Only in Brampton is it cool to drive in the construction lane : r/TorontoDriving - "One of the many reasons Brampton has the highest insurance rates in Ontario."
Only in Brampton is it cool to drive in the construction lane : r/TorontoDriving - "I just got banned from the r/Ontario sub for saying: “Let’s be real, Brampton drivers get their reputation for a reason” Apparently it’s trolling. I guess insurance companies are trolls too."
Janel Comeau on X - "Americans: I use miles and pounds
Europeans: I use kilometres and kilograms
Canadians: [snorting a line of assorted measuring systems] I'm 5'3, I weigh 150lbs, horses weigh 1000kgs, my house is an hour away and I drive 80 km/h to get there, I need a cup of flour and 1L of milk"
Meme - "I WAS DISQUALIFIED FROM THE PUMPKIN CONTEST AT WORK *pumpkin goatse with underwear*"
Meme - "I'm about to put some cucumber farmers out of business: *corn in the shape of a rabbit vibrator*"
Meme - "The first thing a man looks at in a woman is her heart. The fact that her tits are in front her heart is NOT OUR FAULT"
Meme - Car licence plate: "907 X 815"
*written in dust below* "= 731,205"
Meme - AskAubry π¦ @ask_aubry: "Omg Pride and Prejudice."
Pratik @PatelESPN: "gotta say. that’s a new one for me."
*Confederate trans flag*
Jokes UK π on X - "When my wife left, I was sad, upset and lonely. Since then I've got a dog, I bought a new motorbike, shagged two women and blown a grand on drugs and drink... She'll go fucking mental when she gets home from work!"
The Tragic Tale of Hajime Fujii – A Kamikaze Fighter Who Crashed Into & Sunk The USS Drexler - "This is an odd story that involves a flight instructor, his family, and a single-minded request. The whole thing was so strange, in fact, that the Japanese government censored it at the time... The mortar shell didn’t take out his left hand, but it left him unable to grip a plane’s control stick. So the more he expressed his desire to die with his students (many of whom went on to do just that), the more the whole thing bothered him... Fujii’s favorite motto was: “words and deeds should be consistent.” So after months of telling his students to kill themselves by crashing into the enemy, he wanted to do the same by joining the kamikaze. Unfortunately for him, he was a victim of his own success. Popular with his students and staff, and having proven his worth in China, the Army refused his request. They also cited the fact that he was a family man, while most of those they sent on one-way missions were single. Fukuko also pleaded with him to stay out of the war. He had two young daughters, after all. If he died, what would happen to them? But as more and more of his students left on suicide missions never to return, Fujii couldn’t shake off the idea that he was betraying his wards. He felt like a hypocrite, which is why he again appealed to the Army to let him die. They refused his second request. So now Fukuko was trapped. If Fujii stayed in Japan, she’d have her husband, while her daughters would have a father. But he would forever be haunted by his self-perceived betrayal of his students and his country. He would become a ghost (“dim spirit” in Japanese), only half alive. At best, he’d just fade away. At worst, he’d eventually blame his wife and children for his dishonor. So on the morning of December 14, 1944, while her husband was away at Kumagaya, Fukuko dressed herself up in her finest kimono. She did the same with three-year-old Kazuko and one-year-old Chieko. Finally, she wrote her husband a letter, urging him to do his duty to the country and not to worry about his family. They’d wait for him. Then she wrapped Chieko up in a cloth backpack and strapped the baby to her back. Taking Kazuko by the hand, she walked toward the Arakawa River near the school where her husband taught. Taking a rope, she tied Kazuko’s wrist to her own and jumped into the freezing waters. The police found the bodies later that morning, and Fujii was brought to the spot as they were being laid out. The following evening, he painted a letter to his oldest daughter, begging her to take care of her mother and younger sister till he could join them. Then he performed yubitsume (cut off his pinky finger). With his own blood, he painted his third appeal to the Army. On February 8, 1945, Fujii became the commander of the 45th Shinbu Squadron – which he named Kaishin (cheerful spirit). Just before dawn on May 28, the nine planes headed to Okinawa, each carrying a pilot and gunner. To their delight, they came upon the USS Drexler and USS Lowry. Two slammed into the Drexler, sinking her within minutes and taking out 158 of its crew. Fuji was in one of them. He was reunited with his family."
Of course, you still have people who hate the US who claim that Japan would've surrendered, and it wasn't necessary to drop the atomic bombs
Damon Chen on X - "My friend told me he and his wife live paycheck to paycheck. I don't believe it because they both are high earners in tech, and he even works for Google. But after doing a little bit of math, I found out he didn't lie.
