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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 1st, 2023

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  • I’ve had it farm fresh in Bali and at a swanky cafe in Penang. The shared characteristic was how smooth it is. Tastes different, not necessarily better or worse. Depends on what you’re after in your beverage.

    In Penang, we had it with a normal espresso to compare. After drinking the Luwak coffee, the espresso lost all it’s flavour… It did something to our sense of taste!

    Going through a factory you can tell there’s no chance the poop makes it to the final product. In fact, none of the cherry meat is used, only the bean, so I question what effect the digestive process has. Maybe the preparation method is different? I haven’t been to a normal coffee factory to compare.

    The conditions the Luwak are kept in vary wildly, apparently the worst practices are in Vietnam. The Luwak are super cute , amazing fur, ones kept as pets were fun to interact with. The size of two house cats. Nocturnal, so I’ve only seen them active once.

    I liked the coffee but not so much that I want to support demand for it. The Luwak is a totally unnecessary step in making what is already a great beverage regardless.




  • You don’t see many cats out and about in Bucharest. Best move to Greece (or Turkey, I hear). In Athens the city microchips and makes sure “stray” cats and dogs get veterinary care. Public parks are filled with cats so you can’t eat your lunch without making a few friends, and you can’t park a motorcycle without a cat parking itself on the seat. Even the hill the Acropolis is on is covered in cats.




  • I’ve been overcharged/“taken for a ride” by five or so taxis in my life, never had trouble with a ride-share service, even in countries where they are operating illegally. Never had a clearly drunk driver, too, unlike a couple of taxis I’ve taken.

    When there’s any kind of language barrier, choosing the destination in the app rather than trying to speak it is so much easier, and using in-app translation messaging, too. When arriving in a new country, not having to get money out at the airport (avoiding rip-off ATMs or money exchangers) and being able to pay online is so much better than cash, especially when you’re not familiar with the currency.

    Certainty of price, and ability to give instant feedback are great at keeping things honest. Sure, Uber/Grab etc are terrible companies, but I swear most taxi licenses in the world are owned my organized crime, so not much of an alternative. There is so much that needs to be done with regulation to get rid of the ‘gig economy’ and make sure that drivers are properly compensated/employed, but the app-powered ride service is just so superior in every way for the passenger, in my opinion.

    May I suggest a back-up battery for your phone (I just use my laptop USB as it’s always with me and works when the PC is off).





  • her status and authority, unfortunately, make her an acceptable target

    Agreed, but It’s really more that she’s a complete arsehole. As a nimby mining magnate, she is a sponsor of organised climate denialism and vocal about it herself, a race she clearly has a horse in. She’s also an active libertarian who wants to further dismantle the welfare system, and reduce taxation, and wants Australian workers to be cool like Africans and work for $2 a day. And a vocal Trump supporter.

    It’s not the painting that makes her ugly, it’s her behaviour and ideology.


  • To add to @slickgoat@lemmy.world 's points, Australia isn’t afraid of foreigners, it has very high migration. You might be confused because of the government’s reprehensible treatment of asylum seekers. Yes it was colonised by England, but internally, diversity is the most celebrated aspect of Australia.

    Australia has been dubbed ‘the lucky country’ because despite a lack of smarts (manufacturing and other value added economic activity), we’ve always been able to dig things out of the ground and sell it (coal, wood, gas, food, gold…). Though Australia never developed a serious manufacturing sector, it has pivoted to a service economy instead, with that sector’s highest export being higher education.

    The lessons to learn from Australia is be rich, be on the other side of the world away from the world wars, and have high welfare spending (plenty of room for improvement though).