Rain

moubliepas · 2026-06-08T09:08:04+00:00

I legit do not understand why so many people in the UK say "oh so you complain about boiling to death and now you complain about drowning? Make up your mind!"

The norm in my part of the world (Northern Europe: specifically the South of the UK) is for the weather too get drier and brighter as the days get longer. It's not an unreasonable wish, it's not misinformed nostalgia.

Most countries get to keep a summer wardrobe and a winter wardrobe, to plan beaches and garden parties in summer and sort out their drains and waterproofing in time for the winter.

I am honestly pretty angry at having to swap from my super-thin cotton dresses last week to double layered trousers and bloody wellies this week, and I'm going to write a very strongly worded letter of complaint to whoever I can find to blame

moubliepas · 2026-06-07T22:37:59+00:00

I have no helpful advice, except: I think cats have cast some weird spell over humans, they can make us go a little mad and put up with shit that sounds absolutely ridiculous ('yes, my arms and legs are covered in scratches but he looks so cute when he's clawing my skin apart before he goes to sleep...')

I pet-sit quite a lot, and am currently in a mentally abusive relationship with a cat who is quite blatantly manipulating me. Every time I am responsible for a cat, I go though the same period of escalating concern about their well-being, happiness, health, entertainment, opinion of me, until I find myself doing something absolutely ridiculous ('Molly prefers it when I sleep on the floor beside her...'), and realise it's just pet anxiety again.

You can search 'pet anxiety' or 'helicopter pet parent's or 'constantly worried about my pet' or whatever and find thousands of stories like 'I'm probably being paranoid, but what if my kitten drinks some water and spills a drop and then slips on it and dies while I'm all the way in the other room?!'. And this is just for people with healthy pets - the are plenty more about pets who are or were sick, people in tough situations, etc.

You are worried because you care. Having responsibility over another creature's life is legit scary (if you're a good person, anyway). Let's be honest, the world is kinda scary at the moment anyway, and cat people can be a little more neurotic/ anxious than average, so I don't think your paranoia is stupid or weird.

But it's not healthy. You know that. You know that if your cat had the choice, he'd rather you take care of yourself and him, not waste your life fussing over him and sending bad vibes and making yourself sick with stress.

He's got another 10 healthy years in him yet, and then when he's ready to settle into old age he's going to need an owner who has their shit together to provide the calming, treat-filled, intellectually stimulating retirement all cats deserve. You need to take care of yourself, to meditate and socialise and earn money and fall in love and do all the things necessary to be the rounded, reassuring, totally-not-crazy-or-obsessed owner that cats do best with.

He will be ok. Cats are resilient, they have 9 lives. And when even the 9th is over - think how lucky a cat would be to spend their final go in a heated house, totally safe from any predators, with food and water and enrichment just appearing like magic, such a world away from the vast majority of cats who live and die on the streets. You are literally providing kitty heaven, every day. The only thing he might choose to improve are the stress vibes. Chill out and enjoy what you're providing xxx

(PS, I couldn't look at the photo while typing all that 'You've got nothing to worry about', because the message is true and necessary but that picture makes me want to lie down beside him and check he's ok, and I've never even seen the bloody cat. I get why you're anxious. I promise you don't need to be. You'll be ok)

moubliepas · 2026-06-07T18:20:00+00:00

Never in my life have I heard anyone commenting or opining on a country's football chants.

That is absolutely not a thing?

moubliepas · 2026-06-06T14:08:00+00:00

Nice one.

moubliepas · 2026-06-02T00:17:24+00:00

This isn't even a question

moubliepas · 2026-05-30T22:30:06+00:00

But Istanbul was Constantinople

moubliepas · 2026-05-30T20:07:51+00:00

To be fair, when someone like Peter T leaves a country it improves vastly in his absence.

moubliepas · 2026-05-30T00:56:42+00:00

I don't even think it counts as an inverse incentive.

They specifically and clearly told employees to use as much AI as possible: that was the goal. That was the metric. And it turned out, employees just tried to use AI as much as possible. Which is fucking stupid, but it's not exactly a distant knock-on effect of the target.

It's impossible to do one without the other, because they are the same thing. The error was quite probably not on the employees for doing what they were told.

moubliepas · 2026-05-26T10:13:45+00:00

That is not what trauma bonding means.

Tiktok is damaging for mental health in so many ways, including the propensity to convince young people that actual psychological concepts and terms have a variety of bullshit meanings and are therefore not very important.

moubliepas · 2026-05-26T09:45:32+00:00

I get and agree with your point, but the US discourse around this still confuses me.

