The “I find it fucking disgusting, bro!” fraction probably isn’t here. Or if they are, they are probably smart enough not to walk into this wood chipper.

There is a strong correlation between shame people feel for having tried it before or for not being able to admit to themselves that they feel this way and then how loud they get. Pair that with religiosity or just a very conservative environment and upbringing and you get the aforementioned bros. It’s more about how they feel, how insecure they are, than about anything physically off-putting. And as somebody who once reacted poorly to being hit on by a lovely Aussie, I think it’s also the somewhat unexpected element of it. We are pattern recognisers. Heterosexual is the majority. We can easily get freaked out by something that’s different. And a lot of the LGBTQ+ folks are still not living their romance in public (if there is some and they also want to) because they avoid wood chippers society has an unfortunately abundant supply of for them.

I’m an alien. I’m a legal alien.

The one on the sticker is normally written as 宮 (miya - big shrine, palace). There is a way of writing Kanji that makes them even boxier than the standard ones, often for use in stamps that painters use to sign their work. This looks like a stylised version of that with a thicker brush stroke where they just extended the little vertical lines downward. For fun.

The hand painted ones are upside down. No clear idea how to read them honestly because the combination doesn’t appear to be used much or is a place that is famous enough. 美 (maybe mi - beautiful, august) 峰 (probably mine - mountain ridge). Could be a place or a quote from a haiku where shit gets condensed like a tweet or something.

Do you mean off Drive or Photos? Images saved from Drive should be ready to go once unzipped. If they came from Photos each image is divorced from its meta data, which comes in a separate file. So you need to check if the new service or software you’re using can reunite those two or you need to find a tool online to do that first. They make it deliberately a pain in the posterior to leave Photos.

My opinion as another cis dude: there are three things at play. (1) What is the definition of “feminism?” If you believe that women and men and everybody in between and beyond are equally worthy members of society and should not be discriminated against in any way, then you fit my definition and can call yourself a feminist. (2) I recognize that this is a hot button issue for some people unfortunately. I also see that other people may operate under a different definition. I give shit to anybody with opinions on the matter that go against (1). I don’t necessarily use the word “feminist” in that context because some words - good words! - have a way of closing people off like an oyster. “Woke” and “feminism” are two examples. Worthy concepts behind both in my view but the mere mention makes some people stop listening. Especially those who would benefit from widening their horizons. Humans are capable of rational thought but we don’t always do or behave that way. I’m dogmatic in my opinion but I’m not dogmatic in the language that I use so I try and adjust it to fit the situation. (3) Even among supposed allies you’ll find oddballs. You don’t want to be a self-professed feminist who mansplains feminism, just as an example.

In this mixed minefield, I think I want to be judged more by my actions than the terms I use.

https://youtube.com/shorts/zugG5AJBFDY

Kyota Ko did this video as an explainer. They tried to eradicate more confusing and irregular Kanji readings because they often make no sense and you don’t deal with all animals every day. So just write them in katakana and that makes it obvious enough you’re dealing with an animal and you don’t need subtitles for it.

The animals that regularly get a Kanji today are common AND their Kanji has - in the logic of Japanese - unambiguous readings (e.g. 猫, 犬, 像, etc.).

Don’t ever encourage Japanese to do more with Kanji. Won’t anybody think of the gaijin?

I remember meeting some masquerading Americans during the Iraq war. These were backpackers in SE Asia.

You only show your passport at the border or maybe when you get a car or a hotel room. That leaves a lot of time to pretend being Canadian everywhere else.

That being said, I just saw a comedy bit where this was recommended to Americans. I think it’s more meme than happening IRL today.

They are a bit vague on this but I suspect all of these attack vectors start with LEOs having physical access to the unlocked phone. They then set up a trusted desktop without the phone owners knowing.

Which is clever, to be fair. Whether or not that’s legal is already a court case. The law is so frightfully grey.

I don’t remember lines in front of stores. I would split the decade roughly into two halves. The first half was one person buying a game that came on 15 floppy disks and a million people of friends and friends of friends and their friends would copy it. The second half was more about CD-ROMs but we figured out how to copy those two. In the background Nintendo was picking up steam and then PS. But for my money console gaming was still a bit of a niche business in the first half for sure. The geeks were excited but it wasn’t a mass phenomenon.

People stood in line to buy Windows 95 though. Imagine that. People stood in line waiting to give their money voluntarily to Microsoft. I’m sure there were scalpers there as well. In my memory that was more impactful than any game release.

It’s not used in the sense that somebody slept in it. But the packaging seal has been broken because it’s a returned item. The risk of lice is manageable.

That’s exactly it.

The other ones I mentioned.

China’s biggest denomination is CNY 100 or about USD 15. India pulled its largest denomination bill from circulation maybe 5 years ago. The US stopped doing anything above USD 100 a while ago. Bigger denominations are a counterfeit and bribery risk.

Nobody cares about the Swiss Franc in cash outside of Switzerland. There are 10 million or thereabouts Swiss people. All the other currencies are used in much larger populations, three-figure millions at the lower end.

WhatsApp used to cost money until then Facebook bought it.

but would an EU-style freedom of movement remove that by allowing citizens of both Canada and US cross freely…?

Captain Obvious says yes.

It should be noted that not all that glitters is gold. At various times, Schengen member countries have reinstated border checks. Not at every border crossing but randomly checking people. Often unfortunately in accordance with the Family Guy police stop meme Pantone skin color chart. Germany is doing it at great cost as an internal political maneuver. Italy is doing it to people coming from Spain post the run on Ceuta. At the height of the Syrian refugee crisis every EU country along the way did it. Free movement is the first victim of anti-immigration politics everywhere. There is an argument to be made that this lofty ideal inked on paper in the 90s was too lofty for its own good in a realpolitik kind of way.

Given the current US administration and the crap they’re pulling on their friendly neighbours to the north there is no way this will happen. This century, if I had to put a time frame on it. This is what happens when the toddlers run diplomacy. Earning respect takes ages, losing it takes no time at all.

Is this our various currency questions sock puppet? Asking insane questions or incredibly boring ones they answer themselves?

Which is it?

I may be white, sensitive, and full of bullshit. But I’m not American!

Sensitive? WTF do you mean sensitive? I’m not sensitive. Thank you for rage baiting with us today.

Seriously, I would stop doing that if I were you. Not for the esthetic or because there is inherently anything wrong with doing that. You’re going to become bycatch when people look to catch bots and sloppers in a wide net.