megane-kun

If I am understanding it correctly…

• They eat tuna often.
• They never noticed anyone that cannot draw (separate) conclusions that:
  • [were] baseless
  • made little sense
• Evidence of heavy metal (features) resembled natural pathways.
• Worrying about high lead or cadmium [in food products? doesn’t make sense].

Even laid out like that, it is still confusing. However, I think their gist is that:

1. they think heavy metals’ effects [on humans] are indistinguishable from what happens normally
2. no one can draw conclusions about heavy metals’ [effects on humans] that have basis
3. they think worrying about heavy metal contamination in food is stupid and people shouldn’t worry about it

Can you clarify this? Is China suffering from droughts and flooding (droughts up north, flooding down south) that’s affecting its food supply? I thought this was last year and that things have been better weather-wise?

That’d be giving in to Chinese provocation. They’ve been doing this harassment in hopes of the Philippine government giving up and complying with the Chinese demands, or the Philippines getting riled up and firing the first shot. The latter will give China the “moral ground” or at least ammo for their propaganda.

IMO, what the Philippine military has been doing is a good countermeasure to this harassment: asserting their rights (as per the arbitral ruling, which China refuses to honor), publicizing Chinese aggression all the while building up its defenses and network of allies.

Punching a bully in the face might feel good, but this bully is also crafty and sneaky, that some care is needed dealing with it.

Their “unity” is a lie. Even among the supporters of the Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte tandem, it is viewed as nothing more than a marriage of convenience. But when it stopped being convenient, it’s back to the usual mudslinging.

I’d also be wary of Duterte’s promises with regards to China.

In the 2016 election, one of his campaign promises involved going by jet ski onto the disputed islands to personally protect them, a promise he later dismissed as just an empty promise and mocked those who bought into it as stupid. His promise of pushing a claim cited in the OP article might as well be one of those empty promises made to increase their dynasty’s chances of winning the elections. Their actions show where their priorities and loyalties lie. What was promised to be a “protect our islands” stance, turned out to be an “embrace China” stance.

Marcos Jr. isn’t in the clear either, with the Marcos dynasty trying to whitewash and erase from history their wrongdoing.

Moreover, his 20 PhP (~0.33 USD) per kilogram of rice promise is just as ridiculous as Duterte’s Jet ski promise. As with Duterte’s jetski, Marcos delivered a ~600 PhP (~10 USD) per kilogram of onions reality instead and later on, dropping to ~20 PhP / kg (~0.33 USD / kg) as local onion farmers had their harvests.

Of note here is the fact that the Marcos Jr. held the post of Secretary of Agriculture at the same time as him being President until November 2023. Meanwhile, the price of (well-milled) rice is around 60 PhP (~1 USD) per kilogram—thrice what was promised. For context, the average daily wage is around 620 PhP (~10.33 USD).

Not that Duterte had the best handling of the economy, it was however, overshadowed by his bombastic statements and pro-China stance.

I personally would have enjoyed watching their (word) war of the dynasties if it were not for the healthy chance that one of them would win (because any politician opposed to both practically obliterated and rendered irrelevant).

NOTE:

All currency conversions were made assuming 1USD = 60PhP

If you have such a problem with too many people existing, do something about it. IDK.

Both can be true, that we’re experiencing record low birth rates globally and that the global population is still increasing at the moment.

How?

1. While birth rates in many countries have fallen below replacement rate, it’s still not zero, which means people are still having babies.
2. Due to advances in health science, the death rate has fallen.

These two factors, especially decades earlier, mean that population hasn’t yet fallen. However:

3. Non-existent humans will not produce babies.
4. The older the population is on the average, the higher the death rate will be.

This means that if I don’t produce offspring, my non-existent offspring will not produce babies. The less babies are produced, the older the population would be, and the higher the death rate will be. If current trends continue, the death rate will overtake the birth rate, and the population will shrink.

Outside of a worldwide disaster that kills off people of child-bearing age, population will still rise before it levels off and then fall off as more and more people find less and less appealing to raise children. This is just a consequence of us humans not dying immediately after childbirth, and us humans as a whole making offspring at a certain age (say, 20 years old). These two factors explain the lag between childbirth figures and population growth.

There’s this saying “a fish is caught through its mouth,” and this is an illustration of what it means. This pope might present this ‘cool’, ‘modern’ image to the public, but his words spoken in private amongst his peers reveals his real stance about these things.

Edit:‌ proofreading.

Indeed. Translating from Japanese is hard, even more so Japanese that involve figurative expressions and idioms (that are already usually hard to translate to and from any language to begin with).

Hate is such a strong word. But yes. The real world can get really tiring sometimes.

With that out of the way, off to my tangent. There’s probably two parts to explaining why there’s a lot of isekai works out there.

It is easy to write. It’s easy for the writer to basically insert themselves into their works. That way, they would have a far easier time working through the main character’s motivations, actions and reactions. Isekai also makes it easier for the writer to worldbuild. They can just do an anything goes setting with a god who specifically made the world in whatever way that’s most convenient to the writer. That is, lazy writing. That is not to say this means all isekai is bad, but rather, since it’s easy to write, there’s bound to be a lot of people who’d give it a go.

It’s easy to read. A lot of the isekai works I’ve read so far has been the type where I can just check out my brain at the entrance and dive in. A lot of this has to do with the kind of isekai I read, but with a setting that’s anything goes, and an MC‌ that I can relate to, I can easily snuggle into the work and pretend. Yes, it’s escapism, and I don’t think the genre as a whole has any pretentions otherwise.

