Cyrus The Virus. What a great 90s villain. Upvote for the Con Air reference.

War on Terror 2: Mariachi Madness

Doesn't this kind of assume humans are a central focus of the simulation? What if the universe is a simulation, but the rise of humans was an unintended result in the simulation. Maybe there is actually other civilizations elsewhere that are the actual focus, or just to get a look at the diversity of life that would form throughout the universe. Or, maybe life in the universe isn't the focus at all and they just wanted to look at the evolution of galaxies and the like.

Or maybe I am misunderstanding your point. I kind of like the idea of being an unintended result of a simulation meant for other things though.

There have been studies that suggested increased cancer rates around TMI. I don't pretend to follow TMI closely enough to know for sure, maybe those studies have been completely debunked. The trouble with cancer is there can be a number of different factors leading to it and isolating one incident as the main driver for cancer years down the line is difficult.

There was also the issue with the way the surrounding communities were being "kept informed" and the fact that a whistle blower and to come forward to halt irresponsible clean up plans that could have caused a catastrophic event.

There have been studies that show otherwise. It's been a very long time since I read about them, but was able to find this on a quick search: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/02/why-nonviolent-resistance-beats-violent-force-in-effecting-social-political-change/

It can be both though. It's ok to appreciate and find hope in witnessing common people voluntarily coming to the aid of a fellow person in need while also acknowledging the failures of a system that help create the need for those goodwill actions by common people.

RFC 1149 has always been my favorite RFC!

If you care for music that touches on climate change and class disparity, you could check out King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard's albums Infest The Rats Nest and PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation.
I really enjoy those albums even though I don't typically get into Metal music. For something that's not Metal, the song Plastic Boogie from their album Fishing For Fishies is also great.

This is really interesting. Without knowing there was a word for it, I've often found myself wishing people (including myslef at times) did a better job of the Connected Knowing approach.

The Unix Epoch is obviously the correct base for any calendar.

This is exactly why we need the expert!

Have to strongly disagree. If there are going to be political parties, the more the better.

Unfortunately we don't have a Presidential primary this year, when we desperately need one. So our choice is Biden or ... Full-on fascism.

You seem to make my point here. You don't think more parties are needed, but you want to keep pushing the "vote for my guy because the other guy is a monster" line. Sorry, but I'm not going to vote for someone based on who they are not. You point out there are only two shitty choices after stating that we don't need any more choices...