PonyOfWar

Go hiking! It’s many Germans’ favorite pastime and we have well-signposted hiking trails everywhere. In Grünwald you’re quite close to the Bavarian alps and lakes, really beautiful areas.

Germans have quite a different way of communicating compared to Americans. Small talk with strangers is not as common. Don’t take it as rudeness if the supermarket cashier doesn’t really smile or ask about your day. People are quite direct. If you ask someone how they are, be prepared for an honest reply.

Germans have many dialects and Bavaria is known for having quite a heavy one. If you know some German, you might still have some problems understanding people in Bavaria.

Public transport is good, but not Japan- or Switzerland-good. When going on a trip, take possible delays into account. Don’t rely on a 5 minute connection in Mannheim HBf.

It seems useful to me. When you’ve installed a new application you can immediately see which category it was put in. That said, glad it can be turned off for those who don’t like it.

I’d say it’s less the surgery being addictive and more that the type of person going for plastic surgery in the first place may often have body dysmorphic disorder, so they’ll keep finding flaws in their appearance. The surgery may even result in additional perceived flaws, which will lead to a cycle of getting even more procedures done.

I believe his surname being Al Saud should indeed mean that he is part of the Saudi royal family. Although that includes everyone descended from its original founder, some 15,000 people, so he’s not necessarily close to the ruling inner circle.

Yes, Saudi Arabia’s ruling dynasty is the House of Saud.

Yeah, this seems like an attempt to create a token leftist community to prove that they’re not right-wing (despite all active political communities on there being just that). I find it quite funny that they’re still looking for an actual leftist to run the community… Good luck with that!

Ridiculously fast. More than double than what most people will drive on a highway. Illegal on a highway anywhere but Germany. And even there it would be quite unsafe and thus illegal in most driving conditions.

I disagree with that assessment. He’s not a perfect person and was a bad father due to being so absorbed in his work, but I don’t think he’s a narcissist at all. A narcissist couldn’t have made the works he made, nor did he ever come across like that to me in any interviews.

Bloody hell. Studio Ghibli is pretty much the antithesis to AI “art”. I can only imagine how Hayao Miyazaki feels about this.

They’re clearly rectangular! _/s

They’re kana characters which represent syllables. So ら is “ra” when romanized, ロ is “ro” and so on.

Actually took me quite a while to figure out it’s supposed to say “Soul of coffee”, but it’s probably easier to read the less you know about Japanese characters.

This is from august of last year in Frankfurt (Oder). Police removed them.

You think a U.S. military base isn’t getting kicked the fuck out of a foreign country the moment they are declared an enemy?

No, or rather I don’t think many countries would immediately be willing declare them an enemy. Europe shies away from armed conflict and quick, decisive actions unfortunately aren’t our strong suit either. I’d fully expect a drawn out political shitshow before anything actually happens. As was/is the case for Ukraine.

Or do you have such a little opinion of everyone else that you think a couple of military bases will immediately take over every European county at once?

Take over? No. But I do think they’d be a deterrence factor, especially considering they also carry nukes.

What would be the reaction of the Canada King (Charles III is the king of Canada)?

Absolutely nothing. Maybe some strong words. He has no power.

The Commonwealth? NATO?

Tough to say. Getting actively involved in a war in North America would be very difficult logistically for the European countries or the Commonwealth, so I don’t think there would be an immediate military reaction. Possibly a Ukraine-type situation where the NATO countries try to aid Canada with equipment as best as they can. But even that will be difficult across the Atlantic ocean, which the US can probably blockade. Local politics would be absolute chaos, with an ally that many countries have relied on suddenly turning enemy. With the US having military bases everywhere, they could also threaten countries into keeping out of the war. I think the situation would unfortunately be quite bleak for Canada.

I’ve read some volumes of のんのんびより which I’ve quite enjoyed. Attempted 君たちはどう生きるか but that one’s a bit tough for my level.

Importing used books from Japan is relatively cheap. I have a shelf with various novels and manga in Japanese I bought over the years.

It says Sanpincha (Okinawan jasmine tea) but I’m not sure if it’s supposed to depict a particular brand.

deleted by creator

Yes, I was also around for the Bush presidency, and I’m pretty sure. Bush had some pretty shit policies but was also very much an establishment republican who was not going to fundamentally change the system. He didn’t have a rabid cult of personality surrounding him. There was no Project 2025-type plan to turn America into a theocracy. Bush never “joked” about becoming a dictator, becoming president for life or putting his political opponents into jail. He didn’t threaten his NATO allies with letting Russia invade them.

I could go on, but the point is: America didn’t just elect another conservative who will try to roll back LGBT rights, it elected a Mussolini-style Fascist. Thinking “Oh we’ll just vote him out in 4 years” is… optimistic.

IDK. Compared to Trump, Bush seems downright reasonable in hindsight. He was at least willing to work within a democratic framework. This will be a new level of political extremism in America and downplaying it won’t help.