I hate that tall people and attractive people automatically get to live life on easy mode.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-09-13T22:36:45+00:00

All things being equal, you're correct. A physically attractive person has more potential for success than someone who is not. An attractive person that develops themselves is pretty much unstoppable. It usually balances out, however. Attractive people don't have to develop as many skills because things are easy enough without them. Eventually those looks fade or they meet someone who they like, but who expects more than good looks.

Women don't need to be 5'10". Women don't like being that tall and finding men tall enough to date and clothes that fit is a pain.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-08-30T03:05:21+00:00

There are gold coins that are appropriate for investing in the value of gold and gold coins that are appropriate for investing in the collectable value of the coin. The value of the latter is much more subjective. If you want to invest in gold, buy as close to gold spot value as possible.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-08-27T17:23:41+00:00

The US government that has blocked access to Russian web sites so US citizens cannot get ~~their point of view~~ misinformation is concerned that Russians are using people in the US to spread ~~the truth~~ Russian narratives.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-08-19T02:16:33+00:00

“On another note, this year’s average for homework turned in is riding at 67%,” wrote Brown. “I’m talking a twice-monthly 5 sentence summary of what the student is reading in their own time. I remind students daily, I send text messages through Remind, it’s on my website. The only other thing I could do is do it for them,” she continued.

There is one other thing she can do if students do not hand in required work: fail them. Do the work or fail. People work when there are consequences for not doing so, but consequences are out of fashion so children get passed to the next grade whether they do the work or not. When things get tough, like they did when schools were virtual for a year of Covid, standards are dropper further and children who were absent 98% of the time were passed on to the next grade.

Keep dropping standards and watch homework and project turn-in rates continue to drop.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-08-19T01:32:23+00:00

Yes, the country that is funding this war to the tune of trillions and has blocked communications out of Russia to prevent disinformation is claiming that it's a resounding success.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-08-18T14:18:02+00:00

Trump started this mess by approving the massive stimulus. Biden didn't fight it and has been trying to bury the energy sector instead of using it to reduce costs and harm Russia and the Saudis.

Higher food costs, higher energy costs, and higher housing costs that the 99% cannot avoid, and whose take home pay has not in the least kept up with, is not "doing better."

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-08-17T20:46:59+00:00

Energy, food, and housing are inelastic and they are all up significantly more than our income. Even people who have seen a rise in the value of the property they own aren't happy. In fact, most of them cannot afford to move because to buy the same house they're living in will cost 80% more due to interest rates.

While people enjoy blaming capitalism for the ills of our world, all three of these costs are higher because governments have made them so. Fuel was much cheaper before Covid restrictions killed much of the shale industry and EPA guidelines continue keep companies from building capacity. The war in Ukraine along with increased petroleum costs have driven up the price of food. Developers have been trying to build new houses for decades, but zoning restrictions and the cost of building supplies make building anything except $600K+ houses unprofitable.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-08-11T15:29:32+00:00

Sadly, it's hard to support the GOP. While the Democrats openly hate the United States and support changes that continue to drive down the economy and increase crime, the GOP mostly stands by and does nothing.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-08-09T18:19:04+00:00

This is pay plus benefits.

Prior to the new deal, the company said drivers earned about $95,000 in pay annually on average or about $42 an hour, and another $50,000 in benefits.

If the increase is proportional, this brings their salary to $111K which is amazing for a driver. The article doesn't break this down by driver type and I expect their cross-country tractor trailer drivers are making more than their door-to-door delivery drivers.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-08-09T17:51:16+00:00

Outsiders, weirdos, geeks, etc, were always made fun of and often physically abused. It was the only way people, whose only tool was violence, knew how to get them to be "normal." It was/is wrong and so people began to actively fight against bullying. The basic idea that not every outsider has problems that need to be corrected is widely accepted.

