V17's recent activity
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Comment on Novo Nordisk's ad campaign, which aimed to speak ‘without filters’ by declaring obesity a disease, has faced strong criticism on social media and from some scientific societies in ~health
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Comment on Novo Nordisk's ad campaign, which aimed to speak ‘without filters’ by declaring obesity a disease, has faced strong criticism on social media and from some scientific societies in ~health
V17 Link ParentI don't have any links, but from the overall vibe I get on social media including reddit (and also irl, but that's much more of a bubble), I don't see this influence - and I wonder whether that's...I don't have any links, but from the overall vibe I get on social media including reddit (and also irl, but that's much more of a bubble), I don't see this influence - and I wonder whether that's because I don't see it yet or because when compared to the 90s parallel cultural trends that are quite different from each other are much more common. Clear-cut subcultures somewhat dissolved compared to the 90s and big media has a different, much less overwhelming role in dictating cultural trends.
And in men's fashion, at least here in central Europe, in the last 5 years or so we've finally started getting normal or oversized cuts and skinny/slim pants are not 80% of the market in fast fashion stores anymore. From what I see among teenagers on the street, late 90s and early 00s fashion is sadly in and I despise it, but subjectively the girls especially seem to have normal weight much more commonly than we did around that time (I was a teen in the early 00s), but I do not personally know any of them, so no idea what they actually think.
Also it's terribly unfair that while skinny girls were heroin chic, I was frequently told that I look like an advert for a concentration camp. Us men, as always with everything and in all of history, have it so much more difficult.
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Comment on Novo Nordisk's ad campaign, which aimed to speak ‘without filters’ by declaring obesity a disease, has faced strong criticism on social media and from some scientific societies in ~health
V17 Link ParentIs that really happening? I'm not saying this to gaslight you, if anything I want to say that in my opinion it's not necessary to worry too much about that - I too remember those times and I think...we seem to be reverting - with the help of ozempic culture - back to that beauty standard.
Is that really happening? I'm not saying this to gaslight you, if anything I want to say that in my opinion it's not necessary to worry too much about that - I too remember those times and I think we're shifted quite far away, without trends that would move towards that in particular.
For example the difference in what women's body types are commonly sexualized in todays mainstream culture compared to that era is still staggering, and while there was something of a pushback against messaging that was (whether correctly or not) perceived in short as "actually Lizzo is super hot", even in the manosphere-ish circles where it happened I never saw anyone pushing for crazy skinny types from the late 90s. I think a decent and mildly funny barometer for that is that the supposedly curvy women from Sir Mix-a-Lot's Baby Got Back music video would still all be called slim or skinny today, and those were supposed to be the counterexamples to unhealthily skinny women from that era.
And in various ozempic-themed posts or comment chains on reddit and elsewhere on the mainstream internet, whether organic or paid viral marketing, I most often see praise for changes from obese or the upper side of overweight to normal, or even from obese to overweight. Not saying it doesn't happen, but I do not personally remember seeing anybody getting too skinny or using ozempic to get from normal or slightly overweight to skinny, with the exception of some speculation about Holywood actors, who on one hand likely do help set broader trends, but on the other hand are known to do more extreme things than most people with regards to looks.
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Comment on Brazilian comedian sentenced to eight years over discriminatory jokes in ~society
V17 Link ParentYou mean like serving a half of it (or rarely a third) for good behavior? That is the case here, so I subconsciously accounted for that, whether correctly or not.You mean like serving a half of it (or rarely a third) for good behavior? That is the case here, so I subconsciously accounted for that, whether correctly or not.
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Comment on Brazilian comedian sentenced to eight years over discriminatory jokes in ~society
V17 Link ParentThis is the case here in Czechia, but getting 8 damn years in a brazilian prison is insane. I think even Germans who imo go way over the line with restricting speech may not go this far.This very literal interpretation of freedom of speech is a very American thing imo, most European countries have a very specific thing that is not covered by free speech: the inciting of hatred and discrimination.
