People develop drinking problems for two reasons, they have a genetic predisposition to getting more reward from drinking and/or they have untreated trauma that they are medicating. In my family, my grandfathers war trauma was transferred to his kids, who then transferred it to their kids or dealt with the trauma and didn't.
For the genetic side, people often slide into it by culture/habit. For example, it starts with a drink with friends, then a few times a week with friends, then on your own and with friends, after a few years it turns into every night on your own, then a few each night, then you hide how much you are drinking from loved ones, until you (hopefully) realize that you might have a problem. Bill Barr talked about this last year in his standup, for a good example and an example of how you can get ahead of it if you are self-aware. Many people keep going and end up with the physical addiction.
The trauma side is why I think some people have a real hard time shaking the addiction, and tend to go back. The drinking can also cause you more trauma, making it harder.
I also think there is an education gap. People grow up eating processed food and don't learn to cook. People often try to cook, but online recipes are not really teaching you anything and are often far more work than they need to be or turn out bad, so people think or learn that cooking a meal takes a long time, is a lot of work, and doesn't taste as good. Cooking becomes the exception rather than the norm.
In reality you can have a piece of salmon, with a veggie and side in ~20m with 2m of prep and 2m of cleanup. An online recipe would have you cooking down a sauce, making a complicated side, and use some random ingredient that you need to buy for that one meal.
Food quality and options vary significantly with location in the US. In my city I have a Gucci market that gets super fresh veggies and fruit, along with imported cheeses, fish, very fresh meats, and other low processed food, but at a premium price point. There are also 2 other supermarkets to choose from. If you go an hour away there is one supermarket for the area that is "okay." Go to the next State over and the towns have 1/4 the fruit/veggie options and very limited meat options, all at a premium. The veggies are not fresh, no exotic fruits, and you might not find the cut of meat you are looking for.
In general, chefs, and anyone who works in the kitchen, are severally underpaid for the skill and amount of work the job takes. It's long hours in a hot, cramped, very high stress environment for peanuts. Not to mention the terrible hours. I have a very brief stint in the food industry when I was a kid and it was enough for me to say I would never do it as a career.
This is one of the reasons metal roofs a nice, they reflect heat and you don't need to paint them white, they make special paints for metal roofs that help reflect the heat and also look nice.
One issue is that they don't keep writers and show runners around. Each season gets new writers so any magic there was in season one of lost in season two. The tone is the same but you lose something when you bring on me people. The do this because of the lag between seasons and the fact that they don't hire on writers, but rather contract them on a per season basis.
I was literally just talking to a SPAC CEO last weekend that was in a deal with Goldman that got dropped by them. Apparently, there are regulations coming down from the SEC and Goldman didn't want to deal with them and/or the regulations changed the profit calculus.
As far as I understand it R is not a rate because it does not include time. Diseases that take on average a few days for you to pass on verses a few months will have different growth rates. For example, an STI might have an R factor of 3, but the rate is completely dependent on how often people have unprotected sex.
It's how battles have been won for thousands of years. The two army's approach each other and take minor casualties until one sides moral collapses, they break, and route. 90% of the deaths happened after the route.
I look at biology as the results of a billion years of tinkering (evolution) as apposed to an engineer sitting down and designing something from the ground up. DNA is like a massive code base that has been modified for billions of years with no documentation or refactoring. Tons of duplicate code, genes that depend on completely unrelated genes, tons of stale unused code to wade through. Scientists are trying solves bugs while working through a billion years of technical debt. On one hand we ended up with a amazingly reliable and efficient pumps in our chests. On the other hand we have backs that constantly break down and fail.
I'm sorry that your mother had to go through that. My partner is a neurologist and she hates having to give an ALS diagnosis. It fills her with dread when symptoms align with a possible ALS diagnosis. If she doesn't have a conclusion diagnosis she will sometimes not even suggest that something might be ALS because of the suicide risk. Personally, I think we will have a treatment for it in my lifetime.
There are many perks to living outside of the city. You can have twice the house for 1/3 the cost. It's much quieter. There are hobbies and activities that are only available outside of the city. Of course, if you are single, it's a terrible idea, but for married people or those in committed relationships, there are a lot of pluses to consider.
As an example, a friend lives in a 5 bed, 4 bath house and hour and a half out of the city. He has a woodshop, a workshop, fire pit, fireplace, man cave, 4 car garage, loves dirt biking, off-roading, cycling, fishing, flying his racing drone,and can play his drums as loud as he wants. He is also only an hour and a half from the city if he wants to go in for the day or weekend. He would be in a 2 bed, 1.5 bath condo if he lived in the city and wouldn't be able to do any of his hobbies; maybe the cycling.
> Mechanical watches are an emotional rather than rational technology, and hey if that's what you're into: mechanical watches and horse-drawn-buggies and gas lanterns then that's totally cool.
You could say the same thing about people who are into classic muscle cars. "Hey, if like driving around in a model T and braking down every 5 miles then that's totally cool." Everything is emotional. Does anyone really need a GPS synced watch that is accurate to the nanosecond? No, people want it because they think it's cool. Some people want mechanical watches because they think they are cool.
For the genetic side, people often slide into it by culture/habit. For example, it starts with a drink with friends, then a few times a week with friends, then on your own and with friends, after a few years it turns into every night on your own, then a few each night, then you hide how much you are drinking from loved ones, until you (hopefully) realize that you might have a problem. Bill Barr talked about this last year in his standup, for a good example and an example of how you can get ahead of it if you are self-aware. Many people keep going and end up with the physical addiction.
The trauma side is why I think some people have a real hard time shaking the addiction, and tend to go back. The drinking can also cause you more trauma, making it harder.