The old outsiders didn't care to be a part of society. They didn't need to be accepted. They ignored things they didn't like and did their own thing. The outsiders of today don't want to be left alone. They want to be catered to and celebrated and it's understandable that many people want nothing to do with it. We've shifted from bullying to normalize people to bullying to radicalize people. As each new group of radicals gets their wishes, a new group makes even more ridiculous demands while simultaneously pretending that they're being oppressed.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-08-08T14:47:33+00:00

You are fined one credit for violation of the verbal morality code. https://youtu.be/LE3oczJ1zgM?t=12

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-08-05T20:44:22+00:00

For sure free speech is an essential part of a properly functional social media platform...But it seems to me that allowing all speech, no matter how bigoted, racist and sexist it is creates another problem in creating a lack of appeal to the average person, which in turn produces a lack of engagement.

Popular speech doesn't need protection. That's why all speech should be allowed. The repugnant speech is overwhelmingly childish name-calling which contributes little to the conversation. The best thing to do is shout it down with better content.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-07-27T14:05:30+00:00

Her 17 year old son died last year which devastated her. Soon after he died she posted she was going to join him and later that she was going to seek help. Then this.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-07-13T00:33:42+00:00

Paris is a beautiful city full of a long history that most Americans aren't exactly prepared for. There are plenty of 500 year old buildings to visit. The walkways are wide and pleasant. There is so much food to choose from, it's overwhelming. If this person couldn't find good food outside of McDonalds, he was looking for McDonalds.

The Parisians are not something most people are used to either. If you've been in NYC in the 90's or even Philly today, you'll know what to expect in Paris. They're curt, gruff, and you're in their way. Meet them half-way and they're wonderful to deal with.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-07-10T13:47:57+00:00

This proving the old adage: "God created men and Samuel Colt made them equal."

Three people broke into this person's house while they were home with an intent to do them harm. Being attacked by multiple people is unfair. The best way to meet that threat is with a tool. It sounds like that's what happened.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-07-06T00:52:31+00:00

Oh good, this must mean that everyone should be required to send money to the private school that I went to.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-06-30T17:40:20+00:00

He's referring to the US Dust Bowl that destroyed crops and saying that we should have learned from that.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-06-30T17:18:23+00:00

Same video, but you can see the slides and read the transcript. https://seemorerocks.is/dr-david-e-martin-phds-address-to-the-european-union-parliament-may-2023/

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-06-30T17:17:51+00:00

If you want to hear some counter-points: https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/financial-analyst-david-martin-misrepresents-studies-patent-applications-promote-baseless-claim-sars-cov-2-developed-bioweapon/

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-06-29T15:38:31+00:00

That was saccharin. It causes bladder cancer in mice at extremely high doses and did so by a biological mechanism that does not exist in humans. Today Diet Coke contains aspartame.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-06-22T16:55:27+00:00

Worst case scenario: it's practice in deployment, coordination, and dive-rescue.

Best case scenario: they rescue rich people and gets tons of publicity.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-06-15T03:16:39+00:00

If you don't want to kill people overseas, imprison people for victimless crimes, or neuter education, there's no home in the two major parties.

Any differences that exist are irrelevant to these three.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-06-11T03:38:40+00:00

If I can drink 8 double espressos in an evening and go to bed like nothing happened, caffeine immunity seems likely. There's a protein responsible for metabolizing caffeine. If you have too much or none at all, you can be immune to caffeine. Interestingly, it is the same protein that metabolizes a number of common pain killers and the results are similar which really sucks when I have serious pain to deal with.

HFCS is a great point. Specifically avoiding that may give me the same feeling as avoiding all added sugars... and I can still have (some) chocolate.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-06-10T02:37:37+00:00

Knowing that caffeine had no effect on me, I was curious if I had built a tolerance to it so I wanted to see what would happen. That answer is: nothing. No withdrawal when I stopped and no jitters or even improved alertness when I returned to it.

