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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 29th, 2023

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  • Nah, son. Thylacines have, in a way, become cryptids since their extinction, complete with cheesy travel shows where some bogan tells you all about how they totally saw one time and they’re 100% sure it was a thylacine they barely saw from a distance running away through the tall grass after sunset. I’ve seen similar shows about Bigfoot, Nessie, Mothman, and others. They don’t exist anymore, making your chances of seeing one alive no more likely than seeing Bigfoot, which is the point I was making. Animals thought to be extinct being officially rediscovered is a pretty rare occurrence; I assure you it doesn’t happen “regularly”. It’s a big deal when it happens because it’s quite rare. Yes, I’m familiar with the stories of all the other extinct species you mentioned as well. The ivory-billed woodpecker is still considered by most ornithologists to be extinct, and the last widely accepted sighting of any individual was in 1987, despite some supposed (but not universally accepted or entirely conclusive) sightings every once in a while. In 2020, a guy working for Fish and Wildlife claimed to have ID’d one in video footage, but it must not have been very compelling because the very next year Fish and Wildlife proposed declaring it officially extinct. People claim to have sighted the ivory-billed woodpecker not infrequently, much like the thylacine. What is infrequent is any compelling evidence whatsoever, however.


  • There have been many sightings and footprints found of Bigfoot, too. I live in the Bigfoot sighting capital of the world and new sightings are routinely reported. If the “Portland” in your name is in reference to the one in Oregon, you do too.

    The last widely accepted sighting of a wild thylacine was in 1933, nearly a hundred years ago. Even if any tiny, isolated pockets had managed to escape extermination (which is unlikely on an island without much mountainous terrain or dense forest, especially when everyone and their grandma was out hunting them for the bounty the government put on their tails), they’d be in big trouble owing to genetic drift by now. You always hear people say “I know what I saw,” but do they really? It makes me circle back to the Bigfoot thing. At least some of the people who claim to have seen Bigfoot genuinely believe they really saw him.



  • Not to mention too expensive. The base ticket prices have skyrocketed over 1600% since 1996. In just the seven years between 2015 and 2022, attendees with household incomes of less than $100k dropped from around 56% to 40% and attendees with household incomes of $100k-$300k+ have risen from 43% to 59%. Over the years, it’s seemed like the crowd has been increasingly yuppie and increasingly white collar; these numbers appear to back that notion up. I remember seeing a video from a few years ago where Andrew Callaghan was talking about how he paid $10k for an RV spot and 2 tickets. He also complained that a lot of the people there seemed like “weekend-warrior-types”. I can only hope that price is with an insane scalper markup or a super deluxe VIP package or something. $10k is an unthinkable price for a weeklong camping trip in the desert, even a really cool one.

    That, the heat as you mentioned (I found a chart that demonstrates rising averages and most in the comments are saying the reported highs are far too low), and the floods last year I think have combined to scare a lot of the core demographic away. I dreamed of going to Burning Man for years, but I haven’t even thought of it in quite some time since I learned how prohibitively expensive it would be to go.


  • Don’t the lyrics in “In the Flesh” indicate that the nazis are actually a different band that had to be called in as substitutes because the lead singer of the band that was supposed to play is currently going through a mental breakdown in his hotel room (i.e. stuck behind the wall)? The main figure of the album might’ve just imagined the whole thing, though.






  • Workers are now paid 20+ bucks an hour for fast food

    In California, maybe. Everywhere else wages aren’t even near that much for fast food. Fast food establishments aren’t even really part of the tipping discussion, which may be why California raised the minimum wage only for fast food workers. Having worked those jobs before, I can say that no one there expects a tip and likewise, tips are uncommon. Restaurant workers still have the same minimum wage as before, though. For fast food, don’t worry about tipping. If you want to go to a sit-down place, though, don’t go if you aren’t prepared to tip. It’s not like you can’t figure out approximately what the tip would be before you go. Don’t forget that federal law says food service workers only have to get paid $2.13 an hour of actual wages as long as tips can make up the difference to the national minimum wage of $7.25. It makes a lot of people unhappy when they have to tip, but that’s how it is and they knew it before they went out to eat. If you don’t like it, don’t reward those businesses with your patronage in the first place. Not tipping only results in your wait staff getting stiffed, the boss doesn’t care whether you tip or not.






  • Nah, it’s not much better during the day, either. HC runs either crackpot history/paranormal docs, reality shows, discussion about niche topics such as toys/modern architecture/etc., or war docs almost 24/7. In case anyone is wondering, here’s the next three days of programming scheduled for History Channel.

    Saturday (Veterans’ Day):

    12:03-1:06am - The UnXplained

    1:06-3:04am - The Proof is Out There

    3:04-4:01am - The UnXplained

    4:01-7:00am - Paid Programming

    7:00-1:00pm - WWII in HD

    1:00-7:00pm - Vietnam in HD

    7:00-8:00pm - Special, Variety Salute to Service 2023

    8:00-10:03pm - Beyond the Battlefield

    10:03-12:03am - Special, 761st Tank Battalion: The Original Black Panthers

    Sunday

    12:03-2:04am - Beyond the Battlefield

    2:04-4:01am - Special, 761st Tank Battalion: The Original Black Panthers

    4:01-7:00am - Paid Programming

    7:00-3:00pm - Modern Marvels

    3:00-12:03am - The Toys that Built America

    Monday

    12:03-4:01am - The Toys that Built America

    4:01-7:00am - Paid Programming

    7:00-12:00pm - History’s Greatest Mysteries

    12:00-4:00pm - Ancient Aliens Special Presentation

    4:00-9:00pm - Ancient Aliens

    9:00-11:05pm - Ancient Aliens Special Presentation

    11:05-12:03am - Ancient Aliens (continues until 4am Tuesday)