I'll just throw mine in to help confirm some of the general consensus coming from the states. Before 9/11, nothing really. A few brief mentions in history class etc, our education is horrible about human history but shoves American history down your throat. During the wars? Absolutely fucking horrific that any country is just allowed to attack an area like that. Every time I heard about some new operation I thought about how my family (if they were in that situation) would be huddle in the corner of a room just hoping to survive the night. Something that would make me want to lash out at anything because of the danger to my family, I never got why ANYONE thought this would "stop the terrorizing" by making more radicalized citizens.

After and currently, I'm completely blown away by the historical and cultural context of Iraq. In school there was never an emphasis on how important that country was to the civilization that we have now. Every documentary or book I read that touches on ancient history includes that area. I think if it was better taught in schools, the general consensus would've been more honorable towards finding a solution that worked for both countries.

I gotta say, this article makes me feel sane again.

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yeah but she's probably not happy about it. She was there trying to keep public funds out of the pockets of a few and her only recourse is to take more public funds for the council's actions. Just fucked all the way around.

I'm gonna assume you're in the US because of the name lol. Here's a guide listing all states with their cooperative extension links. All of them are pretty much just landing pages you'll have to look further into, usually there are local offices that may be in your county or at least adjacent. They help with small farms, argriculture, natural resources, development, etc. They're literally paid and whole purpose is to answer your questions and be there as a guide for you, some of them are extremely awesome, encouraging, and absolutely love their jobs when they can help someone. A lot of them offer workshops and classes for families as well, I've done some blueberry and one bee event (made me realize I wasn't ready lol).

So looking into it more, found some interesting history bits I wasn't aware of. The Cooperative Extension and 4-H program was developed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and covers all states.

4-H Program:

4-H is a U.S.-based network of youth organizations whose mission is "engaging youth to reach their fullest potential while advancing the field of youth development" Its name is a reference to the occurrence of the initial letter H four times in the organization's original motto head, heart, hands, and health, which was later incorporated into the fuller pledge officially adopted in 1927.

The goal of 4-H is to develop citizenship, leadership, responsibility and life skills of youth through experiential learning programs and a positive youth development approach. Though typically thought of as an agriculturally focused organization as a result of its history, 4-H today focuses on citizenship, healthy living, science, engineering, and technology programs.

USDA saw that adults in the farming community did not readily accept new agricultural discoveries. However, educators found that youth would experiment with these new ideas and then share their experiences and successes with the adults. As a result rural youth programs became a way to introduce new agriculture technology to the adults.

Cooperative Extension System:

The Cooperative Extension System is a non-formal educational program implemented in the United States designed to help people use research-based knowledge to improve their lives. The service is provided by the state's designated land-grant universities. In most states, the educational offerings are in the areas of agriculture and food, home and family, environment, community economic development, and youth and 4-H.

Traditionally, each county of all 50 states had a local extension office. This number has declined as some county offices have consolidated into regional extension centers. Today, there are approximately 2,900 extension offices nationwide.

Since 2005, the Extension system has collaborated in developing eXtension.org (pronounced "e-extension"). eXtension is an Internet-based learning platform where Extension professionals and citizens nationwide and beyond have 24/7 access to unbiased, research-based, peer-reviewed information from land-grant universities on a wide range of topics. Information is organized into articles, professional development resources, news, frequently asked questions, and blog posts that provide a knowledge-to-action service that has become an integral part of the Cooperative Extension System. In 2015, the nonprofit, member-based eXtension Foundation was created to advance innovation and technology-enhanced professional development going forward.

The wiki link for the cooperative extension system above also has listing for state resources to better hone done your area. Doing all the research alone and on the internet which has 5 million results can be daunting. These spaces give the ability for local experts to chime in without being drowned out in a larger national or world-wide stage. If you need any more resources or want me to look into your local area just message me. I love these people and their commitment so connecting you to them is a plus for both parties.

Well the clippings would come from like a vacant lot you drive by or the side of the road you see a really nice bush in some thickets that are flowering. Anything you see that's local and you enjoy (collecting them all kinda thing). There are plant identification apps but make sure to doublecheck with an online source before you plant them in your yard where the conditions are best for them to thrive (lighting, drainage, etc).

I'm not sure about your area but there are cool local resources you can find. We have a local co-op that's in every county that run free classes and just basic resources (like soil test kits, just cool people with information). If you get time it might be worth it to look into if you're into it. No doubt it's tough with kids though, the best part is you want to be as hands-off with a natural landscape as possible so you're going the right direction lol.

If you're actually going for real nature, consider your local ecology. Do not by a large pack of wildflowers because those are nationally packed and usually aren't considered native so can be invasive (which can also effect your local wildlife and the plant won't fair as well in extreme's for the area that a local plant would survive). Remember, bugs and animals come back to an area knowing a certain species of plant is there for them to survive or reproduce at, making more competition they aren't familiar with harms their chances.

I would consider letting it grow naturally up and if you really want to do something than let the neighbor know so they stop cutting it down for hay (just make sure you're actually gonna do something with it). Let the natural seeds that distribute get into the area and establish. Learn to take clippings and identify local flora when you see a cool plant you want, like a more scientific pokemon game if that interests you.

I'm doing something similar with some acres the previous owners just continued to massacre with mowing and looked like a barren wasteland. It took a few years for the right establishing plants to grow up and protect the other smaller and more delicate plants but this year is the first year it looks like a natural environment. I've been identifying what each growth is and it's been fascinating researching them. Right now it's a mini bee sanctuary because something is always in bloom and for the times only one plant-type is blooming I'm taking clippings and propagating them elsewhere on the property so there's always a bunch of flowers at any point in the year.

