Oh yeah, I was a worrier before working exclusively with people who got the worst result from the dangers constantly around us, but I try not to let it spiral.

I also used to be a smoker, which weirdly makes it easier to dismiss worrying about other things.

Yeah, that’s absolutely fair. It was fully banned in the EU in 2005, which is still way too late, but much better. Several individual countries had banned it earlier, but I don’t know how many or how effective that actually is in the single market.

I was handling all types of latent claims with long term exposures which aren’t exclusively toxin based, but it was mostly environmental/workplace poisoning, like lead paint, asbestos, printing chemicals, or radiation. One of the things I realized is that we’re either all fucked, or we’re more resilient than we expect, because most of us have a lot more casual contact with serious carcinogens than we think we do.

I try to lean towards the latter while still taking appropriate precautions, but none of us gets out alive. If I loved working on old cars, I’d probably do it despite the risks (but I’d definitely do a wet clean with as fine a mask as I could find and a disposable smock, then I’d immediately shower and get rid of my rags afterwards), because I think it’s better to use your time in a way that makes you happy than preserve a life that doesn’t fulfill you.

Anyway, that got very off track from the original diversion, but it was a fun chat. And now I’m going to throw a pair of dishwashing gloves in my trunk.

I’m sorry to tell you this, but asbestos was banned in brake pads in the US in 2024. There were restrictions in the type and processing of asbestos in the 80s, and most manufacturers stopped in the 90s, but it’s definitely still out there, especially if you’re working on a classic car, a junker that someone chose the cheapest parts for, or any kind of industrial vehicle (the last one isn’t likely for non mechanics, but most people I know who work on their own cars are working on one of the first two).

That said, I don’t think a few exposures over a lifetime are likely to cause mesothelioma. I hesitate to even say that, because it could happen with one fiber, but the vast majority of people who develop mesothelioma had multiple exposures, either very early on (eg. children of mechanics who did the laundry every other day for years), along with comorbidities (smoking, drinking, using a wood/peat stove, etc.), or on a daily basis for years and years.

I’m not saying that it’s not a danger or that you shouldn’t treat it very, very carefully (almost as delicately as you’d handle an open vial of fluorine), but I do always wonder if it would be better for everyone to do themselves it every couple of years instead of giving all of the risk to mechanics. They should have better PPE and knowledge about how to handle it than lay people, but A) we won’t really know if the PPE was effective until people have been using it for forty years and then do or don’t develop mesothelioma, and B) there is unfortunately a lot of pressure on people, from both peers and employers, not to advocate for best practices and sufficient PPE, which, along with a culture of machismo in many trades, means that people aren’t actually as protected or careful about disposal as the industry reports that they are.

But then again, given that these are brakes we’re talking about, I absolutely don’t want lay people fucking up their brakes and endangering everyone. The best solution imo would for 60+ year old mechanics to volunteer to do it (or even for the government to create a program for retired mechanics to work one day a week part time for as long as they’re capable/willing without any impact on their retirement benefits/social security). It takes several decades to manifest, so they’re almost certainly to die of something else first.

Nah, I have a very low tolerance for a patronizing tone, but a pretty high one for being ignored, and the language barrier makes me seem even less knowledgeable, so it’s a recipe for condescension if I’m the primary communicator. My husband would love it if I let loose on them in English, but that feels like giving up a little.

We just laugh at them together afterwards and if they’re too awful, we find a new place.

Yeah, I’ve helped others with brake jobs, and it’s no fun. That and my experience with handling asbestos claims are also probably pretty big factors

I’m not that into or familiar with cars, but I can do what I consider the basics: replacing lightbulbs/wipers, changing oil, changing tires, jumping/replacing a battery, etc. I moved to a new country with a different language, where very few people do their own auto work.

I’m a woman who doesn’t know any of the vernacular for mechanical issues, and so they just completely ignore me. My husband seems like he might be into cars, but he was astonished when I changed his headlight for him while we were dating. Now we just go together. They only talk to him, but I make the decisions (he used to pay €200 for the headlight replacement, which he considers normal and which I find profoundly overpriced- I won’t do my own brakes, because I don’t want my last thought to be about how I shouldn’t have done my own brakes, but it’s very easy to figure out if you did the light right).

A) that’s what editors are for. Journalists need to be persistent, observant, and fearless, not to know every case of English compound words being joined together or not.

B) Only one of those is a mistake, the other is just language being language. They could say maxing (or even maximizing), but that won’t let the reader find more information as easily, so it would be worse journalism.

His body was found at the bottom of a lake, though. It could be something other than drowning or foul play, but that’s unlikely.

Though I imagine his body would not have reacted well to it long term, either.

How many billionaires you know who got arrested for holding up a 7/11? Checkmate atheists

I think it comes from jobs where a physical limitation prevents people from “doing,” like retired athletes or really experienced surgeons who develop a tremor. Or even just people who no longer have the physical strength to do manual labor, but have a repertoire of techniques that will help others do it more effectively.

I agree that the quote doesn’t apply to teachers in general.

The US isn’t especially poorly educated on average.

The US is so unequally educated for many reasons, but the biggest one is the cost, which is mostly due to (as always) Reagan. He defunded K-12 education and public universities. When universities raised their prices in response, the government, which had been offering some need based student loans regardless of major since the sixties, greatly expanded the program, partially privatizing it. In order to make loans to very young people without immediate employment prospects a less risky investment, the loans were made unable to be discharged in bankruptcy. The increase in available loans allowed universities to further increase costs without risking pricing their applicant pools out. That became a vicious cycle and the tuitions and loans became so bloated that many graduates start with six figures in debt. It’s not a good deal for a lot of students, and it’s a worse deal, the less stable the finances of your family, unfortunately.

When I do that, I try to vote on both comments, so the other person doesn’t get that association.

That’s because those foods are made with distilled food colorings that are designed to be as tasteless as possible.

The colors in fruits and vegetables often reflect their vitamin content/taste.

Those who can, do…

(Side note: I’m a language teacher for a language I began learning as an adult in a country where it is the national language, so, while I don’t support the quote in general or apply it to any other teachers, it’s definitely something that my brain sometimes snipes at me during moments of impostor syndrome)

Especially when he looks so pained in the picture.

Think about how awful covid was, even for a lot of people who didn’t get seriously ill. Now imagine if we knew nothing about where it came from or how to prevent or heal it, and nobody, absolutely nobody could reliably give any insight.

Then it lasts for seven years, nearly halving the population, before coming back seven years after that. In a place where seven is a religiously significant number.

I would have gone fucking nuts too.

Yeah, though tbh, I gotta assume the next person will either need no incentive not to, or won’t have heard of what happened the last time

Yes, but it’s also of no use once the nukes have been deployed. Then it’s just spite, which is understandable, but way less helpful.

Since using nukes like that is the level of thing where ruthless country like China absolutely would come for the culprit and their family. Since “you might not care about your life anymore old man, but we are pretty sure you care about your children and grand children”.

Brutal? Yes. Morally right? No. Morally right to pretend you would do the whole time, but you wouldn’t actually do it? Absolutely, yes.

Even weirder, she herself is the immigrant, living most of the time in her wife’s native (*) Switzerland. She officially lives in Germany to avoid Swiss taxes, but spends little time here, preferring to influence our politics from outside the country.

/* I don’t think it makes a difference, but Switzerland is weird about citizenship- her wife was born in Sri Lanka and adopted by a Swiss couple. Native is not technically correct, but if they start drawing a distinction, there are bigger problems.

Nobody asked for you to do that, they asked for your advice, which you provided.