I think the keyword in his sentence is "seem to have a.. "

Yeah, I get that it's more of a "they are good swimmers who do it voluntarily", as opposed to "someone tossed them in the water and they didn't drown".

Good example with the bears, man.

Oh damn, true, I forgot that, as they're pretty aquatic, but yeah, you are right, they just run underwater, haha.

Eh, they're just the part of the branch that stayed in the shallows. (Whale evolution docs are cool)

Seems like going back from land to water has happened quite a few times. Taxonomy is interesting and your comment made me look a bit, and to my surprise, hippos are more closely related to cetaceans than they are to manatees. I mean, I had never given it any thought before, but I didn't realise how different manatees and dugongs are from cetaceans.

Also, seals and walruses. Weird that a hippo can't swim, but walruses can. They both look heavy enough, but guess hippos do be a bit denser.

>“We are redefining the mountain lion in our minds as an animal that can swim.”

I never thought of it as an animal that couldn't swim.

I think basically the only mammals that can't properly swim are giraffes and and great apes. (Some great apes do, but like humans, a lot can't.)

Games in urinals are a thing.

https://www.amazon.com/Actopus-Urinal-Soccer-Screen-Football/dp/B075GHJ6LT

Can you guys see the European countries?

The gamma on my replacement screen sucks balls (fuck my phone repair guys)

Yeah, this.

There's one main difference to inside and outside light, and that's UV. I would argue that a change in grow medium and style has a larger effect than simply the added UV exposure from the sun.

"There's more of this risky/illegal behaviour than our stats would let on."

Wow, what revelations.

People were upset when the law force lefties to use their right hands was appealed, because it seemed to cause an inflation of left handed people.

No-one obviously changed their dominant hand. The stats just didn't tell the whole truth.

"I can prove anything by statistics except the truth" — George Canning

I'd say pretty much any sort of even semidisciplined training would improve that.

Did they control for other similar causes to verify the effect comes from mindfulness training in itself?

I doubt it and I'm too lazy to check rn

Well the church here is suuuuuuuuuper mild in comparison to most other countries as Scandinavia is super secular, but I just oppose it ideologically.

I think a junkie I talked to said it's just a basic service, a couple of hymns and a sermon by a Finnish Evangelical Lutheran pastor, so pretty airy-fairy "we should aim to do good" and none of that "sin and you'll go to hell" shit. Still, the idea bothers me slightly, even if the practice doesn't.

Finland had a massive denouncement of the church when someone just made an online tool that let you do it automatically.

Although I have to say that money really does get spent rather well here, as there's no massive Catholic churches that suck in money and the church we have does a lot of charity work and gives food.

If people could've just changed that to go to a secular institution, I think they would have. No-one really cared that much about the 1% church tax.

As I dislike the idea of making vulnerable people sit through indoctrination to get food, as some church food aid programs require you to sit through a service before you can get the aid.

It's like a Flat Earther going to get confirmation to their whacky world views from hungry hungry hobos by dangling food in front of them.

Oh, one more;

>“And, er, these stories about you..."

>"Oh, all true. Most of them. A bit of exaggeration, but mostly true."

>"The one about the Citadel in Muntab and the Pash and the fish bone?"

>"Oh, yes."

>"But how did you get in where half a dozen armed and trained men couldn't even - ?"

>"I am a little man and I carry a broom," said Lu-Tze simply. "Everyone has some mess that needs clearing up. What harm is a man with a broom?"

>"What? And that was it?"

>"Well, the rest was a matter of cookery, really. The Pash was not a good man, but he was a glutton for his fish pie."

>"No martial arts?" said Lobsang.

>"Oh, always a last resort. History needs shepherds, not butchers."

>"Do you know okidoki?"

>"Just a lot of bunny-hops."

>"Shittake?"

>"If I wanted to thrust my hand into hot sand I would go to the seaside."

>"Upsidazi?"

>"A waste of good bricks."

>"No kando?"

>"You made that one up.”

― Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time

They're pretty short books an very funny and entertaining.

Honestly, I've used them as a substitute for weed; they take my mind off things and get the creative juices flowing a bit with it's weird thinking.

The way Pratchett sees the world and then writes a humouristic take about it, it's just.. beautiful.

The books are even hard to categorize, as sometimes they're proper fantasy, sometimes they're very light-hearted, some of them are pretty much detective novels, there's several books of one character and then several books of another, who don't have much to do with each other, but do visit similar places and meet the same people and so forth.

They're amazing. The TV-specials aren't half bad either, if you can stand the sort of cheap production values they have as TV-movies. I'd guess they might be more enjoyable after the books though.

There's no need to go through them in order, for instance Small Gods iirc is a more or less autonomous story with new characters.

"Thief of Time" is one of, if not THE favorite of mine. The first one's are classics as well.

All of them have had me giggling on public transportation, haha.

>“Look, that's why there's rules, understand? So that you think before you break 'em.”

― Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time

---------------------------------------

>“Questions don't have to make sense, Vincent," said Miss Susan. "But answers do.”

― Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time

-------------------------------------

>“Genius is always allowed some leeway, once the hammer has been pried from its hands and the blood has been cleaned up.”

― Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time
---------------------------------------

>“Just a minute," said Lobsang. "Who are you? Time has stopped, the world is given over to...fairy tales and monsters, and there's a schoolteacher walking around?"

>"Best kind of person to have," said Susan. "We don't like silliness. Anyway, I told you. I've inherited certain talents."

>"Like living outside of time?"

>"That's one of them."

>"It's a weird talent for a schoolteacher!"

>"Good for marking, though," said Susan calmly.”

― Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

There's loads of better one's, these aren't probably the most giggly ones, but just from "Thief of Time". Oh, right, and the one I have memorized; "There's no educating a smart boy."

Here's a two minute video from an animated Discworld show, with Death voiced by the late, great sir Christopher Lee

I have been pondering similar questions for a long time, and have a lot of thoughts on the matter, but simply put, I agree.

For instance, it's much easier to say "don't do that that's a sin, you'll go to hell" than it is to say "if you continue to misbehave in that way you'll likely develop a personality disorder which will ostracize you from the rest of your community, causing depression and loneliness, ultimately leading to a bitter, hateful and miserable life."

Dietary restrictions also make sense, as for instance pork is susceptible to trichinosis, but beef isn't, as cows don't eat meat. So banning pig products make sense.

It also makes sense that these people wouldn't have been able to conceptualize the things in the way we do, duh, so even if someone knew those weren't literal truths, there wouldn't really be other words that would let them describe what it really is.

For instance, "seeing the burning bush" is, in my opinion, a pretty clear reference to someone who's either been up for days and is hallucinating through exhaustion (been there, done that, know what it looks like) and/or has used psychedelic/deliriant compounds (been there, done that, know what it looks like). I can say that I'm pretty sure what sort of thing they're referring to with "the burning bush."

​

Also, OP, are you an avid reader Terry Pratchett?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPS5Yw_YsHA (transcription of the

>Susan : Now... tell me...
>
>Death : What would have happened if you hadn't saved him?
>
>Susan : Yes.
>
>Death : The sun would not have risen.
>
>Susan : Then what would have happened?
>
>Death : A mere ball of flaming gas would have illuminated the world.
>
>Susan : All right, I'm not stupid. You're saying that humans need fantasies to make life bearable.
>
>Death : No. Humans need fantasy to be human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.
>
>Susan : With tooth fairies? Hogfathers?
>
>Death : Yes. As practice, you have to start out learning to believe the little lies.
>
>Susan : So we can believe the big ones?
>
>Death : Yes. Justice, mercy, duty. That sort of thing.
>
>Susan : They're not the same at all!
>
>Death : You think so? Then take the universe and grind it down to the finest powder and sieve it through the finest sieve and THEN show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy. And yet... you try to act as if there is some ideal order in the world. As if there is some... some rightness in the universe by which it may be judged.
>
>Susan : But people have got to believe that, or what's the point?
>
>Death : You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?
>
>[they both watch the sun rise]

"But it's still cold in the car after a few minutes, I need to be toasty for my 10 minute drive."

>based on Hoorn in Netherlands

Ah, yes, I thought there might be quite a few harbours that look like this, but thw Castle instantly made me think of ours, obviously. :D

Great work!

Well, this is clearly what the harbour in my city looked like a few centuries ago, for sure.

Here's some modern images of it.

https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/port-turku-close-to-turku-castle-finland-cruiseferry-ms-viking-grace-berthed-passenger-terminal-viking-line-ship-136883224.jpg

https://media.istockphoto.com/photos/panorama-of-the-port-of-turku-finland-picture-id616886706?k=20&m=616886706&s=170667a&w=0&h=KeCi5azA0_n5cxXs-QYu8pchDCSP-kveeuuBmRjUXuU=

https://images.robertharding.com/zoom/RF/RH_RF/HORIZONTAL/1245-2317.jpg

Now tell me that doesn't look similar. Did you dreamwalk into Turku to check out our harbour and then make this gif? ;>

Yeah, random people online can't affect the mythos at large.

I'd think it'd be in very poor taste and most likely against Coltrane's wishes to portray Hagrid as dead just because he is.

Why not make a RIP Robbie post? Why make a RIP Hagrid post, when Hagrid hasn't been affected in any way, as, as you say, he's a fictional character.

But since people associate him with Hagrid and nothing else, it's what you do to get some internet points and rationalize the behaviour because you can see that my comments have been downvoted by the Reddit bandwagon, without anyone arguing the actual position.

I don't know what you're looking at, but I'm looking at a fictionalized "in memoriam" (aka "forever with us" means "he passed but in a way he will be always with us") special edition of the Daily Prophet.

Meaning the purpose is to be a "Rest In Peace, Hagrid" in-universe.

Hagrid isn't dead. Robbie Coltrane is. Canonically, Hagrid is alive.

I don't think it's "beautiful" to essentially go against the wishes and hopes of Robbie Coltrane by even implying that Hagrid is dead.

https://youtu.be/KEblaGq5egs

"Sadly, I'll not be here... but Hagrid will!"

Yeah, and if we actually utilised technology and resources we have, with proper planning, instead of waiting for "the market to be ready", then I think I might see a space elevator during my lifetime.