Americans Now Think a 40-Hour Work Week Is "Part Time" - "Americans consider a 40-hour work week as "part time" in most professional jobs and as a sign of a stagnant career, according to a recent study by the Center for American Progress. The financial reward for working longer hours has increased substantially in the past 30 years, especially for professional men... 37 percent of professional men work 50 hours a week or more"
If you don't work 100 hours a week, you're lazy and deserve to starve
To get adopted : therewasanattempt
Meme - "I went to the pet store to pick out a new cat... then this happened *cat pushing other cat down so only it will be visible (and presumably adopted)*"
Movie Review: What Ridley Scott's 'Napoleon' Gets Wrong About War - "Scott’s film stands in a long line of movies, novels, and even history books that have given the world an entirely wrong view of how wars are fought—and even more importantly, how they are won. And that matters, because the mythical idea of war embedded in Napoleon and so many other works has become so widespread in our culture and discourse that it ends up informing actual decisions about actual wars. Let’s call it the decisive battle myth... in popular culture in the English-speaking world, the myth can be traced back to the 1851 publication of The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World: From Marathon to Waterloo, which helped kickstart an entire genre of works focusing on battles supposed to have singlehandedly changed the course of history... Wars between major powers are not decided by great battles but by attrition of soldiers and materiel, which in turn is determined by such things as force size, logistics, production, and technology. Battles, large and small, are important only to the extent to which they accelerate attrition and wear down the other side. Yet the myth of the decisive battle—the idea that an adversary can be defeated in one big and bloody but short engagement—remains powerful. It’s also dangerous, because it affects not only ordinary moviegoers but military and political leaders as well. In other words, the very people deciding whether to start and how to fight a war... The focus on decisive battles orchestrated by a brilliant military leader such as Napoleon has been poisoning Western military thinking for centuries by suggesting that great power wars can be short affairs. The idea that an adversary can be decisively beaten in just one or a few engagements has incentivized political and military gambling... That Napoleon is only a movie doesn’t make it better. There are documented cases of films influencing a policymaker’s decisions to go to war. In 1970, for example, then-U.S. President Richard Nixon repeatedly watched the film Patton during the decision-making process to expand the Vietnam War into Cambodia, taking inspiration from the movie general’s willpower and single-minded belief in U.S. military power. One academic study found that popular culture, including fictional films, can frame the way we think about a multitude of issues, and there is no reason to believe that military officers and policymakers are exempt from these effects. Movies can help prevent wars, too. Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan was inspired by the television film The Day After and Tom Clancy’s novel Red Storm Rising to push for nuclear arms control. But if decision-makers and military leaders are prone to fighting the wars of their imagination, then a popular culture that reinforces the idea that wars can be short and decisive may incentivize willingness to look for a quick military solution to a political problem. There is much more in Napoleon that made me cringe as a military analyst. What you see on the screen has absolutely nothing to do with warfare in the age of Napoleon—as a matter of fact, the clouds of gunpowder from the era’s muzzle-loaded muskets meant you would not be able to see very much on a Napoleonic battlefield to begin with. The battle scenes are a Hollywood mishmash of medieval melees, meaningless cannonades, and World War I-style infantry advances... Napoleon’s military genius was not just about individual heroism or skilled battle tactics, but more importantly his vision for structural reforms. Napoleon helped institutionalize the corps system, dividing up large armies into smaller ones as a way to enable more effective command and control, as well as greater speed and range. Key to this new corps system were Napoleon’s marshals, distinguished military officers who sometimes remained undefeated in battle and whose deaths Napoleon mourned deeply. It was the marshals and other officers to whom Napoleon delegated authority; they proved to be a major asset contributing to his victories. In the film, these colorful independent actors are relegated to the role of footmen."
In World War II, the Germans managed to knock France out pretty quickly though
'War on the Ballot' Review: How Elections Influence U.S. Wartime Decisions - "In War on the Ballot, Payne provides a systematic assessment of the intertwined nature of elections and foreign-policy making over the course of a presidency. He outlines five ways that U.S. elections can affect presidential wartime decision-making: delay (postponing military action until an election takes place); dampening (watering down good strategic action until the vote); spur (accelerating military activity to appear tough on defense ahead of an election); hangover (being swayed to break or fulfill campaign pledges on war based on electoral results) and spoiler (when elections interfere with or disrupt bargaining strategies)... Does democracy produce better or worse results when it comes to war overseas? Although Payne does not have a clear-cut answer, his book points to a long history in which presidential concern about elections has resulted in “suboptimal” foreign-policy decisions—especially when it comes to asymmetric warfare. “[P]owerful democracies are peculiarly bad at fighting small wars,” he writes. “U.S. participation in these ‘limited’ conflicts [such as Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq] has been characterized by long, protracted struggles that sap morale and ultimately result in a draw at best, if not outright defeat.” It’s a grim conclusion—made more dispiriting by the fact that Payne does not really offer any compelling solutions to the serious problems he identifies."
