Yeah, stainless steel contains hexavalent chromium. From Wikipedia:

> Workers in many occupations are exposed to hexavalent chromium. Problematic exposure is known to occur among workers who handle chromate-containing products and those who grind and/ or weld stainless steel.[6] Workers who are exposed to hexavalent chromium are at increased risk of developing lung cancer, asthma, or damage to the nasal epithelia and skin.[2]

Yeah, did you know that if you ask a lady her DoB, she'll assume you're asking her age? Go on try it and see what happens ..!

Could it be some odd “water hammer” situation? If anything might need bleeding, doing that might improve matters.

One example that springs to mind straight away is The West Wing: mild spoiler ahead. At the end of season 1, something major happens, and the first episode of season 2 is a 2-parter with a lot of flashbacks about "how the team got together" a few years earlier. I think it was related to the fact of having a second season at all, meaning they could do a more detailed dive in to character origins.

Since The Last Of Us is a clear success, I think something similar is happening: we can now invest more in to these characters.

Sure, but without gasoline, cars cease to function. Without water, humans cease to function.

That's like saying a car with an empty tank is experiencing gasoline withdrawal symptoms.

It's probably helps that hundreds of thousands of working people emigrated to other countries (source)!

Gotta love that viscosity.

Hana-Bi is a great one: Takeshi Kitano as a former cop, vs. the Yakuza who paralysed his partner and got him kicked off the force.

DOUGH!

How much "blame the man" do you hear from your patients? The man should be doing more, doesn't excite her any more, and so on? I also wonder how much money comes in to it - whether affairs are linked to hypergamy etc.

No, but I think you can treat it that way if it helps you get used to the pace. I wouldn't change what they did 20 years ago, but if they were doing it today, it probably would be a miniseries.

I read the books years earlier, and thought they would be largely unfilmable. Few even tried e.g. the animated adaptation from the 1970s wasn't completed properly. So respect to the screenwriters for making some necessary changes without doing a Hollywood hack job on the story.

If you're used to a conventional 3-act structure over 2 hours, I get why you'd think the movies to be slow. But we're now in an era where film-makers don't have to lock themselves in to conventional movie constraints: you just see the results on Netflix as a 10-part miniseries, not in the theaters as a movie.

If you do, don't worry about doing them all in one sitting, or even one of the movies. For example, the hobbits' arrival in Rivendell is a good place to break the first movie in two.

“Steet”? (Website address is broken too.)

Clarke (with an e) is all about the big ideas, even if the execution can be a little clunky at times. I enjoyed the Childhood's End miniseries adaptation a few years ago, but you could tell that major changes in characterisation etc. had to be made to make it work on screen.

Clarke had a warped sense of humour too e.g. the physical appearance of the Overlords (which I won't spoil) is simultaneously a nod to human history and mythology and a big middle finger to Christian sensibilities and to religion in general. I could say that about the whole book (mild spoiler): religion could not and does not survive in the face of a far grander but weirder reality.

Yeah, sounds like trying was a mis-stake.

Arthur C. Clarke was ahead of this question in Childhood’s End = recommended reading.