I started the same, as I was in high school the last time I read any (25 years ago!).

I’m reading them in order starting with The Colour of Magic. Just finished Mort, so I have a lot left to go!

Pretty awesome & rare occurrence! I’ll add it to my bucket list; but realistically I’ll never see this in person :P

I prefer to cook the egg omelette style so there’s no difference in consistency with the yolk; but your looks delicious too!

Two of my favorites are kind of tangential; but certainly involving atheism as a main theme:

Vampire Weekend “Unbelievers”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJd5EMB9im0

Death Cab For Cutie “I Will Follow You Into the Dark”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iV_1ESMHaI

Basically an Indian Dal, but with whatever beans you want instead of just lentils?

Black eyed peas I love “Texas Caviar” style. There’s a few variations, but basically saute peppers & onions plus whatever other aromatics you like (celery, carrots, garlic, etc…). Add beans, southwest-type spices, some oil and water / stock. Bake until tender.

One example: https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/food-cooking/recipes/a10902/hoppin-john/

Reading through the Wizard of Oz series with my kids. Currently on Jack Pumpkinhead. When I was young I only read the movie related books, reading more of the world is a fun experience to share with my kiddos.

Would recommend as a children’s book, but not something I’d read absent their influence.

Sign up window is already open! Need to wrap these discussions up so you’re not wasting more money trying to figure out refunds… Or having to change enrollment systems to accept requests after the current window so people can react to the decision on subsidies…

Eat more chili? It looks delicious!

That is … a lot of butter per slice of bread!

The guy that crashed an award ceremony and kept one of their trophies?

Context: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cp3e20kk0l2o

Or have one of her trusted friends or family members on standby when you do it. Someone who will show up right after and they can support her through an initial reaction. If there are no trusted friends, that’s another warning flag!

I hope I didn’t come across as joking. Bluey models probably the most wholesome parent-child relationships on television. Yes it’s acted out by cartoon dogs; but the scenarios hit home.

I’m a father of two; watching (and often emulating) Bluey has absolutely made me a better parent. It’s not all “go 100% with your kids all the time”; sometimes it’s “we have to stop playing so I can go to work” or “mom and dad are tired, let’s play a game where we don’t have to leave the couch” or “it seems we’re spending too much time watching TV or screens, how do we reconnect to the real world”. Yes, the irony of a TV show covering that last topic isn’t lost on me :P

Watch Bluey! It’s a kids show, but everyone should watch it.

Remember: Trump fired the head of BLS because he didn’t like the numbers in a jobs report. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg3xrrzdr0o

Did he get $250 million for being investigated? That’s the precedent now, right?

One of my favorite board games! I also highly recommend the marine expansion.

The better to smell you with my dear.

If quantity is the measure instead of quality: AI wins!

Repurposed joke: It’s able to make more mistakes faster than any other invention… with the possible exception of tequila and handguns.

After watching, I think this largely lines up with the impact of porn addiction being real and impactful, which I certainly don’t deny.

Likely the different emphasis is on the prevalence of internet porn addiction. He claims it’s more likely than gambling or other internet-related addictions; I wonder if that is consensus or if it’s maybe changed over time? From a societal level, I’m sure there’s more porn addiction than in the past (as he notes the availability, quality, and variety are significantly different than before the internet). But his talk implies a much larger scale than I would accept without validating the sources. From what I’m familiar with porn addiction isn’t much more or less prevalent than other internet related ones. Here’s one data point putting “cybersex” close to game addiction, but well below social media and smartphone: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35150965/ similar numbers here: https://virtual-addiction.com/technology-addiction-statistics-2024/ “Between 7 and 10% of people who watch online porn are addicted to it.”

Considering the data I’m familiar with: majority of people (in western societies) aren’t suffering the side effects of internet porn addiction and are still able to pursue typical life goals (finding a partner, marriage, children, etc). While we have seen some of these figures declining (marriage and having children). Or, these trends have been in place since before high speed internet (declining birthrates stem from the 60s in the US: https://datacommons.org/explore#q=birth+rate ). Marriage rates similarly declined well before the internet (and have stabilized in the past decade or so): https://www.bgsu.edu/ncfmr/resources/data/family-profiles/loo-marriage-rate-US-geographic-variation-2022-fp-23-23.html

Specifically he mentions ED as a kind of “ultimate” symptom… unfortunately I don’t see a good timeseries for ED prevalence; even across studies the estimates vary quite a bit, so I’m not sure there’s a standard measurement with a long enough history to use… that’d be an interesting metric to consider if it were available though!

I’d have to go back and check what other studies on porn use used for control groups; as this talk states “there is no control group”… I think that is inaccurate. Even if control groups aren’t available, we can still measure impacts without a control group if we can reliably track quantity in some manner. It need not be just abstinence versus usage to conduct a valid study; we can compare high, medium, and low volumes of usage. We know the volumes at which over consumption of water is harmful even though there are no people who abstain from it!

Thanks again for linking; it had a few other references & citations I’ll continue to pursue. I appreciate the different perspective on the topic!