Do Italians Use Heavy Cream in Pasta? Pasta La Vista, Cream! - Why Italians - "In Italy, “panna da cucina” (cooking cream) is commonly used for pasta sauces, resembling the lightness of the U.S.’s half-and-half. For dishes like “pasta alla panna,” Italians prefer this cooking cream to get a creamy texture without overwhelming richness. But the answer isn’t as straightforward as it might seem. The use of heavy whipping cream in Italy, especially in pasta sauces, is a subject of particular debate.
Cream’s Role in Italian Pasta: While heavy cream was a staple in 1980s Italian pasta dishes, its popularity has since waned due to its overpowering nature.
Modern Critique: The heavy-handed use of cream in past decades led to its decline in contemporary Italian cuisine as it tends to mask other flavors.
Iconic Creamy Dishes vs. No-Cream Zones: Dishes like pasta with ham and cream still celebrate heavy cream. However, recipes like spaghetti carbonara traditionally exclude it, and adding cream is a culinary faux pas.
In the 1980s, adding heavy cream to various pasta dishes was all the rage in Italy. You might remember classics like tortellini cream with ham or the now-hard-to-find penne with heavy cream and vodka. Such dishes made heavy cream a staple in many Italian kitchens. However, times have changed. Many now view cream as merely a way to mask or blend flavors—definitely not ideal when you want to highlight simple, delicate ingredients in a dish. This shift in perspective means that while it was almost a given to find cream-based pasta dishes in restaurants during the 1980s, it’s far less common now. That’s not to say heavy cream has vanished from Italian pasta dishes altogether. While its presence isn’t as dominant as before, certain recipes still call for this rich ingredient. In essence, while heavy cream has had its moments in Italian pasta dishes, especially during past decades, its role has somewhat diminished. Like any culinary tradition, Italian cuisine evolves, and the use of ingredients like cream in pasta is a testament to its ever-changing nature... Here are the best-known heavy cream-based pasta recipes in Italy:
Pasta panna e prosciutto, Pasta panna e gamberi, Tortellini panna e prosciutto, Penne pasta with speck and cream, Pasta with pumpkin and cream, Penne pasta with vodka and cream, Penne al baffo, Pasta gorgonzola cream and walnuts"
I saw people insisting cream in Italian pasta sauce was a sign of inauthenticity
Pasta alla Boscaiola Recipe - "Pasta alla Boscaiola (“woodsman-style pasta”) features a rich blend of mushrooms and bacon tossed with pasta in a silky garlic-herb tomato cream sauce. It’s earthy, smoky, creamy and unbelievably delicious."
In Democracies, Free Speech Is on the Decline - "The European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) exemplifies this trend. Following Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7, the European Commission’s cyber sheriff Thierry Breton sent a flurry of not-so-subtle letters to tech companies such as Meta, Google, TikTok, and X (formerly known as Twitter), inquiring about responses to unspecified hate speech, “terrorist content,” and “disinformation,” threatening significant fines for noncompliance. Breton’s aggressive policing has sparked accusations of overreach and violation of international human rights standards. Despite these developments, many democracies see the DSA as a global blueprint for online regulation and Chile, Costa Rica, and Taiwan are on course to adopt bills inspired by the European prototype... Laws against hatred, offense, and insults have also been significantly expanded in many democracies. In England, a woman was pursued and interviewed by police for holding a placard satirically depicting the British prime minister and home secretary as coconuts—a Black, liberal city councilor was previously convicted of racial harassment for using the term. In Ireland, a new hate speech bill is set to criminalize the “material that is likely to incite violence or hatred against a person or a group of persons on account of their protected characteristics… with a view to the material being communicated to the public or a section of the public, whether by himself or herself or another person”. This broad definition and application could criminalize memes or gifs downloaded on mobile phones or laptops”. And the Danish government is reintroducing the crime of blasphemy, virtually unenforced since 1946, outlawing the “improper treatment” of religious texts. Artistic freedom is not immune either, as seen in South Korea, where the National Assembly’s secretariat canceled an exhibition in the parliament building lobby due to its unflattering portrayal of the country’s president. As documented in a new report by the Future of Free Speech Project, these dramatic erosions of freedom of expression in democracies are not novel or isolated events. They are part of a broader and global free-speech recession that has afflicted open democracies... 78 percent of the developments identified by experts in the surveyed countries pointed to increased speech restrictions. Except for 2015, every year witnessed a majority of speech-restrictive developments (as opposed to speech-protective developments), most of them laws, with a noticeable surge in 2022. National security, national cohesion, and public safety were the most cited reasons for suppressing free expression... German laws against hate speech and offense have been used to investigate individuals for comments critical of politicians, raising concerns about its impact on free political expression... there is growing evidence that free speech is more likely to limit than to fan violent conflict in open democracies. The positive relationship between free speech and social peace seems to hold especially true when it comes to terrorism. One reason for this is the so-called safety valve theory, which stipulates that permitting rather than suppressing even extremists’ grievances reduces the likelihood that they resort to violence. Allowing extremists to air their thoughts may also make it easier for law enforcement to identify and keep an eye on those who are most likely to escalate hateful words into violent acts."