I've done the same with sugar. That was difficult not because I couldn't ween myself off of it, but because it's in everything. Life without sugar did leave me feeling better, but I do love chocolate.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-06-09T16:25:49+00:00

It depends on who you are. My wife will get headaches if she misses her morning coffee by two hours. I've had multiple cups of coffee and tea daily for years and gave up all caffeine cold turkey for 3 months with no ill effects. I've also had 8 cups of coffee between 4pm and midnight and gone right to sleep afterward.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-06-08T19:22:33+00:00

Remember when the internet was full of some random guy's blog on his esoteric hobby or half-formed thoughts and ideas for innovative user interfaces? It used to be everywhere. Sure, the web has matured and the need for that has moved elsewhere, but where are those sites? As the article states, they're out there, but you have to know where they are to find them.

Of course, the problem is that search engines are showing us what they want us to see, and probably what their sponsors want us to see. We cannot even find kinds of information unless we know what terms to include. If we search for generic terms like "Covid19," Google will tell you it found "About 5,290,000,000 results." Now, find the last result. Don't worry, you won't have to look at 5 billion results... if you're results are the same as mine, you'll get to the end after 150 results. Where are the rest and why can't we see them?

This video on "Where did the rest of the Internet go?" dives into this in more details. We're not finding the data we're looking for. We're being shown the data they want us to see.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-06-06T02:40:57+00:00

There were millions of private individuals who voted for increases in migration and they should be expected to put their money where their mouths are and offer migrants a free space in their homes. Forcing people to pay for a program they voted against because they foresaw the cost it would cause them to bear, is not an acceptable solution.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-05-30T23:24:15+00:00

It's still about blasphemy except there's a new religion to claim it.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-05-23T00:26:41+00:00

Why is he expected to list another source when you aren't?

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-05-12T13:15:36+00:00

recommended drinking bleach

He never said this. He said "disinfectant," when he was obviously searching for the word "anti-viral," and everyone starting saying he was telling people to inject bleach.

what he was saying about lockdowns

The CDC and WHO recommended against "quarantining of the healthy" in their own pandemic plans that were in effect at the time. Speaking out against them shouldn't have been controversial.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-05-12T03:15:04+00:00

Trump's anti-vax language

For a man that created the program and told people to get vaccinated, I'm always confused when people refer to Trump as being anti-vax.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSfeCqKty9o

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-05-09T18:22:35+00:00

VR isn't dead; just Facebook's version of it. So many attempts in groundbreaking areas have failed: The Newton, early smartwatches, and the Osbourne I laptop are infamous. It has merit, but not vision.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-04-24T01:19:07+00:00

Biden promises unity and redemption amid divisions and challenges

The new president is issuing a blizzard of executive orders and legislative proposals on Day One, testing any sense of unity with quick action on immigration, the environment and what would mark significant expansions of government spending.

Same article. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-promises-unity-redemption-amid-divisions-challenges-analysis/story?id=75380552

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-04-23T04:22:59+00:00

Math is explanatory and used to convey meaning. This is the same way we use language. We don't assume that because the universe can be explained using the English language that whomever created the universe is a native English speaker.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-04-12T18:30:42+00:00

what's the difference between now and the 80's

In the '80's wages tracked inflation. This is why he's saying that prices will remain high. They're only high if our wages remain low.

Powell stated this as his goal a year ago:

“By moderating demand, we could see vacancies come down, and as a result—and they could come down fairly significantly and I think put supply and demand at least closer together than they are, and that that would give us a chance to have lower—to get inflation—to get wages down and then get inflation down without having to slow the economy and have a recession and have unemployment rise materially. So there’s a path to that,” he said.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-04-09T01:24:18+00:00

A punk band that isn't punk is supporting a beer brand that isn't real beer because it advertises with women that are men. It's oddly consistent.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-04-09T01:20:38+00:00

And he had already tested positive for Covid. He had immunity.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-03-22T14:01:29+00:00

Three years ago, the discussion around trans people was about supporting a rare mental illness where some people believe they are the opposite sex and overcoming it through therapy and medication was failing them and likely to drive them to self-destructive behavior. If you looked at the statistics, trans people made up 0.003% of the population.

