Edit: Sheesh. Some of you folks need this.
Dictionary Definitions from Oxford Languages
up·lift·ing /ˌəpˈliftiNG/
adjective
adjective: uplifting
inspiring happiness, optimism, or hope. “an uplifting story of triumph over adversity”
Wallets are twice as likely to be returned as people expect. And the interesting thing is this holds true more or less globally.
I dream of finding the wallet stuffed with enough cash to dig me out of this mess, but in reality, if there’s any way at all to get it back to who dropped it, I will. Found a wallet a few months ago on a day trip, laying in the road. Ending up using the names on the credit cards to Facebook stalk a dude, found his company website, called him, and met him a half hour later to return it. Had like 800 dollars in cash it. I just… Can’t be an asshole, even when it would benefit me
You’re good people, don’t regret it. Incidentally, I’d probably grab a handful of the cash and just hand it to whoever returned the wallet to me like that. It was lost anyway.
Dude was very appreciative, he was panicked because he had pictures and sentimental things in it. Did not offer a reward and we didn’t ask… I did hope. But I didn’t ask. Lol
I’ve been on the flip side of this. You’re so panicked about getting your wallet back, and wondering if it was carelessness or thieves, that you don’t even think of giving a reward if you get it back.
I think the worry about thieves also primes us to not want to give money, too, but that’s just speculation.
I’ve also been the one delivering a lost wallet full of cash and got no reward, lol.
I would definitely make space for you in my lifeboat.
That’s one of the nicest compliments I’ve ever gotten. Thank you!
Back in the 80s, I was at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas, and a guy left his wallet in our booth, stuffed with money.
I took it back to my room, and only removed his Driver’s License, so I could see where he lived. I found out the area code for his city, called Information, and asked for his phone number. His name wasn’t there, but there was one woman’s listing with the same last name, so I called it, and reached his mother.
She was immediately worried, but I quickly explained that her son was fine, “But he left his wallet in my booth, and he’s probably in a full on panic by now. Please call him, and let him know that he can pick it up at our booth tomorrow.”
We didn’t have cell phones back then, so she would have had to contact his company, find out what hotel he was staying in, and then get the message to him, but she must have done all that, because he came blasting into our booth the next morning, still in a panic.
I handed him his wallet, and he took out a $50 bill and tried to give it to me. I refused it, happy to do a good deed, but he threw it at me and ran out of the booth!
I was in Vegas, what do you think I did with it? It was gone 5 minutes after leaving my booth.
Reminded of when someone opened their car window and yelled to me on the sidewalk that I had dropped some cash on the ground :)
Last time I ran out to a parking lot to find someone who dropped some cash in a store, they split some of it with me!
Every generation in human history has been more intelligent and progressive than the last.
This trend is not slowing in the modern era.
this is reductive and false to the point where i have a hard time deciding where to begin
The only way out is through, where there’s a will, there is a way.
When you die there is nothing. You go back to where you were before you were born.
No past, no future, no memory, nothing.
You will cease to be and the memory of you will fade from this universe nearly instantly.
There’s a lovely peace to that…
That might be the case. Or you could be part of something else. A collective consciousness, of which you are a transient node. Or maybe there is no time at all. What we call time could just be our current state on a progress bar as we process life. Or maybe we’re part of a nervous system for some larger construct. Or perhaps we are just reluctantly self-aware iterations of bio computers with fleeting lives that appeared through the chance combination of carbon-based structures.
Who knows. That’s the beauty of it, which I personally feel religion and a certain type of confident atheism tend to deny with their respective faith/certainty.
Death is before me today Like a sick man’s recovery, Like going outdoors after confinement. Death is before me today Like the fragrance of myrrh, Like sitting under sail on breeze day. Death is before me today Like the fragrance of lotus. Like sitting on the shore of drunkenness. Death is before me today Like a well-trodden way, Like a man’s coming home from warfare. Death is before me today Like the clearing of the sky. As when a man discovers what he ignored. Death is before me today Like a man’s longing to see his home When he has spent many years in captivity
It sucks how good that show was for how fucked Gaiman is.
The comics are amazing too
Yeah im reading the comics for the first time, I’ve read some of his books before. My gateway was the Pratchett joint venture. I hate that hes so rapey. Now I know a bit of how potter fans feel.
Their casting choice for sandman was really disappointing to me. His appearance is so distinctive and strangely dignified in the book but they cast some conventionally attractive guy with for the lack of a better term little prick vibes
Empty your mind of all thoughts.
Let your heart be at peace.
Watch the turmoil of beings,
but contemplate their return.Each separate being in the universe
returns to the common source.
Returning to the source is serenity.- from Tao Te Ching, Chapter 16, Translation by Stephen Mitchell
Fascism doesn’t actually last that long. At some point, policies have to have some kind of attachment to reality, and fascists are incapable of grappling with reality.
Franco stuck around for quite awhile, but yeah its track record is usually short.
Franco was the first one I thought of. However, his fascism didn’t outlive him, and President Pedophile doesn’t have 36 years to go.
But many other fascists have now been given power by TacoBoy. I don’t think any singular person’s demise is ever going to be as “uplifting” as many are dreaming…
putin and kim have been going for quite some time.
