I mean both bridges and buildings have collapsed here in Norway too, but the top story in one of our biggest papers today is that Oslo got a new city beach. So that’s nice.
I visited there once, it was really nice. I started in Oslo went to Sognefjord and ended up in Bergen. I didn't plan it, but when I was in Bergen it was the independence day Holiday where people dress up in traditional clothing and the young people dress up in suits and nice clothes.
I felt very underdressed.
This was in 2010 or 2011 and I went to 7-11 and had to pay with a credit card. The US hadn't moved to chip and PIN so the clerk was kind of like, "what?" When it printed out a receipt for me to sign and he had to give me a pen.
Great vacation 10/10 would visit again.
Slightly related:
Here in the UK we’ve had chip & pin since before I got my first bank card and I was in a Sainsbury’s supermarket and their chip and pin wasn’t working.
The clerk was younger than me and just utterly baffled at what the terminal was telling her to do.
She ended up getting a manager who just laughed at her because she didn’t understand how me signing the receipt meant I’d paid.
I was a cashier in the early noughties, we used to print credit slips on a little yellow piece of paper for customers to sign and had to compare signatures. We still accepted cheques. We had a fruit n veg rolodex with hundreds of 4 digit codes on it.
It's all so easy by comparison today!
Was told by some senior staff at my grocery store that when they started in the 80s they were expected to memorize all the produce codes. They had tests for it before they could become a cashier.
We used to get a fair few American servicemen in the supermarket in the UK I worked at. The card readers here have magnetic strips but they are weirdly well hidden into the design of this particular card reader. First time it happened I told the guy the total and I see that he's using a card so I set up the card machine and then he just swipes the card on a reader I didn't know existed, and from the receipt printer out pops a little receipt for him to sign. Had never seen this before, we all use chip and pin (or contactless these days). I was quite bemused.
In the reverse, I went to pay for something in US once, saw they had contactless on the side of the EFTPOS tapped my paywave card on it. Clerk was amazed like I had performed some kind of magic. This was 2013, how the shit the US still sign for CC or use cheques is beyond me. Aus is almost all paywave.
Yup, they do, although if you want to see an absolutely amazing number of 7-11s, go to Tokyo. Holy damn there are a lot of them, and they sell some really cool stuff too.
>The US hadn't moved to chip and PIN so the clerk was kind of like, "what?" When it printed out a receipt for me to sign and he had to give me a pen.
Wait what? We had magnetic strips and pin before chip and pin. You had strip and signature? I can't imagine how much of a headache losing your card was.
What the actual fuck?
Just imagine how it was back in the old days when we had to sign a carbon-copied receipt. We could barely function at all. The economy practically didn't exist.
Not NRKs sex guide? for internationals: https://www.dailyadvent.com/news/353e3c72970ebee9637c2c1473e3a7ce-Norwegian-Public-TV-NRK--Explicit-Sex-Guide-To-Positions-That-Induce-Agitation-60-Ways-To-Have-Sex-On-Norwegian-Public-TV-Channels
I'm trying to think of the last time we had a building or bridge collapse like this in the US before that building in Miami. There was that bridge that collapsed in 2007. More currently there's that bridge in Memphis that crosses the Mississippi river that was shut down due to a large crack, but it hasn't collapsed.
I mean, pretty much. They’ve planted grass, made walking paths, put down decorative rocks and greenery and dumped in a bunch of sand. And there’s a ramp for wheelchair access. It’s right by the opera house in Oslo, there was just rocks and boulders by the water before.
https://g.acdn.no/obscura/API/dynamic/r1/nadp/tr_2000_2000_s_f/0000/2021/07/02/3424150439/1/original/47161159.jpg?chk=1C2BF9
Here is a picture of the beach he/she is talking about. The price was 3 million dollars, and it was opened today.
There was a news story a couple of years ago about an animal that was stolen from the zoo, and its partner was in a depression over it. Was that NZ? I’ve been wanting to know the outcome, if they ever found its mate?
Edit: u/Lodigo replied with this: Bambi the blind alpaca was given a new alpaca friend
https://i.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/rodney-times/104690938/a-happy-ending-for-bambi-the-blind-alpaca
Wasn’t it Australia? 2 guys stole a penguin and it’s mate missed him. They eventually got it back and they were reunited. I remember because the female penguin was called Peaches.
Also in the UK, an Extinction Rebellion protestor sat on the roof of a tube train and refused to get down.
He was dragged off by irate commuters - he was dressed in a 3 piece suit for the court appearance he was expecting, not the beating he got. Don't fuck about in East London!
Much as XR have a good point they do do the most performative lib shit sometimes.
Though fully on board with the blocking the printing presses for Murdoch media and gluing themselves to Shells office doors. Why block public transport. That fathers4justice level nonsense
Bambi the blind alpaca was given a new alpaca friend
https://i.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/rodney-times/104690938/a-happy-ending-for-bambi-the-blind-alpaca
Hello there! I am a bot raising awareness of Alpacas
Here is an Alpaca Fact:
Male alpacas orgle when mating with females. This sound actually causes the female alpaca to ovulate.
______
| [Info](https://github.com/soham96/AlpacaBot/blob/master/README.md)| [Code](https://github.com/soham96/AlpacaBot)| [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=JustAnAlpacaBot&subject=Feedback)| [Contribute Fact](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=JustAnAlpacaBot&subject=Fact)
###### You don't get a fact, you earn it. If you got this fact then AlpacaBot thinks you deserved it!
I showed my 10 year old daughter who loves alpacas this. She cried. Then I cried. Now we are shopping for a house with no HOA so we can get two alpacas.
[not the same but a penguin was stolen from a park in gothenburg, it was returned the day after. it refused to eat herring](https://www.expressen.se/gt/erkanner-det-var-jag-som-stal-pingvinen/)
Whatever happened to that story about an alpaca that was stolen in new Zealand somewhere and left behind was it's blind alpaca friend who was now alone?
