Also in Europe. I’ve heard about Grenoble (France), but there seem to be more now. Check out adfreecities.org.uk too. Most don’t seem to ban 100% of all ads, but close enough for me.
Maybe people who are used to this will become less tolerant of online ads, too.
If I’m clearly not understanding a key concept in biology
Yes, you’re misunderstanding the concept of death. Death is bad only from the individual’s point of view. It’s how life renews itself, making room for change. Nothing wrong with trying to reduce suffering, of course, but immortality clearly falls into the “nefarious reasons” category. It’s what happens when you focus too much on the individual’s perspective of life. If you want to study biology you have to consider death from a different angle.
Some months ago walking got suddenly painful in the lower back. Walking down a stair was only possible at half the normal speed. I am fourty-something and this made me feel very old. I did more of my usual back-strengthening exercises, but it got worse. I thought surely something is broken. When I went to the doctor she told me that I just neglected stretching, mostly the hip flexor. It went away after doing that. Apparently very common when you sit a lot, and when you do lots of running. (And I did try more running to make it go away, without stretching afterwards, lol.)