MORE MONEY CAN BUY YOU MORE PILLS

ECONOMICS / HEALTH / PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2023-01-24

“America is a kind, generous place… if you have money. It’s a rapacious, violent place if you don’t have money. To be wealthy in America is to be loved. People find you interesting, they want to know you. You have a broader selection of mates.  + 

DAVID GOGGINS RUNS BECAUSE HE HATES IT

PSYCHOLOGY / RUNNING / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2023-01-18

“I run every single morning. That’s because that’s the one thing I hate to do more than anything in the world” — David Goggins, an ultramarathon runner and triathlete. I wonder whether people who worship him realize the all-too-common pattern of self-abuse and hate in  + 

NICK LANE’S “THE VITAL QUESTION” BOOK REVIEW

BIOLOGY / CHEMISTRY / EDUCATION / HEALTH / REVIEWS / 2022-12-26

A review of Nick Lane’s “The Vital Question” is easy to write: just re-arrange a dozen of his own passages. The book itself, though, is not easy to read. Unless… you understand at least the main principles of physics, chemistry and Latin. However interesting the  + 

A TRULY PRO NOTEBOOK COMPUTER

COMPUTERS / GADGETS / ESSAYS / 2022-11-28

A truly “Pro” notebook computer would feature: • an ortholinear, split & probably concave keyboard optimized for touch-typing • an Apple Pencil compactible screen • a 21:9 screen ratio / form factor But hey, who’s thinking about pros these days, eh? Economies of scale rule…  + 

RUNNING A BUSINESS IS NOT AS FUN AS YOU MIGHT THINK

ACCOUNTING / MANAGEMENT / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2022-11-27

Where does this voguish idea of everyone becoming a glamorous and fun entrepreneur come from? Sorry, but: 1) most people are not born with the DNA required to run a business; 2) while being an entrepreneur adds a lot of positive nouns to your life,  + 

“OFF THE CLOCK” AND INTO MOMS’ DIARIES BY LAURA VANDERKAM

LITERATURE / PRODUCTIVITY / REVIEWS / 2022-11-15

“Off the Clock” – Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done… by Laura Vanderkam. Oh, wow. Such a promising title. Again. Bless those who helped increase my reading speed! Because this book is 1% trite time management advice and 99% memory recalls of various mothers  + 

HALF OF AMERICANS HAVEN’T READ A SINGLE BOOK THIS YEAR

LITERATURE / SOCIETY / LINKS / 2022-10-26

Over 50% of Americans haven’t read a book in 2022. Nearly 25% of adults have not read a book in 1-2 years. 11% haven’t read a book in 3-5 years. And 10% of US adults haven’t read at least 1 full book in the past  + 

LIFE IS SHORT AND UNCERTAIN… ACT NOW

PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / SPIRIT / ESSAYS / 2022-10-18

Life is short. You might have heard that one before. And uncertain. You can die at any moment, making it even shorter. So think hard about what you do with your gift of life right now, not after you “get funded” or “feel inspired” or  + 

ROBERT SAPOLSKY ON WHY RUSSIANS ARE STUCK IN A SUBMISSIVE / AGGRESSIVE LOOP

POLITICS / PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / LINKS / 2022-10-12

An interesting take on why Russians have been stuck in a submissive / aggressive loop for centuries by Robert Sapolsky, who privileges the nurture (culture) component rather than the nature (DNA) factor. I’d disagree somewhat: the negative selection pressure has expunged the country of its  + 

WHY EVERYONE AND YOUR GRANDMOTHER NEEDS AN AR-15?

