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Volcanos being caused by overpopulation in hell.

Almost makes me wonder if this is a mechanical turk situation.

Oh, another thing about secret votes. It transfers blame from individuals to congess itself. If votes are public, and a popular bill fails, then the individuals and parties are blamed, if secret, then the whole of congress gets blamed and you could see incumbents lose reelection not because of how they individually voted but because of how the body as a whole did. That could force cooperation, but it could also introduce a new form of gamemanship.

This isn't an ideal solution, but a practical one. A simple hack for the U.S. would be to make congressional votes secret. Yes, this means congress people would be less accountable, but think about where their accountabilites lie. These people are far more worried about their parties' strongmen and sponsors than their gerrymandered constituents.

Impossible to implement in the present U.S. climate, but more idealistic is to divide the US into 50,000 person districts (greatly expanding an individuals access to their rep), then group those into evenly sized super districts. The reps choose from among themselves a super rep to attend congress, who they can recall at anytime. This should make gerrymandering more difficult, and dilute the effectiveness of corporate donors while increasing the influence of individual voters.

Changes could have so many repercussions even well meaning actions could make things worse. The safer bet would be to collect lost books and art.

That said, stopping the Lincoln assassination is tempting. I'd hope to change reconstruction to better wipe out the confederacy, prevent lost cause doctrine, and better integrate former slaves into full citizenship and society.

VR - It has been through a few hype cycles, but never quite makes it. Cost, weight, battery life (or tethers), lack of highly desirable games, required floor space, nausea (in some people), etc.

Starlink - when announced it sounded like the solution to ISP monopolies and rural broadband access. But the roll out was so slow that other solutions have caught up. For people with no option other than satellite internet, it is still great (if they can get it) but for a lot of people, better options now exist.

Hot dog buns. In my opinion, the generic, white, store brand buns make the best hot dogs.

Conservatives seem to hate mail in, drop off, and early voting. In states with questionable election officials, I'd worry the might find some way to disqualify those votes.

I worry that she actually is "middle class" and the wealth disparity has moved to the point that those of us who cannot spend $150 on pet insurance or drop $750,000+ on a house or $100,000 on a truck are effectively "poor", at least as far as the market is concerned.

Earthday. Not just on its own merits (which are substantial) but because there is a general lack of US federal holidays on that side of the calendar.

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