They sell melatonin and passion flower extract next to the fish oil and multivitamins in the supermarket over here where I live - not sure why people think this is just an American thing

I think people know, they just don’t give a shit because they think they’re entitled to have art and artists are arseholes for not giving them exactly what they want

When you put something out there, you allow for the possibility that people will see your work and incorporate it into their mental catalog of art and artistic process

…except when a person is doing it, they’re doing their own thing to it. They take an idea or two and filter it through their own lens and stylise it

Think about it like this - when you do data scraping, you’re still interpreting the results. You’re looking at the data and going ‘ok from this I can draw X and Y conclusions based on this and that’. AI art is like if we removed you from the process - we just shoved all the data into a black box and it goes ding “X is Y”. If you asked it why that’s so, it wouldn’t be able to tell you. You can’t see how it works so you have no idea if it’s reasoning makes scientific sense. It would not be admissible in a paper.

If you pirate shit then you have no ground to stand on for complaining about AI training.

…don’t most people kinda agree you don’t pirate from small artists where piracy is actually hurting them? There’s like, honour along thieves when it comes to piracy, and this is stepping all over the little guy who’s actually hurt by this just to get your grubby little hands on something you think you’re entitled to

I mean if you tend to plug things in at the same computer a lot it’s pretty easy to always plug things in right the first time, even when not looking because you just kinda know what way it’s meant to be. And laptops usually have all theirs pointing the same way so you know one you know them all. If something has text on it, it’s usually oriented in such a way that when plugged in you can read it. Or they have a little face and you know which way the face is meant to be facing

I have a similar “power” and while I’m not flawless, it’s only really new or unfamiliar devices/computers that trip me up. Or plugs that don’t actually have any identifying features and/or unusual ones

Obviously it probably isn’t enough if you’re in a small room where your suitcase is next to your bed, but for clothes you could try putting them in a vacuum bag (as in one of those plastic bags that you seal up and then suck all the air out with a vacuum)

I do it anyways because it means way more space in your suitcase but that would probably contain any bugs that are in your clothes

In Norway and it’s definitely becoming more of a thing. Growing up I never did it, but now I run out of lollies because there’s so many kids out and about.

On the flip side, Norway does have their own Halloween style celebration where you go around dressed up and demand lollies from people door to door (julebukk - I’m not sure what the exact date for it is, and I think it varies depending on where you are, but it takes place between boxing day and up to and on new year’s Eve) which I’ve definitely noticed has been declining the last few years. Maybe kids want to celebrate Halloween more than julebukk? Probably because on Halloween you can just, show up and demand shit while on julebukk you actually have to prepare a little song and whatnot.

Shame because like, julebukk is a) actually traditional and b) has some weird ass lore behind it. Like it’s something about appeasing the Christmas goat (who may or may not be a demon saint Nicholas personally went down to hell to beat the shit out of until he agreed to help him)

Wordpress even has activitypub integration now! Hooray! Here’s hoping automattic do good on their word and bring it to their other projects like Tumblr

Also as much as I like gimp, it is unfortunately not that widely used due to super specialised and hard to use compared to the industry standard juggernaut that is adobe’s creative suite. You’re probably going to get laughed at in any professional industry if you suggest seriously using it.

You can put mad Infront of all the cunts that don’t have adjectives already to make them even more extreme.

“This mad cunt” for when your mate’s done something really out there while “mad dog cunt” is real fucking bad for example

Alcohol, still allowed to advertise every where

Actually alcohol advertising is pretty limited in Europe due to EU wide regulations and some countries have even stricter rules, ranging from “not in public spaces” to straight up “no alcohol advertising at all”

Also I would point out alcohol is a big cusine thing and has been for centuries and you’re nuts if you’re upset schnapps are a thing but not strawberry cigarettes. Also like, flavoured vapes totally exist?

The closest thing to what you’re talking about is grafting, but that’s a specific thing that only works on certain species and I don’t think can “glue” two entire halves of a tree back together, maybe just a branch at the most if you’re very careful and lucky

It’s why if you plant a seed from a random apple from the supermarket, you’re very probably not going to get a tree that produces that apple. Most commerical fruit trees (including ones from your local garden centre) tend to have a bottom half that’s hardy and resistant, and then a top half which was “glued” on that actually provides the fruit you want. The bottom half controls the genetic material in the seed, but the top half controls what the fruit will look like.

