anon6789

I still feel grateful for being in the right place to help out some people many years ago.

I was headed to meet some friends down at the shore and right when I got to town , I stopped by McDonald’s to grab something to eat. It was pretty empty, just the employees and 2 groups of kids.

There were 4 young teen girls and 3 or 4 older teen boys, and from the second I walked in, I saw the girls were very uncomfortable and the guys kept trying to get them to leave with them. They were trying to call someone to pick them up but nobody could come get them from what I could tell.

It was very dark out and the town was deserted, so I assumed they were not locals either so they didn’t have many options.

I asked them if they wanted a ride and they quickly said yes and literally jumped in my car as fast as they could. They were a decent number of blocks away, and they were very happy to be back at their rental.

I assume nothing serious would have happened, but it probably would have made the rest of their trip shitty if they had to worry if those guys knew where they were staying. I couldn’t have just ignored them without offering to help though, they all seemed on the verge of tears.

It was a little mind blowing how they’d just jump in a stranger’s car, but I was at least a neutral party when the other guys were already verified creeps. I wasn’t much older, about 20, so not in creepy old man territory yet, so that probably helped. As I said, I still think about how I got to be someone’s champion that day, and it makes me feel good to know I helped out.

I imagine you’re an adult, so you should have a decent radar for picking out some non-creep stranger. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. I didn’t have much time to process the situation until after the girls had left, but seeing someone desperate for help I’d think would have most people willing to accommodate getting you to your car or a better public place. Most people are good and would help out if asked.

Thank you for taking the time to write that out for me. Between this and absGeekNZ’s reply to another person, I feel I really learned a lot.

As someone who basically knows nothing about this but what is in the article, the Maori sound like they have the right idea to me.

The Maori version of the original treaty seems very generous and would make sense to most people how it was written. How anyone would believe the British version was legitimate unless it was signed under coercion or misrepresentation makes zero sense.

Despite the bill being highly likely to fail, many believe that just by allowing the bill to be tabled in Parliament, the coalition government has ignited dangerous social division.

That they are protesting even though the new bill is unlikely to pass seems very smart, given what is going on in other parts of the world and how manipulation by governments works in history. By entertaining it as any form of reasonable proposal, it gives it credence, no matter how small, and each time it is suggested, it will be normalized a bit more, and they will pick up another supporter here and there until they can pass it.

North Carolina is a lovely state, and I hope you’re able to bring a little more sanity back to it!

Thank you for voting, fellow battleground stater! My voter sticker went through the wash, but I cast my vote in PA as soon as I could in October.

This. I have an old vintage alarm clock that I put across the room. It’s set to my “if you aren’t up by now you will be late no matter what” time. If my phone alarms don’t get me up, this thing is so loud and unpleasant I will certainly get up.

Phone ringers are too pleasant sound and easy to snooze. I need to change the tone every few months as I adapt to them all. A harsh metal bell or mechanical buzz on an alarm with no snooze that I cant reach from bed has me wake up at the last phone ringer because it is so ear shattering when that alarm clock goes off, I can snap through all but the worst sleep deficit nights.

It also pisses off the girlfriend when that annoying thing goes off too, so then I have her mad at me for waking her up if I’m not up to shut it off before it lets loose.

Suggestion: BS from MS about Al helping a pharmacist filling Rx

Thankee-sai!

I figured 1 or 2 people clicking on the pic might enjoy it…

Ded-a-chik, dad-a-chum, not voting for Kamala would be dumb!

Anyone voting Trump/Vance has forgotten the face of his father!

Aww, it warms my heart to see you guys still recommending SuperbOwl so much! 🥰

For anyone that hasn’t come by yet, besides sharing the best sky cat pics ever, I try to share a good bit of actual science, conservation, and animal welfare information. It’s still lighthearted and for fun, but it is not the meme and pun community you may be expecting based off r/superbowl.

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I was just wondering about this show the other day! I thought it was pretty good, and I love all the main actors and thought they all gave great performances. Jeff Bridges as a total badass is very fun to watch.

It’s not the type of show I watch much of anymore, but I checked it out because of Bridges and do not regret it.

Good news then!

