Makes me think of Crawley, in “Good Omens”.

Plenty. Unfortunately it’s mostly the nasty damaging kind, rather than the sort that can be turned into power. It also doesn’t take much damage to add up, when you’re dealing with large millennia time scales.

The ring around it makes that less likely, though still plausible. It would also have to leach through the paint.

The sleep deprivation of early parenthood does a lot to break you of social norms.

Most likely.

The box tends to sit slightly proud of the wall. When they plaster it in (particularly retroactively) they need to build up the plaster around the socket.

Thicker plaster means more insulation, and less condensation. Less condensation, less mold.

The ring around the socket also supports this. The edge where the new plaster gives way to the old. That point tends to be rougher, and so more prone to capturing mold.

It could also be thicker paint causing the same effect. Most people do the wall with rollers, but sockets with a brush, leading to a thicker coat.

As a parent I fully understand the need to curtail it. I also get how some parents could shake their baby to death. Feeling it and acting on it are totally different things.

It’s ok not to feel it. Our brains are often wired differently. I personally only get cuteness mildly. I mostly notice it by how I’m being biased, rather than a strong, independent emotion. You likely have chunks of it, but mentally bundle them into different emotions.

Cute is part of our “don’t kill the screaming baby” programming. Best described as emotionally attractive.

It makes parents bond with children. As a spill over, it makes other adults not want to drop kick annoying small humans. It also stops older siblings wanting to murder the attention magnet that came into their life.

The level of activation of this effect varies. It kicks in hard during pregnancy, both for mum, and anyone around them. Not feeling it strong is not a huge issue.

It also tends to be blended with other emotional responses. You might actually feel it, but not recognise it as a separate emotion. The positive feeling towards cats is partly due to them being small, squishy, and big eyed. We default to them being babies/small children, and give them the leeway we would a child causing minor chaos. Cuteness is part of that effect.

The UK is still a lot more multi party at the lower levels of government, compared to the US. Unfortunately it’s erring towards the US system, rather than away from it.

We are in a media bubble. Basically all our media is owned by a few rich arseholes and they bury a lot of anti right messages.

The BBC used to be remarkably honest and independent from government. The conservatives getting their claws into it was the beginning of the real problems. Even worse, the BBC’s impartiality has been so sacrosanct that a lot of older people just believe it.

A mild bit of light. The green party seems to also be making significant advances. Labour have often played the “don’t split the left vote” card on them. Now it looks like green is overtaking them in some areas. It just doesn’t show up well in a FPTP voting system.

The Brexit crowd have gone conspicuously silent about it. Their lack of crowing says a lot about it.

Even before Brexit, the tide had turned, and that’s only gotten stronger. Unfortunately, the government had their vote and hammered it through. (The fact there was an EU rule change, on tax transparency, the next day, and would have embarrassed a lot of rich UK toffs had NOTHING to do with the timing)

Unfortunately, the reform party is far too strong, and trying to drag us to the extreme right. Our “left wing” primary party (Labour) is now further right than the conservatives (center right party) traditionally sit.

It’s… frustrating.

I’d recommend foiling it, rather than clipping. A grounded (0V) metal wrapping will become a Faraday cage. It’s a bit more effort, but is reversible, if you so choose. E.g. when selling it. It is also less likely to trigger a fault sensor condition, and doesn’t void the warranty if the computer craps out.

Abnormalities from “normal” were a critical self defence feature, for our ancestors. E.g. a lack, or change, of bird song might indicate a predator in ambush. Unusual lighting might indicate a storm coming in.

Our brains are wired to learn normal patterns. When those patterns change completely, we are fine with it. When they change subtly we don’t like it.

The threshold for this is different for different people. Personally, I’m fine with completely different maps, but off put by modified real maps. I also cannot watch soap operas, they are too close to “real” and trip alarms at their mismatches. Conversely, sci-fi and fantasy are fine, they are different enough to not set off my alarms. I know others who are set off by sci-fi, but soaps are within their norms.

My childhood cat used to catch and eat mice. Unfortunately, it would leave their entrails on the kitchen floor. Listening to my mother curse, when she discovered them with her bare feet, was an interesting way to be woken up.

I think you got off lightly with the stuffed toy. 🤷‍♂️😅

It’s a book series. It’s a semi utopia based sci-fi. The culture is an amalgam of species (including human). It’s run by “minds” hyper powerful AIs. Humanity is akin to pet dogs. A mix of pampered and useful.

Basically, humans live in a life of luxury and choice. Changing genders, or even species is very common. Immortality is mostly a logistics and boredom issue.

The earth will be fine.

The plants and creatures on it? They will be battered, but recover.

Humans on the other hand… 👎

I’ve seen quite a few people who make casual use of it. The key point is that it is currently free to them. As soon as it starts costing money, a lot will bail on it.

A bit of a guess, but it might be related to software cafés. They are a lot more common in the east.

Since multiple people can log into the same computer, it might over count them. They are also likely exclusively windows machines.

Pis are excellent mini computers. Unfortunately, their long term reliability isn’t quite there. When I used one, I was getting a couple of lock up crashes a year. It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s just enough to be REALLY frustrating to the (less technical) wife. The tipping point is when it goes from “nice to have” to “expected”.

I acquired a 2nd hand NUC, and it’s been bomb proof for a few years now.

Most propaganda is aimed at neurotypical wiring. We are out of tune with it, that gives us a measure of protection.

It’s one of the worries I have with AI. While I think we are more protected from propaganda than most (since we constantly want to poke at the crack in a story), we are not immune. It’s perfectly possible to shape it to effect us. They just haven’t bothered, since we are a small target. AI makes that a lot easier to do, so we will see more of it.

They’ve had to pear it back hard, as well as made some (slightly controversial) changes. It was needed to make the transition however, and the movie flows quite well.