NeuronautML

It's fine if you're careful. I never got Lasik because you can only get it once and it only lasts 10-15 years until your eyesight degrades again. Then it's back to glasses or contacts. Especially after 45-50 when it really goes downhill.

I skipped Lasik because my yearly contacts cost is 120 €, which over 15 years would net me 1800€. Lasik was quoted to me at 5000 € for both eyes. You could be a statistical fortuity and it lasts more than 15 years, but considering you get used to something it's not permanent and have to change back i figured might as well stick with lenses.

There's also orthokerathology, which is some rigid contacts you use only when sleeping that shape your eyes for up to 48 hours so you see well. They're more expensive than contacts, cheaper than lasik and much safer because you only sleep with them. Alas, i can't wear those because my astigmatism is too high for current technology, but i hear they're getting better with it.

FYI if you use contacts (from https://www.allaboutvision.com/contacts/acanthamoeba-keratitis.htm with some extra tidbits from other websites i found while getting informed about this)

Never use tap water with your contact lenses. The FDA has recommended that contact lenses should not be exposed to water of any kind.

Do not swim, shower or use a hot tub while wearing contacts. If you do decide to wear your lenses while swimming, wear airtight swim goggles over them.

Soak your lenses in fresh disinfecting solution every night. Don’t use a wetting solution or saline solution that isn’t intended for disinfection.

Always wash your hands before handling your lenses.

Always clean your contacts immediately upon removal (unless you are wearing disposable contact lenses that are replaced daily). To clean your lenses, rub the lenses under a stream of multipurpose solution – even if using a “no-rub” solution – and store them in a clean case filled with fresh (not “topped off”) multipurpose or disinfecting solution.

Wash your case with solution and not tap water.

Replace your case at least once every 3 months with a new one.

And if you do get a red eye with a burning sensation and blurry vision that does not go away and you use contacts, do remind your doctor that you're specifically worried about acanthamoeba and would like to make sure that you're not at risk, as this woman visited several ophthalmologists every 2 days and not one of them thought about it. The treatment was eye drops. Now she is blind and needs a transplant.

This one time in university i was in a train back home. Cute girl is sitting next to me and i had some reading to do for calculus so i open up the chapter and make some headway on my work as the trip was going to be 3 hours.

I overhear her conversation on the phone. She says she's going to my hometown and she doesn't know where X place is. X place is super popular. When her conversation ends i say, sorry for overhearing your conversation but if you need help getting to X i can give you directions. She asks me to give her directions i do and she thanks me.

She starts asking me some questions about my home town and i tell her. Then I'm like, ok I guess she's done and go back to reading. She tries once more to ask questions about my calculus book. I'm wondering why is she so into calculus. The conversation fizzles out and we sit quietly for the remainder of the trip.

The neuron that was supposed to fire to warn me of being hit on fires when I'm hailing a cab at my destination. I still think about how i totally missed it and she was really cute. I guess it wasn't calculus that she was into...

And it's been greatly eroded recently when the powers that be determined some genocides are ok and others are not. A long-standing pattern of selective rules application, ranging from matters of nuclear disarmament, trade sanctions on places for no reason, land seizure for military bases with no permission and indigenous displacement, land seizure for colonization, indiscriminate civilian murder, detention and torture with no trial or accusation, sex crimes against civilians, application of tactics of terrorism and so on.

On the other side, indiscriminate land grab invasions, war crimes, sexual crimes on civilians including children, concentration camps, destruction of civilian infrastructure, genocide and so on.

It feels nobody really needs to follow any rules anymore. Everybody is violating international laws and the conventions that separate us from the worst of the worst evil and it's disheartening. It's whoever is the strongest does whatever they feel like with impunity, mostly, and everyone else just shrugs along. We absolutely suck as an intelligent sapient species at a global level and it's a shame to be what we have become.

Here we go again with Biden investigating and questioning.

I'm sure the outcome of this questioning will be the same as in the previous dozens of times.

Also, those people who go and buy properties in Southern Europe are often older and don't learn the local language or integrate at all. Instead, they create segregated communities with their own English speaking cafés and restaurants that disrupt the normal fabric of the country.

It is that, but it's not just that. Whole regions are becoming so dedicated to tourism that investment is going to little else, which doesn't really create a lot of well paying jobs for the young people. In fact, tourism only pays well to business owners. For everyone else, it's an incredibly precarious job where you make money sometimes and other times you don't. Even when you do, tourism is considered unskilled labor for teens and young adults without degrees, mostly. It's a major cause of low fertility, I'd wager, since poor young people make no kids.

Everything becomes a sort of resort, with businesses catering mostly to tourists, with business owners feeling even apathetic about serving locals, as they pay less and don't tip. The same is happening in several regions in southern Portugal. A resortification, if you will, of entire regions.

It's like the whole world designated that country as a holiday country because of the weather and beauty, but the locals also want high paying tech jobs and factories. The government is making too much bank to change it and business owners are making a lot of pressure not to.

Americans better get ready to open up their money bags. This upcoming war ain't paying itself either.

Money printer goes brrrrrr. How many simultaneous Israeli fronts can the US taxpayer support ? Let's find out.

Man, some days i just feel second-hand embarrassment for Germany. Get it together guys, goddamn. Germany has been in a pretty sad state of affairs for so long lately.

I'd wager that the investment of paltry sums compared to the cost of raising a child while public preschools are filled to the brim and there's a lack of teachers and affordable after school facilities for parents to leave their kids probably has something to do with it. Luxemburg, for instance, is one of the wealthiest countries in Europe and parents there have to register kids for preschool when they're born to even get a chance at a spot.

I mean, sure, there's tax breaks for parents and if you're lucky, something like 200€ per child per month, depending on the country. That's ridiculously low. Salaries keep stagnating, the cost of living keeps increasing, and young adults basically have to work several internships for free to even get a chance at landing a half decent job and afford a one bedroom apartment. Meanwhile, the pandemic saw the richest people get even richer with their tax rebates and deductions upon rebates and deductions.

This is an economic issue, i believe, rooted in the progressive increase of wealth inequality in our society. It's just that the help being provided to parents is nowhere near enough. I want to be a dad, but i can't while wealth keeps being redistributed to millionaires while we get, what, a miniscule tax rebate and maybe a couple dozens to hundreds euros to afford ever skyrocketing rents anywhere there's a half decent paying job? This isn't the industrial ages where if half your kids didn't go to school, it's fine. The population will decrease until salaries that are in line with supporting children in a developed country start being a reality to the majority of the population.

And that Kurzgesagt video says young people prefer to travel and live life. Man, i wish i was traveling and going to concerts. I barely go anywhere since the pandemic and i have nowhere near the wealth required to even move to a 2 bedroom apartment, furnish a baby room and buy all the required knick knacks to raise a newborn child and i have a pretty decent income.