It works by applied statistics.

When you littered before - with the old cap - you’d have two pieces of plastic, now they are connected and it’s only one piece.

I’m only mildy annoyed by the new lids and got used to them, but it’s the bottle cap regulation is one of those that’s purely better for statistics.

It reduces littering by bottles to around half, just because we count the pieces differently now.

Maybe we should better just start taxing by the amount of plastic used in food packaging, as a lot of the packages get bigger and bigger just to display the contents more visibility.

Wait, Italians also meme about the Pissplatte?

GROAAAAAAN.

“Race” was invented by racists. There was a lot of fake science here in Germany in the 30s to “prove” that not only “human races” exist, but even so that they have different worth.

So this is what I always still hear when someone is using the word - and commonly they are racists.

I do understand where you’re coming from, and I totally agree that there are a fucking lot of supremacist people and yes - if I had been a teenager in the 30s, people would have seen I’m blonde, blue-eyed and tall. So I would have that privilege and still it is a privilege in the modern world.

Prejudices about skin color exist, I absolutely agree. Racists exist, I agree. Just “race” - every time I hear that, it’s like something out of the Nazi textbooks my grandfather had to use at school.

I can stand carbonated water and hate plain water. When I was a kid, my family wouldn’t drink water but other beverages.

My kids (17 and 20 now) grew up with drinking water at home. Water was the thing to drink if you are thirsty, everything else was allowed but “something special” like a sweet. Going to a restaurant also was special, they could choose what they like.

While I still struggle with water - I manage, but I still drink sugar free soda as well, my adult kids can’t understand how I like that sweet stuff all the time.

So I firmly believe your preference is what you grew up with. You can change it, but it takes effort.

I just googled for “flat pasta strainer”, as the one I have was a present from my dad and I don’t know a brand or name.

I grabbed this pic from Amazon to show the strainer. It’s not how I cook pasta. Tbh probably every Chinese product is being shown with a sloppy photoshop pic, nowadays.

I have one of these:

I love it, much better than a normal strainer.

(And it doesn’t take a lot of space in the drawer or dishwasher)

Found the IntelliJ (or friends) user.

As an atheist I have a deep mistrust of proselytizing.

That includes other atheists who think they need to spread their beliefs like a religion.

I have atheist, christian and esoteric friends and family who keep their beliefs to themselves (unless asked for it) and it’s part of my worldview to (while being able to talk about it) not trying to convert someone to my beliefs.

Was zum fick.

When I was a kid, it was forbidden to peruse DHMO during class, regardless how bad the withdrawal symptoms were.

There was this weird guy around here who claimed women are 100% man - they have been made out of a man’s rib or so.

And a lot of people believed this guy.

Someone forgot to add the googly eyes.

Let’s say grok is just leaning a bit to the right.

See, for me - I crashed in that time, burnout, divorce, financial problems.

I’m rebuilding my life now step by step, and I’m rebuilding it in a way I don’t get into overload too much anymore.

I learned to offset stressful times by time off, for example, and 4 out of 5 weekends I relax. (And, yes I do allow myself to cheat, but I’m aware I go into “credit” energy-wise. So in total I take care my “energy account” stays positive and my life is so much better for it)

It got better, that time was peak responsibility.

Being 55, I agree.

Some of them want to use you, some of them want to get used by you.

I had been in the US for a few weeks last summer, it felt like this.