env123

The Old French "caractere" clearly has the "air" sound when you type it into Google Translate's French to English translator and hit that pronunciation button

> What are you on about? It clearly has the 'car' sound. It's not pronounced verker. It's varkar

With respect to Microsoft being one of the worst privacy offenders, can you please expand on this?

Why can't you just unlink your Microsoft login and use offline account if you're using Windows, or use ad blockers? Even if you somehow see an ad aimed at you, why can't it be in your power to just ignore them? Think in the terms of "I'll only look up a product/services if I have a functional need for it" rather than fall to the trap of "just because I have lots of money doesn't mean I have to spend it today"?

A lot of times by the way if I see something I fancy, I'd end up looking at Amazon and find the best product at affordable cost, so I don't really click on any ads. If I recall even, I NEVER click on an ad, I'd go as far that I ignored sponsored ads in Amazon, so what's the problem with ads?

Am I the only one who notices that for a centanarian, he looks in a good shape. And I'm not talking health-wise but also mental-wise. You could tell from his posture, demeanor and gleam of his eyes that his mental capacity has not been dimmered by old age

I think what greggsy's point is that why begin something when you could foresee that it wouldn't really amount to anything?

it was a vanity project - Felix just found out that it's not worth it later than sooner

Enlightenment

Stable home environment = GOOD married couple of biological parents living together until child becomes adult

Stable home environment = GOOD biological parent until child becomes adult (if other GOOD parent dies, not leaves)

Leaves = child trauma, parent BAD = child destructive behaviour

One GOOD parent dies = child trauma, but lesser extent

GOOD = morally, respect, supportive, nice, kind, good-feel stuff

/eli5

Lesson: Marry not for looks, but personality eg. Johnny Depp and Amber Heard

Airplanes look like birds

Helicopters look like dragonfly

Cars look like beetles

Nuclear bombs look like mushrooms

Fireflies look like stars

A ball look like the moon

Dildos look like cucumbers

I lost the point I'm making but the idea is that human ideas take shape from what can be perceived. Humans copy what is effective in nature, so yeah complex life also creates technology with humans as the conduit. We are Gods apparently, or demi-gods if you'd like to be more humble

You're filtering it out because it's chinese. It's not racist, but biased because it doesn't feature... I'll stop right there

I'll tell you straight-up: this was written to increase morale for Ukraine. Whether Kyiv fall or walled up to Russian forces has yet to happen. It's still too early in the siege to make up these predictions

I could imagine Russian propaganda pulling up statistics saying Kyiv will fall soon

Also, too many people here do not understand geopolitics - the aim of invading Ukraine is to speed up the process of Russia's demands:

- Ukraine never joining NATO

- Donbas and Crimea ceding to Russia w/ Ukraine losing claim to them

It's not about fully invading Ukraine and ceding the whole state, because that would be a bigger problem for Russia if it does so

Putin had to invade, as from his perception, Ukraine joining NATO means game over for Russia, economic (oil and gas reserves) and military-wise (strategic positioning of Ukraine), it's in the long-term interests of Russia.

Geopolitics has nothing to do with morality/freedom/feelings, it's all about power.

Don't get me wrong; morality, freedom, feelings, those have important place in your own family, friends, community

But if you're talking about places where you have little control eg. companies where competition is given prestige before you were hired in, or in the case of geopolitics, thousand years civilizations fighting for centuries, it's better for you to see what it is

As much as we strive for equality, justice, rationality, sensibility, beauty, and all of those admirable virtues, let be realistic here, we live in a dystopian planet where god is truly dead - men have played as gods in favour of power

Even Marcus Aurelius who was known as the philosopher king, couldn't do much to not slaughter Christians under his name, if we were to believe historians. This is equal to western media smearing Putin's name in the international community, when what he's doing is essentially identical to what the US did in countless countries it invaded

It's just a declaration of core claim, it's not like Japan will actually do something about it at this point. When Japan is finally free from the shackles of western hegemony and able to build up militarily like it used to, then it might do something about it. Remember, geopolitics is about perception of power and "alliances", nothing to do with morality or freedom

This. Russia, is no different from the USA when it comes to war crimes. The only difference is the USA can get away due to the political clout in their sphere of influence. Those countries that did not condemn the aggression - India, Brazil, UAE, etc could see through the western hypocrisy. Crazy to say, but the USA was the "role model", precursor to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. No point in calling any nationality as barbaric, because let's be honest, power comes exploitation, no matter who you are

I'm gonna point out though, that Ukraine has far more shared values with Russia than the west. Ukraine aspires to be under the sphere of influence of the west than Russia for economic reasons. This conflict is a bit like the Northern Ireland troubles, except the difference was that mainland Europe could do was to watch at the time

For someone who is not attached to money knowing that we all will someday perish from this world, and is cognizant of only purchasing items within the means of affordability, the IKEA experience is compatible with me. So don't see where the hate comes from