Singapore’s Rich Are the Most Unhappy in Asia With Work-Life Balance - Bloomberg - "Singapore’s wealthy are the least satisfied with their current work-life balance when compared with their peers in other parts of Asia Pacific, according to a survey from a Geneva-based private bank. Only 30% of people with an investable wealth of more than $1 million in Singapore find themselves happy with their work-life balance, the lowest among high net-worth individuals in the region surveyed by Switzerland’s Banque Lombard Odier & Cie SA. Thailand topped the ranking with 72.7%, followed by Australia... The city-state’s cohort of unsatisfied millionaires can be partially explained by the amount of time spent at work, with 26% of Singaporeans responding that they often work overtime, according to report. The nation has the longest working hours per week, 45, across 10 places in Asia Pacific"
Rich Chinese in Singapore Not Investing Big as They Buy Luxury Property, Cars - Bloomberg - "The relative pittance of new business from super wealthy Chinese emigres is becoming a hot-button topic and possible prelude to social discord as lawmakers seek answers from the government. When tax exemption programs were changed to attract family offices, part of the pitch was that the new money would boost investments and spark a wave of employment. Instead, Singapore is mostly seeing higher prices for everything from condos to cars... Even the city’s palate is changing, according to Sing Tien Foo, NUS Business School professor of real estate. A rising number of restaurants offer more hotpot items from Sichuan province and spicy lamb skewers favored in Beijing to cater to the arrivals. Visitors to Chef China Hua Chu restaurant are welcomed by a black-visored astronaut sporting a Chinese flag... One family office executive said their firm aims to meet the higher local spending requirements by booking their fund purchases with the locally-licensed arm of a Swiss bank rather than the overseas unit. Such a shift may boost assets – the industry reached S$5.4 trillion in 2021 — but not create more jobs... While philanthropy would be another way of alleviating resentment among Singaporeans, some local charities say they’ve had limited support from the wave of rich Chinese migrants... “One of our national issues is really social cohesion, which is the flip side of social inequality,” said Kwee, whose family manages hotels and commercial properties across the region. “The suspicion of and resentment of foreigners coming here to just use Singapore leaves a bitter taste in people’s mouths because of conspicuous consumption.”"
From April 2023
The war on vaping is bad for our health - "Australia’s moral panic around vaping began a few years ahead of the UK’s, but came about for the very same reason – a spike in youth vaping. The government Down Under implemented its own strict packaging laws and flavour bans, and then went even further by outlawing recreational vaping altogether (Aussies can now only buy e-cigarettes in pharmacies with a prescription). The result? While smoking rates have continued to plummet in the UK and US, as smokers switch to vaping, the decline has slowed to a crawl in Australia. At the same time, a thriving black market for e-cigarettes has emerged – selling dangerous, unregulated vaping products to people of any age... Part of the reason e-cigarettes have been so successful in driving down smoking is that they are attractive products. Not only is vaping healthier – it is also cheaper and offers a wider selection of flavours. If the government stigmatises vaping too much, it will no longer be seen as a desirable alternative to smoking. After all, if it really wants to curb youth smoking rates, then it should think twice about cracking down on the healthier alternative. Starting a war on vaping is the last thing we need."
