*When I was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch. When years described me as mature, the remedy prescribed was middle age.In middle age I was assured greater age would calm my fever and now that I am fifty-eight perhaps senility will do the job. Nothing has worked."

John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley.

That's what I immediately thought of, for me this opening sets the tone of the whole book.

Yeah, it seems at a certain breaking point in the difficulty curve it becomes "catch up with the AI boni", which made it a completely different game for me. And as you said, usually by renaissance you know if this is going to be a landslide victory (which at that point becomes a chore), or if you're screwed.

You see, I don't think people like him ever feel shitty. He feels as a victim, a martyr of sorts, people like this can and will twist anything in their heads so that it proves their grandeur, their importance.

This guy goes to sleep every night thinking how great he is, and how the world is just jealous and that's why some stupid judge was out to get him.

My dad is a pathological narcissist and behaves exactly like that.

I guess it shows how out of touch (old) I am that it's completely bewildering to me that there could be people who do not understand folders ... on a computer. Phones, tablets, yeah, I get that, those actively make it harder and harder to access the folder structure. But computers?

Vgl. Landwirte. 25% Lohnsteigerung ist selbst für die IGM ein feuchter Traum, aber unser Bauer im die Ecke ist sich immer noch nicht zu doof dafür, mit einem "Agrardiesel muss bleiben" Aufkleber auf seinem Q7 rumzufahren.

My bidet toilet came with a "demonstration tool". A (transparent) plastic contraption that can be put on the toilet which 1) activates the bum-sensor and 2) blocks the water stream.

The toilet also has a "demonstration" mode, I did not dare to turn that on, though.

I got to learn to love those bidet toilets through my frequent (extended) work travels to Japan. Got one for myself at home when the bathroom was up for renovation. Now I am dreading any work trip to not-Japan because I'll have to shit like a barbarian for that time.

Oh, I have a similar story from my (unfortunately late) void:

Had a big chunk of pork, which I trimmed for the BBQ. All the cuttings (mostly fat) I put in a pad to render (?) the delicious lard. Somehow I forgot to put a lid on the pan while it cooled down, and the whole thing got forgotten in the mess the kitchen was after a nice Barbie and beers with friends. Next morning I woke up, thought "oh crap, the lard". Went downstairs, first susicious thing: cat nowhere to be seen. Pan on the stove was completely clean. As in straight from the dishwasher clean. The I saw the cat lolling around on the sofa, barely awake, and almost unresponsive. Even shaking his morning treats did not prompt him to come into the kitchen (which usually was the ritual). And then it dawned on me: the little rascal slurped about a whole pound of pork lard during the night from the pan. Did not eat for two days straight, but seemed happy as a clam.

Wherever he is now, I hope he gets all the lard he wants.

To be less hypothetical and more scary: Think about all the ancient pathogens that are dormant in the permafrost. Those could become a real problem when it starts to thaw because of global warming.

Der Optimist in mir sagt, "Na endlich fangen die an, sich selbst zu zerlegen". Der Pessimist kontert: "Jede rechtsstaatliche Aufarbeitung wird von denen als Hexenjagd instrumentalisiert werden, und es wird funktionieren.'

Whoosh indeed...

Is Lemiers really Holland, though?

...and with what devices? Currently, there's 11 GW of Electrolysis capacity available worldwide, with about 400 GW potentially realised by 2030. That's 0.07% now of the total production of 16 TW from fossils, increasing to a whopping 2.5% in 2030. And that does not take into account that energy markets will be competing with industry that uses hydrogen as a reduction agent (steel, for example) to replace fossils. It also does not take into account that hydrogen is not as easy to transport than other fossils.

Hydrogen might be the solution to the energy crisis, but for that we'd have to pick up our game immensely. Which will not happen if everyone thinks hydrogen is already freely and abundantly available.

!Remind me in 20 years

Wait. The OPA from expanse? There is some resemblance, but I'd say it more looks like a gamepad/emoji hybrid.

Scientist here, a lot of my job is writing texts with references to other literature of the field, or reviewing such texts (or PowerPoints). Main screen has the document open, the other is actually in portrait format and has gazillions of open pdfs on it that are relevant to whatever I'm working on. I had to get this setup for working from home because productivity dropped immensely with only one screen.

I've seen those in the US not too long ago, too.

This so much. I have a three days a week home Office deal, and I did Not, We, Fr for some time and it sucked. Monday I just could not find a proper start for the workday, which in the end translated to doing more work in the evening. Same on fridays, where I just did not find a proper cut to end the work day. So bad it even went into Saturday mornings. Now I do Tu-Th as home Office days, which works amazingly.

You're probably thinking of Tenet?

That's not how thermodynamics work. It's either transferring heat more efficiently, or not. But always the same, in both directions.