Finland proving the supremacy of "Subs not Dubs". Noted for future reference.

Almost anyone who has a semi-useful technical or trade skill and can manage communications, marketing, sales etc is liable to become extremely rich.

Almost anyone with no skills except they can talk to people and arrange/organize deals is liable to make someone else rich, and might be well-off if they can figure out how to get a slice of the pie.

Pilgrimages were still a big thing among early Christians.

For example, in Acts 20:16 it notes how Paul was trying to be in Jerusalem for Pentecost. Now this was around 55 AD.

Re: Smart TVs. An old laptop running a browser with an ad blocker and some fancy controller setup (perhaps a wireless multi-button mouse or a specialized remote control) can get you way more privacy (and the sanity of a mostly zero-ad experience, just the occasional in-video affiliate ad) and makes whatever you watch a lot smarter, since you are the one doing the searching/surfing rather than the advertiser-funded smart TV channels that are specifically smart at advertising to you for profit. You can hook up an HDMI cable to a bigger screen/projector if you're playing stuff for lots of people.

Nice. Looks like a way to have achievable live text transcripts via tiny devices without using APIs.

Regenerative farmers posting on hacker news gives me hope for humanity. Thanks.

Apparently anyone in US/Canada can just ask for a farm and practically get one at this point. Either via USDA / private loans or indie farmers giving you great lease-to-own terms because you don't look like a corporate billionaire. Urban rent is so darn expensive now that some of y'all can probably get rich just by farm squatting and having a good time.

(Seriously thinking about solo farming in real life now. Not that it would really be solo because of all the animals.)

The idea that you can just get a farm for free by walking in and asking for one is pure fantasy. Agricultural land is worth money and a good amount of money in most cases.

Gulag Archipelago and various China / Vietnam / North Korea prison memoirs are really good to study also. This is stuff tens of millions of people went through.

Maybe some Howard Zinn and Malcolm X too.

Less "social" media, more social research paper / life hack resharing makes the world a better place.

PS: Always hide the best meme in endnote 14 so your fellow meme scientists know exactly where to find the real discovery.

Plato: Writing will make people forgetful.

Seems accurate.

On the other hand, it's nice to not have to have people memorize every book in the library every generation.

Been mucking around with huge doses of B Vitamins (especially B3/Niacin) and 5-HTP (a serotonin precursor). Both of those are rather, uh, effectful. 500mg+ Niacin will turn you red unless you're actually deficient. And you do not want to mess with the 5-HTP and alcohol at the same time, plus 5-HTP can cause some nasty side effects in some people.

Seems like a nice way to have some weird dreams while probably improving my health (high dose B vitamins seem to do great things for mental disorder and the only apparent downside is colorful piss and possibly turning into a cherry).

For people who don't do vita-drugs, there's always tea, coffee, chocolate, and matcha.

Be careful with large doses of Niacin. It may be bad for the heart.

Source: https://newsroom.clevelandclinic.org/2024/02/19/cleveland-cl...

Good to hear they seem to be working out for you. I tried L-tryptophan a few years ago but discontinued rather quickly as I thought my sleep quality was going down (I think I was waking up during dreams more often). I guess 5-HTP would have been even more powerful.