POLITICS / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2022-10-07

A well-researched, superbly edited, humorous video explaining why every American, especially a senior, needs an AR-15 gun. In all seriousness. Or how to build the perfect straw man with a bit of a circular thing goin’. His logic: US civilians need the same firearms as  + 

“CHEAP SEX” BOOK REVIEW – IT’S GONNA COST US MORE THAN WE THINK

BIOLOGY / ECONOMICS / HEALTH / SOCIETY / REVIEWS / 2022-09-19

“Cheap Sex” is a great book by sociologist Mark Regnerus to compliment David Buss’ “Evolution of Desire”. It describes the current personal and interpersonal sexuality / gender relations state of affairs in the US. The local trends and stats which do or will impact the  + 

A GOOD DAY TO DIE WHEN SCIENCE PUBLISHES A LIST OF TIPPING POINTS

ENVIRONMENT / LINKS / 2022-09-08

A good day to die. The world is heading toward ~3°C of global warming, triggering multiple irreversible climate tipping points, including, but not limited to: Gulf Stream weakening; permafrost abrupt thaw; Amazon rainforest dieback; northern forests dieback; ice sheet collapse (Greenland, Antarctic); Want to continue  + 

“HOW EMOTIONS ARE MADE” BOOK REVIEW (PSST… WE DON’T KNOW)

BIOLOGY / HEALTH / LINGUISTICS / REVIEWS / 2022-09-05

“How Emotions Are Made“ is yet another weird book with a promising title, written for someone without any knowledge of science, its methods and branches. Possibly for those of us who skipped biology classes in school and haven’t read anything about neuroscience ever since? The  + 

THE FLUID OF STARS AT THE BOUNDARIES OF STATES

PHYSICS / ESSAYS / 2022-08-27

We model the galaxies as a sort of fluid of stars, where the interactions are not electromagnetic, but gravitational. So, galaxies are fluids of stars, which themselves are made of plasmas of hydrogen made of frozen nuggets of quark matter. Yet again, there are no  + 

EURO COMPANY CULTURE: SAME DATE DELIVERY… NO, VACATIONS

LOGISTICS / MANAGEMENT / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2022-08-14

What is an Express Delivery by a  European company, within the EU (no customs)? Ordered: Thursday 14:00, courier picked up on Friday, delivered next week on Wednesday 18:00. 🙄 Similar service name by an American company, also in the EU: picked up same day 20:00,  + 

I CAN’T THINK OF A TITLE FOR THIS STORY OF WARPED MOTHERHOOD

ECONOMICS / POLITICS / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2022-08-09

In the US state of Nebraska, a 17-year-old girl got pregnant, decided to abort but couldn’t because of local laws, received help from her mother to buy and administer mifepristone and misoprostol, miscarried, buried the fetus… and discussed the details on Facebook Messenger… The private  + 

THE FEAR OF THE WORLD GOVERNMENT

ECONOMICS / LOGISTICS / POLITICS / TRAVEL / ESSAYS / 2022-07-25

The observable universe is a sphere of 93 billion light years in diameter. Our Universe contains 200 billion trillion stars (with their planets). And yet, people are against a “World Government” for a puny rock that you can fly around under 45 hours in a  + 

JORDAN PETERSON’S OPINION ABOUT THE RU-UA CONFLICT IS HYSTERICAL & WRONG

ECONOMICS / POLITICS / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2022-07-18

Impressive to watch such a hysterical Descent of Man. Despite decades of his “studies” of Russian literature and totalitarianism, Jordan Peterson completely misunderstands what’s going on in Russia, NATO, rouble (un)currency, global economy, and uses a real war killing real people to talk about a  + 

BIZARRE GOOGLE REVIEWS OF EUROPEAN LOGISTICS CENTERS

LOGISTICS / SOCIETY / TRANSPORTATION / ESSAYS / 2022-07-15

Bizarre Google Reviews of European logistics centers, such as Dachser, Geodis, Kuehne+Nagel… 4-5 stars from truckers — hauling the semi-trailer 1-2 stars from end-customers — businesses and consumers unable to schedule a pick-up or delivery 🤷🏻‍♂️ Truck drivers commenting the tidy toilets and lacking space  + 

“FOR ALL MANKIND” SEASON 1

CINEMA / REVIEWS / 2022-07-12

Finally got to watch “For All Mankind” season 1… well, Ronald Moore sure is consistent with his regular soap opera vibe. Or rather, alcohol+tobacco opera — the amount of drinking and smoking easily surpasses the amount of RP-1 burning and space flying. It ticks all  + 

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