It can be formed, just not in the vast quantities it was back then. It requires unusual conditions to stop fungi making a meal out of it, before it gets buried deep enough.

I live in the UK. At this point, most of the polite smokers have moved over to vapes. Those left are almost entirely rude wankers who don’t care where their smoke goes and who it affects. The smoking ban came in because 1 smoker can affect dozens of unwilling people.

I have zero issues with vapes. The effect on others is quite minor, outside a few fog machines disguised as vapes.

It’s a universal problem. Good men/women/other spend far less time “available” than their fellows. A (straight) man like that would likely be snatched up and hung onto by the first woman smart enough to realise what she’s got. If she’s also a good option for him, then both are off the market permanently.

It’s like a box of chocolates. It’s not that the good ones don’t exist. The box just gets picked clean, and you’re left with the weird nuts to choose from.

(P.s. I stumbled in here from /all, so only have experience with how it plays out for straight foke. I presume it likely plays out similarly for queer etc too)

Most home storage is Lifepo4, rather than lithium ion.

It’s a bit more expensive, and only has 80% of the capacity. In tradeoff, it gains 3-5x the lifespan, and an inability to burst into flames.

Bigger brands tend to be more reliable in capacity and lifespan. Cheap ones are more hit and miss. It might be fine, it might fail after 3 years, rather than 10.

It could be worse. A “more information” button that automatically starts a voice/video call to the restaurant.

The chances of a “missing” tourist’s body being found are also low, but not zero!

He just really likes pressure.

If it’s something new, stolen food is best food. Have something different yourself and let them try some from your plate. There’s no expectation that they have to eat more, if they don’t like it.

If it’s something they chose then they have a choice to eat it or not. It doesn’t get replaced however.

If it’s something you chose, then that’s more on you. As soon as my minion was talking, she started getting a say in what she wanted. Even if it did mean a mixed bowl of peas and sweetcorn became a staple for a while.

Assuming 1MW of transfer, and a 10m diameter beam, your looking at 12.5kW/m^2 . Not instant vaporisation, but dangerous in seconds to humans. The penetration was also mean the energy is delivered internally, where it’s harder to deal with (short term).

Any viable power transfer beam also, inherently, makes a good anti personnel weapon.

While the maths is slightly better for short range transfers, like drones, it would still definitely not be something you want hitting your body.

Imagine you have a paper balloon setup. It randomly takes hits from a high powered rifle. In theory, you could harvest the energy. However, it’s delivered in such powerful, random bursts that capturing it is difficult.

Gamma rays punch straight through the structure of the craft. The actual energy is small (around 1/1,000,000 of a joule), but it’s so focused that it damages anything it hits. If it hits the atoms in a transistor, that transistor gets ripped up at an atomic level.

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.

As a Brit, If I got this in a greasy cafe, i would send it back. Fellow Brits will attest how bad it has to be for THAT to happen.

This is an abomination of a fry up.

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.