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.

Sorry, I’m under my rock here, but distraction from what?

On first thought, it didn’t seem that bad of an idea. Manufacturing and industry-based businesses in the western Rizal area (Montalban, San Mateo, Antipolo, Cainta, Taytay, Tanay, etc) needs access to the port of Manila. That then leads me to thinking there must have already been a plan for such a highway (like NLEX, SLEX, and C6).

However, the devil is in the details. Why would it need to be near the Pasig river? Couldn’t they have adopted an existing alignment? Aurora Avenue comes to mind, but it’s too narrow west of EDSA. An alignment based on Shaw Boulevard could have been nice, but it doesn’t even reach Rizal, it’d have to cut through already-built-up area west of Manggahan floodway if it has hopes of reaching Manila East Road. So, Metro Manila is already too crowded for a major east-west corridor for transporting goods.

How about using the river itself! No, not a highway over the river, but using cargo barges to carry goods from Rizal perhaps via facilities in Tanay, Cainta/Taytay, Pasig, Makati, Manila and then a separate facility next to the port. And then if it works, it can be extended via a different route coming from Laguna. It’s already there, and perhaps there wouldn’t be any induced demand.

Of course, it would be hard to connect with the C6, NLEX, and SLEX projects, which might be the point all along. Also, there might be issues with how navigable Pasig river and Laguna de Bay would be to barges of a certain capacity.

I don’t know, that’s why things like this should have been planned by the government decades in advance, and with expert help from the likes of JICA and others, in light of future projections and policy.

Thanks! About the translation, yeah, my primary concern is putting across the wording of the original, that’s why it became too literal. You know, that basic Japanese newbie learner tendency to be too literal.

I am also a bit stumped about the grammar used for the last sentence, but I’m guessing it’s some polite construction which wouldn’t affect the English translation too much.

I agree about being able to grasp the gist of the message with some basic Japanese, but IDK about being able to actually read the message.

お願い

この先は危険ですので、これ以上前へ行かないようお願い致します。

There are some parts of the message that I don’t think is included in basic Japanese lessons:

• 危険 → dangerous
• 以上 → exceeding, beyond
• 行かないよう → probably related to the V+ようだ construction, which with the following bit, might be a polite way of making a request.
• お願い致します → probably some polite way of saying ‘please’

If I were to translate the message with my meager self-taught Japanese, I’d probably render it as something like

Request

Because of the danger ahead, not going beyond here is humbly requested.

Though I don’t think that fully captures the nuance of the message itself.

Oh! That’s probably enough for one day’s work (kahit na may konting overtime o mejo heavy workload)! Pwede na palang pang-remote work ito! Of course, it’d depend on what exactly you’re doing, but a work day doesn’t impose a huge demand on a computer all the time.

So pwedeng na ata talaga syang pang-work computer!

That looks like a sweet portable PC set-up. Obviously you can’t use it on the go as laptops would allow you to, but if you’ve got the space, you can set it up rather quickly.

Just one question though, how long do you think it’d run when on powerbank alone (assuming your average usage)?

The alien impersonator was me all along!‌ HAHAHA!!!

I mean, seriously, I am not a native English speaker, but even with my weird English accent, it only became weirder if I try to speak fast while keeping the emphasis on that ‘t’ at the end of “hot”. My native accent also probably lends to that glottal stop taking over the ‘t’ and merging it with the upcoming ‘p’ sound. It also helps that the two sounds (glottal stop and the bilabial ‘p’) are on opposite sides of my mouth, so I‌ can quickly sound them in succession. The end result sounded to me like an exaggerated “posh British” rendition, as if the alien watched way too much‌ BBC before invading Earth.

It just sounded way weirder than I otherwise would be. I can’t really describe it.

I didn’t get it until I started trying to say “hot potato” in the middle of a sentence, like “Look out! Hot potato incoming!”

The ‘t’ in “hot” became more and more like a glottal stop as my tongue started to touch the gums of my top front teeth less and less.

