Also feels like there's a "lead a horse to water" element here - if you've got no interest in the subject, are you really going to get much benefit from it even if it *is* well taught and potentially relevant?

I think for me, part of the "premium experience" has to translate to "invest in ushers", because one of the things that puts me off going to the cinema is the possibility of the person next to me spending the whole film on their phone or having a loud conversation with their friend.

On the plus side it means you can now get "Dubai chocolate ice cream" (i.e. chocolate and pistachio) which is the tits.

Can you share the answer? I can't figure it out either!

My friend went to art school where everyone smoked but her. She didn't want to feel left out so when they went out for a cigarette break, she joined them and very slowly nibbled her way through a Freddo.

Jim Butcher's Codex Alera has this as an explicit part of its worldbuilding: magic appears and scientific progress stops.

Barbados is just a shade over 9 hours and should have gorgeous weather in February.

I find this particularly interesting in Dracula where Catholic and Orthodox faith repels vampires, but Protestantism *doesn't*. Fascinating choice there from Bram Stoker, a Protestant.

It's really struck me how takeaway adverts used to be "order pizza with all of your friends!" and now they're "order takeaway to eat at home alone."

And wherever it isn't a practical necessity, we should try to undo it! E.g. no one gives a hoot that Commonwealth citizens can vote in the UK. There must be other resident groups we could extent that to for very little political pain.

I wonder how much of this is "I must have my own garden" as a hangover from the pandemic. Or is it not *that* recent?

Ok, we have a winner, that is genuinely worse.

Or ferry from Dublin to Cherbourg, then the train to Paris, which would take ~24 hours. But it'd be environmentally friendly and would probably feel like quite a stylish way to travel.

I'm honestly struggling to think of a *worse* way to get from Dublin to Paris while still travelling in broadly the correct direction.

This feels vital and so often ignored by highly literate people. There's so much sneering about the idea that some people genuinely find it difficult to write an email.

I think it depends if they have a good team keeping on top of casework? (I have no idea if Farage does or not).

Not so much the case in Beijing, I think. My friend lived there and had maybe B2 Mandarin, and got the ????? reaction quite a lot.

Something that really surprised me when I was there was how little people were able to communicate across a language barrier at all. All the usual tourist workarounds (e.g. pointing at a photo on a menu to order that thing) just weren't understood.