Lots of actors never get into drugs, and lots of other people do anyway. We’re just more aware of the actors because they’re living under a spotlight. (They probably also get more attention because they contradict the stereotype of drug users being poor and unsuccessful.)

Also, plenty of actors do volunteering, charity, and activism too.

I guess it’ll be when the majority of the working population is Gen Z or younger.

It was a ritual of social inversion (a fool was crowned king, the ruling class was mocked and identities were concealed, religious and social rules were relaxed, etc.)

There are differing views, but one theory is that it served as a reminder to both lords and commoners that the social order could be overthrown if the lords became too oppressive.

Carnival.

From the wiki article on Public.Resource.Org:

Malamud called for increased awareness that Westlaw was a commercial broker of the United States Federal Reporter, Federal Supplement, and Federal Appendix. While Westlaw had been adding value to the content by indexing it with their proprietary West American Digest System and accompanying summaries, the purchase of their products was the only way to access much of the public domain material they hosted.

New Year’s is celebrated by everyone

More so than Christmas, perhaps—but you still have people with different calendars (Chinese, Jewish, Muslim, etc.).

“Feeding the trolls?”

Water Chestnuts are a fantastic substitute if you like the crunch.

Your opinion of celery vs water chestnuts is apparently the exact reverse of mine.

In the sense that the original organic material has been replaced by minerals? I guess that’s a version of the old Ship of Theseus question.

We could use one, and assume we’re operating in the field of complex numbers:

1 N = North
i N = West
i² N = South
i³ N = East.

And we could use the complex modulus to indicate distance or speed… or we could map the Riemann sphere onto the surface of the earth and use a single complex number to indicate location.

Many of the people electing the pope have hopes of becoming pope one day themselves, so they elect someone they expect to outlive.

Once we get good, universal real-time translation, we might start to see a new proliferation of local languages. And of small groups inventing their own cryptolects for privacy, trying to evolve them faster than AI can keep up.

Agnosia or asemia?

Before trains, sea travel was the standard way to travel long distances even if a land route was available. Sea voyages came to represent any destination that was far enough away that communities wouldn’t be in regular contact.

So 58% of districts are at or above median income, but only 24% of districts have more drivers than riders?

Could it be that both variables are closely correlated, and the latter is just sampling closer to the tail end of the distribution?

I don’t have any direct experience with that, and I can’t say if it’s a good or bad idea—but I’d say if you’re going to do it, it can’t hurt to do it with some friends and try to create some positive new experiences to overwrite the traumatic ones.

Yeah—Milton’s Paradise Lost seems closer to the modern conception.

I think that’s reversing cause and effect: the AI bubble is the result of the preexisting corporate practice of enshittification getting a new toy to play with.

Immediate civilizational collapse.

Additional weight makes it harder to accelerate, but once you’re up to a steady speed it doesn’t make much difference.

On the other hand, using your arms as counterweights makes it possible to transfer more force from your foot to the ground with each step.