I would start with propping up your local bee community since they survive on their own and you may fall in love with them. I have a bunch of ground and carpenter bee's in my area that I don't want to harm with an invasive colony like the honey bee's. There's also TONS of local honey producers so I just feel like I'm running after a gimmick since it's already available and there are bee groups I can join that go to all the different farms for education and socializing. Any bee person would love some help if you went out and joined them.

If you want to get really technical, there's landscaping creating berms and swales etc. But to get started I suggest watching some Andrew Millison videos as he's great with visuals and knows his stuff when it comes to permaculture. How to Fix a Broken Ecosystem

Holy crap that game development sounds like it had a really tough time and brought upon by the inexperience like you said. Found some conversations with the co-founder after the game was cancelled

the game did not retain enough players to have any hope of becoming a business and it wasn't a question of marketing - any money we spent on marketing would have been wasted...

it was not growing organically in alpha people would come in, and play for a bit, and then quit .... i'm not even saying we needed high growth like, remember when the alpha launched we had something like 500-1000 people online the first several days ... but 4 weeks later we were nowhere near 500-1000 the kind of business we bet the company on requires a game like, say, tf2, where its what, 9 years old or something and there's still hundreds of thousands of players and it probably hasn't had a single dollar of marketing spend

Absolutely crazy and absurd level of expectations lol. I imagine there wasn't a single PR or marketing person in the company that could explain to them why. Seems like a lot of hubris which stopped them from finishing the development process and wanted immediate success and fandom.

edit: words hard

Without knowing any details I can only speculate but 10 years is a lot of time to refine your experience and expertise in a field. Do you remember what game it was and why it didn't amount to anything?

That movie was definitely part of my formative years growing up

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But seriously, why are all these movies reminding me of all the great songs. Makes me realize we just don't have that many these days with great original soundtracks

Robin Williams - Batty Rap

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lol now I wanna see an indian in the cupboard stargate spin-off

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For the first part, no not a group therapy session lol. "thoughtful reception" is probably a better apt description. You can definitely have a level of control for how your opinion is received with your attitude and how you engage in a conversation. A space and how conversation is conducted usually sets a precedence, the tools available to you with how you interact with that content is another part of it.

I was just looking for conversations about this style of social platform and the known problems that seem to inflict it. I want Lemmy to stay diverse and federated, I'm seeing a concerning trend of tribalism revolving around instance membership or interaction. As you said I can start a community if I'm looking for something else, which I have done. Starting a new corner of lemmy to stretch out in has been a wonderful experience and has helped me focus on something I want to be creative and engage with instead of wandering around Lemmy "all".

But, I can't help but wonder if that's the downfall. I've been instance hoping a lot lately, it's amazing to see what's been hidden that I'm not seeing and as spaces become more condensed or closed off through defederation the stark contrast between instances is only going to grow. Basically mini-reddits (the negative parts of it), instead of spaces being smaller to allow more chances to not drown out a differing opinion. So am I contributing to this or refuting it by making my own community? Do I have a chance to avoid the main opinions becoming the mindset that others want to follow when engaging or is it just an uphill battle because of the format of this social platform. A lot of really interesting and thoughtful responses in this post, exactly what I'm looking for in community discussions and there's been barely any hate or downvotes. It's been refreshing and given me plenty to think about.

I'm finding it difficult to respond because of the "popular to unpopular" description you've applied. I feel like by definition that in itself is a "hivemind". So maybe like you said the entire premise is flawed. For someone wanting lemmy to succeed as a place where discussions and opinions can be shared and open, whats a positive aspect that you feel could encourage that type of engagement?

fair point, using negative language while looking for engagement and conversation isn't the best start. Do you have a better descriptive I can use and possibly edit the post with? (genuinely asking, I would enjoy everyone's opinion)

hmm, well it's unfortunately usually a "you pay for what you get". If you're not paying then you're gonna end up as the product. I only have experience with "text now" which I've used in a pinch before and it has some limitations on the calls which you'll usually end up running into on any app. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some better ones out there. If you're worried about what kind of App you're downloading you might try the !privacy@lemmy.ml community as someone there might have a better source that isn't constructed to mine your data.

I don't know why people are downvoting you, might have better luck in something like a technology-centered community or putting some more information like what device or uses you have for it.

If you're looking for an app for a mobile device while connected to wifi, there are a lot out there but they are all pretty sketchy in my experience (thinking like text-now which offers a free limited number to use but privacy and ad-blocking get thrown out the window). If you're looking for a messenger that doesn't have a number associated with it, something like matrix that was suggested should work (or whatever preference the people you communicate the most with prefer).

Love a Jellyfin recommendation. Been running one for a bit and have some of them on it, servers waiting for me to install 2 new hard drives so I can get the rest of my collections on it lol. I've been a stickler for getting all of the bonus content even the music videos etc on some movies, it gets quite extensive but only having to do it once and having it secured in a second form is nice.

I had that same thought about all the lost content with streaming just yesterday! Way back in the day the season sets went on sale for like a few dollars each as part of some promotion at the local big box store so I got a lot of them (they did some shady shit like season 4 & 8 were full price though). I still watch them on that so see all the extras. Maybe I can hunt down the commentary (doesn't start till like season 2 I believe) and try to find a way to link everything for easy viewing.