As a fellow European, you turning an obvious joke into some weird flex on Americans is cringe af.
Yeah, I think my sense of smell in general has never returned in full capacity. I think it's slightly weaker. Crazy stuff.
On a serious note, COVID isn't the only virus that can cause loss of smell (permanent or temporary). I lost it before COVID for a month or so, and it took some time for it to return completely. But to this day, there are still certain chemical smells (like deodorants in spray) that smell a tiny bit off to me.
All of that sounds good, except mayo, but I'm also not a (warm) mayo fan.
Got a friend who eats mayo on pizza. Trying to not be judgey, but I did gag a little just hearing it.
It wasn't just secretly, or that secretly at all, but it still stuck with me. When I was 10, I was texting a friend about having started periods, an extremely sensitive topic, and my father grabbed my phone to read who I was texting. It's been very long since that happened, and I don't have the best memory, but things like this I remember very vividly. Some kids are more sensitive, and you have to build a strong relationship with them for these things to potentially work. I think there is even a Black Mirror episode on this topic.
There's also a problem that if the kid does know they're being monitored, they can and some will figure out how to get past it. I can't offer an immediate solution, because honestly, social media scape is severly fucked nowadays, but there's no winning scenario I can think of that doesn't require one to have an extremely good relationship with their kid. And even then, it might not be enough.
I'm glad I'm both old enough I didn't grow up with tiktok and the likes, and that I don't have kids to worry about. Being a parent in this day and age sounds absolutely exhausting and uncertain from multiple modern-world perspectives.
Kudos to any working parent who manages to handle it well and has a kid with a good head on their shoulders.
Not in detail, but it actually does:
“Often the mothers are saying exactly what I am but need their child to hear it from an expert,” says Dr. Dendy Engelman, a Manhattan dermatologist. “They’re like, ‘Maybe she’ll listen to you because she certainly doesn’t listen to me.’”
While younger kids may be reasoned with, teenagers aren't as easy to handle as some say. Puberty is a hell of a drug.
IMHO, this is a very sensitive topic, and I'm glad I don't have kids for this to be a worry for me.
Smartphones became a big thing when I was already in high school, and social media at the time still wasn't this aggressive, but my father did monitor my activity on the PC, mostly secretly, and it made me feel anxious. This violation of privacy damaged my already shit/barely existent relationship with him. It's also why I'm so paranoid of secretly being monitored. You have to already have a pretty good relationship with your parents for this not to potentially mess you up, at least in my experience.
What the solution to this is, I don't know. Better digital/tech education in schools and at home would be a good step in that direction, but strict ad and product regulations should also be implemented, which - unfortunately expectedly - is being fought against (at least in the USA, according to the article).
It's somehow always the guys in management/on top. On the first sign of inconvenience, they start complaining about all the security measures, because now it affects them personally, and they're not here to be managed! Security is for everyone else, but definitely not them. They're above it.
I would need to check (not in charge of it), but I do remember in the fat stack of guidelines we got there was the password policy of 90 days. However, the point still stands that some people have no digital hygiene and will write down and share their passwords in plain text for all to see even if we didn't enforce password expiry. Though in all honesty, there's no winning combination when so many don't truly give a shit about digital security. As long as they can flaunt a certificate.
We have three month password expiry policy on AD accounts, but the requirements aren't extreme. We'd do away with it, but then we have our own CEO writing their password down on a piece of paper and giving it to us to troubleshoot their laptop (we have admin accounts for a reason ffs), after being repeatedly told not to, forcing employees to rotate their passwords suddenly doesn't sound too crazy. People are just way too irresponsible sometimes. Plus, we need to have it for certifications, so there's that.
Fyi it could be filters need changing. Right now if we turn on the aircon at work, I get terribly sore throat that would last for days. Turns out they change/clean the filters only once a year, and it's even worse in some other rooms where it also smells bad.
Right? No matter what I wear, I'll inevitably start freezing/being cold, especially my feet which I can't just put extra layers on. Add to that eyes watering intensely in the cold, windy weather, plus runny nose, so can't wear anything over it for any extended time, lest I bathe my face in snot. No, thank you. Give me summer and a fan.
Not a theist, so I'm not defending the potential existence of "my god".
Lack of evidence, however, doesn't always mean something doesn't exist or hasn't happened. If John killed Jake and destroyed or hid the evidence, and based on that wasn't found guilty, that doesn't mean that he didn't do it. It simply means no substantial evidence has been found to prove it (yet).
If you want to take your example further, it's quite possible to find out years or decades later that drug is in fact harmful, it just took time for the side-effects to show, or rather we simply didn't have the right technology to come to that conclusion earlier. (Though far less likely for this scenario to happen with modern science.)
Also, the existence of science or established set of natural laws, and absence of supernatural does not rule out existence of an uninvolved or uncaring creator.
Cries in having no sunlight in the apartment. Mine didn't survive the dark apartment life, so can't confirm.
Same between Austria and Slovenia and Slovenia and Croatia. Well, at least on one side. Going from Austria to Croatia, nobody will stop you, but going from Croatia to Austria, they stop you on each border. Austria took COVID as an excuse to reinstate it, and Slovenia I guess chose to be very worried about illegal immigrants.
One of my family cats is currently at the end of her life due to kidney disease. It really sucks, glad they're doing something about it. Now if only they could do the same for dogs.
It's funny to me how easy English has it. All you have to do is use "they", and if people think that's awkward, they should see how difficult it is to navigate it in a language with complex verb conjugations with gendered nouns and verbs. It's complicated to the point that non-binary people will still use their assigned-at-birth (if that's the term?) pronouns, to save everyone - including themselves - a headache. There's of course a movement to change the language, but it's difficult.