Bum science, specifically…

It’s a photograph of a physical page that has been converted to black and white and had the mid-tones and dark-tones darkened, probably to compensate for the bottom of the page being lighter in the photo than the top.

This is why you have that odd situation of the text on the previous page bleeding through on that one spot - it’s just at the threshold and is being darkened disproportionately compared to the rest.

I have to take photos of documents for work every now and then and hit these exact same issues when cleaning them up.

As for the blank page - I think it’s just a wide margin. If you zoom right into the top corner, you can just see a few black pixels where the text is starting.

Wow,

All I can say is whoever wrote that has amazing hand writing!

Fun fact - I was 23 and studying for my MSc before I learned how to read analogue clocks.

If you’re after speed, all I can suggest is that you’ve got to embrace the old-people habit of using the nearest 5 minute mark and accept that level of accuracy.

• “Quarter past”
• “It’s just gone quarter-past”
• “It’s nearly twenty-past”
• “Twenty past”

Not weird at all! The fact that you both live together is even a bonus - you effectively halve the taxi fare on the way home :)

You’ve got nothing to lose by asking, and everything to gain. The absolute worst that can happen is that he says ‘no’ - but from what you’ve written it sounds likely he’d say ‘yes’.

Happiness is literally the result of chemical reactions in the brain. If you’re feeling happy, it’s real.

You’re running into problems because you’re conflating the feeling of happiness with the things that make you feel happy.

There’s no such thing as “true happiness” or “false happiness”.

The things that make people happy rarely have objective value, and everything comes with some kind of cost, even if it’s just time.

The happiness drug users feel is real, but the cost (money/time/health) can be significant. The happiness that you feel from playing games or reading books is real, and the cost (money/time) is less, but still there.

Happiness is always real - just be mindful of the cost!

Sorry if you felt I was trying to put words in your mouth, that wasn’t what I meant. I mentioned Disneyland etc by way of contrast - to emphasise that Neuschwanstein was built as real palace. It’s not very old compared to others, but it’s still real.

To provide some context, I’m British and as I’m sure you’ll know, there are castles, palaces and fortifications in abundance here. But despite that, we have nothing even nearly as pretty as Neuschwanstein.

You said it sucks and it doesn’t have much history. I think that, even despite the fact that it’s not very old, it’s beautiful in a way that very few other places are and well worth visiting.

With all due respect, I think you’re being a little harsh on Neuschwanstein!

It was a real palace built for a real king to use. Admittedly he died before it was completed, so it never actually got used, but it’s not like the Disneyland castle which is just a fiberglass facade.

It looks amazing, both inside and out, and is the closest thing to a real life fairytale castle that exists - because, as you said, that’s specifically the look the king wanted. It wasn’t built as a cynical tourist trap, it was built as a dream palace for a king.

FWIW, in fairy tales the mother is the bad parent more often than not.

If the last few weeks in the UK are anything to go by, simply holding a sign is enough to be deemed part of a terrorist organisation.

(For clarification, this is in reference to the recent protests about the highly controversial proscription of Palestine Action)

Is The System Quietly Phasing You Out?

The Functional Melancholic

There. Literally the minimum you needed to provide.

Pop this in your initial post, and people can make an informed decision.

But what’s the title of the video? Who is it by?

Remember, you’re largely talking to strangers here - it’s not the same as sending a link to someone who knows you and saying “watch this, it’s interesting!”. You need to give people enough information to decide whether they’ll be interested before clicking on it.

For example, for all know it could be a video of that insufferable Kirk guy who’s been popping up in my feed recently. The last thing I want is the algorithm thinking I like clicking on links of him.

YSK that you might get more bites if you actually tell people where the link goes - include the name of the video at the very least!

In this day and age, people are pretty well conditioned against clicking on random links.

I’ve sold a fair few things on eBay. It’s much easier now than it used to be - and if you ship with Evri, you don’t even have to go through the faff of going to the post office.

There was a period, ten-fifteen years ago, when there were so many rules that it really wasn’t any fun to sell on there. It’s much more streamlined now.

My experience nowadays is mostly from selling Transformers toys. Can’t really fault it.

I’d honestly be surprised if noone at all on this isle had completely filled their house with potato plants. I certainly know some people who I’m sure are only a couple of steps away from doing something like this.

In addition to the answers given, we also have the phenomenon of the “Mexican Filter”. Films and TV programmes featuring scenes in Central America and South East Asia often use extremely yellow / sepia colour grading.

While mostly employed as visual shorthand to show that the scenes are now somewhere other than Europe / North America, it’s so prevalent that people think the countries actually look like that.

Lemmy

There was a guy with an awfully similar name to you, asking awfully similar questions.

I’m not trying to out you if you’re actually the same guy trying to get around a ban, but if you are, why pick such a similar name? It’s bordering on suspicious - picking an explicitly religious name then posting about prostitutes.

If this is coincidence, and you’re a completely different guy with a similar name posting about a similar topic within the space of a week, I apologise - and I don’t want to freak you out too much, but you may have a doppelganger.

Very much this.

Remember, OP, it’s an “ectomy” - they remove a beansprout-sized chunk of each vas deferens. You will be left missing a fairly big piece of the plumbing - it’s not just a simple connect/disconnect thing.

If you do choose to have it done and you’re the curious type, they’ll actually let you watch if you ask.

Also, stock up on ibuprofen!

For a little more context, any excess wine in the chalice after communion can’t just be tipped away (symbolising, as it does, the blood of Christ). The standard thing is that the vicar will drink the remainder themselves before moving on.

It’s a common joke that vicars intentionally put far more wine than necessary into the chalice, because that means that there’s more for them to drink at the end.

BTW, I’m talking within the context of the Church of England here, which Rev Hedges is almost certainly from.