On the other hand, you can totally glue a snapped cactus back together, provided it hasn’t been too long and the two halves aren’t too damaged.

…now? Bud, they’ve done this for ages, both on mobile and desktop how the hell have you not noticed it? It used to be even more obvious on desktop because they’d put it up as the first item in the ‘related videos’, but they got rid of that so now you don’t know what it’s going to start autoplaying until it happens, which is mildly annoying when you’re listening to music and can’t see what’s up next

Congratulations you’re now a snake

Yeah if you live in like, Germany or France

More like Europe: sorry we don’t ship there lol. Oh we do? Hope you like paying twice the price for shipping that takes two weeks if you’re lucky

So’s Norway - quite a few places on the west coast (the most inhabited non-Oslo part of the country) rely on the fact that the gulf stream keeps them unusually warm for their latitude

I’m already seeing things that would normally grow fine out in the garden suffer from abnormally late and early frosts and mild summers. Rip my tomatos and onions. Everyone’s complaining about 20+ degree springs in the mainland while I’m screaming that it’s still snowing in late May.

My great grandad got a couple of cockatoos when he was in his 20s right after ww2 and they still managed to outlive him. Only by a few weeks mind you - poor things starved themselves to death out of grief after he died. He told us not to worry about rehoming them because he knew they wouldn’t be able to take the loss of loosing him at such an age.

He only had them because he took up conservation work and they’re just, native to Australia. They lived out in a big aviary he’d built with trees and bushes and even a water feature along with other birds he ended up aquiring. I adored those birds, but I genuinely can’t understand how or why you’d keep such a big beautiful intelligent bird as a pet in a cage on the other side of the world and it always weirds me out when I see these birds I grew up watching roam free eating all our damn lemons in someone’s house as a pet. It’s like if you an American saw someone keeping a racoon as a pet.

A cheap fountain pen like a Lamy safari. Maybe some brightly coloured ink too.

Growing up I loved pens and my dad had some vintage Watermans he used all the time which were unquestionably Cool Pens but also really “fancy” so I wasn’t allowed to touch them, and we just didn’t know that way cheaper and less fiddly fountain pens existed because all of his came from the op shop with ink from borders and not an actual pen store. 8 year old me would’ve been estatic that not only do easier to use cheaper options exist, they’re bright yellow and also you can put any colour in them, not just boring black.

…I feel like everyone answering “Powerball numbers” or “apple stocks” is completely missing the spirit of the question

I know plastic is scary but guys, you don’t need to replace your entire plastic container selection - you could just, decant your food into a different container before microwaving it? The microwave is what’s doing this, not the fridge.

I’d recommend getting a small borosilicate/Pyrex dish like This. I’ve been using two of them my entire life (did none of you get taught that microwaving plastic with food make it go funny as a kid?) And they last a good while. Provided you don’t drop them. I think IKEA sells them and I’ve seen them around in my local kitchen store in non-pyrex brands. Also they’re oven and dishwasher safe too!

Also I don’t reccomend hunting for vintage Pyrex here - old pyrex chips super easily and constant use and slamming the lid on will chip the edges to hell and back. The European formula isn’t actually the same as the old one so it’s fine but unless you like glass chips in your cupboard and super sharp edges, don’t go for it.

Pyrex/borosilicate dishes work pretty well here. Both Pyrex and IKEA do little single serving casserole dishes with a lid that work fantastic. Been using them for decades now

Alternatively you could upend a plate on-top of your bowl

Then don’t - get a small glass/Pyrex casserole dish with a glass lid and decant your leftovers into that every time you go to heat something up. I think IKEA sell some nice sized ones.

If you don’t drop it they last for decades and that’s what I’ve been doing. I do not reccomend looking for vintage stuff though - the reason why they stopped using the original original glass formula is because it chips easily and yeah, something that gets used on a very regular basis with its lid constantly going on and off is going to start chipping something awful over time

Take up knitting and knit yourself some washcloths and dusting cloths! Pretty common here in Scandinavia (you can actually just get cotton machine knit ones in the supermarket but I’m not sure those are a thing elsewhere) and they’re pretty much baby’s first knitting project because it’s just, a square