the fisherman of halicarnassus

in 1900, john d. rockefeller controlled roughly 90% of all oil refineries in the united states. by some estimates, he was the richest private individual who ever lived.

he had a problem. scientists were discovering that compounds derived from coal tar, a byproduct of petroleum processing, could be used as synthetic medicines. aspirin derived from coal tar was commercialized by bayer in 1899. what rockefeller had previously treated as industrial waste could now be sold back to the public as medicine at profit margins approaching 10,000%.

he had another problem too. american medicine in 1900 was a competitive ecosystem of homeopaths, herbalists, naturopaths, osteopaths, midwives, and traditional doctors who used food, plants, water, and lifestyle as the primary tools of healing. nearly half of all american medical schools taught some form of natural or alternative medicine.

rockefeller invested heavily in the german pharmaceutical industry and eventually gained major interests connected to the ig farben consortium, which included bayer, basf, and hoechst. then a report was commissioned.

the report was written by abraham flexner, an educator with no medical degree. funded by the rockefeller and carnegie foundations, it was published in 1910. the report declared natural and alternative medicine schools to be unscientific quackery. it recommended shutting down more than half of all american medical schools and standardizing the remaining institutions around medicine based on synthetic patented drugs.

congress acted. within a decade, more than half of american medical schools were closed. the remaining schools accepted rockefeller and carnegie funding on the condition that they restructure their curricula around pharmaceutical treatment. nutrition was removed. herbal medicine was removed. lifestyle intervention was removed. the role of the doctor was redefined: diagnose the symptom, prescribe the drug.

the drugs were petroleum derived. the petroleum came from rockefeller controlled refineries. the medical schools were funded by rockefeller. the journals were funded by rockefeller. the american medical association was backed by rockefeller. hospitals were funded by rockefeller.

by 1925, the american medical system had effectively become a vertically integrated extension of the oil industry operating under the marketing slogan of “scientific medicine.”

this is the system that still exists today.

the pharmaceutical industry now generates around $1.5 trillion annually. although the united states makes up about 4% of the world’s population, it consumes roughly 50% of all pharmaceuticals produced globally.

the system was not designed to make people healthy. it was designed to manage symptoms in ways that create lifelong customers. a healthy patient is a lost customer. a managed patient taking pills every day for the rest of their life is recurring revenue.

the goal has always been to keep you profitable in that corridor between healthy and dead.

healthy enough to keep buying for as long as possible. not healthy enough to stop.

the doctor telling you to fix your metabolism by changing your diet is, from the system’s perspective, a defective product. the doctor prescribing statins, metformin, antidepressants, and lifelong blood pressure medication is functioning exactly as designed.

the system was designed by an oil baron who needed a market for the waste products of his refineries.

and more than a century after the flexner report, it still operates almost exactly the way it was intended to.

you are the customer.

the corridor is where you live.

fenerbahce got eliminated by benfica in the champions league qualifiers;

the manager went to benfica.

benfica got eliminated by real madrid in the champions league round of 16;

the manager is now on his way to real madrid.

and all of this happens within a single year.

the world's population declining is already something many people want. with limited resources, it could be a positive development for the future if there are fewer people to support.

on the other hand, the fact that birth rates are lower in developed countries while much higher in underdeveloped countries could end up pushing humanity backward in terms of overall progress and quality of life.

it's a painting so small in size that seeing it in person for the first time gives you that "meeting up with a girl you matched with online and finding out she's way shorter than expected" feeling. image

the live version, lasting at least six minutes, featured on elvis presley's 1970 las vegas-recorded album "that's the way it is," has somehow surpassed all other interpretations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1g5tVGZhfk

you explain in plain language what you want to do in your excel sheet, and it writes the formula for you. it currently supports excel, google sheets, and apple numbers. https://reviso.net/formula-generator

probably half of what you see on the internet, maybe even most of it… isn't real.

according to the theory, the internet effectively "died" after 2016. the vast majority of the content you see is produced by bots, ais, and corporate/state operations. the things real people write are either made invisible or drowned out by algorithms.

think about it:
– the same template comments are constantly recycled on twitter/x, instagram, tiktok, etc.
– news sites are exact copies of each other, same headlines, same sentences.
– forums and blogs have collapsed; independent content is almost nonexistent.
– posts from small accounts don't reach anyone, while big accounts and sponsored content are pushed to the front.
– the debates circulating on social media feel like they're part of a pre-written script.

who's behind all this? according to the theory, big tech companies (meta, google, x, etc.) and governments are working hand in hand. the goal is clear: shaping public opinion, psychological operations, and creating an artificial ecosystem driven entirely by money.

you might say "you're exaggerating," but no one knows the exact ratio of bot accounts. some say 15-20%, others say 70%. on top of that, chatgpt and its derivatives came out and turned the internet into an ai dumpster. it's now become impossible to tell which content is produced by an actual human.

personally, there's a massive gulf between the internet of the early 2010s and the internet today. people used to produce; today, algorithms and bots pump out content. is the internet still alive, or is it dead? in my opinion, it's pretty much become a zombie.

