It's all about luck

 So this is the millionth article on the 'luck' of Earth being habitable. Yes. We get it. All of us have won the cosmic lottery of being born on a planet that is a) conducive to life, and b) hasn't had a gamma-ray burst targeted at it or a life-ending event like the Yellowstone caldera exploding or a million other events that could wipe-out life.

Yes. It's all luck. We are living on this heaven of a planet because for the last few million years nothing dramatic has happened to us.

But the dinosaurs would have a different view. Their world came to an end when the Earth was hit with something big enough to destroy the big species of that time and the little insignificant animals called mammals, these inconsequential animals suddenly became top dog.

Exactly the same that I am the son of a father that crossed the Atlantic Ocean dozens of times in World War 2 ship convoys and managed to escape alive unlike many thousands of his peers. The fact that some German U-boat captain decided to target some other ship besides my father's ship is the reason that I am here.

https://www.sciencealert.com/are-we-just-lucky-that-earth-has-stayed-habitable-for-billions-of-years

At the trial of God

 “At the trial of God, we will ask: why did you allow all this? / And the answer will be an echo: why did you allow all this?” ― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

The autistic and 'reading others'

One generalisation of the autistic is that they have trouble 'reading' others, ie. that they miss the facial gestures, voice inflections, body mannerisms, etc necessary to fully understand what this other person is really communicating. As the NTs are purported to be able to do.

But I think this is very inaccurate. What the issue is, I think, is that during conversations the autist can be primarily introspective; they are thinking about themselves, possibly past history/insecurities, and most probably, an unwillingness to even try.

And I think this can be unfair to oneself because some of the common attributes of an autist: single-mindedness, logical reasoning, out-of-the-box thinking could be invaluable in the reading of others.

So try this next time you have an important conversation with someone; turn your focus outward to use the full-range of your attributes to see if you can read this person and to see 'in-between the lines' as to what they are really communicating to you. I think it would be a interesting experiment for autists and it could lead to a greater understanding of not only others but yourself.

Money is free for the government

 "They didn’t have to finance the tax cuts. They just made a political decision. They can do the same with building an economy from the ground up. Healthcare as a right. Housing and education for all. The right to a job. And they can start with making sure no one is going hungry."

This is a post about the fact that the only legislative thing Trump did in his 4 years was to sign a tax-cut for the wealthy. And this poster is exactly right. The government has the ability to create debt in its own dollars. Well if it is in it's own dollars... is it really debt? No. How can a govt be indebted with its own dollars? It can't.

The only problem is inflation. By printing money our dollar may be increasingly worthless. But what happens if the govt borrows money for infrastructure, or science, or healthcare for the disabled? Do you think that the financial markets would have an issue with that? Not in your lifetime.

If I can take all of macro-economics into a single sentence I would say: money is free for the govt.