People from across the globe reveal the 'obvious signs that someone is an American' - as they detail the traditional US behaviors that are 'NOT well received' elsewhere - "'In Salzburg I went to grab something from the drug store. As I was checking out I said hello to the cashier (thinking there was very little difference between how I said it and how Austrians say it). She immediately started speaking to me in English and I asked her how she knew I spoke English. 'She deadpan stared me in the eye and goes "hellloooo". I just about died laughing since I'm a very stereotypical friendly American that says hello exactly like that. One of my favorite memories from that trip.' Someone else wrote: 'The gentle grins you give to strangers if you make eye contact with them as you pass by, at least in the Midwest. [It] was not well received in Germany.' One user added: 'I dated a European man here in the US. When we walked together, every time I made eye contact with someone on our path I would smile at them, and they would always smile back. 'Boyfriend was so confused at all these strangers smiling at me. Kept asking if I knew all these people. It was hilarious.'... Other people on the web pointed to Americans pattern of leaving gratuity - which wasn't a practice done in many other countries... 'An Italian told me that Americans walk confidently in the wrong direction.' Another user shared: 'If someone asks how far away something is, an American will tell how you long it takes to get there as opposed to a physical distance.' 'From what I've been told by European friends and travelers, our complete and utter lack of an indoor voice,' a third wrote. 'They want ice in their water,' someone else commented. One comment read: 'According to the CIA - when training to be a spy - you have to unlearn how to lean. Americans tend to lean on things when standing still.'"
Why La Palma's volcanic disaster hasn't stopped the most adventurous tourists - "With flights disrupted for months, tourist numbers fell by a third in the year after the eruption, and the damage to 270 foreign-owned holiday homes seemed unlikely to attract a lucrative new wave of semi-resident ex-pats. Yet, nearly three years on, literal and figurative green shoots are poking through that dead black landscape. Plants and shrubs sprout from the ash, and at the peripheries of the lava field, the Canary Island pine is actually prospering. This endemic conifer has pinecones that are encased in resin which melts in the heat of a fire and releases seeds. And it transpires that for a particular kind of foreign visitor – the ever-growing cohort of jaded and mildly adventurous holidaymakers with a taste for wacky Instagram selfies – there’s nothing quite like a scorched alien wilderness. When Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted in 2010, causing air-traffic chaos around the world, the native tourist authorities feared the worst. But instead of deterring visitors, the eruption put Iceland centre stage on the offbeat-holiday map, catalysing a tourism boom that transformed the national economy. For further proof that there’s money in magma these days, La Palma needs only to glance over its shoulder at the nearby island of Tenerife, where Teide National Park, a bleak but compelling pumice desert laid out around one of the world’s largest volcanoes, now attracts three million visitors a year. And so La Palma, long considered the most obscure of the Canary Islands, is slowly rising from its ashes"
German railways are a 'national embarrassment' – and causing Euro 2024 chaos - "In the latest example of the rail chaos that has blighted the tournament, following the semi-final jubilant England supporters and rather less happy Dutch fans were packed on to a train that waited for three and a half hours before leaving the station. The scenes were a carbon copy of those after England’s first match of the Euros against Serbia in Gelsenkirchen on June 16, when thousands of fans were left on platforms until well past midnight awaiting a train to Dusseldorf, just 35 miles away. Following their ordeal, fans piled on to social media to share their incredulity about the shortcomings of a railway that most had assumed would confirm stereotypes surrounding German efficiency and further highlight the failings of the British network. One said: “Travelling to Gelsenkirchen, every train in and out of Cologne was seemingly delayed. Nearly every ticket machine was broken. And getting home was shockingly bad.” Another said: “I’m shocked I’m saying this, but Southeastern Railway is much better in comparison.” ... Austrian supporters on a train that stood stationary after a victory over the Netherlands in Berlin were filmed making the point rather more bluntly, singing in German “Deutsche Bahn is on its a—” to the tune of “When the Saints Go Marching In.” The signs weren’t good even before the first ball was kicked with Deutsche Bahn, described by the German audit office as being in “permanent crisis,” getting its excuses in early in advice to travelling supporters... While home to some of the world’s most modern rolling stock – such as the company’s flagship 200mph Intercity Express fleet, manufactured by Munich-based industrial giant Siemens – Germany’s rail network is coming apart at the seams. A third of long-distance trains were late last year after a steady decline over the past decade, reflecting a lack of investment in essentials including signalling, overhead power cables, crossings, points and the track itself."
