hedders

@hedders@fedia.io

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Emergency Alert About Wildfires⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Well, anyone with a secret phone they're e.g. hiding from an abusive spouse has had that blown, haven't they? But at least they now know portable barbecues and fireworks are a Not Very Good Idea when the country is basically a tinderbox. So, there's that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨is it weird to have your own religious beliefs system⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  No weirder than any other kind of religious belief, I suppose. The Quakers have this kind of pretty loose approach to doctrine, for instance, and they're generally pretty decent people.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Painful to recover from⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Er, no. No, this is just not how humans work. Even if we take love out of the equation and talk only about lust, that can be triggered by all sorts of things and a person's physical shape is only one of them. A particular look, the way a person smells, how they carry themselves, their voice, their charm, their laugh, and a thousand and one other things can be the thing that makes you want to jump someone's bones.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why are expressions like "women artists" or "women writers" used?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I'm not a native English speaker, so forgive my ignorance, but isn't "women" a noun, not an adjective? Why not just say "female artists" or "female writers"?

  The English language is unusual in that it doesn't have gendered nouns, so we find other, often quite clumsy, ways to indicate it. You're right that it doesn't make sense grammatically; we say it that way simply because it scans better.

  As a side note, I've also literally never seen anyone say "men artists" or "men writers". What gives?

  Patriarchy. Society defaults to the male. That's not unique to the English-speaking world, of course.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Where do I go for unbiased news in the world without it having an ulterior motive or kissing ass to the establishment of said country?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Others have mentioned Reuters and the AP. I'd also suggest the Financial Times and The Economist; they're quite expensive but you get what you pay for. The BBC isn't too bad actually - it's obviously very British-focused and can be a bit wet, but they usually get the facts right and they do try hard to avoid favouring any given political viewpoint. Al Jazeera is also surprisingly good.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do Britain get to send three teams to the World Cup?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The prosaic answer is that they each have their own FIFA-recognised national football associations.

  More broadly, little about the UK makes logical sense. It just sort of ... happened that way. Lots of history, lots of it pretty fucked up, and here we are. A funny little collection of islands off the coast of France.

  If it's any consolation, the nations making up the UK don't live in perfect harmony. The Scots and the Welsh hate the English, the Northern Irish hate each other, and the English largely tend to forget that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland exist at all, except perhaps as somewhere pretty to go for a nice holiday where it's kind of like England except they talk a bit funny.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Can you explain like I am a child terrorism without the whole good vs evil schtik? My sister in laws kid asked me about it. He is 9.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Terrorism is usually defined as acts of violence against civilians to further a political or religious agenda.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it reasonable to tell a person you once loved about the fact years later?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You all will NOT gaslight me into thinking I'm insane. You. Will. Not.

  Nobody is gaslighting you. You asked for advice. The fact that you don't like the advice you're getting probably means you need to hear it all the more.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How to fly from the US to the UK as a duel citizen?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  My wife and children have UK/US dual nationality, so we've run into this. What we do is carry both sets of passports, exit and enter the UK with British passports and exit and enter the United States with US passports. In our experience, the UK authorities don't care as long as you're legal and don't give you grief, and the US authorities will usually be dicks to you for a bit but they do eventually let you through.

  That said, we're white. The position might be quite different if you're not.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it reasonable to tell a person you once loved about the fact years later?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I'm horrified and appalled by how the community perceived my intentions; at large, judging by the number of votes on comments in the conversation below, placing no doubt in them being nothing more than sick and twisted desire for attention

