Did you see the version of Mad Max where they dubbed the Australian voices into American ones, because they felt Americans wouldn't understand the Aussie accent? That made the movie 100x worse.

Are you saying "Whatabout..."?

instead of death

Unless you count birds that abandon their nests, and other animals that flee their homes. Or the heavy metals and other chemicals that are added to the environment. Or the significant increases in particulate matter in the air.

https://earth.org/environmental-impact-of-fireworks/

It makes sense. The big heavy cars are the ones with thicker steel, so they don't rust out as fast.

Did you know that you can edit the title of your post? You should think about it!

When they released that song, Paul was 20, which means he probably wrote it at 19 or 18. Not too creepy.

Language Transfer is much, much better than Duolingo for learning a language.

I am learning Spanish using language transfer after having learned four other languages in more traditional ways. Obviously, immersion is the best way to learn. But if you have to learn any other way, this is the one. Far, far better than Duolingo.

It's made up of MP3s, usually about 10 minutes each. You just listen to them and respond to the instructor.

You can use SoundCloud, or YouTube, or the simple but practical smartphone app. The whole thing is run by one guy, and there is no charge but he asks for donations. I have been paying $10 per month on Patreon for several years now, and consider it well worth it.

You can learn French, Spanish, Italian, German, Greek, Turkish, and Swahili.

My favorite story was of a European union leader who congratulated Vladimir Putin on his landslide victory a day or two before the election even started!

Most that I discovered while living there. I only had two weeks notice about my job, so I didn't even have a chance to learn any language before flying to Japan.

There were simple pressures like being stared at all the time, because I lived in a smaller city that didn't have many foreigners.

Being required to submit my passport to buy travelers checks, even though it was a joint account with my Japanese wife, who didn't have to provide hers.

And ones that were not unique to being foreign, but were still difficult for me to deal with, like 3 hours of commuting every day on one of those packed trains you sometimes see.

At the time, telephoning from Japan to Canada cost about $1.30 per minute, and the internet had not really arrived, so I was somewhat cut off from my family and other personal supports.

There were also difficulties in my marriage and my work situation that certainly didn't help.

I think that some foreigners can be happy living in Japan long-term, but most won't.

I was there for 7 years, and probably should have left a few years earlier. There is a lot to love about the country and its people, but the relentless pressures really do wear you down.

The pictures are an angel and a demon from the Amazon Prime series "Good Omens", if you were wondering.

I think that fine documentary, "The Core", explained how to deal with this issue.