As tourists move in, Italians are squeezed out on holiday island of Capri - "Venice last week became the first city in the world to introduce an entrance fee for visitors in peak periods, Florence has banned new holiday lets in the city centre and the Cinque Terre park on the Italian Riviera started charging 15 euros for access to a popular coastal footpath to tackle overcrowding. Capri has doubled its own visitors' fee from 2.5 euros to 5 euros, which outsiders pay when they catch a ferry from nearby Naples or Sorrento from April through to October. "We are looking to persuade more people to visit during winter," Capri Mayor Marino Lembo told Reuters, sitting in his office with the smog of Naples hanging far in the distance... The end of the COVID pandemic has seen tourism surge across Europe as global travellers seek to make up for lost time. Italy had near record overnight stays in 2023, according to data collated by the Florence centre of tourism studies, and was the 5th most visited country in the world in 2023, with tourists drawn to its quaint villages and culture-rich cities. But none were built for mass travel... Lembo acknowledges the problems, but denies tourism is ruining an island his ancestors have lived on for centuries. "I don't agree with nostalgics who say Capri was more beautiful 100 years ago. There was misery and poverty back then. Now there is wealth, and that is thanks to tourism.""
Modi tries to upstage the bride at 'wedding of the century' with poster-lined road to the ceremony - "It is considered a faux pas to upstage a bride on her wedding day, but Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, appears not to mind. Ahead of the “most expensive wedding ever”, a four-day extravaganza involving the youngest son of Asia’s richest person, posters of Mr Modi line the road leading to the venue... the face on the signs is not that of the glowing bride, Radhika Merchant, 29, or her fiancee, Anant Ambani, 29. It is instead that of Mr Modi, India’s twice re-elected prime minister. The colossus of Indian politics was not on the guest list for the Ambani wedding, which included everyone from US senators to the chief executive of Pret A Manger and WWE wrestler John Cena... Locals were furious when the government labelled the wedding a “public” event when the public will be held at arm’s length. It has also upgraded the status of the local airport from domestic to international and pressed a wide variety of public servants and military figures into service for the Ambanis."
The Librarian (Arcimboldo) - Wikipedia - "The Librarian is a painting in oils on canvas by the Italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo in the collection of Skokloster Castle in Sweden. It is thought to be a portrait of Wolfgang Lazius, a humanist and historian who served Holy Roman Emperors of the House of Habsburg... Arcimboldo created a number of portraits of people by painting an assemblage of objects such as fruits and vegetables, flowers, or in this case, books; the objects typically had some connection to the person's life or depiction. Benno Geiger called it a "triumph of abstract art in the 16th century... The work has been interpreted as both a celebration and a satirical mocking of librarians and scholarship. K. C. Elhard suggests an opposing view that it may be specifically a parody of "materialistic book collectors more interested in acquiring books than in reading them."... The painting was brought to Sweden following the looting of Prague Castle by the Swedish army during the 1648 Battle of Prague and was owned by General Hans Christoff von Königsmarck"
Czechia needs to complain about looted art and demand restitution
The Toyota Logo History - "When written correctly, the word Toyota is done with 8 strokes of the pen. However, if you write the word toyo”da” it adds two more strokes (highlighted in the red circle below). This would bring the total to 10 strokes. The actual winning entry had used the word Toyo”da”, which would have looked something like the black logo below. These two little lines may not seem like a big deal, but they are. They are a very big deal. The stroke number in Japanese culture is important in several ways. In this particular case it is a matter of reaching the number “8” which is a good number to the Japanese. I have read in many English publications that say that Toyota changed it because “8” is “good luck” in Japanese. This may be the case, but it’s not quite as simple as that generalized translation. Seisi Kato, who was then in charge of Toyota’s advertising and promotion, says it a little more accurately, “The Japanese character for eight suggested further growth”... Sakichi Toyoda’s son, Kiichiro, was head of the automotive department at the time. He was born in Nagoya, Japan in 1884. The original loom factory is now a museum just down the block from Nagoya Station. The City of Nagoya and its surrounding area, is where Toyota started and where it still is. The symbol of the City of Nagoya is the “maru-hachi” (literally “circle eight”). It is the hachi kanji with a circle around it. The symbol adorns everything form the city flag, to their sewer manhole covers. It is featured prominently on the city’s website and even on their twitter page. Kiichiro thought that it was a fitting reference to Toyota’s home town. It’s yet another reason to keep the Toyota logo’s stroke number at eight... Toyota’s website is loaded with frequently asked questions that, ironically, no one would ever ask. There you can find information on the looping “T” logo that you see on cars today. I quote Toyota; “What does the Toyota logo represent?” “In 1990, Toyota debuted the three overlapping Ellipses logo on American vehicles. The Toyota Ellipses symbolize the unification of the hearts of our customers and the heart of Toyota products. The background space represents Toyota’s technological advancement and the boundless opportunities ahead.” I’m not even sure what that second sentence means… Though, If you can somehow turn empty space into boundless opportunities, think of how many golf clubs you can fit in a trunk. They could have just said, Its a “T”, because we are Toyota, and we would still think it’s one of the coolest logos we ever saw. By the time its wrung through the marketing-hype-machine, it sounds like they are trying too hard. The looping circles have some obvious features like forming the letter “T”. and having a globe like shape. Others are a little more hidden like the fact that it has all 6 letters of the word “Toyota” present within the logo. My favorite one is the reference to the loom making with the subtle needle and thread reference... The Toyota Corolla (1966 debut) is not a Japanese word, it is Latin for “crown” of flowers. Which is directly related to its root word; “Corona”, as in the Toyota Corona (1955 debut) which is Latin/Spanish for “crown”. Which should not be confused with the Toyota Crown (1955 debut) which is an English word for “crown”. Which should not be confused with the Toyota Camry (1982 debut) which is the Japanese word for “crown”."