"there is one disadvantage to loneliness that is not as easy to recognize as the others. this disadvantage is that, due to constantly staying indoors, our bodies become so sensitive to external influences that we fall ill at the slightest draft. because of being perpetually withdrawn into our corner, our mental state becomes so sensitive that the most trivial events, words, and even mere gestures unsettle us, make us ill, or wound us. whereas someone who is constantly among crowds doesn't even take notice of these things."

so said arthur schopenhauer.

as someone who believes education should always start with love and that people who work alongside loving colleagues in the workplace will perform better in a more peaceful environment, i was glad to see that even though the devil still wears prada, she can no longer be as (d)evil as before, even if only out of necessity (and for show).

we owe this much, at least, to gen z. nobody puts up with employers/bosses/managers/teachers who treat them like dogs anymore. and anyone who does is now ostracized. if wokeness played a part in this, thanks to that too.

it didn't flow as smoothly as the first film. that might just be my shrinking attention span, i don't know, but the colors, the atmosphere, and the music were lovely. anne hathaway doesn't age.

even the most malignant people are forced to soften with age. meryl streep is a phenomenal actress. it was nice to witness the character grow older and lower her standards over the course of the film series.

working yourself into oblivion can seem appealing when you're young, but real life unfortunately isn't like that. just like the streets of new york…

fashion is murder. i couldn't bring myself to feel sorry that her magazines no longer sell, because i've never encountered genuine morality anywhere people are judged by their appearance and clothing.

america isn't really a capitalist country anymore. that’s ancient history. nowadays, it’s an oligarchy. every single industry is dominated by three to five major players who hold almost the entire market share. they just keep steamrolling ahead by gobbling up and absorbing any competitor that crosses their path.

laws have allowed this ever since the reagan era. the whole logic of "you can merge as long as you don't hike prices" has made these massive acquisitions possible. just look at disney buying fox, or the rumors about warner bros potentially getting scooped up by netflix or paramount.

microsoft was the one that really kicked off this trend. whenever a rival challenged their software, microsoft would either crush them with a copycat product or just buy them out outright. meta and google are doing the exact same thing—acquiring platforms like instagram, whatsapp, and youtube to keep their momentum. these companies have made hundreds of acquisitions like this. it’s basically "squashing the competition while it’s still small."

there's no way for america to break out of this oligarchic structure now. we're already down to just a handful of players in every sector. broadly speaking, more than half the u.s. economy runs on just 5 to 10 massive corporations. they control the entire infrastructure. as they grow, they don't just outpace their rivals; they outgrow the government itself. and that’s exactly the problem. nothing can stop a corporation that’s more powerful than the state.

modern america doesn't have a capitalist system that says, "let new rivals rise and competition thrive." it has a system that says, "five companies run the show, and everyone else just exists to feed them." this system is so entrenched now that even the government is powerless to change it.

as the name suggests, maladaptive daydreaming is more than just having an active imagination. it can cause someone to lose their social connections and feel disconnected from the world around them. if you are thinking, “i daydream all the time too, i make little music videos in my head,” then this probably is not what you imagine it to be.

people who experience maladaptive daydreaming do not drift into random fantasies every day. their inner worlds follow certain patterns. often they have several ongoing storylines in their minds, each with recurring characters. sometimes a character appears one way in one story and a little different in another. they form deep emotional connections to these imagined people, sometimes stronger than the bonds they have with real ones. there are also characters they dislike. it is not hard to guess that many people with this condition become talented storytellers or writers. it would also not be unreasonable to say that in severe cases, it can resemble schizophrenia.

it is a continuous process, something that does not really end. there is no known cure, but i do not even see it as an illness. to me, it is simply a state of being. when you learn to keep it under control and turn it into a kind of discipline, it can even be seen as a gift.

a roman emperor and philosopher once said,
“a person’s worth is measured by what they devote themselves to.”

first, a bit of motivation:
“if something external upsets you, the pain doesn’t come from the thing itself, it comes from the value you’ve placed on it. and you have the power to change that value at any moment.”

(see: god complex)

"ars longa, vita brevis" is a latin phrase meaning "art is long, life is short." the phrase is often attributed to the ancient greek physician hippocrates, although it is not found in any of his writings. the phrase is often interpreted as a reminder that the pursuit of one's craft or art takes a long time, but that life is short, and one should make the most of it while they can.

it is also interpreted as an encouragement to persist and to invest time in one's passion or vocation, even if it takes a long time to master it. it also implies that one should not give up on their passion and dreams, as the journey of pursuing them is worth it, even if the time is limited.

in general, the phrase is a reminder to appreciate the beauty and value of the creative process, and to make the most of the time we have in this world.

it is called the "flying wing" concept.

in other words, it is essentially one giant wing. not just any wing either, with a wingspan of 52 meters. from an aerodynamic perspective, it is a true engineering masterpiece. the surface is perfectly smooth, with not even the tiniest bump or seam, in order to maintain laminar airflow and stealth capability.

the fuselage is made of carbon composites. it is covered with radar-absorbing paint, special coatings that leave no magnetic signature, and exhaust diffusers that reduce infrared visibility. on radar, the aircraft practically shouts, "i am not here."

it can carry up to 18 tons of bombs, from gps-guided jdams to b61 nuclear bombs.

the cost per plane is 2.1 billion dollars. even if you park it on the ground, it requires constant, around-the-clock maintenance. and this is not ordinary maintenance. even the technicians who apply the coatings are not allowed to touch the surface without gloves. if you pour water on it, it would leave a mark. that is how sensitive it is.