IIRC, I think somebody noted that the War on Terror was the first war in which American soldiers didn't bring back war brides.
There's a weird "this country has become a hell hole for women, so let's send our young men away" plan here.
FWIW, I suspect the real issue is that trying to leave for the West is hilariously dangerous, so they're even more inclined to send their sons on a dangerous trip, especially in a very conservative society. At worst, they send money back home, and at best, they get sponsored for family reunification, and they travel via plane to the first world.
It’s 2023?
Also that’s a bit too warm for my ancestors in the Caribbean to wear when this stuff was commonplace.
…wait, how do you know this? Only weirdos pay attention to WEC, and I know this because my brother watches 24 Heures du Mans every year!
Nah, you need to tell! :-)
FWIW, I like Ubuntu Budgie because it’s pretty and Lubuntu because it’s pretty and works on old ThinkPads…
My desk is the *opposite*.
Mom would be screaming at me if she saw it...
In a "there's lots of stuff close together sense" or in my mom's "wow, you can drive into several countries within four hours of home" sense? You can see a limited version of that in the Northeast, but the former is impossible to replicate in most of North America...
I'm guessing, I should be the one who visits and not you. :-)
I suspect you're well aware that most (North) Americans look at Europe as train heaven, so we're all trying to double down and milk the train rides.
FWIW, I've driven in Germany and the UK. Germany is nice, the UK feels like a bit of a scam given that they're basically paying similar gas prices, have high taxes, but the roads seem awful compared to Bayern.
The low key dream is to drive across the Pont Millau and Oersund Link, but I'm a weirdo nerd. Most other people just want a pretty B road or Route Nationale.
I would have figured that the $10/gal gas and the tolls would make that, um, very expensive as well. If you think DB/SNCF is expensive, you should see Amtrak these days. :-/
Also, I never had you pegged as somebody who hates flying...
Wait, Europeans drive?
And Germans pay French and Spanish tolls? :-)
I mean you could always fire up the atom plants :-/
“Yes, a communist state that represses faith is a good place for a Lutheran minister and his family.”
The Germans made an interesting assumption that everybody else was as rational as them.
Jokes on you. OTOH, caring about the environment is such a German thing to do, and I despite German coal mining, I suspect you guys will *never* drill for natural gas.
*who our left-leaning politicians*
To be fair, Merkel is an ex-DDR resident. Learning Russian was a valuable skill in a Russian colony.
With that said, I had a joke with a friend where I said that everybody in the 2016 race was a Russian plant. It really didn't help when you had Trump courting Russian money, Jill Stein at a dinner sharing a table with Putin, and Sanders left leaning viewpoints and his awfully grifty campaign staff.
* Germany is sitting on a gigantic gas reserve*
It's funny that you say that as it's weird that Germany would have coal, yet no natural gas while the UK somehow ended up with both, as did Pennsylvania.
NYS has a moratorium on fracking as the land with potential natural gas is also NYC's water shed, and even from a practical standpoint, the economic benefits aren't enough to pay for the filtering needed to make NYC's water passable if it's contaminated with the byproducts of drilling. Yes, NYC's tap water is de facto natural water. PA has fracking, but it hasn't quite made the state *that* rich.
My environmentally conscious friend jokingly noted that anti-nuclear/pro-wind+solar is just a front for US nat gas producers who get to be the baseline power source. Turns out, the Russians have the same idea.
Wait, that was all Russian financed?
It seemed relatively realistic and plausible. OTOH, they supposedly planted the whole "CIA caused AIDS" meme that plagues the black community...
IIRC, some miners were trying to use Upstate NY for mining due to our cheap hydroelectric power and ample small towns with legacy power connections due to abandoned factories. Quebec saw some miners for similar reasons...
It's funny how Atari to you is a micro computer, while to most people, it's a *video game console*.