Octospider

Yep. Universities are in on it too. You can’t work in academia without constantly publishing. These publishers don’t pay you for your work. But publishing improves your “reputation” and “scholarly activity” which the university requires in order to boost its own “reputation”. It’s a big scam.

We owe them nothing. They are trying to cheat the system. People who jump through the hoops to get their PR should be the most insulted.

If he’s a “hard follower” of Joe Rogan than he likely won’t be interested in other content. Rogan is a fool, but that’s why people find him appealing. Content that is insightful and educational is the opposite of the junk food of Rogan.

Maybe instead, when Rogan says something like “Bro did you know like the pineal gland of the chimpanzee produces anti-covid hormones? This is just what I’ve heard. Look it up. By the way did you see the tree growing in my toilet?” You can help your sibling by teaching them ways to think, reason, and critically evaluate the BS that freely flows from the Roganverse.

Sometimes on the news or social media, I’ll hear about some well-known musician, author, etc, who has died. There’s been occasions where I check out their material and suddenly become a fan.

Have you heard of Daniel Dennett? Check him out.

I’m rooting for the day nobody cares about this type of thing.

Do you remember when Sun Chips changed their chip bag material to a more environmentally friendly compostable material? People lost their minds. Why? Because the bag crinkled a lot. All of the boring late night talk shows made fun of Sun Chips bags. So, they switched it back to the old bags.

Moral of the story is that people don’t care if something is better for the environment if it inconveniences them now. If everything was in cans people would cry because they can’t close them or whatever. In fact, many items that were previously sold in cans are now plastic. Also, money… Cheaper to wrap water in plastic.

You can still buy Coca-cola in glass bottles if you look hard enough. But they are pricey.

I’ve found the term “independence” to be ambiguous when discussing Taiwan. Everyone knows Taiwan is effectively an independent state. But in practice, it is less clear where the government or people of Taiwan stand on the topic. For example, Taiwan has agreed to participate in the Olympics under an ambiguous name, Chinese Taipei. Which is purposively designed to appease notions of independence from China.

For me, it would encompass the idea of a formal declaration of the Taiwan state. Perhaps even renaming the country from RoC to Taiwan to further solidify that notion, which I think does not have popular support in Taiwan. In fact, the PRC has clearly stated that military action would occur if Taiwan “declared independence”. So, instead of “declaring independence”, I hear that Taiwan instead says “well, we don’t have to declare independence, because we already are. So, we aren’t going to declare it.” Which to me sounds like: “We would officially and unambiguously declare independence, but we are afraid of what the PRC would do if we did. So, instead we are going to act like we don’t have to do it because we already are independent… even though we won’t declare it”. I don’t know… I’m probably just confused.

Your kid doesn’t need a phone. If you want them to have a phone, then a flip phone that allows them to call you.

War is like really super profitable though. So, on one hand we could potentially save the planet… but on the other hand we could get some short term profits. Tough call.

I doubt any of us could sit in a chair doing nothing for even 1 day without becoming restless without phones or other distractions. 4 billion years? Your brain would be mush. You’d have long forgotten your own name or even the concept of money.

Shouldn’t we have regular intelligence in Canada before we start making artificial intelligence.

If only there was a solution! People are struggling to afford having children and a work/life balance. What in earth could they need? So mysterious.

Landlords. Housing as a commodity in general.

Why do people always vote against their own self interests.

Bad bot. Go to your room.

I’m sure Putin will bomb another Ukrainian kindergarten to help him through this difficult time.

Have you seen Reddit and Twitter lately? You want those people here?

If I put my old man hat on, I’d say none. I think the idea of “classics” is dead. I also think most modern mainstream music is terrible. But hey what do I know.

If Duolingo is too fast paced, then you aren’t going to learn any quicker using a different method. The fastest way to learn any language is full immersion with lessons. It’s extremely difficult. Maybe go online and find a tutor/teacher in your area or virtually. Oh and it’s “ciao”.