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Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

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Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#311

Post by mdp2021 »

igorkraw wrote: post #304
aksss wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have talent, show up, and a clean criminal record, you can make it in the US without a problem. There’s more money than talent, meaning if you have talent, there are people ready to give you plenty of money. It’s not hard in and of itself. It says something that many people’s problem in the US is getting in their own way. People in other places in the world have far less mobility opportunities than we have her…

If you compare globally sure, if you compare with Europe, the data tells a different story. The US are 27th in social mobility behind all of the northwestern European nations with high taxation (data from the WEF, infographic from the site I link to). While Germany and the other European nations are far from perfect and I like some of the business aspects of the US, coming from money matters more in the US than in Eu…

Very grateful for your notification of the existence of visualcapitalist.com (It also has RSS, though through an external provider)

I wanted to reciprocate revealing something along the lines, but apart from ourworldindata.org (which has a numeric approach instead of notional), I can only find the promising JunkChart, https://junkcharts.typepad.com/junk_charts/ , and The Economist's Graphic Detail, https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail?page=1 , blogs.

Edit: the said branch of The Economist seems very promising: the latest article, "Just like modern humans, honeybees avoid each other amid plagues // They segregate behaviours in different parts of their hives to prevent parasites from spreading" as a stub shout heading reads «Social distan-sting». Thank you dear editor!

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#312

Post by krosaen »

maneesh wrote: post #279
krosaen wrote: post #266

> That the FDA, Health Canada, and the European Food Safety Authority all agree that at the doses humans consume, aspartame is perfectly safe—not genotoxic, not carcinogenic, does not cause an insulin spike—or at least has small, unknown harms, meaning that people with a sweet tooth can avoid the large, known harms of sugar with minimal exertion of willpower, and this is still true even though people for some reason…

Sucralose isn't aspartame...

apparently it applies to all artificial sweeteners, including plant based ones like stevia

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#313

Post by jaqalopes »

hasmanean wrote: post #310

Was this article written by a shill for aspartame? They just threw it in there as something to be thankful to for, right after the sun, the earth, nature etc.

This blogger (whom I like don't get me wrong) is a health crank who has written before about the health harms of sugar and how aspartame is comparatively not as bad. It's part of his beat, if you will.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#314

Post by mysticmode »

WalterBright wrote: post #239
renjimen wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Becoming one is a choice under your control To an extent. Some people are predisposed to addiction and the poor are much less likely to have the knowledge or support required to recognise or battle addiction.

I know that some people are predisposed to addiction. It's harder for them, sure, but becoming an addict is still a choice for them. I know some who chose to get and stay clean, too, despite being predisposed. I wager that poor people are far better at recognizing addiction than non-poor. I hired a stoner once, not recognizing it. He robbed the company blind to pay his dealer. Social workers are always trying to get…

This is a sort of response that makes the conversation stink and as well has no optimal solution would come out.

  > I know that some people
I know that this writing will make no change in your bigoted perception but at-least it might to others. So, I'm writing it.

Addiction is NOT a choice, and it is a form of chemical imbalance that happens in our complex brain that makes the person get into addiction with any substance. It could be said like any other mental health illnesses. AND when the person who got addicted doesn't get enough support and the compassion (likely not from you) to the way where they can be able to stay away from their addiction, there is a possibility that such person could go worse.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#315

Post by nine_zeros »

kortilla wrote: post #268
igorkraw wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can and aren't already, maybe consider organising with less privileged workers for things like striking in unison. Or getting politically active to grow economy and society so it will be kinder and allow a slip up. One of the many reasons I would never move to the US is that in Europe I don't feel like a minor slip up or bad luck will send me into financial ruin. I'll need surgery on my shoulder soon and hopef…

A minor slip up doesn’t ruin people financially in the US the vast majority of the time. That’s why it’s a non-issue politically. Your perspective of US life is just shaped by what they report on in the news/reddit/here/etc. Nobody reports on the people that live boring, comfortable lives.