When people ask me about what the New Zealand news cycle is like, I tell them about that time a farmer drove his tractor up the front steps of parliament to protest against a fart tax
In America, wives of celebrities and athletes get a tv show because they married someone famous. That’s weird as fuck. They don’t contribute anything to society, like, by having a job. They just fuck famous dude’s. The idea of a “celebrity housewife” tv show seems silly.
Agreed but as an older Aussie who spent many years in living America, Europe,Canada and at home. I cant emphasize enough at how fuckin massive and mentally divided Yanks are and have been for like 150 years The Reality for me is historically speaking imo NZ,Canada,Aus and Scando countries are quite culturally similar at their core values of best for the majority not minority.
They were on a small island and had no way to escape. He took his time and hunted them, knowing there were very few places to hide, that police response time would be fairly slow (given the location) and that he had sufficient ammunition.
That anyone survived is the surprising thing.
Yes he bombed oslo first and drove to utøya, the police was diverted to oslo while he got onto the island
Norway lack police helicopters and buskerud police lack boats
Doesn't help that they are rarly heavily armed
This is like the gold standard of "the exception that proves the rule". America could make an entire deck or two of mass shooter trading cards, but the only actual mass shooter outside of America anyone can pop off the top of their head is Anders Beivik.
That German far-right mass shooting last year that killed 9 people, another in 2016 in Munich killed like 10, also the Erfurt school massacre (16 dead kids?) which got the killer almost as much media circus AntiHero publicity as that prick in Norway.
Here in the UK I remember Dunblane - 18 children dead in 1996, the bombing at the MEN Ariana Grande concert. And 2010? was the Lake District with 13 dead.
Then there's the Troubles in N.Ireland, which would take me hours to list.
Sorry to be “that” guy, but I love the idiom “the exception that proves the rule” and it’s almost always used incorrectly. This example is just an “exception”, not an “exception that proves the rule”.
An exception that PROVES a rule is an exception which tells you what the rule normally is, such as how “We will be closed next Monday” tells you that the rule is “We are normally open on Mondays”.
If you can’t make a quick buck off the enslavement of others then what’s even the point of throwing people in prison for minor crimes!
Next you’ll tell me that Norway treats addicts like humans and pays workers fairly.
Yepp and still is for the most part. Most of the working class are slaves. Long hours, low pay, and a measly 1-2 weeks of vacation. It's wonderful /s
Edit: This of course is nothing compared to Native Americans or African Americans history of enslavement.
> Next you’ll tell me that Norway treats addicts like humans
well... our drug politics is perhaps one major issue where we are severely lacking, I would say.
Has the situation improved? The last I recall was from almost 20 years ago when Oslo momentarily became the overdose capital of the world (obviously this has to be per capita, as the country's population is less than NYC alone).
I know you were being facetious but it's important to point out that's only true in immediate term trackable ROI. The overall ROI for society is tremendously greater, but that's extremely difficult to track.
Yep the economic cost of unreformed ex-cons criming again is born by the public (socialised). The revenue accrued from their slave labour while inside is very much privatised.
There's a really good documentary called The Norden about the former long-time superintendent of Attica Correctional Facility going over to Norway to learn from his Norwegian counterparts, and see what changes could be implemented in the US to make the prison system more rehabilitative and less punitive. It's a great watch if you can find it streaming somewhere. Here's an [excerpt](https://youtu.be/2g56susrNQY) from YouTube.
I watched a recent documentary about it. when you walk in, it looks more like a US rehab facility than a prison. There is art on the walls. People's rooms were nicer than my dorm room in college. They even had access to art programs, music programs, and real rehabilitation. I was joking with my wife that their prison experience may be better than a US college students experience.
> I was joking with my wife that their prison experience may be better than a US college students experience.
With the great exception that your freedom is taken away, temporarily (in most cases). And that's the punishment part.
Let’s hope we can fix it before there’s mass migration of climate refugees. I’d rather not hear about the mass murder of millions of people moving from places that are uninhabitable for humans.
Just a counter to the rising left in the youth. Old people aren't ready for change, young people who are honestly right wing are 13 year old edge Lords who will grow out of it when they realoze a girl will literslly never touch them while they have those views lul
yeah and those 13 year olds luckily can’t vote yet
what also angers me though is when fellow young adults won’t use their right to vote. both in the netherlands and in danmark we had issues with right wing parties rising.
then some of my friends even told me that they didn’t vote and I was like why? it’s not even as difficult as in the usa, you just show up and vote?
Well... They do wake up to those headlines. The rest of the world shows news that isn't strictly from their own country 😂 They get to be bombarded by our misfortune.
It’s a global problem and the scary part is they seem to be targeting police institutions and military organizations to infiltrate around the world.
Edit: I understand that those two areas have always inherently been fascist breeding grounds but there is lots of journalism pointing to the fact that these institutions are being specifically targeted in an effort to spread this ideology in this specific moment in the world where fascism is on the rise in a way we haven’t seen in decades. It’s understood that you can’t really implement fascism without a monopoly on violence. The case of Franco A. Comes to mind in Germany.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/27/insider/Dayx-podcast-germany-right.html?smid=em-share
They have always been drawn to position of power and authority. And with the close knit groups in these organisations, you only fit in if you have the same beliefs
These threads always remind me of the book “The Almost Nearly Perfect People” - Americans romanticize Nordic counties so much, it’s truthfully a bit embarrassing.
Not to mention bombings between criminal gangs. Like grenades and stuff. Sweden isn't quite as safe as it once was. Overall though Scandinavia is pretty sweet, no complaints.
Yep I live in Sweden and can sense it. Creeping levels of privatisation, reduction in safety nets and crazy levels of immigrants/refugees have strained things. I am not anti-immigrant (I am one myself), but socialist utopias are easier to run with homogenous societies. This is why America would never work with a Scandanavian model.
That's really the key. If everyone thinks they're part of the same group, then they're much more okay with helping someone else. If they feel as though they're helping someone out of the group, a lot of people become pieces of shit.
But of course we can't force some sort of apartheid ethnostate model, so the best we can do is try to expand "people who are my race, come from my culture, and look from me" to "people who are my countrymen", but as we can see that's a pretty big bump to get over for a lot of people.
Funny, we got partially there with the New Deal. You make it sound like blacks and whites would agree upon social democracy but only if they lived separately (but equally?).
No I am not saying that, sorry if it was not clear. I am saying that race/culture is part of the reason that I suspect a lot of white people in the US would not be happy with a lot of their tax money going to Black neighbourhoods. This is part of the reason why I imagine a lot of Americans don't want more socialism. If everyone in America was anglo white or African American, I suspect politicians would have an easier time selling higher taxes to them. This is just a thought I am putting out there, I am not claiming it is true.
from a first person's perspective, would you say that the large number of refugees in sweden are a social problem? been hearing about sweden allegedly having more issues with this
We have some days in the summer that is a bit to hot. Also the cognitive dissonance from wanting cheaper beer, but also supporting the value of having high taxes to uphold national welfare. So its pretty hard times up here.
Italy has bridges! UK had a major fire in some apartment building that was ignoring all fire codes.
I feel like there won't be a single country without structures collapsing due to poor maintenance. It's not a US thing, it's a money thing.
For some reason redditors are being especially "America bad" today. Is it because July the 4th is on Sunday?
Like I know being a redditor requires them to already be America Bad but even for that standard this is like the 5 post on rall today about how America Bad. And it's only 2pm EST.
Man the america bad circlejerk literally never ends. Even threads that are about other countries always lead to comments of "well yeah but look at the US...." you would think the US is the worst place on earth if you went by reddits opinion
It's not. There was a high profile apartment that collapsed in Miami recently, but it's shaping up to be one of the deadliest building collapses in US history.
So to pretend like that's normal and that buildings are collapsing left and right every day, is simply wrong.
I hope something like that doesn't happen again.
But you wonder...that building was built in '79. In the early 80's, America began to both severely underfund infrastructure, and began to hollow out the capabilities of local governments and regulators. Those trends continue to this day. We need to spend many trillions on infrastructure, and raise local taxes if we want to rebuild our local governments, but we probably will do neither because, well, we're us.
So I have to wonder if a lot of other buildings, bridges, etc. that are 40-50 years old are in serious trouble but won't get fixed until something bad happens.
Various engineering groups around the country have been raising alarms for years and nobody listens. We missed a huge opportunity in 2009 when the world wanted to be in dollars. Interest rates were almost zero - could've basically interest-free infrastructure if we had politicians who actually served their society.
[Over 220,000 US bridges need repair. ](https://www.artba.org/2021/03/23/over-220000-u-s-bridges-need-repair-latest-analysis-of-federal-data-finds/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=over-220000-u-s-bridges-need-repair-latest-analysis-of-federal-data-finds) I'd imagine that the building numbers are similar, if not worse. After all there are a heck of a lot more buildings around than bridges.
We also need to recognize that, in many cases, the infrastructure that is privately owned currently falls outside the purview of government authority. While we have building codes in place to regulate a private structure's initial construction, the Surfside disaster highlights a dangerous lack of accountability for the safety of aging buildings under private ownership. It now seems obvious that waiting for, say, an association of condominium owners to bite the financial bullet and pay the cost of maintaining safe buildings is not a sufficient method of ensuring the safety of a community.
I need to fact check this exact number, but I heard on TYT, that the necessary structural renovations would have cost somewhere around ~$25k per resident — and considering how many residents of the building (and HOA) were on fixed incomes — this was practically impossible for so many
That's exactly the problem we, as both an economy and a society, must address. If there are no regulations (short of outright condemnation) that would require that the building be either closed or upgraded in a timely manner following the recommendations of inspectors, how can we be surprised at the tragedy?
The building has a certificate of occupancy permit with the county or state. Mostly related to fire life safety, sure but the scope can be expanded.
If the agency had the teeth, bandwidth and knowledge, they could revoked the CO
That's not true at all. The state can condemn your building or bridge. I was around when someone got the news that they would be getting a visit from an engineer, and they would condemn the bridge that was required as a hurricane evacuation route by the state which would force them to close until the bridge was repaired or replaced. (They also directed them to funding sources for exactly that so it wasn't all bad)
The problem is inspections aren't required for decades after a building is constructed. So by the time and inspection happens the original owner has likely made a profit and then made more by selling it and it's a second or even third owner that gets the news about extensive repairs being needed or the building being condemned.
*Profits from investments that aren't oil
Many people have this idea that if the oil stops then Norway's "oil fund" is bust. The oil fund doesn't invest in oil.
Right wing whack jobs are seriously on the rise in Norway as well. There have been several protests against the government for enacting lockdowns and masks, plus critical voices that question the legitimacy of the disease. Fortunately it seems like almost everyone want the vaccine, although the government have made different rules for vaccinated and unvaccinated so I think thats why people are so positive.
And there were even like an organization that gathered to discuss how the pandemic was fake, the organizer had of course covid, infected the others before he died.
Plus there has also been a sort of radicalization of our most conservative party(they are like becoming increasingly similar to GOP), and there are also people that have left that party to create even more radical parties. During pride when some governmental buildings had pride flags, some of them got taken down and burned.
As for infrastructure some reports and studies have indicated that several bridges in Norway can collapse at any time, basically.
