Just a reminder (yet again) that the world is bigger than the US. I live in the UK, we don’t water our lawns here. Grass will grow literally anywhere with no human involvement. Letting your lawn grow a little longer is great for wildlife - the bees love the clover! In you live in the countryside get a sheep/cow/goat/donkey/llama and you’ll feed livestock without having to mow it either.

That said, fuck leaf blowers. There is absolutely no need for that noise.

I’m in the UK so didn’t see the last one but during the previous one I found looking around at the darkness and observing how all the birds went quiet was a bigger deal than the actual eclipse of the sun. I mean that was still really cool, but the dark and stillness was uncanny.

Yeah, I thought the same when I wrote the comment. I’ve read a bit more about him and what he was charged with. In the UK he wasn’t convicted of grooming - they prosecuted him for it but he was found not guilty. I think it was a consensual relationship, but of course a 19 year old having sex with a 12 year old is rape regardless of consent in the UK and he was (rightly) convicted of that. In the Netherlands however the law is different, it wasn’t considered rape but something like “morally offensive actions”. So from the Dutch pov he’s not actually a rapist, which might explain why the Dutch Olympic committee don’t seem to think it’s that big a deal. Despite that, I still think a convicted pedophile rapist should not be allowed to compete in the games, but that needs to be made clear in the eligibility requirements by the IOC, rather than the wishy-washy “role model” contract.

All Olympic athletes sign a declaration saying they’ll strive to be a role model or something similar. I’d say a convicted rapist shouldn’t be considered a role model and therefore shouldn’t be allowed to compete.

I use a wheelchair on occasion - when I’m unwell and use my wheelchair I measure about 3cm taller than when I’m well and have been walking!

It touches on it briefly, but refeeding syndrome is a killer and is very hard to treat even in hospital not in a war zone. Even if the war stopped tomorrow and food was abundant, there’s nowhere to treat patients who have been starving - more will die.

If only there were somewhere in between…

In case it’s not just a typo, it’s “upgrade” not “upgrayedd”

Yeah I paid for alien blue pro or whatever it was called. Then they killed the app and gave me a year of Reddit premium (my memory is shit, idk the proper name). After a month or so I switched to Apollo, Reddit’s app was just so shit. I left when Apollo died and now only use dystopia (an app designed for blind users) for the infrequent times I visit Reddit. No adds. It’s almost read only. But it’s ideal for visiting niche subs that aren’t on lemmy without giving Reddit clicks/seeing ads.

I’m in the UK but I got a letter in the post asking me to join the IPSOS surveys done here. It’s just randomly selected households I think. I get emails every few weeks asking me to complete a questionnaire online. Most of the questions are politics based which I don’t have much interest in, but you get paid in points that you can turn into Amazon vouchers or whatever. It’s a nice bit of pocket money when you’re strapped for cash.

Not OP but I did. It was crazy good deal, like £1.50 a month when I signed it. It helped me lose 10kgs. I don’t use it anymore but I use the lessons it’s taught me about portion size etc. I’ve lost more weight since, without exercise and I take prednisolone. Well worth the money for me.

I saw photos of farmers protesting with signs specifically blaming Ukrainians, and saying they’re ungrateful/unwelcome in the country. But I also saw a headline saying that Russian agitators could be behind it. I have no idea which is more likely.

I have well over 100 plants all planted in lechuza pon and they are thriving! It’s an absolute game changer for aroids. No soil in this household.

Linen trousers?

Not according to the dictionary. Conversate literally defined as “to have a conversation”. A conversation isn’t limited to interactions over 5 mins. More from Merriam-Webster:

Converse functions as a noun, adjective, and verb, and conversate is synonymous with only one sense of the verb use of converse (“to exchange thoughts and opinions in speech”). Furthermore, conversate is a nonstandard form, and widely frowned upon in formal writing.

I think it’s fair to say it’s widely frowned upon by most English speakers. It’s longer than the original word, has much more limited usage, and it immediately makes you sound like an idiot. It’s awful.

When “converse” isn’t edgy enough.

I wish I could watch sports matches on demand, not just live. And I wish ad-free podcasts were available to pirate. It’s an unrealistic dream.

The other answers are correct but they also copy their mums once they’re old enough. I’m in the UK where it’s the norm to let your cats outdoors. When my neighbour’s kitten was old enough to be let out he used to follow my much older cat around and copy her. He watched my cat do a wee in the bushes and then copied her digging to cover it up. Just covering up his imaginary wee next to her! It was super cute, although my cat wasn’t that impressed with the intrusion.

Another sign of autism is info dumping.

Only 6% of adults are practicing Christians in the UK. It’s statistically unlikely this has anything to do with religion.