'I'm not a progressive': Fetterman breaks with the left, showing a maverick side - "Fetterman kept up his scathing criticisms of Menendez, mocking the New Jersey senator and suggesting he stop criticizing President Joe Biden for negotiating an immigration deal with Republicans. “Oh, Bob Menendez,” he said, laughing. “What a guy. What a guy. He’s still running his mouth against Biden right now.” “He needs to go. I don’t understand why he can be here, having expelled Santos,” he said. “But I’m sure there might be a very innocent explanation of having gold bars in your mattress and overstuffed envelopes of cash.”"
Singapore workers have highest burnout rate in region - "Singapore workers are also seeing the highest levels of employee burnout in the region, with nearly a third, or 32.6 per cent, of employers here reported an increase in staff burnout. Local employees are also having rising workload, the highest figure in all Asia-Pacific markets studied, said Hudson. Nearly two thirds, or 60.8 per cent of employees here said their workload has increased over the last year and almost half, or 45.5 per cent, now work 51 hours a week or more... Mr Wilson Wong, Senior Lecturer at UniSIM's School of Business , said that Singapore employers need to realise that employee burnout not only has a social cost but could affect their bottomlines too. "It is also about time that employers realise that longer working hours do not necessarily translate into greater productivity. For instance, France with its 35-hour work week, has ironically one of the highest productivity rates in the industrialised world," he said."
From 2012
There is more to life and death than GDP - "Every now and then a “feel good” story pops up on American morning TV that would make most Europeans spit out their tea in horror. Good Morning America, for instance, ran a piece about a “trendy co-worker baby shower gift”: donating some of your limited paid leave to your pregnant colleague, so she can have a little longer with her newborn before returning to work. One woman said she was grateful to have a whole 12 weeks with her baby before returning to her job, thanks to leave donated by her colleagues. Another TV station told the tale of medical staff who donated their paid time off during the pandemic to a colleague who had leukaemia. These aren’t one-offs. Roughly a quarter of US employers have a “paid time off donation programme”, according to a poll by the American Society of Employers... People are donating their leave to each other because the US system is so miserly in this regard. America has no statutory entitlement to paid maternity leave or paid sick leave at the national level. It’s hard to overstate how much of an outlier this makes it among rich countries... I think about disparities like this whenever I hear Europeans fret that their continent is falling behind the US in terms of economic might. It’s not that GDP doesn’t matter, but is it really the only yardstick by which countries should jealously compare their progress against one another?... For my money, life expectancy is the most important supplementary measure of how a country is doing... the US would not be envied by the rest of the rich world. Even as its economy grows, the life expectancy of its people falls further behind that of its peers. In 1980, life expectancy was roughly the same in the US as it was in Italy and France, and higher than in the UK and Germany. It had sunk to the bottom of that pack by the 1990s, and now it is being overtaken by much poorer countries in terms of GDP per head. For all the ink spilled about when (or if) Chinese GDP will overtake America’s, Chinese life expectancy has already quietly achieved that feat. None of this is to say that GDP doesn’t matter. It represents the size of pie, which helps to determine what a country can do in the world, as well as the kind of life it can provide for its people. Unsurprisingly, then, GDP per head and life expectancy tend to roughly correlate, but there are plenty of exceptions from which lessons can be learnt. Some countries punch above their economic weight when it comes to life expectancy, such as Spain, Italy and Japan with their healthy diets. The US, with its guns, processed foods and poor safety net, punches well below. People who care about health and want to influence policymakers or the public often try to highlight the impact it has on the economy. “Poor health reduces global GDP by 15 per cent each year,” one McKinsey study claims. “Endemic ill-health in England’s “left behind” neighbourhoods costs the country almost £30bn a year because people are often too ill to work and die earlier” another report suggests. But this is to get things precisely backwards. We don’t want to live long and healthy lives so we can generate GDP, we want GDP so we can live long and healthy lives."
Emilie Dye on X - "Life expectancy in the US has just dropped below that of Turkey and in West Virginia it's lower than North Korea. To make matters worse, Americans spend more of their shortening lives working than the rest of the OECD. I don't need my amazon packages to arrive any faster or a clearer iphone camera. Wellbeing is about more than productivity. I'm grateful to live in country that just ranked forth in the world for work life balance."
