ValiantDust

• Fall of Civilisations
• The Thing About Austen
• Revolutions

Also: cleaning. I’ve had flatmates who managed to take the same time for cleaning the bathroom or the kitchen and yet it somehow still wasn’t clean.

When I’m stressed, I like to soak a washing cloth in hot water and then press it on my face with both hands, covering eyes and nose and slowly and deeply breathe through it. I don’t know why I find almost waterboarding myself comforting but it’s incredibly relaxing.
Also, lying on the floor in the middle of my apartment.

I was thinking the same. If you really committed to the theme and added some decorations and plants, it could actually be kinda charming. The chairs would still be uncomfortable though.

Well, it depends… Germany as one country isn’t very old. So the roots of the education system are certainly older than the country. But I’m not sure which parts should be included in this calculation. The education system was very different in different states that are now part of Germany. Then there are Universities that were (at least partly) German back in the day but are not located in today’s Germany. I’m sure the Romans had schools when they hung out here but that’s probably a bit of a stretch. But where exactly are we supposed to draw the line?

I’m not up to date with the online discussion of British politics. Is Cruella Braverman a thing already or do we need to make it happen?

Abbreviate keeping the first and some random later consonants (and sometimes consonants that aren’t in the word at all) without using punctuation: Dr, Mr, Ms, Mrs

I think it’s usually the first letter(s) and the last letter(s). In older English handwritings I’ve come across M.ʳ etc. So I think that’s were those came from.

Smoking around kids is terrible without question and the good driver argument is of course bullshit. But she is on to something with the seat belt. Many woman have trouble even with average sized boobs. For some the seat belt slips up and crosses the throat which is not only very uncomfortable but I imagine not exactly safe. But those boobs are for looking at not for taking into account while designing safety features, amirite?

I have a poster from here with the text of one of my favourite books arranged as a picture. It’s quite the conversation piece. If books aren’t your thing, you could always go with the first million digits of Tau, the Streets of Portland, the Constitution of Dalaware or the Kama Sutra.

For a moment I forgot about the omnipresence of AI generated pictures and wondered what the hell the thing in the second picture is supposed to be.

I feel LLM created texts often use rigid structuring along with the fitting linking words and phrases – “on one hand…, on the other hand”, “furthermore”, “in conclusion”. Like a high school student writing an essay. Also the content may or may not be correct and is mostly just stolen from several sources and patched together without any thought and care – also like a high school essay. So I’m gonna go with that.

Stepping on single fallen leaves on the sidewalk. I’m also more disappointed than I should be when they are not crunchy.

I read Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain at some point during the First World War centenary. I’m also roughly 100 years younger than Vera Brittain, so I was very close to her age during WW1. I knew the facts of WW1 before, but it hit me really hard to think about a whole generation of young people (of the countries involved) having their youth drowned in a war. And the pointlessness of it all. It made me really grateful for the circumstances I was lucky enough to grow up in.

I’ve had my 1l Sigg aluminium bottle for about 10 years. The lid broke once when I dropped it and I bought a replacement lid. It’s a bit dented but otherwise still good.

I assume it’s for the same reason you say Nasendusche, Nasenrücken or Nasenbluten but Halsschmerzen or Halstuch (though I’m not sure what’s the exact grammatical reason). It has nothing to do with the number of noses. I think it would be Augenarzt and not Augearzt even if we had only one eye.

Oh cool, we have a very similar one in German: “His/her swing stood too close to the wall.”

In recent years, activated charcoal.

(Because many people apparently don’t know this: Don’t eat activated charcoal if you take any medication, it can render your medication ineffective)

Edit: Wait, I’m dumb, charcoal is very much carbon-based.

I wish I could take credit, but I’m afraid I actually did not intend this pun. Thanks for pointing it out though, it really is funny.

It’s a very interesting choice but some part of me was incredibly envious when I saw the first picture of a fucking brook running under the house in the middle of a forest. But then I got to the next pictures and of course they completely ruined it.

That would make sense. Thanks for coming up with an explanation. I did wonder when I thought about this earlier.