Hubristic Conservatives met their nemesis. Now must come some catharsis - "Here is a striking comparison. In the recent general election, just over 16.5 million people voted Labour or Conservative. In the Brexit referendum of 2016, 17.4 million people voted Leave. The two parties combined attracted fewer backers than the Brexit winning side. This comparison indicates the weakness of Labour’s victory on July 4 and the extent of the Conservative collapse. The two-party system is looking rickety. Until this century, voter endorsement of the two-party system always added up to more than 20 million people (despite much smaller total electorates than today’s). Not now... The last time the Western world rethought conservatism was nearly half a century ago. This was almost entirely an Anglosphere phenomenon, Continental conservatism being very different. The leaders were Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. They confronted grave problems – notably economic failure and the threat from the Soviet Union. Their rethink was extensive. A comparable rethink is needed; but some things which bulk so large now were little considered then. Take immigration. Mrs Thatcher did have to deal with serious concerns, but she could. In those days, it was physically and legally possible for a British government, acting alone, to exercise reasonable control. It seems impossible now. Poor Rishi Sunak recently tried to prove that he could and proved the opposite. This is authority’s open wound. A related point is that “communalism” was small 50 years ago. Now it is big. This time, a predominantly Muslim vote won a few seats for Islamists and is causing serious rifts within the Labour Party in many cities. Almost the biggest Conservative majority in Britain now is Harrow East, where the strong Indian (mainly Hindu) vote is the decisive factor. A party committed to “One Nation” should be unequivocally opposed to communalism and the ugly racial politics which cares less for Britain than for “Gaza” (by which protesters all too often mean Hamas). But the Conservatives have never got this straight. Worried about accusations of racism, they have accepted many of the Left’s doctrines which exalt ethnic identity above all other values. Sir Keir Starmer took the knee to BLM but does not take it to God. It is the job of conservatives to challenge such ghettoising. Most of them don’t dare. Another example is climate change. Mrs Thatcher was the first world leader to advance the theory of global warming. But she left office long before leaders had to confront what happens when governments force an economy to revolutionise its energy provision according to an arbitrary timetable. Traditionally, Conservatives care about how the misallocation of resources inflicts direct pain on citizens. The real costs of the rush to get rid of fossil fuels are vast, but the Tories, led in the wrong direction by, successively, David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson, disabled their capacity to challenge. The substantial Labour majority enables Ed Miliband to stop all drilling in new British oil and gas fields. The Government’s new National Wealth Fund will seek £3 of private investment for every £1 of public money to back green projects. Every conservative instinct says this will lead to malinvestment. Our only real national wealth fund is the savings owned by the British people. They should be encouraged to invest for their best long-term returns. Everything else is just taxation under different names. When Mrs Thatcher pushed economic reform, she saw it as in part a culture war. “I back the workers not the shirkers,” she said just before being made party leader. Despite the huge controversy over many years, she won – not just an economic battle, but a recognition that the workplace should be a place not of political combat, but of harmonious, productive labour. Barely visible then, but now universal in the public sector workplace (and growing in the private sector) is a takeover not by striking shop stewards but by woke warriors, often in HR. The Tory Left truckles to it. The Tory Right rails against it but offers few solutions. It feels as if conservative ideas have been relegated to “luxury beliefs”, circulated on X (formerly Twitter), but without useful practical effect. That is what Trumpery does. A common theme in the 14 years of Tory rule was a failure to approach tricky issues coherently and therefore the meek acceptance of remedies arising from a Left-wing ideology. These include the Cameron/Osborne “golden era” with China, Boris’s capitulation to repeated Covid lockdowns, with “saving the NHS” as the priority rather than the more liberal policy his instincts favoured, and the statist idea of an energy “price cap” in response to Putin’s war. The Conservatives have cowered before the word “equality”. In most contexts, especially economic ones, the word acts as a rage against difference rather than a spur to improvement. Good words in the conservative vocabulary – opportunity, freedom, fairness – have been allowed to wilt. Perhaps what has withered most of all in 21st-century conservatism is the sense of a coherent culture which reaches beyond politics. This used to be strong in business and agriculture, in charities and in many professions, not only the armed services but also teachers, doctors and even vicars. That culture was not defined by the Conservative Party, but the party benefited from it enormously, drawing, through its mass membership, on a permanent national conversation with hundreds of thousands all over the country."
