throwaway657656

Whenever I take the first bite into an energy or protein bar I pause with surprise because of how sweet it is. Then I ask myself, "how is this not a candy bar?"

Two weeks ago I was an excited entrepreneur/engineer and looked forward to building new products that improved peoples lives. But with an inability to estimate my product COGS and consumer confidence diminishing, I'm giving that up (edit: for now).

We went from win-win capitalism to a pump and dump economy. That happened so fast. I can't comment on your site because I find this all so vile.

Why is this getting downvoted ? Past grants for this type of research at URI, for example, are in the $4M - $8M /yr range.

[0] https://rochesterbeacon.com/2024/04/17/new-microplastics-res...

Your repeated comment is only half right. This has moved from win-win to lose-lose.

I did talk to a doctor. He quoted me $12,000 for a surgery that sounded excessive and had a long recovery time. I try to get second opinions, but doctors are so busy that I never get a call back or schedule many months out.

Oddly the wealthier I get the more I distrust doctors. Why perform a $300 tooth filling, example, when you can creatively justify a $5000 root canal and crown. They know I have the money and their kids private school ain't cheap.

My small business produces a niche consumer electronic device. Anyone watching us operate would say that our product is Made in the USA. But the components of our product are sourced and pre-processed all over the world and our COGS just increased significantly due to tariffs.

We now have to raise our prices, but our Made in China competitors have to increase theirs even more. That isn't a net benefit for us, given the product is "nice to have" and does not have an inelastic price.

If my sales drop by 50% and the Chinese competitors drop by 75%, is that winning ? I am still in shock and denial by all this. After 11 years in business, this manufactured/avoidable crisis can't be what ends us.

You are right. Accepting $200k for one prisoner is not worth risking all future contracts from this temperamental US administration.

If the El Salvadorian gov't is corrupt enough to run an international pay-based prison, couldn't they also accept a payment, from anyone, for releasing an international prisoner? The logistics after release would be secondary but at least we'd know they aren't being abused in what is effectively a dark-site.

But if the current administration is offering $20k a year for imprisonment (rough guess) then they might want $200k to free him.

US citizens may not want to travel internationally because they don't trust US customs and border agents upon their return.

About 20 years ago a customs agent asked me, "are you thanking the lord Jesus Christ that you have returned safely to America". You just tell them what they wanted to hear and you were fine. Now if I am not mistaken, they can demand you unlock your phone which might show you were at a Tesla Takedown rally, or purchased a movie ticket to No Other Land, or whatever else is deemed verboten. I am unclear how long a citizen can be detained/delayed by a customs agent without cause.

Farenheit set 100F to be his wife's internal temperature. 0F was the freezing point of brine and humans are mostly brine. F is human centric.[0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit

He seems to have solved a mindset issue that eludes others like myself.

I reduced to 24hr billable hours a week thinking that it would help with burnout. Instead my ego is constantly deflated given that I am now the least productive developer on the team given all others work 40hrs+ and my meeting/coding ratio has become unbearable. The resulting competition anxiety ensures I think about the project all the time. The resulting lack of energy has affected my other projects/interests.

This is 100% in my head as my supervisor is happy with my output. But I can't escape it. I often lie down, stare at the ceiling for answers, only to find myself in a worse state.

No, this isn't about oligarchs. This is about sadists some of whom happen to be oligarchs whose singular goal is to make the non-MAGA sad. It is working.

It's not enough to have personal optimism you need a community/culture of optimists.

~10 years ago that was there in a big way for tech. It was peak YC prestige. HBO's Silicon Valley brought the start-up struggles/drama into the mainstream. Most people who worked hard were rewarded. Large in-person tech meetups provided a venue to share your success story.

The tech industry now feels bloated, mundane, low-value/rent-seeking, or as a net-negative for society. It isn't fun to share your success since it comes off as boasting instead of inspiring.

How I miss 2014. I was productive, optimistic, and energetic in a way I can barely comprehend now.

That's my point. It reminds me of when the greatest smart contract writers in the world got "hacked" by what was in the retrospect, a rookie error. We now have ETH and ETC which no one at the time (I'm a former miner) would have thought was possible.

Imagine if Fort Knox had a magic key allowing the bearer to walk in and out of it, at will, with as much riches as they wanted.

Now imagine that bearer is a politician who blames the North Korea for the missing assets.

Or imagine that key is damaged and no one can get the coins. It is lost forever.

I almost hope this stupid experiment is done on a state level, rather than national, and that it fails miserably as cautionary tale.

