Look Away

He answers: I believe that whoever created the concept of soulmates should be taken into the town square and beaten to death. Or you should tell me who they are so I can send them a check for a couple of hundred thousand dollars, because they have done more to facilitate the demise of happy marriages than I could ever aspire to doing.

The concept of a soulmate to me is absolutely bizarre. To suggest that out of eight billion other people in the world, that there's just this one person, and they happen by the way to live within like the same town as you, where they went to the same university as you - what were the odds of that? And that's the only person you could ever have a happy, fulfilling relationship with. That's insane, folks. It's insane. And by the way, it's toxic. Because here's the thing: when you get married, society essentially tells you, this person, they're supposed to be your best friend, best lover, best roommate, best travel companion, best co-parent - that's a hell of a resume, guy. Like, it'd be shocking to find someone who fits all three of those things.

So what happens when you have this concept of a soulmate? And my partner, you know, they're the best co-parent, they're the best roommate, the best travel companion, but you know, they're not the best lover I ever had. Well, they mustn't be your soulmate then. That means that there's somebody out there in the eight billion people, that they would be the perfect one. And that's what the horizon that just forever recedes and keeps people constantly craving the next thing that might check all of the boxes. It's dangerous.

Panel 1: a person coloured in red saying "There are a lot of articles on how to "survive a person with BPD," or "why you should run from a BPD person." So here are a few tips on how to help your friend with BPD, from a person who has BPD and wonderful friends."

Panel 2: The red person saying "Verbal confirmation is very important. It builds trust and heavily decreases a chance of their mental breakdown." "Very" is emphazised.

Panel 3: a graphic of the red person and a colourless person, with the heading "1. Try to state how you feel as much as possible." Three examples of the same situation are given. The first has the colourless person saying "I won't come today." The second shows that what the red person hears is "I won't come today because I'm mad at you. I also have a ton of things that are way better than being around you." The third suggests an alternative, where the colourless person says "I won't come today. We're fine. I'm just too tired, but I'd love to come next time." In response to this, the red person thinks "They're not mad. They still love me."

Panel 4: a graphic of the red person and a colourless person, with the heading "2. Little things matter too." Three examples of the same situation are given. The first has the colourless person saying "My day was okay. Nothing unusual." The second shows that what the red person hears is "My day is none of your business." The third suggests an alternative, where the colourless person says "My day was okay. I walked my dog and went to work." In response to this, the red person thinks "They're comfortable talking to me."

Panel 5: a graphic of the red person and a colourless person, with the heading "3. Your personal space is important. Just... be careful to tell them that none of your personal stuff involves harming them." "Is" is emphasized. Three examples of the same situation are given. The first has the colourless person saying "I don't want to talk about it." The second shows that what the red person hears is "I don't want to talk about it with you." "With you" is emphasized. The third suggests an alternative, where the colourless person says "I don't want to talk about it, but I promise it's not you." In response to this, the red person thinks "They trust me."

Panel 6: "Be understanding. Remember: It might not look like it, but their emotions are intense. They are very real and take over their whole mind and body. They might not let them form sentences, so they won't be able to tell you what upset them until they're calm. Their brain is very sensitive. Just because you didn't mean to hurt them doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt."

Panel 7: "They do not know that you didn't mean to hurt them. Once it happened, in their eyes, you became a "bad" person, so everything they know about you is discarded. A verbal confirmation of your true intentions can help you start to resolve a conflict and regain their trust." The colourless person and the red person are shown hugging after the last sentence.

Panel 8: The red person saying "Everyone is different, so it's best to ask what's the best way to help them, but talking is key."

Mine was buried even deeper, under Devices -> Typing -> How AI has helped you.

If someone genuinely can't read one paragraph of text, but acknowledges the issue is on their end, that's not a problem. If someone isn't willing to read one paragraph of text, that's also normally not a huge deal, but in this context it's the equivalent of walking up to someone, asking a question, visibly getting distracted because the answer was more than ten words long, and then telling the person answering the question that their speaking skills suck.

The point isn't whether a person's writing/speaking skills could use work either. In this case the writing is fine, but even when someone does express themselves poorly, yeah, sometimes people ramble or stutter or forget the right word or otherwise have trouble expressing themselves, the polite thing to do is not call attention to it and do the best you can to create a smooth, mutually enjoyable interaction anyways.

A lot of people have difficulty for whatever reason generalizing the manners they (probably?) use for in-person interactions to online ones, but the underlying principles are still pretty straightforward. Asking a question and refusing to listen to the answer is rude in person, and rude online, because it turns a potentially mutually enjoyable interaction into one that's not enjoyable, in a very predictable way.

Take a moment and ask yourself, a project like this requires a lot of time, money and dedication of resources, why would scientists dedicate that time to something that could just be done by a tree?

The answer is they wouldn't. So that means this claim requires further investigation!

This project is called LIQUID 3, and it's not meant for cities with wide open spaces, it's meant for cities like Belgrade in Serbia. These cities are densely populated and heavily polluted, to the point where pollution actually chokes out current trees and makes creating green spaces difficult.

Liquid 3 was a PhD scientists answer to these problems. The microalgae tank is intended for spaces where you either:

Don't have enough space to plant full trees, or

Don't have enough time to plant trees and wait for them to grow up.

The tank is extremely efficient when you consider the amount of space needed compared to the amount of CO2 turned into oxygen. The tank can operate throughout the winter. And most importantly, it can be quickly set up in areas that desperately need relief from air pollution NOW not in 10 years when trees are done growing. Children currently suffocating on polluted air can't wait for trees to grow, they need to be taken care of now, and Liquid 3 is one of the ways to take care of them. Depending on the species of microalgea used, a number have shown a pretty amazing capacity to pull heavy metals out of the air which is something trees can get choked up by.

The tanks aren't just tanks either! Liquid 3 have solar panels placed on top, they have lighting and mobile phone charging, and they work as public benches. The designers of it want to encourage green spaces where there's room, but where there isn't room or time, Liquid 3 can step in. Realistically, this isn't a replacement for trees. It's replacing boring metal city benches with new, cooler benches that also clean the air (and have at least some heating during the winter).

Not only that, but the microalgea that grows is native to Serbia and all that microalgea has a ton of great uses! It makes for great fertilizer, compost, wastewater treatment, cleaner biofuels and even for helping create new tanks for further air purification. They only require a quick algae divide once a month, and the produced algae can be carted off to where ever it's needed. This makes them effective solutions for areas that can't sustain complex installations.

Let’s play the biggest game of kick the can on the internet.