I have the feeling that over the past years, we've started seeing more TV shows that are either sympathetic towards Hell and Satan, or somewhat negative towards Heaven. I just watched "Hazbin Hotel" today, which isn't too theological, but clearly is fairly negative towards Heaven.

In "The Good Place",

"Little Demon" has Satan as a main character, and he's more or less sympathetic.

"Ugly Americans" shows demons and Satan as relatively normal, and Hell doesn't seem too bad.

I only watched the first episode of "Lucifer", but it's also more or less sympathetic towards Lucifer.

I have a few more examples (Billy Joel: "I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints", or the very funny German "Ein Münchner im Himmel", where Heaven is portrayed as fantastically boring), but I won't list them all here.

My question is: how modern is this? I've heard of "Paradise Lost", and I've heard that it portrays Satan somewhat sympathetically, though I found it very difficult to read. And the idea of the snake in the Garden of Eden as having given free will and wisdom to humanity can't be that modern of a thought, even if it would have been heretical.

Is this something that's happened in the last 10 years? Are there older examples? Does anyone have a good source I could read?

Note that I don't claim Satan is always portrayed positively, or Heaven always negatively :).

I just played a round of Machi Koro with a friend, and at a certain point, he was far behind. He didn't have many buildings that grant money on other people's turns, and the rest of us had also purchased a lot more red buildings than him.

I'm looking for ideas of house rules that make help provide some sort of catch-up mechanism if you're far behind. Do any of you have any tips?

If it matters, we usually play with the Harbor expansion, but are willing to play without it as well. We're already considering it because of how extreme the Tuna Boat can be.

I do not know if it's true for all countries, but at least the USA and the UK require your passport to be signed to be valid. And I know that when I fly, I sometimes get checked if it is signed.

Is there a practical reason for this? Does the signature get checked against anything? Or is it simply that the law says a passport must be signed to be valid, so there you go?

I googled around a bit, but only found resources on how to sign, but not why it needs to be signed.

Thank you Internet hive mind!

As far as I am aware, grazing animals like cows or sheep poop in the same meadows where they eat grass, but presumably don't have any problems eating the grass and pooping in the same space. But if humans would eat vegetables that they had pooped on, my understanding is that we would get sick.

Why? Am I incorrect that grazing animals poop where they eat? Are their stomachs more resistant to whatever makes it dangerous?

Thank you!

Please forgive me...I'm over 30 and was never a clubber.

In a number of songs, women "get low". In "Low":

Shawty got low low low low low low low low

In "Belly Dancer", they drop down and touch the ground;

Hey, ladies drop it down, just want to see you touch the ground

...

You ain't even gotta drop down if you want to

What activity is being described here? What are these women doing?

Hi all! I'm looking for a service where I can port my phone number, and then make and receive phone calls and SMS, all over data, not cell service. My particular use case is that I live in Germany, but I still have a US phone number, and occasionally need to receive SMSes or phone calls on that number.

I am aware that Google Voice offers this service, but as you can probably guess given that I'm here, I am unwilling to use it :). I saw JMP here: https://lemmy.world/post/1033514, but TBH, I don't think that it will give me the experience that I'm looking for, given that it seems to translate everything back to generic Jabber.

Edit: Thank you all for the suggestions! I have decided to go with VoIP.ms: I tested it today, and am working on transferring my number to them now.

So, yesterday I broke my dominant arm. Yay! For the next 6 weeks, I have a cast, and at least for now, I can't use my right hand or arm at all (I am typing this with my left hand).

I'm looking for suggestions what I can play. Some thoughts:

1. On PC, of couse
2. Can be played only with the keyboard
3. No time limits or need to respond quickly (e.g. many RTSes)
4. I like puzzle games, RPGs, and good storytelling. I want to like sim games, but haven't yet found one that I love.
5. Nothing too difficult

Here's a link to my Steam profile, if that helps: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198028619119/games/?tab=all

Thank you all for any advice!