My favorite role of his was Ahab in the 1998 Moby Dick.

I just rebought the same Levis jeans I’ve had for some years. The exact same model, length, waist etc, because the old one from 5 years ago fit me perfectly. The new one is too small, and not just around the waist, but it stops above my ankles where the old one goes below my ankles. You can put them on top of each other and see that the new one is a bit smaller everywhere. I also feel like it got even smaller after washing - at 30° according to the instructions.

I’ve noticed the same when I go to thrift store. I need L-XL there, whereas when I buy new clothes it’s XXL. Being worn out can only account for so much in my opinion.

There was a documentary a few years ago about a German correspondent in the US. She let her teenage kids have the same freedoms as in Germany: roam the neighborhood, bike to school etc. The neighbors called CPS on her when the kids were in the street and the school talked to her that her kids weren’t allowed to come by themselves, she HAD to drive them.

There is another article on the website about a rise in violence and bullying in schools. Makes you wonder what the reason behind that is.

I liked dating platforms way back in the days when you could make your own page, had large text fields to describe yourself and could filter by age, location and maybe a few other important things like smoking or wanting kids. Years later I tried the apps and it was just frustrating and nothing else. There wasn’t even really space to describe yourself or show your character.

When I was small my parents just didn’t bring me to hotels that weren’t explicitly for families. Those normal boring grown-up hotels just weren’t for us until we were old enough, so we went to the fun hotels with playgrounds. Why can’t we go back to that?

And people wouldn’t be so annoyed by children if the parents didn’t insist that they should be allowed to run around and do whatever they want. It’s not just “let me go everywhere with my kids”, it’s “let me bring my kids and then let them yell and smash things and cry as much as they want because they are kids.” There’s a nice café in my city where I don’t go anymore, because it’s full of mothers with their toddlers from the nearby playground who just continue playing as loudly as ever. Last time I went I ended up with sand in my coffee when some kid waved around his toy car that was full of sand from the playground. The mother refused to buy me a new coffee because “he’s just a kid”. A beach bar by the river actual changed their policy and now refuses entry to children under 12, because it had become too expensive for them to keep replacing food and drinks every time a kid threw the sand around. And of course the parents usually refused to pay for what their kids destroyed.

If parents can’t be trusted to make good decisions like “My 4-year-old who can’t sit still for more than a minute should not be brought to a spa where people come to relax.” or at the very least feel responsible for what they destroy, this is what happens. And if too many parents refuse to pay up when their kid destroys something, owners will prefer to ban kids.

People who say they don’t like children are being hated on, but 99% of the time they just don’t like children who are allowed to do whatever they want whereever they are and parents who take zero responsibility under the guise of it’s just a child.

Oh, he (or someone else in his circle) surely did. Make it illegal for them to be there -> they have nowhere to go -> they go to prison for illegally existing -> free slave labor.

Office isn’t the problem, I use Libre Office even on Windows. The problem is very specific software for some courses. Like we needed to work with SQL for one course and they wanted us to use a specific program. It was a group project, too, and I didn’t want to be the one who messes up our database because something didn’t work right with whatever Linux substitute there is.

I still need to use it for university. We often need to use very specific programs for homework and I don’t know if I can always find an alternative on linux. Even if, I’d have to go through the hastle of converting to the requested file formats. And it’s not guaranteed that I will always find a solution for every course I’ll take. Unfortunately education still expects you to work with Windows and programs that only work on Windows.

It’s not going to stop people from Europe etc., but a lot of people might reconsider their holiday plans if on top of everything they have to pay these steep fees.

I’d argue that the drop in conference and other professional visitors could be even steeper. There are still enough people who’ll privately take the risk or aren’t informed or think “I’ll be Ok if I comply with the laws”. Companies or universities however have HR departments and people in charge of travelling and compliance. They would risk a lot more money and possibly secrets if the devices are searched and employees are detained. I think they’ll be even more careful and restrict trips to the US. I could imagine a lot of conferences offering online participation and many opting for that rather than risking it.

And if enough international speakers can’t get in even more conferences will opt for moving the entire conference to a different country.

I’m German and I worked in an office with managers and engineers who had a background in construction or related jobs. There is a very strong attitude of “We didn’t need that bullshit back when I was an apprentice.” There is a lot of scoffing at people who wear saftey gear and follow the rules. Corners are being cut and safety rules ignored because “we didn’t need all that bullshit back then and losing a finger or two is just part of the job”.

Some German news articles mention that the company in charge of the project had a bad track record when it comes to following safety regulations and the very same construction site had to be stopped before due to broken bolts in the bridge.

The University where I studied switched from Linux to Windows because to many people complained that it was “too hard”. Even the computers in the library that were just for searching books aka 90% of the time just using the browser were switched from Linux to Windows because the students complained. I now work in a job where most of our customers are public institutions and you won’t even get our IT department to let go of decade old outdated software. Too many old people who will throw a hissy fit if anything suddenly looks different from what they’ve been used to for 30 years.

My contract also won’t be renewed. My bosses reason that he explicitly told me is: I don’t fit in because I ask too many questions like “Why don’t we use better alternatives for X software.” We do “project planning” with email-chains and Excel sheets. No, we can’t have any project planning tools, because this is what the 60-year old colleagues have been doing since their first day 43 years ago. If it was good enough for them back then it’s good enough for you now. That’s just how we do it here, since you can’t get used to it we’re letting you go. Etc pp, you get the idea. And the people in the IT department are the same! Never change a running system, it’s worked for 40 years now, no need to try something new.

There’s just no way you’ll get a public institution to switch to open source. Everybody over 50 will scream bloody murder about having to change how they work and it’ll be changed back in no time.

My entire life I’ve heard Americans lecture everyone how superior the US is because of all their rights, freedoms and “real democracy”. The freest country in the world! Look at the constitution and the bill of rights - the most democratic country EVER! Where are those Americans now?

There’s a mobile phone repair shop next to where we live. Everything in the window is faded from the sun. In 6 years of living here I have not seen it open or someone inside even once.

Soon we can translate all the GDR jokes and use them for the US.

Even if the system isn’t completely rigged by then, it’s been proven time and time again that the average voter has the attention span of a toddler on sugar. I’m afraid what happens now, three and a half years away from the elections, will have no influence on the elections.

That’s a cool concept, hadn’t heard of it. Nanotech might also be an option for this. You have a bunch of nanobots in your brain and when you encounter a new language, some AI will decipher it and rewire your brain to understand it.

The Webshifter Series might be a good start (Book 1 is Beholder’s eye). The main character is a shape shifter, so we get to see the world from the point of view of someone who can change her form between different alien races. The book has a lot of interesting descriptions about her changing senses, e.g. suddenly being able to perceive different colors or having an organ to feel the magnetic field etc.

Star Trek has a common language in the federation or not? It would be cool if they encountered a new species and get out their communicators, record for a bit and have an AI figure out the new language. Wouldn’t take up a lot of screen time and explain the communication.