Echoing that the Hyundai Ioniqs are fantastic EVs with plenty of actual buttons in the console as well as fast charging speeds (the chargers themselves are the limiting factor)

Trains are too woke /s

I think the north east corridor Acela line claims to be high speed, its a bit faster than standard Amtrak I guess. I think there’s also a line in Florida

What’s wrong with frogs?!

They’ve recently awoken from hibernation in my neighborhood and you can hear them at night. Frog season is great! 🐸

You may like the book Why Civil Resistance Works by Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan. It includes three indepth cases studies of tactics used by resistance movements.

You can either start with a general Internet search for doctors and read their reviews and check if they accept your insurance. Or start with your insurance company’s list of providers (which may be out of date) and then go read reviews for doctors. If possible, I highly recommend non-profit/university-affiliated doctors offices, and especially stay away from anything owned by private equity…they try to squeeze as much money out of patients and their employees as possible.

In the US, doctors aren’t allowed to share info about their patients with anyone without the patient’s permission. However, there are lists out there for people who try to circumvent controlled substance laws.

Wicca/paganism/Earth-based traditions tend to be matriarchal and use names like Earth Mother, Ancient Mother, Gaia, etc to describe the most powerful deity.

A lot of things marketed as soaps these days are really detergents that contain sulfates and can be very harmful if swallowed.

Stick to FDA approved medicines. Medicine like tums use this strategy to decrease the acidity. Other medications block the stomach’s ability to become acidic.

If you have heart burn that won’t go away or chronic acid reflux, see a doctor

Agreed, a lot of the time I’m in need of a super charger, there’s a line to use it. The demand is there and it’s not like EV owners can easily switch back to gas

Check if your area has a Weed Warriors group/organization. They go around removing invasive plants that are smothering native plants. I find it fun and get a satisfaction of having done something nice while exercising.

If your area doesn’t have that, there’s most likely opportunities to volunteer with hiking trail maintenance at nearby state parks. Or just go hiking, start small and bring water!

The City Nerd channel on YouTube and Nebula discusses this issue a LOT. Trains are by far the most cost effective method of transporting large numbers of people and goods.

Here’s a video discussing costs of car use

Here’s one on the cities with the most affordable housing and transportation costs. As he explains housing and transportation costs are directly linked to each other.

I look at independent randomized controlled trials, not anecdotal evidence. Here’s a recent trial from Finland that didn’t have industry funding. They compared low-nicotine vaping vs varenicline alone vs placebo. Both varenicline and vaping resulted in about 40% of people quitting at 12 weeks, and 20% of placebo group. So add nicotine replacement therapy and behavioral therapy on top of varenicline and the rates should go higher. Pfizer and other pharmaceutical companies sell most of the FDA-approved cessation therapies, and in comparison the big tobacco companies sell vapes.

Check out SmokeFree.gov! It has great free resources that are science based. Quitting smoking is the number thing someone who smokes can do for their health.

The most effective methods to quit smoking include varenicline (aka Chantix), FDA-approved nicotine replacement therapies (gum, patch, lozenge, inhaler, etc), and behavioral therapy. Combining all of these therapies in a clinical trials results in the most people quitting.

No vape is FDA-approved as a cessation therapy, because no company has applied. There have been some small academic run trials, which tend to show a decrease in smoking, but continued nicotine addiction. Probably because vapes have much higher nicotine content than FDA-approved therapies. While vapes expose people to a lot less carcinogens than smoke, there are some carcinogens and nicotine itself is harmful to vascular and mental health. So if the evidence-based methods don’t work, completely switching to vaping would be less harmful.

Agreed! I get this with my Unitarian Universalist church community. UUs don’t require anyone to believe a certain scripture, but we have a shared set of principles, like valuing democracy, science, and nature. The community aspect and music program are great by themselves, and our minister’s sermons have been a great source of motivation to keep fighting for what we believe in.

Depends on your demographics a bit. Dictatorships like to scapegoat ethnic minorities or other out groups (see Pinochet’s, Mao’s, Pol Pot’s, etc extermination of scientists and educators) for society’s problems. These groups of people tend to experience much greater intensity of oppression under dictatorships than already present in the US. This tends to change culture on a fundamental level because most people actively try to fit in with the in group to avoid becoming a target themselves.

While present to some degree in our current system, another core characteristic of dictatorships is that self enrichment for those in power is the primary driving factor for decision making. Dictators don’t need to pay lip service to making decisions for the greater good. You see this especially prominently in dictatorships in developing countries with valuable resources… The dictators and their close friends take all of the wealth from resource extraction for themselves and everyone else lives in extreme poverty. Yes we have wealth inequality already, but it would be accelerated even more. You could see even highly skilled professionals having a hard time making ends meet (or in jail for being too smart and having “ideas”), and even more homelessness, potentially even wide scale famine.

In terms of geopolitics… Our relationship with allies would become about how the relationship personally benefits those in power.

Why are you interested in the keto diet? Are there specific goals you’re trying to accomplish? It’s a tricky diet that is best done with medical supervision.

I highly recommend Harvard’s Nutrition Source for science-based nutrition information. They use accessible language and have recipes too!

Dig Down by Muse

There’s a lot of work/investment into curative cell and gene therapies that are very promising! Some have already received FDA approval with high success rates of curing some childhood cancers and sickle cell disease

Agreed! I feel like public discourse often forgets these efficiencies when talking about UBI. Include social security and education financial assistance and the numbers really add up.

The COVID-era stimulus checks and PPP “loans” proved its possible to provide a package this large, would just need to offset the spending with increased taxes on the wealthy to make it sustainable long term.

I have monthly recurring donations to several charities, I guess you could count those as subscriptions of a sort:

Subscription to rainforests: Coalition for Rainforest Nations (the operate globally with indigenous and local communities to do everything possible to protect rainforests and reforest areas)

Independent journalism subscription: ProPublica (no paywall investigative news organization that has really hard hitting reporting that holds corporations accountable)

Subscription to science-based political advocacy: Union of Concerned Scientists

Subscription to open information: Wikipedia

Subscriptions to a healthy community: Local food bank, urban green space advocates, and housing support orgs