I think this might be related to the idea that pets look like their owners, although I don't think that normally manifests in the pets changing their appearance.

The alternative explanation is that there really is some bug spreading, but it spread to both the fish and the humans.

I'm assuming this is relevant: https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-latest-ukraine-claims-it-killed-senior-russian-general-in-moscow-scooter-blast-12541713

There's another post with this image here: https://lemmy.world/post/23112365

There's another post with this image here: https://lemmy.ml/post/23552582

Is this a trend or something https://lemmy.world/post/23112365

Is this a trend or something https://lemmy.ml/post/23552644

Electoral reform

The choice of Electoral System is one of the most important institutional decisions for any democracy. Therefore, I believe it's important to achieve proportional representation, and I'd also prefer to have an election method that meets good criteria like independence of irrelevant alternatives.

The electoral systems commonly in use in the USA naturally lead to only having 2 choices where neither really represents the majority of the population. Any political activity that isn't focused on electoral (or constitutional) reform will, at best, manage to replace a party (but any institution replacing a party will become similar to the one it replaces in the process).

"First-past-the-post voting" has deprived us of a legitimate decision-making body. Without that, accomplishing other goals will be difficult.

Single-winner systems

Academics agree that the most important influence on proportionality is an electoral district's magnitude, the number of representatives elected from the district. Because of this, I suspect the method for electing representatives to the Senate of the USA should be changed (whether that be by increasing the number of senators, or changing the electoral districts for the Senate, or something else), and that the method for electing executives should also be changed.

A particular problem is posed by executives, since it seems natural that every system has one person that is at least slightly more important than all others. However, this is addressed to some extent by making sure that the primary executive is one that can be supported by a majority of the population, whether that be through a popular election using a system that selects the candidate that is offensive to the smallest number of voters, or investing executive power in a prime minister that must survive a vote of no confidence from a legislative body, or some other method.

I'm not sure why a parent would want to contribute to an account that isn't a UGMA/UTMA custodial account or 529 savings plan. I'd be interested in how to "receive federal contributions" though.

You might be referring to "Nonfree open source" ("source code that is open source but not free") described at https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/categories.html

I would not "[transfer] the deed" for a house without it being part of a sale or talking to a legal and tax expert beforehand, since that could come with rate of tax of 40% for the IRS alone: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/gift-tax https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i709#en_US_2024_publink1000292384

If the owner of the house is worth a lot and dies, the IRS could take 40% too: https://smartasset.com/taxes/all-about-the-estate-tax

There is a an "annual exclusion" that applies to gifts so that might help you transfer wealth without anyone dying: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/frequently-asked-questions-on-gift-taxes

Getting a loan won't help with income, but it could help with expenses. Changing a 20%-30% interest rate into a 7%-19% interest rate could be a useful thing to do for a 3-10 year plan, especially if it actually lowers the overall amount you need to pay each month.

It's interesting that none of the financial institutions you have an individual account with provide an ATM that's close to you. I mostly use resources like https://www.visa.com/locator/atm (or whatever the website of my financial institution directs me to) to find an ATM to use. There is pretty much always an ATM nearby for the debit cards I actually have (note that I usually say to not set up a debit card for accounts since that increases my risk for fraud with minimal upsides for me).

If I was in your situation and was single, I'd open an account with a bank that provided an ATM that's close to me and/or had lots of ATMs around the country, and just keep $100 in that account so it doesn't get closed for inactivity, and then transfer money to it when I knew I'd have to get cash soon.