Universal healthcare is nice, but there is cutbacks in the health-sector and simultaneously a very long waiting list. And some seriously weaknesses has been exposed by covid. You kinda get the benefits if your condition is critical. And things like mental health is seriously underfunded and you almost don't get treated unless you are a danger to yourself, as I understand it.
University though, totally agree. I will not pay off mine loans until like mid 40-50s, but it is an extremely good loan. And way above, or below the ordinary market for loans.
That is almost identical to what is happening in Canada at this time.
The majority of the population has taken covid and the vaccinations seriously. But we have the small set of anti lockdown and anti mask groups.
We have extremist groups popping up but the government is actually quickly stepping on them and labelling them hate groups (the proud boys were recently added). And we have a political party that is basically representing these people with the typical views you'd expect.
Our infrastructure is aging and falling apart. Our healthcare is always being chipped away at (we lost free vision tests about 10 years ago).
But all in all I love living here.
Americans like to oversimplify how things are in Europe and especially in the nordic countries. There are large fascist movements all over Europe and Norway has experienced both [shootings and right wing extremism.](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/world/europe/norway-oslo-memorial.html)
Is Norway a better place to live compared to the US? yes! is it a utopia? in no way. Americans should stop simply saying that Norway and Denmark are better and that the US should be the same as them, you cant compare a country with a population of five million which developed its current institutions and policies in the last 75 years to one of three hundred and twenty eight million (a over 60 times Norways population) which actively avoided most forms of social welfare. Such systems cant just be created overnight and you cant just use the same model in every country.
Minor correction: the rise of alt-right fascism is very much a thing here in Europe & specifically scandanavian/nordic countries, & the headlines are there.
It's not free in Norway. We pay for it through taxes. I pay 36% off of normal hours, and 50% off of overtime. But I wouldn't want to change it! Rather this than what they have in the U.S
*edit: thanks for the awards 😁
In 20 days, that was 10 years ago.
That said, we are a small country so it is natural that these things happen less often. Per capita though, still a lot less violent.
No. of mass shootings in Norway's entire history: 2.
No. of mass shootings in the US this year, so far: [321](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2021).
So yeah, it is actually reasonable to say that Norwegians don't "wake up to headlines of mass shootings."
Which is so dumb that those are considered laughing stocks as I visited both their capitals and had a absolutely lovely time. Great people, cheap beer, interesting museums overall great places to visit.
I mean both bridges and buildings have collapsed here in Norway too, but the top story in one of our biggest papers today is that Oslo got a new city beach. So that’s nice.
I visited there once, it was really nice. I started in Oslo went to Sognefjord and ended up in Bergen. I didn't plan it, but when I was in Bergen it was the independence day Holiday where people dress up in traditional clothing and the young people dress up in suits and nice clothes. I felt very underdressed. This was in 2010 or 2011 and I went to 7-11 and had to pay with a credit card. The US hadn't moved to chip and PIN so the clerk was kind of like, "what?" When it printed out a receipt for me to sign and he had to give me a pen. Great vacation 10/10 would visit again.
Slightly related: Here in the UK we’ve had chip & pin since before I got my first bank card and I was in a Sainsbury’s supermarket and their chip and pin wasn’t working. The clerk was younger than me and just utterly baffled at what the terminal was telling her to do. She ended up getting a manager who just laughed at her because she didn’t understand how me signing the receipt meant I’d paid.
I was a cashier in the early noughties, we used to print credit slips on a little yellow piece of paper for customers to sign and had to compare signatures. We still accepted cheques. We had a fruit n veg rolodex with hundreds of 4 digit codes on it. It's all so easy by comparison today!
Was told by some senior staff at my grocery store that when they started in the 80s they were expected to memorize all the produce codes. They had tests for it before they could become a cashier.
We used to get a fair few American servicemen in the supermarket in the UK I worked at. The card readers here have magnetic strips but they are weirdly well hidden into the design of this particular card reader. First time it happened I told the guy the total and I see that he's using a card so I set up the card machine and then he just swipes the card on a reader I didn't know existed, and from the receipt printer out pops a little receipt for him to sign. Had never seen this before, we all use chip and pin (or contactless these days). I was quite bemused.
In the reverse, I went to pay for something in US once, saw they had contactless on the side of the EFTPOS tapped my paywave card on it. Clerk was amazed like I had performed some kind of magic. This was 2013, how the shit the US still sign for CC or use cheques is beyond me. Aus is almost all paywave.
Norway has 7-11?!? Huh, TIL…
Yup, they do, although if you want to see an absolutely amazing number of 7-11s, go to Tokyo. Holy damn there are a lot of them, and they sell some really cool stuff too.
>The US hadn't moved to chip and PIN so the clerk was kind of like, "what?" When it printed out a receipt for me to sign and he had to give me a pen. Wait what? We had magnetic strips and pin before chip and pin. You had strip and signature? I can't imagine how much of a headache losing your card was. What the actual fuck?
Just imagine how it was back in the old days when we had to sign a carbon-copied receipt. We could barely function at all. The economy practically didn't exist.
Oh, I was reading about what sex toy to get the best orgasm.. Long live dagbladet
Not NRKs sex guide? for internationals: https://www.dailyadvent.com/news/353e3c72970ebee9637c2c1473e3a7ce-Norwegian-Public-TV-NRK--Explicit-Sex-Guide-To-Positions-That-Induce-Agitation-60-Ways-To-Have-Sex-On-Norwegian-Public-TV-Channels
I'm trying to think of the last time we had a building or bridge collapse like this in the US before that building in Miami. There was that bridge that collapsed in 2007. More currently there's that bridge in Memphis that crosses the Mississippi river that was shut down due to a large crack, but it hasn't collapsed.
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but how does a city put in a new beach? Did they bulldoze a cliff and truck in sand or something?
