Well, you do you, but I prefer to actually get work done when I’m at work. If I don’t like my work anymore (well, it’s not my hobby, but still not that bad), I’ll go work somewhere else.

I have a 35-hour week with flexible hours so I could put it in 3 days if I wished. That seems awful to me though, I can’t really focus on my work anymore after 6 hours. All a matter of perspective I guess.

Trump has a 43% approval rating despite destroying the country.

Macron’s approval rating is around 25-30%. Merz’ is just over 20%. Starmer’s is around 45%.

Okay, so a poll among the self-identified Hispanic community says more of them think their economic situation has worsened rather than improved.

Meanwhile though, Trump’s approval rating is stable at 43%, still somewhat above the lowest point of his first term, and the GOP still has a 10-point lead over the Democrats in favourability. Polls for the midterms predict a close race with a small edge for Democrats.

I was walking through the canteen with some classmates. One of them stole a sugar cube intended for coffee from the canteen. A teacher, apparently feeling Biblical, punished the whole group with an hour of detention.

Is there any actual evidence that Science lacks money?

That more money would actually help scientists do more interesting stuff?

Yes, there is a pretty strong correlation between R&D spending and scientific output. Even so, spending is only in the low single digit percentages of the economy everywhere. Societies could easily decide to spend less on decadent luxury and more on science.

Right now, do scientists actually have money problems making it difficult to conduct ambitious research?

So science is a high-risk, high-reward numbers game. You try more things, hire more scientists, and more science will happen. Most research doesn’t lead anywhere, but the small fraction that does leads to things you could just never get without scientific research. Yes, there are many (such as yours truly) who could have continued to be scientists but take jobs in industry because positions as scientific researchers are extremely competitive and there is not enough money to hire all suitable candidates.

I think it’s a sign of a healthy democracy if most people view politicians as servants of the people, rather than viewing themselves as serving the politicians. I have 20 choices, not 2, and I can certainly find candidates more closely aligned ideologically than most Americans can. Yet I would never say I “am” party such-and-such.

Did they? European car makers together have a significantly larger market share in the global EV market than Tesla. The VW Group alone is only marginally behind Tesla, and likely to overtake them soon. The European EV market is completely dominated by European carmakers.

They might cover the various celebrations around the world.

In a typical modern democracy, turnout for general elections is usually around the 80% mark. I don’t think the difference can be explained just by Americans being “dumber.”

I’m not certain. I created a database to keep track of the number, but had to abandon the project due to the prohibitive cost of maintaining it.

By definition, everyone is opposed to illegal immigration, though they might differ in opinion about what immigration should be illegal.

Opposition to “illegal immigration” is practically always just a fig leaf for opposition to immigration. You can verify this easily by asking an opponent of “illegal immigration” whether they think legal immigration should become easier to reduce the incentives for illegal immigration. My counter for those who have answered in the affirmative is currently at zero.

At least you act more like it than the real one.

The world overall is extremely peaceful by historical standards, and the same goes for Africa. There are some ongoing wars and conflicts and above-average levels of violent crime, but for the most part lower life expectancy is due to lacking health care and substandard nutrition.

English is one of the easiest languages in the world to learn.

States in the Deep South already have a lower life expectancy than some African countries. With some more effort, perhaps the current administration can manage to catch up to the likes of the Central African Republic.

I have never commuted by car, but I plan to get a car when I retire so I can drive around in the mornings.

My story is similar to yours, though I just got a warning, not a ban.

The first warning was for “abusing the report function” after I reported a post defending Derek Chauvin. I stopped reporting to the admins after that, and over time grew increasingly uneasy with the direction of Reddit as a more and more fascist-friendly organization, and the willing and eager contribution of Reddit’s CEO to millions of Covid deaths left a sour taste (and a nasty cough).

I got the second warning about a week ago after I joked the US government should go into the White House and Melania’s lover’s residence to arrest them since Trump pardoned a drug dealer, by the same reasoning the US government used to abduct Maduro and his wife. This was “threatening violence.” That was the last straw, I quit Reddit after that.

It’s not even that I mind them erring on the side of caution, or in this case on the side of insanity, it’s the double standard that irks me the most. An obvious joke goes too far, but in certain subreddits (you know the ones) users can advocate ethnic cleansing, war crimes, etc. with reckless abandon.

I’m not convinced the Fairness Doctrine is all that relevant. France still has something akin to it, and the French Republic is also about to fall to a fascist takeover. Social media, where the bulk of fascist and malicious propaganda thrives, is mostly unregulated.

I was expecting a dose of heroin with a large helping of brain worms on top.