It's not just regular government unions that are scammy.

The United Nations also has unions of their workers. They're just as bad. It's just about preserving their jobs and increasing their pay.

I worked for one of the UN organizations decades ago. I used to be idealistic about that kind of organization, but no more.

At the time I was there, there had been an upheaval about how inefficient the UN was, they had brought in consultants to try to consolidate. But the union was just not having it.

The union's point was that something like 90% of the costs of the UN were from employees, and if there were going to be big cutbacks, that means they were going to come from reducing the number of employees, and they just weren't going to allow that to happen.

Yeah, that's me. I used to read tons of books (first paper, then ebooks on a device).

Now I'm more into short-form content, on the web. I don't think that's a change for the better.

Yeah, it does feel a little lonely. And I'm positive I've made enough mistakes that anyone well-resourced could figure things out.

Why do candies expand so much in a freezer dryer?

Also, about freeze-drying meat - what specifically are you able to successfully freeze dry?

A friend of mine had dental insurance. He went to a new dentist, who told him that he had a bunch of cavities - like 7 or something.

Instead of fixing them all at once, or at least in one or two batches, the dentist had him come 7 separate times. That way the dental insurance could be billed for the absolute maximum possible.

I also doubt that he had all the cavities that the dentist claimed.

Another story - I went to my dentist for a regular checkup (back before I was cynical enough). She said that I needed a root canal. I said, "Oh, that's the tooth you just put a filling in last year, right?" The dentist checks her records, and says, "Oh, right. You don't need a root canal". That was decades ago, and that tooth hasn't bothered me. So, clearly, she would have given me a root canal, just to benefit her bottom line.

I think the MAJORITY of dentist are scam artists.

For occasionally youtube usage, just go to yewtu.be. It's Youtube without the tracking and ads, you can just post a youtube link in yewtu.be and it'll take you right to it.

I have youtube blocked on my main device, to avoid wasting time, so I use yewtu.be.

It's unreliable enough (youtube is trying to shut it down) that it's a bit of a hassle to get videos this way. This is fine by me - I don't want to be watching videos a lot, anyway.

Doctors.

Constantly pushing unnecessary and potentially harmful procedures and pills.

I definitely used to be a "standard" healthy diet advocate, in other words limited animal products and animal fats, lots of fruits and veggies and whole grains.

It's a much healthier diet than the standard American diet, but the difference between then and now (after going carnivore) , in terms of my health, is profound. I'm never going back.

I guess it depends on what you like to eat. It's tougher when you eat carnivore, that's why I put together my little cooking kit.

If you have electricity and water, then you have the ability to cook. I wrote this post on cooking in a hotel with a tiny cooker:

Having a hotel fridge is nice, but lots of things stay good without a fridge. Or if there's no fridge, get a cooler and just refill the ice.

Scrambled eggs (with cheese, with sour cream, etc) are great. Eggs (contrary to common knowledge) do NOT need to be refrigerated if you're not keeping them for a long time. In European groceries, they're just on the shelf.

I've also made ground beef, with various spices, in this little cooker. It turns out delicious.

Cool! Very nice.

On your page, once you click on an image, looks like you can't go back to the main page?

A relative of mine and I went through a big jar of her old coins last week, looking for pre 1964 dimes, which still had silver and are now worth around $3, just for the silver. It was quite a process, to go through them in bulk. Kind of like treasure hunting.

Sadly, we had no luck. We started out with that treasure hunting enthusiasm, but nothing.

I've heard and read numerous stories of how people who owned retail stores, back in the 60's, actively went through all their dimes and saved off the silver ones before giving the money to a bank. I guess that's what's happened. Probably banks had some kind of silver detecting machine they used, to segregate out the silver dimes.

(though that's illegal, right?)

Would love to hear more about your coin collecting. Coins are so fascinating, such little nuggets of history and emotion and longing.

What's a sigint thinclient?

I'd love to know more about that specific event - people getting ads for thing that they were just talking about. I hear people saying the same thing quite a bit.

I'm inclined to think that they perhaps ARE listening to you, specifically targeting terms that could be served up in an ad, and then actually serving up the ad.

But are they also just searching online for these potential ad targets, and then of course they're going to be served up the ad?

Anyone have some evidence, for or against this?

Also - I feel like Bitcoin and Carnivore are some of the most important, and NON OBVIOUS "discoveries" of my life, in terms of how much they improve it. But both of them are actively propagandized AGAINST.

That's why I talk about it so much. They're not obvious. People mostly believe the exact opposite.

It's as though you meet a starving person, but you're right next to a river with lots of fish that are easy to catch. Not telling them how to fish would feel like you're doing something evil.

I've definitely been accused by my nearest and dearest of being in a cult. First Bitcoin, then Carnivore.

Once I get got interested, I was just so fascinated that I couldn't stop talking about it.

Dang, you're quite the chef!

Money in historical context - money printing in the past (even Gengis Khan in China!), money printing throughout history, how it always happens, and it's happening now. How SCARICITY is the one thing that freely chosen money has always had.

Anyway...historical references work well for me. Now sure about others...