Not enough of the mundane has been preserved throughout human history, it continues to be a big problem for historians. Especially when they only have major - likely very coloured or outright lies - official records of events and cultural touchstones to go on.

Why do you think we get so incredibly excited when we uncover something as mundane as the pricing artwork on an ancient Roman food stall? Because that stuff wasn’t preserved, nobody bothered to record such details, so much is lost because nobody thinks their place in history matters enough to bother saving it.

We’ve reached a point in our development where we now have the ability to preserve snapshots of our civilisation in great detail, with extreme ease. We owe it to ourselves and especially to future generations to do so.

This final solution is much better than the previous attempts, 10/10 very cool toaster

Damn that sucks but glad things are moving in the right direction! What country had these banned?

But where does the extra money and infrastructure come from to provide everything they need?

More people means more mouths to feed, more strain on the limited housing market driving prices and inaccessibility up, more capacity required at hospitals, doctor’s surgeries, schools, all public services (meaning everything from more doctors, nurses, consumables, locations, etc needed), and so on.

Where does the money come from to provide for the net influx of 500,000+~ people a year, a population increase of some 0.75%?

I’m not against immigration, welcoming people from other cultures with fresh ideas and outlooks on life is great and I love it, but the strain it places immediately on our already failing societal systems, such as healthcare, education, housing availability, job availability, etc, is very real, and needs to be addressed.

I dunno, I imagine somewhere in the United Kingdom there’s someone eating someone’s pet, and we’re a nation with a rich history of immigration, so they could well be an immigrant or the child of an immigrant.

Whereas we don’t have many right-wing American government employees hanging about, you know?

Gasp

This would be big news if he were King! Imagine the court intrigue and machinations that would follow!

I dunno, I just read an article about that country’s political debate from last night and it didn’t mention this point, it was mostly discussing how angry that bloke got at the other politician and how overall it seems like it was a bad night for him and a good night for her.

The specifics were a bit overshadowed by the perceived importance of the event and it’s outcome itself, I think.

I’m sure in the coming days some more details will flow out of the USA and we’ll hear some discussion of specifics where they concern us, like their politician’s stances on the war in Europe, I agree. I’ve just not seen it mentioned just yet is all.

But it’s only 7am and I think the debate was in the middle of the night, so I shouldn’t expect much yet haha :-D

Just about sums that bloke up eh, gotta love the Guardian.

All things serve the beam.

What do you mean used to?

That’s still what I use. I have seen people using the wireless ones though, they seem quite popular at the moment.

I’m just not sold on the idea of earphones that have planned obsolescence built in, and require Bluetooth.

My current earphones are fab, I’ve been using them for 10 years now, and they plug in to everything and work with everything.

Why downgrade to something that’ll have a ruined battery after 2 years, doesn’t work with most stuff, and let’s also not forget sometimes doesn’t work at all because the battery might need charging.

My wired earphones have not once refused to work for any reason, period.

Is that a person, or?

So old that it wasn’t a video at all, it was a Macromedia Flash Animation!

Video hosting sites didn’t really start to exist until Stage8 had a go with their DivX stuff, and eventually YouTube popped up a few years later too :-D

I don’t think the American History Channel is the high quality historic source we should be citing here.

That thing seems to be all aliens and bigfoots these days. I wouldn’t believe anything they try to teach me haha.

Feck knows what they’re smoking at that production company.

Is “silly coded” a real thing people are saying, or is it just a thing you say? And what does it mean exactly?

I’m just trying to keep abreast of unusual new phrases when I stumble upon them :-D

Most of these design decisions look like they were made to make the game incredibly bland and safe for a 5 year old to play.

Are you an outlaw or are you a big cuddly bear?

Who is this made for?

This is fucking sick, I love it.

I bet the spinning is noisy as hell haha, imagine if we made these really quiet so we could put them in a glass container and use them for neat stuff!

Maybe we could pull a partial vacuum in the container like we did with CRTs to help minimise air resistance noise inside, hmm…

You should never listen to music at high volume on headphones or earphones, you WILL damage your hearing over time (or sometimes in one sitting, both happened to me).

You can tell young people this until the cows come home but they’ll ignore you and assume it won’t happen to them…

and then once the damage accumulates and they’re a little older with annoying tinnitus forever or more painful ear damage (like myself) they might finally start giving this advice out to younger people who still have a chance at a healthy, ear damage free life. But by then it’s too late for themselves, and the younger people won’t listen :-(

There are awesome earplugs you can get that you should wear if you’re somewhere loud like a nightclub or a concert by the way. They start very cheap, and they’re designed to “turn down the volume” of the world without affecting how it actually sounds.

(They’re not electronic or anything, they’re just cleverly made)

You can get more expensive ones that claim to be even better at this, but I find the cheap ones to be fantastic. I carry them with me all the time now, and if I end up somewhere loud, in they go. Heck, I even use them when I vacuum - those machines are loud as hell.

Oh and similarly, wear earplugs when you’re using noisy powertools - table saw, grinder, etc.

Every politician in every nation should be banned from having any side business or income of any kind, including after retirement, to avoid potential conflicts.

(E.g. an MP being offered a paid seat on a Landlord’s Association for when they retire, which would conflict woth their duty to serve the people whilst an MP)

The government income and pension should be enough to live on so that these issues can be avoided.

If you want to become a public servant, that’s a high calling that you undertake to serve your nation, and there are some small sacrifices that should come with it.

It should NEVER be a potential avenue for fame or riches. It should be a sacrifice you make to serve the people and country you care deeply for.

I wish there were another answer, I’ve wondered similar things myself for many years and therapy is always the solution everyone suggests.

The problem is, where I live therapy is only available to wealthy people. It’s not something I’ll ever have access to :-(

Whether a pet gets the food it needs isn’t something you can even have an opinion about.

To be fair, I have a pretty strong opinion on pets getting the food they need. My opinion is that not feeding an animal appropriately is, at best, neglectful.

The great thing is that it’s easy to find out what is an appropriate diet for any pet, clever scientists figured it out and wrote up guidelines for us to follow. Here in the UK for example we would follow the European FEDIAF;

Pet food nutritional guidelines for manufacturers in the UK are produced by FEDIAF (the European Pet Food Industry). These guidelines (also known as Codes) detail the nutritional needs of cats and dogs at varying life stages. They are regularly updated to include the latest nutritional research.

https://europeanpetfood.org/self-regulation/safety

So long as you’re following the guidelines and giving your pet all the nutrients it needs - regardless of how they’re produced (vegan food is fine so long as it replicates the full dietary needs of the animal for example) - you’re good 😊👍

I know it’s silly to have to point that out, I’m not sure why people argued over it (I didn’t see the original discourse). But yes, just to reiterate, it doesn’t matter how you prefer to source the food - vegan, halal, whatever fits your beliefs - just so long as it is a nutritionally complete diet for the animal <3

On the subject of admin/moderation, it is wonderful to see the team trying to be thoughtful, transparent, and kind even in the face of high tempers and heated beliefs. I wish we had more of this calibre of person out in the world :-)