• Mortgage: $17,000/month for a $3M home
• Property Tax: $3,000/month
• Private School: $3,000/month for 1 kid
• Travel: $2,000/month (assuming $20k/year)
• Utilities: $1,000/month
• Groceries: $2,000/month
• Eating Out: $1,000/month
• 2 cars: $1,000/month
So in total $30k per month, not including other misc costs like house maintenance, paying for Netflix, etc. W-2 employees usually take home only 50% of their salary, so they have to make $60k per month pretax, which is $720k in annual TC. What's the point of living a life like this?"
Obviously the problem is that they don't earn enough, and capitalism has failed
Meme - "Tourist MAP OF AUSTRALIA
*Green (land)*: AREA WHERE THINGS ON LAND CAN KILL You.
*Blue (sea)*: AREA WHERE THINGS IN THE WATER CAN KILL YOU.
*BLack (shoreline)*: BOTH."
Ruby Franke’s daughter says her innocence was ‘ruined’ by vlogging in impassioned appeal to lawmakers - "Laws for the children of family vloggers have only recently begun to come to fruition. Legislation was passed last month in California requiring parents to set aside money earned by child social media influencers. The law required 15 percent of children and teens’ earnings to be placed in a trust left untouched until their 18th birthday. The law, called the Coogan Law, previously only applied to child actors. Illinois also amended its labor laws in July 2024 to require minors 16 or younger to be paid if they appear in 30 percent or more of their parent’s or caregiver’s social media content over 30 days and the number of views received per video met the online platform’s threshold for compensation. “It is more than just filming your family life and putting it online. It is a full-time job, with employees, business credit cards, managers, and marketing strategies,” Shari said. She emphasized that the business’s employees are children, listing specific moments from the deactivated YouTube channel that made a large profit. "Some of our most popular videos were when my eyebrow was accidentally waxed off, and the whole world saw a crying teenager who just wanted to mourn in private,” she said. “Or the time I was violently ill, and got the leading role in the video for that day. My friends became scarce because dates would be filmed and none of my friends wanted to be on camera.”... She explained that social media quickly became her family’s primary source of income. In terms of the compensation she received, she mentioned a “$100 shopping spree” for filming an embarrassing moment or going on a family vacation."
Ruby Franke’s family say she was ‘brainwashed’ as she’s sentenced over child abuse - "Ruby Franke’s family wrote letters to a Utah judge ahead of the former vlogger’s sentencing over child abuse, saying that she was “deeply brainwashed” after meeting her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt... The mother-of-six was once a YouTube sensation, drawing in millions of subscribers to her channel where she offered parenting advice. But her reputation unravelled when she and Hildebrandt were arrested in August 2023 after one of Franke’s sons escaped Hildebrandt’s home. In a harrowing 911 call, the neighbour said: “I just had a 12-year-old boy show up here at my front door asking for help. “And he’s said he had just come from a neighbor’s house and we know there’s been problems at this neighbor’s house.” The neighbour added: “He is emaciated. He’s got tape around his legs. He’s hungry and he’s thirsty.” The malnourished boy later said that Hildebrandt put cayenne pepper and honey on their wounds that were caused by being tied with the rope, according to arrest warrants."
If women are so easily brainwashed, which is why female criminals are all victims, don't they need more protection than men? So they shouldn't be allowed to sign binding contracts at the same age, for example
Historians say Inquisition wasn't that bad - "Estimates of the number killed by the Spanish Inquisition, which Sixtus IV authorised in a papal bull in 1478, have ranged from 30,000 to 300,000... But according to Professor Agostino Borromeo, a historian of Catholicism at the Sapienza University in Rome and curator of the 783-page volume released yesterday, only 1% of the 125,000 people tried by church tribunals as suspected heretics in Spain were executed. Other experts told journalists at the Vatican yesterday that many of the thousands of executions conventionally attributed to the church were in fact carried out by non-church tribunals."
