Slowy

Ohhh ok yea there it is. Sorry, not American.

I think they mean that their father went no-contact with his own parents/family (OPs grandparents and extended family) prior to OPs birth.

Yes :I

Why is happiness diminished by knowing it’s a chemical reaction? Why doesn’t that apply to depression and sadness?

As in you’re bothered by the lack of meaning? Figure out why it’s so important to you to have a purpose, and then choose a purpose for yourself. It’s quite freeing in my opinion, you can’t really mess up your life in a wider philosophical sense. You succeed just by doing things that make you happy (and depending on your morals, don’t make anyone else’s life worse).

The real meaning of life is to reproduce. We are here because some funny molecules have a tendency to replicate themselves, that’s really all there is to it.

The lack of meaning isn’t really a problem unless you make it one

How is it a weakness? If anything it seems like it would help address inequity in how people are treated based on race, age, gender if people are interacting more anonymously, and maybe we could also dispense with this whole coworkers are a family bs that is meant to instil loyalty to a company that doesn’t care about you and offset a lack of work life balance

Does that mean it will be like a crown owned pipeline? Not that privatizing ports is worth a provincial pipeline but that would be an interesting outcome.

Like mice, you can acknowledge something feels pain and still need to deal with pest type problems related to it (ideally in a targeted and humane manner). But it may affect some other things for the better such as mandatory killing of crustaceans before boiling, acceptable procedures for invertebrate animal research, eliminating use of live insects for fishing bait, etc.

My family has been doing mixed beef cattle and crops for 5 generations. The land is a bit too tough out there to rely solely on crops, but has some good areas for planting interspersed with hilly areas only really suitable for grazing. Single family mixed farms are still common enough in certain areas, but dwindling, as (often) Chinese mega corps gradually buy up the land and amass what they can. It’s more efficient and there is less concern for stewardship of land that will be passed down to one’s family, so it’s easy for them to be more economically competitive.

For mice it’s tunnel handling, where you just let them walk into a tube and pick that up. You do need to scruff them to hold them for actual procedures and to examine their teeth and stuff, but it’s really stressful for them to be snatched out of their home by the tail.

For rats it’s just picking them up with your hand over their back and under the armpits and then support the bum with your other hand like you would a kitten or any other small domestic critter. Rats are generally more calm and don’t mind being picked up, mice don’t love it and will jump or run away or bite.