What is this? Some kind of #seeds / #pollen that has been blowing about the entire yard the whole day - it made me cough and I even had to abandon valeting the interior of a recently purchased fleet car (as it was pointless trying to hoover the carpets as it was entering the car in some quantity). What tree/plant is it from?
I photographed two large trees nearby before it got too dark, and plantnet.org (filtered for Northern Europe) identifies one as a black poplar - so this must the source of all the pollen..
@AnnaAnthro@veer66 frozen and thawed they are £40 here (about 1856 THB). A lot of Malaysian folk were driving to Watford (a suburban town just North of London) to buy them around Chinese New Year
@Willow_Crow@futurebird >40 and I engaged with it IRL before it was Internet phenomenon, spending a lot of time in abandoned buildings either used as squats or for raves (or both) and spent a lot of time wandering through such spaces especially in the afternoons after the party was finished and there were few people around (although the squatters were sometimes followed around by an entire gang of local cats, a mix of pets and strays (one tomcat was later rehomed by a fish supplier))
"CBS News, in partnership with The Trace and Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, reviewed records from hundreds of law enforcement agencies across the United States and found that many had routinely resold or traded in their used duty weapons -- a practice that has sent thousands of guns into the hands of criminals.”
Our lives mean NOTHING to these people. THIS IS A SICK GAME.
I wonder how long it will be before folk just start shooting at each other in the streets like in an action movie over trivial disagreements; or if it does already regularly happen but doesn't make the news unless more than 2 people have been shot...
Over here this kind of thing only happens (very rarely) in big cities. Everything apart from long guns is prohibited (with very few exceptions) since late 1990s, and firearms licences are only supplied to folk who have a good reason for them (as expected they usually live or work in rural areas).
There have only been 2 shootings in last 5 years in my area, both in semi rural locations..
@onepict this is literally the attitiude of a petty criminal / sociopath (not even an activist who generally openly says what act they are going to commit (or admits to it and accepts the consequences). I often suspect folk like this would have done actual crime in previous years (and perhaps some do, all the high tech methods used to nick cars and commit other frauds nowadays must have some tech muscle behind them)
@onepict whole tech industry is full of it, particularly from sales/marketing types and predatory behaviour is actively encouraged in adtech which quietly funds a lot of "FOSS" projects..
"We should not in good conscience support or consume the art someone created if they are a piece of crap in reality. One of the reasons some of these horrible celebrities feel empowered to continue their deviant behavior is because they know they will continue to have supporters no matter what, and those supporters will continue to put money in their pockets.”
@StillIRise1963@MaryAustinBooks I was never into sportsball and only a part of my family are, but I really liked music and was a DJ for many years (particularly on the rave scene), and there are unfortunately too many artists and fellow DJ's who got nicked not just for recreational drugs (which I consider a non-crime) but genuinely nasty stuff like domestic violence and I've had to cut those out of my life..
@MaryAustinBooks@StillIRise1963 the hardest part of it with the rave scene (as it was a partly underground subculture I was deeply involved in) was dealing both with the facts that even folk you considered friends or acquaintances were involved in abusive behaviour /and/ the realisation the cops/social services/health authorities had a point when they clamped down on the scene (as even partydrug use can lead to impulsive and unpleasant behaviour)
@Dianepatterson has a lot of parallels with whats been happening in London, England over last few decades (although at least Mayor Sadiq Khan was comfortably re-elected in spite of major opposition and serious threats to his safety (he has to be shadowed by armed police everywhere he goes in public).
I wonder when this "war on motorists" paranoia started? Its not something I see in old books I collect about motoring from 1950s to 1980s (but then again I guess cars had priority back then)
All the decent DIY / car accessories stores are gone in my region, the only one left is Halfords which has been mostly enshittified (and real life places rarely have any stock these days compared to Amazon or EBay). I did find a decent online tool store from SE England where you can even speak to real humans on the phone and they deliver on the promised dates, but they charge quite a price premium for this..
Also my experience of 1980s/90s/00s shopping was if you did get a defective or sub-par product, it wasn't always easy to return it without the shop staff quibbling (and local businesses were slow to sort out problems), compared to Amazon where (at least in UK) they just refund you with few questions asked
Someone in the village must have got a fat fine or even a ban for #speeding - the local speedwatch sign has been destroyed - even though the electronic "SLOW DOWN" sign cannot result in a charge even if it contains a camera (some do!) -All that happens is after repeated hits the registration mark is put on a list, driver gets a warning and the list sent to #Suffolk Constabulary (so they would have to be repeat offenders to actually get a ticket) #RoadSafety
@fitheach where the sign is is just before a 4 way junction and a main route to the highway, its been put there for a good reason (as folk think they can get away with sending it through the village and it has ended badly before, in fact there have been worse incidents than in the large town)
the "drug bros" have already fucked everything up in Britain and the rest of Europe; their dead end libertarianism and spurning of harm reduction encouraged self-destructive usage patterns amongst a lot of folk that the national health services ended up having to deal with the fallout of, and now there's backlash and calls for more prohibition (even decriminalisation in Germany isn't going as far as folk had hoped and may not last)
a blunt is an American type of spliff, usually made from a hollowed out cheap cigar rather than cigarette papers and tobacco (more common here in Britain).
I have never had one, and stopped with cannabis many years ago as our varieties were getting too strong and just caused paranoia (and can't touch it now since I started driving as you can get nicked for DUI and banned really easily)