Meme - Condoms: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY
18: 9:00, 13:00, 17:00, 22:00
30: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday
40: April, July, October, December
50: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017"
Leader in Richmond Democrat Party group posted bomb threat against Andy Ngo Virginia talk - "An official member of the Democrat Party in Richmond, Virginia, posted a bomb threat against journalist Andy Ngo... Jimmie Lee Jarvis, the owner of Mission Control Research and Consulting in Richmond, posted the bomb threat on X ahead of Ngo's speaking event organized by The Virginia Council and Common Sense Society at the Commonwealth Club in Richmond, Virginia. The post included an image of dynamite with Jarvis writing in the description box, "On my way to the Andy Ngo event!"... Jimmie Lee Jarvis is listed as an official member of the Richmond City Democratic Committee. Jarvis' threat was one of many that came from radical leftists ahead of Ngo's speaking event, which resulted in two venues pulling out at the last minute... Antifa and far-left activists utilized social media platforms like X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram to encourage fellow "comrades" to harass the venues with threats of violence in multiple calls-to-action. An account on X with the username @DSTRadicals provided a script for people to say when they call the front desk, which falsely claims that Ngo is a "homophobic neo-nazi" and that his supporters will show up "armed" with weapons... A flyer posted to social media by Robyn Proffer, who is behind the "Nonbinarymachinelanguage" account on Instagram and "enbyMachine" on X, labeled Ngo as among the "fascists" and strongly asserted that his presence is not welcomed in Virginia. "Fascists not welcome in RVA. Andy Ngo, we said it and we mean it. Stay out of our city," the flyer read, which features a photo of a violent assault carried out against Ngo in Portland in 2019 by members of Rose City Antifa. Proffer was arrested in Richmond in 2020 amid the destructive BLM riots that spread across the country and Ngo reported on his arrest."
Why is the left so threatened by free speech?
The Own and Social Effects of an Unexpected Income Shock: Evidence from the Dutch Postcode Lottery - "In the Dutch Postcode Lottery a postal code (19 households on average) is randomly selected weekly, and prizes--consisting of cash and a new BMW--are awarded to lottery participants living in that postal code. On average, this generates a temporary, unexpected income shock equal to about eight months of income for about one third of the households in a typical winning code, while leaving the incomes of nonwinning, neighboring households unaffected. We study the responses of consumption and reported happiness of both winners and nonwinners to these shocks. Consistent with simple models of in-kind transfers, the overwhelming majority of households who won a BMW convert it into cash. With the exception of food away from home, the only 'own' effects of cash winnings we detect are on durables expenditures and car consumption; these results support a version of the permanent income hypothesis in which durable spending is used to smooth consumption. We detect social effects of neighbors' winnings on two types of consumption: cars and exterior home renovations. Six months after the fact, winning the lottery does not make households happier, nor do neighbors' winnings reduce happiness."
Does winning the lottery ruin the lives of winners? - "Why do we tend to have this belief? Three sources are primarily to blame. First, the media reports on stories of ruined lottery winners... Next, our mistaken beliefs about lottery winners come from a commonly cited statistic that 70% of lottery winners end up bankrupt within a few years of winning. This bankruptcy statistic has been repeated so often that it is accepted as fact (I had heard it years ago and had taken it as gospel). But it’s not a fact. The 70% statistic originates from a 2001 symposium of experts on the impact of financial windfalls convened by the National Endowment on Financial Education (NEFE). One of the experts mentioned the 70% statistic, which was picked up by the media and spread like wildfire (again, the notion of bankrupt jackpot winners is oddly satisfying). In 2018, the NEFE attempted to quell the misinformation. It issued a statement that said the 70% statistic “is not backed by research from NEFE, nor can it be confirmed . . . frequent reporting—without validation from the NEFE—has allowed this ‘stat’ to survive online in perpetuity.” So, apparently, the expert just made it up."
This American mocked the study of Swedish winners having higher life satisfaction, claiming that the amounts (of up to $700,000) were comparable to scratch-offs in the US (which I found were up to $150) so the study was valid. Then when I posted the source about 70% of lottery winners going bankrupt being wrong, claimed I needed to prove that they did not go bankrupt instead of him proving they did
The interpretation in the article of the 1978 paper on accident victims and lottery winners is wrong, though
Lottery winners: The myth and reality -"Myth: Many lottery winners become spendthrifts and lose their money...The author has identified less than 10 such cases out of 900 subjects in 15 years...
Myth: Lottery winners are millionaires.
Lottery winners get their money in annual installments... This often leaves a so-called million dollar winner with less than $35,000 a year"
This study looked at US winners with prizes of up to $2 million and over
Cambridge teacher sent nude photos, had sex with female student: Complaint | Toronto Sun - "The alleged encounters left the teenager suffering from “adverse emotional and psychological effects” as a result of the Waterloo District School Board educator’s “conduct from in or about 2014 to in or about 2015”... According to the Notice of Hearing, during the 2013-2014 academic year, Student 1 was a female student at the school “From in or about February 2014 to in or about June 2014, the Member had inappropriate interactions with Student 1 while she was a student at the School,” the notice said.
