I’m from the U.S., and most of us generally get 10-15 PTO/vacation days in a year. I’m seeing online that Europeans can roughly get up to 20-30+ paid vacation days in a year. Is there some sort of catch that I’m missing? (Should I move? Lol)

I’m 6’3”, and one of my best female friends is really short — she’s about 5’0”. The other day I was saying goodbye to her because we weren’t going to see each other for months, and she started quietly crying. It was obvious that she was genuinely emotional and didn’t want me to leave, but she was trying to keep it silent. She basically had her hands over her face, and in that moment I wanted to stay close to her and talk to her.
We were in public, so I crouched down on my knees so that my face was closer to hers and I could talk to her more privately and intimately. It was actually a really nice moment, but in the back of my mind I kept thinking about that meme of “how not to talk to a short person.”
Are there certain situations where doing this is totally fine?

I was born in America but after my parents divorced at age 8 I lived in Japan up until now.

My mother never really wanted to do anything with me and i also just assumed we were poor now since i lived with a single mom i never really had any hobbies or Interests besides playing on a Nintendo i got pre divorce. I maintained my English and also became fluent in Japanese, that's really all i got going as a grown ass 21 yr old.

going back like half a decade, my mother funneled all her resources into getting me into cram school as any Japanese mother does and I miraculously got into like a top 5 school in Japan. Hurray. Except everybody there was lowkey not only smarter but had lives beyond cram school studying, and in the meanwhile i was basically a moron with 0 identity for the next 2 years.

I basically lost my mind after that as I was forbidden to date girls or get a job or even find a hobby at that because my mother said "i needed to study more" and she paid the bills anyways. I also had no friends either because of Covid online classes + i had no phone so until highschool so i never really oriented with that kind of stuff.

So one day i just quit school as i really just couldn't accept that the rest of my life was just going to be chasing funny numbers with 0 personality until a relative hooked me up with some lady and i start a family and restart the cycle. I literally just couldn't bring myself to keep going to a place i neither belonged or wanted to be in.

Then I thought i'd indulge in my Interests and figure out what i'd want to do, except i was beginner at literally everything i tried and knew nothing about anything besides what i learned until i was like 16 (I started to get bad grades by 17 as i lost Interest in school too).

I gradually just turned into this person who made poor attempts at things as i did the most minimal amount of working to fund my indulgences. Fastforward 3 years, and basically I'm exactly where i started but without the youthful energy to try new things. It's been especially rough this year as I met my cousin who got into a similar school bur was doing happy just being a good student and nothing more. Maybe my white genes got to me. They say depression is for white people anyways.

Right now I've applied part time to community college in America at my paternal families' place. I don't know what to do, my Father has long remarried and doesn't have time for my bullshit. I just want guidance on how to turn my life around for the better.

China blew up economically by creating special economic zones and utilizing cheap labor. Why can't India just copy that playbook?

Does it come down to politics and culture? China has a centralized system that can easily push massive nationwide projects and mobilize people, whereas India is a democracy made up of vastly different cultures, languages, and ethnic groups without that single unified directive. What's actually stopping India from having a similar boom?

Backstory: A week ago I went into the ER by ambulance and then was transferred to a bigger hospital. I had been sick for 3 days with throwing up and got to the point where I passed out on the stair landing.

I ended up having a G.I. hemorrhage,a NSTEMI heart attack, needed a blood transfusion, went into non-Diabetic keto acidosis. My potassium and iron also bottomed out. I spent 5 days in the hospital ICU step down unit, and am now recovering at home.
Part of me still feels like such an idiot for not knowing how bad I really was. I am so thankful for the firefighters, paramedics, doctor and nurses who helped me along the way.

Not just your pets, but random animals like birds or other wildlife. Do you say "hello there!" or whatever, to animals you see? My wife and I both do this and I'm wondering if it's weird or normal.

Honest question,

If for some reason my leg had to be amputated, could i make the explicit request for the leg to be given to me once amputated? It's a part of me, i own it more than anything else in that world, seems only logical to ask for it after separation.

I won't lie, this is a two layer question. The main reason would be to try and cook some of it, just to know how it tastes. It's litteraly my own body, so to me, it feels completely fine ethically, even if its a bit weird. But at this point you can either throw it away or do something with it, and i'd choose the latter. Is it ok from a legal perspective?

And no i'm not a psycho, just curious. And no i'm not planning on making something happen to my leg ^^

Not sure if its breaking the rule 8 of the sub, but i wanted to ask

edit: ok i'm sorry, this felt like natural curiosity but maybe i should talk to someone after reading the comments :(

i was looking into weird idioms and funny sayings from different languages recently, and someone told me that in Dutch, people regularly use terms for illnesses (like fever, cholera, or pox) when they're angry or swearing.

coming from english where most swearing is about body parts or religion, this sounds super strange to me. do people actually say these out loud in casual conversation over there, or is it considered way too offensive/taboo for normal daily life?

I’m not arguing for or against it here, but I just saw that Florida will be executing a man for a crime he committed in 1976. He’s essentially already served a life sentence at this point.

Asking as someone who was nonexistent during the 1990s.

I usually eat them plain, but the crumbs and flaky pastry do go everywhere. Is there a polite way to eat a croissant?
Also, what's the story for filled croissants?

There are like tons of Reddit posts saying to never talk to the police no matter what unless you have a lawyer present, like to the point it's considered like, by far, the smartest thing to always do. I know this case was like years ago, but for some reason his parents got criticism for following that advice, even though most people wouldn't speak to the police either if their lawyers told them not to?

There’s of course a lot of women who do choose to start a family and be a mother. I’m just curious about why some millennial and Gen Z women increasingly decided it’s not for them. (Which is also completely okay obviously)