Achilles

As others have pointed out, there are a lot of ways to measure and therefore a lot of opinions. There seems to be a fair amount of research that shows that happiness does not seem to be improved by income after about $75k per year (1.5x the median income in the US) and decreases significantly as one acquires more wealth (the argument being that I'm more likely to lose sleep over the size of my yacht if I have one) While that doesn't help with the question, "what is rich?", I think it's an interesting touchpoint in the discussion of "what will make me happy?"

Only three chapters in but I'm enjoying it so far. To be fair, I'm familiar with this author via his second podcast (Revolutions), so I went in with a sense of what to expect and with the knowledge that this was a passion project for him (he moved his family to Paris when he started the book). FWIW, if you want to know more about Lafayette in France, but don't want to pick up the book, the French Revolution was season 3 of the above linked podcast. If you try the podcast and like it, then that should be your baseline for his books (especially if you get the audiobook versions. Hope that helps

If anyone is looking for a deep dive on the FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine:

Sorry for the double post. I'm honestly surprised that you're not taking a "individuals have a personal responsibility to be scientifically literate" stance here. You seem to be quite comfortable taking a position that the government was responsible for better messaging and are willing to let people off the hook for whatever dire straits they ended up in as a result. Contrary to this, Phil Valentine wasn't responsible for his messaging and individuals were responsible for whatever they did as a result. Again, it seems like another example of a "gobernment bad" bias standing in the way of consistent thinking.

Great post! This guy is a former science journalist who now does science education on YT. He has a few videos related to covid and the lab-leak theory which may be worth your time if you're looking for something to help make heads or tails of the technical discussion.

Like Guard Dog, I've never heard any of his shows and didn't know who he was until it was announced that he died. Here's what I find interesting: Was Valentine a person of influence? It sure seems that he was. Or at the very least, he and those around him thought that he was. Otherwise, the last minute pleas to "GO GET VACCINATED!" don't make much sense. So, in a moment of clarity, at the end of his life, he realized that maybe he made a mistake and tried to correct it. Good for him. Really. But how was he using the influence that he clearly thought he had prior to that? "A parody song called 'Vaxman'". Spreading misinformation about vaccine risks. If the issue at the heart of the matter was that he didn't know enough to know better, then opened his pie-hole and shared his opinion anyway, then he bears some responsibility for what others did based on that opinion. He had the option to not weigh in. He had the option to say, "I don't know, talk to your doctor". Instead he recorded parody tracks. If he was some wacko with a ham radio that would be one thing, but people with an audience have a responsibility to know what they are talking about before they open their mouths (and that responsibility is proportional to the size of the audience). If people died because they didn't get vaccinated and they didn't get vaccinated because Valentine used his platform to misinform them, then Valentine has blood on his hands.

I stand corrected. With that said, I'm not sure where the outrage is coming from though. Especially in light of points I made above. Cheers!

I'm not sure you did. If you accept that all of us are "f----ing a---oles" (emphasis on "all of us") then the problem isn't that you don't understand people's reaction. The issue is this reaction for one particular person. You seem to think (per your post) that he doesn't have any blood on his hands. Others don't share that opinion. Someone is mistaken. If that person is you, then there are two strikes against your claim for the moral high ground and maybe an opportunity for some deeper thinking on how we should operationally define "empathy". If the person (or persons) is whomever you encountered who is happy he died, then they don't get to claim the moral high ground either (meaning maybe there is no moral high ground to be had). Interestingly, there is still an opportunity for that "thinking about empathy" bit Side note: It is apparent that you were a fan of his show. My condolences for your loss.

Two thought experiments to see how far we're going to go with this argument: What was your reaction to the news of the death of Osama bin Laden? If someone were actively trying to take your life, but you were able to take theirs (in self defense) would you be happy that they died and you didn't? I see two ways out of this: We're all f----ing a----oles (in which case there is no moral high ground to be claimed here), or There are some circumstances in which case it's okay to be glad someone is dead (in which case the important question would seem to be, "which are those?")

Well, now that we've done that twice, maybe we'll learn our lesson and not do it a third time.

lol. Melee weapons for everyone, eh?

I keep thinking about how poorly this update has aged: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/owlcatgames/pathfinder-wrath-of-the-righteous/posts/2759746

After my last run through the beta, I still had a pathfinder "itch" but recognized that I definitely needed a break from wrath. So I fired up Kingmaker for the first time in a long while. YRMV, but kingmaker is almost unplayable for me now. I don't think Wrath will be best game ever, but so long as we don't get any more end of game scenarios that completely override player choices, I'll be keeping a sharp eye out for whatever their third game is

This one can be hard to put hands on, but definitely worth the trouble if you are able: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/849747.Moondust

I wasn't. I'm pretty sure that both Chipotle and In-n-Out either pay their employees $15 hour or close to it. Neither one seems to be suffering for it.

Yet lots of businesses pay people more than $15 per hour and make much less money than some of these organizations. I can think of a few that pay their employees almost $15 per hour now and also do just fine. It's almost like there's something wrong with the business model. Hmm. But to your point, I do see the big franchises using this as an opportunity to automate more of their business so I agree that it's coming. I just don't agree that it's the *only* route available to them.

I love the confidence The owner certainly has the option to pass the cost on to the consumer, but at some point the consumer won't want to pay more. At which point they will look for alternatives. Those alternatives could be a hamburger from somewhere else, a hot dog at home, or new found passion for fruit from the local farmer's market. If the owner wants the customer to buy their hamburger they will have to find ways to keep their prices competitive. All that to say, sometimes the end-user pays all the cost, but not always. My guess is that won't be the case here. This is another one of those situations where "ceteris paribus" probably works against the argument

Doesn't look like warpriest got much of an update from the alpha. Per the notes, some of the classes are still incomplete. Either warpriest is one of them or they intend to ship the game with crappy take on that class. The most frustrating thing, imo, is not being able to take fighter bonus feats using the warpriest level as BAB. Oh, and get ready for all your quick menu slots being full once you hit mythic levels; warpriests get all the icons.

That felt like a cheap and dumb attempt to throw yet another "twist" into the growing collection of **** they launched at the audience toward the end. Unless the director wants us to just accept that it's a coincidence after expending all that effort to make us think that it's not. Which isn't to say that it isn't possible, just that it would make even less sense in an already-senseless movie.

Saw The Little Things tonight. Awful movie and a waste of Jared Leto.

Warpriest has been my go-to class. Great striker.

Worked for Subway my sophomore year of high school. The crab isn't crab and the meatballs aren't meat. With that said, Subway is to sandwiches what Taco Bell is to mexican food. Seriously hoping that no one is surprised by any of these developments.

I have about 400 hours in the alpha and it hasn't been too bad (one gamebreaking bug that came out with the last update and confirmed fixed in the beta). Obviously the beta will be a whole new ballgame.