It appears you are right. Conifers and other gymnosperms are totally outside the definition of fruit and cannot have fruit by definition. The seed cone is however an analog of a fruit for the gymnosperms. It doesn’t have to do with petals however. Lots of flowering plants don’t have petals. Example are these wheat flowers. You have to cut up the plant to even see the flower.
The scientific definition of a berry is a fleshy fruit that came from a single ovary in the flower. Thats it. I don’t even know why they used the name berry on this term because it makes no sense and I tell you this as someone studying botany. Like none of the nuts you know are true nuts either. If a nuts shell opens on its own it’s not a nut so peanuts, walnuts and almonds are not nuts because if you plant these in fresh soil they will sprout and the shell opens. However if you plant a fresh hazelnut the shell stays on while the plant germinates from the seed, hence it’s a true nut. So stupid I know. This has use in botany but these botanical definitions have no use for normal people. That’s why we talk about “botanical definitions” and “culinary definitions”. In the common culinary definition a berry is a small freshy fruit which is the definition you know.
Bonus: in botany everything from a flower is a fruit. That means wheat is a fruit, rice is a fruit, beans are fruits, peas are fruits, all nuts are fruits, every seed is a fruit, a pine cone is a fruit, and it just goes on. But no one in their right mind would make a fruit asket with pine cones right? The botanical definition is useless outside the field of botany.
I have not used either for cars but I have tried both for driving bicycles. The thing with open street map is that they have a lot more of the small streets that bikes can go on but cars can't. In my experience google maps usually wants me to drive my bike right on some huge multi-lane car road for 3 hours and totally ignores the bike path right next to it. When I went on a 1 month bicycling trip I tried both but found that OSMAnd had vastly better suited roads. Some of the tiniest tiny roads it sent me on were some of the most memorable of the whole journey. Sometimes the path in OSMAnd will just be a dirt path half a meter wide and I love that. I thought many times who on earth even added all these roads! I'm so thankful for every local nerd who added every single dirt road in his neighborhood on there. Simply amazing sometimes. But yeah it doesn't work at all if you don't download the map that's true. Also I really can't answer for navigating by car.
In this specific case isreal asked residents of Gaza city, a subpart of the Gaza strip to move to a more southern position in the Gaza strip. Like asking people to move from Manhattan to Brooklyn because they are going to blow up Manhattan. People are capable of moving within the Gaza strip. That doesn't mean there will be housing for them however.
Yes Gaza is ruled by Hamas which is a terrorist islamist un-democratic organization which can't provide for its people, leading to foreign aid organizations providing most of the amenities there. A source for that will come later. The west bank is ruled by the Palestinian authority which is a functional state which has been mostly peaceful for the last few decades and which I support. The Palestinian authority is on paper supposed to rule Gaza too however Hamas declared war against the Palestinian authority in 2007 because they opposed the results of a democratic election and took over the Gaza strip. You can read about that here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gaza_(2007)
Music festival celebrating "friends, love and infinite freedom" right by the border fence. Hamas killed 260 of the attendees on the first date of the war. Washington post source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/08/israel-festival-attack-gaza-militants/
"Hamas’ traditional weapon is the Qassam rocket, a cheap garage-built weapon assembled from industrial piping, home-made rocket fuel of sugar and potassium nitrate fertilizer, and commercial explosive" Forbes soruce: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2023/10/09/how-hamas-leveraged-cheap-rockets-and-small-drones-to-ambush-israel/
This sources does say it's made from fertilizer but this does not say explicitly that the fertilizer is from foreign aid (I found sources but they are all isreali). However if it is or is not does not matter as much as the fact that fertilizer should have been used to produce food for the starving people in Gaza. Hamas, the rulers of Gaza, can't provide for most basic amenities for their people. Foreign aid powers a lot of basics such as schools and healthcare (which is great!) while Hamas uses their budget to bomb isreal. (If you want to read an American-jewish pro-isreal source about the accusation it's here: https://jewishjournal.com/israel/336609/made-in-gaza-hamas-rockets-the-product-of-foreign-aid-and-smuggled-material/)
This article talks a bit about the foreign aid which goes to Gaza. Thankfully most foreign aid is now earmarked for certain projects (which is why the UN runs their own schools for example, so they know where the money is going)). Isreal has called for this for a long time because they were concerned foreign aid is used to fund terrorism. In addition isreal grants work permits to tens of thousands Gazans to work in isreal across the border. On the other hand it's not possible to enter Gaza as an Isreali. I think it's clear that isreal is the party with the most good will in this conflict. It's also worth mentioning that some arab nations does not support Hamas either. Egypt for example is on the side of the Palestinian authority and has had a blockade against Hamas ever since the take over in 2007.
