This is the house I grew up in for the first 18 years of my life, now a total showgirl. The circle on the gate just about marks where I crashed into it the last time I drove a manual car...

I decided I was completely against the death penalty maybe 10 years ago or more. I guess my compassion matured. If people deliberately do such horrific shit, then there must be something wrong with them from birth and/or how they were raised, so it's not 100% their fault. Anyway, especially in Western countries like the US, it's cheaper to imprison for life instead of wasting money on all the extra costs associated with the seriousness of a capital trial and death row.

If someone starts a war or hostage situation and it's easier/beneficial to kill them rather than capturing, then that's sort of an exception.

The good news is that the Norwegian police managed to stop the book to be totally burnt.

The good news is if nobody is killed because of it.

Took my girlfriend along on a revisit to my favourite post-apocalyptic landscape, Mount Tarawera.

I believe there is a smarter life than ours. But I also believe that they cannot travel faster than the speed of light. So spending hundreds or thousands of years traveling would not be cool. Even if the person travels 20 years at the speed of light, in return to their civilization may no longer exist.

That last point is a good one. This article suggests there are 50 million potentially habitable planets in our galaxy. But another advanced civilisation is probably at least as unlikely as winning a lottery, so maybe there's only one other in the whole galaxy. We're not on the edge of the galaxy, so they might be 50,000 light years away. Thanks to time dilation, they wouldn't necessarily spend that long travelling. Eg. if they travel at 99.9% the speed of light, it'd take them more like 1,600 years from their point of view. But in the meantime, their home planet does age 50,000 years so it'd be a really weird investment to make. More likely they've colonised planets within 50 light years and it just gets exponentially more difficult to go further from there.

Meanwhile, most of their species have transferred their consciousness to a virtual simulation of eternal digital pleasure.

Heh @ me being the first to vote for slightly. The environment gets gradually worse on average, while the average person/family finds it harder just to live (larger percent of income spent on rent). The vastness and speed of the internet and many other things make the world better for me personally, but sure, a lot of people immerse themselves in some really dumb shit.

If you are not adapting then less and less women will find you attractive/interesting because they expect their men to act a certain way. Basically, if you are not mainstream, then it will take a significant longer time to find people you enjoy spending time with.

Sounds like me. I have a versatile personality and can get along with most people, but I just enjoy what I enjoy and have no desire to pretend. Being myself is great as it seems to naturally repel fake or shallow people. By some miracle I got hooked on the social hobby of going to see live music, so I mostly cross paths with people who have good taste. Still, I had to go out at least once a week for 10 years straight to collide with my soulmate/girlfriend. But I was quite happy being single rather than spending time with women I can't relate to. If most women are as annoying as skunk3 says, I couldn't care less. We may be on the wrong side of whatever the modern social equivalent of natural selection is, but it's just a popularity contest or group delusion. We can focus on our own life and what we're about.

2002 Honda Civic, such a reliable machine. I kinda wish it was red, maybe one day...

Unsurprising. Newer or more complex isn't always better.

as bloopy said, a hotspot shield browser extension might help

I was suggesting their desktop software on the previous page. Obviously the browser extension wouldn't work for things outside the browser such as Steam/WA.