This has transformed into: anyone who says they are any of the over 100 different genders needs to find a new name, use pronouns in as non-standard a way as possible, fly a flag, and be praised for their bravery. The prevalence of trans people is now 3.3%.

Anyone who hasn't been in school for 5 years would never have experienced this.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-02-17T15:27:26+00:00

Putting Fetterman in office was a bad idea no matter which side you stood on. If you didn't like him, he should never have gone into office. If you did like him, asking him to take on a stressful and high profile new job while recovering from a stroke sets him up for failure and puts enough stress on him to put his health at risk.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-02-05T03:47:51+00:00

His motives are irrelevant. No matter the motives of a hunter, his actions help the animals and the people in the community.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-01-30T14:40:54+00:00

This is how the local population takes care of this. Until professional hunting became the norm, the local population killed entire herds. Poaching was constant and threatened to eliminate the animals entirely. By charging for hunts, the local population can afford to hire people to protect the herds from poachers. This makes the animals more valuable to preserve as income for the local population. Otherwise, the only value these animals have to them is their meat.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-01-19T01:10:31+00:00

Google is already curated. It returns results that support the status quo and hides the rest. Search for anything controversial where an official response is obvious. I searched for "covid vaccine safety." Google says that it returned 528M results. Scrolling down, I hit the end of results after 11 pages. The results that I did see were from the CDC, WHO, CNN, Mayo Clinic etc. None of them mention a controversy.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2023-01-11T15:26:10+00:00

Is the company in Seattle that is selling implantable chips really called "Dangerous Things?"

TemporarilyDeceased · 2022-12-18T05:14:20+00:00

What a terrible list. People still use modern forms of these today. Our bedwarmers are microwavable instead of coals from the fire.

Here's one we've forgotten: bear fat. People used to cover themselves in bear fat to keep warm. It's harder to find bear fat today, but moisturizer works well. Try moisturizing one foot and not the other before putting on socks and shoes and see which one feels warmer... ears too.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2022-12-07T20:57:42+00:00

If the city is designed so that walking and cycling are preferable, then why do they need to restrict the ability of their residents to drive when they choose to?

TemporarilyDeceased · 2022-11-22T02:07:10+00:00

Camp wood is expensive because of the small quantity. An entire cord can be had in the US for $200 or less. Most people can heat their home on 4 cords per winter. $800 in wood vs $3,000+ in fuel oil is a steal. Although I expect prices for both to be higher in England.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2022-11-22T02:03:37+00:00

A good sized wood stove is $800 with another 800-$1,000 for installation. Compared to heating a home with fuel oil at $3K+ per year with the risk of shortages, it sounds like a good deal. It's a much better deal than trying to go with a heat pump that will cost $30K+ and comes with the risk of rising electric prices.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2022-11-10T01:48:11+00:00

Student loan forgiveness helps with education costs

Forgiving loans enables universities to keep costs high. This fixes nothing and has the potential to worsen the problem.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2022-11-02T04:29:33+00:00

It's clear that Republicans would have done the same. They voted for the Ukraine deals and Trump initiated the first Covid stimulus. The difference is that the Democrats are pretending that inflation isn't happening and that things are going well, and they continue to implement measures that exacerbate the problem. Biden hasn't even managed to lift the vaccine mandate for foreign travelers to bring more tourists to the US.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2022-10-25T15:56:56+00:00

Biggest impacts:

Food could no longer be planted, harvested, watered, and transported from farms as all of this required oil for tractors, fertilizer, and tractor trailer transport
The above would leave people without food to eat, but considering that billions of people rely upon gasoline in cars to get to work, they will no longer have money to purchase the non-existing food.
Billions of people would freeze during their first winter because they heat their homes with oil, natural gas, or propane and the demand for electric heating would outstrip supply by 100x.
The huge increase in demand for electricity for heat, cooking, transportation, etc will overload the electric grid bringing brown and blackouts.
Medical supplies would disappear as most of them are dependent on disposable plastic. Medical professionals would be forced to reuse plastic without training to equipment on how to properly sterilize them which would kill tens of thousands of people.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2022-10-22T17:31:25+00:00

Well, she won't do that again.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2022-10-21T00:08:18+00:00

That enzyme works on caffeine as well. Too little of it and you never metabolize it and experience zero effects. Too much and you experience a brief increase in alertness that quickly fades.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2022-10-04T14:58:38+00:00

The general rule for tipping is tip for things you wouldn't want to make yourself.