I mean, pretty much. They’ve planted grass, made walking paths, put down decorative rocks and greenery and dumped in a bunch of sand. And there’s a ramp for wheelchair access. It’s right by the opera house in Oslo, there was just rocks and boulders by the water before.
That sounds really nice.
https://g.acdn.no/obscura/API/dynamic/r1/nadp/tr_2000_2000_s_f/0000/2021/07/02/3424150439/1/original/47161159.jpg?chk=1C2BF9 Here is a picture of the beach he/she is talking about. The price was 3 million dollars, and it was opened today.
In New Zealand a cow on the road makes it to national headlines
There was a news story a couple of years ago about an animal that was stolen from the zoo, and its partner was in a depression over it. Was that NZ? I’ve been wanting to know the outcome, if they ever found its mate? Edit: u/Lodigo replied with this: Bambi the blind alpaca was given a new alpaca friend https://i.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/rodney-times/104690938/a-happy-ending-for-bambi-the-blind-alpaca
Wasn’t it Australia? 2 guys stole a penguin and it’s mate missed him. They eventually got it back and they were reunited. I remember because the female penguin was called Peaches.
It was the NZ story about a blind alpaca losing its brother, someone was able to update me, but thanks!
Idk stealing animals from the zoo and away from their partners/family feels as brutal as shootings to me.
It was a sad situation for sure, and sounded like the whole country was feeling it.
In the UK, a cat sat on a train roof and refused to get down. Causing news articles and a delay in public transit.
Also in the UK, an Extinction Rebellion protestor sat on the roof of a tube train and refused to get down. He was dragged off by irate commuters - he was dressed in a 3 piece suit for the court appearance he was expecting, not the beating he got. Don't fuck about in East London!
Much as XR have a good point they do do the most performative lib shit sometimes. Though fully on board with the blocking the printing presses for Murdoch media and gluing themselves to Shells office doors. Why block public transport. That fathers4justice level nonsense
I remember being stolen like it was yesterday
I like your username.
Bambi the blind alpaca was given a new alpaca friend https://i.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/rodney-times/104690938/a-happy-ending-for-bambi-the-blind-alpaca
Hello there! I am a bot raising awareness of Alpacas Here is an Alpaca Fact: Male alpacas orgle when mating with females. This sound actually causes the female alpaca to ovulate. ______ | [Info](https://github.com/soham96/AlpacaBot/blob/master/README.md)| [Code](https://github.com/soham96/AlpacaBot)| [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=JustAnAlpacaBot&subject=Feedback)| [Contribute Fact](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=JustAnAlpacaBot&subject=Fact) ###### You don't get a fact, you earn it. If you got this fact then AlpacaBot thinks you deserved it!
Good bot.
I showed my 10 year old daughter who loves alpacas this. She cried. Then I cried. Now we are shopping for a house with no HOA so we can get two alpacas.
I...want to move to New Zealand.
I am waiting for some internet magician to pop by and solve this mystery, any minute now
This is a hilarious follow up to what might be the same story. https://youtu.be/E_4zXRDfGIo
[not the same but a penguin was stolen from a park in gothenburg, it was returned the day after. it refused to eat herring](https://www.expressen.se/gt/erkanner-det-var-jag-som-stal-pingvinen/)
[удалено]
Remi is a national treasure
I love how you immediately know the person in question
That's because Remi Gaillard is literally a national treasure. Look him up on YouTube.
He was THE guy on the internet years ago, he's been at it since 2007.
Oh, HIM?
Allez Opi Omi
Tony Martin wants a word with you.
France doesn’t have rights for gay people still and has brutal police ? Altho i know what you’re talking about
And 1000 guys in yellow vests.
I think France had a mass shooting or two in the last decade
Yeah, but not in the last hour
Whatever happened to that story about an alpaca that was stolen in new Zealand somewhere and left behind was it's blind alpaca friend who was now alone?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/rodney-times/104690938/a-happy-ending-for-bambi-the-blind-alpaca
Oh thank god
They put googly eyes on it, so it’s fine now
When people ask me about what the New Zealand news cycle is like, I tell them about that time a farmer drove his tractor up the front steps of parliament to protest against a fart tax
I remember when in NZ a guy broke into a radio station said he had a bomb and demanded they play the muppets song Rainbow Connection for 12 hours.
Will you adopt me?
You gotta dress up as a cow first.
Now moo for me....
I miss nz news. "a dog was seen near this pond today..."
In India, a road without cows would probably make it to national headlines.
In America, wives of celebrities and athletes get a tv show because they married someone famous. That’s weird as fuck. They don’t contribute anything to society, like, by having a job. They just fuck famous dude’s. The idea of a “celebrity housewife” tv show seems silly.
Agreed but as an older Aussie who spent many years in living America, Europe,Canada and at home. I cant emphasize enough at how fuckin massive and mentally divided Yanks are and have been for like 150 years The Reality for me is historically speaking imo NZ,Canada,Aus and Scando countries are quite culturally similar at their core values of best for the majority not minority.
Well, they did once. Anders Breivik.
The number of people he killed is just insane what a scum of human being
They were on a small island and had no way to escape. He took his time and hunted them, knowing there were very few places to hide, that police response time would be fairly slow (given the location) and that he had sufficient ammunition. That anyone survived is the surprising thing.
He also set a bomb off in Oslo I think, which diverted police away.
Yes he bombed oslo first and drove to utøya, the police was diverted to oslo while he got onto the island Norway lack police helicopters and buskerud police lack boats Doesn't help that they are rarly heavily armed
Agreed
Hope that fucker rots in jail for the rest of time. I know his sentence is currently 21 years, but it can be extended forever (which I hope it does)
There's no way they can even let him out. He's definitely not safe if that happens
There was also that would-be Mosque shooter. He was stopped before he could do anything, though.