This is the case here in Czechia, but getting 8 damn years in a brazilian prison is insane. I think even Germans who imo go way over the line with restricting speech may not go this far.
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Comment on NATO commits to spending hike sought by US President Donald Trump, and to mutual defence in ~society
V17 Link ParentAt least for the eastern flank of NATO it is absolutely not too much, and we should have been spending that much since the war in Ukraine started. There seems to be a consensus among analysts that...At least for the eastern flank of NATO it is absolutely not too much, and we should have been spending that much since the war in Ukraine started.
There seems to be a consensus among analysts that Russia testing the unity of EU/NATO within 5 - 10 years is quite likely unless there's a big deterrent. We've been incredibly complacent with our defense because we relied on the US for decades, which has become an unreliable partner, and we're way too behind to take care of ourselves.
There's a real chance of actual war in the near future. And considering that the number for defense spending is more like 3.5% because the 1.5% for "broader defense-related measures" can hide almost anything, it really is not too much, though I don't think there are plans to sustain it forever, it's more that we need to significantly ramp up spending right now to catch up.
Feeding of Europe's military-industrial complex is inevitable in a situation like this, but it's by far the lesser problem and it's not even necessarily a bad thing overall since we do actually need it to grow and be able to produce more. In my opinion forcing us to finally start taking care of our own defense is one of the few good things that Trump did.
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Comment on New law in Sweden that makes it illegal to buy custom adult content will take effect on July 1 – content creators say it makes their profession more dangerous in ~tech
V17 Link ParentI agree with you and what you say does not surprise me at all. But I vew this as something that clearly has to be your responsibility and not the responsibility of the government.I agree with you and what you say does not surprise me at all. But I vew this as something that clearly has to be your responsibility and not the responsibility of the government.
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Comment on New law in Sweden that makes it illegal to buy custom adult content will take effect on July 1 – content creators say it makes their profession more dangerous in ~tech
V17 Link ParentThis seems like a very manipulative thing to say without clarifying what we know and how. As far as I know there's a lot of mostly worthless pseudoscience in this area and then some relatively...- Exemplary
And we know that porn changes the brain.
This seems like a very manipulative thing to say without clarifying what we know and how. As far as I know there's a lot of mostly worthless pseudoscience in this area and then some relatively solid research which showed that people who grow up watching a lot of porn tend to be more visually focused in their sexuality. So there is an effect, but that doesn't seem like a big issue.
Porn use has become prevalent among young people now that personal smartphones are ubiquitous, and it's changing how they have sex: "rough sex" has rapidly risen among college students.
I think the article sucks because the author has an opinion that she spends time rationalizing instead of exploring what's actually happening. I have choked women in the past too... because most of them asked me to. And in none of those cases was it strangulation, as the author calls it, because the point was not necessarily to restrict airflow or bloodflow, the point was a harmless dominance play through putting pressure on the partner, partially through their neck. As far as I know from my friends of both sexes, this is generally what is meant by choking.
Some people get addicted to OnlyFans porn and will spend unhealthy amounts, even their life savings.
We regulate gambling, alcohol, and tobacco. Why not treat porn as the highly addictive substance it is to be regulated?Because there's no evidence that it's nearly as addictive as those other things.
I'm in the perfume hobby, I currently own 10 bottles of perfume, which is certainly more than I need, but most were very cheap (which is an exception), so whatever. But on the internet you can find numerous people who acquired a perfume shopping addiction and lost their savings or most of their income on buying literally hundreds of bottles of perfumes that they'll never use. It's a real issue that some perfume influencers openly talked about (and those at least got some return of their money, being influencers...). Yet I don't think we should regulate the sale of perfumes. It's up to adult people to take responsibility.
