OBLIGATORY I'M NOT A DOCTOR DON'T TAKE THIS AS MEDICAL ADVICE FIRST.
Monster runs about 160-180 mg per can depending on variety. Coffee is about 80-120 per 8 oz cup, depending on the bean and roast.
A 400-500 mg dose of caffeine daily is considered safe for most people according to Wikipedia. So 2-3 Monsters a day for a heavy caffeine user isn't a crazy amount.
Now, when you look at Bing and Reign, which IIRC have around 350 mg per can, those numbers go up real fast, but you're still not going to get close to the approximately ten grams of caffeine needed for it to be a lethal dose, you'd puke long before you got that much liquid in your stomach.
Also, the physical effects of caffeine abate over time. Users build up a tolerance fairly quickly, and it gets to the point that the twitchiness, elevated BP, and higher heart rate aren't really present like they'd be for someone who doesn't consume a lot of it. Again, paraphrasing Wikipedia here. So a moderate user (say 1 - 2 Monsters or Red Bulls a day) probably isn't on the verge of an infarction at all times, as the media seems to enjoy impling.
It's mostly just soda pop with extra caffeine, and caffeine is bitter, so they jack up the sugar content to compensate. That's a bigger issue IMO.
But overall, there are likely millions, if not billions of people who down two or three energy drinks daily and don't drop dead. So while the caffeine numbers seem extreme, it's really the sugar, artificial sweetners, and probably unhealthy lifestyle that goes with being a chronic user that will cause the most damage over time.
Someone else may be able to come up with a more concise and better worded argument for it, but the way we've implemented private ownership/use of natural resources seems pretty shitty. Especially considering how many people have been screwed over and how much damage is often done in the process.
Owning something that existed long before people, and would have continued to exist if we've never evolved, seems suspect in general. While there's value in the labor involved in extracting or preparing these resources for use, the material itself wasn't created by anyone and should belong to everyone in some way.
A portion of the income derived from the exploitation of all natural resources should be redistributed as UBI.
Right now, I'm listening to three very talented young people writing original songs in my garage, who will, even if successful, put in significantly more work for significantly less recognition simply because I'm not JJ Abrams.
That's not a terrible price point, and I've been saving for more bike stuff anyway, cause I've still got the new hobby bug pretty bad. Until I saw your post I honestly didn't know this existed outside of something like a Peleton, and the app looks more entertaining than what they're offering.
This is definitely going on my list. The best thing I've done for myself in the last year was to get a bike for my health, but winter's making my rides rough and I'm bored after ten minutes on a stationary bike. It'll have to wait until after the holidays, but this might be the next good thing I do.
I have a 20 week streak going for exercise, both cycling and lifting weights, with 77 days total that I've exercised on. For the last 8 weeks, I've been active for at least 25 minutes every day of the week, even if it's just walking the dogs. My blood pressure is down an average of nine points and my pants are getting loose again.
Today was rough. It was a bit too cold and windy for good cycling, and the route I picked (because I thought it would be better protected from the wind) had a lot of hills. I only managed to ride 12 miles in the same amount of time it normally takes me to ride 15.
They literally believe that those things are part of a conspiracy to make and/or keep us sick for profit.
The arguments in favor of this take real examples of shady shit companies have done in the past and mix them with a healthy dose of the appeal to nature fallacy. It can sometimes be dressed up in scientific terms to make it seem more legitimate; e.g. Your body evolved to do this, so it's better to do it naturally. Or it can be a matter of faith.
Of course, they downplay the mountain of evidence regarding infant and maternal mortality that we've accumulated over the last couple of centuries.
It's a scam, and one that unfortunately will get a lot of innocent and well meaning mother's and their children killed.
If feel like more of them just realizing that they won't be the exception to the rule and only really care now that it's obvious they'll get the shit end of the stick just like everyone else.
For a great many MAGAs it is and always was about weaponizing a social and political movement to hurt people they don't like and now that it's hurting them, we're seeing clearly that their principles never aligned with what they espoused. It's always hypocrisy with them, they aren't willing to be tradwives and follow the ideals they claim to support, but they're happy to use the idea to attack feminism.
If they wind up being forced out of politics, I have no sympathy for them. It was so very apparent, going all the way back to the beginning of Gamergate, that this was the trajectory of the movement.
His primary qualification is that he was an officer (eventually reaching the rank of Major) in the Army National Guard, via ROTC, and volunteered to serve in Guantanamo and Iraq during the War on Terror.
I highly encourage people to compare and contrast his service record with that of Jim Mattis, or any other appointee to the same office in recent history, for additional context.
