The planet Dune is special, because only there Spice, the most important chemical in the universe, is found.

Several noble families and organizations battle to gain control over the Spice.

—SPOILERS below for parts 1 & 2 of the series—

One of the families is set up to be murdered, but their young son survives. He is rescued by the planet’s locals.

These locals are fierce, and they are many.

—SPOILERS for part 3 & the rest of the books—

Lead by the noble son, the local people rise up and conquer the universe. The son becomes the new emperor.

He realizes that the universe – and mankind – is vulnerable because of the single source of Spice. Under the influence of Spice, he sees and enforces a Golden Path, which will eventually ensure mankind’s survival but destroy the empire.

Not indian, but yes, one of our cats does use head movements to express her … requests

So, you now learned that human behaviour is often silly when observed without context

Because it is a word, or it’s easier to say, or funnier.

It’s definitely not the only case. NATO comes to mind, or GOAT, NIMBY. Yesterday I heard someone say (in a tv series episode) ‘fudney’ for FDNY

What it ‘actually’ is does not matter.

It’s ICE, as in: cold as

Good question. So, perform an experiment: put an ice cube without air bubbles in a glass containing a mixture of ice and cold water. The temperature should become 0°C (just before it freezes), measure it.

Your hypothesis: ice is heavier than water, so it will sink

Execute the test several times, preferably 10 times or more. More is better.

Please share your experiment results. Interesting data to know for each test would include:

• sequence number of the test
• temperature of the mixture before and after you put the ice cube in
• method of ice cube creation
• volume of the ice cube
• volume of water/ice mixture
• depth of the water/ice mixture (should be > size of the ice cube)
• type of water used (tap, bottled, …)
• did the ice cube sink
• if no, what volume of the cube remained above the surface level

please also share your conclusion.

Most of us Dutchies are more or less fluent in English (over 90% of the population), and yes, many will switch to English quickly, even if you start the conversation in Dutch but are not a native speaker.

German and Dutch are closely related, but most Dutch people are not fluent in German — speaking German here is usually limited to “hallo, wie geht’s?” and ordering meals or drinks.

The Netherlands is generally very LGBTQ positive, but exceptions exist.

Immigration depends on where you’re from and if you have a job here. Visiting as a tourist is easy if you are already living in Germany - just remember to bring your passport (often it’s not checked, but there are exceptions). We love friendly tourists!

It was not that long ago when Android changed my on screen keyboard to a different layout whenever I was in a different country. Really annoying - I don’t suddenly type in Danish when I’m on a business trip to Lyngby (near Copenhagen)

How was this handled in the age of typewriters?

How on earth did English typography get so weird with mdash, ndash, dash, hyphen, etcetera while most of the readers have no clue about the the differences. IMHO, just use dash.

Can you explain me how the different lengths of dash add to the understanding of the text, when I usually don’t even see the difference on my mobile phone screen?

cheese sandwich

Nevada city, California. Population 3k+. Thanks to my wife’s addiction to christmas movies.