Neat, I've never heard of those. Unihertz makes one with a projector in it... that's wild. I'd be hesitant to buy a phone that's sold on AliExpress though, I'd assume OS support wouldn't be that great.

You did say “I love meat, let me assure you”. That’s pretty proud.

Fair enough, I can see how you'd read it that way.

How can you be concerned about growing meat consumption in other countries? “Gee I sure hope people don’t act like me, that’d be concerning!”. Rules for thee.

Yep, it's hypocritical, and I accept that. But it's still a cause for concern, considering the broader context.

Over the past decades, we've seen a global rise in living standards. Especially in countries like China and India, which represent a significant chunk of our global population.

China's poverty has fallen dramatically over the past decades. The average Chinese person is now much better off than they used to be. If you look at poverty figures, you'll see a nice little ski-slope: back in 1990, effectively 98 percent of Chinese wereliving below the current poverty line. In 2019, that was down to below 16 percent.

Same thing for India: a dramatic poverty decline since the 1980's.

If you're at least somewhat aware of economics, you'll understand that an increased standard of living also leads to more consumption: people can now afford cars, they can afford to travel, they can afford more food - which includes meat.

China is already the world's largest meat consumer - but there's a catch: they're lagging in per-capita consumption. Experts predict that with increased urbanization and rising income levels, Chinese people are going to eat more and more meat. Because they can finally afford to do so.

Meat consumption is also on the rise in India. While there's certainly plenty of Indians who don't eat meat on religious grounds, actually over 70 percent of the population does eat meat.

So, see why I'm worried? Because they're going down the same path towards overconsumption that we ware. Is it hypocritical to say to a no-longer-impoverished Indian or Chinese person that they shouldn't want meat, cars or shiny new phones? Yes. But one can also hope that they learn from our mistakes in that regard. Overconsumption is going to have a profound impact on the scale of those two countries.

That’s not to mention the antibiotic crisis where treatment resistant bacteria are developing in animals due to overuse in livestock. Or the development of animal flus like birdflu, corona virus, swine flu, ebola etc etc, which emerge from consuming animals.

Those are certainly things I'm worried about. Especially considering recent history regarding covid. God only knows what meat production is like in some countries, and I shudder to find out. It's only going to get worse if producers try to fill that increased demand.

You’re doing so much good, why not do the little extra step of going vegan? It’s so easy nowadays. Good for you, good for the planet, good for the animals. There’s no practical downside?

Well, honestly, at some point it gets really tiring to shoulder the burden of basically everything. I'm using a computer to type this, my previous post was on a phone. They both contain lithium, cobalt, coltan and other materials, a lot of which get mined with either exploited workers or outright slave labor. The clothes I'm wearing were probably made by an exploited worker in a sweatshop. And you can keep going on and on and on. There's really no such thing as ethical consumption under capitalism, as any economics professor will point out.

So on some days, I like to enjoy a nice burger. Even if it might not be good for me or the planet.

God yes. I absolutely HATE that phones got slimmer and slimmer while also consuming more battery - which can’t be swapped like the good old days.

I’ve got giant hands. Give me a phone that’s AT LEAST twice as thick with a battery that lasts at least three days.

I’d absolutely carry a large Motorola brick phone style if those were still viable today. They do make retro gimmick phones like it, but you really do need a smartphone for a lot of specific apps.

Meh, I wouldn’t say proud. I’m just not going to change it. If you don’t want to eat meat, don’t.

I’ve got solar panels, I ride a bicycle, don’t fly, don’t have a car, I recycle everything properly, I conserve water, and generally try to consume less whenever possible.

Is meat bad for the planet? Sure. But by and large, I don’t think me eating meat three times a week is going to have much effect. I’m much more concerned about people elsewhere on the planet discovering the joy of meat, like growing consumption in China.

That’s a perfectly valid question. The answer is very interesting:

https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/gallipoli/drip_rifle

Drip (or "pop off") rifles were self-firing rifles used at Gallipoli to deceive the Turks during the evacuation of December 1915.

Fire was maintained from the trenches after the withdrawal of the last men, by rifles arranged to fire automatically. This was done by a weight being released which pulled the trigger. Two kerosene tins were placed one above the other, the top one full of water and the bottom one with the trigger string attached to it, empty. At the last minute, small holes would be punched in the upper tin; water would trickle into the lower one, and the rifle would fire as soon as the lower tin had become sufficiently heavy.

Another device ran a string, holding back the trigger, through a candle, which slowly burnt down, severed the string, and released the trigger.

TIL there’s vegan slurs. Don’t think I’ve ever been called something specific for being pro-meat. And I do loooooove my meat-based diet, let me assure you. No vegan slur would ever change that.

Well… I’m REALLY fucking excited for it. Absolutely loved Deadpool 1 & 2. I’m probably going to see this three times when it comes out.

But turn around the slump? Doubt it. Not on its own. It can’t hope to fix the deeper problems Marvel created for itself, like overextending on the TV shows.

Marvel basically needs to die and be reborn. And despite what the trailer says, I don’t think Deadpool’s their Jesus.

F/A-18, not F14 :-)

F14’s are the one you see in Top Gun, and Finland has never used them. They’re all in museums already, except for Iran’s clunkers. At least on paper.

There’s this YouTube channel about aviation that I like. The guy’s name is Ruairidh MacVeigh. The last name is obvious, but his first name is apparently pronounced as ‘Rory’. I would not have gotten that spelling correct in a million years.

Edit: oh and another one that I do know to write and pronounce is Siobhan. That one does NOT sound like what you think it does. Definitely look it up if any readers are not familiar with Irish names.

That’s definitely something that I’ve noticed in other colleagues outside of our department - they tend to see us as ‘different’, based on some of the talk I’ve picked up over the years.

We’re generally a more introverted, quiet writing department. Which is a stark contrast to the extroverted, loud sales department. To us, they are quite different as well…

We’re generally on friendly terms between departments, but outside of purely necessary work interactions, neither group would choose to voluntarily hang out with the other outside of work. I usually try to bridge that gap a bit, but that too takes a bit of effort on my part.

Still, it doesn’t really matter if I’m on the spectrum or not. It’s not going to really change my outlook on work or life in general.

Some people definitely can benefit from a diagnosis, even later in life. Especially if it’s the missing ‘piece of the puzzle’ like you mentioned.

For me, the things that might feed into a specific diagnosis also are just… the way I am. It’s not like I’m suddenly going to work on them because now there’s a label attached. They’re the quirks that make me, me.

I grew up in an era where autism basically didn’t exist. You just were a bit - or a lot - weird. And you had to conform or deal with it on your own. Nobody was ‘on the spectrum’ when I attended school. So I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a lot of adults out there who have missing puzzle pieces.

I can relate.

At work, I’ve worked with a LOT of autistic people. We had about twenty on staff over the years, all over the spectrum.

People always say how working with autistic people can be difficult and that there might be challenges. There’s even training on ‘how to work with autistic people’. But I found quite the opposite - autistic people are a joy to work with for me. We can talk for ages about interesting things, but we can also enjoy a bit of quiet time.

Maybe it’s because I’m an introvert, but I find dealing with the ‘normal’ people at work much more exhausting. Working with the autistic people is a breeze. Most of the things you read about as ‘challenges’ make perfect sense to me. As a result, we run a VERY productive department.

So either I’m autistic, or autistic-adjacent enough to where I don’t see challenges, but just people.

I’m in my early 40’s so a diagnosis wouldn’t really change things for me anyway. But my sister who works as a psychologist basically told me that I’ve got enough traits of it that she wouldn’t be surprised if I was autistic myself.