ValiantDust

But are you gonna return something for this method??? You said you’d return an integer, yet there is no return statement!

Not only more readable than A and B but I would argue it’s also easier to remember who did what a few sentences or paragraphs earlier since Alice and Bob invoke slightly less generic mental images than A and B. For example one is a woman and the other one is a man, maybe even some person or character you know.

And now that I’m thinking about it, the different gender also makes it easier to keep track of who does what because different pronouns are used (at least in English and many other languages).

Yeah, idk what OP is talking about. I had a snowball fight with my brother and went sledging with my cousins a few weeks ago and in summer I regularly meet up with friends to go riding our bikes, swim in a lake or explore the woods.

I can’t believe that no one has mentioned the famous shower orange yet. On Reddit there is a whole subreddit dedicated to it.

A cold orange in the shower is perfect – it’s refreshing, it smells great and you don’t have to deal with the usual mess of eating an orange.

• Fall of Civilisations
• The Thing About Austen
• Revolutions

Also: cleaning. I’ve had flatmates who managed to take the same time for cleaning the bathroom or the kitchen and yet it somehow still wasn’t clean.

When I’m stressed, I like to soak a washing cloth in hot water and then press it on my face with both hands, covering eyes and nose and slowly and deeply breathe through it. I don’t know why I find almost waterboarding myself comforting but it’s incredibly relaxing.
Also, lying on the floor in the middle of my apartment.

Well, it depends… Germany as one country isn’t very old. So the roots of the education system are certainly older than the country. But I’m not sure which parts should be included in this calculation. The education system was very different in different states that are now part of Germany. Then there are Universities that were (at least partly) German back in the day but are not located in today’s Germany. I’m sure the Romans had schools when they hung out here but that’s probably a bit of a stretch. But where exactly are we supposed to draw the line?

I’m not up to date with the online discussion of British politics. Is Cruella Braverman a thing already or do we need to make it happen?

Abbreviate keeping the first and some random later consonants (and sometimes consonants that aren’t in the word at all) without using punctuation: Dr, Mr, Ms, Mrs

I think it’s usually the first letter(s) and the last letter(s). In older English handwritings I’ve come across M.ʳ etc. So I think that’s were those came from.

Smoking around kids is terrible without question and the good driver argument is of course bullshit. But she is on to something with the seat belt. Many woman have trouble even with average sized boobs. For some the seat belt slips up and crosses the throat which is not only very uncomfortable but I imagine not exactly safe. But those boobs are for looking at not for taking into account while designing safety features, amirite?

This is what, the twentieth time this year he is rumoured to be (almost) dead? I’ll take this with a packet of salt.

I have a poster from here with the text of one of my favourite books arranged as a picture. It’s quite the conversation piece. If books aren’t your thing, you could always go with the first million digits of Tau, the Streets of Portland, the Constitution of Dalaware or the Kama Sutra.

For a moment I forgot about the omnipresence of AI generated pictures and wondered what the hell the thing in the second picture is supposed to be.

I feel LLM created texts often use rigid structuring along with the fitting linking words and phrases – “on one hand…, on the other hand”, “furthermore”, “in conclusion”. Like a high school student writing an essay. Also the content may or may not be correct and is mostly just stolen from several sources and patched together without any thought and care – also like a high school essay. So I’m gonna go with that.

Stepping on single fallen leaves on the sidewalk. I’m also more disappointed than I should be when they are not crunchy.

Yes, tourists sometimes think it would be funny. But this did not happen at the Oktoberfest in Munich. It was an Oktoberfest in a village in Saxony with about 2500 inhabitants (actually a collection of several villages). I would bet the chances of tourists being present are very close to zero.

And I think you are underestimating how much of a deeply ingrained taboo the nazi salute is for the typical German. You are right, some people can be very stupid, especially drunk. But no German who has not been in some way socilized among nazis would be stupid enough to ever casually do a nazi salute. You just don’t do it.
The only exception I might allow besides actual nazis are very stupid or drunk (or both) teenagers trying too hard to be edgy. And even then most people would find it hard to believe that they’re not at least right leaning.

I read Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain at some point during the First World War centenary. I’m also roughly 100 years younger than Vera Brittain, so I was very close to her age during WW1. I knew the facts of WW1 before, but it hit me really hard to think about a whole generation of young people (of the countries involved) having their youth drowned in a war. And the pointlessness of it all. It made me really grateful for the circumstances I was lucky enough to grow up in.

Imagine running out of ideas before having named one after every kid. Now that would be awkward.