Look, if that plant hadn't approved of what those three were doing, it would have left the room long ago. By staying until the room was in fire, the plant showed it's true colors. That is a fascist plant, and I'm not saving it.
That episode of Black Mirror where everyone had to ride stationary bikes and were forced to watch unskippable ads if they didn't have credits, except everything you have to watch is AI slop instead of your crush doing porn.
Or the Handmaid's Tale, but instead of some mysterious infertility crisis, fertile women are rare because they die in pregnancy and childbirth due to anti-science rhetoric flat out killing them. (Look up "free birthing", etc.) At some point it gets bad enough that replacing your wife is more like getting a new pet.
Maybe the hot version of The Road. We just have wars over water and resources until the plantet's too fucked for human life, and the survivors are left roaming around making jerky out of each other until the end.
If memory serves, there might be an existing retention program available that offers a 25% increase in pay for three years, but I'm not sure if that's available to all federal workers or just certain agencies.
It's 100% possible to give most of them a one time "step" increase that amounts to a permanent 5-7% (ish) raise, which would net them significantly more over time.
Shit, I think if you pick the right job in the military, an 18 year old with a high school diploma can get $70,000 pre-tax if they sign a six year contract.
So yeah, ten grand pre-tax is a joke considering how vital and stressful ATC is.
Mostly, I enjoy target shooting as a hobby. Hunting is big in my area as both deer and feral hogs need to be culled.
I also feel there's a greater chance of widespread civil unrest than most people understand, and that folks in my area will likely have to defend themselves to some extent if it breaks out. For various reasons, the people who are most important to me aren't likely to be prepared for that, so I figure I should be ready to some extent.
The kind of person who does this to their car won't believe it's true, while simultaneously defending it as him doing nothing wrong because all the liberals say it's okay to do it, which also doesn't mean admitting Trump actually did it, because he didn't, and this is also proof that Dems did much worse things, even though it's not real and just a plot to destroy Trump and let Satan rule over the world.
TDS is a Swiss army tool for controlling what their base thinks and dealing with negative press. I don't know if it evolved organically or was created, but promoting the idea that anyone who says anything negative about Trump is hysterical, jealous, and irrationally hell-bent on destroying him has been insanely effective for them.
It's less about you and more about enabling nutcases like this guy to be complete and utter tools for what they think is a greater cause. You can already see it in use with the Epstein files along with their other grand slam propaganda tools.
Coke and Pepsi are both on there, Johnson and Johnson, and a few others... if you expand that to their affiliate brands and subsidiaries is a huge chunk of what's in your local grocery store even if they aren't on the list. Sheesh.
When I think of "middle aged family man", I think of a salaried employee or tradesman working a 40 hour work week, and supporting kids with the help of a spouse who's either a homemaker or earns additional income. Which mostly describes me.
You're comparing apples to oranges when it comes to lifestyles. I work occasional overtime and it always knocks my dick in the dirt for a week or so. All things considered, just surviving what you're describing is an achievement.
You're doing an amazing job and I hope you can find a situation that gives you more time off soon. You deserve it.
OBLIGATORY I'M NOT A DOCTOR DON'T TAKE THIS AS MEDICAL ADVICE FIRST.
Monster runs about 160-180 mg per can depending on variety. Coffee is about 80-120 per 8 oz cup, depending on the bean and roast.
A 400-500 mg dose of caffeine daily is considered safe for most people according to Wikipedia. So 2-3 Monsters a day for a heavy caffeine user isn't a crazy amount.
Now, when you look at Bing and Reign, which IIRC have around 350 mg per can, those numbers go up real fast, but you're still not going to get close to the approximately ten grams of caffeine needed for it to be a lethal dose, you'd puke long before you got that much liquid in your stomach.
Also, the physical effects of caffeine abate over time. Users build up a tolerance fairly quickly, and it gets to the point that the twitchiness, elevated BP, and higher heart rate aren't really present like they'd be for someone who doesn't consume a lot of it. Again, paraphrasing Wikipedia here. So a moderate user (say 1 - 2 Monsters or Red Bulls a day) probably isn't on the verge of an infarction at all times, as the media seems to enjoy impling.
It's mostly just soda pop with extra caffeine, and caffeine is bitter, so they jack up the sugar content to compensate. That's a bigger issue IMO.
But overall, there are likely millions, if not billions of people who down two or three energy drinks daily and don't drop dead. So while the caffeine numbers seem extreme, it's really the sugar, artificial sweetners, and probably unhealthy lifestyle that goes with being a chronic user that will cause the most damage over time.