NPR: Why drone light shows are replacing traditional July 4th fireworks

Cities like Napa, Calif., and Salt Lake City, Utah, have opted out of traditional pyrotechnics this year. They say they’re worried about pollution and the risk of wildfires, so instead, they’ll create a tribute to America with a light show made by drones.

This is the closest answer to what I’d agree with. It’s a shame the other top comment turned into something of a squabble, because I agree with a lot of what was said there as well.

Investing always comes with some risk. Buying land or a house is typically considered a safe investment in most of the world. But that house/land can undergo a natural disaster and be ruined. Putting money into anything not insured (FDIC in the US, for example) carries a non-zero percentage of risk.

At what point does that risk cross over into gambling? I’d say when you exceed your personal risk assessment level. I have what is typically considered a higher risk portfolio. I am in my 40’s, 90+ % invested in stocks, with a definite tilt to growth stocks. I have been in that same position since I started investing at 16 in a Roth IRA. I’ve been through a few financial crisis periods and have always held firm to my belief that in my investing timeframe that my strategy is sound. Never sweated it for a second, even when my balance was small, so as it went negative before I could afford to actively contribute much to building my balance. Now I am very solid into 6 figures, and I only earn average for my state, which is 58k, but that is fairly recent.

To get the type of growth I feel I need with the pay I get, I went in knowing I would have to assume more risk. So I did a lot of work to understand the safest methods to get that growth in exchange for the volatility that can be involved in that investment approach. I was willing to accept that risk, and I stand by it decades later. If I started playing with riskier fund choices, that’d be gambling. Some mega-big growth funds can be very tempting. But the fees for those funds are guaranteed while the gains are not. So chasing an extra 1 or 2% isn’t worth that added risk to me. Things like options and stock shorting I don’t understand well, so I stay away from them since I don’t understand the associated risks. That stuff is gambling, where you can’t count on yourself to have at least a sensible margin of control over what happens.

If you are new to investing or feel confused, I always suggest the Boglehead’s Guide to Investing. It’s not trying to sell you anything and explains things in pretty easy to digest terms and tells you how to develop a simple investing strategy that you can stick to and be a relatively hands off investor. It used to be free online, but I think that’s caught up in the Hachette vs Internet Archive lawsuit, so you can check out their Getting Started wiki which is an abbreviated version of the book, plus some new and updated stuff.

Thanks for sharing this. I always get excited when I see the coelacanth pop up in the news.

It was amazing to get to see one at the Smithsonian. It felt like seeing something that I shouldn’t be able to see, like something of this world, but not, at the same time. I can’t imagine how thrilling it would be to see them in person and to learn about them directly.

The one mod is more particular than the other on Superbowl. Just make your main image an owl and you should be good though. I’ve posted some other raptors and a few misc animals when I go tour animal rescues.

There’s always the Birding community too, though it’s a little less active than Superbowl, but still gets good traffic.

Ouch, that’s disappointing to hear.

This summer sadly ended my work from home period, but I felt I saw noticeably more monarchs this year than in a very long time. I’m on the East Coast though.

I did also take notice that I never see near the amount of fireflies I did as a kid too, which also makes me a bit sad.

For those curious:

At least 10 other states — Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Tennessee — have passed laws that seek to regulate which bathrooms trans people can use, and nine states regulate the bathrooms that trans students can use at school. West Virginia’s Legislature is considering a transgender bathroom bill for students this year.

In good news though:

The Utah bill requires any new government buildings to include single-occupant bathrooms and asks that the state consider adding more of the bathrooms to increase privacy protections in existing government buildings.

Yay! This actually eliminates the whole issue, and you get actual privacy unlike a normal public bathroom!

It did not provide any funding for such upgrades.

Facepalm…Nevermind.

“No, no, he clearly said Jew-ish!” - George Santos

“I must admit to being somewhat frankly naive about this.”

Could have just stopped there, Elon. 😒

Nothing lives on its own. We’re all interdependent on the monocellular creatures on up. We’ve shown time and time again we’re unsuccessful at dictating what nature should do for us, we’d best just leave as much of it alone as possible. Heck, it’s even free to just not do anything bad!