The syrup helps the little corns slide down better.

Also: I can’t feel my toes but I’m sure that’s unrelated.

Rabbit hole time.

Apparently, caffeine in soft drinks is synthetic. I thought they just used caffeine that is extracted from decaffeinating coffee beans - not so. Also it’s barely produced in the US (anymore), and we mostly import it from China.

Neat part is: it doesn’t look all that complicated to synthesize and requires some common-ish organic compounds and solvents to make. As a bonus, the “the raw synthetic caffeine often glows - a bluish phosphorence”. If anyone is on his Patreon, please give NileRed a nudge to give this a shot; I think it would be right up his alley.

So we can get by without coffee, but short of running your own chemistry lab, it’s going to be a bit before industry can ramp up production of the synthetic stuff. Meanwhile, caffeinated beverages across the board would be more expensive were synthetic caffeine a part of any tariff scheme.

More here:

https://www.decadentdecaf.com/blogs/decadent-decaf-coffee-co/174589383-ever-wondered-where-the-caffeine-comes-from-in-soda-or-energy-drinks-answer-synthetic-caffeine

The thing to keep in mind about idiocy is that idiots make mistakes, a lot. At the same time, those mistakes are usually small-stakes affairs (it’s hard to make big mistakes with no money and/or resources) and are usually recoverable. The idea that their mistake could affect so many others simply does not happen, because that’s not how things typically work.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the RNC was more “with the times” than the DNC on how to campaign in the current media-circus climate. That’s right, they were more progressive when it came to using information technology. This observation burns like the heat of a thousand suns and I hate it, but there it is.

Granted, thanks to the likes of FoxNews and bloviating try-hards on radio and podcasts, they had the inside track here. Still, a billion USD should have leveled the playing field for a short campaign like Harris’.

Evil has a way of hanging on, so let’s hope that doesn’t happen here. Strom Thurmond hung in there until 100, and was in office at that age.

Ah, so that’s the key. I’m not eager to try this, but I’ll absolutely keep it in mind should I need it. Thank you.

Oh wow. Congrats… I guess? Glad that your wife has access to good care for that condition.

I’ve been in the ER for something that… well I won’t say, but it was of interest to the attending folks. Next thing I knew, there were two grad students in tow, eager to learn stuff that you only usually see in a textbook. I recall feeling strangely proud, and more proud than embarrassed (oddly enough). It was a weird experience.

So… this sent me down a little rabbit hole. I just want to advise you all, fellow lemmings, to be good to your back from here on out.

https://www.umms.org/ummc/health-services/orthopedics/services/spine/patient-guides/lumbar-herniated-disc

As the annulus weakens, at some point you may lift something or bend in such a way that you cause too much pressure across the disc. The weakened disc ruptures while you are doing something that five years earlier would not have caused a problem. Such is the aging process of the spine.

Thank you for the over-share. I appreciate your outlook on the matter, and may wind up in Einstein territory yet. I’m on track to have a delightful Hippocratic Wreath in about 10-15 years, and I’m just gonna lean into it. Maybe I’ll get into some fun Trek cosplay, open a bar in Philly, or even just wander around while warning people about the classic blunders in life. Yeah, I could Bic-it, but when you can resemble one of the greats you just gotta roll with it.

I’m mostly onboard here, but there’s some nuance to consider.

Wipe all expression from your face, and stare at them. […] Bystanders will literally stop what they’re doing and watch.

Fact. Monkey see, monkey do. If you physically pass as someone older and wiser, this works even better.

Their brains will scream “I’m about to be excluded from the group”, and they’ll start babbling. They’ll confess their sins and be harsher on themselves than anything you could say

Plausible, but I think this outcome is one of many possible. Pressing on an individual’s psychological weak-spots can trigger a fight/flight/freeze/fawn reflex; your anecdotes are centered on the “fawn” response. I would caution the reader that, unless you know that person well, you really can’t predict which of the four you will get in this situation. If doing this you MUST be prepared for that fight reflex to kick in; they may get mouthy and/or physical. Social justice is important, but do take your opponent’s height, weight, build, and if they are armed into account, before proceeding.

For those that didn’t know, here’s a big list of things you should absolutely keep very far away from a car’s paint job.: https://hammersautoworks.com/common-hazards-to-car-paint/

Likewise, certain cleaning products can damage your paint job, as can foods that are especially acidic, such as tomatoes.

It’s a fashion statement, conspicuous consumption (owner has money to throw around), a political leaning/association, and an assertion of the owner’s masculinity. To be clear, this behavior gets all my hate, not only because all of these things are encouraged by our economy and advertising, but are also directly supporting a lot of toxic traits and behavior.

Portions in North America are HUGE.

The restaraunt portion thing is… a big problem. Here’s what I think is going on.

I’m pretty sure that it has more to do with profitability than customer demand, although it’s gone on for long enough perhaps it’s both by now. The key here is that food sales have pretty thin margins (except for soft drinks which are outrageously marked-up everywhere). If a restaurant chain suddenly downsized their portion sizes, people would realize very quickly that the price hasn’t scaled down to the same extent, as the current portion sizes are inflated to mask how much food service really costs. There’s a price floor to remain profitable and I think it’s a lot higher than people realize.

Silicon valley: Here is a device that makes it possible to exchange information to everyone, everywhere, immediately.

GOP: Oh, you mean I can disseminate anything I want? How about lies? That’d be neat.

Silicon valley: No, not like that.

One thing that I observed is that the right wing had/has the more progressive campaign, from a technology and media use standpoint. The DNC, on the other hand, was still more or less using the same moves they had back in the 1990’s, relying on extinct concepts like the fairness doctrine, debate performance, and journalistic integrity of news outlets (fact-checks anyone?).

It’s not just the Overton Window that has moved: our information diet has completely changed too. To win at politics today, the entire landscape has shifted to propaganda, bombast, showmanship, clickbait, and leading the 24/7 news cycle by the nose. You must be louder and more interesting than the other guy. I think it’s possible to play that game ethically though, without disinformation, but what’s clear is that billionaire-owned media isn’t going to do it for you anymore.

Holy shit. I never put this together.

Last time I was at a casino I kept asking myself: who honestly thinks any of this is a good idea, or thinks that any of these are “games” in the conventional sense? Now I know.

Edit: I have also been confronted with people that simply cannot do addition, period. It’s wild.

Not just Mars, but yes. Biodegradability isn’t even a factor since there’s no biosphere to speak of, which also raises philosophical questions like: “what is pollution, exactly?”

What will really bake your noodle is to imagine a future where we settle the Moon and Mars. Do old space program artifacts become monuments and parks (debris and all), or are they trash to be removed from the environment?

Now that you mention it, that’s probably why.

What I’m curious about is the “engineering model.”

All NASA missions have duplicate probes, satellites, rovers, here on earth. They’re essential for testing various scenarios like training astronauts (in the case of the Hubble repair missions), or testing the limits of the systems in question. I wonder if the engineering model for Curiosity has one of its wheels cut away in the same pattern, to simulate difficulties in navigation and traction?

I saw this on TV and it lives rent-free in my head, forever. Guy indeed has to manually assist chewed food on its way down. I don’t recall if he’s on a special diet, has to chew the hell out of his food for lack of a stomach, or anything else like that. What was clear is that how he got there, and the way life is now, is very unpleasant.

Instructions unclear. Tried to end it all, wound up cured of coronavirus instead.