Yeah, I just commented before I saw yours. Taco Bell has declined the most, by far, of the fast food places I've eaten at in the past 5 or so years.

I gotta give their corporate overloads credit -- it's kind of impressive that they figured out so many ways to make trash tier food so much worse, charge triple or more for it, and still remain in business.

If that's a Taco Bell 5-layer burrito, I don't remember them being 29 cents (grew up poor, we rarely ate out). But by the time I was out on my own as an adult, I could get two 5-layer burritos and a drink for around $3 - $4 USD and some change. It was enough food to sustain me for a day if it came down to it.

But yes, these days the 5-layers are more like dried out 3-layer mini-burrito abominations that cost $3 or $4 a piece. They are pretty much nothing like the large succulent many layered dollar / value menu beasts of the past.

I guess if typing up this post is considered yelling and web hosting is basically all cloud-based these days and I'm an old man by 2025 standards, then yes, I am indeed an old man yelling at clouds. But mostly I'm an old man avoiding Taco Bell now that it's completely ruined its brand.

I've been working on some technical things the past month or so, and inevitably Reddit posts have shown up in my search results from time to time. One thing leads to another and I end up checking out the front pages (ex: popular and all) from time to time.

What I noticed now compared to when I "left" is that there are way more India-centric subs making it into the top results. Dehli, India Teens, Bollywood memes, and so on. So, I'm guessing that region is the next big push for growth.

I thought so to, but according to the article, this started happening months ago, but now the scope is expanding. Per the article, China and Hong Kong exemptions ended a while back, but now exemptions for other nations will be ending if I understood it correctly.

If I'm being completely fair and objective, not all birds eat "bird seed" and not everyone is well-informed about the diets of various types of bird. But also, at least where I live, some parks have signs that specifically say not to feed the ducks/geese at all, and I can totally understand how that might lead people to conclude that it's not safe to feed them.

On the other hand, I'm reminded of the time that I was at an insect exhibit when one of the educators running the booth referred to "these animals" and the woman behind me asked something like "bugs is animals?" And it still leaves me perplexed that otherwise seemingly fully functional people make it to adulthood thinking that insects are not animals.

People living in cities sometimes leave and many have not lived in a city their whole lives. Additionally, the power can go out at night in cities. For instance, where I live we sometimes get tropical storms, winter storms, and other disasters that can knock out power for hours (and even days) even inside the city -- I imagine that's not uncommon elsewhere. A lot of cities in poorer nations ration power or only have electricity available during certain hours.

So, overall, I would say that it's probably not the case that "most" people have never seen a full starry night unless you're getting super technical and pedantic about the word "full" to where you're specifically asking about a completely unobstructed view with 0% light pollution, in which case then I would say that almost nobody has seen a full starry night in that case, regardless of whether or not they live in a city.

This is a bit tangential, but several months ago I was waiting in line and overheard a couple of men talking about a local chicken farm that is hiring for $12 an hour and how they can't find any help except for "Mexicans".

While I don't know if that's the average wage for that type of work in my area, I do know that even the dollar store starts people out at $15 an hour because they have signs outside stating that. I'm sure it's part-time only and you have to pass a drug test, but still.

I'm out of work at the moment, and while I certainly wouldn't be jumping for joy over a temporary job at the chicken farm, I can tell you that I'd definitely consider it for the right price. But $12 and no benefits is not the right price, even if it's unreported (i.e. untaxed) paid in cash.

Intentionally inflammatory posts? I haven't noticed an uptick, honestly. Doesn't mean there isn't one and doesn't mean I won't notice now that you posted it.

But I will say that I've basically stopped checking my notifications because all of a sudden it seems like almost every time I go in there, I've got at least one insufferable, hostile, negative, etc response or message in there. It didn't used to be that way.

Mostly I assume we must've recently gotten an influx of new users from Reddit or someplace similarly toxic. Things usually get a bit unfortunate for a time when that happens.

My granny used to snatch them things out the air with her hands and shove them in her mouth. Said they tasted good. But she stopped after one time she accidentally caught a palmetto bug instead and bit down before she realized what was happening.

Who am I to judge the will of Darwin's Fury?

Old People Facebook

I have doubts that any credible and serious scientific discovery would involve this degree of anthropomorphism when it comes to assigning motivation to an animal's behavior.

But let's say I ended up with a hecking case of brain worms who devoured the vast majority of my critical thinking skills and was able to completely ignore that first point, this still doesn't quite compute. If you've ever had cats and/or dogs in your life, then you are probably also aware that each one has its own unique personality and behaviors. Even if we assume that they have human-like rationalizations and emotional capacity, does it even make sense to believe that they all uniformly perceive people in the same uniform manner?