  You might want to think about that a bit.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it reasonable to tell a person you once loved about the fact years later?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If you're honest with yourself - really, really honest - you will see that your desire to tell them is motivated by your own vanity and desire for attention. You're doubtless imagining some big scene in which either they fall into your arms or in which you get to stride off into the sunset as some kind of noble self-sacrificing hero while they wonder what might have been. Don't fall into that trap. It's childish, and it's selfish, and it's getting into some really dodgy territory that ends with the manosphere and incels and all that. Just keep your counsel, and move on.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Former Tory minister Ann Widdecombe dies at 78⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  It's worth pointing out here that it is perfectly possible to (a) think that Widdecombe was a thoroughly vile person and (b) deplore her murder.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How come they don't do a cooking show for poor or middle class people? Something that is under 10 bucks that will last a couple days and be great.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Look up Jack Monroe.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why is Nickleback so hated? I think they made the perfect song for America after 9/11 with Hero.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Because they're completely beige.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is it like being drunk? How much control do you have?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Alcohol removes inhibitions. You still make decisions, though. What it tends to do is bring out who you really are. "In vino, veritas" as they say.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  @codewizard Of itself, nothing - it needs another argument telling it what to perform the operation on. Something like rm -rf * would delete everything in the current directory and all subdirectories.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is IPV6 better for youtube adblockers?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Question one: No.

  Question two: Depends on your ISP. Ask them. No line upgrade is required, but they may need to enable it and/or have you make changes at your router.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Former Tory MP Craig Williams pleads guilty to cheating at gambling with election bets⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  A timely reminder of what Tories are.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How come it seems a lot of celebs have severe anxiety disorders? How did they choose their profession know they were walking into something which would constantly put them in a fear state?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Lots of people have anxiety and still do stressful things. Many forms of it can be treated, or at least managed, and some people are just determined enough that they refuse to let it stop them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How do you avoid AI music?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  This. Streaming services are doing to music what Lars Ulrich thought Napster would do.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How do you avoid AI music?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  My answer is - buy music. Not only because that way you'll get actual human works of art by real musicians who you like, but also because that way they stand a chance of actually being able to make a living so they can, y'know, make more music.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What hot af take do you have that you think you will be HORRIBLY executed and shunned from society for?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Can I make a suggestion? It seems like it's not dogs themselves that bug you. What seems to get your goat is people who performatively like dogs instead of having an actual personality. Which ... yeah, you're right.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Because time offsets are calculated +/- from GMT. Because colonialism. No, that doesn't make much sense in the modern world, but I suppose "hour zero" has to sit somewhere, and the world has settled on an eastern suburb of London as being that somewhere.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Still Listens to Southern Death Cult⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Could we trick her into listening to Placebo?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are the fun ways to learn and master the file management system in Linux ?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You can think of it as basically "programs", "more programs", "stuff", "gubbins", "misc" and "other".

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Would you want to be Michael Jackson-level famous? Why or why not?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Jesus H Christ, no. Rich? Sure. It would make a lot of things easier and less stressful. Famous? Not on your life. Can't imagine anything worse. And Michael Jackson levels of fame? Sounds like hell. No wonder he was such a monumental fuck-up.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨My brother wants to for Father's Day is volunteer at the local women's shelter. Not really a father but has two dogs. But is afraid to even ask because he is male. How does he go about this?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This may be well-intentioned (although I am sceptical). Regardless, it's a bad idea, it comes off as deeply sinister, and smacks really strongly of "not all men". He should find something else to do.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨When in time did America gave up trying to be great? Gave up as the example for the world? And now we are on our backs and refuse to get up like Bender off Futurama or a turtle?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I feel like OP is of the cusp of a realisation: "Hang on. Are we the baddies?"

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Has there ever been a country who did not have an enemy or pick a fight? And was pretty much like all of you do you we will do us. kind of like isalationism but charitable when it counted?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Back in the day, Switzerland was one of Europe's main sources of armies-for-hire. We see the echoes of that today in the Swiss Guard in Vatican City, for instance.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What was the stupidest form of US defaultism you've encountered in real life whilst they're abroad?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It's not just Americans who do this by any means, and nor are they the worst offenders! Trust me on this, I'm British - the most wilfully parochial nation on earth.

  You'll always get the odd jerk, but mostly this stuff tends to come from a lack of travel experience more than anything else. Unless you've travelled, you may not even realise what assumptions you're making about how day-to-day life works. And, well, a lot of Americans haven't travelled much outside of the USA. (That's not a criticism by the way - the USA is absolutely enormous and incredibly diverse, and you could spend a lifetime exploring it and not see it all.)

  All that said, back in the days before dual voltage power supplies were common I did used to find it amusing watching Americans in Europe blithely plugging their electrical goods into the 220V mains and wondering why they blew up.