Wirrvogel

The NBC article is not telling you this:

Klarna brags to businesses that offering their app will increase the average store order by 45%. That means that the average shopper is spending 45% more—for things they can’t afford—all because they don’t have to pay for it all at once. That’s messed up!

Source: https://www.ramseysolutions.com/debt/klarna

It is NOT about people who can't afford food, it is about psychologically manipulating you into overspending and it works on so many people that the handful who it doesen't work on are just the tiny exception.

And that in a world that can only survive if we consume less.

Not so funny when it actually happens to you:

Because of really bad experiences with alcoholics as a child, I am afraid of people who drink. My psychologist and my doctor wrote that down.

When I became seriously ill and could no longer work in my old job, I had to retrain. To do this, you have to go to the German employment office and get an assessment of your strengths and weaknesses, including what your doctor and therapist have to say.

They read the paper from my doctor and my psychologist, but just skimmed over the words and decided that because the word "alcoholic" was there, I must be the alcoholic. They told me that I could get paid retraining and benefits, but only if I attended a therapy group for alcoholics once a week - me, who is afraid of alcoholics because of the abuse I suffered as a child. .... I immediately started crying and swore that I had no problem with alcohol, only with alcoholics!

It took 6 months to get someone at the job centre to actually read the papers word for word to find out that me saying "I'm not an alcoholic" was not me being an alcoholic in denial. I got a half-assed apology and my retraining 6 months after I could have started it because of this. Not to mention that every time I refused to go to AA meetings they threatened to take away my benefits and I was in such a bad mental state that I probably would have killed myself without the help of my family. Oh, and my family who tried to intervene were labelled as co-alcoholics, holding me back.

To be fair I am also concerned about children's safety in Alabama, for a multitude of reasons and non has to to with transgender people.

I find it important to make clear it was a hate crime, but Lauri Carleton was NOT killed "over a rainbow flag outside her clothing store".

No one gets killed because of a rainbow flag. You get killed because an asshole who wants to rather die than adapt to the world changing wants to spread fear with his last action and needs desperately to find a "reason". Let's not pretend he had a reason any other than being a coward.

My heart goes out to her family, friends and the community impacted.

I guess Drew Findling was the person who made Trump cancel an event where he wanted to spout out more lies about the Georgia election and then told Trump "we can not put these lies onto a 100 page long paper and read in court either" even when you promise we will and so he had to go.

This is very good, because it means Findling was an actual lawyer who could have successfully defended Trump (or at least kept him of digging himself deeper and deeper) and now Trump is forced to go with someone who either doesen't care on being a reasonable lawyer or isn't one.

Just a reminder how everything the GOP tried against the election outcome in Georgia went so far:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-election_lawsuits_related_to_the_2020_United_States_presidential_election_from_Georgia

"Rather than presenting their evidence and witnesses to a court and to cross-examination under oath, the Trump campaign wisely decided the smartest course was to dismiss their frivolous cases," Raffensperger said.

Trumps problem is, all the people who "wisely" made the decision to not go forward in this direction and to hold him back are now gone.

This article speaks right out of my soul, when comparing Starfield and Cyberpunk 2077 2.0.

The quest qualtiy itself is comparable, but the delivery of Starfield makes it solely my job to create immersion (which I can and will do), while Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 grabs me by my balls and drags me into the world.

::: spoiler Spoiler for a small quest in Cyberpunk When the barkeeper leans slightly forward, looks carefully right and left to make sure no one is listening and then tells me he suspects his wife sees someone else, I smell his parfume and I notice he relaxes his hurting back by stemming his arms onto the desk, because he is doing a double shift. Having Silverhand commenting on every step of the quest and turning it into a noir detctive story, making fun of me, added more immersion to a "follow person, report back"-mission. That I then can just call the quest giver on the phone, as a normal being would feels life like. :::

A similar quest in Starfield:
I talked to the barkeeper in Starfield from the wrong angle and he only turned his head and it was very uncanny valley, because over the whole conversation I was questioning how he can still talk with a broken neck.

The school around the corner here (Germany) has a "school dog". Its job is to help teach kids how to approach dogs, how to stay safe in the presence of dogs, read their body language, stay away from dogs that run around alone, always ask the owner first etc., kids can get a "dog petter licence" by succeding in a test.

The dog's second job is to be in the class rooms once a week for every class and just go from child to child and help them to calm down.

Kids stop throwing things to the ground because the dog might eat it and get sick. Kids tend to be not so loud because they learn that dogs can hear way better than humans and loud noise can make them feel uncomfortable and even hurt them. The kids learn to make sure the dog's bowl has always fresh water and when the dog decides to go to its resting place to respect that and not to disturb it. Teachers say it has a good influence on the relationship between teachers and school children and between the children and teachers faces light up too when they can pet a dog after a stressful hour in class. It calms nervous kids down and helps concentration in the class room and who wants to fight if the dog could get nervous and not understands what's going on?