Tagalog, my native language, has one that I’ve always wondered about: ‘umay.’ I would translate it as “too delicious, it’s almost sickening.”

Imagine a cake that’s too delicious, overwhelms your senses with sweetness, tartness, bitterness and all the good things that in moderation, would have made for a perfectly delicious cake. For example, “Masarap naman yung cake ni Maria, kaso nakaka-umay” (“Maria’s cake is delicious, really, but it’s a bit too much for me”). I guess one can put it as ‘too much,’ or ‘overwhelming,’ but there’s this additional element of “it’s actually kinda good, you know, but it went a bit too far.”

Now, I’ve been wondering if it’s related to the Japanese 美味い (うまい), and the wiktionary entry I linked earlier has it as a possible origin. I find it kinda (morbidly) funny wondering if it got its present meaning during the second world war, when the Japanese invaded the Philippines. I’d imagine Filipinos would just keep saying “it’s delicious, it’s delicious,” just to placate the Japanese, even if they’re already too sick and tired of it.

A source close to the Pope told CNN that the phrase could also be understood as there is a “gay climate” in the seminaries.

I wonder why… Surely it isn’t because a seminary is a good place for a confused, self-hating homosexual to be in, right? Surely it isn’t because being gay was seen as so anathema in Catholic-dominant societies that the seminary seems to be a sanctuary, right?

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.

Target is one creature the caster can touch (can be self). The target can make a wisdom saving throw against the caster’s spell save DC. If successful, the spell ends without having any effect on the target. Otherwise (or if the target chose not to make the wisdom saving throw), the target will immediately taste some really well-made lemonade gin mojito that will linger for as long as the spell is in effect.

For every turn the target takes after this, the target will have to make a constitution saving throw against the caster’s spell save DC. A successful constitution saving throw will restore one first level spell slot. A natural 20 will increase the spell slot level this spell will restore. A failure will end the spell. A critical failure will cause the target to deplete all of their spell slots and the spell ends. Every turn increases the save DC‌ by one.

“Going into Happyland” sounds like a great euphemism. I’m going to steal it if you don’t mind.

And that’s perhaps the most peaceful peace. A‌ peace only nothingness can bring.

There are other options other than this one that requires permission. The article mentions her reasons to choose this method.

From the article:

She had thought about taking her own life but the violent death by suicide of a schoolfriend and its impact on the girl’s family deterred her.

Whether we agree with her or not, it’s her decision.

And while I don’t think that’s exactly what you meant, it’s how it comes across. Almost all of your points are some variation of who’s gonna pay for their treatment and take care of their physical needs.

Indeed, that’s not what exactly what I meant. Thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt.

My main point can be summarized in that second to the last paragraph, which I doubt has communicated things adequately.

To reiterate: it won’t be initiated by the medical professionals. They’re simply there to ensure that someone applying for this procedure are indeed “proceeding of their own accord and have made sure options have been considered”. The waiting period is there to make sure that not only they’ve arrived at this decision after careful deliberation, but also to force them to consider and try out the options available to them. The process can be terminated at any point by the patient, and the final step will not proceed without their permission.

My point is that mental illness is much less understood than physical illness, and I wouldn’t trust any diagnosis that said the condition could never be resolved.

I accept this point. This is why I‌ put the emphasis on the decision of the patient. And this is where I think our positions fundamentally differ. Promising treatments may or may not be there, may or may not be there in the immediate or far future, but it’s on the patient to consider. The medical professionals are there to ensure that the patient has considered available options, and have exerted reasonable effort to improve their situation. Whether or not the patient has made “the correct decision” isn’t the point—but rather whether or not the patient has made an informed and well-thought-out decision.

I share your opinion that in an ideal world, this shouldn’t even be needed. That even though the option would be there for anyone to take, no one will take it in an ideal world. But we are not in such an ideal world. We can strengthen our social safety nets to help people suffering from the debilitating effects of mental illness (among other sources of suffering), and that will do a lot of good, but until we arrive at a society which no longer needs a dignified exit because no one ever wants to exit, I am of the opinion of giving them that option.