Even if a minor slip up doesn't ruin you, the paperwork, hassle and the constant fear is ridiculous. That's no way to live a civilized life - and I say this as an American who has experienced better care even in third world countries.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#316

Post by ateng »

jiri wrote: post #296
autarch wrote: post #288

> 11. That it happens to be a game-theoretic equilibrium to have a near-equal sex ratio, although honestly, I have no idea what things would be like if that wasn’t the case and maybe it would be fine. Well, let's think about if this would be fine. If there were a 10:1 female to male ratio, I think we'd expect that a modern, "civilized" society would be reasonably fine for everyone. There'd probably a lot more polygam…

Wow, this seems like our society needs to control this ratio in the future! We can have more peaceful society if we reduce "men count" to keep ratio above 1:1.1 (male:female) :-)

This is done “accidentally” with major conflicts in history. Post WWII Soviet, for example. Lots more men than women got killed during the war and the post war male:female ratio is (from memory) around 1:1.15

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#317

Post by xpe »

WalterBright wrote: post #229
pkdpic wrote: post #176

Im thankful to have a job and a roof over my head and a little bit of savings. Not having to really worry about money still blows my mind now and then. Looking across the street every day in California and seeing the homelessness crisis in full swing is an ever present reminder of what this economy and this society can do to you if you slip up for even a second and / or have even a minor run of bad luck. Working in s…

In Seattle anyway, 90% of the homeless are either drug addicts or alcoholics. Becoming one is a choice under your control, not god smiting you. > Working in software is a heluva lot better than stoop labor, what people have done for millennia. Every time I work on the yard I'm reminded again at how hard stoop labor is, and how I'm glad to work sitting in a comfy chair in a warm house with the stereo playing in the ba…

Describing human actions as either ‘under one’s control’ or ‘not’ is an oversimplified and inaccurate world view.

I think the evidence suggests a different understanding:

1. One individual’s willpower varies significantly over time (over a day for example)

2. One individual’s set of options varies in many ways — not limited to education, awareness, culture, economic opportunity, and luck.

3. Many important actions are not consciously decided.

This plays out in many ways.

Many individuals that achieve some kind of success mistakenly over-attribute it to hard work or intelligence —- and downplay the role of culture, opportunity, privilege, and luck.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#318

Post by xpe »

someelephant wrote: post #260
ronbarr wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel sad for you if you see work only as a way to make money. A good job with a team that is working together towards a goal is a very satisfying experience. I would be unhappy to be very wealthy without a job. There are many people who end up lost because they don’t have a sense of purpose, and a job helps with that.

I agree with everything you're saying except for your usage of purpose. To me, life is not about doing meaningful and purposeful things. It's about satisfying yourself. With the right incentives, we can satisfy ourselves in ways that are meaningful and purposeful. Finding the right work with the right people is extremely satisfying. If you don't enjoy your work, it's likely you are not working on the right things or…

It can be both. I would guess that most people, once they have satisfied their basic needs, begin to strive to help their kids, their friends, their community, and possibly even their country and/or world.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#319

Post by dham »

avl999 wrote: post #244
dham wrote: post #243

> That large animals like humans seem to be able to develop sophisticated defenses against parasites that parasites can’t counter-adapt against, meaning that parasitism is way less of an issue for us than it is for smaller animals, which is good because parasites are bad. The lack of parasites probably leads to most auto immune diseases in humans.

citation needed

Basically after populations are treated for parasites (in 3rd world countries) the rate of autoimmune diseases goes up. It's thought that since the immune system has nothing to do, it starts attacking itself which makes sense from an evolutionary stand point.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1618732/

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#320

Post by ravi-delia »

hardlianotion wrote: post #162
ravi-delia wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still true that if we had cones outside our current color range we'd have new qualia, even if animals don't.

Would we? It seems possible that some other sensation could be overloaded as well - ie seeing red where others see only blackness...

I mean, it seems clear we don't have any real consistent definition for qualia. I'd argue that every distinct color you can see is a different qualia, although an argument could be made for a single "color" qualia which takes on different forms.
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