Potential too much information incoming:
I've had extremely unpleasant heart issues in the past, daily arrhythmias that took way too much time to get diagnosed, and one of the triggers was sexual activity, so I thought "what the hell, let's try NoFap and see what happens" - normally nofap means just avoiding porn (and it's a weird pseudoscientific culty thing, but whatever), and in my case also all other sexual activity. I did it for eight months, before we found proper heart medication. I also had a separate illness in the past that erased most of my libido pretty much overnight, also for quite some time.Nothing about how I view porn, sex, women or my relationship towards any related things changed after completely abstaining from all porn-like content for 8 months. Nothing changed after I returned to it. And how much I seek it out is proportional to how high my libido is at that moment.
This confirms what in my opinion is in the actually plausible scientific data: porn addiction exists, but is not common, and usually it's a symptom of a bigger issue, like using it as an outlet when dealing with anxiety or past trauma. With healthy people affinity to porn is not addiction but just horniness and doesn't tend to affect their lives negatively. There is no basis for linking it to gambling or drugs.
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Comment on New law in Sweden that makes it illegal to buy custom adult content will take effect on July 1 – content creators say it makes their profession more dangerous in ~tech
V17 LinkI do not understand people who spend a single cent on OnlyFans, and I think it's ultimately not exactly healthy for the content creators either in most cases, but this still seems like...I do not understand people who spend a single cent on OnlyFans, and I think it's ultimately not exactly healthy for the content creators either in most cases, but this still seems like unacceptable government overreach. It's a voluntary interaction between adults that's at the least not hurting anyone else.
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Comment on US bombers strike nuclear sites in Iran in ~society
V17 (edited )Link ParentThat depends on what the regime is in a decade. In Iran specifically there is a possibility of change even without outside interference. Also I don't think diplomatic solutions worked particularly...That depends on what the regime is in a decade. In Iran specifically there is a possibility of change even without outside interference. Also I don't think diplomatic solutions worked particularly well until now and if the current realistic choice is either just let Iran do it or get another decade to do whatever, then the latter is a better choice in a situation where no good choice exists.
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Comment on US bombers strike nuclear sites in Iran in ~society
V17 Link ParentStop no, but turn it back potentially more than a decade yes. The equipment needed, the resources and the scientists needed don't come easily. The scientists seem to be an increasing problem...Is it really possible to stop their nuclear research with just bombs and missiles though?
Stop no, but turn it back potentially more than a decade yes. The equipment needed, the resources and the scientists needed don't come easily. The scientists seem to be an increasing problem because young nuclear physicists often leave Iran immediately after finishing their studies because as soon as they touch any project in Iran, their chances of being employable anywhere in the west go down drastically, and the old scientists are gradually dying out both of natural causes and recently strikes.
I imagine for every secret underground base that's known about, there's another that isn't.
Considering how full of spies Iran is, as demonstrated by recent Mossad strikes preceding the first aerial strikes, that is not necessarily the case.
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Comment on Contra Ptacek's terrible article on AI in ~tech
V17 LinkHonestly the whole discourse is just getting tiresome. I think that Ptacek is closer to the truth than this guy and I find his writing to be slightly less annoying, but, like, whatever. Meh. I do...Honestly the whole discourse is just getting tiresome. I think that Ptacek is closer to the truth than this guy and I find his writing to be slightly less annoying, but, like, whatever. Meh.
I do find it funny that Ptacek is for some not exactly explained reason giving special treatment to artists, which this response accurately describes but then shows that this author has no idea about the state of the art models for image generation either and on top of that makes the usual mistake of "since people with no taste also use image generation, that means the whole tech si bad".
As some one who widely uses both ChatGPT for coding and various image generation models for both fun and some commercial projects here and there, I've gradually shifted towards an attitude of "I get immense help from AI assistance and the more people hate it and refuse it and therefore do not get the same increase in productivity, the better for me". So please keep hating, I promise I won't try to discourage you.
If you do want to try assisted coding, I haven't used agents yet, but reasoning models that can also just google stuff (currently o3) have been immensely useful for me. I'm a junior, I'm on a much lower skill level than the author, so I have to be careful to not use them in a way that would stop me from learning and improving my skills. So although I do sometimes let it do the boring stuff, the prime use for me is them helping me understand stuff I don't. Explaining a math paper in an area I know nothing about for example. Doing code review to catch the most obvious mistakes and bad habits, getting a customized introduction into a new technology, stuff like that. Immensely useful.
