That’s great news. The other 9 of the 10 biggest protests were were extremely successful at affecting change.

Since we made such massive progress on all the others, this is clearly a harbinger of social and political progress.

The Israelis regularly murder journalists and civilians. The danger was quite real.

Have you looked up the history of the word “moron”?

Is it something about hair extensions?

I don’t know what the implications of hair extensions would be.

I assume she meant exactly what she said.

Germany tried to create laws to prevent a repeat of the Holocaust. It’s a laudable effort but they’re failing at it.

The problem is that they were so specific about preventing “The Holocaust” that they ignored many other kinds of bigotry and racism. They thought that if they forbid a few key phrases and symbols, hatred would wither on the vine. Instead they just cleared the way for other aspects of racism to flourish.

I thought this would be a thread where we post our unhinged snacks.

My goto smoothie:

• 1 banana
• 2 scoops of protein powder
• 3 heaping tablespoons of Benco cocoa powder
• 1 heaping spoon full of peanutbutter
• 2 cups of whole milk

Clocks in at about 1000 calories. It’s great if you’re the type of person who chronically forgets to eat

They gave up their bicycles and quaint straw hats for modernity and now they think they’re entitled to the same standard of living as Americans.

Don’t care

It’s easy to ignore the suffering of others. Have you spent any time in villages where the richest people live like medieval peasants because the whole town hasn’t had any infrastructure improvements in over a century? “Rich” in those places just means slightly less desperately poor. They’re quite egalitarian, it’s just that they’re all broke together.

I’ve never heard of Siemens referred to as an “automation company”.

That’s technically true but they’re much more into heavy industry. They build power plants, trains, ports and industrial automation equipment. They’ve had to lay off some of their own employees but I’m not aware of any cases of their business putting other people out of work.

I likewise appreciate you’re reading and tolerating my bloviated comment :)

I’ll take a stab at it but I don’t remember that movie well so I had to re-watch the clip.

I’ll start by reiterating that the above stuff is generalizations. Some authors ignore them and some intentionally break them. I thin Kingsmen falls into the latter category.

The movie is full of class shibboleths and makes a point of dissociating etiquette from kindness or morality.

To start with, it’s rude of Valentine to offer McCdonalds. There’s an expectation of generosity towards guests and McDonalds certainly doesn’t meet that expectation in that sort of setting.

Sir Galahad’s response is that of a perfect guest. He doesn’t argue with his host or call him out. Instead he accepts what is offered and humbly supports Valentines implication that it’s the height of epicurean delight.

The larger context is to set up a contrast between Valentine and Eggsy. While booth violate high-class etiquette rules, Valentine does it out of aggression and selfishness and Eggsy does it to save the world.

No shame.

I view it as a friendly competition between Europeans. Right now, Spain is in the lead. UK and Italy are trailing but they’re still racing in the right direction. I’m cheering for them to catch up.

There are a lot of interesting discussions around the use of food in movies. Even ones that aren’t directly about food.

Regular food intake is critical for our survival so it makes sense that it takes a large social role.

As a general rule, making and sharing food is considered “good”.

• “Everybody eats when they come to my house.” - Cab Calloway
• “You can get anything you want, at Alice’s restaurant.” - Arlo Guthrie

Taking and consuming food is “bad”.

• “Get in my belly!” - Fat Bastard
• “Mind if I have some of your tasty beverage to wash this down with?” - Jules

The exception is when food is offered. In that case, graciously accepting the food is also good.

• ET and Sloth (from Goonies) accept the candy.

German in US movies has a wild array of quality levels.

The best ones are all from native German speaking actors. Movie actors don’t need native proficiency since the script is written out for them. The accents are really hard to nail down though and native speakers often have some regional dialect that second language learners almost never pick up.

Mac Steinmeir nails it in Saving Private Ryan and he’s Bavarian. Christopher Walz speaks flawless German. His French and Italian sound perfect to me but native speakers consider him “pretty good for a foreigner”. He’s Austrian.

Christian Slater has a very clear accent in Heathers but he’s not supposed to be a native German speaker.

The English accent is often used for evil empires too, eg Star Wars.

Weight is a pretty poor predictor of planning and effort.

The overwhelming evidence is that for some people it takes far more work to maintain a healthy weight than it does for others.

Physics tells us that CICO predicts weight gain and heaps of empirical data tells us it’s one of many relevant factors.

Most people don’t really control their weight by counting calories. They go by how they feel and our feelings,are heavily influenced by our biochemistry. Semaglutide doesn’t work by giving people will power or self control; it works by targeting GLP-1 receptors to make them feel full sooner.

Is absurd that we essentially have a regressive income tax. I also wouldn’t ignore the global environment during that period.

During those decades, the US was effectively the only industrialized nation in the world. Everyone else either never had factories to begin with, or had smoldering piles of rubble where their factories used to be.

The major difference is that in “blink” and “chicken” you expect to keep doing your thing (eg driving straight ahead) while only your opponent makes concessions.

The Cuban missile crisis involved significant concessions on both sides.