FinishingDutch

FinishingDutch , 2 days ago

Here’s the way I see it: to most people, that word is not linked to a disability. It’s just a word to describe bewilderment or exasperation at someone, something, some situation. It’s not intended to be hurtful.

I have a disability as well. I see about twenty percent of what normal people see. I’m pretty much blind without my contacts or glasses. I don’t get offended when someone uses terms like ‘short-sighted’ or when someone says ‘are you blind?’ to someone else. We also use seeing metaphors quite a lot if you pay attention to them. I’m not offended by it, because I know the language is not intended to offend me.

I’ve also worked with people who had actual mental disabilities. And trust me, most of them know damn well when something’s intended as an insult or when it’s just metaphorical use.

FinishingDutch , 3 days ago

Seriously though, it’s pretty much the best gift you can give if you simply don’t want to pick the wrong thing. Which is much, much more likely to do if the recipient doesn’t outright tell you exactly what they want.

If someone wants to buy me a physical gift, I always give them exact suggestions: buy x, version Y. Shop at this store, pay no more than Z for it. That way it’s pretty much impossible for them to fuck it up. Can’t get it done? Give me cash instead.

If it’s acceptable to give a gift card, it’s acceptable to give money as far as I’m concerned. It’s the universal gift card without the restrictions.

FinishingDutch , 3 days ago

Thankfully i haven't had any bad experiences like with that chair. Even as kids, we were always very specific with the gifts we wanted. Parents likewise. Mom will straight up just send me 10 items she wants for mother's day or her birthday. That suits me just fine.

Buying things that fit someone else's interest is tricky at best. I have very specific hobbies and interests. Usually, if it's 'cheap enough for you give as a gift', it's certainly cheap enough that I'd have bought it for myself if I wanted or needed it. It's also difficult for people outside of that interest to judge what is a good value or what an item might cost. I.e. to me, a 50 dollar dildo sounds expensive. It's a piece of rubber after all, how much can it cost? Most casual people wouldn't know that a thing like a 250 dollar dildo even exists. So while they think they're doing you a favor by buying something they consider 'expensive', it might not be what you want or need.

Gift cards are just silly. It locks you into a specific store and some cards even expire or are otherwise really inconvenient to use. COMPANIES really love them though - because people just don't always use them or let them expire. That's free money for a store, and a wasted gift...

Ironically, personally I do like to give physical gifts. But I only do it when the person has no gift expectation and only with items that I'm personally familiar with. For example, interns at our company always get a really nice pen when they depart. I like to tailor the specific pen to the intern, based on their writing habits, favorite color, etc. Usually I give people Lamy Safari fountain pens or rollerballs, in their favorite color. It's a way for me to introduce them to a hobby that I like, while also being a meaningful gift. After all, everyone can use a good pen, right? You might not buy one for yourself, but you'll certainly enjoy using it.

FinishingDutch , 5 days ago (edited 5 days ago)

We should teach them abstinence first. The pill just leads to more casual pigeon sex :D

FinishingDutch , 12 days ago (edited 11 days ago)

It’s a cliche, but at least he died doing what he loved. And at 90 with a career like his, going out like that is probably preferable to dying in a hospice bed.

Godspeed, mr Anders. And thank you for one of the most iconic, inspiring images ever made.

FinishingDutch , 13 days ago

Seriously though… I’m all for giving animals excellent care. But is that actually a thing people do? Give their hamster an MRI? That’s a very expensive procedure for humans with good insurance, so I’d assume it to be rather unaffordable when applied to pets like this.

I could see it for say, a beloved dog who’s got years of life left. But hamsters kick the bucket if you breathe in their general direction.

FinishingDutch , 12 days ago

That’s pretty much what I’m assuming for an actual answer.

Though I’ve certainly read about people who spent ungodly amounts to save pets, even old ones or street dogs. Bless them for it, for sure.

FinishingDutch , 15 days ago (edited 14 days ago)

I really miss webrings. You’d discover the most absurd niche shit people were into. Especially since everyone seemed to have their own Geocities page or something similar. Nobody has one these days, as we all just use social media and big sites.

It really sucks. You just don’t get that these days now everyone is inside their own little bubble on the net.

FinishingDutch , 22 days ago

My brother in Buddha… how about we don’t do that.

