Semisimian

From the article: “There are recent signs that the gradual decline in church attendance has leveled off. For the first time in 25 years, the number of people attending in-person worship in the US has increased.”

The article also says that about 100 million people (30%) attend a weekly service in the US nowadays. They talk about the heyday of the mid 20th century where 50% of Americans attended a weekly service. The population of the US in 1950 was 150 million. So that’s 25 million more people attending church today.

So why are all the smaller churches closing? The article (and possibly the PBS doc) fails to place some of the blame on the congregation capture of mega churches and how politics has driven people into these behemoths. I know that is what’s happening where I live in the South. They have a large sanctuary and expand that with an enormous online presence. How else can we have more Church goers and less churches?

Smaller churches with smaller congregations provide necessary support and community for people. Mega churches are money machines with political agendas. The documentary wants me to mourn the loss of community, fine, but it’s the Christians that are doing it to themselves. I’m not shedding any tears.

From the article: “There are recent signs that the gradual decline in church attendance has leveled off. For the first time in 25 years, the number of people attending in-person worship in the US has increased.”

The article also says that about 100 million people (30%) attend a weekly service in the US nowadays. They talk about the heyday of the mid 20th century where 50% of Americans attended a weekly service. The population of the US in 1950 was 150 million. So that’s 25 million more people attending church today.

So why are all the smaller churches closing? The article (and possibly the PBS doc) fails to place some of the blame on the congregation capture of mega churches and how politics has driven people into these behemoths. I know that is what’s happening where I live in the South. They have a large sanctuary and expand that with an enormous online presence. How else can we have more Church goers and less churches?

For your interest in cultural history, I think that Budapest would win, as it has been a crossroads for centuries. For environmental studies, Iceland would win hands down. They are global leaders in that field.

Something that has not been mentioned yet is that Budapest is rather large, with a metropolitan population of over 2 million. The entire country of Iceland has under 400K people. Iceland is remote and feels remote. To me, that’s perfect. Your results may vary.

It sounds like by “quality” you are talking about the physical fragility of the CD. True, a more modern format might be nice, with a bump to 24 bit depth. I would want something a little more collectible than a thumb drive though.

I say this as an avid CD buyer who rips full quality to a Plex server. Also download from Bandcamp.

“After Zelenskyy revealed the transfer in his UN speech, Lee said on X that Ukraine had broken a “non-disclosure agreement” and that this was regrettable. Zelenskyy’s adviser Dmytro Lytvyn responded on Facebook that there had been no such agreement, prompting accusations from Lee’s critics that the president, whose approval rating has hit a low of 37.9%, had lied.”

So this is an international beef playing out on socials. Great.

“Of the 474 stories, they found that just 10% referenced the climate crisis — and hardly any of the stories were actually about global warming. In nine of out 10 years, climate played a central role in no more than 2% of stories.”

Memes are educational.

"Among the most prominent allegations are that Boebert conducted a four-year “romantic and sexual relationship” with a senior female staffer, named as Clarice Navarro Ratzlaff, then paid her $200,000 when Ratzlaff broke off the affair and threatened to file an ethics complaint of her own.

Additionally, Wheeler alleges, Boebert had a sexual relationships around the same time with Raven Finegan, a congressional employee and the congresswoman’s district chief of staff, and Jeffrey Small, who was her chief of staff from 2021 to 2025."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/21/lauren-boebert-sexual-relationships-ethics-complaint

There’s a mini-doc about one California family: https://youtu.be/0WPzFnZkZmI

My country-listening kid has heard the song and wonders who is streaming it. Not popular in their friend group. This is the first I’ve heard of Ella. 🤷

The concept described here is what us homebuilders call “make up air.” In a tight envelope, when you need to exhaust air, you have to forcibly introduce fresh air to make up the difference. Otherwise your envelope (home) will sit in a vacuum and air won’t move anywhere.

Usually, there is only one window in a bathroom. If you have a fan, turn it on and open the window and it should disappate quickly. If you only have the window and no fan, punch a hole through the drywall to the next room, preferably close to the baseboard for optimal airflow. I assume you are at your “special friend’s house” and trying to hook up. Wait a few minutes and it should clear. Hope this helps!

Put as much money into your index funds and don’t stop until October 13th, 2026. Then convert it all to cash.

Stumblin!

https://www.reddit.com/r/LiveFromNewYork/comments/1nss5gh/stumblin_2010/

These look like perfectly respectable douchebags, nothing like the feckless, impotent, callow d-bags from the original photo.

Should be “shonetines I git shad.”

“prospective”

You sly dog.

Give him the stick, give him the stick. DON’T GIVE HIM THE STICK!

Who wants a body massage?

Memememememememem…

Here’s a link to the novel if you’re interested: https://a.co/d/01DIl9oB

“Companies are looking to slowly chip away at the burden of choice that comes with shopping, travel, and dining.”

Ugh.

When evolution says “no notes.”

I am in construction (not manufacturing) and own my own business. Truth is, they are both right.

Rodney is right because there are a huge number of variables that the prof’s equation is ignoring. Also, it is generally a good idea to know what you are manufacturing and work to produce that product as efficiently as possible. The professor is sort of putting the cart before the horse by building a factory with no product.

That said, we are in a learning environment and seemingly in a lower-level class. You have to strip away real-world variables to teach the lessons at hand. The professor is right not to include corrupt politicians and mafia folk, it’s too much when you are trying to start with the basics. But he should’ve had the class decide on a product - he said it himself, it could be anything - and then build up from there.

Mafia payoffs are a 300 level course.