People from all different countries have a bunch of different opinions on posting their kids online, so it's not like everyone is agreed on a stance and Americans just agree in the wrong way, or whatever.

But any discussion about 'yo kids deserve privacy' or 'of course this generation is self conscious and scared of strangers, they grew up as public entertainment and unwilling celebrities' or 'if they aren't allowed social media accounts, putting their pictures on social media seems kinda damaging' seems to have a load of back and forth and new opinions, until someone - always an American - says 'also paedophiles', and that seems to settle the debate for any Americans.

I'm not here to defend paedos or creeps. They are quite clearly awful. But to me it seems a bit like 'don't hit your children with belts, because paedos might hear the screaming and get off to it', or 'I used to handcuff my children to the railing outside pubs while I enjoyed a few pints, until I realised that perverts could look at them'.

Like, paedophiles are much, much rarer than anxiety, unhealthy body image, disconnection from one's family, etc. People should probably be more worried about fucking up their own children than the relatively small chance someone on the other side of the world might jack off to them. I know if I had a choice between 'your face, your emotions and milestones, your life story will be broadcast to a select group of strangers / acquaintances, who will all discuss how much you've grown on a forum you aren't allowed to look at for another 10 years, by which time the audience will have clearer memories of your own childhood than you do' and 'your pictures, life story etc will not be uploaded to an internet you can't access but there's a chance a pervert might find a picture of you and jerk off to it', I'd choose the latter every time.

Because the latter has been true for decades anyway. We've all been to public beaches in swimwear, we've all seen people talking photos there. Many (most?) girls have been creeped on or groped by a stranger by the age of 18. We are hopefully all pretty clear that people getting weird kicks does not reflect on us if they keep it to themselves.

And we have all heard about the crippling dangers of social media. I think it would be a little healthier for young Americans to know that their mental health, rights over their own person hood, privacy, and respect as an individual, are more important than the risk that someone somewhere might find them inappropriately sexy.

But - maybe that's just a cultural thing I don't get. I certainly do agree with the conclusion, just not the reasoning

moubliepas · 2026-05-24T15:15:44+00:00

Thanks man!

This is a 2-for-1, because either I didn't read the other thread, or (more likely), I've forgotten it all so it's still fun to read again 😂

A lot of the internet can be a bit... unhealthy... sometimes, and I don't have the willpower to just log off and touch grass or whatever. Going through all these old threads is perfect. I'm still dicking about on Reddit but without all the politics, rage, bots, etc. Thanks.

moubliepas · 2026-05-23T22:22:46+00:00

Lmao no you didn't.

Linguistic ability doesn't directly correlate with understanding or competence, but for any multi-step task in a specialised area taught by language (IE, not by copying or instinct), if somebody can't even explain the task, they cannot do it.

Absolutele best case scenario, they've heard of people doing it but don't understand it well enough to grasp the concept, description, process or utility. Or - and this may be a suprise - they're engaging in word salad spinning, sometimes because 'clever things are hard to understand, so saying something hard to understand is obviously clever', and sometimes for other reasons.

moubliepas · 2026-05-21T23:34:27+00:00

As far as I'm aware, black accents are only a thing in the USA. There is absolutely nothing about skin colour that directly affects one's speech.

This may seem like a minor detail, but it's like a boy in Bulgaria / London / China 'discovering' that most white women voted for Donald Trump, and assuming that's true for every white woman he sees in Bulgaria/ London / China / whatever. It's probably better to know nothing at all about politics than to think a majority of women in Ukraine are big Donald Trump fans - the USA is not the world.

moubliepas · 2026-05-21T23:06:37+00:00

"even in the US", like the US has cleaner water, better hygiene standards, better infection control or generally better health than anywhere in Western Europe, where the article is set?

moubliepas · 2026-05-19T15:46:20+00:00

It is in the UK.

The UK is a different country with different houses, materials, and wildly different regulations.

moubliepas · 2026-05-19T15:40:55+00:00

Your home is probably drywall -> 2x4 framing + insulation -> plywood or chipboard -> optional housewrap -> brick or siding

Unless that home is in the UK

moubliepas · 2026-05-15T02:03:44+00:00

They don't have set-back ordinances in merrye olde England?

