I just got a high priority request to write a couple of VBA macros to fetch data from a database then use it to make a bunch of API queries. I know VBA about as well as I know Chinese or Icelandic. I figured out the query and told Chat GPT to use it in a macro. It wrote all the VBA code. I went through a few rounds of "fix this bug, add this feature" and now my client is happy and I didn't have to think much about VBA. I knew what and how to ask it for what I wanted and it saved me days of searching google and reading about VBA. That's high value to me because I don't care about VBA and don't really want to know how to use it.

Buddhism has no prescription for physical pain. There's no 'ending bodily pain' type of meditation that I'm aware of. There are some more advanced types of meditation where you stop feeling bodily sensations, but that only lasts while you are doing the meditation. Apparently the Buddha himself suffered back pain after his own awakening. There are prominent present day Buddhist monastics dealing with pain every day. But the Buddha taught that the physical pain is only part of the story. What we do with the pain in our own minds can make it a source of anguish or not. A complete answer would deserve more than a comment on lemmy. But it would probably point toward how claiming the pain as me or mine just makes it worse. And how learning to observe it as a thing that's happening but it isn't me leads toward a more peaceful relationship with it. Getting there would take time and effort, but it is a thing that you can learn about.

That seems tautological?

It would be if there weren't competing explanations. But in the Buddha's time there were many different teachings on the causes of suffering to choose from. Some taught that your fate was written in the stars and you had no control. Some taught that karma was a substance that stuck to your soul and you had to burn it off with austerities. Some taught life had no meaning and everything about you was annihilated at death, so be a hedonist. Etc., etc. The main message the Buddha taught was your actions matter. You are in control of your fate. The suffering you experience is the result of your own choices, intentions and actions, and because of that you can make different choices and end your suffering. The four noble truths are just a condensed version of that idea.

It's important to realize karma and rebirth was also an important part of that teaching. So, yeah, sometimes the suffering in one lifetime can be caused by actions in a previous one. But, again, what's really important is how you respond to it. Will you turn it into a drive to find a better understanding of self and impermanence, or will you let it make you bitter and angry?

Looking at the Community rules, I don't see 'no Buddhism' so let's go

1. life is suffering
2. Suffering comes from attachment, craving, and ignorance, particularly craving for things that are impermanent
3. Suffering can be overcome by eliminating the causes of suffering, specifically by extinguishing craving and attachment
4. There's a whole step by step program for doing that which they say leads to the end of suffering

I've been working this program for a while and it seems pretty effective. I started with the question "what do you do when you want something you know you just can't have?" The only real answer I could come up with was to let go of wanting it. That led down the rabbit hole and now I'm typing out the four noble truths on a lemmy memes community.

To be honest, though, it's probably the most difficult task I've ever set out to achieve. So, yeah, there's no easy fix.

I read this as a call to action for the people Musk/Trump are ordering around. If everyone just said "no, I won't to do what you tell me" then we might avoid the collapse of the government/economy/country.

For most games I'd agree with you. But when it comes to Kojima, I don't think it really matters. I finished the first game and, aside from delivering packages, I'd have trouble explaining what it is about. After watching the trailer for DS2 I'm thinking "okay, that's even weirder, I recognize those faces, babies again I guess, and he's still delivering packages it seems."

Well, things would exist whether you're in a capitalist economic system or not. People would make music and label their genre. People would write books and want to sell them. The real difference is who gets the profits.

What do you think of the police response to the Uvalde school shooting? Was it justified for them to stand around and wait while Salvador Ramos was killing other students inside? Maybe they should have just asked him nicely to stop? What about Steven Paddock in Las Vegas? Or Omar Mateen in Orlando? Would you have stood by and watched while they were shooting people? Would you have thought "I can't know how this will turn out so I'm going to let them continue." Or, assuming it's the only way to stop them, would you have killed them to save a large number of innocent lives?

To make it even more clear, Omar Mateen started the trolley rolling. Would you pull the track switch so it runs over Omar Mateen? Or would you stand by and watch as it runs over 50 innocent people?

