The list highlights four wonders.

That's idyllic Croatia!

I completely agree about the bills; visiting the US, my friends' cost of living has been disheartening as usual.

US hostels are $60 a night, the same price as a private apartment. doesn't make any sense.

really good article with a couple surprises in there.

"some people speculated that, because of the political pressure against it, its release must have been an act of resistance by someone within the IRS. But the open sourcing of the program was always part of the plan, and was required by a law called the SHARE IT Act. It happened “fully above board, which is honestly more of a feat!,” Given told 404 Media. “This has been in the works since last year.”

Vinton told 404 Media in a phone call that the open sourcing of Direct File “is just good government.”

“All code paid for by taxpayer dollars should be open source, available for comment, for feedback, for people to build on and for people in other agencies to replicate. It saves everyone money and it is our [taxpayers’] IP,” she said. “This is just good government and should absolutely be the standard that government technologists are held to.”"

i find this very satisfying: gently disagreeing with them via a short single positive message like "gay people do deserve respect", then letting them throw a very lengthy, time-invested tantrum before gently and completely disagreeing with their comment with another short sentence, over and over until they get tired.

i find that both very funny and I'm putting out positive messages that negate their bigotry without too much time or effort.

that's just if you have the time and inclination to engage, you aren't morally obligated to subject yourself to abusive behavior.

if it's real bad, they're probably violating a rule, and reporting them will get them banned

There are 200 countries and the US is one relatively small, isolated pocket hurting mostly themselves.

US problems benefit their rivals immensely and are influencing their former allies to become more independent and form new local alliances; there's no benefit to either to long jump into one isolated hornet's nest.

Sanctions are specifically difficult against the US because 1) they're largely hurting themselves, most countries don't agree the US is doing the wrong thing about Palestine/ foreign/other policy to warrant sanctions and 2) the US still has so much rapidly dwindling legacy political and financial/banking influence that sanctions won't make much of an immediate impact if an issue to sanction was agreed upon.

If your dog starts defecating on the floor and rolling around in it, you clean up your dog.

If your neighbor starts defecating on their floor and rolling around in it, well...

how to make a martyr

if anyone has any questions about getting out of the country, ask away.

I'm a long-term traveler.

only if the corporate citizen promises really hard we can trust them. like a super promise.

for any fluent English speakers out there, it's a very similar situation if you want to start teaching English abroad.

20-25 teaching hours a week, sign up bonuses, airfare reimbursement, at least a couple months of vacation per year, much lower cost of living in most countries, with maybe the field-specific benefit of thousands of job openings currently available.

Plus you get an adventure the whole time you're in another country, new experiences and new cultures.

Definitely why I never went back to the work culture in the US.

kelsiebru on IG?

i see this:

the US lost so many battles against corporate monopolies that now 4 companies own the majority of the US healthcare system.

i suggest medical care abroad if you'd like similar or better healthcare at a much lower price. travel offers much more than a vacation.

fascist top-down government that rules without checks and balances stripping away civil rights through exploitation of the vulnerable using fear-of-the-other propaganda and outright lies to further centralize its abusive, selfish control over society while a small dedicated decentralized band of civil rights activists fight the expanding power and influence of the dark side.

I just got to Panama City, buses are a flat $0.25 regardless of distance and the Metro is a flat $0.50 regardless of distance.

took the train for ~8 mi into town to get to my hotel for $0.50.

correct.

there's also the maybe more important scientific literature ban that is forcing scientists like those who make sure crops grow correctly in the US out of their jobs because they aren't able to talk about the gender of the seeds they are breeding.

or the physicists who can't talk about the "status" of the material they're using, because that word is banned.

countries don't want to buy American military equipment anymore because they rightly cannot trust the US, which is a huge loss of revenue.

the disastrous policies already enacted are going to economically and socially hobble the country for decades.

the scientist who goes to another country rather than the US to practice physics, agriculture, anthropology, anything, that's an entire career of innovation and scientific benefit lost to the US.

and those scientists are already avoiding the us, that's already happening.

the market numbers are the tip of the iceberg here.

at this point, visas are very easy to get in general, but Thailand is still one of the easiest and is one of the friendliest and most affordable countries around.

if you're a US citizen, you have visa-free travel in Thailand for 60 days.

if you need a visa, go to the evisa website, thaievisa.go.th, fill out the form, pay the fee, they'll email you the visa in a couple days.

I usually recommend Thailand or somewhere in Southeast Asia as a first destination. good food, great healthcare, cheap living, great people, beautiful environment, and they're very used to travelers so there are local and expat support systems nationwide.

another nice thing about Southeast asia is that there are tons of other friendly places close by.

it's about as easy to live there as anywhere else, but the support systems and the country being very used to travelers might make first time travelers more comfortable.

oh PS thailand has a lot a lot of really good all you can eat buffets for 3 to 10 dollars per person.

"Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement that Trump’s unsealing of the MLK assassination files was “not about transparency or justice.”

“It’s a desperate attempt to distract people from the firestorm engulfing Trump over the Epstein files and the public unraveling of his credibility among the Maga base,” he added"

"Francis Collins....got behind the effort to eradicate hepatitis C in the United States by 2030. The Biden administration allocated about $10 billion to achieve this. With the new administration [of Donald Trump], this is all gone.*

also, TIL there's a cure for Hep-C.

Hey, yup!

I've been traveling for 15 years in 30 countries and most people are very receptive to respectful American tourists, especially if you take an interest in the culture and learn the standard greeting. They love it if you like the food, which i am very good at!

Everyone asks where I'm from, and nobody is upset when I tell them the US.

In vietnam, they love it because they kicked our ass in the war.

I'm of the firm "no magic zombies" camp.

If the zombies aren't magic, they aren't going to last long, whichever form of zombie they are. Wait inside a few days, most of them should be dead or immobile.

If a zombie loses blood, they aren't going to keep walking, their muscles won't work without blood.

If you have a strong door, zombie arms will break before the door breaks.

Dehydration. Organisms need water to function at all, let alone move, and zombies aren't big on water fountains.

I see zombies as dangerous for a few days, with their senses failing so they can't track you effectively for the majority of the outbreak, then it's over.

Anything other than that scenario is a magical zombie, who can move without energy, function without a body, or unrealistically mutate.

I love zombie movies and comics, but for real real, no magic zombies.

update: I'm going to do a podcast episode about magical zombies now.