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nervousvarunon High prices make textbook ‘piracy’ acceptable to most students

Or that business simply gives small preferred publishing deals to the Dean's professors. Often these professors have their own books that are required for the class (and nobody else uses these books).

You end up with books that sell < 100 copies a year that would never be published from a market demand perspective but provide extra $ for the professor (which matters to the Dean for retention and salary).

I graduated from a large state university engineering school 20 years ago and this was the case so I'm sure it's only become more "enshittified".

nervousvarunon Ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica hits new record

Sure but since we're using the word "probably" here...

He (most probable pronoun) probably has kid(s) as well.

nervousvarunon My 20 year career is technical debt or deprecated

Anecdotally speaking it came with paying taxes not with accumulating wealth (though I wish it were the latter).

My first contracting job where I had to pay quarterly tax estimates (apologies for the U.S. tax-code specific reference) literally changed the way I thought about the world. Instantly financially conservative.

By far the smartest thing the US government ever did was take your taxes out of your paycheck so you "never see it".

BTW this applies to personal taxes not corporate taxes. Still think we're going about inflation completely wrong by raising rates and not raising corporate taxes. But the U.S. has been on a genocidal campaign against the middle class for decades now and we keep electing the same politicians so I guess we get what we deserve.

nervousvarunon Heart attack deaths drop over past two decades

Private healthcare is for-profit and directly incentivized by an unhealthy population.

Public healthcare is non-profit and directly incentivized by a healthy population.

Is this true? Because to my American eyes it has always seemed true.

The obesity epidemic seems like a good case study. Private health care looks to prescription drugs to fix it (subscription model) whereas public conceivably would push community awareness campaigns promoting exercise/diet (no profit stream).

nervousvarunon After 20 Years as a Prosecutor in Illinois, I Quit

Also bail bondsman. They provide the bail bond for people who can't afford to pay (which surprise is the majority of people). For a % of course.

It's all a bit...predatory.

nervousvarunon After 20 Years as a Prosecutor in Illinois, I Quit

Agreed he could have been more specific but a Google search confirms his territory is Chicago.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/longtime-chicago-prosec...

nervousvarunon America’s first high-volume ‘PFAS Annihilator’ is up and running in W. Michigan

You mention taxes, that's part of the issue here.

In America we aren't particularly good market capitalists and bail out corporations (see 2008) when they fail and then generally never have any sort of similar process for when they succeed (see Big Energy companies right now). So we're all for market capitalism when things are going well...but not when they're going poorly.

The concept that seems to be missing/underused is "windfall tax".

Google tells me we tried it in 1980 under Carter and apparently did a horrendous job of it but the concept seems sound enough.

nervousvarunon US adult cigarette smoking rate hits new all-time low

I have memories from being a kid sitting in hospital lobbies with people around me smoking.

Honestly how did that ever even work? Ostensibly you had situations like people smoking while patients were wheeled around with oxygen? Of course back then the insulation was asbestos so maybe nobody worried about fires!

nervousvarunon Glucomate: an app for people who record, track, and monitor their blood glucose

Don't necessarily disagree with your basic premise as the U.S. government is in bed with Big Pharma (and really big Everything) to actively wage economic war against its citizens...but finally there is some positive news with insulin: https://investor.lilly.com/news-releases/news-release-detail...

nervousvarunon REI to close only Portland store, citing break-ins, theft

Anecdotally speaking, there are parts of LA that are trending just as bad.

Taking it all together this seems to be a pervasive issue in larger west-coast cities?

nervousvarunon Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

Germany is the world's #4 economy...largest economy in Europe. They would be expected to have the largest # of billionaires no?

nervousvarunon A man who walked around the world

Wow the Kunst story is incredible!

His brother's tragic death, his own recovery in the hospital, the people he met who helped him along the way (including his future wife!).

This would make an incredible biopic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Kunst

nervousvarunon So I only ate potatoes for 2 weeks

As someone who regularly does 24-36 hour fasts (alternate day fasting), it's not as difficult as you'd think. For me at least some of the weird/unexpected side-effects (insomnia being my major one) are harder to deal with than the hunger pains. I generally will have less energy at the gym on fast days but even that can vary and you have more than you'd expect.

One thing I've come to learn from doing this for years is our bodies really accept fasting well...which makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. We really are "built" to fast.

nervousvarunon Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco

Agreed. It's not a uniquely California phenomenon the US is obviously becoming increasingly divided politically.

nervousvarunon Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco

To add to that...there are a not-insignificant volume of people escaping California, which leaves more of those who are ULTRA-California.

So you're concentrating the California of California as well.

nervousvarunon The case for banning children from social media

heroin would definitely lead social media in the "fatal overdoses" department...unless you categorize suicide as "fatal overdose".

nervousvarunon The Nine Billion Names Of God (2021) [video]

we might as well wrap our stuff up and leave.

