Great article. It's always fun to read about smart people lionizing a terrible person like Aleister Crowley and inevitably going insane (or dead, in Jack Parson's case).

The article never discussed the topic directly, but for others interested in esoterica would probably enjoy reading about the concept of egregores.

Honestly at this point in my software career (~10 years), it's not evil per se, but I don't feel great about essentially existing to help rich people (VCs, PE, etc.) get richer. But I suppose that's a problem that isn't limited to IT.

From my understanding, unions require a vote from employees before being able to negotiate contracts with management. So if they want a few more people to come to a meeting, it's probably because they need a sense of whether they're gonna win that election and / or there is interest from more than a single employee.

Getting a union can be a long process, just to get to the bargaining table. Successful campaigns require a tireless dedication from at least one employee who wants to fight.

All worth it IMHO, and I'm heartened to hear about labor action for EMS staff. Best of luck in your efforts!

Same here, but apparently this isn't even an isolated example:

https://youtu.be/fiD24uEvY1U?si=kqH-ixnhSvc4S_HG

(Video about their colonialism and exploitative monetary policy in the Saheel / Africa).

First time I heard of this, super neat, thanks for sharing. Found a good article here:

https://builtin.com/data-science/voronoi-diagram

I can't comment on the state of the German system, but agree with everything you said otherwise.

One of the worst parts is that in the absence of critical thought by doctors, it feels like the only choice I have as an individual is to try and figure things out myself. But God forbid I actually mention thinking deeply about the issue to a doctor - I'm immediately labeled non-compliant / hypochondriac. You can't fucking win.

I'm going through a very similar thing except with blood clots and anticoagulants. I was in the hospital for 3 days for a pulmonary embolism, but the docs couldn't figure out why. Instead, they just put me on the blood thinners for life.

This is a big bummer because I have a pretty active lifestyle (cycling, caving, scuba) and being on the meds means I can't feel safe doing these things anymore.

I'm trying right now to talk to different doctors and see if there's a way to safely stop the meds but I'm fighting against their flow charts that simply say this is the reality from now on.

As you may know, this is the entire premise of fall of civilizations podcast, which also did a great episode on the Assyrians:

https://podcastaddict.com/fall-of-civilizations-podcast/episode/124415257

I haven't heard about Truth Social's plans, but that wouldn't surprise me.

I have however heard of this:

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/14/steve-mnuchin-tiktok-00146966

I've always heard it attributed (in a slightly different form) to Rahm Emmanuel, e.g. :

Never let a good crisis go to waste

Looks exactly like the British soldier demon dude from Netflix's Locke & Key.