Oh sorry, I’m not denying that at all. I was only drawing on the comparison of Gmail being pretty ubiquitous like WhatsApp is.

My guess is that in some form they track contacts and link clicks. I genuinely don’t think they’re reading messages, but I think they do know eg that Bob is someone that likes to send people links and that there are 5 people that always open those links. So they may have directed model of linked topics between people.

Even if this isn’t true though, owning WhatsApp probably gives Meta a lot of culture impact in a similar way to Google and Gmail. The fact that they could create their Meta AI model and put it in front of like a billion people overnight won’t be lost on shareholders.

Not American and maybe I’m just OOTL but this confuses me as well… I’m aware of a peaceful protest against the mass deportations, but what else? Why do they need armed soldiers??

Oh interesting, I had Dishonored on PC and didn’t remember it being so bad. And I know what you mean, the controls feel so off beat though it’s hard to put my finger on exactly what it is. Some kind of acceleration/mapping function thing. I like to use motion controls for ADS as well and those were very sensitive.

I had it on PlayStation a while back. Really enjoyed so much about it, but ultimately found the controls on console to just be unbearable.

Donnie Darko. Donnie Darko.

It’s rose-tinted glasses in play as well. I have many fond memories of my university days and deeply miss all the time I had with my friends that I now rarely see. I would encourage any student to cherish that aspect. There were many, many, difficult aspects of that time as well though, and a decade or so on I deeply appreciate the autonomy I have now.

I think if this experience is related to having ADHD, the part that is relevant is the lack of ability to acknowledge that you’ve made a jump at all. In the example it’s a perfectly valid train of thought, but I’d expect an average person to make an effort to bring the other up to speed. Because most people generally expect to continue conversation in the same topic, you spend mental effort trying to keep tethered to that topic and have to share that rope with the other person.

Farrow & Ball go further by just calling their salmon paint colour “Dead Salmon”.

Agreed, the flip side is allowing something ending to be sad too. Not everything needs a positive spin.

This just reads to me like a classic step of linguistic evolution, where people can’t be bothered to caveat the normal word with a deeper meaning (eg “my business ultimately ended, but it was the right call and it was always be a great time in my life…” etc) and so think a new word is necessary, until inevitably the same thing happens, ad naseum.

Okay sure I can get behind that. I guess I just like the handle to be a consistent shape because I like to have some precision at the back too, palm or pinky.

I use my fingers I imagine how you would, but then after a gap wouldn’t you typically have the end of the cutlery resting into or against your palm? At least occasionally, depending on what you’re doing with the cutlery. I love that we’re discussing this, by the way.

I want 2’s head on 5’s body. 2’s body looks better than most but it’s too big for me, looks like it’d have bad palm feel.

To add to the other comment and give an analogy: say you’re concerned that I secretly possess keys to the back door of your house and I can freely come and go. It’s technically possible. But two questions are important; how come you’ve never seen me in your house or any signs I’ve been there? And secondly, why do me and my friends keep asking you to give us your back door key?

The information inside of the commas can be omitted, it’s just extra detail. The sentence can still read as ‘The Trump administration cut funding to Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab last month.’

Haha yes that’s fair! I am extremely grateful to not have had kids during that time.

Thanks for sharing. You’re definitely right about the divide. I just found that I had so much time I could do everything I needed and wanted to do (granted, within the confines of social distancing at the time). Housework was joyful because I could do a good job of it, and have time for hobbies, and have time to relax from both. Aside from all the suffering and madness in the world at the time, it was a genuinely satisfying experience at home.

I noticed over covid that many people were telling me that they were happy to be working again after being furloughed (temporarily paused employment in the UK) because they’d been losing their minds with nothing to do. I couldn’t understand it, I was busy and really happy.

I really appreciate you responding to me in good faith, thanks. I know it’s a fine line, but generally for me not liking the terms of the agreement isn’t enough for me to force my own terms. That said, the one time I’ve pirated something in the last few years was when Prime removed a show from the platform when I had 1.5 episodes of 5 seasons left to go. The idea of paying an extra 10 quid to watch maybe 1% of an otherwise ‘free’ show pissed me off haha.

So I’m not following my philosophy perfectly either. If it came to something like wanting to watch The Mandalorian from scratch though, I would wait and buy the DVD/BluRay.

Definitely a dissenting view but one I can’t help but agree with. Same applies to piracy for me. You don’t want to give Disney money? Fair enough. Very reasonable. You still “need” to watch The Mandalorian? Okay…