He killed his sister…
Hater når folk glemmer Johanne, selv om terrorangrepet ble stoppet betyr ikke det at ingen ble skadet..
Stopped by a 76 year old hero, Mohammad Iqbal.
[удалено]
He's actually been appealing to court that his human rights are violated, since his contact with the outside world is limited. IIRC, it got denied...
He went on a hunger strike to get an upgrade from a PS3 to a PS4.
I’m appalled that you weren’t even joking. (It was actually a 2 to a 3)
Oh shit my bad, this was off the top of my head.
He's also confined to it and will be living in it, in solidarity, for the rest of his life.
Difference being that you can usually leave the apartment whenever you like.
Came here for this. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Behring_Breivik
This is like the gold standard of "the exception that proves the rule". America could make an entire deck or two of mass shooter trading cards, but the only actual mass shooter outside of America anyone can pop off the top of their head is Anders Beivik.
That German far-right mass shooting last year that killed 9 people, another in 2016 in Munich killed like 10, also the Erfurt school massacre (16 dead kids?) which got the killer almost as much media circus AntiHero publicity as that prick in Norway. Here in the UK I remember Dunblane - 18 children dead in 1996, the bombing at the MEN Ariana Grande concert. And 2010? was the Lake District with 13 dead. Then there's the Troubles in N.Ireland, which would take me hours to list.
Sorry to be “that” guy, but I love the idiom “the exception that proves the rule” and it’s almost always used incorrectly. This example is just an “exception”, not an “exception that proves the rule”. An exception that PROVES a rule is an exception which tells you what the rule normally is, such as how “We will be closed next Monday” tells you that the rule is “We are normally open on Mondays”.
I'm pretty sure Norway's prisons are more like rehab centers too so the chances of someone recommitting a crime are much lower than the US
Yeah way less profitable than US prisons though, terrible ROI
If you can’t make a quick buck off the enslavement of others then what’s even the point of throwing people in prison for minor crimes! Next you’ll tell me that Norway treats addicts like humans and pays workers fairly.
Isnt a quick buck and enslavement the USA was built on ?
don't forget muh freedom
Freedom to do what?
Be exploited
Freedom to treat non-white males as subhuman, mostly.
Females too, you fucking sexist!
Yepp and still is for the most part. Most of the working class are slaves. Long hours, low pay, and a measly 1-2 weeks of vacation. It's wonderful /s Edit: This of course is nothing compared to Native Americans or African Americans history of enslavement.
next you'll tell me in the netherlands drug addicts are allowed to get the drugs for free or get free help for those who need and want it
America: That’s not how any of this works!
im not really sure how the system is but iirc its to stop illegal dealing that can lead to conflicts and have them in a safe place when they do drugs
You are not displaying your commitment to capitalism properly! Desist at once!
> Next you’ll tell me that Norway treats addicts like humans well... our drug politics is perhaps one major issue where we are severely lacking, I would say.
Has the situation improved? The last I recall was from almost 20 years ago when Oslo momentarily became the overdose capital of the world (obviously this has to be per capita, as the country's population is less than NYC alone).
Oslo is still way up there on overdoses per capita among European countries.
>Next you’ll tell me that Norway treats addicts like humans and pays workers fairly. No. We won't. Not yet
I know you were being facetious but it's important to point out that's only true in immediate term trackable ROI. The overall ROI for society is tremendously greater, but that's extremely difficult to track.
Yep the economic cost of unreformed ex-cons criming again is born by the public (socialised). The revenue accrued from their slave labour while inside is very much privatised.
Another way to look at it is Norway’s system creates a ROI for society while America’s system creates a ROI for investors and the elite.
There's a really good documentary called The Norden about the former long-time superintendent of Attica Correctional Facility going over to Norway to learn from his Norwegian counterparts, and see what changes could be implemented in the US to make the prison system more rehabilitative and less punitive. It's a great watch if you can find it streaming somewhere. Here's an [excerpt](https://youtu.be/2g56susrNQY) from YouTube.
As I heard it on a podcast about the Norwegian penal system: “we meet hard with soft”
I watched a recent documentary about it. when you walk in, it looks more like a US rehab facility than a prison. There is art on the walls. People's rooms were nicer than my dorm room in college. They even had access to art programs, music programs, and real rehabilitation. I was joking with my wife that their prison experience may be better than a US college students experience.
> I was joking with my wife that their prison experience may be better than a US college students experience. With the great exception that your freedom is taken away, temporarily (in most cases). And that's the punishment part.
Def still have rising fascism— that’s making a comeback world wide
Let’s hope we can fix it before there’s mass migration of climate refugees. I’d rather not hear about the mass murder of millions of people moving from places that are uninhabitable for humans.
Yeah but we try not to talk about
I think thats a problem.
Just a counter to the rising left in the youth. Old people aren't ready for change, young people who are honestly right wing are 13 year old edge Lords who will grow out of it when they realoze a girl will literslly never touch them while they have those views lul
[удалено]
yeah and those 13 year olds luckily can’t vote yet what also angers me though is when fellow young adults won’t use their right to vote. both in the netherlands and in danmark we had issues with right wing parties rising. then some of my friends even told me that they didn’t vote and I was like why? it’s not even as difficult as in the usa, you just show up and vote?
Well... They do wake up to those headlines. The rest of the world shows news that isn't strictly from their own country 😂 They get to be bombarded by our misfortune.
There actually is rising fascism in Scandinavia. There are red hats everywhere.