Many Americans will just mock them for being poor, since to them poor is an insult
Birthrate Doubles After A Japanese Company Banned Long Hours at Office - Bloomberg - "When Masahiro Okafuji became chief executive officer of Itochu Corp. in 2010, he made improving productivity a top priority so the company could compete against bigger rivals in Japan. His approach was counterintuitive. Working in the office after 8 p.m. would be banned, and there would be no more overtime—with rare exceptions. Security guards and human resources staff would scout Itochu’s office building in Tokyo, telling people to go home. Those clinging to their desk were told to come in early the next day to get their work done—and get paid extra. The tough love worked. A decade later, the company—whose businesses range from the FamilyMart convenience store chain to metals trading—reported a more than fivefold jump in profit per employee from 2010 to 2021 as surging commodities prices and a weak yen buoyed its bottom line. What also changed, to the surprise of Itochu’s management, is that more female employees took maternity leave, had kids and came back to work. “We set out to boost productivity but had no idea it would have an impact on the birthrate,” says Fumihiko Kobayashi, Itochu’s executive vice president. The trading house has emerged as an unlikely trailblazer in bucking a falling birthrate trend that Japan’s government and others around the world have tried hard to reverse, without much success. Itochu saw the fertility rate among full-time employees double in the years since Okafuji became CEO, reaching almost two children per female employee in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022—far exceeding Japan’s current national rate of about 1.3... And after the Covid-19 pandemic, employees were granted the option to work from home two days a week. The company went further last year, when it cut core office hours from eight to six, so people can punch out as early as 3 p.m. So while getting pregnant might effectively mark the end of a woman’s career at lots of other Japanese businesses, many female employees at Itochu returned, thanks to the curtailed working hours and a day-care center the company set up near its office, making it easier to juggle jobs and caring for kids... It’s no secret that a punishing, unsupportive corporate culture across these Asian economies has taken a toll on women’s willingness to have children. Many working in China’s tech industry lament an overtime culture known as “996”—working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for six days a week. Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., drew widespread criticism in 2019 for calling “996” a blessing... Other Japanese enterprises have taken note. Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. said earlier this year that starting this month it would give as much as 100,000 yen ($700) to employees who assume some of the workload from colleagues on child-care leave. And Recruit Holdings Co., the Japanese parent of job search and review sites Indeed.com and Glassdoor, allows employees to work from home most of the time and offers extra days off on top of statutory holidays. Big companies are generally more active in introducing work flexibility than smaller ones... The company says the flexibility and support it offers have attracted more women to join and fill mission-critical positions. Male employees also appear to be more involved with their families—half of them have taken paternity leave, compared with 14% of male workers nationwide. “I don’t feel guilty about leaving early anymore,” says Furuya, the working mom at Itochu, “because it applies to everyone, not just mothers.”"
Why isn’t Canada an economic giant? - "By any measure, Canada’s geography suggests it could be an economic powerhouse. But few ever talk about it in such terms. By purchasing power parity, its economy is ranked 15th globally by size, behind the likes of Turkey, Italy and Mexico. The OECD has forecast Canadian per capita gross domestic product growth up to 2060 to be the lowest among advanced nations. Canada boomed at the turn of the 20th century. Settlements grew, industrialisation was in full swing, investment rolled in from the UK and US. In 1904 Wilfrid Laurier, then prime minister, predicted “the 20th century shall be the century of Canada and Canadian development”. Yet, post-second world war expansion gave way to periods of high inflation, rising deficits and low commodity prices. Laurier’s forecast was not true for the last century and so far it is not true for the 21st either: PwC’s The World in 2050 report expects Canada’s global economic ranking to slip to 22nd by the middle of the century. Poor productivity is at the heart of the country’s growth challenges. In an hour a Canadian worker produces just over 70 per cent of what an American can — that’s below the euro area and even the UK based on 2022 data. Many would have expected the resource-rich economy to benefit as globalisation powered forward, but its relative labour productivity has actually slipped since 2000. Canada has aggressively pursued free-trade deals; it is currently the only G7 nation to have such agreements in force with all other G7 members. But it has not been able to take advantage of that. “Two of the economy’s previous main drivers of economic growth — natural resources and manufacturing — have struggled to expand in recent years, due to a combination of a more onerous regulatory backdrop and increased competition from abroad,” says Stephen Brown, deputy chief North America economist at Capital Economics. Researchers at HEC Montreal’s Centre for Productivity and Prosperity argue that Canadian industry is not strong enough to compete globally. Indeed, the country’s vast size, mountainous geography and provincial legislation may hinder competition, investment and innovation among its companies. The Business Council of Alberta estimates these internal trade barriers are equivalent to a 6.9 per cent tariff on goods. Protectionist measures on top have often coddled Canadian industry."
