Because I am That Kind Of Person, I typed "Friendship" into the search bar on Wikipedia and immediately looked at the dropdown menu of suggestions. And I see this:
Because writers feed on flaws and conflict, and because a great way to make some is to have a character go in cockeyed, I was looking up cognitive biases. This one caught my eye:
Because I am That Kind Of Person, I typed "Friendship" into the search bar on Wikipedia and immediately looked at the dropdown menu of suggestions. And I see this:
Although Friendship Games officials denied that the Games were a counter-Olympic event[1][2] to avoid conflicts with the International Olympic Committee,[1][3][4] the competition was often dubbed the Eastern Bloc's "alternative Olympics".[3][5][6][7] Some fifty states took part in the competition. While the boycotting countries were represented by their strongest athletes, other states sent their reserve teams, consisting of athletes who failed to qualify for the games in Los Angeles.[2]
The 2024 World Friendship Games (Russian: Всемирные игры дружбы 2024, Vsemirnye igry druzhby 2024) – is a planned international multi-sport event, which is expected be held in Russia from 15 to 29 September 2024.
So the Soviets held their own "Olympics" in 1984, and subsequently the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991. By the logic of copy-paste, then, if the "World Friendship Games" are being held in 2024... does that mean Russia gets dissolved in 2031?
I promise the other candidates aren't as yikes as that one, so let's see what else turned up on the menu.
The friendship paradox is the phenomenon first observed by the sociologist Scott L. Feld in 1991 that on average, an individual's friends have more friends than that individual.[1] It can be explained as a form of sampling bias in which people with more friends are more likely to be in one's own friend group. In other words, one is less likely to be friends with someone who has very few friends. In contradiction to this, most people believe that they have more friends than their friends have.[2][3][4][5]
The same observation can be applied more generally to social networks defined by other relations than friendship: for instance, most people's sexual partners have had (on the average) a greater number of sexual partners than they have.[6][7]
The friendship paradox is an example of how network structure can significantly distort an individual's local observations.[8][9]
In a 2023 paper, a parallel paradox, but for negative, antagonistic, or animosity ties, termed the "enmity paradox," was defined and demonstrated by Ghasemian and Christakis.[12] In brief, one's enemies have more enemies than one does, too.
Friendship Day (also known as the International Friendship Day or Friend's Day) is a day in several countries for celebrating friendship. It was initially promoted by the greeting card industry; evidence from social networking sites shows a revival of interest in Friendship Day that may have grown with the spread of the internet, particularly in India, Bangladesh, and Malaysia. Mobile phones, digital communication, and social media have contributed to popularize the custom. Those who promote the day in South Asia attribute the tradition of dedicating a day in honour of friends to have originated in the United States in 1935.[1]
First Sunday of every August, apparently. Well, I guess that roughly explains why Twilight's Equestria Daily day is officially every 6th of August:
I see what you did there...
Funny the last one mentioned South Asia prominently, because the next one...
Friendship is a needs-driven non-governmental organisation that works in the Char islands and riverbanks of northern Bangladesh, the coastal belt in the south, and as of 2017, the Rohingya refugee camps in Ukhia, Cox's Bazar in the southeast. Established by Runa Khan in 2002, Friendship works to empower people through a sustainable, integrated development approach.[1]
Friendship employees more than 1,500 employees that includes field staff, regional office staff, staff in the floating hospitals, teachers at Friendship schools, trainers at vocational schools, organizers and supervisors working in the northern and southern parts of the country and head office staff based in Dhaka.
And looking at the box on the right, I see their services are quite broad:
Health, Education, Sustainable Economic Development, Disaster Management and Infrastructure Development, Good Governance, Cultural Preservation
As for the founder, Runa Khan:
Runa Khan is a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur[1] and the founder and executive director of Friendship NGO.[2] Friendship is based on Khan's model of "integrated development," meaning it addresses problems in multiple sectors, including health, education, disaster management and economic development in communities where it is involved, rather than specializing in one of these.[3]
Well, you know how the saying goes: "No man is an island." I can see how that applies to ideas too.
Next up, something closer to home, because Americans sure do love their wacky village names:
Friendship dolls,Japanese friendship dolls (友情人形, yūjō ningyō), or Japanese ambassador dolls and the American blue-eyed dolls (青い目の人形, aoi me no ningyō), were dolls sent between Japan and the United States in 1927. The dolls were meant to improve the deteriorated relationship between Japan and America that had resulted from the Immigration Act of 1924, which prohibited East Asians from immigrating to the United States and sparked anti-Japanese exclusion movements in California and other parts of the US.[1] The Friendship dolls were meant to inspire children to cultivate friendship with the children of the other country, rather than to initiate specific political or legal changes.[2]
Yyyyyyyyyeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhhh, I bet that paid off well during World War II. 😩
Nice thought, though.
Which brings us, of course, to Wikipedia explaining the real deal. We finally got there, people!
Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people.[1] It is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an "acquaintance" or an "association", such as a classmate, neighbor, coworker, or colleague.
In some cultures,[which?] the concept of friendship is restricted to a small number of very deep relationships; in others, such as the U.S. and Canada, a person could have many friends, and perhaps a more intense relationship with one or two people, who may be called good friends or best friends. Other colloquial terms include besties or Best Friends Forever (BFFs). Although there are many forms of friendship, certain features are common to many such bonds, such as choosing to be with one another, enjoying time spent together, and being able to engage in a positive and supportive role to one another.[2]
Sometimes friends are distinguished from family, as in the saying "friends and family", and sometimes from lovers (e.g., "lovers and friends"), although the line is blurred with friends with benefits. Similarly, being in the friend zone describes someone who is restricted from rising from the status of friend to that of lover (see also unrequited love).
And yeah, regarding Russia -- seems like bona fide case of history repeating itself. Don't even have the balls to put up the extremist rainbow, pathetic (it's my native country, so I hope I am allowed some slander)
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okay, this was fun :D
Fun and entertaining!
And yeah, regarding Russia -- seems like bona fide case of history repeating itself. Don't even have the balls to put up the extremist rainbow, pathetic (it's my native country, so I hope I am allowed some slander)
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Fun is that thing I like having!
Also, the Russian Friendship Games is pretty much begging for that Phineas and Ferb "If I had a nickel" meme.
No, you're not! I resent that: