Is it common for roads to close or get backed up randomly during the winter? Like should I be planning additional time to get anywhere, on top of what google maps says?

When you say hardly any snow, you mean just enough to coat the ground? Like maybe an inch? What about other winter stuff like ice storms and freezing rain and whatnot

Thanks for all the driving tips, it seems there's a lot that goes in to driving in the north, beyond just worrying about ice. Just wondering, does everyone have a 4wd or awd car? Does that help at all on the road?

Ah I didn't even consider the ice scraper and winter shoes. I wouldn't even know what kind to buy for that

Yep thanks

Frankly, who cares? If you don't want to see or participate in tankie propoganda, then don't. People point out that lemmy.ml is the hub for a lot of communities, so it isn't reasonable to switch to another instance. And then they bring up communities like !Linux@lemmy.ml Guess what, Linux isn't meant to be a hub for political discourse, and for the most part, it isn't. Use lemmy.ml how you want to use it, and if you want to participate in other political leanings, go to a different instance. No one is really stopping you, and that's the whole idea of the fediverse. And there really isn't any value lost, because this isn't a "choose one and only one" situation. You've got all of the fediverse at your fingertips

<EDIT> So this came off a bit abrasive. But the point I want to convey is that if you want to have deep/heated political discourse, either do that on a community (and instance) suitable for it, or use an account specifically for political discussion. I think it helps everyone. The mods can referee communities with more clear boundaries, the lurkers/users don't need to worry about political debates when looking up tech support or whatever, and you (the reader/political dissident) can still enjoy your discussions with less worry about being randomly banned. </EDIT>

Okay cute, yeah I think that's fair. Neutral?

NEUTRAL? No come on

It reminds me of the cowboy 10-gallon hats I saw on cartoons. Whoever the designer was for that vehicle certainly is ... creative

Ads work differently than that. At least good ones do.

A good ad is almost imperceptible in presenting an idea to you. I have no doubt that people that are bombarded with ads that they say they "ignore" are still influenced over not having seen the ad at all

Can I just add a different perspective on this?

My dad is really old (like early baby-boomers), and I am basically the in-family tech support when the home computer starts acting strange.

Well, right after google rolled out this update, my dad clicked on what he thought was an online shopping link. It was actually an ad for a toolbar add-on. Queue Cue like 6+ hours trying to uninstall that add-on and the bundled software.

I never had to worry about that in the past with him because I had u-block origin installed. Now I need to find something else that can run quietly in the background. And probably a better antivirus.

I think Lemmy has steadily been getting better. For having a good conversation, I think this is the best platform, everyone here seems like actual people I would run into irl.

What I think is still lacking is a way to search up anecdotal evidence on something, that I still heavily rely on reddit for. For instance if I type in google "french press coffee brew time" the only valuable results with the in-depth info I'm looking for are usually youtube videos, which are too long, or reddit threads. So I usually just end up adding site:reddit.com for all those type of search results.

But lemmy is getting good. I could see it replacing some info sources for the more tech-y niches I follow in the near future

Wow I had no idea about this. And I was just in the process of trying to download a pdf from one of these websites. Thanks

I suppose that's true, bikes haven't changed much in the last 30 years. But maybe this is just my short term memory, but it seems like there has been a rise in specialized parts for bikes? Like thru-axles were originally only meant for high end mountain bikes, now it's standard. Same with hydraulic disc brakes, suspension, etc. Lately what's been scaring me is ebikes, which have software/controllers that aren't meant to be opened or repaired, just return to manufacturer. For now it's only high end bikes, but how long until the electronic shifters make it's way onto even the old used bike market?

1000% agree. But to Lemmy's credit, I found a greate niche community of linux and programming enthusiasts, plus I've noticed I run into Europeans more in the wild on here.

I think the fediverse has it's benefits. Still not a full replacement. Truthfully I don't think it will ever be, those niche communities will always end up being hosted where it suits them best.

Just to throw in my 2 cents, when I started bike riding I had a cheap supermarket bike. At the time I didn't care much for reliability, I just rode for fun. As I got more into it, I bought a used hardtail for about the same price as the supermarket bike was brand new. That switch over was what defined my relationship with bikes.

Riding my bike turned from just a leisure activity into exercise, grocery runs, going to class, anything I thought I could make it on 2 wheels to. The quality is night and day.

But I think you kinda gotta appreciate how bad supermarket bikes are first, before appreciating the joy of a light, rigid frame

This is extremely frustrating. For individual bike shops, this now means business is going to be forced into large corporate owned shops just for simple things like rebuilding a hub. Really hoping the bike community pools together and offers a generic, simple bike that is useful for stuff like touring or grocery runs, without a bunch of specialized parts. Something like the buffalo bicycle

I was curious how best to cut down on our usage, if we'd be aggressive, how long we could make our oil last.

From the EPA, seems the like roughly 40% of an oil barrel ends up being used to create gasoline source. The transportation sector accounts to 2/3 of our total oil consumption. In the transportation sector, roughly 54% of energy is used just for passenger cars. source

If everyone in the world stopped driving gasoline cars and switched to a 100% renewable option, we would only cut our oil production by about 36%. That changes the timeline from 50 years to 78 years.

Pretty saddening to think about. Hopefully some technology improvements for oil recycling come around quickly

So yeah not quite 99/100 but definitely a majority, especially recently. And I agree its very concerning that domestic terrorists are usually far-right. It is something I'll bring up in the future to Trumpists, I honestly don't know what their reaction to this info would be, but I hope it causes some kind of change.

Grouping Islamists with domestic right-wing is a bit odd, but I get your point. I doubt they would vote for Trump. Trump would also absolutely deploy the national guard and army against Islamic extremists, even if they were "right-wing" technically.

I could potentially see an argument that Islamists would be leftist in an American context, since their main opponent was the Bush and Republican administration, but that is also a stretch.

58% Far Right, 8% Far left, and 27% Islamist

Seems the most descriptive. Thanks for the info and stats

I know these people closely. I don't think they expect him to go full on dictator. Maybe thats true for some other Trumpists, majority not true for the ones I know.

Talking points you brought up seem to be a strawman. For Christians, a big reason they vote for Trump is because the Republican party has taken a hard stance on not allowing abortion. For many, many Christians, that is as serious a topic, as facism is on left-wing discussion forums.

And again, their voting ideology is not so clear cut. They don't support Trump because they believe he is perfect in every category, rather, he checks the one box (or rather, his party) that is extremely controversial and important to them.

Also yeah, right-wing extremists are more common then left-wing. So there is a concern there. I stand by what I said though, that the majority of Trump voters do not support extremist action.

That's fair. Personally, I am no soldier, I intend to flee if the US become a battleground, and I would encourage, even go out of my way to help, my friends and family flee as well. I would really oppose anyone I know dying for a political cause.