BTW, are you trying to say US oil usage has dropped? I looked that up and it’s not what’s happening.

US oil production is not US oil usage.

Explain. Do you think the oil disappears or doesn’t affect climate because it’s not burned in the US? Why wouldn’t I hold US policymakers accountable for oil being produced under their watch, even if it is exported?

As for dips, then there was the 2008 great recession and covid which changed everything for a few years each.

Look at the chart. The decline started in the mid-80’s, and reached the bottom in 2005. By about 2001 it was the lowest since 1950. Years before the 2008 crash. You are right that the drop during Trump’s last year coincides with the onset of COVID, but it rises again as early as the summer of 2020. And continues unabated into Biden’s presidency and last year.

That running on an environmental policy was a losing proposition.

Obama was already elected into his 2nd term when oil production started climbing quicker than ever before at the end of 2012. Campaign strategy was over by then.

Nothing I’m seeing in the data suggests that Dems were meaningfully impeding/capping oil production. You may say it’s because the environment is a losing political proposition (and you may be right). But in doing so you’re just assigning a reason for the trends and timing that show dual-party responsibility.

4 years? Climate scientists have been warning the world about climate change for about half a century, and urgently for a few decades. Bill Nye specifically has videos going back at least 13 years.

Don’t just blame the 2017-2021 Trump presidency either for the current high, if that is what you mean by your “reworking the energy grid/vehicles in 4 years” argument. US oil production was at its lowest since about 1950 under Bush Jr. then climbed again dramatically through Obama’s 2 terms. Then the Biden presidency started after a year of “low” production (that was actually higher than anything pre-2017) before climbing again steeply during the last 4 years. This is a problem of both parties, and the worst of it has happened in the last 13 years of which 9 were under a Dem president.

“I hope this medal makes up for 2024 being the year of highest oil production in US history. Which happened in defiance of all the climate science you’ve been trying to tell us about. You know, as part of the years of science education this award honors.”

I disagree that “their humiliating defeat on November 5 was due largely to their undeniable role in the Israeli war and genocide in Gaza.” I definitely think it played a role and Dems would have won more voters with concrete promises to halt Israel’s genocide and enforce US laws like the Leahy Law. People are justifiably upset with Israel crossing lines without Biden enforcing consequences, and the huge amounts of money going to fund genocide as opposed to being used domestically.

Was it really THE major issue affecting votes though? IMO the more significant issues were things like a feeling of “more of the same” when people are struggling and focusing on trying to win “moderate” Republicans instead of motivating a base they thought was guaranteed. Still, it’s an article with valid points.

• Take time off from social media once in a while, or at least avoid doomscrolling all day. Bad stories generate FAR more engagement than good stories, and every form of media knows this. If 100,000 people in your area have an average-to-good day and 5 people have terrible days, all 5 stories presented to you will detail how things are in your area are terrible.

• Physical health affects mental health and vice versa. Eat healthy (or healthier). Stay hydrated. Get 7-9 hours of sleep regularly and use sleep hygeine. Get 90+ minutes of exercise (anything that raises your heartrate) a week which is like 15 minutes/day. Don’t worry about doing it all immediately - if you try to change everything at once you’re more likely to get overwhelmed and burn out. It’s way better to make slow, sustainable changes over months than it is to do a difficult crash course for a short time and get fed up with the process.

• Do thankfulness exercises. When I go to bed at night I think of 3 things I’m thankful for in the day. On average or bad days it may be that I wasn’t in constant/chronic pain, that I got to eat and drink, and that I’m in a safe place and a soft bed. Just remembering those basics (that many of us take for granted) helps keep me aware of good things in my life.

• Find ways to enjoy hobbies that require participation - arts, sports, board/video games, whatever. Just something other than passively taking in TV/online media. This will help you feel engaged and double points if it’s something that allows for improvement because you’ll feel rewarded as you get better.

Good luck getting ring-laden sweets away from invisible kids.

I’m surprised it’s that low. In the first several weeks alone Israel dropped hundreds of 2,000lb bombs. “The heavy munitions, mostly manufactured by the US, can cause high casualty events and can have a lethal fragmentation radius – an area of exposure to injury or death around the target – of up to 365 meters (about 1,198 feet), or the equivalent of 58 soccer fields in area.” That doesn’t even count all the other munitions used.

Worked through my obsessions a bit and let go of them. In the following weeks I asked three women out and got shot down each time instead of thinking about doing so for a month and being a creep.

Unironically, good on you. That’s character progress and it takes a lot of courage and self-confidence to accept rejection in a mature way and keep trying regardless. For what it’s worth I as an Internet stranger think we should help more people do the same sort of things.

Her name is [kept to myself because I’m a gentleman who doesn’t kiss and tell]. I hope I, in turn, am not someone’s most alarming thing but it’s possible :P

For a moment I thought it was Columbia University and was a little shocked by the reversal. After correcting myself: it’s good to hear another nation is drawing some lines in the sand regarding behavior. Rules of war should mean something.

Can I get a courtesy indictment?

I have previously wondered what scientists like Nile from the YouTube channels NileRed and NileBlue or Styropyro could do if they wanted to.

Nile is a chemist does things like turning plastic gloves into hot sauce or making super-reactive chemicals that really don’t want to exist. In some of his videos he’ll be making an intermediary chemical and say stuff along the lines of, “If I drop this we all die”.

Styropyro is legitimately like a mad scientist without the evil, and deals mainly with huge amounts of electricity and military-grade laser builds. He flat-out tells people that if they try to reproduce his experiments there’s a very good chance they’ll die or be seriously injured. In that military-grade laser video he burns a hole through a steel truck door from hundreds of feet away.

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”
― Epicurus

It’s one of my go-to arguments against intelligent design.

The footage of the premature baby born to a dead mother killed in a bombing, who then followed her into death moments later, was especially chilling. Can you imagine the outrage if that happened to someone from New York, or Britain, or Germany? But because they’re Palestinians the mother and newborn, both killed inside a “safe zone”, will be just a footnote.

There are no safe zones for Palestinians as far as Israel is concerned. Just in the last day Israel’s Finance Minister Smotrich has called for the “complete destruction” of Gaza and stopping peace talks with Hamas. "He said Israel needed to attack Rafah “as fast and as strongly as possible, and then continue with the strip until its complete destruction”.

Heat stress is estimated to have killed about 61,000 Europeans in 2022. If Western wealth and healthcare can’t keep up with increasing heat then these countries have no chance.

“Human calls lowered 3 octaves might be what dinosaurs actually sounded like. Haunting yet beautiful!”

Any peace deal that doesn’t involve Russia leaving behind all Ukrainian territory rewards Putin’s Russia for their invasion. IMO Russia should have to at least pull back to the borders that existed before the 2022 offensive. Of course I’m not in a position to make decisions if it’s a bitter pill that must be taken, but real gains for Russia will be proof that aggression worked.

Also, peace doesn’t need a specific broker. If an international effort including China, or even led by them, can broker a good deal then so be it. Maybe China’s relationship with Russia makes talks more likely to be productive. I can’t think of an explanation as to why a US-led deal with the same terms would be inherently better (that isn’t just nationalism/pride and much less important than halting war).