The older kids are now even involved in helping with training a puppy to also become a school dog.

https://www.brakenhoffschule.de/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/FullSizeRender.mov

The idea of a police dog in schools is sending shivers down my spine.

If a government treats every child as a potential criminal first before thinking of protecting it, then something is really wrong.

“the absence of a code has led in recent years to the misunderstanding that the justices of this court, unlike all other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules."

Who has misunderstood this? Oh, the justices of the Supreme Court themselves did. Good they remind themselves now, that they are restricted by ethics rules. Sad that they had to be reminded of it. Even more sad, that they can't specify the ethics rules, because if they would they immediately would call out the ones who did clearly not follow them. That also does not speak for them, because it means the ones who did not follow ethics rules in fact are still unrestricted by them.

This is worse than ignoring the problem. It is admitting that they were and are the problem and admitting they were and are unwilling to do something against it. Well done. This will be teaching material for everyone in the justice system for years to come.

"It appears that Trump knowingly and intentionally broke the law. The only question is how many laws."

What a dumb question, all of them of course, because he is the greatest law breaker of all time. ~/s~

ADHD - As usual I forgot something important, like to stay dead.

He lost another 2 lawyers. Is there a number out there, how many lawyers he had that were withdrawing? Many withdrawing only days/ a day before a trial, which a lawyer only ever does if they are deadly ill or their client is so unhinged that they can not risk being with them in a court room.

More than 500 people were sent to hospital after the incident ... 423 people have been discharged from hospital ... 25 in serious condition

What is stupid is the headline, why not "500+ injured in subway crash" instead of using the number of one kind of injury. As stupid as writing "two people lost a tooth in subway crash". Still one of the seriously injured could die, but of course I wish everyone a speedy recovery, from injuries but also from the shock of the accident.

I am not very helpful, but don't kill these hours, befriend them!

I am handicapped and in early retirement. I had a hard time going on walks, got tired fast, there was always the fear of stumbling/falling again and carrying a bag was painful using a backpack made me getting tired faster.

I bought an expensive walking helper /walker with 4 wheels (not something you sit on and drive, but walk behind), a seat and a big bag for shopping. I feel like superwoman now when I am on a walk, because I can walk longer, buy stuff and just put it on the thing and it is so easy to get even heavy stuff home and whenever I get tired and no matter where I am, I just sit down, relax, power comes back and I can keep going.

The best thing I have ever bought in my whole life.

I was told this is only for very old people and that it looks ridiculous at my age and that I would not need it by everyone, fuck them. It is pure quality of life and increases my power to over 9000! I have been more outside in the last 12 months, than in the 5 years before that because of it.

They allowed capitalists to win and they bought golf.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2023/jun/13/saudi-arabia-golf-pga-tour-public-investment-fund

That's the capitalists:

The tragic paradox is that for the most part the people who care about sport do not own it and the people who own it do not seem to care for it at all. It is of no consequence to Saudi Arabia whether or not you like golf. Eventually, it will find the thing you do like and your views will not be of interest to them. No, they will not be taking questions. No, you will not be kept up to date on progress. As ever, you will find out what’s happening whenever it decides you need to know.

And if you think "I don't care about golf, no loss" they already have bought all kinds of other tournaments including e-sport.

Aaaand that's why two of his lawyers withdrew only shortly before the trial one even just the day before. They realised how unhinged he is and that there was no way to stop him, so they left the sinking ship.

The logic of these people is flawless, I don't understand why the judge can't see that and needs evidence. ~/s~

They:

• we would and some even have done shady stuff at the election
• this means the other side has done it obviously too
• someone has told someone else they are absolutely sure ballot stuffing happened, but we can't remember who said it and who it was can't remember they said it, but it definitely without a doubt was said and since we know we would have done it they have done it
• don't you see how it creates a perfect circle(jerk) - case closed

And what happened to someone I know is: When they came back, everyone acted like as if they had a full vacation and not just worked abroad. Everyone expected them to have magically recovered from work and they were asked to not take "another vacation" because "they already had one". On top their work from abroad was looked at way more critical, because some people assumed you can't do your work well when the beach is waiting for you.

Rural people: Take us seriously!

Also rural people: Explain it to us like we are five!

Increasing water efficiency is likely to result in reduced demand for water, with less water therefore flowing through drains and sewers. Some parties have suggested that this could lead to blockages, drainage problems and homes flooding due to backed up sewerage systems.

In Germany our toilets usually have two buttons, one for the yellow which flushes but with a lower amount of water and the bigger button for the big brown business and maximum water flow.

