clara

it’s the same type of non-performative speech you see when any company says “we value our customer’s complaints”, or “we work hard to have a diverse and inclusive team”, as if by merely saying these things that it magically becomes true

ah but meta has cracked it this time; if they just say “we never sell your info” that means they don’t, right?

op, it’s not just you, i promise. 🙂

i encourage you to watch this in it’s entirety. while it covers a different life story, it explores some avenues of what you are possibly feeling when you ask this question.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmI_VBp9QU0

if you’re serious, then here’s two places i recommend to make a start on that train of thought

https://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org should clue you in on which “advanced economies” might skew towards the life factors that interest you

and https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison-tool might help you narrow down which of these will be a better cultural fit

i’m aware there’s a lot of subjectivity in these two links but, it could help you make a start.

many people are great at saying “get me out of here” online, but not many people follow up that thought, and ask themselves “but where to?”

be one of those who answers the second question. start working on your escape today! 💪

yep i found this one out the hard way when applying for a job in the uk at currys (similar to best buy like in the op)

didn’t get the job of course, that’s fine, whatever, move on and go to next application

what i learnt afterwards though was that, they don’t hire for currys/best buy based on your actual understanding of tech. they hire on your ability to sell the items, and help customers engage in excess consumerism.

the main point being, i obviously wouldn’t sell anyone a $99 gold plated hdmi cable. because firstly, that’s unethical profiteering, and secondly, i know that a $5 would do the same job. i would point a customer to the $5 cable, it’s the correct choice. but this is why i am unhireable for this job.

currys, best buy, euronics, mediamarkt etc need to hire people that can sell the $99 cable. to do that, they counterintuitively have to hire people who don’t know enough about tech. reason being, if you don’t actually know about tech yourself, you will think that the gold cable is better, and you can then do a more convincing job of selling it. plausible deniability. apply this to every item in the store. you want someone who can push 8k tvs, beats headphones and smart fridges. not someone who will guide the consumer to what they actually need for their use case.

it’s the reason why you go into these stores and the staff don’t have a fucking clue about actual tech questions. they were hired precisely because they don’t have a clue.

california is the largest “sub-national” economy in the world. if california was a country, it would have the fifth largest economy. bigger than the uk, or bigger than india.

if i had to guess, the answer is “success breeds jealousy”

thank you so much for this 🙂 i shall make sure to have soda with food from now on. and also, i can give fanta zero and coke cherry zero a go again (with full stomach) and see what happens lol. appreciate the work 💪

ah okay, i’m way out of my depth then. thanks for the advice

my specific problems are with fanta zero and coke cherry zero. if not the aspartame, then is there a possible cause that isn’t confirmation bias, or caffeine? i don’t have problems with other drinks with caffeine, and i should stress that i drink 2L of water a day regardless of whether i have a can of soda (in addition). i.e, it’s not headaches from dehydration either.

i’m willing to accept the possibility that i am an idiot and it’s just confirmation bias, but if anyone knows any other possible causes, i’d be happy to learn 🙂

another question i have regarding point #2, how much sugar is too much to cause the effects you mention (i.e in one can?). for context, i live in the UK, and most cans of soda are restricted to 16.5g of sugar for the whole can, because of a sugar tax. is 16.5g in one go enough to cause liver damage?

thank you for reading

the issue put bluntly, is that in federation, your data cannot be 100% safe. even if this instance is secure and perfectly private, if this instance is then federated, that federated data can then be copied and have anything done with it, or to it.

or, to phrase it in a way that opened my eyes to this, quoting from someone else a month ago, “what makes you think you’re in control of your data on any instance?”

oh that’s why some soda drinks give me headache 😐 i just realised all the ones that used to make my head hurt, were all zero/diet versions. i switched back to full sugar ones a while back, now i see why i did.

i guess it’s a choice between teeth rot or cancer. i’ll take the teeth rot lol

wow you guys are getting rinsed over there!

for a UK perspective, we have a cinema chain over here called Everyman, it’s cinemas but every seat is a sofa/couch! and you can order food to the seats. unless it’s a peak screening, you usually get a whole couch to yourself. matinée shows are roughly ~$17 for adult, ~$11 for child. what’s pictured in the OP is no doubt one of those pull-down chairs with the itchy carpet material too. ouch!

sure, so 196 refers to a sub called r/196, in reference to r/195, which had one rule only: if you visit, you must post something before you leave.

it was called r/196 after it’s predecessor got a bit… spicy. 195 was a sub that skewed slightly left of center, but had a hard time keeping 195 clear of hate speech etc etc, and so they shut it down. r/196 was made, which skews further left as a result of this. since 195 was a general posting sub, some of the audience had a tough time accepting every 2nd meme post with a side of politics, some ended up getting banned quickly, and in reaction they made subs like r/197

r/195 itself was called r/195 because it was the house number of creator of the sub at that time.

It was our address. All the mods lived together in a 5 bedroom condo during college. 195 was our house number. One of the roommates sucks, so he wasn’t invited, and one roommate has since deleted his reddit account. But originally this was a subreddit for us to share memes and funny stuff during classes and work. It’s blown up in a big way in the 8 years since we created it.

(i cannot fetch sources because most of reddit is blacked out)

that’s about it, if anyone else knows better, correct me if i’m wrong :)