MandieD

7 ms·

31.
by MandieD 7mo ago
The ones who consider Rome to be holy aren’t, generally speaking, the ones to worry about (at least in this matter). Catholicism considers US Evangelical-style Rapture theology to be heretical, and Catholic soldiers would likely find being
32.
by MandieD 7mo ago
As I understand it, there are parts of France that spent time as parts of Germany and are still somewhat culturally German that do church tax in a similar way - much of what was Alsace-Lorraine (Elsaß-Lothringen). To be clear: (almost) no o
33.
by MandieD 7mo ago
Humans and dogs: how many dog owners have to store their dog’s food in a bin the dog can’t get into? How many can’t leave more than one meal’s worth of food out at a time? Until the past century or so, “eat up the available food while avail
34.
by MandieD 8mo ago
Not to sound like a broken record, but they're also prescription-required in Germany, as are the accessories. My otherwise very by-the-books husband ended up buying grey-market masks in order to be able to try several styles before fin
35.
by MandieD 8mo ago
In Germany, I cannot buy ibuprofen, paracetamol (acetamenophen), or ASS (Aspirin - TM Bayer) at a grocery or "Drogerie" (place to buy cosmetics and other health & beauty items). I have to go to a pharmacy and ask for it at the
36.
by MandieD 8mo ago
At the very least, live like a prudent low-middle-income earner in your country, not like a Bay Area SWE. Get used to using public transit, if it’s at all an option for you. Going down to being a one-car household instead of two saves us at
37.
by MandieD 8mo ago
Undocumented immigrants often have legally-resident and/or citizen family members who are eligible for Medicaid. But yes, it's disgusting that ICE has access to that data via Palantir, or that this data is being used for anything
38.
by MandieD 8mo ago
Let’s say you’re a person of questionable immigration status who has lived in the US for a couple of decades, achieved some modest success - your own home, mostly paid for, a car or two, maybe even a small business. Sure, just walk away for
39.
by MandieD 8mo ago
In the winter in northern Europe or the colder parts of North America, as part of a radiator system? Kind of works! Any other time and place? The power to run it, plus the power to cool it.
40.
by MandieD 8mo ago
Seeing fewer rooftop solar installations when I visit my home state (Texas) than I see in the one I live in (Bavaria) is a trip. Yes, I know that electricity is far cheaper there than here, but as much electricity as air conditioning eats,
41.
by MandieD 9mo ago
The one that I'm at a complete loss for is Uruguay - it is one of the wealthiest countries per capita in South America as well as the least corrupt and most egalitarian... not exactly a huge source of desperate immigrants. Did their go
42.
by MandieD 9mo ago
Yes, life in Bavaria, working in manufacturing, is nothing but miserable oppression. Horrible 35 hour work week. Wretched 6 weeks of vacation. Ruinously expensive 500 EUR/month daycare. The prospect of having to pay a couple hundred Eu
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by MandieD 9mo ago
Wow, that would take care of our usual home office base load (Germany, not using electricity for heating)
44.
by MandieD 9mo ago
I'd never thought of it that way, but you're absolutely right, particularly in Germany, by a factor of at least 3-4. 50-55" mid-range TV: plenty under 400 EUR. Double-glazed window about that size, custom-made (because just a
45.
by MandieD 9mo ago
Yep, loving my gesetzliche Krankenkasse (public health insurance, which is more like "highly regulated insurance"), even more than I liked the Privatkrankenversicherung (less highly regulated, but still with better guardrails
46.
by MandieD 10mo ago
What if Anthropic offered a platform for such sharing while you were still around, with a percentage of the collected API fees going to you? “License your chat history” - most of us wouldn’t have any takers, but someone like you might. (And
47.
by MandieD 10mo ago
If I never hear the theme to "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" again, it will be too soon. We don't let our kid watch TV at home, barely watching it ourselves, and have no streaming subscriptions. My American niece, on the other hand,
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ChatGPT hyped up violent stalker who believed he was "God's assassin," DOJ says(arstechnica.com)
4 points by MandieD 10mo ago|0 comments
49.
by MandieD 10mo ago
They still had Software Test Engineers (a different role from SDET) in 2001, when I was an STE intern in MacBU (Macintosh Business Unit), which at that point, was basically a compliance department in the wake of the US DoJ's massive an
50.
by MandieD 10mo ago
But those social security taxes (theoretically) cover your future pension, and at least in Germany, health insurance also covers your sick days, which is why only true workaholics show up to infect the office.
51.
by MandieD 10mo ago
My scheduled C-section (which my insurer likely didn't question me about because I was 40 and have other health issues) plus three-night hospital stay was about 5,000 EUR, all paid by my health insurance (private, so I know that 5,000
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by MandieD 10mo ago
"Once there's real traffic and a team I'll tighten things up." As someone who has been in this industry for a quarter century: no, you won't. At least, not before something even worse happens that finally forces you
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by MandieD 10mo ago
And underfunded to the point of delaying things despite fees for comparable activities being far more expensive on the US side than in Germany, and even before this year.
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by MandieD 10mo ago
Everyone back home in Texas wondered why my husband (a German) wouldn’t “let” us move to the US. He was open to doing at least a few years over there; he’d enjoyed his exchange during university back in the 90s. I was the one who said no, h
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by MandieD 10mo ago
It's helping teach my five year old patience and not to flail around hitting the keyboard when something doesn't happen immediately. He only gets to watch videos and playlists I search out for him, and only when I'm in the ro
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by MandieD 10mo ago
Gutenberg was active around 1450, not 1550, and that’s important, because Luther nailing those 95 “theses” (complaints) to the door of that church in 1517 wouldn’t have had nearly the impact it did had there not already been a network of mo
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by MandieD 11mo ago
I used to joke that I made some of the most expensive socks in the world: 20 hours per pair, and I’m a run-of-the-mill IT ops person in western Europe - do the math. I have decided to up the cost by taking up fleece processing and hand spin
58.
by MandieD 11mo ago
Hey, any of y'all want one in hand-spun, natural-colored wool (as in, as it was shorn from the sheep) yarn?
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by MandieD 11mo ago
Possibly because unfortunately, about 20% of German voters voted for the AfD in the last federal election, which likes to put some Nazi-sounding stuff on its campaign posters ("Kinder statt Inder," for example). However, your anal
60.
by MandieD 11mo ago
Good Lord. My scheduled Cesarian section delivery in 2020 was a hair over 5,000 EUR, including three nights in a double room (extremely short in Germany for that procedure, but our house was closer to the maternity ward than the main public

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