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Comment on Israel conducts airstrikes in Iran in ~society
V17 Link ParentYes, that is a possible outcome as well for sure. I just think the potential for instability and complete state breakdown is considerably lower here, also for various other reasons not mentioned...Yes, that is a possible outcome as well for sure. I just think the potential for instability and complete state breakdown is considerably lower here, also for various other reasons not mentioned above - for example there's a relatively large number of Iranian elites living abroad (a lot of academics and obscenely wealthy businessmen), many of whom are waiting to go back if the regime changes.
Well, we'll see how it turns out whether we want it or not.
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Comment on Israel conducts airstrikes in Iran in ~society
V17 Link ParentThe problem is you wrote about it seemingly without worrying what the reality is. Forgive me if I assumed too much, but your WMDs remark most of all seemed to imply that the whole issue may be...Now it seems like I've opened the door to a conversation about the conflict itself and the supposed justification.
The problem is you wrote about it seemingly without worrying what the reality is. Forgive me if I assumed too much, but your WMDs remark most of all seemed to imply that the whole issue may be manufactured, similar with mentioning "experts" in quotation marks etc. Talking about the coverage in this way without putting it in context of what's happening and what's the current situation like is, ironically, a functional and often used propaganda tool, which is why I took issue.
Regarding Iran's reasoning for developing nuclear weapons: no, I understand this. The unfortunate reality is that nukes are a great deterrent and Khamenei is understandably worried about foreign influence due to past experience. Another unfortunate reality is that Iran having this leverage is against the interests of everyone else. We were unable to prevent Kim Jong Un from getting nukes, but we will sure as hell try to prevent Iran at least.
Also I think it's worth noting that this thing was avoidable. Iran could have kept international observers and not replied saying basically "well I'm now going to enrich even harder!".
Regarding whether Iran is building nuclear weapons or not, others have replied to that.
This is a confusing set of standards. On one hand, we're glossing over war crimes, apartheid, and genocide because the perpetrator is a democracy and had protests? If anything, shouldn't they be held to a higher standard because they voted for that?
I am not entirely sure if they should be held to a higher standard or not, but regardless of that I believe that generally, historically, they have been by most of the world except US establishment and the cetrist and right wing part of the population which tends to do the opposite (and maybe a couple other small allies like Czechia).
Also, not that it's a big deal, but where does Saudi Arabia fit in all of this? They're an oppressive, theocratic monarchy that has (famously) caused terror and (less famously) caused destruction in the region. Should they be next?
Saudi Arabia somewhat calming down their foreign policy and establishing new relations with Israel was precisely what Iran tried to disrupt and was possibly one of the reasons for the Oct 7 attacks. I do find some of their internal politics disgusting just like with Iran, but again, Iran would be much less of a problem if it did not fund terrorist groups in other countries and disrupt relations in the region, which Saudi Arabia currently does significantly less.
To be clear, I am not going to sit here and say that Iran's government is good. It stands against nearly every one of my personal values. But I am opposed to changing that via foreign military intervention, just as I would be opposed to China blowing up half the eastern seaboard in an effort to oust the Trump administration. Iran is a sovereign country, its change needs to come from within.
You present this as a black & white situation, but it isn't.
I'm saying this as a citizen of a post-communist country which was fortunate enough to eventually break out on its own because the communist regime was incompetent enough to very slowly crumble, but that was after 40 years, and 35 years later we still have not fully recovered. We also tried to relax and liberalize the regime after 20 years, howeve this attempt was stopped by a full on invasion led by the Soviets. I wish the US interfered more because the dissent always existed but the country was led by a minority of autocrats who imprisoned or murdered opposition. Radio Free Europe and Voice of America, nowadays described by redditors as disgusting propaganda, were one of the few available windows into the outside world, sources of information much less biased than our own.