Depending where you live and depending on drought being a thing in your place of the world, using less water can have unwanted side effects:

• backed sewerage systems
• not enough water can lead to environmental problems if the sewage isn't watered down enough for your sewage treatment plant to deal with it or if it goes straight to a river it is worse than with more water (that one is always really bad but definitely extremely worse with less water)

First the taste got lost, now they turn into the nutritious equivalent of card board. The nutrition supplements industry: "Hell, yeah!" But you have to give it to them, every vegetable and every fruit looks perfect now and keeps that look for a long time. What can be better than that?

My neighbor has a balcony and has tomato plants on it every year, and they are the ugliest tomatoes I have ever seen and have the best taste of any I have ever eaten. I want a balcony or a garden so badly.

From the article: "The act has been welcomed by child safety advocates."

Same beeing tried for the EU.

The proposed regulation is excessively “influenced by companies pretending to be NGOs but acting more like tech companies”, said Arda Gerkens, former director of Europe’s oldest hotline for reporting online CSAM.

“Groups like Thorn use everything they can to put this legislation forward, not just because they feel that this is the way forward to combat child sexual abuse, but also because they have a commercial interest in doing so.”

If the regulation undermines encryption, it risks introducing new vulnerabilities, critics argue. “Who will benefit from the legislation?” Gerkens asked. “Not the children.”

“So it’s very clear that whatever their incorporation status is, that they are self-interested in promoting child exploitation as a problem that happens “online,” and then proposing quick (and profitable) technical solutions as a remedy to what is in reality a deep social and cultural problem. (…) I don’t think governments understand just how expensive and fallible these systems are, that we’re not looking at a one-time cost. We’re looking at hundreds of millions of dollars indefinitely due to the scale that this is being proposed at.”

https://balkaninsight.com/2023/09/25/who-benefits-inside-the-eus-fight-over-scanning-for-child-sex-content/

This whole article is worth reading despite its length. This is a mess and the UK is only the start, they are aiming for this being implemented world wide.

EPIC is laying off 900 people so Tim Sweeney can follow his stupid dream of a Meataverse. He even said this in his "apology letter" where he writes, that he spends too much on metaverse, so he has to lay off people, but then he ends with the promise to continue to overspend on the same thing going forward.

He lays off 900 people, 1/3 of them even core people making his game(s).

It is stupid decisions like this that make the layoffs "necessary", not anything actually related to the development of games, when it comes to these big developers/publishers.

Don't let them fool you that this could not have been prevented.

https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/news/layoffs-at-epic

For a while now, we've been spending way more money than we earn, investing in the next evolution of Epic and growing Fortnite as a metaverse-inspired ecosystem for creators. I had long been optimistic that we could power through this transition without layoffs, but in retrospect I see that this was unrealistic.

and

About two-thirds of the layoffs were in teams outside of core development. Some of our products and initiatives will land on schedule, and some may not ship when planned because they are under-resourced for the time being. We’re ok with the schedule tradeoff if it means holding on to our ability to achieve our goals, get to the other side of profitability and become a leading metaverse company.

He is totally fine with crunch because he on purpose understaffed his core development teams, he is happy for an upcoming community event while having laid off all the staff for that and will continue to make the same mistake again, while laying off 900 people at a time where getting a new job is hard and where many of them rely on finding a new job or losing their working visas.

Fuck him! Do not defend him!

Looking at her stick figure arms, she starved herself like every other person with an eating disorder. Just that her disorder was disguised as "a food choice" and that she had a huge following that did not help her even at a point when everyone could see her melting away not just the family. I hope people who cheered her on feel bad now, but they probably just change to the next person with an eating disorder.

Being vegan or eating a more special diet is not a problem as long as you get a regular check up at your doctor, have a basic knowledge about nutrition and monitor your weight so it stays at a healthy point, she clearly didn't. She consulted her fans instead. Sad. My heart goes out to her family and friends.

Since his fans believe what they want to believe he might be alive forever, I mean there were people on a street waiting for J.F. Kennedy to come back because they believe he didn't die or something. I am not sure if they can get Trump out of the GOP ever again.

I will leave that r/Place completely alone and not even look at it. I am close to 5 weeks sober from Reddit and nothing that will happen there will bring me back. The best thing that can happen is no one participating, not even a f*ck spez picture, just an empty white page, not even Canada trying to get their flag on it.

Permitting them to permanently mess with their physiology in such a critical phase of development seems wildly irresponsible to me.

And do you think all these scientists and doctors haven't thought about all the problems and side effects and why it might still be necessary before they think about giving children a drug like this? Do you think it is not being closely monitored? We have many years of experience with this, not only with children with gender dysphoria.