It's more important to bash Christianity, though
Italian train conductor who issued 5,000 fines wrongfully dismissed, court rules - "Francesco Bonanno was accused of terrorising passengers by working with ‘uncommon zeal’"
Getting fit is great – but it could turn you into a rightwing jerk
Good luck punching "Nazis" with this attitude
Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu brings loads of dirty laundry to be cleaned in Washington - The Washington Post - "Over the years, the Israeli leader has developed a reputation among the staff at the U.S. president’s guesthouse for bringing special cargo on his trips to Washington: bags and suitcases full of dirty laundry... The clothes are cleaned for the prime minister free of charge by the U.S. staff, a perk that is available to all foreign leaders but sparingly taken advantage of given the short stays of busy heads of state... “After multiple trips, it became clear this was intentional.” Israeli officials denied that Netanyahu overuses his American hosts’ laundry services, calling the allegations “absurd,” but they acknowledged that he has been the target of laundry-related accusations in the past. In 2016, Netanyahu sued his own office and Israel’s attorney general in an effort to prevent the release of his laundry bills under the country’s freedom of information act. The judge sided with Netanyahu, and the details of his laundry bills remain secret pending an appeal in the Supreme Court. The relatively minor accusation joins a longer list of corruption allegations that have threatened the 70-year-old leader’s hold on power and triggered protests... Shraga said his organization took an interest in the laundry issue after reports that Netanyahu and his wife took 11 suitcases on a one-day trip to Portugal in December. Netanyahu’s office denied speculation that the suitcases were filled with dirty laundry, saying they included items he needed for his office work."
Scientists who object to animal testing claim they are frozen out by peers - "She said activist scientists received silencing treatments. “In other disciplines, we accept scientist activists. We accept climate scientists who are activists. We accept physicians who advocate for their patients, who are activists about maternal rights. But within the animal research community, that is somehow considered anathema,” she said."
Maybe other industries should be smart and reject activism, since it hurts scholarship
Is Western culture stopping people from growing up? - "An older boss was correcting a younger female employee. “There is no P in ‘hamster’,” said the boss. But “that’s how I spell it,” the 20-something objected. The boss suggested they consult a dictionary. The employee called her mother, put her on speakerphone and tearfully insisted that she tell her boss not to be so mean. It is an arresting vignette. The tearful employee appears to have imbibed the notion of “my truth”, a popular phrase intended to rationalise the speaker’s beliefs and shield them from criticism based on facts. You may say that 1+1=2, but “my truth” is that it makes three. Post-modernists deem this way of thinking sophisticated. Keith Hayward calls it childish. He is right. But Mr Hayward, a criminologist at the University of Copenhagen, goes much further. In “Infantilised”, he contends that young people today are less mature than previous generations, and that Western culture is to blame. He offers plenty of examples of “kidulting” to reinforce his case. Some people like to recreate their childhood pleasures by dressing up as “My Little Pony” and buying tickets to places where they can jump into ball pits and do pillow-fights. Some carry on pursuing teenage kicks in nightclubs well into early middle age. Over many years as a lecturer, Mr Hayward grew concerned that his 18-year-old students “resembled less mature teenagers on the cusp of adulthood and more fearful schoolchildren adrift in an alien world of adult autonomy”. One arrived in class dressed in a onesie, noting that it was cold and he liked to feel comfortable. Was he not “concerned about the infantilising overtones of such a garment?” asked Mr Hayward. “No, I want to be treated like a kid,” came the reply. “Adulting is hard.” Here the author produces his most solid evidence, though it will be familiar to many readers. In rich countries there has been a dramatic fall in the share of people who, by the age of 30, have attained the traditional markers of adulthood: leaving home, becoming financially independent, getting married, having a child. In Britain, the median age for a first (heterosexual) marriage, at 33 for men and 31 for women, is a decade higher than it was in the early 1960s. In 2016 a Pew study found that for the first time in 130 years, American 18-34-year-olds were more likely to be living with their parents than with a partner in a separate abode. Pop culture, Mr Hayward believes, is infantilising people. Modern cinema celebrates immaturity. From the unreconstructed man-children of “School of Rock” and “Ted” (which stars a beer-drinking teddy bear) to the endless “Batman” and “Spider-Man” remakes, “a visit to the movies these days feels more like a trip to a toy shop”. Reality TV shows “normalise infantilism” by making “40- and 50-year old celebrities dress up as toy cars, children’s bears and dinosaurs”. Many advertisements are an “assault on mature adulthood”. The Milky Bar Kid has been portrayed by actors of all ages. Evian water’s “live young” campaign featured adults in T-shirts that showed baby torsos beneath their necks. The education system deserves some blame, too. Students are shielded from potentially upsetting ideas. Students are shielded from potentially upsetting ideas: the University of Aberdeen in Scotland put a trigger warning on “Peter Pan”, saying that students might find the “odd perspectives on gender” in the book “emotionally challenging”. Schoolchildren are told things that are