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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 9th, 2024

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  • Correct me if I’m wrong but I think I read that it was neurological issues in general (not just autism specifically) that weakly correlated with tylenol usage.

    But yes, the next question is what were they taking tylenol for? Fevers? Infections? Some type of illness? Some factor that itself might be what contributed to the neurological problems rather than the medicine they took to relieve their symptoms?

    To over-simplify, it’s like saying tylenol causes headaches with no further study, because they found a correlation between taking tylenol and having headaches. Distinguish correlation and causation. Sometimes a correlation points to a cause, oftentimes it doesn’t.


  • With trump and oligarchs, always look to the $$$.

    Oligarchs like to do a lot of stock price manipulation so they can make bank on both the ups and the downs. Step 1. Buy stock in the competitor and short the target. Step 2. Release info/misinfo to tank the target’s share price. Step 3. Take the profit on the short and also sell the competitor stock while it’s high. Step 4. (optional depending on what you plan to manipulate next) either buy the target’s stock while it’s low if you expect it to recover quickly or leave it alone if you don’t.

    And of course with trump there’s also the possibility of other factors like a) there was some “nice stock price you have there–shame if anything would happen to it” going on behind the scenes to get some “donations to the trump library” and then he would go ahead and do the thing either way, and b) Little Bobby Brainworm’s fever dreams.












  • That’s my view too. even if reincarnation existed, it wouldn’t matter. If each life has no memory of the others, then each life is effectively a different person altogether, so from the POV of any one of those people, there is effectively no such thing as reincarnation.

    Now suppose there’s some kind of ‘soul’ who the lives ‘belong to’ and will one day remember the lives, again – so what? They’re just memories. Those lives were each a separate person who no longer exists, and never knew the others or the soul.




  • I’ve used a (LibreOffice) spreadsheet for the past 10 years to track everything I spend–yes, every single thing–it’s not that hard at all. Keep the receipt or make a note of it to enter when you get home. Mine is set up like this:

    One tab for each year. Rows are transactions and columns are categories (after the date, payment type, and payee/description), so one transaction row could have amounts entered in multiple columns.

    I use only about a dozen broad categories like Food, Utilities (I see no point in separating out each specific utility), Household supplies, Car, Entertainment, etc. Also sales tax and donations columns. Basically whatever you might want to see totals for. Start simple and general, and you can always add another column or two later if needed. Row totals in the final column, column totals at the top.

    I also have tabs for: Credit card charges–for reconciling with the bill (and then record the payment on the yearly tab in the appropriate categories); Medical expenses–categories are type Rx/Tx/Ins and how paid HSA/Chkg Acct/Credit card; And finally a Notes tab for entering more detailed info about any unusual/extra costs like auto/house repairs or major purchases.

    You could add Budgeting on another tab with budgeted amounts vs actual amounts (grabbed by using formulas pointing to the year tabs), but I don’t need that because my spending and expenses are pretty simple and consistent.


  • Most people would just put water in the mug (ceramic/microwave-safe of course) that they’re going to make the tea in and microwave it until it boils or bubbles just short of a rolling boil, which takes 2 or 3 minutes, depending on the microwave’s power–you’d learn the time yours takes and set the timer for that. At that point I don’t see the difference between that vs. if you poured it into the cup from the kettle. Either way you now have a cup full of boiling-hot water to steep your tea in. No, it won’t spill over if you don’t fill it all the way up to the brim.



  • I use an electric kettle but remember that in the US outlets are 120V, so they take a lot longer to heat water than in countries with 240.

    So the microwave isn’t much less efficient than the electric kettle, mainly because some of the energy is heating the mug/container. The least efficient is a stovetop kettle on an electric stove.

    But I’m curious, why are Europeans so horrified by the idea of heating water in the microwave? Is it related to power consumption, or is there some other reason?