Among peer countries, the U.S. has the lowest life expectancy at birth for both women and men

The United States has the highest infant and maternal mortality rates out of any other high-income country

21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2024. 54% of adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level, 20% are below 5th-grade level

Today, the Republican Party has a 6-3 supermajority on the Supreme Court, and when church and state cases have come before them, all six of those Republicans have behaved exactly how you would expect. That means that the Court is now actively tearing down whatever barrier used to exist between church and state

With one-fifth of states seeing active measles outbreaks, the U.S. is nearing 900 cases

Household food insecurity affected 17.9 percent of households with children in 2023. In some of these food-insecure households only adults were food insecure, while in other households children also experienced food insecurity

Turns out he wasn't ready 4 ze new world order

This is extremely reductive, but the gist is - creatine is good for brains. In part because it regulates glutamate. People with ADHD have significantly higher glutamate levels, which cause synaptic spillover - synapses triggering neighboring ones and essentially spamming the brain. Stimulants help with that by improving the metabolism of glutamate. And oral creatine supplementation just increases creatine levels to fight the high glutamate levels. Both result in ADHD brains being quieter.

This is a pretty deep rabbit hole and a heavy read. But here are some interesting papers if you wanna dive in. I'm by no means an expert in any of this. I'm just interested in understanding my own ADHD, and at one point was curious how does creatine actually help, since I feel better taking it c:

Glutamate/Creatine ratios and ADHD

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3222884/

Effect of oral creatine supplementation on brain metabolism

https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/S0925-4927(03)00046-5

Effect of methylphenidate (ritalin) on metabolism of Glx in ADHD

https://sci-hub.se/10.1089/cap.2006.0008

That's funny, I could write pretty much this exact post myself. And since getting out of my head and following my own advice feels impossible, here it is for you. Look up the address of the employment services office that's closest to you, don't bother researching beyond this point. Wake up tomorrow, do some pushups until you're bored, take a shower, eat a snack and go to that office. Either get a meeting then and there, or get one scheduled and repeat the steps on the day of. Tell them what you hate about working, and that you struggle getting your foot in the door, so you'll need some help with finding openings. You got it from there c:

Also buy a jar of creatine, it's great for brains and ADHD brains especially (I can find the research I went through if you're curious). 20g a day for a week, then 5g a day. And energy drinks are great if they don't make you feel bad, you can buy powdered ones for cheap. Mix it with the creatine after breakfast, makes for a decent brain day. Good luck!

What a crazy conversation. "Art" and "machine made" is an oxymoron, that's it. Without the human component, the techniques and experiences of an artist (however complex they might be), with no intent or thought behind it there is no reason for it to exist. This idea is one step removed from sitting in a plastic garden with drone birds flying around, reading your AI book and listening to AI music, while an AI robot raises your AI engineered children. This is death of the human condition, not technological progress.

Hell yeah. The second season takes place in Italy, similar concept that should hit even closer to home c:

I think you'd really like the show "White Lotus".

A friendly reminder that 15 richest people hold $2.5T (as of late December), the same amount as bottom 40% of the global population.

What an interesting gripe. Personally I'd say it's dst itself that is pointless and confusing, causing strokes and car crashes. Rather than the device that automatically handles it not notifying you to change the oven clock.

There's nothing wrong with taking a couple years to focus on yourself

You said it. If you're not okay, your output is not gonna be the best either, be it political, creative, or otherwise. Self-actualization is important, so if activism doesn't cover it alone, it only makes sense to balance it out with other pursuits. And after all, revolutionary movies also need screenwriters.

Apparently before saying "Cutting essential personnel is the worst way to ensure air travel safety".

That's very true specifically for the MLM3Ws, who in the imperial core have very little in common with actual MLMs. They'll read the same revolutionary study guide/book for a year+, dissect it from each and every angle, spend countless hours arguing the tiniest points and mistranslations, kick out half of the group for minute (or fundamental) disagreements, and call themselves revolutionaries. And then never do an ounce of Marxist analysis on what the fuck did they spend that time on, or why have they never went outside to talk to a single person while preaching about the mass line.