Why do England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland play as separate teams if they belong to UK? - "The United Kingdom’s status not only as the inventor of football, but also as a pioneer of the international game, is why the four members of the UK - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - are allowed to compete as separate national teams. After the first universal laws of the game were drawn up by the English Football Association (FA) in 1863, the year of the body’s founding, it was England and Scotland who played what is recognised as the first ever international football match, a 0-0 draw held in Glasgow on Saturday 30 November 1872... by the time FIFA was established in 1904, it was felt the UK’s national associations were too powerful to be forced to combine into one, at the same time as there was an acceptance that their involvement was essential to the credibility of the newly-created world governing body... The UK has fielded a combined men’s team in the Olympics football tournament on 10 occasions, most recently in 2012. However, that’s the only time it has happened since 1960, amid British concerns that it could be used as a precedent to force the home nations to play as one in all competitions. This is particularly true of the three smaller UK nations, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, not least because of the likelihood of an England-centric UK team. At the 2012 Olympics, 13 of the 18 men’s-squad members were English. For all four UK countries, their national football teams are a significant outlet for expressing their individual identities - but, again, this is especially the case of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland... Given that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have in recent years gained greater power for self-government in devolved assemblies, a combined British national team would be politically at odds with this trend towards decentralisation. Indeed, Szymanski even believes it would contribute to the break-up of the UK."
Thread by @EconTalker on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "I've just returned from a few days in Prague, my first time there. Such a beautiful city. And we heard amazing jazz and much other good music generally. It's weird to be a Jew there. While there is a remnant of Jews still living there you can't help but be struck by the museum-like nature of Jewish life. Yes, there are active synagogues built hundreds of years ago in Old Town but they are hardly vibrant. Of the 120,000 Jews of what is now the Czech Republic, about 80,000 were murdered by the Nazis. The current population is something between 10,000 and 20,000 and they live in varying degrees of identification. It is weird how Kafka, a Jew, is the most famous face of the city. The Jewish part of Old Town is a huge tourist attraction for Jews and non-Jews alike. But it is essentially a giant museum of past vitality. So as a Jew visiting Prague for the first time, it was easy to mourn what has been lost--the lives, the scholarship (Prague's rabbinic scholars were extraordinary), and the cultural role that Jews played in the city. But we're not alone in mourning the past. While Judaism as a central part of the city is gone, it is not the only religion that is a shell of its former self. The same would be true of Christianity. There are maybe 3-4 churches in Prague that offer nightly concerts playing some of the greatest hits of the classical past. So one night, we sat in a magnificent high-vaulted church filled with dramatic sculpture and frescoes listening to Bach, and Vivaldi, and Schubert, and Pachelbel, and others. And I thought, this too is dying out. The Christian impulse that built such magnificent cathedrals and inspired some of the finest music human beings have ever composed, plays no role in the culture of Prague any more than Judaism does. It does make a difference that Christians were not herded into railroad cars and murdered as the Jews were. But both religions are essentially being kept alive by a remnant, a remnant that is not embedded in a serious way in the life of the city other than as a tourist attraction. I don't remember who made the observation but it is a deep one, that some of the greatest works of human beings in Europe--the cathedrals in particular but you could also include the music--were inspired by something very few people in those European cities believe in any longer Christianity. Yes, there are still Christians and Jews in Prague. But their role is not the same. It's a bit ironic for a Jew to sit in a church in Prague and reflect on what has been lost with the demise of Christianity in Europe, a Christianity, that when those churches were built, was not particularly good to the Jews. But something has been lost. You look at the statuary and you see an attempt to inspire human beings to rise above themselves and aspire to greatness. The post-Christian attempts to inspire such aspirations, communism and fascism, dwarf Christianity in their cruelty to the Jews and to humankind generally. What beliefs will inspire great art in the future? What will inspire a sense of belonging among human beings and a sense of purpose? A revival of religion, even in Europe, would not surprise me. Or something else. But everything else is human not divine and so far, worshipping ourselves has a poor track record."