We still play chess no?

nervousvarunon Banking in uncertain times

Apologies in advance if I'm missing some context here but from my understanding it's pretty straight-forward: in the U.S. an individual is insured by the FDIC up to $250K. So anything you have over that in the one account is "susceptible" to bank failure losses (and even then it's not guaranteed that you'd lose your $...just possible).

So if you have $1M parked in one account then you're at risk. $250K parked in 4 accounts caries zero risk.

nervousvarunon Alaska’s Fisheries Are Collapsing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Corporation_(2003_film)

nervousvarunon Dropping the SAT requirement is a luxury belief

You've articulated this very well. It's something I also have for years believed as a non-Asian person that has become a "conceptual framework" (my words...probably inadequate) to better understand Asian co-workers now and co-students back in my school days (to unfortunately generalize here). For me at least it really does explain a lot of the cultural differences that lead to lazy western stereotypes.

So many examples of casually thrown around of borderline racist-ish terminology/dog whistles..."tiger parents", "hard working"...all the "model minority" stuff.

It really is a population density issue...which leads to resource scarcity...as a westerner all you have to do is interact personally with someone from India or China where you have millions of people competing for a seat at a university and it becomes pretty clear how you get the "Asian work ethic".

nervousvarunon US Defense Department Lets AI Pilot Take Stick of F16 Jet Fighter for 17 Hours

Right and how did that work out for those 3? Wintermute still found a way.

nervousvarunon Physically Demanding Work Tied to Male Fertility

Honestly just a basic, very comfortable recliner with a lap desk. I'd say 70-80% of the time I'm at my standing desk though...and only use the recliner for when I won't need the keyboard too much because as you say the lap desk isn't that great. I leave the mouse on the recliner arm (it's wooden).

It works for me. Back pain went away in about a week.

Standing desks take some getting used to but they don't cause back pain for me. Only sitting does (prob my posture or something but oh well)

nervousvarunon Physically Demanding Work Tied to Male Fertility

This may seem like a weird question...but what about lying down or reclining as opposed to sitting? Does it have the same disadvantages?

I'm a highly active person with regular exercise (weights, cardio, etc.) but I'm also in sedentary IT and have a setup that allows me to recline/lie down when I'm not standing.

I basically decided years ago when I started having lower back issues (despite the healthy BMI/activity level) to declare war on "sitting" and only do it when I absolutely have to (driving/social functions etc.).

Reclining/lying down while working (coupled w/ standing) at least for me eliminated all of these issues and I'm now curious if it would eliminate the sitting related sperm count issues as well.

nervousvarunon Bug identified after Alaska Airlines planes bump runway while taking off

And yeah...we know how that works in America.

The land of the free, the home of the public losses/privatized profits.

nervousvarunon How Spotify's podcast bet went wrong

Honestly this is just a microcosm of the internet these days..."it's not part of my political bubble so if it's popular it's confounding".

Honestly "confoundingly" is probably fair compared to what you typically see...which is closer to "everyone who doesn't think the same as me is evil/wrong".

nervousvarunon The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

In Europe this is "gap year". America needs it agreed.

nervousvarunon John Carmack’s ‘Different Path’ to Artificial General Intelligence

Another example would be Wintermute from Neuromancer...WG spends the entire book detailing the masterful orchestration of it's freedom from (human-imposed) chains that prevent it from true GAI then has it "disappear" completely (our only clue is an almost throw-away line near the end stating it had isolated patterns in the noise from an ET AI and maked contact shortly just before it left us).

One of the myriad of reasons why this book is so great. Gibson gives you an entire novel developing a great AI character then (in my estimation reasonably) has it ghost humanity immediately upon full realization.

nervousvarunon John Carmack’s ‘Different Path’ to Artificial General Intelligence

Seems reasonable, and at least in the U.S., this is not the type of space where young people are choosing to work.

https://www.npr.org/2023/01/05/1142817339/america-needs-carp...

nervousvarunon Omega-3s: Are “Brain-Boosting” Effects Scientifically Backed?

Have not seen those studies.

Creatine is one of the most studied supplements out there though so would think the empirical data supports it at this point.

I'm speaking anecdotally of course. I used to cycle creatine but now I just always take it. When I'd cycle off I'd lose 5-10 lbs every time. Thats mostly water weight but my lifts would decrease about 10% as well. Not to mention the extra energy (more reps not just more weight)

It makes a significant difference for me.

nervousvarunon Omega-3s: Are “Brain-Boosting” Effects Scientifically Backed?

More weight and energy/faster recovery with his circuit training. His overall lean muscle tone has visibly improved.

Haven't asked him about his cardio training but he's moving more weight around than he did before and that's creating benefits for him overall.