Random Thoughts

[Cod]

Opening beer bottles with your teeth... Never a good idea.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

[Silver]

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Your cousins?

[Silver]

Exploring Skellige.

[Cod]

How come the wind always gets up just as you've got your leaves in a pile?

[Angrboda]

The Party for the Animals, the only animal-rights party to be represented in a national parliament, has proposed a law requiring that all animals be stunned before slaughter. The proposal has united Islamic and Jewish leaders in defense of what they see as a threat to their religious freedom, because their religious doctrines prohibit eating meat from animals that are not conscious when killed. The Dutch Parliament has given the leaders a year to prove that their religions’ prescribed methods of slaughter cause no more pain than slaughter with prior stunning. If they cannot do so, the requirement to stun before slaughtering will be implemented.

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But prohibiting the ritual slaughter of animals does not stop Jews or Muslims from practicing their religion. During the debate on the Party for the Animals’ proposal, Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs, Chief Rabbi of the Netherlands, told members of Parliament: “If we no longer have people who can do ritual slaughter in the Netherlands, we will stop eating meat.” And that, of course, is what one should do, if one adheres to a religion that requires animals to be slaughtered in a manner less humane than can be achieved by modern techniques. Neither Islam nor Judaism upholds a requirement to eat meat.

~ Ethics in the Real World: 82 Brief Essays on Things That Matter. Peter Singer. 2012.

[Little lunch]

I know it would be dangerous, but I would love to own a jedi light saber to prune my garden with.
Also wondering if you could shape a plant over a period of time with strong magnets.

[Angrboda]

The Schengen Area ( /ˈʃɛŋən/, /ˈʃɛŋɡən/) is an area comprising 26 European states that have officially abolished passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders. The area mostly functions as a single jurisdiction for international travel purposes, with a common visa policy. The area is named after the Schengen Agreement. States in the Schengen Area have strengthened border controls with non-Schengen countries.

Twenty-two of the twenty-eight European Union (EU) member states participate in the Schengen Area. Of the six EU members that are not part of the Schengen Area, four—Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, and Romania—are legally obliged to join the area, while the other two—the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom—maintain opt-outs. The four European Free Trade Association (EFTA) member states, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland, are not members of the EU, but have signed agreements in association with the Schengen Agreement. Three European microstates—Monaco, San Marino, and the Vatican City—are de facto part of the Schengen Area.

The Schengen Area has a population of over 400 million people and an area of 4,312,099 square kilometres (1,664,911 sq mi). About 1.7 million people commute to work across a European border each day, and in some regions these people constitute up to a third of the workforce. Each year, there are 1.3 billion crossings of Schengen borders in total. 57 million crossings are due to transport of goods by road, with a value of €2.8 trillion each year. The decrease in the cost of trade due to Schengen varies from 0.42% to 1.59% depending on geography, trade partners, and other factors. Countries outside of the Schengen area also benefit.

Wikipedia || Schengen Area

[Fireball]

I know it would be dangerous, but I would love to own a jedi light saber to prune my garden with.
Also wondering if you could shape a plant over a period of time with strong magnets.

We have a neighbor who has an immense Bougainvillea plant growing in one of the back corners of their lot. My sons and I have joked about how nice it would be to have a light saber and just slice the thing at the property line. Expected benefit would be that the thing would be unbalanced, and would teeter over into their yard.

Plants don't have enough iron in them for magnets to have much effect, btw. If you strapped magnets to it strategically and had other magnets or even some iron, then yes, you could likely force a shape you wanted.

[The Valkyrie]

Opening beer bottles with your teeth... Never a good idea.

No.

You open them with someone else's teeth.

Attached or not.