We’re all born into our various countries each of which places demands on us. And often that’s under threat of imprisonment or even death and with little of value in return. Yet people are patriotic and support that system. Even if some of us might say it is better that countries couldn’t do that, the fact that it’s widely supported means that there’s some basis for it that humanity recognizes.

Then compare that to a parent who selflessly loves and gives and gives. It’s very reasonable to say that parents are owed something.

Didn’t realize the anime resumed! These were special furigana versions of the books for children. Picked them up on vacation in Japan. Searched everywhere but couldn’t find them in Akihabara, instead they were in a random bookstore in a giant mall next to the Tokyo Skytree. Sad to say I don’t know Japanese except for a few tourist and anime words and I’ve not yet put in the work to try to read them.

Oh nice, is that Myne in your profile? I really need to re-read Bookworm and start the Hannelore series.

You might enjoy the light novel series “Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement”.

The 10 second 0-60 of my current ICE compact crossover SUV already gets me around town and on the freeway just fine. A 90s Toyota pickup I once had gave a 13 second 0-60. Slate Truck is 8 seconds. The Slate Truck isn’t going to give Tesla acceleration, but hardly anyone needs that, and that’s not what this is competing against. As far as horsepower, the Slate also beats both. So no, this doesn’t have “shit power” it has expected or even above-average power compared to competing 4-cyl ICE vehicles.

🛁🧇🦶

I agree with you that online conversations are rare these days. Just my personal opinion but social media isn’t usually great for conversations. It’s better for shallow comments, drive-by’s, and echo chambers. Social media also tends to steer toward blind comments, so there is a lot of repetition. Forums seem to be better for conversations because there’s often a emphasis on reading the entire thread before commenting, there is more moderation, and also because they tend to accrue replies more slowly. However if a thread becomes too long then forums break down too, so nothing is perfect.

Thanks! I think I prefer startpage.com (which I only just learned about due to this thread) because it doesn’t redirect to google.com. But this is also good to know about just in case.

I’m trying to get real, specific examples.

Asking for unnecessary specifics and details is usually a sign not that the person wants to be helpful but that they disagree and are looking for ammunition to argue and feel superior. Ultimately the exchange becomes a waste of everyone’s time, as the person inevitably becomes rude, condescending and argumentative. Basically, some people online think they’re smarter than everyone else, or at least want to project that. They believe they have the only valid argument and they’re going to prove it to the world and probably think that they’ve won because they had the last word when in reality everyone left because they realized the person was not arguing in good faith. I’m not claiming you’re that type of person, but I suspect that’s why nobody is giving you specifics.

Wouldn’t have mentioned anything but you did ask.

I’ll have to try out !g, thanks a lot!

EDIT: Tried it and it just redirected to google.com. I was hoping it would have kept me on DDG for privacy and just presented a first page of results or something like that.

EDIT 2: Startpage is great! This will be my go-to when DDG doesn’t work out.

I had no idea what it was. When I saw the mention of US bans I decided it was safer not to search the term.

Gemini is already creeping me out with all the personal information Google is injecting into the AI context. So far I’ve seen my name, location and if I remember right, which vehicle I drive. Who knows what else is in there. I use DDG whenever I can, but sometimes a Google search is the only way to actually find something, so I see the Gemini junk as I’m scrolling down.

Is there any way to have that info deleted and no longer collected or used by Google? Or is that kind of thing only for the lucky people in Europe?

EDIT: Found it here: https://myactivity.google.com/product/gemini?hl=en-US

Thank you!

p-ing

What did it originally say?

Goodbye, kitty. 😵

Skylab

And you’re still going to vote for them then rock yourself to sleep muttering “lesser of two evils”.

What’s ccp hacking? Afraid to search it.