I owned a Citroen with a 1.0TSI engine that was supposedly more efficient than the 1.4TSI in my VW. In reality the VW was and still is far more fuel efficient, even though it’s a significantly more powerful engine. Could be that the Citroen was shaped like a brick though. LOL.

I get why manufacturers did it.Wet belt perishes outside warranty or after the lease contract ends. Customer ends up footing the bill and increased cost over a dry belt. Lower emission under test conditions for regulatory compliance.

This being said, I just replaced the belt on my vw at less than 150k km/ 93k miles and coming up on 10 years. VW recommends it. Some markets they recommend replacing it much sooner. That’s arguably a shorter interval than some wet belts. But it is much cheaper to replace than a wet belt, much much cheaper than a new engine, so a no brainer. (400E/$)

I’ll be glad to move to an electric car. Hopefully be able to avoid some of that nonsense.

“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

IME you should add “and laziness.” to that sentence.

It’s quite useful for getting what you want really. Make not doing what you want more effort. Most people are too lazy or tired to not give in for unimportant stuff.

Eg. when being stopped by the police, take your time finding your driving license. Chances are they’ll get bored and let you go on your way before you’ve found it.

Wet belt?

Skin irritation, rash, potentially for toxins to be absorbed through the skin, but especially dangerous if you have a small cut or abrasion you may not have noticed. Touching your eyes or nose after handling is also problematic and an easy mistake to make if you’ve been around plants that easily cause irritation.

All the advice I’ve ever read says don’t touch. Don’t know of a grown adult who’s ever died doing so, but it’s nasty stuff. I googled (duckduckgod?). Eating 6 leaves is enough to kill you, seeds and roots even less.

Here’s a bbc countryfile article. The problem with some of these poisons is that it takes a while before you know you’ve been poisoned and even longer for you to die an unpleasant death.

Luckily it’s not as bad as the organometalics. Don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Karen Wetterhan. Chemistry professor who dropped one or two drops of dimethylmercury on her protective gloves. Thought nothing of it. Went through her latex glove, absorbed through her skin within 15 seconds, she didn’t notice it happening. Took her 10 months to die of mercury poisoning.

Shit’s no joke. I have two relatives who worked in the chemical industry. One has chronic leukemia. The other has Parkinson’s. Environmental exposure is likely to be a factor or have exacerbated things for both of them.

TLDR: wear gloves and protective gear when necessary.

As far as toxic to touch I don’t think I am aware of anything in the UK you are realistically going to come into contact with.

Giant hogweed (related to hemlock, looks a bit like parsley). Looks like normal hogweed, but far more toxic. Won’t kill you from touch alone, but not a great idea to handle it without gloves. Found all over the UK.

Variants of hemlock are also abundant in parts of the UK. Quick google turned up a story about it growing near a school. Obviously parents panicked, which is silly because it grows all over the place. Hemlock water dropwort is the super poisonous one, found all over the place but I doubt most people’d realise. Left is hemlock and right is cow parsley:

Obviously the person holding them is touching the hemlock with bare hands, which is a bad idea.

Most people think they might get a bit ill or have a bit of stomach issues. Perhaps they know to avoid oleander or foxglove. Most don’t realise they’d die a painful and entirely unpreventable death after eating a relatively small amount of leaves or seeds of other common garden plants.

Hell, I was trimming my yew (taxus baccata) a few years ago and even the small amount of needles I accidentally got in my mouth made me quite ill. No antidote, so you’ll die a painful and prolonged death.

Then there’s the whole hemlock thing, where people confuse it with carrots or parsley. Also no antidote, just a long and painful death.

All too often, you’ll see people trimming or burning highly toxic plants or not wearing gloves while dealing with plants which contain toxins which can be absorbed through the skin.

And then there’s the people who think wood is wood, and toss whatever on the fire.

I would like to DJ for a wedding, do everything like normal, but play a klingon song when it’s time to introduce the maid of honour for her speech. Just loud enough that it gives the nerds a giggle, so that everyone else is annoyed because they think they’re laughing at the maid of honour.

I feel starting a fight at a wedding would honour Kahless.

Unsurprising. A lot of ‘natural’ additives are actually worse for you than the synthetic alternative.

The most obvious example I can think of is almond flavouring. The natural variant often contains traces of cyanide, which is not great even in small quantities.

Bit of a tangent, but I think most people would be surprised how many of the plants in their garden are deadly. And because I don’t want to give anyone any ideas, usually that death is slow, incredibly painful, and involve you shitting yourself endlessly. Wear gloves and don’t burn stuff you don’t recognise.

The comment above which started this discussion was complementary, and you admitted as much in your reply to it.

Others have also said and provided examples of the phrase sometimes being complementary.

You yourself moved from saying:

It is always cynical to describe someone as a “political operator,” because that phrase is inherently negative.

To:

It usually is, as in, more often than not.

Ie. sometimes it is positive.

You were wrong about a phrase sometimes having a different connotation, it happens, who gives a shit?

You’re right about the smooth bit. Don’t know how that happened.

In any case, operator isn’t necessarily negative, neither is political operator. It can be and often is, but not necessarily. I often see it being used as a compliment.

I did a google, here’s an example from NPR, which is clearly complimentary:

Street — who calls Obama “one of the biggest celebrities on the planet at the moment” — notes that he is “always able to put a distance between himself and whatever performance he’s giving. He knows he’s playing a game. He knows this is a bit of light relief, a bit of entertainment, but he keeps his dignity … and that seems to me a very clever trick. It speaks to him as a very sharp political operator.”

https://www.nhpr.org/politics/2012-05-10/obama-heads-to-hollywood-conservative-group-mocks-celebrity-president

It describes someone who is manipulative in a selfishly power-seeking way.

Not necessarily:

It describes how you achieve your aims, not necessarily what your aims are. Of course, given this is politics we’re talking about, it’s understandable you took it to be necessarily negative.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Mamdani is a relatively left-wing Muslim and non-white politician in America. It’s not cynical to say that he needs to be a smooth political operator, because if he isn’t he won’t survive.

And if he does fail, he’ll be replaced with a candidate who is almost certainly worse, and leave left-wing politics and colleagues in a worse position.

It’s not fair that the president is a rapist, while Mamdani can’t make even the slightest misstep (or something that can be portrayed as such), but that’s American politics. The deck is stacked.

Great for vegetables, IME.

Same here.

Meanwhile a reliable full size oven can easily cost 1000$/€ and consumes much more energy. Not always cheap/easy to install either.

For people on a budget, who often live in a small/rented place, an air fryer’s a life saver. Plug it in, cook something, pop it away if you need some more space. Don’t even need a kitchen. Just use it next to an open window or vent.

A rice cooker is similarly useful. Cheap, but you can use it to cook far more than rice, keep stuff warm, and largely replace a stove top. Once again, often without the need for space or installation.

Meh.

I have an old NEFF microwave. Fixing that involved popping in some new mica paper for a few bucks.

A more efficient and quicker small convection oven you can easily buy for 30 bucks and pop in a cupboard when you’re not using it.

And breathing in fly ash from the coal, which contains increased concentrations of uranium and thorium.

Compared to that an airfryer is a god send.

completely unavailable to obtain in the US

vinted/ebay

3G is being phased out everywhere

2G fallback.

specific apps that relate to taxi services and talking with my group

Yeah. That’s a no.

I find it annoying that everything’s an app now, when it could also still be a website.

In the Netherlands and Belgium employers sometimes offer what is called a “baaldag”. Basically, if you’re having an especially shit day, you can take the day off. No doctors note required.