FinishingDutch , 22 days ago

And you can’t really blame the poor guys who take up this offer either. I imagine this is very attractive to some of those poorest Africans.

But can you imagine dying in the cold mud thousands of miles from home, based on this bullshit? Or losing a loved one to that?

All in all, it certainly shows the Russian level of desperation if this is what’s needed to fill their ranks.

FinishingDutch , 24 days ago

They’re like fluffier hamsters. You breathe on them wrong and poof, they’re dead. It’s like every sheep is somehow genetically programmed to find the most creative way to end their own existence. And usually that of those around them.

Back in 2005, around 1500 of them jumped off a cliff in Turkey. 400 of them died.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4665511.stm

FinishingDutch , 24 days ago

You can’t do that. ‘Cause it’s freaking me out..

https://youtu.be/eLqC3FNNOaI?si=7gT4tdHwlxahWDS3

FinishingDutch , 26 days ago

Heck, due to the pandemic it feels more like 10…

FinishingDutch , 26 days ago

God I’m so glad drinking isn’t my thing. I absolutely hate being around intoxicated people, much less the ‘get blackout drunk and don’t remember half the shit I did’ types. It’s so cringe people do that for fun.

FinishingDutch , 30 days ago

The Tour was quite a bit less… sporty in its early years. There are plenty of stories about riders basically stealing wine, champagne and beers from local cafe’s or whatever when the Tour passed through.

like this

FinishingDutch , 1 month ago

Well duh. You give the public a fun thing and it gets abused. That’s what you do.

Also, I wouldn’t exactly worry about offending New Yorkers. The worst Dubliners can do is just another average day in NYC.

Also, I imagine New Yorkers would just make car bomb/IRA jokes in return.

FinishingDutch , 1 month ago

Even really niche content like LockPickingLawyer on YouTube has nearly 4.5 million followers. And I actively see people referencing him. Libs of Tik Tok really only pops up in articles like this.

Of course, I also don’t really hang out in places where fans of it might congregate. But from my perspective it’s just not something that seems to have a large influence.

FinishingDutch , 1 month ago

I love a good silly/offensive name. Here in the Netherlands, we have a small hamlet called Rectum. It’s near the larger village of Enter. So you can take the Enter - Rectum road to visit them.

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/9caef2b1-1bfe-4461-bd7a-e3d53800869b.jpeg

FinishingDutch , 1 month ago

I’m honestly baffled as to why a movie character would even come up in a political speech, much less this incoherently.

And yes, it’s a quote, it’s a funny line… why is he using it? It’s utterly silly. I’m also confused by the ‘late, great’ as if this was an actual person who had died, as opposed to a fictional character who hasn’t died in any book, movie or show I’m familiar with. And Anthony Hopkins is very much alive as well, as is writer Thomas Harris.

It doesn’t make any… goddamn… sense.

Please don’t elect this guy again.

FinishingDutch , 1 month ago

Heck, maybe he’s hoping Hannibal Lecter likes Mexican food, if you know what I mean.

God only knows what Trump’s thinking. Though he’s likely to be as confused as the rest of us mere mortals…

FinishingDutch , 1 month ago

Gotta make sure that grass is cut exactly to regulation length.

FinishingDutch , 1 month ago

This fucking dingbat. Even if he was just a random citizen, he should know by now that you need to bring ID. And it’s always good to check if you have it when going to your polling station.

Here in the Netherlands, we’re VERY strict on ID. No ID, no vote. I’ve been witness to a fair few elections as a reporter, and it always gets drilled into the people who run the polling stations: even if the King himself walks in, you ask him for his ID and tell him to bugger off if he doesn’t have it. I’ve seen city mayors turned away at polling stations in their own council buildings for failing to produce ID. And they all perfectly understand why those strict controls are necessary.

FinishingDutch , 1 month ago

I’ve got solar panels on my roof, and being Dutch windmills are in my blood. But I’m also not blind to the reality that both wind and solar will only get you so far. And there’s already a lot of opposition to wind farms - they ruin the view, endanger birds and there’s health concerns due to noise and shadow projection.

If we just build even one nuclear powerplant, we could basically just… not do wind. And we’d have pleeeenty of power for the coming energy transition, change to electric vehicles, etc.