manifestly untrue, such as “You can be anything you want to be.” History, sociology and philosophy are compressed into a “childhood morality tale” of the “privileged” and the “oppressed”. Schools and universities used to teach “the uncontroversial idea that [students] will need to adjust their behaviour and adapt to the world if they are to function effectively within it”. No more. Finally, Mr Hayward chides the liberal commentariat. On the one hand, they celebrated Greta Thunberg, a former schoolgirl activist, as an “all-knowing sage”, despite her possessing “no scientific expertise” and saying “nothing original whatsoever about climate issues”. This, he claims, is evidence of “a role reversal in which young people are increasingly assigned the intellectual gravitas and cultural authority to educate adults”. On the other hand, when Shamima Begum, a British schoolgirl roughly the same age as Ms Thunberg, went off to join the mass-murdering, mass-raping Islamic State, the same liberal pundits decried the British government’s decision not to allow her back into Britain to face justice, presenting her “as a duped child…far too young and naive to know her own mind, and therefore not responsible for her subsequent actions”. “When society acts in such a hypocritical fashion, adultfiying on the one hand and infantilising on the other, it is playing a dangerous and duplicitous game,” thunders Mr Hayward... according to the “fabulously named” Immorality Lab at the University of British Columbia, those who regularly signal victimhood are more prone to lying and cheating for selfish ends, a habit people are supposed to grow out of... Perhaps there is more memorable evidence of adults behaving childishly these days because everyone has a camera and posts amusing clips to social media... perhaps the reason why young people are finding jobs and having children later in life than earlier generations is that they are remaining longer in education."
What’s the best age gap in a relationship? - "When a friend opts to date someone who is old enough to be their parent, a common response is to see if the decision passes the “half their age plus seven” test... While female users look for men roughly the same age as them (or perhaps a year or two older) men prefer women in their early twenties, regardless of their own age... Could a smaller age gap also make couples more likely to stay together? In 2014, the Atlantic claimed that “a five year age difference makes a couple 18 percent more likely to get divorced, compared to a couple born on or around the same year.” While the study cited – which polled American couples and ex-couples – did show an association between divorce rates and age gaps, it did not prove a causal link. Something about the kind of person who opts into a marriage with a large age gap could be driving the higher divorce rates, rather than the age gap itself. A bright young thing considering a silver fox should also take heart from a study by Britain’s Office of National Statistics. It did not find a strong link between age gaps and divorce rates in England and Wales, though there was some evidence that women marrying later than 30 who were more than ten years older than their spouse were more likely to divorce. Common sense does suggest that a large age gap would have implications for old age. Having someone to look after you in your dotage is wise, as is avoiding widowhood. A younger, healthier partner could make sense, at least from your side of the equation. Another study by Sven Drefahl of the University of Stockholm looked at people over the age of 50 in Denmark, and found that men with younger spouses survived for longer than those with ones of a similar age. The older their spouse, the worse their survival chances, even after controlling for things like education and wealth. Again, the link might not be causal: healthy men might be particularly able both to attract younger mates and live to a ripe old age. But mysteriously, this phenomenon does not appear to apply to women, where the bigger the age gap, the worse their survival chances, regardless of whether they were younger or older. In the case of women with younger husbands, Drefahl suggested, the gender difference could be due to women being less reliant on their partner for support, and so benefiting less from the energies of a younger spouse. What evidence there is, therefore, vindicates the choices of OKCupid’s users: women should pick men who are as close as possible in age to them, while men should look for younger women."
Scientists discover dogs are entering a new phase of evolution - "service dogs are 'uniquely well adapted to life in the 21st century,' they wrote in The Atlantic. These dogs are 'highly trained professionals' who can assist their owner with tasks, remain calm and quiet when not actively working, and have uniquely friendly dispositions. 'Unlike most pet dogs, service dogs are attracted to strangers, even as puppies,' Woods and Hare wrote. 'And increasing friendliness seems to have changed these dogs’ biology, just as it did thousands of years ago,' the researchers added... 'guarding against strange people and animals might make a dog more difficult to walk around the neighborhood.' 'Dogs that are more energetic, excitable, fearful, or anxious than average are more likely to be relinquished to shelters, where they may struggle to find a new home,' they added. Woods and Hare believe that these new societal pressures are driving a third wave of canine domestication, with service dogs representing the most highly evolved members of the pack. 'Service dogs may look like your average Labrador retriever, but compared with military working dogs or even the average family Lab, they are almost a different breed,' the researchers wrote. 'The differences between Canine Companion dogs and pet dogs also demonstrate how different a population of dogs can become in less than 50 years,' they added."