Canada needs sustained economic growth, not income redistribution - "Anaemic economic growth has become so routine in Canada since 2014 that it’s worth recapitulating the benefits of sustained high growth. Over the centuries, economic growth has accompanied vast improvements in measures of wellbeing such as life expectancy, health, housing quality, leisure time, food intake, energy security, political freedom and democracy. Today faster economic growth would help Canada meet the challenges of the huge debt incurred during the pandemic, a growing population and aging society. Even the Leader of Britain’s Labour Party, Keir Starmer, acknowledges that “economic growth is the absolute foundational stone for everything.” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a reminder that money is needed to finance defence and survival in war. Napoleon famously said that three things were needed to fight a war: “The first is money. The second is money. And the third is money.” The history of central banking reflects the importance of finance to waging war. The Bank of England was founded to assist Britain’s government to finance war with Napoleon, while the first two attempts at creating a central bank in the United States were made to help deal with the country’s war debts... The importance of economic growth is underscored by what happens in its absence. In the words of the British economist Paul Collier, “growth is not a cure-all, but lack of growth is a kill-all.” The Great Depression of the 1930s helped spawn the dictators who provoked the Second World War. As former Bank of England governor Mervyn King concluded, “put simply, our societies are not geared for a world of very low growth.” Even so, it’s easy to forget that sustained economic growth is a new phenomenon. The libertarian economist Steven Landsburg concisely summarized the long arc of economic development: “Modern humans first emerged about 100,000 years ago. For the next 99,800 years or so, nothing happened… Then—just a couple of hundred years ago—people started getting richer. And richer and richer still.”... Canada’s recent growth slump has accompanied a shift in policy focus to relentless short-term stimulus and an emphasis on the distribution, not creation, of income. The reality is that redistribution is not an effective way to help low-income people. It subtracts from the growth that benefits poorer people most. As Robert Lucas put it: “of the tendencies that are harmful to sound economics, the most seductive, and in my opinion the most poisonous, is the focus on questions of distribution… The potential for improving the lives of poor people by finding different ways of distributing current production is nothing compared to the apparently limitless potential of increasing production.” Policies aimed at redistributing incomes or stabilizing economies in the short term do not sustain growth, they lower it. What we desperately need is a cultural environment where entrepreneurship and innovation thrive. Unfortunately, our culture has deteriorated to the point where, as commentator Paul Wells recently noted, “in Canada, if you run a successful business, you are made to feel you have done something wrong.” Sustained economic growth will not resume in this country so long as such sentiments prevail."
So much for de-growth
Despite Detroit’s struggles, Michigan continues to outshine Ontario - "What may surprise you is that despite all of Detroit’s challenges, Michigan is a wealthier jurisdiction than Ontario. It seems weird that a state whose major city is known for urban blight would be more prosperous than a province with a major global city like Toronto. Yet, as University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe recently pointed out in these pages, Michigan’s per capita GDP was around $7000 higher than Ontario’s in 2022. Ontario isn’t just lagging behind Michigan, but most American states. Our GDP per capita is just ahead of Alabama, which is in the bottom ten states and provinces (ahead of five provinces—also alarming)... Michigan is a state we associate with poverty, decline, and bad sports teams (notwithstanding the fact that I saw the Tigers pitch a no-hitter against the Blue Jays last week). Yet, they’re eating our lunch. This should alarm Ontarians"
How Jack Kirby – not Stan Lee – ‘saved Marvel’s ass’ - "Jack Kirby’s influence is undeniable. “When you close your eyes and think of Sixties superhero pop art, that’s Jack Kirby,” says Thomas Scioli, a writer-artist and Kirby biographer. “It’s in your face, it’s alien, it’s comforting, it’s scary – there’s a whole lot of weirdness and personality. The art is one thing, but it’s the ideas, the characters, the stories. If there’s a superhero you’ve heard of – other than Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman – chances are Jack Kirby created, co-created, or had some hand in it.”... Stan changed Kirby’s stories and – according to Kirby – just paraphrased his notes; Kirby later said he wrote it all, even the dialogue. “Stan Lee and I never collaborated on anything!” Kirby said. “I’ve never seen Stan Lee write anything.” Other artists questioned how much Lee actually wrote, though Stan took the writer’s credit and fee. In 1970, Jack Kirby jumped to DC."
