Not ideologically pure.
Lego is doing a great job here exploring alternative materials and encouraging research and production.
It’s absurd that they seem to be doing it all by themselves. Plastic is everywhere, everybody claims to care, but Lego seems to be the only ones to put their money where their mouth is.
Probably helps that they’ve realised they can pretty much charge any price for their pieces of plastic. So they have money to spend. But still.
Also keep in mind that what is perfect for one person is not perfect for another, and we change from day to day. Some days we have energy to do a bunch of stuff, other days we just want to take it easy.
I think the most important part of successful travelling with a partner is to be considerate of each others: Pay attention to what the other person wants, perhaps especially if they need a little break. This does not align well with planning everything in detail. You have to be able to improvise, and to take into account each others needs throughout the travels. :)
I think American women might have something similar going on. Some of them use their voice differently from what we’re used to in Europe. But yeah, solid observation.
I think Brits and Americans are also badly perceived because people understand the stupid stuff they’re saying. People speaking more obscure languages might have the benefit of doubt.
I am guessing from context you’re an American going to Europe.
The US is big; distances in Europe is more manageable. However, we’ve packed a bunch of stuff into every square kilometre. Just because you can do Paris, Venice, Florence, Rome, and Naples all in a week doesn’t mean you should. I lived a while in Florence, and I always overheard American tourists talking about how they “saw” all these great European cities in just a day before moving on. They didn’t see shit other than the Eiffel tower and the Ponte Vecchio.
Find a place you want to experience, and try to actually experience it. Go to museums. Eat their food. Visit small unknown places. Walk around. Learn about the place.
Europeans don’t generally love Americans. We mostly tolerate them. We kind of like their culture, but our favourite Western movies are Italian.
This is not an attack, but a fair warning. Don’t parade how American you are expecting people to treat you better - the best you can hope for is that they’ll expect you to leave a fat tip. Try to mimic social codes around you. Don’t be the loudest person around - and if the loudest people around you are Americans, they’re either being obnoxious or you’re in a tourist trap.
Don’t ever brag.
Investigate when you can eat and what you can eat when. Lunch and dinner times vary from country to country and sometimes city to city. If you’re hungry between 14 and 18 in France or Italy you’ll be lucky if you can settle with a sandwich. Restaurant closing times vary a lot too - a Pizzeria in Italy will open at 19, in Denmark it will close at 20.
When in Rome and all that. Macdonald’s might do in a pinch, but Europe is a continent of cheese, wine, beer, and regional specialties. Find out what people eat in the city where you are. You probably don’t want to order a paella in Andalucia; only Americans order bolognese in Naples.
Especially in France, don’t expect everyone to speak English. They might not be very comfortable with it, and starting a conversation in English an awful start. Learn a few phrases. In France, always start any interaction with a bonjour or bonsoir. At the very least learn how to ask people if they speak English in their own language. In many countries their response will be “of course I do”, but chances are they’ll still appreciate the effort.
And good luck!! It’s a wonderful continent, especially if you’re interested in art, food, or history.
Edit: Also, if you’re in a touristic city looking very American or talking loudly in American English, you need to keep a tighter watch on your personal belongings than anyone else around you. You’re being targeted by pickpockets.
Also finding it through contracts is a good sign.
If it’s not 100% cozy, remember you could spend $500 per month making it cozier and you’d still be in the green.
Good luck!
Investing $900 per month makes such a gigantic difference for anyone who doesn’t have an unlimited budget. That’s $10800 per year even before counting interest.
A shared flat is no dream situation, but this sounds like a potentially life changing difference.
I don’t think unfinished floorboards necessarily makes rodents so much more welcome.
I’d say go for the cheaper one. You save 50 minutes every day, you probably don’t have to deal with rats any more, you can invest $1000 per month for savings, and you get rid of your creepy landlady. Flatmates might be a blessing and they might be a curse, but a good first impression is a start.
I’d consider Bolzano. You’d get by with German, and you get to live in a beautiful part of the arguably most beautiful country of Europe.
In Germany? You’ll be fine, they’re very aware of the threat of antisemitism but it’s not any worse than elsewhere.
Now, whether German culture is enjoyable is another question.
Israeli politics have been fucked for a long time. Netanyahu has always been a dangerous extremist, and the fact that people repeatedly voted for him speaks volumes for the political culture.
If by Eastern Europe you mean Belarus and Hungary, maybe.
You’ll never be anything less than what you are, but that’s a strength. Just speaking two languages well already puts you at an advantage. The experiences you have of seeing the cultures in relation to each other also gives you an edge.
Sometimes it’s nice to be able to just blend in, but life is all about learning and gathering experiences and impressions, and you have a head start. It might not always be easy, but you’ll learn to appreciate it.
And as long as Poland is in the EU I’d much rather have a Polish passport than an English one.
Absolutely. There’s a small handful of sites full of insufferable stalinists. Thank god I didn’t discover Lemmy when I was 14, I might have been swallowed right up.
Just block those instances, your experience will be better immediately. And don’t hesitate to block individual users, even if they’re not breaking any rules or anything. Finding something to be annoying is plenty of reason not to want it as part of your internet experience.
I disagree actually. Be an informed consumer. Ask questions in open forums. Buy quality, use for a long time. Avoid fast fashion.
That said, I don’t know the first thing about leggings.
You cannot comment on Beehaw communities as they defederated from Lemmy.world. You can see that here: https://beehaw.org/instances
The fact that they are defederated means that no traffic is being sent between lemmy.world and beehaw: Users of one website are invisible to those on the other.
Beehaw defederated from lemmy.world as they struggled to keep up with the high number of users, not all of them good actors. As creating a friendly space is the top priority of Beehaw, they chose to prioritize friendliness over activity.
Nice overview but I’m not sure I completely agree with you on everything.
If I want to make a community, is there a reason I would choose one lemmy over another?
There’s absolutely good reason to choose instances wisely when making a community. Some instances defederate from others, and you want to make your community somewhere where you agree with the moderation policy. Also, it might be easier to immediately reach people on a larger instance.
If you create your community on lemmy.ml, you might not reach everyone because some people and instances have blocked .ml due to different philosophies. If you make it on Beehaw, you’ll reach fewer people as they have a higher moderation standard than most, which could of course also be good for your community. Lemmy.world is more neutral in their moderation policy, but I’m sure there are pros and cons there as well.
I like it when there are specific instances for specific niches, as it gives the community control over who to federate with. But of course, that’s not always possible.
If I report a comment, is my report private?
They’re not public at least. Few things on the Internet are truly private.
I guess the + in LBGTQHA+ could be replaced with WFYB , for convenience.
Thanks for the link! It’s a very interesting project indeed.
I got a bit lost in translation - in my native language, “ancient forest” would be pretty much a direct translation of an old-growth forest, which clearly cannot be restored as it is defined by the lack of human interference.
But it won’t be ancient any more; it won’t be in its former/original state. Maybe it will in a few hundred years though, we just need to give it some time.
It’s great they’re doing this, but it’s also important people understand that a 100 year old forest is not at all the same as a 1000 year old forest. The harm done by deforestation cannot be easily patched. That doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing of course - a new forest is still better than no forest, and especially if it is allowed to develop naturally.
I would love to know the winners of past elections counting only the votes of dead people.
Wouldn’t be surprised if Harris wins in the demography this time around. The greatest generation knows what it means to defeat fascists. But then again there are probably more boomers and anti vaxers dying these days.