Notices by Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK (vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de)

@ArneBab @LeanderZeichnet

interestingly the German car detailers (Detailing School) are still fairly decent - but I suspect its because the lad in Brandenburg has at least one professional detailing garage as his main business and works with some lads of Turkish ancestry in Hesse who sell the products, the other in Switzerland genuinely does it just as a hobby (and cars will of course get dirty anyway, whether or not Youtube existed 😁 )

@dtauvdiodr @josh @bmacDonald94

Doggo / cat dryer uses less power, is quieter (to avoid scaring the pet) and is less harsh on the clearcoat..

@ArneBab @LeanderZeichnet

I watch YouTube for stuff like car maintenance videos, but increasingly I find I have to watch about 3-5 of them (in both English and German) to get a decent amount of info, often fast-forward the self promotion stuff, remember that if its interior items everything is swapped round between left and right and *still* read my copy of "So wird's Gemacht" (Haynes in UK stopped making paper workshop manuals for my car)

@TheVampireFishQueen @dalias @mhoye @interpipes for years I was a moderator on one of the worlds most popular rave, lifestyle and drugs harm reduction advice forums - but from 2010s onwards it was widely blocked to <18 users by all UK ISPs and mobile providers on "family friendly" settings - we lost about 80% of traffic from young people (and a whole new generation is getting the same health problems from ketamine use that Gen X/Y did, as they didn't see the harm reduction info)

The #meme (nicked from Meta) is amusing especially to those of us who were teens in the 80s, but its also easy to forget folk were still divided (out of my high school classmates they seemed to be either full-on anarchists/lefties or Thatcho bootlickers if not actual fash) #80s #GenX #popculture

@wyliecoyoteuk @lyndamerry484 @bobjmsn also there were not so many black/brown people in the UK then, and far fewer in positions of power or making a good living (including celebrities, sportspeople), and there are many who are *not* happy about that (even those who claim to be "Left"). As a brown person myself I don't think its /yet/ as bad as 1970s, but I'm increasingly wary about where I go and who I associate with...

@wyliecoyoteuk @lyndamerry484 @bobjmsn I also study WW 2 military history, and there was a *significant* propaganda effort made by the UK to combat domestic support for fascism, particularly from the middle/upper classes.

Putin doesn't have the resources to directly invade or bomb UK, but he could easily stir up stochastic terrorism / infrastructure sabotage and other chaos that makes life very /inconvenient/, and too many might be prepared to cave in just to get things "back to normal...

@onepict @jens @SilverEagle

The Fediverse is the first place in 30+ years I've found many folk *both* into FOSS and /also/ actively into left wing politics.

Previous to that most FOSS users I encountered were perfectly happy with capitalism / neoliberalism, particularly the "petit bourgeoisie" kind, and only seemed to dislike GAFAM as they are better at capitalism (often just by giving users slightly more of what they actually want)

@mekkaokereke even at our sixth form centre (this is a college like the two senior years of high school) there are small bollards around the pedestrian crossing. Its not even as much against a malicious attack (although it would have been considered on the risk assessment) the driving age here is 17 so there's also a risk a nervous/new driver gets confused and may try to turn into the school across the pedestrian crossing rather than the correct pick up/drop off point..

@mekkaokereke @PJ_Evans some older folk still have the allocation (but it tends to get removed when they turn 70) - if you are younger you can drive larger vehicles but need to do an extra theory and road test - its not cheap so many people get it funded by their work or as a way of getting work as a driver and and study for the equivalent of the CDL (including another bit which includes refresher training every 5 years)

https://www.gov.uk/driver-cpc-training

@mekkaokereke @PJ_Evans Europe removed a driving licence allocation that allowed people to drive anything >3 500kg but <7 500 kg (which included various large vans, trucks and small buses) a few years after the Cold War ended - it was a hangover from a time when it was thought folk might have to drive large vehicles for defence purposes at short notice.

Some of the largest SUVs available in UK would be technically illegal to drive fully loaded!

https://www.carwow.co.uk/news/6387/heavy-cars-could-require-hgv-licences

@toychicken its the max noise it makes when the council workers are dragging the bin to the wagon, slamming the lid down etc. As bins are often collected very early in the morning, the Councils want to know how much noise this ads to the general outdoor noise of the area (there's both local legislation and EU directives to try and limit outdoor noise).

@aei what country is this in? I've never been asked for a mobile phone number in a physical shop here in UK (its possible that not only does GDPR discourage it, its pointless anyway)

@Urban_Hermit @aei we have loyalty cards here but you just apply for them online and its a physical card you can scan with your groceries (the grocery store asks for your physical address to send the card which is fair enough, but not your phone number)

Beware: #Romance #scammers now appear to be targeting the older #LGBT community as well as the middle aged cis men they normally go for.

I don't know what sort of social networks/media older lesbian women in Scotland hang out on, but even though Scotland is progressive many of that generation aren't openly out and proud on mainstream social networks, so there may have been an element of #cyberstalking even in a supposed "safe place" to target her..

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdr0g1em52go

@skinnylatte my family do a mixture of both, but exchanging gift vouchers for online shopping are increasingly common - as many of us have specialist hobbies and even if asked what you want for a gift its often hard to describe it or something relatively obscure (in my case I often buy electronic components and modules which are unusual for most people not into this hobby)

@brennen @alex like getting a dog to guard your house, starting off with one (1) Jack Russell but end up having to get more and larger doggos to deal with multiple threats, you have to feed and look after all of them and *still* have to bark and awoo yourself 🐶

@simon_brooke @essjayjay there have been people angry at the "permissive society" since before I was born (1972) and even more so with its further developments in 1980s/90s (when it became more accepted for both cishet and LGBT+ folk to openly discuss sex and sexuality), and have been fighting the culture war to try and roll back these social changes all those decades..

@yassie_j I don't even understand why the USA politicians need those sorts of funds. This year I got plenty enough of flyers from every political party in my area (from the Greens to Reform, as well as Labour and the Tories) and they all seemed to have no problem with their various campaigns, most of which (at least at local level) didn't have massive budgets..

My friend @Dicksondavid in #Nigeria #Africa sent this picture of the sumo (not a Japanese wrestler, but a #water #pump). Alas, it has been vandalised and the pump head/tap #stolen, so the folk in the town need to raise funds to repair it and they are having to fetch water outside, from other sources..

#infrastructure