Why running is the worst way to lose weight - "“If you have 10 or 20 kilos [1½-3 stone] to lose, then essentially you’re running in a weighted jacket, and that jacket is going to put a lot of stress on your ligaments, tendons, joints and muscles, which increases the risk of injury.” Roberts says the amount of pressure put on the Achilles tendons, knees and back during a run makes it a tough exercise even for people who don’t need to lose weight, but especially for those over the age of 40. After years of long-distance running, my husband – a slim and otherwise healthy 41-year-old – now walks crablike down the stairs, wincing as he goes, and suffers from sore feet, hips and plantar fasciitis. “That’s not to say running is all bad,” says Roberts. “It’s not. But don’t start a fitness routine with it, and don’t overdo it, especially if you’re over 40, because running – or any other type of cardiovascular exercise – can cause high cortisol levels [cortisol is a stress hormone]. “Things such as strength work, meanwhile, create a better hormone balance, which is particularly important for men and women as they get older.” And then, of course, there’s the enjoyment factor. We’ve all heard of the “runner’s high”, and running over the finish line of any race – let alone a marathon – is an incredible feat. But for many (my husband included), running can often feel like a fairly joyless task. “My clients’ feedback after a run is that they often feel puffed out, their Achilles hurt, or their knees or shins hurt, which is caused by micro tears,” says Roberts. “And this matters, because if you don’t enjoy the exercise you’re doing, you’re more likely to be put off the idea of doing any other type.” So, what should you do instead? “Think about your mobility, your flexibility and your strength, by doing Pilates or yoga, and lifting weights,” says Roberts, who says that even things such as carrying heavy shopping bags and gardening count. “Fitness and longevity start with strength and mobility, which are the base for running and all exercise.” Muscular strength, in particular, has been linked to a longer life, a lower risk of obesity, better bones, better mental health and improved heart health, according to several studies. In a June 2021 study from Iowa State University that looked at records for 12,000 middle-aged adults, researchers found that two or more sessions of weight training a week reduced the risk of obesity by 20 to 30 per cent, even for those who do no aerobic exercise. Research shows that strength training also protects the midlife brain, and improves memory, cognitive function and decision-making, and a 2018 study from the University of Limerick found that resistance training had a significant impact on those with mild to moderate depression. Yet despite this wealth of evidence, research also shows that most people still value aerobic exercise over lifting weights. And this is particularly true of men"
How trolltrace became a real thing - "At first sight, the troll-hunter programme to name and shame truth-polluting trolls and bots seems an instinctively good idea. But as ever with South Park the take-home message is much more subtle. In the end it’s a matter of “be careful what you wish for” because as with most weapons, trolltrace can be deployed to inflict harm upon the good, and/or on innocents as well as the guilty. The show is thus a thought experiment in what might happen if a powerful truth finder algorithm was really unleashed upon the world. Yes, trolls would be exposed and undermined, which is a good thing, but so would everyone else. And since “he that is without sin among you, cast the first rock”, that eventually leads to a total breakdown of social cohesion and trust in South Park (as some form of dirt can be discovered about all the characters)."
Speaker rules conduct of urinating MP constitutes prima facie case of contempt - The Globe and Mail - "Speaker Anthony Rota has ruled that the conduct of a Liberal MP who urinated during virtual parliamentary proceedings constitutes a prima facie case of contempt of the House of Commons. In a ruling Monday, Rota said at first glance Quebec MP William Amos breached the privileges of his fellow MPs last month when he urinated while his computer camera was on – an incident that was broadcast on the internal parliamentary feed of proceedings and not seen publicly."
Meme - "Reality vs. LinkedIn
Reality: I got my driving license
Linkedin: I am honored and thrilled to announce that I have been selected among the top 5 applicants who participated in professional and the most-respected exam which evaluates the skills and ability to operate fuel-based vehicles. I cannot wait to see what the next chapter holds, and I cannot express my appreciation to the ministry of transportation, Wendy's, Google, NASA, my neighbors who supported me during this difficult journey."
Froggenþuſiaſt on X - "Minecraft proves that abolishing child labour was a mistake. The children yearn for the mines."
Meme - "If I bust a nut into a beehive, will it be a net loss for them (because cleaning it is work) or a net gain (because they will gain nutrients from my jizz)?
Unanswered
Help me, bee experts. Would they even eat my load? Would it be pretty much as good as nectar? Or is there too much protein and sperm and stuff, and not enough sugar? I mean, I know there's glucose in fizz, but are there, like, enough human proteins and immunity factors to make it poisonous to them? Also, if I fed them enough jizz, would they actually be able to make honey out of it? I don't see why not. If I just fizzed onto a plate or something, and left it next to the hive, would they come and eat it? I don't plan on doing any of this stuff, I'm just curious."
Meme - "Once you see Cookie Monster, you can't unsee it.
