Yeah I get it. I too have some people inside my social circle who don’t seem to understand that certain things work very well for me (my outdated phone for example) and like to give unsoliced advice, because they mean well (in their own specific way). It is hard to combat these kind of people, as it would be ridiculous to cut ties over such bullshit argument. I guess thats the price for being a part of a social group.

High quality faucets (the ones which are expensive) usually do not leak. My girlfriend and I found that out the hard way. After moving in we built the kitchen and then we went and bought the cheapest IKEA faucet the store had to offer (back then for just 10 €), thinking “what could happen, it is just a faucet”.

It turned out that this faucet leaked water, even when closed. But it was so little that one didn’t notice. It went over years. All that leaking water eventually seeped into the countertop, along the hole where the sink is built in, where the material (particle board) of the countertop is exposed. Now our whole countertop is puffy and has been expanded because of the water seeping into the particle board.

We bought an expensive faucet after that, but it doesn’t attach to the countertop so well, because its surface is uneven due to the water seeping into the countertop. During summer, when the countertop dries out and decreases in thickness due to higher temperatures the new faucet comes loose. Until we get a new countertop we then have to deliberately wet the countertop where the faucet sticks out so that it can expand to tighten the faucet again.

Thats why (good) faucets are expensive - you pay for peace of mind partially.

But I live in Los Angeles where the people I know will feel shame on my behalf due to the car I drive.

Maybe your people should pitch in for a new ride on your behalf then, instead of yourself.

German cars are deliberately over-engineered to increase repairing costs. They fail less often than cheaper cars, but when they do, it’s time to check your covering on your bank account, because that’s gonna cost you.

This can of pineapple slices has been found in the back of the food cabinet in December 2020. Its expiration date was in July 2017. I did not open it. I carefully removed the can outside right into the trash bin. I didi’t want to risk an explosion of this fruit bomb.

All of this applies to many niche communities. In Germany, especially the older forums that are around since the internet became widly popular show such behavior. Take HiFi- forums for example: If your plugs are not made with gold, you are doing it wrong. Also, if you want to spend money for a hobby, don’t bother to start if you are not willing to spend at least an unreasonable ridiculous ammount of Euros.

These enthusiast also complain about a lack of new members. It’s the nobody wants to work anymore sentiment, but with niche hobby communities.

German dubs are actually top notch compared to other countries

This is true for movie productions. They are dubbed well, even to a point where jokes and plays on words are translated as well. On the other hand, cartoons are not. They lack of something that makes them unwatchable when dubbed - I think it’s because some of the play on words and jokes are missing, also the dubbed voices differ extremely from the original. Such thing can make a character appear and be percieved very different, compared to the original. If cartoonn are availiable in original language (English), I’ll prefer that.

Yesterday I watched an interesting video about this topic: Why Germany dubbs movies, but other countries don’t
Warum Deutschland Filme synchronisiert und andere Länder nicht The video comes with insights from a voice actor, who dubbs the voice of Leonardo di Caprio.

Back in the early 2000s I bought my first own car. It had a radio with cassatte. I had a mixtape that I carried around, with a walkman (albeit not the original one from Sony). When I drove the car home - stil with temporary number plates, because I needed to register the car to my name - the song Turn The Page played a few minutes into the drive. I will always associate this song with that particular event.

Are you saying all laws are futile? Otherwise what is different with this law that makes it futile?

I do not say that all laws are futile. The difference with this particular measurement is that it is odd to me, that a no-weapon zone is being established, as it is quite unusual that Germans carry around weapons in general. At least not where I live. People carrying around weapons of any kind is just not a thing here.

There are other laws, speed restrictions for instance. I get that there is a necessity to enforce such thing, as people have cars and tend to drive faster than they should. Speeding with a car is more common than carrying a weapon. That’s why this law makes sense, as it adresses the issue right there. Speeding doesn’t have an underlying issue that causes drivers to speed.

The thing what makes it futile in my opinion is that a restriction in carrying weapons does not solve the underlying issues (the root causes of socio-economic inequality, among others) that probably lead to harming others with knives. It’s just treating the symptoms, not the root cause.

