Like the easiest choice ever, I keep burning my fingers everywhere else yet Mint is the one I always come back to

So disappointed that no meteorologist said: “a meteor probably”.

Yeah I feel like an outlier in this post. I was engaged and dreamt big, like 2-5 kids, 2-4 dogs. So I bought a big house, which I am very fortunate to afford because I live in a rural mining area. So sitting with a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom, 2 living area, outside area by the pool, we call it a lapa, large kitchen with two separate washing areas, triple garage + area for additional 4 vehicles. The problem was she got knocked up by someone else unfortunately 6 months later, so I have a big ass house now. So I basically opened it up for people in need, this week I will have 4-5 people living with me, an abused mother with her mother to support her during the trail, hectic what some men are capable of, next week it will be about two, basically a long-term room mate, she started out as a temp but really helps in the household looking after my dogs, so it is a win win for me, and another guy that got fired and just needs a couch for a couple of days.

Also 4 dogs, 3 adopted and one was my own.

But god I miss my small 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom flat. Sounds weird but that is all I needed except a garage which it did not have, I love working and maintaining my vehicles myself.

But I am keeping my house since property prices went crazy this last year-ish, it is now cheaper paying my bond than renting a 1 bedroom flat plus nowhere for my furry dogs. Plus if I do get my family one day, they will have an awesome house

Ok it is your choice fully, and is in my opinion a good choice, but as a non American I thought of this funny hypothetical question.

So even during the first civil war you were against the Republican party?

Agree, but there are many flavours of it. For example we began the discussion on how Mexico extended their democracy to now include the judicial branch of government, others can be how they vote, for example electoral college in USA, ranked choice voting in some European countries like France or my country, South Africa, we have proportional representation and cannot even vote for our president

This example was exactly the issue Socrates had with democracy actually, saying that a demagogue would be elected as a president or leaders of government the majority of the time. His solution was just as vague, so let’s just say there is no perfect system yet. All have their benefits and drawbacks.

Look it is messy, my feeling is you vote or don’t vote for a party based on their policy and track record, but after elections they have the will of the people to act, so they should then focus on the technical issues of government by being guided by their election promises, policy and the country’s constitution to ensure that minorities aren’t discriminated against for example.

My opinion is, not based on Mexico, that the public is uninformed in the majority of decisions. Basically delegating power to the common person, especially technical decisions to the public will mean the most popular choice will win mostly, not the best choice. That is basically populism in a nutshell. Imagine you had to choose in this example a food policymaker, the one is the charismatic Willy Wonka that will say he wants everyone to eat sweets all the time, he wants you to eat whatever you want to eat, give you choices by subsidising all the sweets, worse he will attack Dr. Grouch, because he wants to tell you what to eat, force additional taxes on sweets to try and guide people to eat more gross vegetables, in fact basically force you, the poorest to have no choice but to eat these “healthy” foods. And unfortunately Dr. Grouch will agree, he wants you to eat "healthy food because in a couple of years you and your children will reap the benefits.

I think it is the crash of Tesla, its evaluation is based on being a silicon tech startup, not as an automobile company. So when the shares finally fall in line with other car manufacturers valuation, shit is going to hit the fan. And I think he knows he needs a government bailout and sanctions on foreign EVs specifically to price the competition out of the market. His entire empire is basically being propped up by the Tesla share price. He needs to go all in, it is survival mode for him right now

It’s worse than that, everything oil is set up like a domino mexican standoff. If the oil terminal from Iran gets destroyed, basically they destroy the other’s oil infrastructure that is very vulnerable, and basically then there is not nearly enough oil globally and then the gears running the world infrastructure starts breaking down. Will be a climate activist’s wet dream since up to 20% of global oil stops trading

Well America and the EU are probably Ukraine’s biggest backers, economically and military aid wise. Thus we have a proxy war again and it is East vs West.

It’s sad that we don’t have great White Sharks anymore

If you want to look at a country that solved their power problem with solar, I heard that is exactly what Vietnam did by incentivising the private generation of power, basically buying extra power from people’s solar. But do your own research, not entirely sure of the whole story

Bullshit, South African here. Yes solar has helped, mostly the affluent who can afford to install their own private home/business solar power.

But The huge problem what caused it was the ANC, which in May lost its majority in the elections for the first time since 1994.

The state run power company, Eskom, had been run into the ground by the ANC due to corruption and incompetence. In 1997 a white paper showed there would not be enough power by 2007. The only two power stations they build, the two largest in the world if I am not incorrect has been the subject of the state capture commission due to corruption.

In 2024 when it became clear they might lose majority, they exempted themselves from a government policy, which affects all medium to large businesses, which mandated they had to procure anything like maintenance or supplies through a BEE (black economic empowerment) partner. The idea is good but has been abused as rent seeking by the politically connected. So now they are exempt and the OEMs can directly work to fix and maintain the power stations.

Funny due to the loadshedding, or rolling blackouts, we did not have enough power stations working, and as far as I know we were one, if not the only country reaching our Paris accords targets.

But solar power is here to stay, heck even I want it on my own place, due to the cost of electricity becoming unaffordable, if you take a 10 year loan on a solar system, the cost savings will pay of the system itself. This has led to the affluent that can afford high tariffs prices from Eskom switch to Solar, saving them money, but they were used to subsidise electricity prices for the poor. So now the poor must pay more for electricity.

The government did finally approve the independent power producers bill, finally allowing people other than government to produce electricity, and solar looks like a solid option, since we have lots of Sun and the falling prices. So government is loosing grip on the generation market, allowing the free market to make changes.

But I will say it has been so nice to have had uninterrupted power when I come home, not needing to throw out my freezer food, having a hot shower, being able to prepare food on a hot stove under lights instead of a braai/BBQ.

I wasn’t ready for the post picture, nor the first picture of the article.

The Four Seasons Landscaping Company was one of the greatest comedic gifts the universe has ever bestowed upon us. Glad to see they are still capitalising on the strongman

Imagine Kennedy being his VP, would be the winning ticket in my mind

Also Ai is your friend in interpreting and summarising the paper, but be careful it isn’t perfect

I would add to this libmaps, great resource to put the title of your document and it maps the paper, from where it is cited to whom cites the paper that has more up to date research. Then if the paper isn’t available use my friend above’s method to access the papers