This is emotionally risky. If it ends up cloudless in Ohio and stormy in Texas, it would be arguably worst than if the eclipse didn't happen at all.

I lived in South Carolina during the last eclipse and now I'm smack dab in the middle of this one's path as well. It's usually pretty cloudy where I was living, but it was a beautiful day when the eclipse arrived. The reaction of the wildlife was pretty incredible, and it's the only effect that would be largely absent in the desert.

After passing over this post a few times today, I decided to put on music without lyrics at about 50 dB while I studied. It definitely helps; this is one of the few posts that has had a tangible impact on my routine.

As far as why it helps, maybe it has something to do with our predisposition to interpret and create language. In the absence of context, our brains might go out of their way to find meaning that isn't there. It pays to be creative and alert in the presence of ambiguous auditory information, especially when it resembles human activity.

It's like venereal diseases. Despite the millions of times "herpes" has been typed in a search engine, few people want it for four more years.

... propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, and nicotine are the only three required ingredients, all of which have decades of research that can be used to generalize their risk upon the lungs.

Also, the vast majority of flavors are FDA approved and many of them have had extensive research done on them, especially those that are used in cooking, frying, etc. There are unknowns, but that doesn't mean we can't quantify the long-term risks. Some of the earliest research accurately predicting the danger of tobacco, for example, were the result of relatively brief experiments on animals in the lab.

Don't get me wrong, there are unknowns. At least some unscrupulous vendors are adding novel ingredients to their e-juice, and some of those are bound to have risks. If the FDA was as worried with consumer protection as they are in handing the industry to the tobacco companies, I'd have been able to provide a better answer than I did.

We know more than that.

Since only three ingredients are required to make e-juice, it's a hell of a lot easier to do research on than the thousands of chemicals found in a tobacco plant.

"Empire of Pain" was well-written, with more twists and turns than the average piece of fiction. It was much more thorough than the various series and documentaries.

This is a well-put synopsis. Whenever I'm carousing these sort of posts, I'm blown away by the emotional connection people form with their diet. It's by no means a new phenomenon; most ancient cultures literally worshipped what they ate.

Although meat is delicious, it is incredibly inefficient. If we put more effort into developing and promoting vegetarian sources of protein, all the resources waisted on livestock could be put to better use.

This data makes sense. I was blown away when I discovered that the average hotdog has less protein than a slice of the cheap bread I typically buy from Walmart.

The euphoria isn't a problem per say, but it will bias the patient in favor of more opioids. Drugs that modify the dopamine system have a tendency to skew opinions in favor of continued use.

For susceptible individuals, these changes can be more or less permanent. The damage was done the minute they filled their first prescription; instead of withholding opioids from those who've already been exposed, it makes more sense to prevent exposure in the first place.

... without meaningful regulations, doctors use these properties to create patients for life. A patient on opioids is much better at scheduling appointments then one on ibuprofen. Given a lack of immediate consequences, even the most well-intentioned doctor is susceptible to large enough sums of cash.

Unfortunately, opioids are not an effective long-term solution for pain. They feel good-and anyone on them long enough will sware by them-but most objective measures show they create more problems than they fix.

Why did the m0ds essentially rem0ve every comment in this post?

What your saying makes sense. From an ethical standpoint, shivering seems like a safe gauge of when to heat up the water. It takes away the ability to control the water temperature, which is bad, but it reduces the likelihood of lawsuits and harm.

>He's turning thirteen next month. He sleeps with me every night. He will die with me.

There's a lot of pitbulls in my neighborhood; I wonder if the owners realize that if they die before their dog, there is a good chance it will be put down if nobody in their family takes it.

...I feel as though this chart is telling me that Hanni Gong is one of these unemployed workers.

...this story is disheartening on so many different levels. There's a message here, although I couldn't tell you what it is.

I pretty sure our general strategy is to buy as much resources as we can from other countries before tapping into our own. By forcing people to buy lithium from elsewhere, we are increasing our domestic reserve. Since lithium can be reprocessed, even car and phone batteries have value in this regard.

We took a similar strategy to fossil fuels, but I think we are figuring out that the world will be fried by time we are the last people with oil left. We are fighting wars over oil right now, but wars will eventually be fought to keep it in the ground. It's good to have a domestic supply on hand for when shit goes fubar.

...one can argue that the George Floyd protests were the result of people not working, which was made possible through a combination of unemployment, government stimulus, and shutdown of schools and workplaces.

It seems that the protests are correlated with the increase in the homicide rate, but not it's cause.

>It is not particularly surprising through this lens why crime rates spiked during COVID. Small businesses nestled throughout distressed communities went under during the shutdowns. Once lively blocks, storefronts, even single street corners turned from happy places to desolate in an instant. Social connections, a critical violence mitigator, was effectively forbidden.

...I feel as though the increase in murders during covid is better explained by all the people out of work and school and the fact that a ton of stimulus money was flowing through the drug trade (every drug addict got access to a few thousand dollars that immediately went to drugs). Alot of social avenues we're shut down, but people were still socializing; bars stayed open where I'm at, and people spent alot of time getting drunk with each other at home.

I don't doubt it, but I don't necessarily believe in this particular anecdote. Based on this one account, I wouldn't rush out to buy a portable carbon monoxide detector for when I stay in a hotel. When money's involved, there seems to be a higher than normal instance of long term side effects. Maybe its psychological, maybe it's greed. It's the world we live in.

>I nearly lost a sibling to carbon monoxide poisoning in a hotel room, and they still suffer long term effects like headaches after 3 years.

...this sounds like something someone would say if they were trying to justify a lawsuit.

...your comment sent me down a rabbit hole.

Apparently, they are able to maintain a monopoly through a combination of bribes and regulatory capture. They pay out about 10% of their revenue in the form of rewards; this amount is a pittance compared to what they are collecting, but it's enough to selectively bribe the most influential sector of society. They also shape consumer law to make themselves indispensable.

Think about it: your credit score goes down if you get rid of your credit card. If you had a VISA for ten years just because VISA was the best deal around, you will literally be punished if you decide to get rid of it.

..quite frankly, I could have never imagined that the truth was as messed up as it is.

...I still don't understand how what these companies offer justifies 1% of every retail dollar that changes hands. As the work becomes automated and the electronics become cheaper, I'd think that someone would be willing to do this for less.