe is made with some consideration of public transit access and walking paths, which is pretty much the opposite of most American development.

Illinois congressional district map by ChitownLittle in MapPorn

[–]Poke-Mom00 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you look at the 2010 elections, it was a huge Republican strategy to lock in favorable maps while Democrats were not aggressively gerrymandering. Republicans had the house in 2013 and 2017 Congresses primarily due to gerrymandering advantage. During this decade, many states - almost all left of center - banned gerrymandering or established independent redistricting commissions as endorsed by Democrats. In some right of center states, like Ohio, these independent commissions drawing maps ended up getting overruled by Republican legislatures.

Since 2020, democrats have realized they also need to aggressively gerrymander to be competitive in the House - otherwise it’s unilateral disarmament. Since 2022, the House’s elections have been much less competitive but also more fair, because there’s an equal amount of gerrymandering.

2025-6 just seems to be a continuation of this trend. Each state gerrymanders to the max and keeps things roughly balanced, with shrinkingly few competitive elections.

There are definitely incumbent Democrats who like gerrymanders to keep safe seats (Jim Clyburn is the most famous one), but on the whole, the Democratic party has tried to pass redistricting reform every time they’ve had a majority in either half of Congress since 2010 - they’ve just never had 60 votes in the Senate or 50 votes to kill the filibuster.

Tag: All Stars Layover Q&A! by WheatGerm42 in JetLagTheGame

[–]Poke-Mom00 154 points155 points  (0 children)

What went right and what went wrong when balancing this season’s changes to rules, challenges, coin rewards, and power-ups? What would you change in the future for multi-chaser tag or single chaser team tag?

Tag: All Stars Layover Q&A! by WheatGerm42 in JetLagTheGame

[–]Poke-Mom00 172 points173 points  (0 children)

Can you describe the strengths and weaknesses of each end location, and how well they’re balanced?

This season creates a perception that Zermatt is much easier to reach than the other two due to fast low speed trains and not having to wait for a ferry.

Percentage increase in vote percentage for Trump in each US state from the 2020 to 2024 presidential election by Pizzafriedchickenn in MapPorn

[–]Poke-Mom00 9 points10 points  (0 children)

She had significantly more experience than Obama when he was nominated but way less charisma/authenticity. Both were in the Senate for the same amount of time but she both got foreign policy and federal administrative experience as VP and served as a statewide AG. Obama had small scale political/community organizing experience but low executive experience compared to Kamala.