I sometimes wonder what became of them. I like to think they finally bought a second cup so they didn’t have to share anymore.

Putting all patriotism aside, I don’t think there’s any reality in which the US uses its potential to make the world a better place.

The big difference nowadays is that it’s become patently clear that the US government isn’t even trying to make the US a better place.

The truth is that, by any normal definition, Republicans are far right and Democrats are centre right.

If you actually wanted to run a progressive platform, then running as an Independent might be your only choice.

In the UK at least, most Independent candidates run single-issue platforms. Hartlepool famously elected a guy dressed as a monkey as mayor, he ran on a platform of “free bananas for school children”. He did so well as mayor, they elected him two more times.

Another costumed independent, Count Binface (an intergalactic space warrior who wears a dustbin on his head) beat the far-right Britain First party in the London Mayoral election (although sadly didn’t win the actual mayorship).

To be fair, I think we’ve been in the midst of a political crisis for some time.

Although, I agree - I think Andy Burnham winning Makerfield would be the flashpoint for the leadership contest that has been looming for the past few months.

Maybe this is the only way things will settle down.

Next year? Hard to say. If Starmer gets ousted, which looks more and more likely, then that’ll probably mean a cabinet reshuffle. Honestly can’t say I’ve been too impressed by Rachel Reeves’ efforts, but then again I imagine it’s hard to totally insulate the economy from a mad bloke who’s seemingly trying his level best to destabilise the entire world.

If Burnham or Miliband do get elected, then I imagine we’ll do ok.

Ha, it’s, er, complicated. It kind of follows on from Headmasters, but is set in a world where people don’t know about transformers. Optimus Prime seems to have never existed - there’s a robot that looks exactly like Optimus Prime, but isn’t, and nobody even bats an eyelid.

The Deceptions/Destrons are led by two powerful human sorcerers following commands from a weird glowing alien blob with tentacles called Devil Z.

The Cybertronians spend most of their time disguised as humans or monsters, and it’s the actual humans that become the heads for giant robots.

Masterforce really feels like it’s its own thing. I just think of it as an alternative universe, like TFA. Trying to make it fit in causes too many headaches!

Absolutely! I’m currently working my way through the absolutely bonkers Transformers Super-God Masterforce for the first time right now.

A lot of the stuff from the 80s is pretty hit-and-miss on revisiting, but some of it is still gold. In general, anything produced since 2000 is much higher quality.

I like the scope for world-building and story-telling possible in animation that isn’t really feasible otherwise.

I like animation for both kids and adults. I like western stuff and animé. But mostly I just love the medium - I even collected animation cels!

The PS3 hit, Fat Princess.

Cool fantasy setting, much fighting, clear objectives (princess kidnapping) - perfect LARP stuff.

Plus whoever is the princess gets to be fed cake all day.

FWIW, and I’m only mentioning this because of the phrasing of the question, plastic surgery isn’t named after ‘plastic’ (the noun), but for ‘plastic’ (the adjective). Plastic surgery was used as a term decades before plastic (the noun) was even invented!

But anyway, to answer your question, people tend not to use silicone in implants so much nowadays, preferring saline instead (as another person said). The main reason is that it is much less problematic if there is a rupture.

Leaking silicone is not immediately dangerous, but does need to be removed - which is difficult as it can squidge about under other tissues, causing mischief as it goes. Saline, by comparison, will just get absorbed by the body, usually harmlessly.

You know, this makes total sense.

I was searching online trying to work out what Ireland had done, but a typo explains everything.

People die.

In cases where someone meets an unfortunate grizzly end, like being eaten, there’s an obvious reason. But more often than not, people just stop being alive.

Imagine you have no knowledge of science, how would you explain this? An hour ago, this body could move, could breathe, could do normal things. Now it can’t.

Something has changed. Something is missing. What was once a person is now a thing, a body.

It stands to reason that the missing bit is the key to what makes people human. It’s clearly not a physical thing - the body looks the same - so it must be something intangible.

Tie this to the fact that people are very good at detecting other people around them. We’re especially good at sensing when we’re being watched (in person, not through cameras, obviously). We also find ourselves in situations where we feel like we’re being watched when no one possibly can be watching.

So we have a fundamental element of human-ness as something intangible, and we also have situations where it feels like someone is there when there’s no-one around.

It wouldn’t take a massive leap to associate the two.

Once you have human spirits established as a fact, it’s not such a stretch to imagine other intangible beings are responsible for other unexplainable elements of the world - the weather, crop yields, health, fertility, etc.

Oh, yeah - I 100% agree. I was just trying to convey how ludicrously easy it is to grow your own. There’s no way you should base an entire survival strategy on just potatoes, despite how plausible Matt Damon made it seem.

Get yourself a patch of soil, even if it’s just a couple of growbags, and grow potatoes. They’re like a magical self-replicating food. When you harvest them, keep some aside to plant later. One potato produces 5-10 potatoes easily, scale up for infinite potato glitch.

If you live in the UK or EU, you can even literally just plant ones you buy in the vegetable section in the supermarket. In the US, they often treat these with a growth inhibitor to extend the shelf-life, they won’t grow as easily.

Seed potatoes are guaranteed to produce healthy plants, but cost slightly more. You can buy them from garden centres or online.

Both produced in South Korea? 🤷‍♂️

Maybe another thing worth considering is that rectangular flags are just bigger and easier to see than other shapes.

Also, maybe it just became “normal” to have square flags. The Romans conquered most of Europe, and they flew rectangular banners from their standards. Following the fall of the empire, the different parts of Europe were at war with each other for one and a half thousand years. I suspect all having had this original template, then the subsequent fighting / conquering / reconquering / reconquering, probably lead to this shape becoming normalised.

Not just mass-manufacturing - because of how they work, the rectangle is the default shape of cloth produced on any loom.

I see four white rectangles there. If that’s not proof of snow, then I don’t know what to tell you.

I mean, the red robes and glowing orb do have a certain appeal.

The world (or at least the Anglosphere) has always called the # symbol the hash sign. I have no idea why Americans called it the pound sign - most places call the £ symbol the pound sign.

The term “hashtag” was not invented by an American. For the rest of us this makes sense - it’s a tag denoted by a hash sign - but I can see how it seemingly came out of nowhere if you used different words.

This hits the nail in the head.

I have a friend who grew up in the USSR. From what she’s told me, the social pressure around pulling your weight can’t be overstated.

For example, her school uniform had a scarf, and the punishment for most offences (being late, not doing homework etc) was to have your scarf taken away for a day or two. Instead of being trapped in detention away from everyone after school, you had to spend the day publicly marked out as someone who’s let the side down. You’d spend the day subjected to disapproving looks, and then when you got home have to explain to your parents why you had your scarf taken away.