All you see is "messing with their physiology at such a critical stage of development", what you don't see is the "mess" of watching a child go through the wrong kind of puberty and the damage it does for a lifetime, and you haven't confronted yourself with that or the corpses of young people who have killed themselves because they just couldn't take it any more.

This is something that requires knowledge, not emotion. I understand that you are uncomfortable with this process, nobody can take that away from you. Either do not think about it and leave it to the specialists, or get the knowledge to understand what you are talking about.

To take away a life-saving drug because some people who are not affected by it, do not want to face the damage and loss of life, or do not want to learn about the procedure, feel uncomfortable, is the stupidest and most evil thing I can think of. Guess who I think ist the irresponsible person here.

Can they please restrict the sale of Viagra (and similar drugs) next? If God wanted men to have erections and climaxes and be able to have children, He would clearly make it happen. Viagra is against God's will. /s

People that need sound to fall asleep scare me, so imagine me in the opposite corner.

The story about a man stuck in a cave that gave me nightmares forever, after watching the video, this new story can't hurt me anymore:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnI_oZKxzl0
Watch it, the way the story is told is great, a classic! 10/10 nightmares, will watch again!

Edit: I was made aware that the video plagiarised heavily an article by someone else, so I leave the link to the original work here too: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/544782/1925-cave-rescue-that-captivated-the-united-states-floyd-collins

Germany:

Price indication regulation (Preisangabenverordnung)

All prices stated on the menu must include any applicable surcharges. In other words, the price of the meal is also the final price. The quantity served must also be stated for drinks.

I think German Trump supporters in Germany take the crown: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/07/world/europe/germany-trump-far-right.html

Our own fucking meaty feet?! They go all ouchie after a time!

The amount of media we have instant access to has reached a level that I find intimidating rather than inviting. Consuming media is becoming more of a chore than a pleasure. Dividing the available media into more services is a plus for me, if I am honest.

I have access to a streaming service, and if they don't have anything I'm interested in, I just walk away and read a book, play a game, put on some music, go outside, or do my chores.

The days when I thought there were things I "should" watch/read/play/listen to are long gone. Not being driven by what is "the thing to do" makes life so much better.

Not having much choice also makes life easier. There were times when I spent more time clicking around in the flood of what I could consume than I did choosing and enjoying. Now, if I can't decide in less than 5 minutes, I take it as a sign that I should do something else.

I wish it were only the political system, but it is also the social contract that is being broken.

Not everything in a society can and should be regulated by law. For example, we know not to cough or sneeze in someone else's face, but to put our arm or hand in front of our face. It's not a law and yet 99% of people know it and do it and call out people who don't.

The US political system worked well for a while because there were do's and don'ts that weren't made into law, but every politician respected them to some degree. The GOP no longer respects anyone or anything, not an unwritten rule or even a written law, but they want to be respected, they want their rights to be respected.

This is not just happening in the US, I see it happening in the UK and Germany for example. Basic respect for each other is being lost more and more, between families, between neighbours, even between politicians. How do you get that back?

We don't know how to deal with it as a society. We can't have a law for everything. We depend on people and politicians to keep within the minimum social rules and follow an unwritten code, and we have nothing to punish them if they don't and they just ignore these rules and spit on them.

Sounds trustworthy to me! ~/s~

This is the real point here. If this is a legit talk about legit points then it can be open for everyone to see.

Starting talks with Meta behind closed doors can never happen. If they have something to say or ask then they can do it publicly.

I am all for talk, because that's the part that hurts no one, but make it as transparent as humanly possible from all angles.

I also want to know what "the enemy" is up to, so invite them to talk as much as possible, we do not need to agree to anything just because we were talking/listening.

It is understand some class photographs were taken before the pupils with additional support needs were brought in.

How did that happen, when no one in the school was in with it? Where were the kids with complex needs at that time? As a parent I would have a closer look at the school, no matter what they say now. I mean it takes time to get the kids stand together, stop making funny faces etc. This was not done in five minutes or the pictures would be awful.

or worse when you realize someone you were joking with was actually being completely serious

I liked the stories about the moon landing not happening for many years (I'm 58), not because I believe it didn't happen, but because I loved looking into what would have to happen to cover it up and how impossible it would be to cover it up. It was a joke until I realised that people were starting to take it seriously. Alternative history was a hobby I was into, I was writing (terrible) stories myself and then they turned everything into "alternative facts" and made up history and took it for real and I just had to give up the hobby completely. It is no fun to write or read a story about a flat earth or people living inside the globe or aliens when you know someone actually believes it to be true. That's why we can't have nice things:

like half the worlds gone insane

Will two 5 y.o. that shot their grandmothers by accident do?