I have a friend on ozempic (for diabetes). It really seems like it’s impossible for him to just use it to continue his excessive eating habits, because it suppresses his appetite and he just doesn’t eat much anymore. He still eats garbage, but much less.

According to the article, 25% lead to convictions. I don’t know if there’s an appropriate quantity of strip searches greater than zero, but if it’s going to happen, this actually seems like a pretty good result.

I guess the questions to ask here are: could these arrests be made without a strip search (e.g. would a frisk have been sufficient)? If not, could the strip searches be done by an adult of the same gender and also in the presence of their parent or guardian?

There’s definitely a lot that is bad about this, but if 25% of strip searches result in conviction, there’s clearly another problem here that needs to be addressed.

Greta is just the new David Suzuki. I hope she does better.

So according to you, Hamas is oppressing Palestinians, and Israel is oppressing Hamas, but it’s only righteous for Palestinians to stand up to Hamas. Isn’t it also important for Hamas to stand up to their oppressors?

My mother was born in Singapore and we’ve been to visit many times. There are a lot of taxis, and they are quite cheap. As a tourist it was cheaper to take a taxi than public transit when we were a group of 3 or 4 people. 2 people was pretty close either way. I’m sure public transit is cheaper when you’re a full time resident, but my grandparents just use taxis all the time due to their mobility issues.

This has been happening since the invention of fire. People will cut corners and use cheaper flammable material where they shouldn’t (e.g. Grenfell 2017) or some stupid with a flare gun will set it off inside (e.g. Montreux 1971).

Fire codes and building standards improve with time, but human stupidity is forever.

There’s also a big link between lack of sleep and both obesity and cancer (and dozens of other health problems).

Western society has glorified not getting enough sleep as though it makes you manlier or better in some way. It doesn’t. It just makes you die sooner.

We’ve moved to an “always on” society with the proliferation of the internet. With this comes disrupted circadian rhythms and even more reasons/excuses to not follow a regular or beneficial sleep schedule.

Yes. I think this is less a tantrum, and more of a “fuck you” from Smirnova to Kharlan, but your interpretation is fine.

The rules state that the competitors must shake hands at the end of a bout, and that the penalty for refusing to shake hands is a black card. At the beginning of the pandemic, this rule was suspended, and was replaced with saluting and tapping blades. It is not clear whether the handshake rule is back in effect at the international level (which in itself is a huge problem - if athletes can’t look up the rules, it’s hard to follow them).

As an online observer, these are the facts I was able to gather. At the end of this bout, Kharlan offered her blade for the blade tap, and instead of reciprocating, Smirnova offered her hand for a handshake. Kharlan then left the piste without tapping blades or shaking hands, and Smirnova launched her complaint which (per the rules) required her to remain on piste until the issue was resolved. The officials decided the complaint was legitimate, and black carded Kharlan.

All that follows is my own speculation. Kharlan offered the blade tap but was refused. Depending on whether the handshake rule is officially reinstated (and it seems that many athletes at this particular competition were just tapping blades without a handshake) she may have been able to lodge her own complaint that Smirnova was unwilling to tap blades. They could have just had an old fashioned stand-off, with one fencer extending their blade for the tap and the other extending their hand for the handshake, neither willing to compromise, and it would (probably) have resulted in the referee clarifying the rules without penalty to either fencer. But because Kharlan left the piste without tapping blades and without shaking hands, it left an opening for Smirnova to exploit.

I do wish that the FIE would go on record saying whether the handshake rule is fully back in effect. I’m actually a fan of tapping blades, because too many fencers show up to tournaments sick, and shaking hands with everyone is a good way to spread disease. Even beyond that, people often have very sweaty hands, and it’s just kinda gross.

To be clear, if she is contesting a ruling by the referee, she is not allowed to leave the piste (strip) until the situation is resolved by the head official(s). As soon as she leaves the piste, she gives up all rights to contest a ruling.

This happened publicly before with Shin A-lam at the 2012 Olympics, where she had to stay on piste for an hour while the officials discussed the ruling.