Saw a headline that the MMR vaccine may be reduced in effectiveness after 40-ish years. It’s all breaking news since people being so backwards as to not be vaccinated in numbers to allow this kind of study to even materialize in a world that has a proven cure is certainly recent.

I work in HR. No one cares.

Japan was completing its high speed rail in 1964, a year before the civil rights act was passed. Not that Japan doesn’t have racism, indeed much of the east is only now starting to grapple with internal racial diversity more than historically, but it still always sticks out to me as a measure of priorities and how backassward the US is and what a drain on progress in other areas these reptiles are.

It was dumb speculation until he took down all regulatory apparatus, and grabbed the national checkbook while trump made himself a puppet king. Now any money not in Tesla is crazy.

Divorced from reality? Teslas CEO controls Treasury payments as of a week ago.

I cannot think of an easier bet than on a dictator’s personal interests rising. Trump is just a sock puppet for a bit. Musk, Vance, etc. are the next Gen of uglier.

It’s a bit tricky to answer your prompt depending on what exactly you’re looking for with “better”:

• every child is different as you know, but accepting that what other parents/kids can do at even the same age and expecting your child to manage/perform the same is folly. Your child at 3 is ages ahead of others being able to fly successfully.
• I think of trips in terms of who they are for, and sometimes something that a parent wants or needs (which are still valid) is not something a child at x age can enjoy, appreciate, engage in, etc. if I want to go on a backpacking trip with a 5y/o, understand it’ll probably be miserable and leave them out. If you need time to photograph, be an adult and not take care of the constant needs of a little one for a few days or more, it’s OK to block out the time for an experience without them. It’s as normal as not taking them to a bar to meet your friends to catch up for a drink; it’s not for them and they don’t make sense there.
• combined trips with kids are fun, but you have to weigh what is for them and what isn’t. We try to do a balance and sometimes are pretty successful. We have had success getting our child to enjoy things other kids their age might not, but it’s not a guarantee or a competition, it’s pretty organic and is usually built over time
• speaking of “built over time”, one of the biggest things is to know your kid. Do they like to look at pictures on their own? Paint? Then you can probably make a museum work and can engage them in the content in some ways, but yes it’ll be very different than discussing with an adult only at the museum.
• Whatever your vacation/trip/activity I’d just try to have in my head who is getting what out of it, and communicate/acknowledge it from the start–though frankly 3 is young to be able to have a kid emotionally appreciate “the next 2 hours at the museum for mom/Dad is because there is a great exhibit with my favorite artist” type conversations. If they aren’t ready for that, still go, but you can’t take them and expect the kid to miraculously be ready for it and not be themselves and their age. You mentioned the 3 year old not appreciating hanging out on the beach…they don’t work or go to school so lying around is boring for them while it’s vital for older people.

Overall, know your needs and your kid’s, your kids emotional state, interests and maturity level and plan accordingly. If the child isn’t ready for certain things, it’s your job as a parent to make that call for their and your benefit. You’ll enjoy what you need and have more energy to appreciate activities with them where their needs lie when you do things in their space.

There is still no federal vacation required. Many employers offer it but pathetic number don’t. The “good jobs” used to be salaried, but unregulated capitalism has pushed tons more work on them while cutting employee numbers, many of those jobs now work 10-12 hour days–and are then expected to be “always on” from laptop, phone, etc. no mental rest. Add in insanity of commuting and traffic and it’s physically and mentally exhausting. Those are the good jobs. The federal minimum wage hasn’t increased since 2009. It’s currently way below poverty wages, so government approved poverty. As a result, many Americans work for companies who pay them poverty wages, take tax incentives for hiring “the poor”. Government sponsored poverty because government long ago was captured by lobbiests for capitalists. On top of that, medical care is unattainable expensive.

I don’t know if that means it’s “harder” than in other countries, but even in poor countries there is less focus on work, more time off, social healthcare or better mixes of the above options. It’s truly now the most raw, unbridled survival of the vicious countries now. And that was the case before the developments of the last few weeks and the next 4 years, which will exacerbate all of the above items.

Very common to talk about at work now, because everyone is exhausted, burt out or incredibly disengaged, but strangely still not common in social or family circles.

