Non-Americans who have been to the US.. What is the weirdest thing about America that Americans don't realize is weird?
  • Vanth Vanth Now 100%

    Yep, currants took a hit because they were a vector for a pine tree infection that rocked our logging industry and led to a ban on currant growing like a hundred years ago. Currants aren't banned at the national level anymore.

    And even through that, we have had creme de cassis as a liqueur that a decently built out bar would have.

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  • Non-Americans who have been to the US.. What is the weirdest thing about America that Americans don't realize is weird?
  • Vanth Vanth Now 100%

    We have both blackberries and grape jam. Though grape is more likely to come as a jelly rather than a jam.

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  • Non-Americans who have been to the US.. What is the weirdest thing about America that Americans don't realize is weird?
  • Vanth Vanth Now 97%

    It took me (an American) going to Ireland and Northern Ireland to realize how odd the excessive flag waving is. Still odd, but those two have the US beat.

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  • How is your week going ?
  • Vanth Vanth Now 100%

    I have a really sore throat and a stuffed nose and I am being a total crabapple about it.

    6
  • How much do you think gender matters on Lemmy?
  • Vanth Vanth Now 100%

    Depends on context, as always. A user sharing a story on social interaction, gender may be quite important to how they experienced it and how others perceive it. I.e., a post the other day asking about worst dates and the average worst date for men was a woman on coke or a no show. The average worst date for women was about getting sexually assaulted or raped.

    Men are victims of those things too and can face different repercussions when they try to pursue help. Understanding their experiences within the context of them being men is also important.

    Stripping gender from these stories only obfuscates some of the problems.

    17
  • What do you think about having one teacher teach one hundred students in all classes?
  • Vanth Vanth Now 100%

    If discussing 1:100 there is no individual attention, so why not 1:1,000 or 1:100,000 or just YouTube videos one can watch at their own pace.

    In my college lectures of 1:200, there were still separate sessions of 20 students or fewer, led by grad students working for the professor, to offer more individualized help. If that doesn't happen and it's just a lecturer talking to a crowd, the ratio is irrelevant.

    0/10

    7
  • What’s the worst date you’ve ever had, and why was it so awful?
  • Vanth Vanth Now 100%

    Dude tried to rape me. Might be his worst date too because he left with multiple broken fingers and a broken nose. It could have been better for me / worse for him if the cops took it seriously, but the fact that I fought back and he wasn't actually successful in raping me was enough for the cops to wave it away as a domestic dispute that self-resolved when I left.

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  • How often do you change bedding and bath towels?
  • Vanth Vanth Now 100%

    Almost exactly the same except for pillow. Within the past year I switched to a buckwheat pillow and I am in trial phase to see how it handles use.

    I think I'm going to empty the buckwheat hulls out soon to wash the case and then replace the hulls. IDK, I'm just guessing at the point.

    3
  • where did you know about lemmy and why did you start using it
  • Vanth Vanth Now 100%

    I read about and liked the concept of the Fediverse, opened a few accounts across various platforms, quickly got bored with the small userbase. Then reddit did their thing with the API, I wanted to stop using it entirely, and enough people also migrated to Lemmy at the same time that this is now a level of users and activity to hold my interest.

    19
  • What’s the most overhyped tech trend right now?
  • Vanth Vanth Now 100%

    Do you just do CAD though? Our Mech Es do a lot in CAD but not solely. Even our drafters do a lot of things not in CAD. If anyone ever asked me what I do for work, "CAD" would not be my answer.

    I categorize it as a tool, not a job. And personally, I would find a job that is, say, 75% or more CAD to be boring as hell.

    3
  • What’s the most overhyped tech trend right now?
  • Vanth Vanth Now 80%

    The two nuclear developmemts I'm watching closest are the test molten salt reactor in Oak Ridge, TN and just recently heard about a new permit to build one for Abilene Christian University in Texas.

    6
  • What’s the most overhyped tech trend right now?
  • Vanth Vanth Now 100%

    I was at my company's booth at a career fair earlier this week and it felt like every other student was looking for an internship in "machine learning". When I asked follow up questions about what sort of experience they'd had or projects done or what they wanted to do with it in their career, crickets.

    To be fair, 2nd most popular was "CAD" which is also not a job.

    10
  • What do you think the voting age should be?
  • Vanth Vanth Now 100%

    Eh, close. No age limits if it's the child's family farm. Otherwise, it has to be on a farm already not under minimum wage laws plus a waiver plus limited to short-season harvesting. Which is all super easy to abuse and work around. Personally, I never saw it and heard it happens way more in the southern US states.

    2
  • Do you think your partner looks better with makeup?
  • Vanth Vanth Now 100%

    They always look good. Normal day levels of makeup looks great. Special event extra fine makeup looks great. Morning face with no makeup looks great. I just like their face.

    15
  • What's your right place at the right time moment?
  • Vanth Vanth Now 95%

    Saw a neighborhood kid toddling into the street as a car was bearing down. I ran across and scooped up the kid and did a flying somersault move into a lawn worthy of an action movie (at least in my head). Hot and grateful parent, dated for a very brief amount of time. Kid lives on and while I never kept in touch, I still hear through the hometown vine he's a good kid doing fine for himself.

    22
  • What do you think the voting age should be?
  • Vanth Vanth Now 100%

    It's 12 in the US for agricultural jobs. That's when I started corn detassling and tree trimming and filed my first taxes.

    Don't forget acting too. There are babies and toddlers acting and working for pay.

    11
  • What do you think the voting age should be?
  • Vanth Vanth Now 100%

    RFK Jr. is now in charge of the department that handles voter licensing requirements and sets the criteria for "capable of thinking objectively". Yikes, and he's not even the worst person for the job I could conjure up in 5 seconds of thought.

    6
  • What weird false belief did you have as a kid?
  • Vanth Vanth Now 100%

    Similar, I had one declare rivers flow towards the equator. Which is slightly better than claiming they all flow N to S, but still inaccurate.

    Rivers flow downhill. That's it. In case anyone else needs to check their mental model of the world.

    19
  • What do you think the voting age should be?
  • Vanth Vanth Now 100%

    No one's fighting for teens to be recognized as adults at 16, and they will all have the right to vote in two more years, so I don't see the parallel at all to the women's suffragist movement who couldn't ever expect to vote, married or not, and were part of a broader campaign for women's rights. If there was momentum to make 16 the age of legal adulthood, it would make sense that voting would be a part of it.

    16 is arbitrary. Not linked to any legal status. Not linked to the age at which one can work and pay taxes. Not linked to any milestone being identified. Like I said, open to arguments but it needs to be better than "younger than 18, set it at an aesthetically pleasing number... 16 will do."

    The most convincing arguments I see are about being able to vote for the president who could draft you, so theoretically voting at 14. But my preferred condition, and where I would throw any activist energy, would be to get rid of the draft entirely.

    I'm also against compulsory voting. Absolutely against it in current state with all the access issues we've agreed upon. Even with perfect access though, declining to vote can be a political statement in itself.

    3
  • Inspired by a post since deleted, I feel bad for probably coming off judgemental about the poster's taste in the movie that drove him to consider sailing. The earliest desired media I can remember that drove me to figure out sailing was DC Talk, a Christian rock band. Pop music was not allowed in my house, so a Christian group was tantalizing and scandalous to a rebellious, young Vanth. Things escalated from there.

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    Vanth

    Vanth@ reddthat.com