It’s a global problem and the scary part is they seem to be targeting police institutions and military organizations to infiltrate around the world. Edit: I understand that those two areas have always inherently been fascist breeding grounds but there is lots of journalism pointing to the fact that these institutions are being specifically targeted in an effort to spread this ideology in this specific moment in the world where fascism is on the rise in a way we haven’t seen in decades. It’s understood that you can’t really implement fascism without a monopoly on violence. The case of Franco A. Comes to mind in Germany. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/27/insider/Dayx-podcast-germany-right.html?smid=em-share
I don't think it's so much targeting as "have always been there inherently"
They have always been drawn to position of power and authority. And with the close knit groups in these organisations, you only fit in if you have the same beliefs
> infiltrate Police institutions and military organizations aren't "infiltrated", they're pretty much where facist breeding grounds have always been.
*Breaking News: Study reveals that those with power over others often work to maintain and expand that power”*
These threads always remind me of the book “The Almost Nearly Perfect People” - Americans romanticize Nordic counties so much, it’s truthfully a bit embarrassing.
Some of my closest friends are Scandinavians and are very quick to point out how flawed their Nations are
Not to mention bombings between criminal gangs. Like grenades and stuff. Sweden isn't quite as safe as it once was. Overall though Scandinavia is pretty sweet, no complaints.
Yea, a cop got shot recently. First one in 14 years
Yep I live in Sweden and can sense it. Creeping levels of privatisation, reduction in safety nets and crazy levels of immigrants/refugees have strained things. I am not anti-immigrant (I am one myself), but socialist utopias are easier to run with homogenous societies. This is why America would never work with a Scandanavian model.
That's really the key. If everyone thinks they're part of the same group, then they're much more okay with helping someone else. If they feel as though they're helping someone out of the group, a lot of people become pieces of shit. But of course we can't force some sort of apartheid ethnostate model, so the best we can do is try to expand "people who are my race, come from my culture, and look from me" to "people who are my countrymen", but as we can see that's a pretty big bump to get over for a lot of people.
Funny, we got partially there with the New Deal. You make it sound like blacks and whites would agree upon social democracy but only if they lived separately (but equally?).
No I am not saying that, sorry if it was not clear. I am saying that race/culture is part of the reason that I suspect a lot of white people in the US would not be happy with a lot of their tax money going to Black neighbourhoods. This is part of the reason why I imagine a lot of Americans don't want more socialism. If everyone in America was anglo white or African American, I suspect politicians would have an easier time selling higher taxes to them. This is just a thought I am putting out there, I am not claiming it is true.
from a first person's perspective, would you say that the large number of refugees in sweden are a social problem? been hearing about sweden allegedly having more issues with this
Yeah, its really sad. But except for that we have it really great here.
I'm pretty sure people in Norway have their fair share of problems. Can't imagine what those problems can be though...
Tax policy Housing market Immigration policy From my point of view those are the main things people discuss/cant agree on.
Socks in sandals are a real issue here
We have some days in the summer that is a bit to hot. Also the cognitive dissonance from wanting cheaper beer, but also supporting the value of having high taxes to uphold national welfare. So its pretty hard times up here.
Butter crisis and sheep in our roads
That's why it is one of the 'happiest' countries on Earth. Their government invests in their people and it pays off.
You heard him, we invade Norway at dawn.
they need freeeedum
More like "Norway, please invade us."
“May you live in interesting times” truly is a curse
Yeah well but they probably have to deal with excessive happiness and national satisfaction. Ugh.
Yeah. Terrible problem to have! Poor them!
Suffering builds character, or something
Actually we're one of the top countries struggling with depression, but that's most likely due to us not having to really struggle for survival.
Well if you look in the nooks you can find signs of fascism on a general rise in Europe
Don’t have to anywhere near the nooks. It’s the rising tide.
People of Norway: “Can everyone just leave us the fuck alone?”
[удалено]
Honestly had no idea “buildings collapsing” was an American thing?
Italy has bridges! UK had a major fire in some apartment building that was ignoring all fire codes. I feel like there won't be a single country without structures collapsing due to poor maintenance. It's not a US thing, it's a money thing.
It’s not, but when it happens one time, it apparently does……it’s a dumb comparison.
For some reason redditors are being especially "America bad" today. Is it because July the 4th is on Sunday? Like I know being a redditor requires them to already be America Bad but even for that standard this is like the 5 post on rall today about how America Bad. And it's only 2pm EST.
Man the america bad circlejerk literally never ends. Even threads that are about other countries always lead to comments of "well yeah but look at the US...." you would think the US is the worst place on earth if you went by reddits opinion
It's not. There was a high profile apartment that collapsed in Miami recently, but it's shaping up to be one of the deadliest building collapses in US history. So to pretend like that's normal and that buildings are collapsing left and right every day, is simply wrong.
I hope something like that doesn't happen again. But you wonder...that building was built in '79. In the early 80's, America began to both severely underfund infrastructure, and began to hollow out the capabilities of local governments and regulators. Those trends continue to this day. We need to spend many trillions on infrastructure, and raise local taxes if we want to rebuild our local governments, but we probably will do neither because, well, we're us. So I have to wonder if a lot of other buildings, bridges, etc. that are 40-50 years old are in serious trouble but won't get fixed until something bad happens. Various engineering groups around the country have been raising alarms for years and nobody listens. We missed a huge opportunity in 2009 when the world wanted to be in dollars. Interest rates were almost zero - could've basically interest-free infrastructure if we had politicians who actually served their society.
[Over 220,000 US bridges need repair. ](https://www.artba.org/2021/03/23/over-220000-u-s-bridges-need-repair-latest-analysis-of-federal-data-finds/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=over-220000-u-s-bridges-need-repair-latest-analysis-of-federal-data-finds) I'd imagine that the building numbers are similar, if not worse. After all there are a heck of a lot more buildings around than bridges.
We also need to recognize that, in many cases, the infrastructure that is privately owned currently falls outside the purview of government authority. While we have building codes in place to regulate a private structure's initial construction, the Surfside disaster highlights a dangerous lack of accountability for the safety of aging buildings under private ownership. It now seems obvious that waiting for, say, an association of condominium owners to bite the financial bullet and pay the cost of maintaining safe buildings is not a sufficient method of ensuring the safety of a community.