This is a hypothetical question unrelated to whether you could do anything about it with a 'death note' book. I'm just curious to hear your thoughts.

And just so you know, you can make your point without insulting someone.

Maybe if you used "electrocuted by a bolt of lightning" or "turned into a pillar of salt" or some other widely recognized form of divine retribution. That may be enough to distract investigators and throw them off your scent. But if not you are just revealing information that will lead the investigators right to you.

Kira/Light was thinking small. Targeting criminals already in jail is just vengeance. With a death note you have the power to reshape global politics and even all of society. Psychopaths/sociopaths often rise to top positions in business and government because they are good at deception, ruthless, and can shield themselves from the consequences of their actions. And from there their capacity to do harm to others can be immense. Luigi not only understood this, he had the courage of his convictions.

Heh, maybe I'd give the death note to Luigi.

A lot of people in the comments here are taking the high ground. "I wouldn't use it. I'm not a killer. I'm better than that."

But by not using it you are even more of a killer. This is a trolley problem. If you pull the right switch one evil psychopathic murderer dies, if you don't pull the switch thousands of their innocent victims die. If you have the power to make that decision then the responsibility for the deaths falls on your shoulders, whether it's one death or thousands.

So yeah, I'd use it. I'd start at the top of the psychopathic killer list and move down. I doubt I'd have to wonder when to stop. There are so many. But once they got the message I'd be more moderate and only use it when necessary.

Workpro multitool often dips below $20.

The Cool Tools review on it is pretty good.

There are two kinds of true, and thus two kinds of 'real'. There's the kind where what you believe matters and the kind where it doesn't. Gravity is the second kind. Step off the top of a building and it doesn't matter if you believe in gravity, you're going to fall. Politics is the first kind. If everyone believes I'm the king of North America, well, then that's the truth. It's reality. Likewise if everyone in the government believes that Elon Musk can fire whoever he wants, then he can, because everyone will just go along with it.

So what is it? Phospate Removal Material doesn't tell me much. Is it activated charcoal? Ground peanut shells? I need to know.

A paper on the topic reports that

Several adsorbents have been used for phosphate removal from water. They include; aluminium-modified biochar (Yin et al. 2018), aluminium-doped magnetic nanoparticles (Xu et al. 2017), laterite soils, and black cotton soil (Reddy et al. 2020).

Sounds like it's time for a municipal broadband solution. If AT&T doesn't want the business, fine. Let's not force them to take our money.

It isn't right you need an extension for it, but here we are. Don't F*** With Paste

Sorry to reference an old reddit post, but this reminds me of Today you, tomorrow me.

Hah, we had a TV with one of those when I was a little kid. I remember the TV would sometimes hear just the right tone from its own speaker and change the channel. The buttons on the remote did have a very satisfying click, though.

I've accepted collapse as inevitable and have spent many years watching it happen. The system isn't rational. It treats humans as exploitable disposable resources. It treats the natural systems we depend on for our lives as exploitable resources to be used up and converted into numbers in a bank account. It concentrates power and influence in the hands of those who want nothing more than to maintain the system that benefits them and nobody else. The system will collapse in the same way that the last cinders of a house collapse after it has burned down. We have enjoyed many thousands of years of stable climate but the holocene is coming to an end. Globalism is coming to and end, because most places on the globe will soon be uninhabitable. And it's entirely the fault of capitalism, or perhaps the selfishness and psychopathy that brings about systems like capitalism. And there is no escape. The best you can hope for is to disentangle yourself from it as much as possible so you don't get so burned in the collapse. For years I've been trying to reduce external dependencies, grow my own food, pay off debts, mortgage, haven't bought a new car for twenty years. I don't know exactly what I'm preparing for, but I expect it to be unpleasant. It's become a mission of a sort. A purpose.

I'm not actually sure I'm keeping my sanity. But I don't want to be part of a system that I know is insane. And while I haven't fully extricated myself from it, I do have a plan, and it helps keep me from completely loosing my mind.

Not OP, but here's the article. And this is the company's website.

Chloramines are disinfectants used to treat drinking water. Chloramines are most commonly formed when ammonia is added to chlorine to treat drinking water.

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