Iran is not the same, but from everything I've read about it Iranian society seems to be somewhat closer to us than to Iraq or Afghanistan - lots of will to do things differently, a more liberal time still in the collective memory and true hardliners seemingly being a minority, though not a tiny one.
So if a direct interference happens, it may just be taking out the parallel undemocratic religious structures and letting actual democracy happen. It may also turn out much worse, but it's unlikely to end up as Iraq or Afghanistan, because the starting situation is very different and also because as stupid and chaotic as Trump is, the US is unlikely to do the same mistake again - if only because it seems unnecessary in this case. Israeli intelligence is iirc claiming there's only one site for uranium enrichment left and international observers agree with that - the problem is just that Israel does not have the means to get to it since it's possibly up to a couple hundred meters underground. But there doesn't seem to be attempts at justifying a ground invasion, and a large part of the population would not go to voluntarily fight for the regime's defense either.
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Comment on Israel conducts airstrikes in Iran in ~society
V17 Link ParentYou talk about everything but the actual issue. What's on TV in Israeli-aligned countries like the US or in coutries allied to Iran like Qatar, or what's Israel's image and track record regarding...- Exemplary
You talk about everything but the actual issue. What's on TV in Israeli-aligned countries like the US or in coutries allied to Iran like Qatar, or what's Israel's image and track record regarding Gaza is a separate argument that I don't think I touched and I'm not interested in doing so.
Regarding Iran itself:
You even recognize the reasons why Iran would seek to develop nuclear weapons, yet the rest of the comment frames Israel's strikes as defensive. Why? How?
Why would those two things be in conflict? Obviously when a regime I consider to be dangerous or evil is about to get into a much more advantageous geopolitical position, that is a bad thing regardless of reason.
That's not true. Iran serves as the main destabilizing force to America's interests in the region. It's an important distinction to make. If we were to rank the main destabilizing forces in the Middle East, the list would begin and end with the United States. Maybe an honorable mention to the British for the legacy they left behind. The US invaded two separate countries and occupied them for roughly 20 years. The US has armed and backed countless militias, dictatorships, religious fundamentalists, and future terrorist organizations over the last 70-80 years. The US has been the primary weapons supplier to not one but two governments that have perpetrated genocide in the last decade. Hell, the US is directly tied to the existence of the Iranian government. One of the primary reasons for the Iranian Revolution and the regime that took over afterwards was American meddling, which is highlighted by a coup that the CIA instigated!
I don't agree with everything here, but sure, I'm not going to apologize US invading Afghanistan or Iraq, or the Soviets invading Afghanistan or other things that happened. However the situation before the October 7 attacks was that Israel was slowly increasing ties with most of its neighbors despite past conflicts, which was about to bring unprecedented stability to the region, and the main opposition to that stability was Iran and proxy groups funded by Iran.
I'm not interested in labeling who's the good guy and the bad guy. I'm saying that until recently the development of the status quo in the region was looking quite promising comparatively to any period in recent history, despite obvious exceptions like the situation in Palestine itself, and Iran is the main force in the region striving to break that.
The other thing is, regardless of what you think of the above argument, Iran unquestionably is more autocratic than Israel. Israel is still a democratic country and has a chance to reform itself. Its current government is terrible, but remember that before the crisis started by Oct 7 there were repeated large protests against the government's reforms going on for months. Iran doesn't have this option, it's being led by a parallel non-elected theocratic structure that violently oppresses its own citizens, aside from funding foreign terrorist groups. Iranian society itself is split on this issue and a large part sees its government as just as evil as we do.
A regime like that having access to nukes is not in anybody's interest. And I honestly don't think this position is very controversial, which is perhaps why you wrote about everything but this basic problem.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
V17 LinkI returned to Dark Messiah of Might and Magic after about a decade, when I managed to get to the second to last chapter and lost interest because I had a non-ideal build and some of the fights...I returned to Dark Messiah of Might and Magic after about a decade, when I managed to get to the second to last chapter and lost interest because I had a non-ideal build and some of the fights (goddamned ghouls!) just got too tough on the hard difficulty.