*Orthodox [?] icon with Madonna and Child*"
Why a cookie recipe made this NH Girl Scout go rogue - "Sophia has turned vocal critic of the Girl Scout cookies. Specifically, one of the ingredients in the cookies, palm oil... Sophia went door to door, offering her neighbors a chance to buy traditional Girl Scout cookies, or cookies she would make using her grandma’s recipes and ones found online, in her own kitchen. Chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, oatmeal raisin, and coconut macaroons were all on offer — all made without the controversial palm oil. From Sophia’s perspective, the plan worked. She wound up selling 138 boxes of real Girl Scout cookies, and received orders for 44 dozen cookies that would be baked by her — an actual Girl Scout. Both versions carried the same price tag: $5... Sophia isn’t going to face any punishment for her cookie side hustle, but Mellor did push back on her criticism of the Girl Scout recipe. She said the Girl Scouts have changed the sourcing of their ingredients in response to concerns from girls. Their corporate bakers pledge to use sustainability sourced palm oil, though critics say unsustainable oil still likely finds its way into the supply chain Mellor said the harvesting of other vegetable oils pose their own environmental hazards, and that palm oil improves taste and keeps cookies crispy."
RUSSIAN CYBERPUNK FARM // РУССКАЯ КИБЕРДЕРЕВНЯ - YouTube
Mochi muffins, dim sum cookies, purple yam cake – Asian-American bakeries add the flavours of home to everyone’s favourite pastries | South China Morning Post - "For some Asian-Americans, the dim sum cookie at Sunday Bakeshop in Oakland in the state of California will taste like childhood. It looks like a typical sugar biscuit, except with sesame seeds on top. But bite into the creamy, red bean centre and it’s reminiscent of the fried, filled sesame balls served at a dim sum restaurant. The concoction is pastry chef Elaine Lau’s nod to her grandmother, who would often make them. The baked goods that Lau’s team churns out – like hojicha chocolate croissants and White Rabbit sweet biscuits – aren’t going to be found in any bakery in Asia. There’s an intrinsic American sensibility at the nearly three-month-old shop."
How to Stop Forgetting Your Password - "the average person spends three minutes and 46 seconds resetting a password each time they forget it... There are certain practices that can increase our chances of forgetting our passwords, and not all of them are bad:
Setting passwords that are complex in an effort to make our accounts more secure
Having to remember numerous different passwords across various platforms
Relying so heavily on biometric logins to get into our digital accounts that we forget our manual login details...
While across four countries the average time to change a password was three minutes and 46 seconds, Americans take the longest, with 37% saying it takes over four minutes to change each password and 7% taking over 10 minutes. When asked about frequency, we found that 52% of U.S. respondents reset their passwords at least once a month—with similar findings in France (53%) and the UK (50%). But Germans seem to forget their passwords less often, with only 35% needing to reset at least once a month. Of our U.S. respondents, 21% say that they reset their passwords more than once per week, with 14% admitting to resetting their passwords at least once a day. The latter figure tallies up to a staggering 26 hours spent each year for an individual. Worse yet, 4% of Americans admit to having to reset their forgotten passwords more than four times per day, which adds up to an eye-watering 103 hours per year."
JPMorgan: 2022 will see a 'full global recovery' and an end to the pandemic - "Contemporary artwork has outperformed the S&P 500 by a commanding 174 per cent over the past 25 years, according to the Citi Global Art Market chart. And it’s becoming a popular way to diversify because it’s a real physical asset with little correlation to the stock market. On a scale of -1 to +1, with 0 representing no link at all, Citi found the correlation between contemporary art and the S&P 500 was just 0.12. Investing in art by the likes of Banksy and Andy Warhol used to be an option only for the ultrarich. But with a new investing platform, you can invest in iconic artworks, too, just like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates do."
Meme - "Daily Dose of Anime TV
Anime Vs Live Action
*2 teen girls and young boy*"
Meme - "Come see Germany's wildlife! We have:
Rhinos! Tigers! Panthers! Elephants! *tanks*
Visit them now before they visit you!"
Meme - ">At the age of 24 Neitzsche became the chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel
>At the age of 25 Goethe was already famous among literary circles and published his first novel
>At the age of 18 Pascal invented a calculator
>At the age of 26 Schopenhauer began writing his magnum opus
What have you accomplished so far?"
"I'm happy"
Meme - ">Be me, gay
>Meet a cute boy at the gym
>He's doing squats, so I guess he's a gay bottom
>We talk, and really hit it off
>We start to hang out outside outside of the gym, we go to cafes to drink coffee, etc.
>We become great friends, and we hang out in each other's homes
>One day, while watching a movie, things get heated
>We start making out, and I'm on top of him, ready to dick him down
>I take off his shirt
>She has small little boobs
>OMG she's a boymoder!
>Feels too awkward to stop now, so I suck her tits and fuck her until we both cum
>I guess I'm straight now
>We start dating, and have sex many more times
>I stop masturbating to gay porn, and eventually I lose all interest in the same sex"