As far as I’m concerned, isekai as a genre is like potato chips. It’s unhealthy, even not that interesting culinarily, but it’s also something I would love to indulge in from time-to-time. Add to that a tub of vanilla ice cream as a dip (probably a hot take) and I’m set for a relaxing night watching isekai. (Of course, the next morning, I’m back to the real world and all its shit).

Ah, thanks for that clarification. That much I can agree with in general.

This might be a hot take for an anime enjoyer, but what immunity are they talking about here? Immunity against nudity? Fanservice?

I’m leaning more towards “people losing immunity towards nudity (in shows)” but that’s one extreme. If every show on Earth has people fully-clothed, covered from hair to toe, and porn is relegated to an extreme taboo that one would go to great lengths and at great risk to access (kinda like Shimoneta, I‌ guess?) then maybe? But even then, sex is such a human need that people will find ways.

Now, this might be a wild shot in the dark, but if they’re talking about lack of fanservice leading to people not having sex, uh… Japan has a lot of problems with young people not having enough children, but I don’t think lack of fanservice has anything to do with it, and more about the pressures and bleak prospects.

IDK, I‌ just don’t get it and maybe someone who has access to the original interview quoted here can clarify things?

Thanks as well. It’s certainly a POV I didn’t consider (that it’s akin to a protest) having grown up in the culture that produced such practices. Again, thanks!

Ah, my bad. I didn’t mean to imply that it being done in a religious context invalidates it, just that the religious context would inform us more about the man’s intent and whether or not they’d continue on doing so regardless of the result.

I used the term “pledge” earlier, but maybe it’s better to use the word “vow” to refer this. The term in Filipino is “panata” (which wiktionary translates to “vow”). It usually isn’t as dramatic as this, however. And as far as I’ve observed, a lot would do these vows after they deem their prayers to have been heard (usually recovery from illness or accidents, or recovery from financial ruin), and thereafter, no matter what, they’d try to fulfill their vows, whether that’d be a crucifixion reenactment, or attending processions, or even just as simple as foregoing alcohol or vices or letting their hair grow.

edit:

I must clarify my position here, I‌ guess. I am neither in favor nor against the practice. But having grown up in the country where these practices occur, I just felt I have to clarify some things. Personally? I don’t mind. They’re doing these things with good intentions, and they’re hurting no one. As far as I know, they don’t force anyone to join them, but rather, make sure that those who are following their footsteps are sure they want to.

That was a clean ending, most loose ends tied up (Ivy’s starless status and Ciel’s existence being made known being made known to trusted people, as well as Sora’s origins), but with just enough leeway for another season.

I am not sure how far the source material has gone and whether or not it is enough for another season or two, but I fear they made the ending this way because they aren’t sure there might be another season after all.

I agree with your sentiment, but I felt compelled to comment on one crucial element here: what he has been doing isn’t a protest, but some form of a religious pledge. It just so happened that this year, he’s praying for world peace. This is akin to some traditions in India and other parts where self-flagellation is part of religious ritual, but only for those who pledge themselves to it. It’s touched upon in the article, but he’s been doing it since the 1980’s as thanksgiving for his survival in an accident. Some people just do it once, but some devote their lives to it, and it seems to me that he’s one of the latter.

Whether or not his actions will lead to results doesn’t matter, as far as I see it. He’s already devoted to the bit, and only old age (and poor health) will likely stop him.

The “postman arc” in the manga (though I think it’s multiple arcs under a bigger arc–but they’re unrelated, at least it seems at the start) really felt like a huge drag. Every town they passed by had a little arc of its own, some entertaining, some just felt meh. A hypothetical S2 might take some of those little arcs, perhaps two or three towns as they make their way. S3 could probably feature the rest of the way to their destination, but idk, at the rate the manga is being published, there might be just enough for an 2-cour S2, but not by much.

Definitely! The only reason I‌ put it on hold is that it got so raw and close to home that I had to stop watching for a while. Kinda embarrassing, but in a way, a statement to how good it is.

There’s already quite a lot of good recommendations here. I’ll just add another voice recommending Kino’s Journey and To Your Eternity.

Also, I’d say don’t expect Frieren levels of polish and awesomeness with the recommendations given, as Frieren is just a different level altogether (with lots of deserved hype).

As for my own recommendations? Let’s see:

• Aria the Animation, Natural, and Origination — this is but one anime series with three seasons of varying length. Every episode is more or less self-contained, but the characters develop slowly over the span of a lot of episodes (I counted 72 for all three seasons, could be wrong though). In a way, the character growth and exploration here is more comparable to real life. The pacing might be a bit too slow for a lot of people though. and the overall tone might be a bit too sweet for some. There’s some world-building here, but it’s really subtle at times—with the episodes focusing instead on the everyday and sometimes, the supernatural goings-on around the city the characters live in.

• Natsume Yuujinchou [Nastume’s Book of Friends] — six seasons of varying lengths. This is also mostly episodic with some character growth happening but the kind that you’d easily miss just watching the episodes. This one, however, has more supernatural themes, but also touches on how the youkai (non-human entities–to put things simply) differ from humans not only in mindset, but also in their perception of time.

• Mushishi — I haven’t yet watched this one in its entirety, but this is favorably compared to Natsume Yuujinchou, and so it might hit the same notes as that one.

Thanks! I had to do something to make the titles stand out since it’s just a huge wall of text otherwise. I also can’t be sure how it’d be rendered in other Lemmy frontends so, yeah! glad it turned out okay.

My warning backfired then. It’s actually just a cutesy animal thing with a lot of unfortunate implications baked in (and totally unintended at that).

I watched the show precisely because it looked like a cutesy animal thing, but yeah~ that certainly colored my opinion of it.