it’s due to Farage’s connection to the right-wing organiser Steve Bannon, who we now know was incredibly close to Epstein in his final years.

It turns out the law is in a body of statutes covering health and public safety. So my 1st thought is: that’s bizarre… an ugly plant is a health issue?

It’s been so long since many in the western world understood this but: yes. When those laws were written, overgrown lots in populated areas were a health issue. Sometimes they still are: Philadelphia specifically targets overgrown vacant lots because they provide an attractive area for rats to live, breed, and infest a neighborhood. The same thing happens with mice - and where mice go, snakes follow.

“But mice, rats and snakes are all around us!” Well, yes, they are. But we keep their numbers in check, and even the most eco-minded can change their opinions when it directly affects them: I certainly did when the two places on either side of me got foreclosed after 2008, and there was eventually an infestation of snakes, and then the snakes eventually started coming into my yard and my shed and my grill. Turns out what, while I’m okay with domesticated snakes, I’m kinda phobic about encountering them unexpectedly - like when I open the grill cover to start a barbeque and a family of snakes hiss at me.

Anyway, the problem is that, as neighborhoods with active infestations have faded into the past, people have started interpreting those laws as being more about beauty than health.

I’d start by making your overgrown area look more intentional. Keep the walkways well cleared. Put in some garden decorations and a birdbath. Maybe some bird houses, or decorative tree-hanging things. A chair and a small table on the porch or somewhere. Maybe trim bushes or small dense ground plants into nice even sides, that sort of thing - a bunch of small stuff that says “this area is intentionally wild, but it’s also being regularly tended to and is under control”.

It’s going to be a bad flu year. Cases are much higher than normal in the UK, Canada, Japan and China and they’re rising at a steep rate in the US. If you haven’t already, get vaccinated. It may not prevent you from getting the flu, but should reduce the severity. And even if you’re okay with getting sick, spreading the germs enable it to reach the very young, the elderly, and the immunocompromised.

Thank you for your comment, and welcome to my blocklist.

Tribeca is a neighborhood in Manhattan. Everything in Manhattan is more expensive, simply because of the cost to rent the store. [Not denying there are other factors, but that will be a big one, simply because Manhattan cannot grow outward any more.]

Rochester is a large city in the north of New York State, on the banks of Lake Ontario. It has plenty of room to grow out - and it’s surrounded by rural counties. Eggs are cheaper there simply because there are more chickens and less humans than there are near Manhattan.

Again, there are unfortunately other factors in play. But surely they could’ve used a better example than the price of eggs in two such disparate parts of the state?

I’m still waiting for his healthcare plan. And infrastructure week. And –

To voluntarily “opt out”, you’ll have to click through five different pages of confusing legalese, on each page looking for the light grey link on a white background, only to find the final link dead. You’ll have to fight Google’s AI in order to get a working link. Eventually, you’ll find the page.

The final link to preserve your privacy will have five double and one single negative; the “confirm your decision” button will have three more that appear to contradict the earlier question; and the “are you really really sure” message will contradict both.

The final message will say “Thank you for your submission. Please allow six to eight weeks for your request to be processed. While we will comply with your request, we cannot guarantee that our fifty partners will also abide by your wishes. Have a nice day!”

Go to versus. On the left side, scroll down to 3.5mm headphone jack and change the selector to On. Then choose whatever are the other most important criteria for you.

I gotta say, I never got the Jersey Mike’s hype. Their stuff wasn’t all that good even before they were bought out.

Lock screen ads are coming to all smartphones. Because you know that, once they get one group to accept it, they’re going to shove it onto everyone.

The passes fundamentally disrupt this industry-standard model

Funny how they didn’t care about how streaming in general disrupted cable. Or how cable disrupted broadcast. Or how tv disrupted radio …

Mfw knife dies in the middle of dinner prep :/

Good!

If you use a different carrier, it probably shares your data with them as well.

It’s not going to be $4. It’ll be $4 in Google credit, and you have to use it within 60 days, but they won’t tell you it’s been added to your account so very few people will know about it …

I wish I spoke more languages.

I was dropping the temperature in my hot water heater, and they said it should be over 120°F to avoid accidentally incubating Legionnaires. I also found out that Legionnaires has a 10% death rate.

It’s an Advent Calendar. You open one door every day during Advent, in the run up to Christmas.

The mechanism would first be applied to Germany, Poland and Czechia, and could later be extended to Canada and the United States.

When you die, can I inherit your tinkering boxes? Please? :)