Maybe hematite? I seem to remember saying that about hematite when I was young and the whole neopagan and new age stuff had a moment.

I use it as an emulsifier in salad dressings. Not sure if I make it through a pot in 4 weeks, but it’s probably close.

This question has me bside myself. I haven’t lived there in more than a decade, though, so not sure if I count anymore. I was trying a joke and realized that I am, at least technically, American and had to stop, heh.

I always thought people talking about seeing things that weren’t there was metaphore. It blew my mind to find out it was literal.

No I’m not!

(I was considering just posting the Monty Python argument scratch instead)

Nothing. These days? Not because I don’t know things, but because a lot of people refuse to accept new information, even when it comes from reputable peer-reviewed sources and there’s not much arguing with that.

I don’t think it does, or at least not much. I quit before BC, the started working in the games industry years later and had to pick it back up. Quit before the panda thing (I forget precisely when).

I have good memories of playing it with coworkers and friends. I don’t think about it these days at all (and fuck blizzard, honestly).

That job had me play lots of MMOs (I worked at one of the community/fan/tools sites (we did not allow account/gold sales, botting discussion/links. Etc)) and eventually I burnt out on them pretty hard. Single player RPGs are more my jam these days

US English is , in some cases, more conservative than British English. A lot of words in the us were used by those from the UK that came. But later fell out of fashion in the UK

It seems they’re unaware that goats also seems to love getting parasites

In Japan, it’s piiman which is a type of small green bell pepper

In Japan for a.decade. I get asked all the time by people who don’t know me (I speak japanese well enough to handle anything in my family life though sometimes get help with non-routine medical and legals stuff for be safe)

All the ones I thought of were taken (no I’m doesn’t! Being a fave), so I’ll have to go with the wing place I worked at in 2002; we had quite he fry line!

(A deal is a deal even with a dirty dealer)

Bottom left beat me to it. That said, I like music that I like. I’ve never understood putting things in boxes or purists. I have played shows with one band listed in the image and seen many of the others in my younger days.

You can strip AI out of this post and nothing changes. Granting various things access to your various systems/works has and will do things like this.

Well, that seems unlikely

I had to Google as I thought this was another mmo from when I worked in the industry. I guess this means names are a bit generic (I got out of that industry in 2013). This is not one I’m familiar with. (I used to work on fan sites and tools to plot mob locations and quest items on maps and the like. Not the bad ones that had account/currency selling and such; we banned those people)

Everything in your “fun fact” is not fact. I actually said “what the fuck” when I read it. I’ve been in Japan for a decade, both Tokyo and rural.

Where also are these magical stroller-only elevators? Certain people are supposed to have priority (and, yes, some assholes ignore this which is not a problem unique to Japan), and there are also people who don 'look disabled" but need help (I can be one of them sometimes as my left leg and ankle are as much metal as anything else, though you wouldn’t know by looking at me).

Japan has problems and had places.to.improve but your post is just wild wild to me as a long-term resident.

First, I start moving people to hotel rooms…

I wouldn’t, personally. Just read around on basic etiquette, don’t litter, etc. If you’re planning on going to Kyoto, it’s been a zoo for years now and the people there always hate it (but also some ridiculous part of their economy is tourism as they found out during corona when the money dried up). Oh, and a lot of smaller places are still cash only so carry cash.

I always encourage people to consider places other than just Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, especially these days where technology helps any language barrier.

In exit polls from the last election foreigner problems (which lumps tourists in with residents) was still only like 3rd. And for the foreigner issues, overtourism and people buying property and pricing out locals are big issues (and sometimes running (often illegal) guesthouses).