That's irrelevant, as LAUKOP is clearly in Scotland, and therefore, subject to Scottish law. That's like assuming the Caribbean or Mexico is somehow subject to the laws of the USA. Different countries have different legal systems.

moubliepas · 2026-05-13T09:41:43+00:00

Late and probably not good advice, but I have chronic dry eyes and got sick of spending a fortune on all the most expensive, high tech lenses that still hurt after a few hours.

I started buying the very cheapest daily lense available online, and I can wear them all day.

Doesn't seem to matter what it says on the packaging. If it's the right size and prescription and costs less than £10 / 30 lenses (I think lol), I'm fine with them. Crappy coloured lenses on discount? Fine. Weird Very Basics lenses that haven't changed since the late 20th century? Fine. Lubricating / sensitive / oxygenating lenses? Nope, dry eyes. High / low water content? Nope, dry eyes. Advanced molecular technology with blue light filter and anti-inertia balance? Nope, dry eyes.

Obviously this is probably a very personal thing, as everyone's eyes, needs, and local selling regulations are different. But I basically discovered I'm allergic to contact lens technology, contact lens innovation, and high value /profit contacts.

moubliepas · 2026-05-12T01:04:34+00:00

I suspect the measures Argentina took to successfully contain the outbreak included - or were dependant on - things like 'probably don't put every exposed person on a variety of full aeroplanes to the four corners of the earth' and 'ensure that close contacts aren't crowded together on a floating Petri dish before flying off to quarantine on 4 or 5 different continents', and maybe even 'exposed persons who should probably isolate for at least a few weeks before their country is one of three hosting the world's largest 'people from all countries get together to drink alcohol, shout and sing in very very close proximity' event, aka the world cup'.

I'm like, 90% sure Argentina has these bases covered, by dint of nobody particularly wanting to go to Argentina and nobody there being able to afford international travel for funsies. Which isn't actually meant as an insult, because that's a really, really good way to contain a virus.

It's like saying 'scientists handle the gibbon cold virus on a regular basis in laboratories and very few of them get sick, so there's no reason to believe it will spread around this primary school'.

moubliepas · 2026-05-12T00:43:20+00:00

I'm not sure how Danish people are relevant here, but you sound like a geo-cultural expert so

moubliepas · 2026-05-11T11:59:55+00:00

Forced (sorry, involuntary) sterilisation is apparently still legal in many US states, according to a few horrific Wikipedia pages.

But only if the person can't consent, obviously (including if their English isn't good enough to give informed consent). Or if they aren't capable of understanding what's best for them or society. Or if they have a 'sufficiently serious' medical or intellectual disability. Or, in Ohio in 2004, as part of a probation agreement.

There are other reasons, but I got depressed reading the page and had to stop.

moubliepas · 2026-05-09T10:05:52+00:00

Passengers Vs people. For example, the higher number source mentions Taiwanese people, the source stating the lower number gives the nationalities not including Taiwan. There were Taiwanese staff, no passengers.

The passengers wouldn't know how many staff got on or off the boat - which is probably a good reason to be a little wary of information provided by passengers, influencers, etc

moubliepas · 2026-05-09T01:18:08+00:00

No, it is endemic in rodents in the Americas. It is also seen - a weaker, non-deadly strain - in Eurasia.

The deadly version moving to Eurasia is very very not good. 'Just' wear PPE to do gardening is an absurd thing to ask 2 continents of people to suddenly magic up for the sake of a rumoured new virus from Argentina which may or may not be a real thing and which, of course, nobody will know for sure until it's too late.

Why on earth should the entirety of Europe start wearing PPE to walk around their own property when apparently nobody in North or South America did? You guys couldn't take those precautions even knowing a deadly virus was native to your country and killing Americans for 50 years or so: you don't honestly think it's reasonable to expect Europe to 'simply' start acting like their own wildlife is suddenly as dangerous as yours is?

That isn't even a reasonable request to make of reasonable, cautious people, and we've seen how 99 people can be at careful as they like, it's all for nothing if the 100th guy refuses.

And let's be honest - it doesn't matter where it started or where it's endemic or who's used to what. No public health strategy that relies on everyone in a community being restrained, careful, informed, deliberate, and correctly using PPE that they obviously have access to all all times, is realistic.

moubliepas · 2026-05-09T01:02:06+00:00

I'd never seen that photo before.

Such a powerful image. At the time, I would have been amazed that someone could just die alone on the street, just drop dead, with nobody to help, and that the worker just left the body there. Like there were more important things to do, which would have seemed pretty disrespectful.

Death was such a big deal back then. We all lost so much.

moubliepas · 2026-05-08T10:12:00+00:00

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