Huh, I’ve always closed one eye when it’s super bright because it’s simply more comfortable. Cool to have the behavior defined this way.

seems like the kinda guy we should lock up

Every single person who shares this man’s beliefs should be killed.

Says the man clearly living under a rock. I suggest you do some reading.

Brother in 2023 54% of adults in the U.S. read below a 6th grade level and 64% of our fourth graders did not read proficiently.

You need to take a step back, because the only one here who’s dead wrong is you.

Spoilers, Robert Maxwell fucked over Canadian schools too. I’m not sure why Canadians believe they’re so separate from the U.S., but you should probably re-examine that belief.

Distinctly, no, as insecticides and fungicides are still widely used and very very bad for worms.

Not to defend Netanyahu, he’s a despicable piece of shit.

Israel has about 10 million people in it. If I’m not mistaken, he’s saying that it would be like the United States losing 40k people — because the way the numbers work out 1000 people from Israel is around 0.01% of their population and 40000 people from the U.S. is around 0.01% of our population.

All that being said - Netanyahu certainly does believe that every Israeli is worth infinitely more than any American. Unfortunately his words in this circumstance do not directly reflect that belief. Perhaps indirectly, but not directly.

Edit: my numbers are not 100% accurate due to quik maffs, but you get my point.

But was that the reason the U.S. stopped? I was under the impression it was the U.S. that decided to cancel their contracts with China due to illegal dumping, I’m just not sure of the details.

The United States also did it with China, though China would subcontract with Southeast Asian countries who would subsequently dump the plastic in the ocean. Not sure what the tipping point was for the U.S.

It’s almost like we should stop coming up with different ways to sell plastic.

Sent to a bunch of countries that are just as likely to burn it or dump it in the ocean.

Yaay.

I can find sources but for one thing, aspartame has been looked at for years as a carcinogen, 4-MEI (caramel coloring) is also a carcinogen, articles like this one point to sucralose being quite bad for you in many different ways.

If your sugar free soda contains caffeine then it can actually contribute to hydration loss, this is because caffeine is a dieuretic (something that increases urine production and removes extra salt and water from the body).

Plus the simple logic is: sugar free soda cannot be almost identical to plain water because of the sheer amount of additives. You will always be better off health-wise drinking clean water.

I think if you look at in isolation, sure, much like beer in a survival situation. Sugar free soda is still linked with things like higher blood pressure, diabetes — which, to me, sounds like you’re just better off drinking water.

One thing to consider is that your relationship with taste might need to be re-examined.

Human beings can go most places in the world and find food. Taste is a big part of our ability to do so as a species, sure, but the fact remains that being able to eat/drink solely to satiate your desires (rather than survival) is actually an abnormality if we compare it to the rest of human history. In a sense, it is a privilege to simply be able to say ‘no’ to something strictly based on the flavor.

Try to guage it based on how you feel rather than how it tastes. You should be able to feel the difference between how a day with only water feels vs a day without water (I’m not including beer or soda here, yes it can keep you hydrated no it is not a solution to hydration unless you’re trapped in a desert). If it’s hard for you to notice a difference, give it a week. Being regularly hydrated should effect how you feel at every part of the day, especially in the mornings.

You’re essentially asking them to accelerate towards a stop instead of temporarily incoveniencing you.

Pro tip: 3 seconds in between you and the car in front of you. That way this won’t ever inconvenience you again.

Yeah that just seems incorrect — have you driven a Tesla? Because they absolutely have the feature I’m talking about.

One thing to keep in mind is a feature of EVs is automatic braking when you take your foot off the gas. Mine has different settings on how hard you want it to brake. I think the idea is that it’s safer for something like an accident (which it is) and you gain some energy back into your battery.

I think that might be what you’re experiencing here.

If you leave your mouth open for long enough, you break the vacuum holding the shit and piss stink in and you’ll start smelling.

I guess that’s true, I have actually mentioned it to a few of my coworkers – they all had a reaction that more or less spoke ‘there simply isn’t enough time for that’ lol.

Tangentially, there’s also this bilibili show called ling long reincarnation that, whether I’m stupid for liking it or not, is awesome. The thing about it is that I’ve always felt like there’s something lost in translation about the show, or there are themes that I’m simply unaware of due to… well an overall lack of knowledge about Chinese language and culture, I suppose.

Idk, full immersion would be best like you said — I just have no idea where I’d find that in California. I’m sure there are places, but then there’s the extra layer of somehow finding enough time to actually absorb the language through immersion. Perhaps I’ll just take up Spanish lol, I always did well in it in school and it’s close enough to English. I think it would probably be much easier to find people who speak Spanish here.

Well, to answer your primary question — many of the people on the team I work with speak… it’s either Cantonese or Mandarin, I think they told me Mandarin but I’m not entirely sure. It isn’t something that would necessarily help me on a professional level, but it would help me on a personal level with many of them.

That’s genuinely my motivation, I don’t really care about ‘seeming’ bilingual — this is mostly to bring me closer to people who have helped me at work.

Since Lemmy apparently has a ton of people who are bilingual — how do I as a 31 year old man that knows enough Spanish to say ‘Thank you, where is the bathroom?’ and frequently watches anime in subtitles gain another language? I’m open to all suggestions, except bad ones. Specifically I am interested in learning Mandarin because I hate myself.