I always assumed the translators were simply doing a heroic job. Getting puns and wordplay to work across languages is hard. I would not be surprised if some jokes had to be significantly changed for different languages or countries.

Thanks! This has become a January tradition with my kids. We are trying a different winter camp location in 2026, and I really hope there will be enough snow to do this again!

Pile the snow into a big mound, pack it down, then hollow out the middle. Camping overnight is optional.

Maybe related to the Sunshine Act? The intent of the law is to prevent companies from bribing doctors to use their products or drugs. I have seen companies extend it to other employees to be extra cautious.

They are all in medical or medical-adjacent careers: nursing, radiology, pharmaceutical R&D, medical device R&D, etc. These fields seem to attract empathetic people who want to do good.

I have many times, and I agree that travel is a good thing. But don’t be so quick to scoff at Americans who don’t travel overseas. Traveling is expensive. The flight alone from my house to Frankfurt or Tokyo (for example) is at least $1,500 per person, and a day of travel each way. That’s out of reach for a lot of people. Hell, it’s out of reach for me now that I have a family to bring with me. The most basic, banal holiday overseas would easily exceed $10,000. Nevermind the luxury of being able to spend enough time there to understand local takes on geopolitics.

You might get some downvotes for mentioning that book. The author makes a few sloppy assumptions, and the anthropology/sociology/history communities love to hate him for it. His overall thesis is still generally good though, IIRC.

One thing I don’t think is in Diamond’s book: once Europe had realized they could sail far and wide to get things, the Dutch invented the idea of a stock market to fund voyages (the British took this idea and really ran with it). This system made long, risky trips easier to finance. Instead of a single monarch funding a single expedition, many people could pool their money to fund many expeditions.

I agree that none of this means Europeans have some special intelligence or attitude. Any other civilization that developed in similar conditions could have followed the same path.

For boxing specifically, it is absolutely part of the fighters’ marketing strategies.

For sports in general, trash talking during a game is “real.” Extended beefs that get major media coverage might be intentionally played up for publicity.

Depends how high into the triple digits, whether there’s shade and water available, how humid it is, whether air conditioning is an option, etc.

I would probably choose triple digits. I do love cold winters, but a dry 104F with a cool place to swim and big, shady trees is splendid. Beyond about 110F gets miserable, though.

The trend toward subdued color palettes. Every new home is decorated in “millennial gray.” Most cars are black, white, gray, or silver. You have to go out of your way to find bright, colorful clothing or furniture. It’s incredibly boring and I can’t wait for the pendulum to swing back the other way.

Free is good, of course. But I also have some gripes about how Band functions so I’m interested to see what else is out there. Thanks for the Campfire recommendation; I will check it out.

Don’t give them ideas.

A full, refreshing night of sleep every night.

The folks that host the toast.ooo instance have run an event like that for us the past two summers. Check out !canvas@toast.ooo to see last year’s result, and watch for news about the next one.

This reminds me that I need to plan some art for the next event!

At work I usually need to have multiple windows up, so no one window spans the width of the display. It’s often nice to have two documents side-by-side instead.

Tbh, I copy-pasted this from a health website. As far as I know, dried and canned beans are comparable. The biggest difference is that canned beans usually have added salt, which a lot of us could probably do without.

I would rather find ways to encourage people to eat foods that are natural sources of magnesium. They provide lots of other dietary benefits beyond just magnesium.

• Soy products (milk, flour, tofu)

• Legumes and seeds

• Nuts (almonds, cashews, Brazil nuts)

• Peanuts and peanut butter

• Whole grain breads and cereals (brown rice, millet)

• Fruit (bananas, dried apricots, etc.)

• Vegetables, particularly dark green, leafy vegetables (artichokes, chard, beet greens, avocados, etc.)

• Dried beans (lima, black-eyed peas, navy)

Favorite #1, Greek-ish:
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Crushed or minced garlic
Salt
Black pepper

Favorite #2, Mexican-ish:
Olive oil
Lime juice
Chili powder
Cumin
Salt

Favorite #3, lazy pseudo-Japanese:
Soy sauce

Idk the exact proportions. Just wing it. With a bit of experience you’ll get it dialed in to suit your taste.

Marinate anywhere from 2 hours to overnight. Longer time = stronger flavor. Cook the chicken on the grill if you have one. Otherwise, bake it in the oven.

That’s the spirit!

Product designer/engineer in the US

If the team is going out to lunch to celebrate a special occasion, then a single drink has always been fine in the teams I worked with. I don’t partake anymore because it makes me really sleepy in the afternoon.

I worked at one company that hosted a weekly happy hour. I was one of the employees who took turns setting up the kegs in the common room, and pouring drinks during the event. That was a fun place. The extra social time really improved some working relationships. And we got a surprising amount of productive work done just by talking for an hour or two while standing around sipping microbrews and wine.