reuben_scratton

I can't believe iPhone chips, almost the supreme luxury good, are considered worthy of Federal subsidies.

Surely a better path would have been to slap imported silicon with tarriffs at least equal to their gov't subsidies?

(Unpopular opinion: The people that spent the last 30 years giving away US & EU manufacturing to the Far East - no doubt with plenty of "10% for the big guy" type deals behind the scenes - should all be shot.)

I have two severely autistic children who cannot talk and who need lifelong care. That's the REAL autism, the one Leo Kanner identified in 1943. Not the rebranded Aspergers with extra rainbows.

I wouldn't wish real autism on my worst enemy.

Here's an example: The LGB Alliance in U.K. are routinely smeared as a 'hate' group for taking a dim view of male rapists in female prisons, males competing in female sports, and so on. Resisting that trend and arguing for sex-based rights is considered 'hate' by some.

It's a lazy, imprecise term that is only ever used in political spats, never to address actual intergroup violence. Personally I suspect the demand for hate groups to exist - thereby justifying the many orgs and careers built on countering it - far exceeds the genuine supply.

When my mother died she had been completely unconscious for a whole week, but just 30 minutes before she died she opened her eyes and looked around the room. I was later told by a nurse that this is quite common when people are about to die. It seems to fit with the notion of one last burst of brain activity.

You must know that virologists routinely "serial passage" viruses through animal hosts? Evolving a candidate virus "through multiple, probably dozens of hosts" is what virology labs do.

And lab leaks happen All The Time. SARS-1 escaped labs on six separate occasions.

Same here. Twenty-one years since my last cigarette now, and it's entirely thanks to the late great Allen Carr - may God rest and nourish his immortal soul.

(It was my 9th or 10th attempt to quit too, but my first and only with Easy Way)

Guided introspection.

Despite not considering myself alcoholic, my wife nagged me into going to local Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings. I came to realise that I had somehow slipped into alcoholism without being the classic street-drunk, shop-doorway kind. I had the mental obsession with alcohol in spades... every day I'd count the hours until, after work, I could start drinking.

Once I'd accepted I was alcoholic it was relatively easy. The simple fact is I don't want to be an alcoholic, or any kind of -holic, so I was suddenly highly motivated to stop.

The AA way gets you thinking deeply about why you started drinking heavily in the first place: What are the exact feelings you want to drown in alcohol, and why do you have them?

Having kids.

I'm sure it's great for normies but my kids are mentally disabled and being their dad is grief and heartache without end. I have no close family to share any of it with - the little family I grew up with are all dead and I am looking forward to my own death.

I hope that one day genetic research will advance to a point where 23andme et al can help future young couples avoid these kind of outcomes.

Does anyone (UK) even offer fixed rate more than 5 years ahead?

"Taking full precautions against airborne transmission would require major changes at hospitals"

Major changes such as, er, occasionally opening a window to let some fresh air in? That's a basic, obvious precaution that's been known since the dawn of time that wasn't done at all in the UK hospital ward where my mother caught and then died from Covid late last year. I know because I was there. The cluelessness re. viral spread almost two years into the pandemic was just astounding and I'm still very, very angry about it.

"Verified by a human" - and that human will be an overworked, underpaid, overseas subcontractor who may well have an incentive to mash the "Confirm match" button from time to time to improve his performance.

I'm sure it's just a coincidence that today is Patch Tuesday.

:-|