In our town the police day shift wears the shiny bits and bobs, and the night shift is entirely flat black including even a black embroidered badge.

Sometimes it's incompetence, or time constraints. Sometimes it's deliberate, as anything to get people talking and your message traveling farther. Sometimes the sheer volume of crap your side is putting out prevents any sort of budget for professionals. Sometimes it's Darwinian, push out a firehose worth of content and see what rises to the top.

USA here. I like in one of the areas with the lowest cost to living in the USA (Kentucky). I just paid my daughter's fall tuition to the University of Kentucky yesterday. It's a state school which accepts 95% of those who apply. Average SAT ~1100. (My point, by no means is it a selective school.) Her tuition for one semester was $6851 or 6275 €. This does not include housing, food, or living expenses.

I don't want to get into USA vs anyone else, as everyplace is different, with their own areas that make them stand out or not. However when it comes to post-secondary education and healthcare in terms of COST (not quality) the USA quantitatively lags well behind Western Europe.

Oh, I'm so glad you were not a fan. I thought I was the only one. The hype from friends was overwhelming, and I was excited to see it. BUT my wife and I couldn't finish the movie. The idea that she was THE worst version of herself was interesting, but everything else was just absurd.

I'm a fan of alliteration so....The People's Pigskin, or Iron Curtain Carriers.

I'm so happy that I'm not the only one who leaves spiders (mostly) alone in the house. I had a neighbor once who was like, "Uhh... there's a big 'ol spider in your bathroom." One of my children then goes, "That's Henrietta. She lives behind the toilet and eats bugs." The neighbor looked at us like we were crazy. Henrietta's offspring have been living quietly in my downstairs bathroom eating ants for about 20 years now.

Not contradicting, but sharing my perspective. I teach 14 - 18 year olds in the USA, 80% of which are male. Andrew Tate peaked in their discussions about the time of his 1st arrest. (Was that last year?) I rarely hear about him anymore and really none this past school year.

If the current conversations I'm constantly battling are any indication, then the content algorithms are mainly serving up Jewish hate. Though surprisingly those comments are not tied to current events in Israel and Gaza.

You say, "Oh, how terrible! I guess we will just have to send him to the hospital to be refilled." Then you put Steve on your desk and when all the kids go home, you chuck Steve in the garage and set a brand new Steve out for tomorrow.

While I'm oversimplifying, basically 49 out of 50 U.S. states are at will employment. (A majority have public policy exceptions, and only 3-4 have NO exceptions.) Montana is the only U.S. state that is not at will (after a probation period).

Thanks so much for pointing out the CAFE restrictions. I never knew they existed, and it explains much about the growth of autos in general since 2011.