So a plane which has withstood probably countless landings, had its nose gear collapse while sitting statically at a gate of all times and places? Weird.
It's not that everything has to be sweet, but rather that, for example, Coke really isn't Coke without sweetness and people just happen to enjoy Coke. And if you're going to enjoy a Coke, Coke Zero or Diet Coke is better for your health.
Of course there are other things like coffee that really are not defined by sweetness and can be perfectly enjoyed unsweetened.
I feel like I am exactly the target demographic. Love the taste of meat. Would eat it every day if there were no consequences. But I mostly cook vegetarian at home because my wife is veg and I do somewhat care about the impacts of factory farming ('ethical' meat being stupid expensive). For me Beyond burgers are a good way to scratch that itch a bit. I feel like there must be many more people like me because meat is both delicious and problematic but maybe that's my own bias.
The techno optimism has morphed into VCs and tech founders lobbying Trumps governments to self-destruct the US government so they can lord over techno-feudal city states
The arrogance and narcissism of the Silicon Valley elite is going to result in horrible outcomes for just about everyone. These people do not know a single thing about responsible public administration, they can only see dollar signs.
The same thing is happening to jazz playlists. Spotify is cramming jazz playlists with bland interpretations of standards that they paid bottom dollar to desperate conservatory students for. As a long-term jazz fan, I know what I am looking for and it ain't that. But for someone new to jazz who doesn't know exactly what they are looking for, their attention is being diverted to this slop, and they may never discover any dimension of jazz music beyond it, which is kind of sad.
Let's face it. Our world is currently filled with rogue states waging pointless wars, spying on their own citizens, launching cyberattacks, seeding disinformation outside their borders, etc. If they want to make it happen they will. It is a damn hard coordination problem.
I'm picturing scientists in another universe clenching their butts as the monkey goes to type the last letter of Hamlet..... and misses 't' for 'r' and the whole observation hall erupts with loud groans
Most dopamine producing activities are in some way beneficial in moderation to outweigh the negatives (sex, eating, exercise, even many recreational drugs). I don't know whether pointlessly bleeding money away to some greasy corporation counts there. That said I don't like telling people how they should waste their money but it seems there needs to be some form of a plan for problem gambling.
Poker is the only casino game approaching fair where a highly skilled player can be profitable as they are taking money from other players and not the casino (casino just collects their rake on every hand). But that's why casinos hate offering many poker tables, it's just not as profitable.
The difference is that Roman sculpture is revered for it's ingenuity and craftmanship at a time where that style of sculpture was being developed with the more limited resources they had back then, and it often depicted important motifs from religion, society, etc. Whereas this is just a copy of that with limited cultural relevance (no one is going to be talking about Priscilla Chan in 20 years, let alone a couple thousand).
The real culprit here is UI. Yes, there are many better languages and runtimes than JS without a doubt. But most of their UI libraries are just as terrible if not more terrible than HTML/CSS/JS. And that is because developing sensible but also flexible and easy-to-use patterns for user-reactivity and data-presentation is HARD.
So sure, start a clean new operating system with a clean language with a clean runtime. I don't look forward to using whatever mess of a UI toolkit that gets built on top of it.
I'm one of those weird people for whom alcohol feels nice but also makes me incredibly sleepy to the point that I become way less social. Thus I will enjoy a beer at home but if I'm going out I will choose other substances (or abstinence).
Sure, it increases anxiety overall particularly when going through withdrawals or hangovers. But I have never heard of its usage directly triggering fully-fledged panic attacks as weed so commonly does.