I assume this Tesla Takedown link is for organizing law abiding protests. But if you plan on burning something, be courteous and leave a comment in advance. Thanks!

https://actionnetwork.org/event_campaigns/teslatakedown

"These are external taxes paid by the exporting countries. Beautiful tariffs will allow the US to eliminate the IRS and replace it with an ERS".

Basically no point in even having a conversation about it. The same way you don't discuss evolution with someone who thinks the universe is 6000 years old.

Of all the coins why choose the one that is not regulated in anyway. At least the others like BTC, ETH, SOL are regulated by the unaffiliated miners and stakeholders.

What prevents the XRP team from introducing any arbitrary fork such as a dilutions that are then forced on their nodes ?

Trustlessness is a core feature of a cryptocurrency and XRP seems to require a whole lot of trust/faith. But I guess faith is what makes it perfect for its cult like following.

Serious question, are you also deeply religious ?

Do you realize that this cult has marinated their brain in propaganda, like Fox News, for years/decades and their politic beliefs are now their identity. There is no possible conversion therapy. They have to awake on their own.

>>This is not difficult

Right! It is impossible not difficult.

Not ADHD specifically, but about 12 years ago, the media was hyping Provigil as a "secret weapon" of the ultra-productive.

Despite having a prescription, CVS told me that my insurance wouldn't cover it and it would cost $1500 for 30 pills. I walked away and then went back to buy it. If I could just get 30 additional minutes of billable time per day per pill it would be worth it.

I took about 5 over a week and destroyed the rest. It wasn't good for anything but keep me awake in a semi-zombie low-creative state. This very expensive drug/lesson was effective and making me realize I need to seriously work on my impulse control.

The above describes me but it is the consequence of my behaviors/habits. Being a workaholic, I learned long ago to ignore the leash that pulls me to the refrigerator. It seems by brain no longer sends me a "you need to eat" signal similar to the way free divers can become oblivious to the "you need to breath" signal.

I wonder if with time, you can learn from this drug, form the helpful habits/behaviors and then stop taking it.

Definitely not everyone. For many of us, checks and balances are a feature not a bug.

dilution is the solution to the pollution

>>environmental exposure concentrations ultimately determining the internal body burden.

As another commenter asked "How did the amount of brain microplastic manage to double between 2016 and 2025?" It is doubtful that the environmental concentration level doubled during this time.

Can I ask why are your fleeing ? Are you chronically ill lacking health insurance and going to another country for their nationalized health care ? Or maybe you have unpaid gambling debts and your life is at risk ? Perhaps you are here illegally and need to flee before you are held in an internment camp ? Is there an upcoming bill that targets the marginalized group you are part of ? U.S. Military and don't want to be part of the Gaza/Canada/Greenland/* invasion force ?

Or upon reflection are you fleeing because your general anxiety is high (totally get it) and the flight or fight response is all consuming ? Because there is no way to flee that.

Go where you have friends, family, or some clear reason to be. The fact that you are open to suggestions implies this is an aimless/distracting way to waste years of your life. Perhaps you have the type of trouble you can't run away from ? I am speaking from experience and hoping you don't give up on the US assuming your roots are here. Take a long vacation abroad as an alternative.

The claim by the Canadian-American ambassador is that the Canadian border accounts for ~1% of Fentanyl traffic into the United States. Yet we are treating them as severely as Mexico and China. I suspect this has more to do with the U.S. President's personal feelings towards the Canadian Prime Minister. I hope I am wrong and this isn't as petty and stupid as I think it is.

"the average American brain sample with concentrations of 0.5 percent plastic by weight. That’s about the weight of a pencil in your brain. Think about that."

A related JAMA paper[0] suggests that the olfactory bulb may be the pathway to the brain via inhalation. I'm going to start rising my sinuses at night and in the morning as a precaution. A simple way is to put table salt in your palm and then water and inhaling the water from your palm. Not sure it will help and there are likely micro-plastics in the salt and water.

The good news is that in animal studies (I forget the source) the amount of plastic in the body levels off unless the amount of the plastic in the environment is raised. But I can't recall if also goes down in the body if environmental levels decrease.

[0]https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle...

Until now I oddly never questioned how any government could seize someone's bitcoin and how a government keeps the private keys of their crypto wallets secure.

My comment is off-topic, but I am unclear what insurance would pay in the case of a total loss of a home/neighborhood. For example, a small one bedroom home in the Pacific Palisades might have had a FMV of $2M. Let's assume the structure itself has a replacement value of $150k. On a typical policy, would insurance pay $2M in case of total loss, or $150k ? What if the neighborhood is destroyed and that land is now worth ~10% of what it was prior ? Would insurance then pay out closer to the $2M ?