The rule for tipping is that you always tip people who make tipping wages which are less than minimum wage, and you may choose to tip anyone for exceptional service.

Baristas do not make tipping wages, so there is no obligation to provide a tip. If I ask for something complicated or they remake my drink so I like it more, I'll leave a tip, but if someone makes what I ask for and hands it to me, I'm not tipping.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2022-09-30T15:38:41+00:00

People in Florida have generators. Some have propane stoves, and many have propane grills with burners.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2022-09-30T15:26:47+00:00

Chicky Blinders

TemporarilyDeceased · 2022-08-26T20:18:08+00:00

The authors forget that the federal government is to serve the people, and instead wish for a world where the people serve the federal government. It is amazing that Harvard and Yale law professors cannot manage to list the potential negative outcomes of such an arrangement.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2022-08-03T04:36:33+00:00

According to a June 2022 Pew survey, 5.1% of adults younger than 30 identify as transgender or nonbinary

1 in 20. If we go back 10 years, the estimated number was 1 in 30,000.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2022-07-19T19:23:08+00:00

This is self-reported, but it matches the general financial trend. We're seeing oil prices drop, not because supply has risen, but because demand has fallen. High cost of fuel, food, housing and many other items are causing people to change spending habits. During the busiest part of the travel season, people are staying home. At the same time, some things are less price elastic and less impacted by inflation. Clothing and electronics have generally remained unchanged, while food, transportation, and travel have skyrocketed.

People aren't living their lives because it's too expensive.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2022-06-19T04:45:57+00:00

The correct answer is: "Yes, I'm having a litter of puppies next month."

In the US, that question has been on the Red Cross' questionnaire for at least 10 years.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2022-03-07T20:13:12+00:00

The problem is that teachers are punished for touching a student even in self-defense. Teachers have been attacked by 18-year-olds and fired for fighting back. I have a relative that was attacked by a student and was pressured heavily by the union and administration to not press charges. They made it clear that her career was over if she did so. This literally leaves teachers paralyzed when confronted with violence.

People complain that pay is the big problem with being a teacher, but it's really the fact that nobody cares about them except for select students. They're disposable.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2022-03-07T02:32:24+00:00

With Russia being the second largest oil producer, everyone who was dealing with them is looking for other places to buy. This is a huge increase in demand for non-Russian oil. If US prices stayed low while Europe's prices rose, European countries would buy substantially more US fuel and we would run into availability problems. High prices are bad, but at least it's available.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2022-03-07T02:25:21+00:00

A friend who lives 40 minutes away texted me today. His local station was at 4.25 this morning and is up to 4.45 now. It's ugly.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2022-03-06T16:22:46+00:00

The economic sanctions aren't hurting Putin or other high-ranking officials. They moved their wealth into hard assets or into foreign shell companies long before the invasion so the economic sanctions are only hurting the little people. Turning off the connection to the internet prevents lies AND the truth from getting in or out. The people protesting against this in Russia are the ones getting their news from the internet.

Making this worse, by cutting them off from the world it forces them to find their own solutions both financially and for communications. China needs friends and they're both already heavily invested in Africa giving them incentive to develop it further.

This is short-sighted wishful thinking, but that's all the West seems capable of these days.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2022-03-06T16:11:18+00:00

On Thursday I drive past a gas station selling regular for 3.85, when I drove past on the way home, it was 4.20. Our last heating oil delivery was 20% higher than the previous month. The news is already talking about $8/gallon gas.

TemporarilyDeceased · 2021-12-23T07:06:09+00:00

This isn't even good English. How will the hospitals that will be overwhelmed get ill and die?

TemporarilyDeceased