When it comes to Israel vs Palestine then I absolutely think it's alright to support either side. Both sides have valid reasons to exist and both sides have done horrible things to each other. But remember this is not Israel vs the Palestinian authority (the west bank). This is Israel vs Hamas (Gaza). That makes a world of a difference. In this conflict I believe Hamas is in the wrong.
Many people accuse Israel to be an apartheid state. I would argue Israeli arabs have it much better than blacks in south Africa did (polling even shows arab-isrealis (the ones who ended up in isreals side of the border in 1948) prefer living in Israel instead of Palestine because of their quality of life) however they are certainly not equal to the Jewish isrealies. But now ask yourself. How would a Jew be treated in Gaza? There are none and there is a reason for that. They would get killed on the street immediately. If isreal is an apartheid state then Gaza is a puristic ehnostate. Both are racist but Gaza is infinitely worse. They don't want to coexist with Jews at all, no they want them all dead.
Hamas is one of the worst organisations on earth. They don't even care for their own people. When western nations give Gaza free fertilizer to feed their people and reduce starvation then Hamas used it to build bombs to fire at Israel. When western charities gave Gaza money to feed their people, they bought guns instead. This is a regime ruled by nothing else than hate and does not even have a concern for their own people. Isreal supplies Gaza with water and electricity and has done so for decades. Gaza would never do something like that for isreal. I believe there is no case for Hamas at all. They are in the wrong here quite definitely. Just look who they are attacking. First target was a music festival by the border where they raped, kidnapped and murdered all the participants. This music festival was a music festival for peace. That's why it was right by the border fence. Hamas didn't believe in peace.
Swedish
I suspect there are owls in the bog (jag anar ugglor i mossen) means something is really fishy or suspicious.
Now you have really shit in the blue cupboard (nu har du verkligen skitit i det blå skåpet) means that you have done something that's so far out of line or with such dire consequences that there is no return away from this. Kinda like a harder way of saying "now you've done it".
To throw water on a goose (Slå vatten på en gås) means to say something that won't be comprehended or taken seriously by the recipient at all, either because of stupidity or because they are too locked in their mindset.
I can only think of three Swedish dishes that are traditionally vegan without any modern adjustment.
1: Pea soup/Ärtsoppa. You take dry yellow peas and put them in water for the night. Then you boil them in water for a 1-2 hours to make the soup. Traditional spices are rosemary and mustard. Not too exciting but it's okay. Some add pork but it's also traditional to not add pork
2: Bruna bönor. Can't translate this one but it just means "brown beans" but Bruna bönor specifically refer to both a bean variety which is exclusively grown in Sweden and to the dish its most often made into. The dry beans are soaked in water for a few hours then boiled in a water and vinegar mix until they have been cooked broken. Think like an Indian dhal but without spices… Not too exciting but it can be okay. It's serves with potato. Was big with construction workers and other hard laborers in the early 1950s. Many add pork but it's not strictly needed.
3: Porridge cooked with water. Not too exciting. Part of Nordic cuisine but hardly exclusive to Nordic cuisine. Oat, rye, wheat semolina. Many versions are available but it's only a breakfast dish.
The traditional Nordic cuisine is not very vegan friendly…
Just listened to one of their latest episodes. They are amazingly exactly as they were 7 years ago. I realized that I still like the format and I think I’m gonna continue listening to them again. Thanks
Probably science? They are still around!? I think the last time I listened to them was 2016. Hilarious even though the science part sometimes felt a bit forced into there. How is it like today?
A lot of people already know the absolutely excellent history of Rome podcast by Mike Duncan. However there are a lot of other history podcasts out there which also do “the start to finish format”, inspired by Mike Duncan. Some good ones I have listened to include:
Pax Britannica: A great podcast with good story telling ability about British history, with a focus on the British empire. It begins with the Henry VII and ends with Queen Elisabeth.
Russians rulers podcast: A great podcast that starts with the very first tsar of Russia and follows through the history of the whole country by focusing on the ruler of the time. It begins with Rurik and ends in Putin. However he already finished the leaders years ago so now he does slapshot episodes about various other Russian history topics which is also very interesting.