Young Australians feel they are ‘missing out’ on being young: new research - "In 2022, 45% of 505 Australians aged 18 to 24 said they felt they were missing out on being young. These feelings were associated with pressures in young people’s lives around finances, work, education, housing, and long-term planning"
Of course, a majority wanted more government help
Meme - "$94 Million Dollar Budget
Gondor at it's Weakest *Boromir in Lord of the Rings with nice armour*
$1 BILLION Dollar Budget
Numenor AT ITS MOST POWERFUL! *Elendil in Rings of Power with loisy armour*"
Sir Christopher Lee speaking black speech fluently : r/lotr
Low-background steel - Wikipedia - "Low-background steel, also known as pre-war steel and pre-atomic steel,is any steel produced prior to the detonation of the first nuclear bombs in the 1940s and 1950s. Typically sourced from ships (either as part of regular scrapping or shipwrecks) and other steel artifacts of this era, it is often used for modern particle detectors because more modern steel is contaminated with traces of nuclear fallout. Since the end of atmospheric nuclear testing, background radiation has decreased to very near natural levels, making special low-background steel no longer necessary for most radiation-sensitive uses, as brand-new steel now has a low enough radioactive signature that it can generally be used."
Meme - Girl to guy: "Go to the dance with you? pffft HAA! I'm like way out of your league, I'm sure some girl would want to go with you like your mom or something"
Girl at dance seeing him with hot mum: "Quit it with that smirk! Their's nothing cool about bringing your mom!"
Meme - rosey🌹 @thechosenberg: "You don’t need to be cool to find love. You just need to find someone as much of a loser as you are."
"My husband and I are such mediocre people, I have no idea how we got this fairytale romance
Basically the title. My husband and I are not great people. Average looking. He is a little bigoted, not funny, most likely mildly autistic. I'm mentally ill and insecure and needy. Both of us are uninteresting. But we have like this insane, insane love for each other. I was so completely ok with my independence as a person before we met and now I unironically think I would kill myself if he ever died Neither of us have friends. Our family cares about us but we have rocky relationships with them mainly because we don't really like them (we're not great people). I can spend every minute of every day with this dude and not really get tired of it. We can get in the car and just drive for hours and talk. And he isn't even funny and neither of us are particularly smart so idk what the hell we are even talking for."
Meme - 7minscifi 七分科幻 @7minscifi: "i’m not versed in phrenology (so someone pls help), but Hawk Tuah Girl definitely has that conservative white women look, like Kayleigh McEnany and most of Fox News anchor-women. it’s more than the excessive makeup, tan, and blonde hair. it’s about the facial structure."
"You meant to just say attractive women right?"
Alanis Morrisette saves ''Jane Eyre'' - "Most people are willing to drop $80 on their favorite Broadway show, but Alanis Morissette recently spent $150,000 on the musical adaptation of Charlotte Bronte’s ”Jane Eyre.” The singer’s gift temporarily revived the show, which had been set to close... Alanis called back with an offer to buy $150,000 worth of tickets to be donated to charity groups CityKids and Early Stages, allowing underprivileged kids to attend the show"
From 2001
Meme - "Dogs 300 years ago
I killed all the wolves and ate the liver of a fox that wanted to steal food from our home
Dogs now
You changed my food and now I have diarrhea"
Carl Emil Pettersson - Wikipedia - "On a recruiting trip in the Pacific, Pettersson's vessel, the Herzog Johan Albrecht (Duke Johan Albrecht) sank on Christmas Day 1904, off Tabar Island in New Ireland Province. He was washed ashore near a village and landed in a hibiscus hedge, where he was immediately surrounded by islanders. Though Pettersson was uncommonly strong, he would not have been a match for them. The islanders carried him to their king, and the king's daughter fell in love with him. In 1907 he married Princess Singdo, the daughter of the local king, Lamy. He got a start in the copra trade and managed to create his own coconut plantation that he called Teripax. He became king after the death of his father in law. His nickname among the locals was "Strong Charley", and he was indeed famed for his physical strength. Swedish newspapers printed a series of stories about Pettersson and his adventures"
Meme - "CannibalBrah
>movie about a futuristic world where they can identify people most likely to commit crimes
>the movie is called minority report
what did they mean by this?"
