The world (or at least the Anglosphere) has always called the # symbol the hash sign. I have no idea why Americans called it the pound sign - most places call the £ symbol the pound sign.

The term “hashtag” was not invented by an American. For the rest of us this makes sense - it’s a tag denoted by a hash sign - but I can see how it seemingly came out of nowhere if you used different words.

Not to anywhere near the same degree. Also, just a few decades ago, you guys didn’t have them at all. The 1980s is where everything went bad for you guys.

In the first Robocop film, there’s even a scene where the board members of the evil megacorporation OCP are discussing traditionally non-private sectors where they’re making inroads, and prisons are listed.

The UK has a handful, and the contractor that runs them, G4S, is the name everyone instinctively listens out for in news reports about escaped prisoners, event security disasters and probes into site mismanagement.

This hits the nail in the head.

I have a friend who grew up in the USSR. From what she’s told me, the social pressure around pulling your weight can’t be overstated.

For example, her school uniform had a scarf, and the punishment for most offences (being late, not doing homework etc) was to have your scarf taken away for a day or two. Instead of being trapped in detention away from everyone after school, you had to spend the day publicly marked out as someone who’s let the side down. You’d spend the day subjected to disapproving looks, and then when you got home have to explain to your parents why you had your scarf taken away.

Yep, second one is the worst by miles. There’s lots of cool bits in it, but the overall narrative is a mess. The basilisk is also seriously dodgy-looking in several shots.

The first one is significantly more kiddy than the others, but it’s really well-executed.

deleted by creator

Oooh, you said the 愛 word. A million downvotes for you.

In fairness, this one isn’t cropped - the artist didn’t include any signature deets. And they’ve linked to the original artist’s post.

That said, I’d also much rather the OP didn’t post at all than continue to remove artist credits like they do in other posts.

Both of their orders are wrong.

The first person’s doughnut (pictured) has a single grain on it, so instead of getting “hundreds and thousands”, they’ve got a “one”.

The second person’s order has been messed up in a more surreal way - instead of rainbow sprinkles, they’ve received a single sprinkle that isn’t actually any of the colours of the rainbow.

I think it may have been over-complicated by having two punchlines in the last panel. Either of them could have stood on their own but having both on the last panel takes some of the impact out of the punch. Also, having two separate strips about this shop messing up orders would help establish this location in the comic’s world.

And here comes the guy with unsolicited advice…

“I keep sleeping…”

And

“I keep sleeping with dead people”

Would work a lot better, because “sleeping with” is an actual euphemism for “having sex with”.

It’s probably worth mentioning that this doesn’t just stop at legislation. A lot of things in the UK are the way they are, just because that’s the way they’ve always been.

What’s the official flag of the UK? It doesn’t have one. The Union Jack was a naval flag that became our defacto national flag. Before WW1, people could have lived their entire life without seeing a Union Jack.

What’s the official national anthem of the UK? It doesn’t have one. God save the King / Queen is our defacto national anthem. It was a song that gained popularity and people adopted it unofficially.

OK then. What’s the official language of the UK? You probably guessed - it doesn’t have one. English is only the defacto language of the UK. In fact, the only official language anywhere in the UK is Welsh, in Wales (obviously), where the vast majority of people speak English as their first language anyway.

AM = morning, PM = afternoon/evening/night

Like 7AM or 7PM

AM people are most awake and productive during the morning hours, and get more tired as the day goes on.

PM people are tired in the morning and more alert later in the day/night.

It depends on your chronotype. It messes with PM people much more than AM people.

If you’re tired in the evenings and wide awake in the morning, then going to bed slightly earlier and getting up earlier is easy.

If you’re alert in the evenings and tired in the mornings, going to bed early is counter-productive, you just lie there awake getting less tired. Similarly getting up earlier is even harder than normal.

If you’re an AM person, then you’ve drawn the lucky straw - the world is built for people like you. But there’s lots of PM people who struggle daily, fighting against their body clocks just to show up to school/work on time.

Seeing as you start the question with “In the show”, I can fairly confidently say no, Squidward is never explicitly stated to be a communist.

True!

Although, for a clearer comparison, it might help if I described what their normal food was.

From what I remember (it was about 20 years ago!), and ranked from their favourite to least favourite, the food mix consisted of:

• Peanuts
• Yellow flakes and green flakes (which I suspect started off as corn and peas)
• Scratchy red things (similar size and shape to a chunky watch battery)
• Scratchy brown things (similar shape but flatter than the red ones)
• Dark brown stick things

I guess the closest food we have is dry cereal. If I just had a huge bowl of mixed dry cereal to communally eat from for the entire day, and then one day a whole lettuce was next to the bowl, I’d probably try to eat as much of it as I could before it was taken away too.

Ha, it reminds me of when we left our pet mice at my parents’ house while we went on holiday.

We showed them how much food to put in the food bowl, and said if they ever wanted to treat the mice, they could put in a little bit of lettuce or a slice of cucumber.

When we came back a fortnight later, we found all three of the mice looking healthy, doing normal mice things. My parents were concerned, though. They mentioned that even though they refilled it every day, the mice had barely touched any of their food.

This surprised me because normally they eat almost everything. This is by design - the amount we put in takes into account that the mice will eat the bits they like best first, but because it’s nutritionally balanced, they need to eat the other stuff too.

I wondered if the mice were unnerved or something by being moved into my parents’ house, so I asked if they ever put anything in as a treat. I was told, yes, and the mice always ate it all.

It turned out that I hadn’t been clear about what a “little bit” meant and they’d been giving them one or two entire leaves of lettuce a day. The mice weren’t touching their food because they’d been living a Willy Wonka-esque existence of having room-sized treats delivered to them on a daily basis.

Hey, if we find something bigger than Pluto, then by all means let’s call it a planet.

By any reasonable person’s definition of a planet, Pluto is a planet. It’s a rocky spherical mass that orbits the sun, with a varied terrain of mountains, plains and glaciers. It has days and seasons. It has its own system of moons.

An additional grievance I have is that, by the IAU’s stupid definition of a Dwarf Planet, Charon should really be called a dwarf planet too. It isn’t a satellite of Pluto in a meaningful sense - both Pluto and Charon orbit a point between them. The other moons also orbit this space between Charon and Pluto.

So, want to know why it isn’t a Dwarf Planet? Because the IAU class it as a planetary satellite. What’s the formal definition of a planetary satellite then? There isn’t one. It was discussed, but a formal definition was not decided upon. Charon is literally a moon now because it was called a moon before the definition of a planet was changed and dwarf planets were invented.

I’m all for formal definitions, but the IAUs current rules are just really sloppy. It’s maddening.

I’d be happy with:

Pluto = planet

Anything smaller than Pluto ≠ planet

Nine planets. Now with clear non-stupid rules.

I imagine “good for them”.

My kids are Anglican, they go to a Catholic school. Half of all students there are from denominations other than Catholicism.

There isn’t really any animosity there.

Could not agree more - Christianity is supposed to be about the teachings of Jesus.

The vast majority of the Bible is not about that stuff, but it provides context for it.

Jesus taught respect for others and unconditional love. Surprisingly, Penny Arcade probably summed it up in the most succinct way I’ve ever seen it phrased: "Jesus says “don’t be a dick” ".

Someone would have to be delusional to look at the people that Jesus mixed with and advocated for, and conclude that he wouldn’t have similarly defended the marginalised groups of our time.

Good catch! You are 100% correct.

I’ll update the message, but strikethrough the original so this still makes sense.