I have the feeling that over the past years, we've started seeing more TV shows that are either sympathetic towards Hell and Satan, or somewhat negative towards Heaven. I just watched "Hazbin Hotel" today, which isn't too theological, but clearly is fairly negative towards Heaven.

In "The Good Place",

"Little Demon" has Satan as a main character, and he's more or less sympathetic.

"Ugly Americans" shows demons and Satan as relatively normal, and Hell doesn't seem too bad.

I only watched the first episode of "Lucifer", but it's also more or less sympathetic towards Lucifer.

I have a few more examples (Billy Joel: "I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints", or the very funny German "Ein Münchner im Himmel", where Heaven is portrayed as fantastically boring), but I won't list them all here.

My question is: how modern is this? I've heard of "Paradise Lost", and I've heard that it portrays Satan somewhat sympathetically, though I found it very difficult to read. And the idea of the snake in the Garden of Eden as having given free will and wisdom to humanity can't be that modern of a thought, even if it would have been heretical.

Is this something that's happened in the last 10 years? Are there older examples? Does anyone have a good source I could read?

Note that I don't claim Satan is always portrayed positively, or Heaven always negatively :).

I already have a Venu Sq, and I'm looking to upgrade. My wife has a Fenix 7S and loves it, and it has some features I would like.

The Fenix 8 is now obviously out, but it's a) very expensive, b) bigger than a 7S (I have very small wrists), and c) has a microphone. I try to avoid devices with microphones, since I don't completely trust that they can't be somehow used for evil. And although I do scuba dive, I already have a Mares dive computer, so the dive functionality on the Garmin isn't quite as appealing.

I get a good deal on Garmin devices through work, and people are selling lots of used Fenix 7 watches, so I'm interested in using this as a chance to get one. But I'm a bit afraid that they'll stop getting any updates or anything soon.

How long do we think the 7 will keep getting updates? Or what's my best path forward here?

I just played a round of Machi Koro with a friend, and at a certain point, he was far behind. He didn't have many buildings that grant money on other people's turns, and the rest of us had also purchased a lot more red buildings than him.

I'm looking for ideas of house rules that make help provide some sort of catch-up mechanism if you're far behind. Do any of you have any tips?

If it matters, we usually play with the Harbor expansion, but are willing to play without it as well. We're already considering it because of how extreme the Tuna Boat can be.

Hi all! I have a Venue Sq, and I've been thinking of purchasing a new watch for quite some time. I've been mostly leaning towards a Fenix 7, since it has some more sport features, and has no microphone (the Venue 3 has a microphone, which I wouldn't use and don't really trust).

However, the Fenix 7 was announced in January 2022, and I'm wondering if there will be either Fenix 8 or at least a discount on the Fenix 7 sometime soon, so I'm hesitant to buy one now.

When are new watches usually announced? Any thoughts on whether it makes sense to wait?

I do not know if it's true for all countries, but at least the USA and the UK require your passport to be signed to be valid. And I know that when I fly, I sometimes get checked if it is signed.

Is there a practical reason for this? Does the signature get checked against anything? Or is it simply that the law says a passport must be signed to be valid, so there you go?

I googled around a bit, but only found resources on how to sign, but not why it needs to be signed.

Thank you Internet hive mind!

As far as I am aware, grazing animals like cows or sheep poop in the same meadows where they eat grass, but presumably don't have any problems eating the grass and pooping in the same space. But if humans would eat vegetables that they had pooped on, my understanding is that we would get sick.

Why? Am I incorrect that grazing animals poop where they eat? Are their stomachs more resistant to whatever makes it dangerous?

Thank you!

I was reading this article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, and saw this quote:

Diesen Freitag verabschiedet der Bundestag ein neues Staatsangehörigkeitsrecht, es soll die Einbürgerung erleichtern. Statt nach acht Jahren können Einwanderer künftig nach fünf Jahren einbürgern, bei besonderen Leistungen schon nach drei. Auch der Doppelpass wird erlaubt, nach jahrzehntelangem Kampf. Wer dauerhaft bleibt und sich anstrengt, soll das volle Wahlrecht bekommen und dazugehören. Das ist der Plan.

I've already passed my Citizenship Exam and am ready to go!

If any of you are at the Chaos Communication Congress, we're having an impromptu Emacs and Org mode meetup today at 16:00 (in 40 minutes).

Maybe see some of you there :)

Hello folks! I'm using straight.el for my package management, but one thing that I'm missing is some sort of easy way to see what's changed, when I do a straight-pull-all. Ideally, I could see which packages that I explicitly have a dependency on have changed, and see either a changelog or a list of commits.

Does anyone know if something like this already exists?

Thanks!

Please forgive me...I'm over 30 and was never a clubber.

In a number of songs, women "get low". In "Low":

Shawty got low low low low low low low low

In "Belly Dancer", they drop down and touch the ground;

Hey, ladies drop it down, just want to see you touch the ground

...

You ain't even gotta drop down if you want to

What activity is being described here? What are these women doing?

Hallo alle! Ich versuche mein Deutsch zu verbessern, und obwohl ich mehr oder weniger fließend sprechen kann (zwischen C1/C2), ich lese selten Bücher auf Deutsch. Also ich suche nach Empfehlungen! Und nachdem ich ein paar...weniger tolle Übersetzungen gelesen habe, würde ich gern ein paar Bücher lesen, die von einem deutschsprachigen Autor auf Deutsch geschrieben wurden.

Ich lese hauptsächlich Science Fiction und Fantasie, aber ich mag auch andere gute Geschichten. Leider habe ich keine Erfolg mit Markus Heitz gehabt, also lieber nichts von ihm.

Ein paar englische Bücher, die ich gut gefunden habe:

• Alles von Alastair Reynolds
• Alles von Brandon Sanderson
• N.K. Jemisin
• Octavia Butler

Ich habe nicht zu viele deutschsprachige Bücher für Erwachsener gelesen, aber ein paar die ich genossen habe sind:

• Die Stadt der träumenden Bücher
• Der Schwarm

Könnte jemand hier mir etwas empfehlen?