Well to be fair it probably is pessimism. That doesn’t make you a pessimist in the same way that me expecting to wake up every morning doesn’t make me an optimist.

I think that flu thing is an old wives tale. You usually get flu because you breathed it in. The association with cold is because during cold weather people spend more time in poorly ventilated areas.

Same. Often finish the can with a feeling of disappointment and thirst.

Thanks, that’s very kind!

Whatever you say kiddo

Que no los dos?

20yrs ago I had to help my comp sci housemate build a website for his module. I was not a CS student.

Some things never change.

Alt: a single pane comic in which a person says to another person: "silicate chemistry is second nature to us geochemists, so it’s easy to forget that the average person probably only knows the formulas for olivine and one or two feldspars.

The other person says: “and quartz, of course”

The first person replies: “of course.”

The caption to the comic reads “even when they’re trying to compensate for it, experts in anything wildly overestimate the average person’s familiarity with their field”

They’re essential, but they’re also numerous. The barrier to entry for a lot of these jobs is “went to school for some time” - which means pretty much everyone is qualified.

Supply and demand.

Notice how when service staff were allowed back to work, a lot of them didn’t, and that drove up zone wages.

And to be clear - I am not advocating for below living wages, nor saying that people doing these jobs are unskilled. You can tell the good from the bad, and I think everyone should be paid at least a living wage.

Sixthed

I thought we called those tankies now?

No, because there are no stupid questions.

I’d like you to repeat it please. But slower this time.

Oh man Titan AE was how I discovered Lit, was really into them back then. Still love Over my HeaD!

It’d also need to be pressed against the mirror I think…?

It’s exclusivity deals that are the problem. Governments should legislate them away so that there can be competition.

Then we’d all choose the marketplace of our preference. Like supermarkets.

Video streaming, music streaming, games consoles, even mobile OSs all could benefit from some anti-monopoly legislation.

Gas prices feed through to consumers by raising the cost of energy for everyone except those not using gas. So it seems reasonable to not double count it by adding it to the basket as well.

The only real gas consumers use is for heating and cooking - and that is very low volume compared to the impact on us from costs to producers going up.

I think you’ve got some things twisted here, you certainly can eat more than you burn.

For example my maintenance calorie level is around 1400 a day. I work a sedentary job and do moderate exercise 5 times a week. The low amount of calories I need to maintain my weight was surprising - I always went by the RDA of 2-2.5k - no surprise I was slowly gaining weight over the years.

I can easily blow past 1400 without even thinking about it. I drink about 500 cals of milk a day alone. No carbs in that yet I’m already 1/3 of my limit and I’ve not even had that 1000cal tub of ice cream.

Protein is harder to overeat because it’s lower calorie per gram and its harder to digest so we feel fuller for longer.

If cutting out carbs works for you then crack on! It’s all about just finding the diet that works for you because trying to do something too painful will unlikely result in meaningful lifelong changes.

All diets offer the same thing: less calories in than you burn.

There’s no secret sauce here…it’s just about finding ways you can change your lifestyle to reduce calories in.

Exercise is good for you for many reasons, but you can’t outrun the spoon. The effort required to burn 1000 calories is significantly higher than the effort required to not eat the 1000 calories.

The thing that worked for me was tracking my calories every day. Didn’t aim to change what I ate…but when I saw the realities of the calories rich food I was eating I made simple choices to switch it out for low calories. Fibre and Protein are your friend in this fight.

I think a lot of your post is spot on but one thing I do disagree with you on:

Meta doesn’t do anything “for fun” it does everything for profit. If their exec board thought that promoting well-being and good mental health was more profitable, meta would do that instead of the other shit you talk about. A minor nitpick of your post but I think it’s always worth bearing in mind that companies like meta are singularly motivated by greed.