But noooo… nuclear is scary. Especially to the people who only cite Fukushima and Chernobyl in regards to safety. That’s the same as banning air travel because of 9/11 and the Tenerife disaster. Nuclear power is safe, cheap and we owe it to the planet to use it wisely instead of more polluting alternatives.

FinishingDutch , 1 month ago

Absolutely that’s scary. Heck, we’re seeing the effects of it every day. If more nuclear means less coal and other polluting options, I’m all for it.

FinishingDutch , 1 month ago

That doesn’t sound good. Just the past week I read about it showing up in dolphins, walruses, now cats…

I can avoid the first two just fine. But cats is cause for concern.

FinishingDutch , 1 month ago

No no, hats made FROM dogs. Rabbit fur’s getting expensive these days, you know.

FinishingDutch , 1 month ago

Hair’s hair; it’s really not weirder to make it from dog hair as opposed to alpaca, sheep or any other. Though I imagine some dog breeds produce better hair for it than others.

FinishingDutch , 1 month ago

The thing with bottle deposits is: it really only annoys the people who generally already do the right thing anyway.

Here in the Netherlands, we expanded bottle deposits to cans and small bottles last year. A 15-25 cent deposit.

It’s causing all sorts of problems: deposit machines are breaking down in record numbers and there’s too few of them. A lot of places sell cans and bottles, but a lot of them don’t take returns. This means that it’s a giant hassle to return the cans and bottles, so a lot of people now just see it as a price increase and don’t bother with the return.

The deposit also causes MORE litter in the streets. How? Because we’ve effectively incentivised the homeless and drug addicts to break open trash bins and search for cans and bottles. They break one open, tear out the trashbag, dump the contents and take the bottles. Which attracts rats, since they leave the rest. My city now regularly looks like a garbage dump.

Meanwhile, some call it a succes because ‘there’s fewer bottles and cans on the streets’, while conveniently ignoring literally all the other trash that now gets dumped on it.

I’d honestly vote today to abolish the deposit scheme. Sounds good on paper, but in practice I’m only seeing downsides.

FinishingDutch , 1 month ago

Oh absolutely! Dutch politicians tend to suck at actually implementing new rules that work.

I've heard about excellent results in some of the nordic countries like Sweden. From what I understand, you/they have machines where you can easily deposit a large amount of cans/bottles. We don't have those here.

Our Dutch machines are basically retrofitted ones that used to just take in large 1-2 liter bottles. You have to put in one bottle at a time. That wasn't a problem when they only handled big bottles, but now with cans and small bottles, there's issues. For one, it takes ages to deposit cans. Because you have to put one at a time in. This means that if you're stuck behind someone who's depositing two large garbage bags, it's going to take a while. Also, because the cans are rarely really empty, the machines also get very sticky and break down a lot. In some supermarkets, they basically stop fixing the machines on busy days because... it's just too annoying. So this means that it's always a hassle to get your deposit back.

There's also other issues like: cans can't be dented in any way, or it won't read them. And not every machine takes every deposit item. I.e. if you bought it at supermarket A and supermarket B doesn't sell it... they won't take back the item and give back the deposit. (To be clear, they SHOULD, but due to different barcodes, SKU's, old software, that sort of thing... in practice it doesn't really work. It's a YMMV situation). The machines also only really give you a 'deposit ticket', which you can either use to fund your groceries, or (theoretically) return to get cash. So there's a lot of friction in the system between depositing a bottle and getting an actual deposit back.

As for why Swedish homeless don't tear open bags.... maybe you just have nicer homeless people than we do.

Right now in the Netherlands, around 95 percent of large (1-2 liter bottles) are returned, but only around 65 percent of the cans.

FinishingDutch , 1 month ago

It’s interesting that your return rate for cans is worse than for bottles.

There's actually an interesting historical reason for that. We've had bottle deposit here since the days of glass bottles. The bottles would be sold, consumed, brought back, cleaned and refilled. Glass is great for that. The bottle deposit was generally set at 1 guilder. This was the currency we used before the Euro.

If you did your weekly shopping in say, 1995, you'd return your bottles and get a ticket. If you returned 10 bottles, that would be 10 guilders. Now, a FULL cart of groceries for a decent sized family would cost you a 100 guilders max in those days. So that bottle deposit took a nice chunk off that grocery bill. As a result, we had and still have a large percentage of bottle returns. It's ingrained in people to bring back those large bottles since they've always done it.