Labour’s promise to end cronyism has backfired spectacularly - "Given the pre-election rhetoric of Labour front benchers, we might have expected a genuine sea change in ministerial behaviour. The revelation that more than 200 “cronies” have been appointed to the Civil Service since the new government took office without having to go through all those inconvenient processes like open advertising and competition, sparked an interesting response from Labour. “There were 24,000 appointments without competition in just two years under the last Conservative government, which puts these figures into perspective,” said a Labour source. This smacks of Angela Rayner’s defence [sic] of her and her colleagues’ acceptance of generous donations of concert tickets, free accommodation in luxury flats and cash for spectacles in the last few weeks: MPs have always done it, so what’s the problem? The problem is that we were promised, not a smaller scale of what had gone before, not a scaled-down version of dubious practices, but a wholesale abandonment of them... In Scotland, the Civil Service supporting Scottish ministers at Holyrood is already held in relatively low regard because of its members’ willingness – some might say eagerness – to promote Scottish independence on behalf of their political masters, despite their being part of the UK organisation."
She thought her daughter’s sweet fragrance was a blessing; it turned out to be a deadly condition - "Sugar and spice, and all things nice – that was what Madam Felicia Tan thought little girls were made of when her daughter Elvia Lim was born in 2019. “My firstborn, a boy, cried throughout the night. Elvia was different. She smelled as sweet as maple syrup. She hardly cried and always slept,” the 36-year-old housewife said, telling The Straits Times that she was blessed to have a baby girl who was naturally this way... Elvia was taken to the intensive care unit after she was diagnosed with maple syrup urine disease (MSUD)... MSUD is treated with a strict, lifelong diet that restricts protein intake."
Meme - "Hindus 10000 Years Ago Discovering Internet, Time Machine And Intergalactic Travel"
"Modern Hindus Struggling To Build Toilets"
Meme - Simp Neelix @SimpNeelix: ">lesbian television icon *Xena Warrior Princess*
>has countless sexual and romantic relationships with men
>taking dick is core to her character's story and development"
Stonetoss Comics @stone_toss: "women be like "im lesbian" *sleeps with men*"
Meme - "Just saw on Facebook that a girl I went to high school with married some guy despite writing <3 U 4 eva in my yearbook and not talking to me for the last 15 years. Real nice, Brenda."
Bad toothbrushing habits tied to higher heart risk - "Dr. Shogo Matsui, the study's lead researcher, said the findings suggest "poor oral health, based on daily teethbrushing behavior, is associated with" poorer heart health. It's possible that longer toothbrushing might reduce this risk, but the new study was not designed to prove cause-and-effect, said Matsui, a researcher at the Institute of Biomedical and Health Sciences at Hiroshima University in Japan."
Outdoor time is good for your kids' eyesight. It protects against myopia - "Spending at least two hours outside each day is one of the most important things your kids can do to protect their eyesight. "We think that outdoor time is the best form of prevention for nearsightedness," says Dr. Noha Ekdawi, a pediatric ophthalmologist in Wheaton, Ill. And that's important, because the number of kids with nearsightedness – or myopia – has been growing rapidly in the U.S., and in many other parts of the world. In the U.S., 42% of people are now myopic – up from 25% back in the 1970s. In some East Asian countries, as many as 90% of people are myopic by the time they're young adults... Wu convinced his son's elementary school to increase outdoor time. He also recruited a control school. A year later, his son's school had half as many new myopia cases as the other school. "We saw the results – they were very successful," Wu says. He did more research, at more schools, and eventually convinced Taiwan's Ministry of Education to encourage all primary schools to send students out doors for at least 2 hours a day, every day. The program launched in September 2010. And after decades of trending upward, the rate of myopia among Taiwan's elementary school students began falling – from an all-time high of 50% in 2011 down to 45.1% by 2015. It's a major achievement, says Ian Morgan. "Certainly the people who have led the field are the people in Taiwan," Morgan says. Other studies have found that outdoor time can reduce the chances that kids will develop myopia even if they're doing lots of near work, such as reading or looking at screens – something that has also risen dramatically in recent years. Outdoor time also helps even if kids haveparents who have myopia... And if you are worried about leaving time for homework, Ekdawi suggests having kids do that outside, too. As long as they are outdoors, that's what matters."
Uttar Pradesh news: UP official drowns in Ganga as diver waited for online money transfer to complete - "According to the reports, Singh’s friends, who had accompanied him, requested a diver, who was present at the ghat, to rescue him but the diver demanded 10,000 rupees and said that he would jump into the river only after the money was paid... Adityavardhan Singh, a joint director in the UP health department, drowned in the Ganga river in Kanpur while taking bath"