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You hear a lot of people talking about how artificial food ingredients are harmful and it's healthy to eat natural foods, but you don't hear a lot of people talking about how artificial lights are harmful and it's healthy just to stay up in daylight hours only, like our ancestors did. :)

Actually you can find some people talking about the supposed unhealthiness of specific artificial lights, like using electronic devices at night, but I don't see these people giving up their artificial lights.

Don't forget what economists call "opportunity cost": If you spend time or other resources on things that aren't very useful, you're losing other valuable opportunities!

Even as someone who favors free society I can admit that dictatorships have some advantages, such as being able to more easily organize massive projects with economies of scale (e.g. nuclear plants). However I think that free societies have more advantages, not just for the pleasure of people living in them but also in terms of efficiency. We can see now for example that Ukrainian/western militaries can more easily adapt to battlefield conditions, and produce more precise weapons.

I cracked the code. Curacao is often abbreviated CUR. That explains all the lousy dogs! :)

 

After reading a bunch of articles and more recently watching some videos in Portuguese, I feel like I can now understand a good chunk of the written and spoken language. I think I'd still have a quite hard time trying to speak it. I could maybe write it but with tons of mistakes.

Portuguese seems to me like it's basically Spanish but pronounced differently and with a few word substitutions. Sorry, Portuguese speakers! That's probably quite offensive, but I just mean they're very close, you could also rephrase that as Spanish is basically Portuguese but pronounced differently and with a few word substitutions.

Most of the vocabulary and grammar seems about the same. So I think the hard part is just understanding/pronouncing the different sounds, and remembering the word differences. I like both languages, Spanish and Portuguese! :)

I think Spanish and Portuguese are much closer to each other than English and any other language. What's English's closest neighbor? German or Dutch? Those have some resemblances but I can't quite make out a lot of written or spoken sentences in Dutch or German. I think English borrowed more heavily from Romance languages?

At first I found it harder to identify words in Portuguese than in Spanish because they pronounce in Portuguese a lot of r's as English h's, nearly silently. I think I'm starting to get the hang of that a bit more, now.

 

I think Putin and the Russian soldiers' war is ruined. Not just strategically but also emotionally. Now it looks like they're not going to accomplish their goals. Probably demoralizing to fight on a side that's losing.

It turns out to be useful for Ukraine to have elected an actor. Seems to convince politicians and people internationally. I guess it's like electing Reagan or Schwarzenegger.

Russia doesn't seem to have a serious democracy. Any country with the same politician e.g. Putin for decades seems like trouble. And Russians can't freely say "fuck off old dictator" or whatever, like in a real society.

Break the rules as necessary or desirable! :)

 

I'm thinking of Portuguese and Spanish as different dialects rather than different languages. They're more or less mutually intelligible, which I think language nerds use as a or the test of a language. I think the difference between the two is about the same as the difference between e.g. Spanish from Spain and Spanish from the Caribbean.

You're dying anyway, make the best of a bad situation! ;)

I think Russia is way out-technologied by the West.

Woah, crazy, there's a robotic solar-powered helicopter on Mars! (Ingenuity)

I'm guessing that SpaceX has enabled the development of tons of new now-affordable things to send into space!

Is Portuguese breathily romantic? :)

Must be quite a shock for Russian POWs to see Ukrainian news on TV.

Given the atavistic focus of Russian politics on traditional masculinity (e.g. "a real man's a soldier"), must be a big downer to face military losses (e.g. a "real man" getting his legs and balls blown off).

 

The Russian fascists have harmed people everywhere, not just in Ukraine but in all countries including Russia. After a massive invasion of Ukraine they've often threatened nuclear attacks and World War III. Even if they're just propaganda bluffs, for a nuclear country at war to make those threats is offensive and should be canned.

I think Russia's problems stem to large-ish extent from oil, as with Venezuela and various Middle Eastern countries. Even though Russia's bigger than those countries, its economy has serious problems, and did even more so after the fall of the Soviet Union. As such whoever could grab and hold the oil had a massive advantage. The fascist military and intelligence could grab and hold the oil, so they installed their dictatorship.

