I work in the finance industry and it's similar. We have to be certain we're talking to the right person as fraud is rampant. This is ridiculous.

I agree in principle, but that's not what's happening in the real world.

My husband has ME/CFS. It's a life-destroying disease, even though it doesn't usually kill you. There's no treatment, no cure, and no idea about the underlying cause, after many decades of research.

It's heartbreaking to read messages from people who caught it as a teen, seen all their schoolfriend grow up, experience life, find love etc, all while the sufferer is in pain all day, no hope of improving, relying heavily on what family they have who are willing to support.

This is by no means ideal, but neither is decades of suffering. I err on the side of reducing the constant pain.

In the not too distant past, my best friend found out her husband had an affair with a mid-teenager. He was careful not to break the consent age, but the whole thing is Yuk all round.

I called him a Paedophile. She argued he's not. Hebephile is the word - its still effing disgusting to have middle aged men training their sexual interests on people too young to be trusted to drink, to vote, etc.

Plus people commuting less = less pollution and less congestion.

Good for people, good for the planet, bad for profit for some.

As the parent to a 5 year old, I feel this sooooo much.

I'm having to change my "just-a-second", as she takes it literally - a second is counted. I now say just-a-minute. Frozen got it bang on when Anna says "just give us a minute " and you can hear Olaf quietly start counting to 60.

This is it.

I've had an awful experience recently with an ex-friend, caught having an "affair" with his 16yr old employee. He's mid 40s. Turns out, the only illegal part is that there's pictures. He can fuck girls still at school legally, but he can't send her or request any pictures. It's insane.

Another layer is that the age of consent rises 18, but ONLY if you're in a school, healthcare, care-taking, Religion or sports club setting. According to the law, being her Boss doesn't mean he's in a Position of Trust or a Position of Authority over her. Yet, he plainly is.

I've done martial arts for nearly 30 years now. Being female, I'm happy to fight whoever is in the class that day, I can't be picky about gender and it makes me a better fighter.

I can tell you that women are by far the more devious fighters. Men rely on strength/size and think that will see them through. Women can't, so we get clever, get dirty, use speed, agility, anything we can to our advantage. Fighting a man is actually easier in my experience, but boy they get butthurt when they don't win.

I hate to say it, but while hopeful, it's unlikely.

I've been around the CFS/ME community since my husband got it 6 years ago. There a small handful of people who have recovered, but generally they've been "misdiagnosed" with CFS and then correctly diagnosed/treated. The majority live with it for the rest of their lives. It's also why the life expectancy is only 50 - many simply cannot live with that level of pain/suffering day in, day out without any real hope of improvement/relief. Its a dreadful illness.

My husband has ME/CFS, like the Physics Girl. It's an absolutely devastating illness. He was a very active 35 when he was told there's no cure, not even a treatment, and that pain/fatigue was his life now for the rest of his days.

We've been around this long enough to see promising drug/cure/treatment/diagnostic tests come and disappear, month after month, year after year. The influx of funding/awareness linked to Long Covid is incredibly welcome, but many instances are repeats of previous ME/CFS research, so it holds up previous findings but doesnt drive anything forward. There's not been any real progress in the last 2 years, and the funding/focus is waning. I may be jaded, but hopes are low. I also sincerely hope I'm wrong.

Oooh, that's fascinating

Makes you wonder why the staff unionised in the first place. Sounds like they weren't being valued from the offset.

I've edited all my posts to read

"Comment Removed - leaving Reddit due to API changes"

Deleting the account leaves up the content. Doing it this way is a little time consuming but it'll get the point across better