• 5 Posts
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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: August 9th, 2023

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  • For reference here are inflation rates YOY since 2017:

    2017 2.10%

    2018 1.90%

    2019 2.30%

    2020 1.40%

    2021 7.00%

    2022 6.50%

    2023 3.40%

    Just to make up for the last three years of inflation they would need +16.9% instantly. Assuming +2% inflation over those 4 years (which is the average but not right now) that means from 2020 to 2028 inflation rose 26.3% so if they started a +25% increase over 4 years this year, the workers would have the same spending power they had in 2020.

    Data is from the bureau of labor statistics




  • Most of his reform so far has focused more on making the current paths that existed more obtainable, ex: public service loan forgiveness. So he has made student loan forgiveness where you meet specific qualifications much better, which is very helpful, but not everyone qualifies.

    Blanket student loan forgiveness hasn’t happened, because it was successfully blocked by the Republicans (after like 4 attempts). I assume this is referring to blanket forgiveness.

    Could be wrong on all this, if anyone spots something incorrect just say it.


  • Kroxx@lemm.eetoLinux@lemmy.mlIs Linux As Good As We Think It Is?
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    11 days ago

    We’ve been having this discussion in the group I game/ play TTRPGs with. Like 7 of us total all windows, me and another switched to Linux, a third is a computational scientist who is forced to work with redhat frequently, and a fourth member was thinking of switching. After me and member 2 switched, member 4 saw that we had problems (entirely discord for me, all games have honestly worked so far) and changed his mind about switching because he doesn’t want to deal with stuff not working OOTB.

    I can’t fault people who want that, hell I do, Linux is well worth it to me but I will begrudgingly admit there are draw backs to Linux.




  • but you’re probably living in a bit of a bubble.

    That’s pretty fair and probably pretty accurate, what I will say is I live in a deeeeeep red state but most of my interactions are with post college gen Z so that almost certainly skewes it toward the left.

    A lot of men, across all age ranges, tend to lean fascist. There’s a lot of reasons for this, but the core problem is that progressive neoliberalism does a terrible job speaking to cis-het male anxieties, while fascism welcomes them with open arms

    Yeah I try to explain this to people who aren’t white males, it’s definitely a big issue. I didn’t mean to downplay this particular issue, and make no mistake I do view it as a major issue, but I do view this as a pretty fringe group % wise. Now that can definitely change very very rapidly but I personally haven’t seen it trend towards that yet, I would say the white male -> fascist pipeline started in the mid 2010’s and while it’s grown gen Z seems to ,as a whole, still be very very progress.

    Obviously this is all biased in my opinion and experiences which isn’t a good indicator of reality but I do hold this opinion until I see/read something which can change that.










  • Hey that’s a really good point lets see what scientific literature says about that:

    4.1. Evidence Considerations-To date, only sixteen studies have looked at actual health-related outcomes in dogs and cats fed vegan diets, as opposed to performing nutrient evaluations of diets. However, the majority of these studies utilized small sample sizes (ranging from 2–34 animals) for the direct investigation of outcomes. Whilst survey studies evaluating guardian-reported outcomes generally encompassed larger numbers of animals, these are subject to inherent biases due to participant selection, as well as the reliability of lay people making judgements around somewhat subjective concepts, such as health and body condition.

    It then goes on to say:

    The risk of bias assessment performed on the experimental trials suggests, at best, an unclear risk of bias across the studies. There were some particular aspects of poor performance (or reporting), especially around randomization and blinding. This has been reported previously in animal studies [42], where researchers have probably not taken on board some of these important facets of experimental design and reporting to the extent that human clinical researchers have [43,44]. This remains a major concern impeding reproducibility, and where internal validity of the study is impacted, also leads to wastage of animal and financial resources [42].

    Seems like the science backs your claim up partially. I would call it bias instead of lying though.

    Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9860667/





  • Kroxx@lemm.eetomemes@lemmy.worldI was only gone for a day or two...
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    15 days ago

    Did you actually read the article? Cause I did and here are some highlights from the article regarding felines specifically:

    Sample sizes are tiny

    3.2. Feline Studies-Meta-analysis was considered if more than one study presented the same outcome data. However, meta-analyses of these data were not possible due to (1) differences or lack of a comparison group, e.g., a meat-based diet comparator or (2) no presentation of a measure of central tendency or dispersion to input into the model.

    Hypokalemia is: a low level of potassium (K+) in the blood serum.[1] Mild low potassium does not typically cause symptoms.[3] Symptoms may include feeling tired, leg cramps, weakness, and constipation.[1] Low potassium also increases the risk of an abnormal heart rhythm, which is often too slow and can cause cardiac arrest

    3.2.1. Hematology/Biochemistry-Only three studies [27,29,30] have carried out hematological and/or biochemical analysis of blood in cats that were fed vegetarian diets, and it is worth noting that sample sizes were low. Cats on a high-protein vegetarian diet exhibited hypokalemia which accompanied recurrent polymyopathy [29]. There was also increased creatinine kinase activity, likely reflecting the muscle damage caused by the myopathy, and reduced urinary potassium concentrations.

    Myopathy is: a disease of the muscle[1] in which the muscle fibers do not function properly.

    3.2.3. Clinical Findings-In cats fed vegetarian diets that were supplemented with potassium, a myopathy was seen within 2 weeks of the dietary change [29]. This was characterized by ventroflexion of the head and the neck. The cats also showed lateral head resting, a stiff gait, muscular weakness, unsteadiness, and the occasional tremor of the head and pinnae… Weight loss and poor coat condition have also been observed in cats fed vegetarian diets [29,30]. However, most cats in another study had a normal coat condition and no obviously diet-related clinical abnormalities picked up by clinical examination [27]. Clinical signs of lethargy with altered mentation, dysorexia, and muscle wasting, along with gut signs of bloating and increased borborygmi have also been observed [30].

    These are guardian based reports which means there is significant bias from the owner to report positive effects and look over the negatives

    3.2.4. Guardian-Reported Health Effects-Guardians generally believed that the transition to a meat-free diet had been positive. These studies are valuable, as large sample sizes of respondents (animals) are generally employed. Some guardians did notice an increase in stool volume but noted no issues with consistency [27]. When considering other aspects, coat condition was shinier [27], there was an improved scent of their animals (particularly relating to breath odor) [27], there was a tendency to be at the ideal body condition score rather than being obese [28,31].

    This is about as close as you can get to justifying it , IF you fixate on ONE aspect and ignore everything else in the journal article:

    Dodd et al. (2021) [31] collected dietary information for 1026 cats, of whom 187 were fed vegan diets. The latter were more frequently reported by guardians to be in very good health. They had more ideal body condition scores and were less likely to suffer from gastrointestinal and hepatic disorders than cats that were fed meat. No health disorders were found to be more likely in cats that were fed vegan diets. The reported differences were statistically significant.

    So please explain to me how myopathy setting in and causing tremors after only two weeks of transitioning to a non meat based diet is good for cats?

    So for the record you are dead flat wrong by your own damn source because you didn’t read it or you ignored all the bad parts.