Now Russia and China are acting like their dictatorships are another pole, but they're not. Their technology is considerably behind, as is their society. And now Russia's under war fascism and China's under COVID fascism. So both of their economies are pressured.

In ten years, maybe Ukraine will be a modern country connected with Europe and America, while Russia will be a closed-off dictatorship connected with China and North Korea?

 

Cheese is protein powder if you added some delicious fat, salt, and culture. Cheese costs less and tastes better! Plus you can eat it on its own (no prep) or use it with your favorite recipes.

Surprised I haven't seen in marketing "holy cacao!" Probably exists somewhere on the internet.

Energy drinks seem like a worse drink in many senses versus coffee. Coffee costs much less, and doesn't contain the same added sweeteners and acids. You can also more easily control the amount of caffeine you have, since energy drinks often contain a lot of caffeine in one can. Those advantages other than the last also apply to coffee versus regular soft drinks.

Energy drinks and sodas do have a nice taste and carbonation. But then coffee also has a nice taste, and you can carbonate it if you want (or nitrogenate it). :)

Not arguing against artificial food products, just against artificial food products that seem impractical.

BTW I think coffee/caffeine has comparable aphrodisiac effects to cocaine. Not sure if there's much scientific data on that, but I'm guessing at least some. Huh, looks like some data, including for males and females.

 

Maybe in ten or twenty years Central/Eastern Europe will lead the continent, while Western Europe is in retirement mode and chasing after weird climate change notions?

It wouldn't surprise me if there's a "principal-agent problem" where some person/people in Russia can act under Putin's name but not bear responsibility. That would explain even more than Putin's strategic ruthlessness the sending of so many people to their deaths and dismemberments.

That plus conservative ignorance among Russians. :)

More hints that a piece of supposed "science" is BS... It's mainly promoted by large governmental bodies like the WHO or UN instead of by some scientists (e.g. COVID, climate change). It tries out a bunch of different marketing names (e.g. Wuhan/Coronavirus/COVID/delta variant/etc., global cooling/global warming/climate change/etc.).

I don't think I've ever had a female pilot (from the announcements they make during take-off and landing).

 

Looks like the Russian government's attempt to have a concealed invasion is failing, unlike in Crimea in 2014.

Syria, Lybia, Ukraine... I think anywhere with Russian military forces is a place I'd rather not be!

I feel like I'm ready psychologically to leave Curacao, right as I'm about to leave. Seems like the timing often works out. Maybe in part from planning, maybe in part from how the brain adjusts to situations.

Russian media in general is like Western media during COVID.

How about a side-by-side poster of an Islamic woman in a face covering and a western woman in a COVID mask i.e. western face covering. Both enforced by crazy political extremists. Viva la libertad! :)

Make each part of the day and night as valuable as you can! :)

 

Jejej, even the Euro-lefties have to admit in practice that the decarbonification is secondary to providing economic success, e.g. heating.

Russia's an interesting reflection of western societies. We can see how their corrupt government uses fear to control the population. Western politicians do the same, of course not quite to nearly the same extent since populations started resisting.

"I'm prone to it! It's part of my fuckin' genetics that I'm a heavy drinker, so leave me alone!" :)

Turns out right-wing Russians are just as fascist as left-wing Russians :)

Putin's just another of their thugs who's done things by force. Russian voters seem to deserve a lot of their problems for supporting that insanity. Putin: an enemy of the progress of humanity. If you live in a free country: have fun!

Jejej, looks like crazy old women are the target demographic/support base for Putin.

 

I think the Russian government's plan to intimidate people in Ukraine backfired. Now the Russian military looks in shambles, and there's probably in-fighting in the government with fear of losing jobs or lives.

Russia's military is fighting with grandpa's guns. The government's pushing grandma's beliefs. They're on their way out.

Humans started from gross chimp-like things, and have somewhat improved in a few respects over the years. Conservatives want to keep the old crappy chimp stuff. Fuck that! Let's have fun and liberate!!! :)

Jejej Russian government's anti-modernity stance has resulted in outdated tech. Apparently Ukrainians blew up the communications hardware in the retaken area so that the offensive soldiers didn't know what was happening.

Anyways, rock and roll! :)