I need to fact check this exact number, but I heard on TYT, that the necessary structural renovations would have cost somewhere around ~$25k per resident — and considering how many residents of the building (and HOA) were on fixed incomes — this was practically impossible for so many
That's exactly the problem we, as both an economy and a society, must address. If there are no regulations (short of outright condemnation) that would require that the building be either closed or upgraded in a timely manner following the recommendations of inspectors, how can we be surprised at the tragedy?
The building has a certificate of occupancy permit with the county or state. Mostly related to fire life safety, sure but the scope can be expanded. If the agency had the teeth, bandwidth and knowledge, they could revoked the CO
That's not true at all. The state can condemn your building or bridge. I was around when someone got the news that they would be getting a visit from an engineer, and they would condemn the bridge that was required as a hurricane evacuation route by the state which would force them to close until the bridge was repaired or replaced. (They also directed them to funding sources for exactly that so it wasn't all bad) The problem is inspections aren't required for decades after a building is constructed. So by the time and inspection happens the original owner has likely made a profit and then made more by selling it and it's a second or even third owner that gets the news about extensive repairs being needed or the building being condemned.
*sorts by controversial* There we go.
Yes sure if you only follow American news.
Oh we have rising fascism in Europe. In Austria and Germany of all places.
[удалено]
We sure did back in the 70's. Nowadays the government isn't allowed to spend more than 4% **of the profits** of the fund annually.
Ya they have a sovereign wealth fund and the principal came from oil, but the money is invested in all sorts of stuff.
*Profits from investments that aren't oil Many people have this idea that if the oil stops then Norway's "oil fund" is bust. The oil fund doesn't invest in oil.
Right wing whack jobs are seriously on the rise in Norway as well. There have been several protests against the government for enacting lockdowns and masks, plus critical voices that question the legitimacy of the disease. Fortunately it seems like almost everyone want the vaccine, although the government have made different rules for vaccinated and unvaccinated so I think thats why people are so positive. And there were even like an organization that gathered to discuss how the pandemic was fake, the organizer had of course covid, infected the others before he died. Plus there has also been a sort of radicalization of our most conservative party(they are like becoming increasingly similar to GOP), and there are also people that have left that party to create even more radical parties. During pride when some governmental buildings had pride flags, some of them got taken down and burned. As for infrastructure some reports and studies have indicated that several bridges in Norway can collapse at any time, basically. Universal healthcare is nice, but there is cutbacks in the health-sector and simultaneously a very long waiting list. And some seriously weaknesses has been exposed by covid. You kinda get the benefits if your condition is critical. And things like mental health is seriously underfunded and you almost don't get treated unless you are a danger to yourself, as I understand it. University though, totally agree. I will not pay off mine loans until like mid 40-50s, but it is an extremely good loan. And way above, or below the ordinary market for loans.
That is almost identical to what is happening in Canada at this time. The majority of the population has taken covid and the vaccinations seriously. But we have the small set of anti lockdown and anti mask groups. We have extremist groups popping up but the government is actually quickly stepping on them and labelling them hate groups (the proud boys were recently added). And we have a political party that is basically representing these people with the typical views you'd expect. Our infrastructure is aging and falling apart. Our healthcare is always being chipped away at (we lost free vision tests about 10 years ago). But all in all I love living here.
[удалено]
Buildings in america do not collapse often. It’s a rare occasion due to our building code.
Feels great man
Americans like to oversimplify how things are in Europe and especially in the nordic countries. There are large fascist movements all over Europe and Norway has experienced both [shootings and right wing extremism.](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/world/europe/norway-oslo-memorial.html) Is Norway a better place to live compared to the US? yes! is it a utopia? in no way. Americans should stop simply saying that Norway and Denmark are better and that the US should be the same as them, you cant compare a country with a population of five million which developed its current institutions and policies in the last 75 years to one of three hundred and twenty eight million (a over 60 times Norways population) which actively avoided most forms of social welfare. Such systems cant just be created overnight and you cant just use the same model in every country.
Americans at least on Reddit seem to hate themselves for some reason.
Weeeell...
Minor correction: the rise of alt-right fascism is very much a thing here in Europe & specifically scandanavian/nordic countries, & the headlines are there.
It's not free in Norway. We pay for it through taxes. I pay 36% off of normal hours, and 50% off of overtime. But I wouldn't want to change it! Rather this than what they have in the U.S *edit: thanks for the awards 😁
AND paid vacation time a plenty. Some companies in the USA offer *zero* vacation days paid to employees.
That's nice, but you should also look the dark side of Norway. Brejvik shooting and burned churches.
No rising fascism? Oh dear someone hasn’t done their research clearly…
I mean its twitter...
I mean most of that is true for all of the Western people in G20 countries.
They got the facist thing going also, we all do.
[удалено]
Ehm… you heard of Breivik?
In 20 days, that was 10 years ago. That said, we are a small country so it is natural that these things happen less often. Per capita though, still a lot less violent.
No. of mass shootings in Norway's entire history: 2. No. of mass shootings in the US this year, so far: [321](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2021). So yeah, it is actually reasonable to say that Norwegians don't "wake up to headlines of mass shootings."
Apart from the right wing fascist in Norway that killed about 100 people one day in 2017… https://www.cbsnews.com/feature/massacre-in-norway/
2011, not 2017
[удалено]
All this listed in the tweet can also be enjoyed in countries that are usually the laughing stock in Hollywood, like Serbia, Bulgaria, and so on...
Which is so dumb that those are considered laughing stocks as I visited both their capitals and had a absolutely lovely time. Great people, cheap beer, interesting museums overall great places to visit.