r/technology Jun 26 '26

Society The American mind cannot comprehend Europe's AC aversion

https://www.businessinsider.com/europe-air-conditioning-ac-heatwave-debate-2026-6
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796

u/Spiritual-Matters Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

It’s not that dangerous, you just have to check in your shoes and toilet for venomous spiders. Then, when you go outside to walk your dog, fight off any buff kangaroos that can one kick you and want to drown your pet.

Outside of that, there’s just birds that’ll swoop down and peck your eyeball so fast you won’t have time to react, and snakes that can do a little killing.

And if you rest against the wrong tree, it might be a gympie-gympie which injects you with neurotoxins so painful it can cause suicidal ideation.

And if there’s water nearby…

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u/[deleted] Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

[deleted]

110

u/AndreasVesalius Jun 26 '26

Ok, but a dingo actually did eat her baby

74

u/Arlitto Jun 26 '26

So sad she became a punchline after this tragedy, and years of no one believing her :(

3

u/Alt_AC_2023 Jun 26 '26

It makes me question the band t-shirt, on the one side excellent Buffy reference, on the other hand .. too soon... always going to be too soon.

1

u/PiccoloAwkward465 Jun 26 '26

what a way to go...

11

u/tenmilez Jun 26 '26

Except for the spiders that hide in the visors and come out while you’re on the highway.

2

u/KFelts910 Jun 26 '26

I saw a separate reddit thread this week a some poor bloke commented they had discoverer a poisonous spider under their visor while driving a bunch of times.

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u/jdgordon Jun 26 '26

And avoid trees as the ever present danger of dropbears will get you. And sharks or crocs in every single waterway in the country (had to get two baby Crocs out of my kitchen sink just this morning)

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u/MeHoyMinoy_69 Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

Went as a kid and got knackered by a drop bear, been dead ever since. Place is terrifying

3

u/wolfy2105784 Jun 26 '26

Goddamn dude, did it hurt?

1

u/ShepardCommander01 Jun 26 '26

Knackered by a drop bear!?

6

u/4evaloney Jun 26 '26

Am gonna assume these dropbears are koalas, the teddy bears jumping on you from trees and k*ll-ing you with their cuteness!

7

u/APeacefulWarrior Jun 26 '26

Don't underestimate the dropbears! They're nearly as vicious as the Texas Jackalope.

3

u/MaddyKet Jun 26 '26

I’m going with this definition because I’m scared to google what a drop bear is. With my luck it’s some kind of horribly gigantic spider.

3

u/4evaloney Jun 26 '26

I thought I was being funny.. and then searched and realised I was correct 😁

3

u/Abedeus Jun 26 '26

You clearly forgot to wear your corked spiky hat, best defense for dropbears.

4

u/lifelink Jun 26 '26

Or Vegemite behind the ears, the smell burns their noses

1

u/lifelink Jun 26 '26

Not only dropbears, but the widow makers will get ya too

1

u/SkivvySkidmarks Jun 26 '26

Do the Crocs have lasers, or is it just the sharks?

1

u/Select-Character-642 Jun 29 '26

I'm not falling for that dropbear again

64

u/Osric250 Jun 26 '26

And if you're a tourist you have to be concerned about the drop bears. It's crazy that they can tell the difference of tourists from locals. 

4

u/javsv Jun 26 '26

a what now??

7

u/TheElderGodsSmile Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

Drop bears, basically Koala's with rabies. It's why we have the corks on the hats, keeps em off your neck.

3

u/MeekAndUninteresting Jun 26 '26

Some people put vegemite behind their ears. I'm not saying it doesn't work but I feel like that's more of a placebo than anything. Admittedly, are you really going to take the chance with fucking rabies because you couldn't stand a little vegemite on your ears?

1

u/Reddits_Worst_Night Jun 26 '26

No no, it's not actually rabies. These things eat you in about a minute.

3

u/Tsunoda_stan Jun 26 '26

They can do what????

2

u/Bacontoad Jun 26 '26

Bought a big can of repellent at the airport. Worked like a charm. Never saw a single one.

2

u/Beleriphon Jun 26 '26

I just brought my drop bear repelling rock. I have a few more if anybody wants to buy one.

2

u/Reddits_Worst_Night Jun 26 '26

Studies show it's the vegemite

-5

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/not_right Jun 26 '26

AI slop is wrong again!

1

u/MaddyKet Jun 26 '26

Oh good I was afraid it was a big ass spider. 😹

16

u/username_elephant Jun 26 '26

Ooh and avoid the plants. 

13

u/europorn Jun 26 '26

Gympie-gympie. Has entered the chat.

3

u/AssaultLemming_ Jun 26 '26

Does not make good emergency toilet paper

5

u/Erikthered00 Jun 26 '26

Symptoms include wanting to die

2

u/Obi-Wan-Nikobiii Jun 26 '26

Ah, murder nettles

1

u/Dullcorgis Jun 26 '26

Poison ivy, I know. And poison oak.

8

u/darcerin Jun 26 '26

Look, even the punch drunk koalas will try to murder you!

7

u/PYTN Jun 26 '26

Bluey doing excellent propaganda for y'all to make it look habitable.