This is a great idea! Especially if your cat mainly lives indoors. Then your place becomes the entire world, the entire source of experiences for the animal. So whenever you're not around, or can't spend time socializing together, there's nothing to generate new stimuli. And if there was a friend, then they could always provide something new for each other and live much more fulfilling lives together.

It's also your responsibility to make sure that the relationship is healthy. Cats can be very jealous of the time and attention you spend on a new one, not used to interacting with other cats/animals/people, or just afraid of change in general. So I would recommend starting by fostering a cat of a similar age for a while. Then you could either keep the foster if they vibe together, or broaden your cat's horizons and probably have better luck with the next one.

There's nothing silly in caring about the well-being of someone you're responsible for.

Here's something that helped me once (and continuously since). I was trying to get diagnosed in order to get a prescription, but the wait time for a free assessment was multiple years. After trying every avenue, I genuinely gave up on that, but I knew that there are recreational drugs that work similarly for me. So I just vented to my doctor and said exactly that - I know that you're not willing to prescribe the meds without the official diagnosis and that's okay, I understand. So I'll just have to buy another drug that helps off the street. And he was like "okay, I'm even more uncomfortable with you doing that. Fine then, let's start you on the prescription meds". It's crazy that it took this to get any help, and it still limits me in fully exploring the optimal combinations without the diagnosis, but I'm still super thankful to my doc for that. At least I won't od on a random batch with some extra fentanyl mixed in.

Are you in this for the recognition and applause? For feeling smarter than and superior to others? You're here of all places, so no you're not. Materialism wouldn't be a revolutionary philosophy if it fell in line with what people readily agree with. Your friend sided with you on this and that is good. Keep being educated and correct, and he'll agree with you some more. When you agree on enough, you'll be able to teach him how to be just as correct. Then we'll have another comrade, and you'll have a better friend.

The education is a thankless job, a fight against established thought. Our props will be the society where you no longer have to be an educator. And you're getting us closer to that, one opinion at a time. So keep your head up.

Like he originally said during the maralago dinner with Trudeau, the tariffs are moreso about "border security", meaning militarization, metering, and holding cells on either side (Mexico is already considering to hold non-mexican deportees in their facilities). And if they don't play ball, it's tariff time baby.

It was conveyed to the Canadian delegation the tariffs are unavoidable in the immediacy, but solutions in the longer term are on the table, particularly if the border is better secured.

I'm a big believer in tariffs. I think tariffs are the most beautiful word. I think they're beautiful. It's going to make us rich

Trump said in an interview with NBC's Meet The Press that aired Sunday. In that interview, the U.S. president-elect later reiterated his border concerns:

We can't have open borders. And I said to the president of Mexico and to Justin Trudeau, if it doesn't stop, I'm going to put tariffs on your country at about 25 per cent

https://www.cp24.com/news/canada/2024/12/10/trump-refers-to-prime-minister-as-governor-justin-trudeau-after-saying-canada-will-respond-to-tariff-threat/

This is obviously a joke, but it's a good time for a reminder that the state of California is the 4th largest economy in the world with over $4 trillion in GDP. Thinking of the US as a set of 50 equally important (economically and socially) chunks is not a good strategy. Unless we go with the mlm3w "Western whites can't do anything so just sit back" approach, we will have to focus our work on parts that matter the most materially.

Commiefornia is a long shot, considering that they just voted to preserve state slavery, but it's a much more realistic threat to global capitalism than a socialist US.

I feel like the last thing we need is more obscure terminology. Socialism is just as good.

The Mensheviks were demsocs

Socdems, and that's what makes it funny. Like Lenin said:

You can see the difference between them in this simple example: a menshevik that wants an apple would stand under an apple tree and wait until the apple falls in his hands. And a bolshevik would go and pick the apple.

I like that they grouped bolsheviks and mensheviks in one category