Fall of civilisations podcast: this is a great one with some of the best story telling in podcast form available. For each episode he chooses a civilization which collapsed in some form or another. He then tells their history from start to finish and but focuses on the decline and how it was to live in those last years. It’s really dramatic sometimes but it’s really informative, well researched and I highly recommend it.
Okay and now this is not a history podcast but it’s still a dear one to me: Sunday school dropouts. It’s a podcast by a wholesome married couple composed of a former presbyterian Christian (now atheist) and a “non beliving sort of Jew” (his words) that read through the whole bible for the first time. They begin with a episode on the book of genesis and continue to the book of revelation. Best way to follow along is to read the bible at the same time and after every bible book (most can be read in under an hour) you listen to the episode afterwards. But you can also listen to it blindly because they do summarize everything. Okay so why do I like this one? The bible is a truly interesting book but the discussion in our media about it is horrible. It’s either the most anti religion people or the “capital A atheists” discussing it or it’s religious people themselves, both of course approach it with very preconceived notions. But this is just a calm podcast where two non Christians seriously read it through, do their research and they discover that some is total garbage and some of the stories are so beautiful they couldn’t stop from crying during the show. Also the hosts are very entertaining and easy to like. I believe everyone should read the bible at least once to simply know what’s it about. It’s the most important book published in world history after all. They finished already and then did two seasons of just random pieces of interesting bible lore which was also fun to listen to.
It wasn’t too bad before in my opinion but this year there was a big drought in the Mediterranean and now it’s extremely expensive. Even butter is cheaper than olive oil now I’m afraid… I just try to use less of it. Speaking of butter there are now a few big studies out there showing that milk fat is not as bad as the saturated fats found in meat. But they are all funded by dairy companies so I don’t know if I can really trust them. It’s hard navigating the world of fats and health. Fats are good for you but it’s hard to know which ones are the good ones.
https://www.jeffnobbs.com/posts/death-by-vegetable-oil-what-the-studies-say
I found this post immensely helpful in describing the science behind the health effects of seed oils. But it remains to be said that saturated fat doesn’t seem like the best thing for you either. I use the mostly unsaturated oil olive oil nowadays.
This is totally correct. Just to add how they do it, it’s in-line filtering. The juice goes through a pipe at high pressure though a filter and all the solids are removed through this process. This is used for many edible liquids. Almost all beer is filtered in this way for example. Most varieties of beer are cloudy without filtering. The filtering of juice (and beer) increases the shelf life. In addition it makes the juice easier to turn into juice concentrate. In my country at least all the big juice brand are just reconstituted juice concentrate. Juice concentrates are by far cheaper in many regions because they are traded as a commodity on the world market so you can source it from the cheapest source. Fresh juice however has to be made locally and has a low shelf life, hence the higher price.
Russia has been a horrible place to be a peasant for a long time. In most of Europe peasents gained a lot of freedoms after the black death. But in Russia peasents, or serfs as they were called, only suffered worse. The serfs in Russia couldn’t even marry or move without the permission of their lord. The lord, or boyar as it was called locally, had pretty much full ownership over you. Russia pretty much enslaved their whole population until the mid 1800s. Complete disregard for the life of the commoner has been a constant theme of Russian life for a long time and it arguably continues to this day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom_in_Russia?wprov=sfla1 Some dark but enlightening reading about the historical situation of peasents in Russia. Peasents were de facto enslaved there for far longer than anywhere else in Europe. I can’t imagine living through such a time. Dedicating your whole existence and work to serving some fat boyar who cares nothing about you. At any time you could get drafted for a deadly war which you probably are not going to be returning alive from. This arguably still happens there today.
I’m afraid that AI doesn’t have to be better than human beings at a certain task for them to replace humans. AI just has to be good enough. Humans are insanely expensive to pay so even if a AI will do a much worse job but still acceptable then companies may still want to replace those workers. I’m afraid that AI will just make products and services just slightly more shitty just for the sake of corporate profits.
You are supposed to never have any other god before the Christian god at any moment. That means that if you pray to the Christian god every day of the year except for one day where you suddenly pray to another. Then during that day you put another god before the Christian god. Think of it like cheating in a relationship. Even if you are exclusive to your partner 99% of the time that 1% still counts as cheating.