Over here fireworks were only allowed on New year's eve, mainly because of safety reasons. Every year there are people who get maimed for life, lose eyes, fingers or sometimes even die. Of course you can celebrate whatever you want throughout the year, you just can't use fireworks.

Oh man, even more than one holiday... Are fireworks allowed all through the year over there?

Yeah, it's terrible for animals and traumatised people. We have a dog and while it's been okay this year so far, we usually can hardly take her for a walk at night as we get closer to the end of the year. And we have a residency for people who've been granted asylum nearby with a lot of people who've fled the war in Ukraine. I can't imagine what it must be like for them :(

Fireworks.

I live in the Netherlands and New year's eve is hell on earth here. Even the weeks leading up to it are bad. This year is the first year that consumer fireworks are banned, but of course there are already people going to Germany, Belgium or Poland to buy them anyway. And it's not just the pretty stuff, it's more like bombs. It would be so much better if it just disappeared.

Well, it was the number one news story here in the Netherlands. The government also presented a tech strategy today, and so the responsible secretary gave an interview in an important news show tonight. They first showed a report about the protest and then immediately asked her for a response.

Will it change things? Maybe not directly, but at least the resistance is the topic of conversation now.

Oh yes, I did a lot of rosebud cheats in The Sims back in the day. But it's not like you're taking anyone else's money, so who cares? Then, after building homes got boring, I challenged myself to try the game without money cheats and it was like a whole new game.

Right now I'm playing Ori and I wouldn't even know how to begin to find cheats in that game.

I don't know, the terms and conditions say that after a year of closing your account, they may give your email address to someone else. That sounds like a privacy disaster waiting to happen.

The article addresses this:

One might suspect that materials, distribution, or other book-specific costs had risen over the intervening decades. But how then to explain that the mass-market paperback’s older sibling — the hidebound hardcover — hasn’t seen an inflation nearly so dramatic? [...] In 1939, you could buy ten mass-market paperbacks for the cost of a single new hardback. In 2024, you could barely buy two. Which means that under the leadership of the Big Five and their equally hegemonic national retail partners, the flagship product favored by elite-facing bookstores in wealthy enclaves got cheaper, and the format with the proven mass potential got many times more expensive.

Hardcovers use more paper than paperbacks. They're usually larger and the cover contains cardboard, which is several layers of paper. Even if the risen cost of paper plays a role, the difference in inflation between the two formats should not have been this big.

False Bearing — Ten Minute Games Day 11 🟩 🟩 🟩 https://tenminute.games/s/false-bearing

I thought I would suck at this, but apparently not.

Susan, who has ulcerative colitis, said: "On a morning you could have toast, a hard boiled egg, or something in sauce. There was no bacon. For breakfast there was mozzarella and sliced tomatoes. There was no hot bacon or sausage.

Can I eat bacon with ulcerative colitis?

Spoiler: no, you should not eat bacon when you have ulcerative colitis. She was probably better off health wise on that vacation than she was at home.

I'm playing Ori and the Will of the Wisps. It has a 90% discount in Steam right now and it's been on my wishlist for a long time.

It's a beautiful game to look at. It runs great on the Steam Deck. The only issue I had was that it's quite dark for the OLED screen, but I've turned up the brightness and now it's good.

I find it quite challenging to play though, but that's part of the fun. If you like metroidvania games, I do recommend it, especially at its current price.

Yeah, that's what I think is scummy. You expect it to be cheaper, not more expensive. Good thing you noticed it. And thanks for your post, now I'll make sure I check the prices on those things.