The medical industry aggressively denies, discourages and inhibits ease of care for all services because profit, and mental health care is no different. During the pandemic carriers were required to provide telehealth services for the first time and the carriers and their providers were completely swamped. Americans are overworked to the point of dying from it and don’t have any time to drive to an appointment but video therapy sessions are quite possible for more people. Even getting an appointment, because you have to often go through a carrier network leaves you stuck with therapists who often might not be that compatible. Waitlists can be 3-6 months. So like everything else in america, it’s “dealt with” at the emergency level (suicide hotlines, police 911, prison industry or funeral industry).

Employers are now advertising access to “work life balance apps” /gag like “Calm” as part of their mental health offerings as they know their actual medical care services are unavailable, unaffordable or both.

It’s telling the wording - continue to work on AI while rigorously reviewing ROI of other initiatives. Shouldn’t AI be rigorously evaluated? Too much money in slopping out poor quality shit while laying people off in any company, that’s why companies are putting NOS on the AI bandwagon. You don’t even have to calculate it, you just know LLM slop will be cheaper than humans.

Until, of course it isn’t. When you break trust, and there are impactful catastrophes, or just regular incompetence…suddenly AI will lose its star status of “this will get me my annual bonus or stock options” status and be relegated to its actually helpful use cases like parsing medical insurance claim denial statements. Then they’ll be hiring humans back–and that cycle may not take long. Once AI is demoted, people who actually want to make it work instead of getting paid will likely improve it a good deal, but the charlatans will have made theirs by that point. And that’s always the point in the cycle to get big spend from gullible decision-makers.

When the US govt and heads of most companies are old, white men who do not understand the tech implications for their product, and won’t be around in 30 years to care if it’s still marketable and sustainable, I guess it makes sense for them economically to just get paid this quarter.

“upgrading”

If you truly haven’t connected the dots as to why the slide to the right of Democrats enabled Trump to win, and win again, I pity you.

Throwing labels at me because you can’t refute the point is always the mark of someone on the correct side. Rest easy!

He allowed extra-judicial torture practices there against UNHR and any humanitarian objections. He didn’t do what Trump is going to, but he allowed it to normalize and continue despite the power to stop it, and makes it less of a leap for a right wing freak to make something like this happen. It’s not a “thanks Obama”, but people down voting holding Obama to account for keeping it open want Dems to be blameless despite complicity in the neoliberal bullshit dating back to Clinton as the party swung for corporate interests and abandoned their humanity.

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Obama didn’t, even with a supermajority in the Senate. This is the problem with neoiberalism taking over the D party. Trump certainly isn’t going to.

Grog use triple flint blade. 6 months subscription new rock comes.

https://www.axios.com/2025/01/18/trump-meme-coin-25-billion

In every job that must be done

There is an element of fun

You find the fun and snap! The job’s a game

And every task you undertake

Becomes a piece of cake

A lark! A spree!

It’s very clear to see

That a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down

The medicine go down, the medicine go down

Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down

In a most delightful way

A robin feathering his nest

Has very little time to rest

While gathering his bits of twine and twig

Though quite intent in his pursuit

He has a merry tune to toot

He knows a song

Will move the job along

Oh, a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down

The medicine go down, the medicine go down

Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down

In a most delightful way

The honey bees that fetch the nectar

From the flowers to the comb

Never tired of ever buzzing to and fro

Because they take a little nip

From every flower that they sip

And hence (And hence)

They find (They find)

Their task is not a grind…

The 7 dwarves talked about “whistle while you work”, many others have said music.

Personally I gamify tasks and try to make them more efficient, or if they’re maxed out, enjoy the time I’ve saved and the efficient task and smooth running of a process. Then the focus becomes the process rather than the sometimes tedious nature of things.

OpenAI’s events of last year has me just slightly less than impressed at the ability of a non-profit board/org to be able to contain/control the wild efforts of capital when it matters.

I didn’t advocate for a slow response, history shows people just like to boil like frogs as were very adaptable, for good and bad. Id love it if swift, collective action were our norm.

It’s not cheap, unless you count the international service that is included and use it. Compared to the price a US prepaid plan like mint or visible, it’s perfectly cromulent.