SF might not be the best example, but there are currently 30,000+ largely vacant units in SF that are more than capable of handling the population surplus you cite, if the right rental policies were in place, and if many of those weren’t new market-rate apartments that primarily appeal to corporations and real-estate…

I’m just pointing out to you the logical end point of what you did say. A reminder: “England is also a capitalist society, and population turnover is part of the lifecycle of a city. The demographics and desirability of various areas change over time.”

I commented on this earlier, but converting to dollars isn’t quite fair. Below four figures, the number amounts are equivalent. Things that cost $5 in NY or SF cost roughly £5 in London.

Capitalism and the free market, contrary to popular opinion, are not natural forces that we just need to accept. For-profit businesses do everything within their power to destabilize governments at all scales and keep them from making decisions against business interests. You might as well say, “Well, the UK is a…

The price scale is about the same as it is in the US–things that cost $5 here cost around £5–until you reach amounts into four and five figures, then the number values are less for prices in pounds (e.g. the price of a car here is 3-5,000 higher than the comparable price in pounds).

The case of San Francisco demonstrates quite ably that building more “market rate” housing does nothing to halt gentrification and protect existing communities. The market rate in SF is ridiculous and all of the new housing is unaffordable to the people being displaced; a lot of it is getting used for Airbnb or sold…

Seriously. I’ve never heard of this happening, but what I do know from personal experience is that uncut men are definitely more sensitive, within my somewhat limited sample. A friend of a friend who got circumcised in his 20s described the difference as being like going from technicolor to black and white in terms of…

Honestly, shared showers are intimate and sexy, but actual sex in the shower is distracting as. Too much sensation coming from too many different directions and water, counterintuitively, is drying.

Those ceramic soap dishes should be banned for hazards to shower sexy times. The one in my old shower broke off the wall entirely, backing tile and all–note to the commentariat, those things are not appropriate foot rests. Fortunately the only thing injured in that scenario was the wall.

This whole comment thread really makes me miss Roseanne.

Or alternately: WITNESS ME

Tinfoil Hat

Some freaky-ass electric purple: The Color Formerly Known as Prince.

Two mantras for you that have really helped me shut it down in a pinch:

I don’t have to leave, but I can’t watch, or listen. Is it just me, or is there an uptick in shows and movies using people puking when they’re really upset as a way to communicate grittiness or “realness”? It’s so annoying; does this actually even happen to anyone ever? I’ve never heard of it or seen it. I feel like…

CBT combined with standard talk therapy got me through a bout of clinical depression unmedicated–and I also backed myself out of previous rounds of irrational unwanted thoughts with some very CBT-like self talk that there was no connection between unwanted-thought phobias and what was real, rational, or what I…

Yeah, I’ve read that unfortunately exposure therapy is - for obvious reasons - not really an option for emetophobes, and also not effective.

Ugh, I have this low-grade, too. It’s completely not grounded in anything rational, since I’ve had the stomach flu maybe three times in my life since I was a kid, and I’ve never been sick from drinking (trust me I’ve earned it). I think because of that, though, I associate puking with being really, really ill and out…

And amen to butts.

Also also, I can’t remember how Dumbledore is described in the books, but Michael Gambon, who Rowling certainly approved as Richard Harris’s replacement, is not a small man. Also also also, HAGRID.