Eastern Wyoming and Montana are the Great Plains, so that at least makes a little sense. Idaho though, there you have me. I am at a loss. Maybe it’s their poor public education system?
I would consider the Rockies as their own distinct cultural and geographical region, tbh. Most of Montana that I’ve ever seen wasn’t in the mountains but that could just be a matter of perspective.
I was born in Nebraska and lived there until my early 20s when I moved to Wyoming and I’ve been here for 30 years. I’m very familiar with both areas. The “Great Plains” stops somewhere in the western panhandle of Nebraska. The pine forests up around Chadron (NW corner) have nearly nothing in common with the Cottonwood infested prairie down around Lincoln (SE corner). If you want to stick along I-80, which makes the discussion easier, there’s a solid argument that the “Great Plains” ends somewhere West of North Platte and East of Sidney.
The drastic reduction in precipitation is mirrored by a change in the soil as somewhere around there the soil changes from the rich dark farmland of the East to the tan sand hills of the West. Following the water and soil change the plant life itself becomes notably different; its not only less dense it also has far less of the native prairie grasses in it. The change in plant life also makes the animal life different; for example there are no Antelope on the Eastern side but as you go West they start appearing. Deer and Elk are also different with White Tails disappearing as you move West but Mule Deer and Elk starting to appear. Nebraska has not Native Moose population that I’m aware of but by they can be found even in South Eastern Wyoming.
I’ve stomped around Colorado and Montana a fair bit too over the last 30 years and it’s no different there. The Border Area of Colorado and Kansas is vastly different than the area around Lawrence, Kansas or Manhattan on the East Side. It’s the same with the Eastern Border of Montana up against the Dakota’s; there’s notable and large differences between that area and everything East of North Platte, Nebraska.
The Great Plains as embodied by Iowa, Eastern Nebraska, and Eastern Kansas are separate and distinct from the High Plains of Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana.
I mean, southwest Colorado was part of the Dust Bowl. Culturally it’s definitely part of the Great Plains area. I would argue that eastern Wyoming and Montana are as well. They have more in common with the Dakotas than they do with the Rockies.
I still wouldn’t consider it the Midwest, but at least there’s a tenuous thread of logic to the idea.
Southwest Colorado would be Durango / Montrose which is on west side of the Rockies! You think that’s part of the Great Plains area?
Even SE Colorado such as Pueblo and Lamar are very distinct from towns and cities east of North Platte, Nebraska.
Culturally Eastern Nebraska is heavily Germanic / Western European Immigrant. Hell up into the 2000s there were still lots of little churches with at least one weekly service conducted in German. You won’t find that in Pueblo.
I’m struggling to understand all of these cultural similarities that some of you see. Yes they’re all Americans but everything from the type of soil they live on to their ancestry and immigration patterns is WILDLY different between Lincoln and Pueblo.
Some airlines offer free wifi, but the ticket prices are usually higher. There’s definitely a pretty large cost to offer wifi on an airplane. Most of it these days is satellite based, and there are large antennas on top of the airplane in a dome shaped structure. This increases drag requiring a slight increase in fuel burn. Over time that adds up. The prices here do seem high, considering you only get a small amount of bandwidth. The 80MB option can be blown through just by viewing photos.
Yeah but data rate caps are money grab bullshit and everyone knows it.
If they really wanted to measure it per what it costs them it’d be unlimited with speed caps, just that doesn’t make nearly as much money
And like any right drag increase(by extension fuel) would be easily lost to favorable or unfavorable winds, the noise is so small considering it is a joke - the extra $0.01 per flight ain’t gonna cost them the $50 per passenger they’re charging (made up numbers but I’m not gonna whip out drag calculations just yet lmao)
Out of curiosity: what do they actually do if you do outward streaming? Do they come to your seat and tell you to stop? Or do they bill you more? Or shut you off?
I lived in the States for five years and I still don’t really get what Americans mean when they say the midwest. I guess that’s partly because Americans also don’t know, so you never get the same explanation twice.
It’s all the middle junk nobody wants which is why there’s so much of it.
Seriously tho, the historic context is that “The West” was west of the Mississippi river, which iirc got started calling that after the Louisiana Purchase. So the previous “west” wasn’t accurate enough so the states between the Mississippi and the Appalachian mountains (chiefly the northern states around the Great lakes). Then the area has just kind of expanded to include the plains states since they’re also flyover country
Pretty much, there’s some pretty clear distinction as well. Like you won’t find anyone on any part of a coast calling themself a midwesterner obv, but also the south east has the distinct trait of being The South, for better or worse. Usually worse. Southwest also gets a similar effect from being what everyone thinks of as “cowboy country”.
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