With the frustrations from using the usual search engines growing I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

It seems we've poisoned the well by allowing the proliferation of advertising interests to dominate the web.

Like how hard would it be to make your own non-commercial index?

Only human made sites that aren't related to buying, selling, marketing, etc.

Could that be a federated open-source project?

Instead of giving visitors visa free access who hold strong passports, rather make them require a visa prior to entry (meaning they can't just pack their bags and go, now having to pre-plan in advance and line up for getting a visa & paying money for it, they're not alone since hundreds more are doing the same thing. There's also the guarantee whether they'll be eligible or get rejected on the spot).

It may cause strain on visa applications that'll lead to mass rejections due to overload. If I were a country that's suffering over tourism, just rescind visa free access for ALL nationalities (including those who have strong passports like US, UK, DE, FR, AU or CA to name a few) as in when they check visa requirements: it'll be rewritten as "visa required" rather than "visa not required" prior to entry.

Or, they can apply for a tourist visa many times as they'd like but reject them. (Basically a real life travel "shadow ban" if that's the right way to say it), leads to them giving up as they'll know a visa will never be guaranteed regardless of numerous attempts. However, would this move alone reduce over tourism? Since you can't just show up in someone else's nation uninvited (illegal immigration).

I heard that Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales leaders are planning to meet to break up UK. Is it really true? Anyone from UK here who can tell me what is actually happening there?

“Worst” by whatever measure you like.
Don’t explain the joke, leave it to our imagination.
Be nice, no slurs or bad language.

I grew up in the noughties (British) and for ages since then, I’ve always had this fragmented memory of this episode of a tv show, likely on CBBC or CITV, it was a live action show. In this episode, a teacher instructs the caretaker to construct a cage for the back of the classroom. Later in the episode, as the teacher is teaching, you can see a student stood in the cage watching from the back of the class.

Always struck me as kind of a weird thing. Any idea what this would be? What show and what episode it might be? It’s been driving me insane for years and Google is no help (nor Reddit)!!!

Asking non-native English speakers.

I really despise Joe Rogan's character in Newsradio, he didn't had any of the charm or wit that the other characters had.

Has Gboard gotten worse for y'all? For past year or so it's gotten progressively worse for me. Has it been your experience too?

Sometimes it gets lonely, my stomach ache. I just need a short conversation; "hi, I am from here, I like this and.that" and then never chat again.

I need it because I am 24/7 in an apartment, and I have a lot of stress. You sometimes just need to chat or listen to them.

I’ve started investing in ETFs (S&P 500) but wonder if it would be better to buy a property instead and put it to rent.

I’m in my early 40s and I plan to regularly invest in this and similar worldwide ETFs in the next 25 years, as complement to my public pension.

A coworker told me he saved money to buy a house and put it to rent. He can always move in if he wants and it gives him a stable source of income per month. I don’t know how much.

I don’t know if investing in ETFs in wiser here: on one hand I want a quiet life and now I simply work and the money gets invested automatically once per month. I’ve never been a landlord and I wonder if the learning curve would be too steep. Furthermore, I don’t believe I want to be a landlord. Ain’t it too stressful?

I haven't

Edited title for grammar

I want incredibly mundane insults like "you look like you have a terrible handshake."

This is the type of question I receive if non Japanese people ask: "Are high schools in Japan like anime?" and the answer I give is: "no" since that's not reflective of what actual school life is. Sure, there may be inspirations upon anime taking place at a school setting since all they portray is nothing but festivals, clubs and events as if the environment is that relaxing (far from the truth, JP school life in reality is regimented on studying).

In contrast, the same shit is said about US high schools via pop culture when shown to foreigners mainly portraying: teens hanging out in someone's house partying with drinks, flexing who's the most popular, jocks in sport, bullies picking the nerd, cheerleaders & football, 13 reasons why, high school musical, prom king & queen to list a few. However, is any of that representative of real high school life in the United States?

This is intended as a broad and open ended question.

It's come up a few times in comments recently and I finally got time to mock one up, but I don't have enough content to fill the boxes.

What are some staple lemmy experiences that could go on a bingo card?

Note: this is for fun. Let's have some positive vibes to go with the negative ones since Lemmy itself is a mixed bag.

Double edit: Apologizes was not spelled like that. This is it but I'm still open to suggestions and edits!

I was watching some video and there was mention of someone getting 1984. Upon which, a guy said that this one (one who got 1984) will end up being radicalized. I was already born into a very radical environment so no needs of books to radicalize me (although I am trying to be moderate and chill now)

then

I’m an American who just started my first year of undergraduate studies at the National University of Singapore last month. I chose Singapore over the US because I wanted to live abroad, and Singapore checked pretty much every box for me: it’s in Asia, tropical, safe, developed, and English is the medium of instruction.

Now, even though NUS is a great university by global standards, the reaction I’ve gotten from many of my family members and friends is that choosing to study abroad as an American is inherently a downgrade, regardless of the university or country. That’s where my question comes from.