Recent submissions

Comment · 10 hours ago
I've met two undertakers in my life, in two different European countries, both women and both seemingly pretty normal. One said that she had started as a beautician before finding that she preferred applying makeup to people who don't move, which I thought was quite funny.
Comment · 3 days ago
Somewhat related: A Burglar's Guide to the City https://burglarsguide.com/ looking at urban architecture from the perspective of someone who doesn't use windows the way they're intended
Comment · 23 days ago
Comment · 29 days ago
Comment · 2 months ago
Imagine I sell you something and you pay me in cash. The notes look authentic, but I later discover that they are conterfeits. It would be absurd to claim that your successful passing-off deception demonstrates that I don't value money at all.
Comment · 3 months ago
Comment · 3 months ago
I'm unreasonably fond of the numero symbol (№), although I've never quite settled on whether it should be followed immediately by the number or whether there should be a (non-breaking, potentially thin) space between them. Although it does tend to look awful in monospace fonts.
Comment · 3 months ago
Comment · 3 months ago
This reminds me of a very interesting book called “Southern Thought and Other Essays on the Mediterranean” by Franco Cassano: https://academic.oup.com/fordham-scholarship-online/book/208...

In short, he argues that Mediterranean countries must reject the northern European denigration of them as backwards, old-fashioned and workshy, and instead reclaim their cultures as vitally human and a necessary corrective to an over-focus on 'efficiency'.

Comment · 3 months ago
So do several countries, as listed here at https://www.etuc.org/en/pressrelease/climate-crisis-requires... :

> Belgium: 29°C for light physical workload, 26°C for a moderately heavy physical workload, 22°C at heavy physical workload and 18°C at very heavy physical workload

> Hungary: 31°C for sedentary and light physical work, 29°C for moderately physical work and 27°C for heavy physical work

> Latvia: Maximum working temperature for indoor work of 28°C

> Montenegro: Maximum working temperature for outdoor work of 36°C

> Slovenia: The air temperature in work areas must not exceed 28 °C

(although I don't see any obvious similarities between the countries that do and don't have such protections, but based on that list it does seem that former Yugoslav and Soviet states are overrepresented)

Comment · 3 months ago
Comment · 4 months ago
Comment · 4 months ago
Here's a recent blog post in a similar vein: https://benthams.substack.com/p/voting-self-interestedly-is-...

Although your plane crash example falls afoul of the broken window fallacy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window

Plus the simple fact that, by the same logic, you can try to both-sides plain murder on the ground that the murderer wants to murder (and, again, that the undertakers and coroners and such must be kept in business). Clearly, whilst every policy will have supporters and detractors, some detractions are more worthy of consideration than others.

Comment · 4 months ago
Comment · 4 months ago
Same here; I remember playing ARMA 3 during the early-2013 public alpha, which was an eye-opening look at how the gaming sausage is made in real time (and before Early Access was as established a concept as it is now).

I was rather disappointed when I heard that they had been acquired by BAE Systems, but on further inspection it seems like that was only the BI Simulations arm (responsible for VBS), now rebranded as OneArc. My guess is that a release like this wouldn't have happened were they not still independent.

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