You’re completely correct on the exposed demand issue. I would also add that in most cities (in the United States anyway) hotels can only exist in very specific corners of the city due to zoning, often in just three places: downtown (expensive!), the suburbs (so not even in city limits), and “motel alley” (which is usually an old highway in askeevy part of town lined with mid-20th century fleabag accommodations that are slowly being abandoned/bulldozed). For some cities this isn’t an issue, but in others it’s a problem for accessing the tourist attractions, especially if the tourists in question don’t have a rental car. Then there are the non-tourist visitors to consider: if you’re in a city to visit family, you’re probably going to want to stay as close to them as possible. Same with a lot of business travelers. This is a bit of a conundrum when the nearest hotel (or affordable/decent hotel) is a 30 minute drive away.

I’ll check it out, thanks!

I just want the communities that already exist to have more engagement. It’s pretty demoralizing making a high-effort post and getting only a handful of upvotes and no comments. And it’s like watching a hospice patient visiting a neat-sounding community and realizing all the posts are by the single moderator (and are getting less and less frequent).

I think one of the best ways for folks to contribute to the health of Lemmy would be for everyone to spend some time on “all - new” (or even “all - top hour”) on occasion. “New” on Lemmy is not the cesspool of reposts and garbage that it was on Reddit (although there is a LOT of porn if you don’t have NSFW toggled off), and the quality of the first few pages of “top hour” is usually pretty good (except again for the porn, which it turns out gets pretty decent engagement). I visit “top hour” pretty regularly, and nearly all posts that are stuck in zero-engagement/minimal-engagement pergatory are simply niche content rather than bad content.

Arcane, the animated Netflix show that was based on League of Legends.

Basically all the media.

There is (or at least was) a special kind of joy in discovering a new piece of media (movie, TV, book, video game, comic, etc), getting to the end, and hopping over to the relevant subreddit to sort by “top of all time.” Bonus points if you loved the series and would get to essentially relive it all over again through the sub, but even media that you hated or were neutral about could be fun subs to peruse; maybe you would get to revel in seeing something you hated turned into a meme highlighting how stupid it was, or get to feel justified in your negative assessment upon reading an epic rant from another user; maybe instead you’d find hidden details or explanations pointed out by other users that made you reassess the work (“huh, I though that was a stupid plothole but it actually was perfectly explained by that one scene that apparently went over my head”). The ATLA subs especially were treasure troves of tiny details and “holy shit I just noticed on my fifth rewatch” posts that really elevated my opinion (and thereby enjoyment) of a series I was initially kind of “meh” on.

When I think about what it would take to feel like Lemmy had sufficiently replaced Reddit for me, the number one practical answer is for comprehensive news (political, world, cultural, meme, etc… Reddit really did at one point feel like “the front page of the Internet” if there ever was one), and the second is to have the critical mass to be able to ask a question and get a good recommendation for any specific product or service, via regional subs, hobby subs, etc (although thanks to LLMs and corporate astroturfing that may simply be a bygone part of the Internet). But the “fun” answer is to have the critical mass for a wide range of specific fandoms.

I would love to see increased standardization in the food industry limiting the possible sizes and shapes of containers (such as glass) making them easier to wash and reuse as-is. On the home front, for example, it’s ridiculous that I have to go out and purchase brand-new Mason jars for canning instead of being able to reuse a store-bought salsa jar. But more importantly on the commercially-processed food front, standardization would make reuse easier by ensuring that containers do not have to return all the way to their original company; that way a jar used by a raspberry jam company in the Pacific Northwest bought by a customer in Florida could go to a local orange marmalade company for reuse rather than having to travel all the way back to the PNW.

I think should also start seeing a lot more compostable products. We’re already getting there somewhat with paper replacing plastic in shipping, but more products need to be explicitly labeled as compostable, and more municipalities need dedicated compost pickup and processing facilities. It’s insane that we’ve created a soil-to-landfill pipeline for nutrients.

It could actually go either way, based on the title:

Only half of South Koreans willing to marry; even less [than half] want kids

Or

Only half of South Koreans willing to marry; even fewer [South Koreans] want kids

I’m inclined to lean toward the second. “Even less than half” sounds a lot clunkier than “even fewer South Koreans,” so it’s not surprising other readers assumed the latter.

Do you care about exposure to potentially toxic/carcinogenic materials? Asian (especially Japanese) rice cookers such as Zoujirushi do an excellent job, but AFAIK they all utilize non-stick pots (Teflon).

Yup any oil works in my experience but I’ve found cooking oil to be the least messy, hence that specific suggestion. But in a pinch any kind of greasy substance will do.

You don’t need a specialized product (like Goo Gone several comments mention) to remove sticky residue. Any kind of cooking oil will do. I usually use a small dab of whatever is on hand (which in my house is olive oil, but avocado, canola, corn, etc would also be fine). Start with a very small amount, like one drop: a little can go a long way and it can be a huge mess if you overestimate how much you need. Rub it in with your finger and the gunk should come right up. Paper towel the rest off. Repeat if necessary. Extra bad spots might require a touch of gentle fingernail action.

On the plus side, it’s a refreshing move away from the opposite: videos that are dragged out, padded up, and way longer than they need to be. Remember when YouTube required videos to be at least ten minutes to be monetized or something like that and suddenly every video that should have been less than five minutes was 10:01? Every basic how-to video suddenly had a filler arc.

I too feel nostalgic sometimes for the “turnpike” days…

I love astronomy and astrophysics and the academic side of space research. However I am anti-space travel because we’re already surrounded by artificiality: everywhere there’s roads, power lines, introduced species, houses, wayward trash, the constant roar of traffic in the distance (and I live in a rural area!). Even the forests are not real: they’re monoculture tree farms. Many stars are not real: they’re satellites. But at least the moon is real, until we start building moon bases and mining facilities and stain its surface with light pollution. How can I be “pro-space” when everyone from space agencies to corporations seem so giddy to colonize the one mostly-untouched beautiful thing left–something that anyone anywhere on earth can gaze upon–and besmirch it too with humanity’s influence?

Most bathrooms in Japan have either western style toilets or a choice of both, especially in urban areas. But better to not be caught unawares.

Are there any paved trails they can learn on? Rails-to-trails can be great, as they’re naturally flat and straight, if there are any of those near you.

Mr Rogers was unable to whistle, so you’re in very good company!