yeah! there are plenty of single-use plastics that are unavoidable at present (like all the plastic packaging keeping things sealed & sterile in hospitals); it’d be so great to be able to swap those out for something that can then biodegrade once they’re done with it! 🥳

there was no mention of shampoo. there’s research going into using fungi to biodegrade microplastics in soil, like here: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9330918/

quite likely, since microplastics have found their way everywhere, even into our brains etc too! but finding as many alternatives to plastic as possible, wherever possible, seems like a good place to start reducing future microplastics.

there’s some promising research in fungi / mycoremediation to safely break down the microplastics lying around in our soil etc too 🤞

the average person wouldn’t buy a new bed/mattress/wardrobe for a hostel (or even a hotel) they were staying in for a few weeks, no. buying larger furniture items like that would generally indicate to a family that OP might intend to stay longer than a few weeks.

it’s not really about the cost, but about making sure that everyone’s communicating their plans/return dates/expectations, so no one’s in for an unpleasant surprise when OP heads home.

overcommunication will at worst result in a “we know, you’ve told us all before”, while undercommunication could result in “i assumed you’d changed your mind about leaving, after you bought so many things for the house”

ahh. that’s a good bit more than someone would buy for a hostel stay, and probably more than someone would buy for a friend, too.

just be sure that you’re clearly communicating your intentions & letting everyone know that while you didn’t mind spending that money, you also don’t intend to move in & stay longer, despite your new purchases maybe indicating otherwise.

are any of these purchases wildly beyond what you might have bought to make a hostel stay more comfortable, like food/bedding/clothes/entertainment?

without more information/any red flags, it sounds like your parents are just being overly protective/suspicious.

assuming i somehow aquired Too Much Money (the centi-billionaire sorta Too Much Money), i’d give the money to land back projects, reforestation/rewilding projects, and native food forest projects, globally.

that probably still wouldn’t use up much of a centi-billionaire’s money, but i genuinely cannot grasp how much money that is… maybe get involved in politics & make it an international crime to charge money for anything that’s a human right, like housing/food/water 🤔

the vowels are different etc, but the tweet sets it up like it’s supposed to sound a li’l bit like “tossed salad and scrambled eggs”, which is part of the frasier theme tune.

the article feels like whataboutery in itself, imo. gchq’s main thing is mass surveillance of uk citizens. if they didn’t steal & store people’s data, then that stolen data wouldn’t be stored in one convenient central location from which to steal it 🤷

edit: i do get that it’s not great that this has happened, of course. i just don’t think surveillance should be seen as inevitable in the first place.

until they have a problem with bringing in digital IDs, and the amount of data being stored by google/meta/amazon/apple/etc, this just feels like sinophobia & xenophobia. stealing & storing our data’s bad in general, not just when china or russia want to do it 🤷

it’s from parks and recreation, the characters donna & tom have an annual day where they treat themselves to various pampering and nice things.

the date wasn’t mentioned “in world”, but that episode aired on the 13th of october 2011, hence that day being picked as the official treat yourself day!