Now, with cans... there's a bit of a problem. The deposit for large bottles is 25 cents, but the deposit for cans and small bottles is 15 cents. That's not a whole lot, especially considering how much the price of groceries has skyrocketed. Basically, the bottle deposit isn't really a good incentive in terms of monetary value. It only really makes sense if you collect larger amounts of them, like the homeless.

They ARE planning to increase the bottle deposit - make it 50 cents in fact - as a way to incentivize people to bring them back. That will 'probably' work to an extent, but most people dislike the system for other reasons than the monetary value. And if those other issues aren't fixed, raising the bottle deposit only annoys them further.

FinishingDutch , 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago)

No matter what field you’re in, NOBODY wants outside oversight. And certainly not by people who’ve never worked that job.

Considering the current climate of public-police relations in the US, their resistance to oversight is rather understandable.

To be clear: there SHOULD be oversight, but it’s never ever going to be easy.

FinishingDutch , 1 month ago

You’re certainly not wrong with that interpretation.

Policing is a murky concept in general. They themselves aren’t even clear on who and how they serve.

In general, police should enforce laws that we ‘as a society’ deem important. But we’ve insulated ourselves from that by several layers. We elect politicians who make laws and appoint people who appoint others who appoint others who do the actual policing. What should be a community service and community responsibility is now effectively its own separate branch.

Basically, the police exist because… they exist, and it’s a system that perpetuates itself. It’s not like with firefighters or garbage men who have clear responsibilities and directly help their actual communities.

In an ideal society, a community would appoint their own police officers from within their own community to enforce (or not) their own set of community laws. But since we’ve effectively deferred that responsibility to higher political offices, that’s pretty much impossible. It’s also why the public and police are at odds with each other: the public rightly feels that officers tend to be separate from their community, rather than a part of it.

FinishingDutch , 2 months ago

As a longtime city builder fan: this shit is downright depressing.

I put ungodly amounts of time into every SimCity game that was ever made. Down to the GameBoy versions. It’s a genre I love. So, naturally, I was very sad to see SimCity die.

When the first Skylines launched, I was skeptical - but eventually grew to love it. It’s pretty much the only viable game in the genre anyway, so I was willing to give it a shot.

When they launched Skylines II, they pretty much did everything wrong. They even warned players beforehand that performance would suck. Which was not comforting. When it launched like a lead balloon, I stayed far away.

So, what could have been a decent sequel to a decent game turned out to be a complete failure of their own making. And as a result, it’ll likely kill this genre entirely. So, fuck them in the neckhole for knowingly launching a flawed product.

FinishingDutch , 2 months ago

In fairness, I do want to point out that this particular aircraft, N8668A, was built in 2015. This was its first incident. Basically, I’d assume this to be more of a maintenance issue rather than an actual Boeing issue.

Incidents like this now make the news with ‘Another Boeing…’ when usually the media would report ‘Aircraft diverted…’ and not even mention the aircraft type until the second paragraph in. Every Boeing incident now gets put under a magnifying glass.

Don’t get me wrong: Boeing has become a shit company and the people who knowingly put lives at risk for profit need to be lined up against a wall. But this doesn’t really feel like one of those incidents, knowing how often engines are checked and serviced after leaving the factory.

FinishingDutch , 2 months ago

Absolutely. Thankfully we actually have it in the Netherlands, with some restrictions. I.e you do need to be clearly ‘suffering’ for a doctor to agree to it.

Personally though, I think there shouldn’t be any restrictions on this beyond making sure it’s a well articulated wish and not someone just having a bad day.

If say, a healthy 30 year old wants off this ride, they should be allowed to die with dignity at a time and place of their choosing. Nobody asked to be born, so we should at least give them the freedom to choose how they depart this realm.

In my opinion, nobody should disagree with that - it’s not your place to force someone to live if they don’t want to.

FinishingDutch , 2 months ago

I got to see a total eclipse in the Netherlands back in august of 1999. It was truly remarkable. Most people really only get to see it once or twice during their lifetime - so definitely make it a point not to miss it if you’re in a region where it’s a total eclipse.

Once you’ve actually experienced one, it’s very easy to understand why they had such a profound impact on people throughout the centuries. Eerie doesn’t quite cut it.

