I have two; a male common corn snake and a male hognose. They are definitely not cuddly animals, as you stated. However, they absolutely can and do get to know their handlers, and learn how to be relaxed when handled - and they obviously enjoy it, since they often seek out being handled of their own free will (I usually open the enclosure when they’re “surfing” up against the glass and let them decide whether they want to slide into my hands). I’ve had them for a few years now and I have been bitten, but never out of “malice”. All biting incidents were my own fault due to inexperience, and the snakes mistaking my hands for their meal. A snakebite from a non-venomous or very mildly venomous snake is no worse than a bee sting. If you have cats, you’ve probably been through worse than whatever a snake can do to you.

All in all, could recommend!

Snake tax:

Nato for sure can stand its ground even without the US. But Russia doesn’t need to blitzkrieg and win huge swathes of territory in order to accomplish their goals of destabilizing the EU. Everyone saying “they’re already losing in Ukraine, they wouldn’t dream of opening another front” obviously hasn’t studied Russian history.

I think the biggest deciding factor in whether this happens or not is actually China. Ostensibly, they wouldn’t risk losing a huge market like the EU but afaik things aren’t going well over there either, so if Xi wants to be the strongman Putin is desperately trying to be just in order to hold on to power, I can absolutely see them choosing Russia’s side in a global conflict.

He’s preparing to attack the Baltics.

Getting those orders is one thing.

Acting on them is another.

Can’t we like, globally cut off any and all ties with the US and leave them to fester in their own hellhole? Hell, we’ll build the walls AND pay for them!

“What are they going to do? Sue us from beyond the grave?”

Yes, which is why it’s important for them to realize what they’re getting themselves into. Did Warmbier deserve what happened to him? Absolutely not, but knowing what happened and still going over there to play tourist means you’ve understood, accepted and internalized the possible risk. I will reserve my tears for the many thousands of people who get into trouble through no fault of their own.

Anyone who goes there of their own free will should know that they could end up like Otto Warmbier at any time. No tears will be shed for them.

When your “pet” turns out to be your handler all along.

All of them, it seems like. Not all at the same speed, but still.

Simple. They want more people to die before being able to claim retirement. Dead pensioners are free.

Yeah this is one of the reasons I never bother with any events involving crowds anymore. That or covid. Just not worth it.

Not afaik. You either allow it or not. Doing so selectively would require a lot more knowledge than I have.

As a workaround however, running a VM and using your browser from within that would seem like a decent-ish way to obtain similar results with minimal effort. You can use the hypervisor to set whatever limits you require.

UK has been USA Lite for decades. Nothing new under the sun.

When the simplest staple foods double in price, you know shit’s gonna get fucked.

I’m sure that’ll bring them back up to par with AMD. Oh wait…

Let’s be real; everyone on board knew there was no chance the ship would be allowed to moor and offload its goods. It was a photo op. But still a good one since it helps show what Israel is doing in Gaza. They also knew there was very little chance of them actually getting hurt as Israel does care about optics when it involves high profile foreigners. The second they kill someone like Greta all hell would break loose. Which is in sad, stark contrast to the thousands of innocents they’ve killed with nary a peep from the rest of the world.

The internet isn’t what turned everything to shit. That was capitalism. Technology of and by itself is never evil, but of course there’s always tons of people ready to use it for evil purposes. Our current ‘big bad’ is still simply capitalism though.

Calling it now: before the end of this decade, doing anything (legit) online will require users to verify with a government-backed identity solution provider. Both in EU and US (and therefore de facto everywhere it matters).

Maybe then we’ll finally get a cool separate web with hackers and neuromancers and whatnot. Probably not.