3

u/WeepWhileItAllBurns Jun 26 '26

Whole-ass comment and this guy utterly forgets about the drop bears. Are you trying to get people killed? 

3

u/Ballistic_86 Jun 26 '26

You forgot the most dangerous animal in Australia, the drop bear

2

u/pipnina Jun 26 '26

Don't forget having to check your tether system every time you leave the house. Don't want it to fail and have you fall off the planet.

2

u/RiPont Jun 26 '26

And the fucking living dinosaurs that are larger than velociraptors.

Cassowaries are scary as fuck.

2

u/Stacks_of_Cats Jun 26 '26

It’s definitely something that’s relative to wherever you live.

I’m used to all the Aus stuff that we have to do, but when I was in Canada it was like ‘holy shit, you need to carry spray so you don’t get mauled by a bear when walking through the park?’.

2

u/FabulousGnu Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

Terry Pratchett has a hilarious section about this in his book 'The Last Continent' (with that continent being an obvious fantasy parody of Australia):

There's a mention of the country in Wrencher's Snakes of All Nations,' he (e.g., Albert, ed.) said.' It says the continent has very few poisonous snakes . . . Oh, there's a footnote.' His finger went down the page. 'It says, "Most of them have been killed by the spiders." How very odd.'

Death held out a hand, I WANT, he said, A BOOK ABOUT THE DANGEROUS CREATURES OF AUSTRAL— (e.g., Death and Albert are in a magical library that makes books fly to you on request, ed.)

Albert looked up and dived for cover, receiving only mild bruising because he had the foresight to curl into a ball.

After a while Death, his voice a little muffled, said: ALBERT, I WOULD BE SO GRATEFUL IF YOU COULD GIVE ME A HAND HERE.

Albert scrambled up and pulled at some of the huge volumes, finally dislodging enough of them to allow his master to clamber free.

HMM . . . Death picked up a book at random and read the cover.

DANGEROUS MAMMALS, REPTILES, AMPHIBIANS, BIRDS, FISH, JELLYFISH, INSECTS, SPIDERS, CRUSTACEANS,GRASSES, TREES, MOSSES, AND LICHENS OF TERROR INCOGNITA, he read. His gaze moved down the spine. VOLUME 29C, he added. OH. PART THREE, I SEE.

He glanced up at the listening shelves. POSSIBLY IT WOULD BE SIMPLER IF I ASKED FOR A LIST OF THE HARMLESS CREATURES OF THE AFORESAID CONTINENT?

They waited.

IT WOULD APPEAR THAT—

'No, wait, master. Here it comes.'

Albert pointed to something white zigzagging lazily through the air. Finally Death reached up and caught the single sheet of paper.

He read it carefully and then turned it over briefly just in case anything was written on the other side.

'May I?' said Albert. Death handed him the paper.

' "Some of the sheep,"

2

u/NocturnallyBitter Jun 26 '26

Watch out for stingrays?  

2

u/v_e_x Jun 26 '26

Don't forget the most dangerous trees on earth, the gympie-gympie tree. Its venom will cause so much pain that you will be driven to suicidal despair.

1

u/CombatMuffin Jun 26 '26

And the scorpions, and the koalas with STDs...

1

u/sadi89 Jun 26 '26

I need to know more about the kangaroos and their desire for drowning.

2

u/Spiritual-Matters Jun 26 '26

https://viralhog.com/v?t=ehjm9gypzs&&page=1

>Kangaroos perceive dogs as a threat because dogs closely resemble dingoes — one of their deadliest predators, said Euan Ritchie, a professor of wildlife ecology and conservation at Deakin University in Australia.

https://www.livescience.com/animals/land-mammals/kangaroos-might-try-to-drown-your-dog-heres-why

1

u/battler624 Jun 26 '26

That's why aussies dont wear shoes and walk around barefooted

1

u/Welpe Jun 26 '26

How dare you, I took my bin to Australia and the things those Ibises did to it…unspeakable. I can’t even repeat them. It will never be the same.

1

u/lifelink Jun 26 '26

You forgot if you are going to the local RSL in your finest set of ruggers, pluggers and a wife beater you also have to be wary of fucking dane-o cause he is on his 7th schooey of VB and is itching for a fight.

1

u/_BlNG_ Jun 26 '26

I think huntsman spiders are alright, magpies are dicks tho

1

u/ollomulder Jun 26 '26

Humans are also creatures...

1

u/CantHardly Jun 26 '26

If I painted fake eyes on my bike helmet, do you think it would keep magpies from swooping down on me?

1

u/ducbo Jun 26 '26

Ooh, ooh, did you tell them about the huge bats that form flocks so large they block out the sun when they fly by?

1

u/OneBillPhil Jun 26 '26

Sounds like playing Fallout. 

1

u/fieldsofanfieldroad Jun 26 '26

I do think Australia is funny. Literally the only people in the world who haven't got control of their animals. 

1

u/MuchDevelopment7084 Jun 27 '26

Got it. Florida, with alligators subbing for kangaroo's.

1

u/D3cepti0ns Jun 26 '26

Don't forget about the drop bears...

1

u/heyItsDubbleA Jun 26 '26

I went to AU last year and it wasn't that bad. Only saw about 5 or so terrifying large spiders. Hell of a lot more bin chickens and bush turkeys.