FinishingDutch , 2 months ago

The analogy certainly worked for me when I first read up on it. “Oh, different servers speaking the same language so they can communicate even though they’re separate entities”.

I imagine the only people who are really confused by it are the ones who simply cannot grasp analogies in general.

FinishingDutch , 2 months ago

You don’t negotiate with a burglar who breaks in and steals your shit. You shoot them between the eyes.

Anyone who calls for a compromise is either Russian or a complete fucking idiot.

FinishingDutch , 3 months ago

Don’t feel TOO bad; it’s not like they’re on every street corner.

Usually you’d go to one on say, a school field trip. But not every school does it. I’ve only been to a planetarium once in my life, and it wasn’t until I was in my 20’s.

Definitely go visit one though; they tend to have really interesting shows about what you can see. And there’s nothing quite like actually looking through a giant telescope with your own eyes. My local planetarium even has special sun-telescopes which allow you to view the sun and solar activity safely during daytime.

FinishingDutch , 3 months ago

God yes, all the time. Navigation was more of an art than a science back then. And you have to imagine you’re flying quite high to avoid flak, while looking out for targets that might be obscured by cloud cover and where the lights were turned off so as not to present a clear target for said bombers.

Basically, the crew dropping the bombs might be ‘reasonably certain’ they’re hitting the right target, but a few miles here or there can make a lot of difference. You think you’re looking at A, while you’re really flying over B.

I live in the Netherlands, right on the German border. A local village here was bombed by accident on february 15th 1945, because the bomber crew mistook it for a German industrial complex just over the border. They dropped 35 bombs. They luckily ‘only’ killed 2 and injured 7. There’s a yearly memorial.

It’s terrible that it happened, but honestly… you really can’t blame the crew for it.

FinishingDutch , 3 months ago

The knife missile, a.k.a The Flying Ginsu, is one of those weapon systems that sounds like something from a Looney Tunes cartoon. Like dropping an ACME anvil on a baddie. Whenever I tell people about it, they tend to think I’m joking.

FinishingDutch , 3 months ago

Sounds like we’re about to lose any sort of order and control in Haiti. Definitely good to get the non-essential folks out.

But you’d think even Haitian gangs aren’t quite so dumb as to actually attack Americans and the embassy. I bet there’s enough weapons and ammunition on site to take over the entire country if need be. And the US is not exactly known to be chill about people attacking their personnel. I’d steer well clear of that embassy if I was them.

FinishingDutch , 3 months ago

People shouldn’t mess with historic art, no matter how good they think their cause is.

It takes a lot of effort by many dedicated people throughout history to preserve art like this. These works are not individual possessions, but rather owned by us all. They’re part of our shared heritage; we’re merely guardians of it so future generations can enjoy them.

It’s very disrespectful to those efforts when someone attacks a painting.

FinishingDutch , 3 months ago

Not a woman, but still: hello, welcome, 👋

It’s a shame a lot of women still feel the need to hide in order to avoid bad interactions online. You’d think we’d have gotten past that phase by now. After all, half the folks on this planet are women. And since it isn’t 1992 anymore, girls are in fact allowed on the internet.

Hiding perpetuates that stereotype, but I understand why they do it.

FinishingDutch , 3 months ago

It’s accurate yes :D and that certainly is an… annoyingly catchy song for sure!

FinishingDutch , 3 months ago

Fuck me, they weren’t joking on that one… I listened to those episodes when they first came out, but they were gone soon after it seems.

There are working download links on the subreddit though, if anyone else wants to find them.

FinishingDutch , 3 months ago

I listened to them on Google Podcasts… gone. You can see there’s a gap between the episode on February 1st (Part 2 of Tech bros built a cult) and February 13th, the first part of Robert E. Lee.

Also gone from the main site and other apps that I use. Unless you heard it when it was up, you’d never know it existed.

You can see the missing eps listed on Podscripts, feb. 6 & 8.

https://podscripts.co/podcasts/behind-the-bastards/

Scary, right? If a shitty tech dude can be this effective at scrubbing things, imagine what the REALLY scary people and governments hide from us…

FinishingDutch , 3 months ago

Well as mentioned, there’s links on the BTB subreddit, so you should be able to download them. And I wouldn’t be surprised if someone uploaded it to say, YouTube…