This time I did a mage build and around that point in the game it got maybe a bit too easy due to a couple overpowered spells.
Man, is that game fun. What I love about it is how gamey it is. The level designs are not realistic, they are, together with the enemy encounters, obviously designed as a playground for you. Some of the designs slightly remind me of Arx Fatalis, though there's more emphasis on movement and more verticality here. The story is cheesy as hell and not that important. The game gives you plenty of options to win, so on hard difficulty in many of the encounters you die multiple times but then find out a couple tricks to "solve" them and suddenly do it without issues.
There are some weak points: boss fights are kind of weak because they usually can be cheesed, so the fun (and difficulty) lies in normal encounters. And platforming sucks, but is usually not mandatory. Graphics is hit or miss, some still looks great, some really doesn't.
Overall it's about ten hours of pure fun.
I found out that there's a tiny modding scene which is bringing cut content into the game and also released a testing version for coop mode, so I might actually return to this one in the future.
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Comment on Israel conducts airstrikes in Iran in ~society
V17 Link ParentI resent the implication because it was not just the US and Israel, it was also the UN, to which Iran replied that it's going to build a new enrichment facility with advanced centrifuges. The...Instead, we are getting everything told through the US/Israeli perspective that Iran was a few days away from developing
WMDsnuclear weapons.I resent the
WMDsimplication because it was not just the US and Israel, it was also the UN, to which Iran replied that it's going to build a new enrichment facility with advanced centrifuges. The statement that Iran is building nuclear weapons is not a controversial one, the controversy is merely in how to respond to that.And from historical reasons I can understand why Khamenei is doing it. But Iranian regime is an oppressive one that also funds foreign terrorists and serves as the main destabilizing force in the region, se he won't be allowed to actually do it and that's quite likely to prevent things worse than what's happening now.
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Comment on Caravan Palace - Gangbusters Melody Club (Full Album) (2024) in ~music
V17 Link ParentI mean, not directly, but the path is much shorter and more direct there. I don't listen to ska anymore, but many years ago when I went to a relatively big ska-punk festival a couple times, it was...Ska does not translate to a love of Big Band mostly.
I mean, not directly, but the path is much shorter and more direct there.
I don't listen to ska anymore, but many years ago when I went to a relatively big ska-punk festival a couple times, it was their tradition that the first band on the main stage on saturday would be a swing big band from the nearest town.
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Comment on Israel conducts airstrikes in Iran in ~society
V17 Link ParentGood point, unfortunately I don't remember where I read that, I'm going to edit the comment.But neither story says anything about them being transferred to Israel.
Good point, unfortunately I don't remember where I read that, I'm going to edit the comment.
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Comment on Caravan Palace - Gangbusters Melody Club (Full Album) (2024) in ~music
V17 Link ParentAs a jazz/swing musician, we generally do not view it as a tribute, lol. It takes away most of what jazz is and the popularity of electro swing doesn't seem to translate to popularity of actual...You know how Daft Punk was (still sad to write that) making massive tributes to funk via sampling?
Caravan Palace is doing that for jazz and swing.
As a jazz/swing musician, we generally do not view it as a tribute, lol. It takes away most of what jazz is and the popularity of electro swing doesn't seem to translate to popularity of actual swing. It can be a bit annoying when someone hires your band to play at a Great Gatsby themed New Year's Eve party and most of the guests look at you with poorly hidden disappointment because when they saw "swing" on the invitation, they really thought "mainstream house with swing samples" and don't know what kind of boring music whatever we're playing is. (happened around 2018 I think when electro swing was more popular than these days).
I have not observed any push towards being swole, if anything zoomers seem to care less about that, BUT from across the ocean it seems like for a long time there's been a difference between how Europe and northern America views this - it feels like being slim and not very muscular is viewed as somewhat more normal and being swole as somewhat less normal around here. So maybe the trends exist but got partially dissolved before getting here because the local baseline is different.