Sun haters on reddit were bashing the "misleading headline", claiming that the student wasn't a student when the offences happened so there was nothing wrong. When you hate the non-approved media so much...
Of course, if it had been a male teacher, he'd have been slammed for "grooming" even if the sexual activity had happened after graduation
Nicolas_Dream on X - "You only live once - you should try to spend as much time on the computer as possible. After you die, you won't have access to it any more"
With layoffs looming, CBC execs want foreign streaming giants to pay more to support Cancon - "Barbara Williams, the CBC's vice-president of English services, and her French counterpart Dany Meloul said the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) should push ahead with a plan to force foreign players like Amazon, Apple, Disney and Netflix to pay up to support struggling Canadian content producers... CBC management came in for criticism Tuesday after the company's president and CEO, Catherine Tait, declined to rule out paying management bonuses next year."
When you can't compete, get free money
Growth and investment must be Canada's top priorities - "why Canada is at the bottom of the heap. There are several reasons:
The demographic time bomb... Canada traditionally has been able to attract younger immigrants to make up for the output loss but international markets for skilled labour are increasingly competitive as workers, including ones born in Canada, pick and choose the country they feel offers them the best opportunities.
Indebtedness: With interest rates higher than they have been, indebtedness also hurts economic growth...
Shrinking world trade...
A costly energy transition: The extraordinary cost of building new transportation, heating and industrial energy systems over the next few years won’t realize benefits for decades, if at all. The highest value-added per working hour in 2022 was earned in non-conventional oil extraction at $997 — more than 16 times the average of all industries ($61) and almost five times more than in mining ($205). Shifting labour out of an activity where value-added is that high means GDP will surely fall. Energy is our largest source of export earnings so any reduction in exports will push the Canadian dollar down. With the federal government hell-bent on stopping new fossil-fuel development, especially of liquified natural gas, we will spend the next couple of decades throwing away wealth that could provide income to Canadians and taxes for governments. Our ideologically driven energy transition will cause us to lag countries like the U.S., Norway and Australia, which continue to develop and export energy while also working on clean technologies.
New technologies: The coming decade does offer the growth-friendly promise of new technologies. AI, continuing digitization and any number of innovations we can’t anticipate will allow us to produce more with the resources we have. On the other hand, adopting new technologies requires investing in new capital. And this is where Canada is weak. Since 2018 Canadian corporate investment has been about 10 per cent of GDP — almost a fifth below the United States and the OECD in general. The OECD says our poor investment performance will cost us 0.4 percentage points in per capita GDP growth every year this decade, more than in any other OECD country...
Forget identity politics — growth and investment are now our top priorities."
If you believe in de-growth, this is good
Gwyn Morgan: How will higher immigration fix our health care and housing crises? - "between February 2020 and June 2023 government-sector job growth dwarfed private-sector growth in all 10 provinces, with the number of government jobs increasing by 11.8 per cent, compared to just 3.3 per cent in the private sector. The number of government bureaucrats increased by a whopping 446,000 over that period... Canadians are suffering and dying on healthcare waitlists while cruelly being forbidden access to private care by federal legislation. And yet the government has reconfirmed an immigration goal of half a million permanent residents, with no lessening of non-resident immigrants, which will add another million immigrants in 2024. It’s hard to know how much worse Canada’s housing shortage and health care crisis will get under these toxic policies. But they most surely will... A nation’s GDP per capita is driven by private-sector investment. A 2022 C.D. Howe Institute report points out that invested capital per worker, which is key to a country’s ability to produce goods and services, “has been weak since 2015,” the year the Trudeau government came to power. “Before 2015, Canadian business had been closing a long-standing gap with the U.S. Since 2015, the gap has become a chasm.” The report’s ominous conclusion: “Having investment per worker much lower in Canada than abroad tells us that businesses see less opportunity in Canada and prefigures weaker earnings and living standards”. The stark reality is that those millions of hopeful immigrants entering Canada will find a country not only unable to provide health care and housing for its citizens, but also experiencing diminishing overall living standards. And a national government that doesn’t seem to care."
Melissa Lantsman on X - "This is most underreported news in Canada today — per capita GDP has declined for 5 consecutive quarters. It gets worse. The proportion of disposable income devoted to paying debts in an average household is now over 15%. That is the highest level seen since they started measuring this in the early 90s. Canadians are getting poorer. Poorer than our neighbours in the US and poorer than they were last year. You hear the heartbreaking stories across the country and this is the data to prove it. 👇 This is the result of higher taxes, bigger deficits and crippling red tape. #cdnpoli"
