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Finland has just published official recommendations for use of things like social media and screen time for children. Screen time for kids between 11 – 13 years should be limited to 2 hours per day, social media is not recommended for anyone under the age of 13, and below the age of 2 years, screen time should be zero (I kind of assume this can’t apply to children’s tv programs).
The goal is to enhance children’s and youth’s wellbeing, improve learning abilities, and reduce the harmful effects of digital appliances.
I like it. About a year ago, a children’s doctor mentioned that she’s started to see kids who, instead of being able to engage in a conversation, simply ‘react’ with some slogan they’ve learned from youtube videos or something, painting a chilling image of life at home: not nearly enough interpersonal communication, with the kid just staring at videos in a corner, alone.
The idea is that a further set of recommendations for people between 13 and 18 is going to be published next year.
I have now officially ordered a beginner Czech textbook!
Will still take a bit longer until I get to start, though. Probably end of the year. Can’t wait. :3
Have any of you learned or wanted to learn a language outside school? If yes, which one(s)?
I’m caught up with my prompts (RIP my sleep, gel pen is still alive). Here’s [starfish](https://www.deviantart.com/tereyaglikedi/art/1250540035?action=published) and [reckless](https://www.deviantart.com/tereyaglikedi/art/Inktober-2025-Day-8-Reckless-1250540634). Falling behind is a bit scary. One day is okay, but more than that, and with the schedule I have right now, I am going to lose the thread. Especially so early in the month.
It’s still fun. We like a challenge.
There’s an old TV series that’s uploaded to YouTube which was made in the 90s, about the last artisans of a certain craft. There was one guy who was making a wooden trough (how many different ways to pronounce -ough are there?) out of a single piece of trunk (he was already over 80 when the programme was made, must be long dead) and yesterday there was a man who was carving music notes into a metal sheet for printing (even then he said he’s just doing this for demonstration, he’s long switched to computer). I have to say, though extremely slow and highly impractical, the end result was a work of art. Imagine learning this for your whole youth and practicing it most of your life, only for it to become totally obsolete.
He adapted and was doing fine, but it’s still a bit sad.
I wonder if he’s alive. He wasn’t that old.
Can somebody from Germany please ELI5 what the whole vegan sausage thing is about that’s all over ich_iel rn?
Second question: in a comment on one of said posts, somebody claimed that Konrad Adenauer invented one of the first fake soy meat sausages during WW1 while he was mayor of Cologne. That’s…that’s got to be a joke right?
Rally driver Kalle Rovanperä announced he’ll retire from WRC at the end of this season, which as a Finnish rally fan makes this a moderately sad day. He is only 25, but has already won two world championships. Which is unheard of at that age. Previously the youngest world champion was Colin McRae at 27 years old, Rovanperä won his first at 22. Rallying is a sport that requires a ton of experience, so drivers usually get to their peaks in their early-to-mid 30s. So Kalle Rovanperä achieving what he did is really unheard of and probably will not be replicated in a very long time. It’s a shame that he’ll retire being so young, it would have been fun to see how much he can dominate. But I guess he wants to do something else. Maybe he will come back to rallying at some point.
Yesterday I went to see an opera, Orpheus by G.P. Telemann. I wouldn’t usually go see a baroque opera, but it played in my city which doesn’t happen much so I had to go. It was fine. Not the best, not the worst. The production was by students at the Sibelius Academy, so it was relatively low budget and some aspects of it weren’t exactly polished. But there was some genuine highlights too.
A couple of days ago I was mentioning how if NCBI is shut down, we’re all cooked. This morning, I enter the website and this is what I see:
“Because of a lapse in government funding, the information on this website may not be up to date, transactions submitted via the website may not be processed, and the agency may not be able to respond to inquiries until appropriations are enacted. The NIH Clinical Center (the research hospital of NIH) is open. For more details about its operating status, please visit [cc.nih.gov](http://cc.nih.gov/). Updates regarding government operating status and resumption of normal operations can be found at [opm.gov](https://www.opm.gov/).”
Fuck everyone who has a hand in this, in particular… well, we don’t need to name any names here. You know who you are.