This would be the use case, where you would break the law, when entering such restriction zone. Unless, of course, your skin tone has the right shade, as police unfortunately does things like racial profiling. If pale, you were on your way to a cooking party - if darker-skinned, you luckily were caught in the act!

Fair enough, I didn’t think of that. What you described is the intended use for pocket knives, MacGyver style.

What I thought of when writing my comment were kind of hunting knives. No one needs that inside an urban environment.

The question is: why would anyone carry a knife in the first place? I can’t think of any reason. Personally, such law wouldn’t have any impact on me, because I don’t carry a knife with me. I can see the intention with such law, and it probably might help to percieve a more secure enviroment.

If someone wanted to do some stabbing inside a party district, such law wouldn’t stop them - unless one has to pass through a security checkpoint (which to my knowledge are not a thing).

This is a futile attempt to establish safety, and it is done so that it can be claimed that something has been done.

If some person has the intention to do any harm to others, this person would not be stopped by any restriction to carry any weapon.

The real issues lay much deeper: A growing number of refugees and asylum seekers that want to work, but are prohibited to do so, but at the same time these are competing in an already tight housing market. Raising costs of living, growing inequality, growing envy and a part of the population which is on the brink of shiftig into a nazi movement, with a growing resentment to foreign people. It takes more than putting up a sign that says that weapons are forbidden beyond this point to solve these problems.

Also, in Germany there is no reason ever to walk around with waepons. Compared to other parts of the world it is pretty safe here.

Putting up a sign that states that weapon are forbidden would have the same impact as putting up a sign that forbids wild fires in the forest or flooding near a body of water.

As an addition to the translation tool (context menu in Firefox) it would be nice to have a conversion tool for the conversion of temperatures and lengths. I know there are addons for this purpose, but last time i checked they weren’t good or they were a hassle to use. Opera nailed it a few years ago with a little pop-up window when text got highlighted. It recognized when it was a SI unit. This is a feature that I have not seen in any other browser yet.

The more urgency an idea is promoted with, the less need there is in real life for that idea.

Social- and greenwashing proposals.

“By buying [unnecessary product] you will help [marginalized group] to gain a livable income and also send their kids to school instead of sending them to [work place with - even for adults - horrible work conditions]. Also, when buying [product] we will save [arbirtary area] of [rainforest/ coral reef/ mangrove swamp] that would otherwise have been destroyed [but not by us]. Additional to that, your purchase helped us to save [arbitrary ammount of CO₂ - at least in a completely hypothetical scenario]. While using [product] you will make the world a better place.”

As a customer there is barely any way you can ensure or check that these things are true. It cannot be possible to save the enviroment while buying stupid products like, for example, internet-of-shit-devices which will be phased out in no time or single use products made from plastic or other harmful materials that are not recycleable.

All these claims are just an indulgance trade - like it is done for centuries in a religious context. It is just that you have an excuse to consume more, because they to something to help people/ enviroment. If there was a product that would have been advertised as: “Well, we irretrieveably destroyed 100 km² of nature, and for each single product in average two workers died and at end-of-life this product will fuck up the environment once more - also it will impair your health just by existing”, it would be horrible - but at least it would be honest.

I think it is important to have cash as a backup.

A couple of years ago there were some issues with card reading terminals in Germany. Due to a faulty security certificate these card reading terminals were not operational for about a whole month. Many stores were affected, because they almost all use ones from the same manufacturer. The only reason why it wasn’t such a big deal was that people were carrying cash around anyway and were able to switch the method of payment easily. Having cash worked as a backup.

along with your personal apple account username and password.

I would never ever share my personal Apple account with work related things. I prefer to have my private stuff seperated from work related things.

I once worked for a small company that had such a setup: All devices were Apple, and everything was connected with the company owners private Apple accounts. That means that I was able to see personal calendars and to an extend some email-related things - Things that reveald more about a person than you wanted to know.

Lammbock

Back then (early to mid-2000s) it was considered the most popular German stoner movie (at least among my social group back then).

It could become true soon (by the end of the century).

https://www.livescience.com/worlds-population-could-plummet-to-six-billion-by-the-end-of-the-century-new-study-suggests

That would be horrible. Law entforcement would have a field day (not with the fart statistics tho). Our brain is the last frontier of privacy.