Those are well crafted, defensive dictatorships at this point that have had decades and decades to sow the seeds of complacency and authoritarian control of their population. In one of those examples, the people of NK worship Kim and his father and grandfather as literal gods. So Americans aren’t quite there yet.
Not saying they’re super far off, but still a bit to travel before you get to centuries of repressed soviet/russian control and literal god-king dictators with an iron first around their populace.
In one of those examples, the people of NK worship Kim and his father and grandfather as literal gods.
Lol, no they don’t.
Effectively they do. When even mild criticism can get you thrown in jail, the difference is minimal in effect…
well yeah because they were not short lived is all im sayin.
Putin has always been a dictator, but he hasn’t always been a fascist. He started his career as a moderate technocrat that happened to have incredible access to KGB resources. Very handy if you’re in the market to be forever president. As time went on he’s been mixing and remixing his stances and aims.
As far as NK, I’m not sure they’ve ever been fascist. They’re just a vanilla authoritarian police state.
A major component you can use to point out fascism specifically out of the rogues gallery of evil ideologies is the notion that a fascist government specifically derives its power from endlessly designating and promising to destroy out-groups. If it lasts long enough to run out of targets, it goes on to consume itself.
Historians debate just how fascist Franco really was. In fact, Orwell wasn’t even that sure when he wrote Homage to Catalonia, and he was quite clear that he went to Spain expressly to kill a fascist.
i recall my spanish friend saying something like it wasnt really franco that was the problem, but all the aristocrats wanting to use him as their source of legitimacy
Well, we all wish they’d “grapple” with a few rounds at high velocity instead of fingerbanging their own shit and screaming incoherently. They’re infecting the other adult-sized toddlers, and it’s getting tedious to corral at this point.
what’s “uplifting” depends a lot on what you want to see in the world …
but i’d say that we live in very exceptional times in history, so what’s currently happening is not the norm and will sooner or later pass…
Humans die eventually.
Humans aren’t destroying the earth. We may be changing it so it’s no longer hospitable to us, but the earth will go on fine even if humans extinct themselves.
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Canada geese and white-tailed deer nearly went extinct. Now they’re considered pests in some areas. It’s possible for nature to bounce back, it just needs to be given a chance.
white-tailed deer
Kamikaze hoses. I some how have not totaled a car on one yet.
Pests? If you got a problem with Canada Gooses, you got a problem with me, and I suggest you let that one marinate.
You or the geese?
Gooses!
We will all die at some point.
Praise lawd.
Something around half far sooner than they deserve, and the rest’ll hang on longer than anyone wishes they would.
i see you are also still pissed Kissinger lasted as long as he did.
Only one among thousands+, yes.
In 6 billion years the sun will swole up to engulf the earth and none of this will have ever mattered.
I actually do find that comforting.
Assuming humanity doesn’t get our shit together enough to explore and settle the galax-heeheehee. I’m sorry. I used to hope for that.
I’ve been working on a new kind of spaceship designed to act as both ark and engineering station for the construction of dyson spheres. So there’s that, although I’ve not got very far with it yet.
Concepts of a plan, eh?
Well, I’ve decided to paint it red.
Even if we did, most of us will likely be born into slavery on some distant colony as the property of a deranged tech trillionaire.
I vote to reduce taxes on the slave owning billionaires just in case I ever become one.
Sensible choice.
Renewable energy and battery storage are seeing an absolute collapse in prices such that it is inevitable in the near to mid term future that we will move away from fossil fuel extraction leaving much of it in the ground. This will happen no matter who is in charge politically or who tries to subsidize fossil fuels because money is king and a lot of free energy hits the earth every day.
This, combined with falling birthrates, means we will hit peak carbon emissions and begin to drop back to a new normal, a new economy built around labor rather than capital because of the shift in balance between resources and workers similar to what happened during the black death. It is my opinion that this will begin to happen in my lifetime and will fully come to pass in our children’s lifetime.
Having worked in energy for 10 years (particularly battery storage and solar) you are correct about the prices falling, and in my opinion you are also correct about this dooming fossils.
However, I do not agree with your second point around a new economy arising built around labor rather than capital. The mechanics of value creation can change (eg renewables vs fossils) but what the ruling class will not allow to change without intense prolonged struggle is their own position as the rulers.
You might be right, but my idea on it is that productivity increases have leveled off and population will begin falling in our lifetime. The ruling class loses power historically when the supply of labor is impacted.
Why do you think they’re all desperately pretending that LLMs are gen AI? They want to secure their revenue without having to care what the plebs do.
and we both know governments both today and throughout history protect the rich and money over people…
You’re both right. You are in that their influence will wane, but they’re right in that it won’t be fast or pretty.
Wow you all suck at this. Okay I’m gonna do an actual one. The amount of wars had around the world has SIGNIFICANTLY decreased from just a century ago.
A few somewhat recent ones of different magnitudes:
- Cancer, despite still being the leading cause of deaths worldwide, is seeing a downward trend in mortality rates across most subtypes
- The 2025 Nobel Prizes are currently being awarded
- The Greek Parthenon recently became scaffold free for the first time in 15 years, apparently restoration is using all original pieces as well
- EU has fairly recently revised the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive which will require new buildings to have zero-emission
And let’s not forget that cancer is the leading cause of death because medical science has made all the others much less fatal.
