China also has a more efficient energy transfer system than elsewhere in the world, so the loss is a lot less than you would expect, lower than, for example, it would be in US.

I only realized it’s NOT an armband after you pointed it out x)

If you live inside the heart of the West, your life is still good enough—yes, even those struggling and clinging on the edges of poverty—and the bread and circuses still mostly work as distractions. But the world isn’t only the West. There are plenty in the other 6/7 of humanity who are willing to die for the hope of change. Life was hard before, but having endured impacts of a global pandemic, wars, and starvation, people are getting pushed to their limit. We are seeing many sparks of revolution starting to light on the dark prairie.

How many of them are fighting for the “right” reasons? How many of them will end up in a better place? Nobody knows. But if even one or two turn into full-on fires, things will certainly get shaken up. And thereafter, unlike the Arab Spring days, there are Global South countries arising that are strong and wealthy enough to lend a hand, whose national interests lie toward helping regions to transition toward stability after any social blowups.

At some point, change will come upon us, and we won’t have any say in how peaceful or violent it will be.

I think you can do it using boost right now…

I really need a “hide read post” option 😺

OK, here’s a couple more that are famous and great for touristic reasons of history /culture /good food /great landscape /etc

Xi’an (one of the ancient capitals of China, starting point of the traditional and new Silk Road), Guilin (every single time they show China in cartoon, with giant mountains and winding rivers, they’re basically showing here), Shenzhen (the new hyper modern high tech city), Guangzhou (old English name was Canton, as in Cantonese food), Suzhou and Hangzhou (historically famed for being chill and beautiful, lakes and canals etc), Hainandao (Chinese version of Hawaii), Nanjing (another ancient capital of China, lots of culture), Harbin (lots of Russian architecture here, and a FANTASTIC and huge ice sculpture show every year)

Was not expecting 济公 here along with the Marxists xD

…sounds grim and surreal. Pretty sure I’ve read post-apocalyptic fiction with similar backgrounds :|

有没有 have or not have 时间 time 陪我 accompany me/accommodate me 聊聊天 chat a bit

It’s a way to turn any action into a question. It could be a more casual and informal, more endearing /soft way of questioning something (depending on the actual emotional tone you say it with, if course) .

看没看过？have…seen it? 吃没吃过？have… eaten it? 玩没玩过？have … played it? 读没读过？have … read it?

是不是 （很好玩）？isn’t it (fun)? 好不好 isn’t it good? 看不看xyz–do (you/we/they) wanna watch xyz? 知不知道xyz–do…know xyz?

Etc.

To sound less like a robot, here’s my suggested rewrite for you ;D

你好，我叫xxx，我正在学汉语。你好吗？你会说普通话吗？有没有时间陪我聊聊天？

Etc.

There was a period when foreigners, especially English-speaking white foreigners, were treated effusively in China, elevated above all Chinese people and often far above the natural social place these folks had back in their own countries. They got better jobs, better job situations and benefits, and Chinese people in general gave them respect and admiration based on their whiteness and exotic Westerness alone.

Then China opened up to the world at ever increasing pace, Chinese people became more sophisticated, and an entire generation of previously-fêted foreigners lost their elevated place in society. They crashed back to earth and drifted back to the social positions they always would have had based on their personal abilities and talents.

Laowhy and Serpentza lived through the tail part of that shift. The good and easy time they’d had in China soon ended, they were barely making ends meet, and soon had to leave. They became deeply bitter, and attributed that natural change in society to the CPC ruining the good times for everyone, not just themselves. Thereafter they fell in with various anti-China crowds within and without China, and also found just how lucrative anti-China videos are on yt.

So it’s a combination of both a personal sense of being wronged, plus the good grift, that resulted in their channels and stance today. They were always grifters at heart, the change in money merely changed the nature of their content.

Oh wow, boingboing and deli.cio.us, nostalgic old site names I haven’t thought about in years… :)

Mine also finally stopped about an hour ago 😭 Good bye, Boost

https://www.dw.com/en/germany-reactivates-coal-fired-power-plant-to-save-gas/a-62893497

https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertbryce/2022/10/28/the-iron-law-of-electricity-strikes-again-germany-re-opens-five-lignite-fired-power-plants/

‘Intensive use’ of German coal power plants releases additional 15 mio t of CO2 in 2022 – report https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/intensive-use-german-coal-power-plants-releases-additional-15-mio-t-co2-2022-report

Yeah but those ads are skippable whereas YouTube ads aren’t. I support YouTube creators having some control over their own income by adding native ads and not be yanked around by random YouTube policies.

I tend to watch hour-long shows with in-depth analyses from viewpoints that isn’t mainstream, or in different languages from different countries, more than 5 hours per day, and YouTube premium is worth it to me.

They wish it’s this easy to keep people. If businesses knew how to monopolize the market forever, they wouldn’t have been so desperate to set up these walls.

I dropped cable for Netflix years ago with a shrug, and as Netflix and all the streaming services are turning into cable I dropped them too and will wait for the next thing. If talking to some large group of faceless masses becomes annoying and spam filled, I’ll keep my resources for other things I can turn my attention to.

It’s weird to me to see these artificial structures treated as though they’re some real solid thing with no alternatives. That’s literally these companies’ PR to make us believe it