You can select text this way too; once it’s in “trackpad mode”, tap the keyboard with another finger, and it will start text selection.

Wow, I had no idea! But the selection is not fluid at all and really difficult this way

I’d say the main problem is that it doesn’t work while operating a phone single-handed, when you only have a thumb available, but on iPad I can see it being useful after some getting used to.

I tried on an iPad. That works but it’s really not a good experience, unless I’m doing it incorrectly. On an iPhone it’s also pretty awkward, I don’t think I will ever use that feature but it’s good to know it exists

On an IPhone and I struggle with the trackpad mode as well. I frequently might want to select a block of text, but the OS really only wants me to select to here and no more. Cannot pin down what arbitrary threshold I am missing.

That's a neat trick. It seems to only work to extend the selection to the right? Meaning:

1. Long-tap with your right thumb, drag the cursor to the end of a sentence 2. Tap with your left thumb (to the left of your right thumb) and drag to the left to select the sentence -- nothing happens 3. Drag your right thumb to the right to make sure you understand what's happening and you're doing it right -- the selection extends, yay! 4. Again try dragging your left thumb -- nothing happens.

How could Apple's human interaction people let this ship?!

We still refer to the electricity bill as the “light bill” in Brazil.

I'm an American, and this is what my mother calls it, though I call it the electric bill.

Same in Poland

Yes, that’s part of the intention of the law in fact, so that a company can’t advertise a lower price than the consumer would actually pay.

A friend of mine was (is?) completely unfazed by this sort of thing--right from the start, it was not some resistance built up over time.

She left the profession due to the long hours, low pay, and poor treatment.

Yes but the decision to redesign something might be towards people who haven't figured it out, which if they are a large enough fraction might be worth the tradeoff.

(there are other reasons too of course, sometimes not really good ones)

CGI is great actually, and most people have no idea when they are watching CGI stuff.

It's just that being able to do just about anything, down to implausible camera movements, requires restraint, and sometimes that's lacking.

(also low budget stuff might look bad, but that applies for every single thing)

That's already a thing, people asking why "CGI is getting worse"

There was no snow in São Paulo AFAIK; and snow in the south of Brazil, which did happen, happens more or less yearly.

(just a minor correction, not arguing against your general point)

I can't cite that example, I just have a friend whose parents are there tell me a story about how they were saying how pretty the snow flurries were and how he had to inform them about how ominous it was for there to be snow there. It's possible that they were referring to the frost that Sao Paolo got (which is still pretty crazy), and the videos of snow from further south.

Hahah I don't know if you meant that sarcastically, but I think I fit into that description--I do like, even love, driving, etc., but I do hate most of the consequences of having cars around.

I didn't really care for the story itself that much, I was more fascinated by the whaling culture and the glimpse it provided of the views of that time and place, along with its fantastic writing. Which is why for me it wasn't a slog at all.

If you're looking for something shorter and more readable about whaling, I'd recommend In the Heart of the Sea. The (nonfiction) story told there was used by Melville as inspiration for Moby Dick. Unlike Moby Dick, that was a book I could not put down, but my brain is also the size of a peanut.

Awesome, thanks for the recommendation