That's impossible. Narcissistic egos cannot understand the meaning of "no".

If Russia wins? Yes, since it'll be the same dictator governing both countries.

Yep! Chaos, followed by a unified Empire (the Roman one), followed by chaos, followed by another unified Empire (Christendom in its different imperial incarnations), followed by chaos, followed by the currently newly forming unified Empire, followed by chaos, followed...

The current incarnation is following the "perpetual peace" playbook as devised by Kant. 300 years to start reaching fruition, but such things take time.

The key sentence being "for the time being". In your list I'd only kind of agree with Iran not being expansionist. Putin has declared many times he wants conquest, having followed closely Dugin's "foundations" outline. China indeed isn't expansionist in the same sense, but in classic Chinese fashion it wants to be surrounded by wholly vassal states.

That means little. Russia, Belarus and Ukraine all claim descent from Kievan Rus, but they've culturally diverged within that common ancestral origin. And yes, as a good Russian propagandist I know you toe the (Duginian) line that Ukraine doesn't have its own distinctive culture because ${mythopolitical_nonsense} and therefore "should be" this and that and the other thing, whether willingly or by force. Ukrainians clearly disagree, so more power to them.

Ah, there's no need for that. Ukraine learned to be like Afghanistan, a land where Empires go to die. Even if Russia were to win, it would see no peace until it gave up, likely under the next dictator, who won't have the same commitments as the current one does to his pet projects.

Me neither, but that's mostly because the US may have left by then, or been expelled, and Europe will reorganize into its own anti-Russian-aggression coalition.

Yep. Those were lost opportunities for all the involved.

Nope. Have you seen how the regions in Russia bordering China are filled with Chinese companies and businessmen, Chinese language everything, and more and more dependence on China itself? This allows China to use the same trick Russia used in Ukrainian regions of, whenever it so wishes, declare that any kind of Russian effort to make sure China doesn't take control of Russian strategic resources is "anti-Chinese persecution", and declare a special military operation to "protect" ethnic Chinese minorities "oppressed" by Russia, thus justifying taking back to tasty, tasty cities and mineral resources.

Remember, the Century of Humiliation didn't happen only on the Southern Chinese border, but on the Northern too. And China remembers, ah, how it remembers!

And yet they're not only not winning, but approaching defeat. And not to NATO itself, in its full might, but to Ukraine, with very minimal NATO support, and several opposed moves by the US.

A better, and much easier, solution, would have been for Russia to have applied to join NATO, and thus get all that support for themselves, so that down the line China doesn't take back the many disputed territories they have with Russia. Too bad the end result will be Russia losing to Ukraine and becoming so weakened they'll also lose to China.

You know Russia could simply pull out and stop invading others' countries, right?

You're doing your calculations wrong. Do the numbers per capita per year for programs.

About higher education, every person with a college degree contributes on average about $14 million the economy during their lifetime, versus about half that when they have less than college education, so having people get degrees is a net benefit of $7 million per person. So you need to compare that increase in total national wealth to the cost of causing it to determine whether it's worth it or not.

Do you believe they will ever pay those $1T? They won't, and they won't go bankrupt either. They're "too big do fail" as they're "need" for "national security", so they'll get the taxpayer to cover the bill, and absorb the revenue as profits.

Remember: socialize the costs, privatize the profits.

Meanwhile, X.AI has asked the EPA for permission to release up to 100 million hyperfecund pesticide-resistant male mosquitoes in California and New York over two years to own the libs.

*head bangs in approval*

Oh, forgot to link the dry density for you: here you go. 341kcal/100g. Aka 3,41kcal/g.

Which, like I said, should be obvious, since they're almost entirely carbs (~4kcal/g) and protein (~4kcal/g), and they're, as noted, dry (12-16% moisture). It would be quite the trick indeed to get something that is dry and and is almost entirely comprised of things that are 4kcal/g to be 1,38kcal/g! ;)

Just in case you need help:

Your calculation: 195g (dry weight) × 1.38 kcal/g = 269 calories per pound of cooked beans.
Correction: Because you used 1.38 kcal/g (the cooked density) as if it were the dry density, you essentially diluted the calories twice.
The Actual Math: 195g of dry beans * 3.4 kcal/g (actual dry density) = 663 kcal.

When those 195g of dry beans absorb water to weigh 454g (1 pound), they still contain those same 663 calories (since water has zero calories).

Canned beans are ALREADY COOKED. *facepalm*. You can eat them straight out of the can.

which is waaaay more than I would want to eat at a sitting.

I can't think of a single ingredient - any ingredient - that I would want to eat exclusively as my diet, so this is a really stupid argument.

In general, "damping pleasure" is not most people's experience with GLP-1 agonists. What it does is more like separate pleasurable experiences from having an urgent need to continue doing them.

I'd believe the Iceland numbers. I had a doctor once who wanted to get me on antidepressants, and got mad when I didn't want to, and completely ignored my pleadings of "But I'm not depressed", "I enjoy life", "I'm probably the least depressed person you'll meet", etc. He just really liked his patients to be on it. The Icelandic medical system is very into anything that "medicates symptoms" rather than treating diseases. For example, during COVID, it was essentially impossible to get drugs like paxlovid, but they made parkodín (tylenol with codeine) over-the-counter.

In most modern societies medication is usually a last resort.

I'm going to take a wager that if I were to open your medicine cabinet right now, there would be painkillers in it, which you take as will when you get headaches, body aches, etc.

Yes, different people have different baseline hunger levels. This is well accepted in the scientific community.

Please read: Cooked bean variety.

The "beans in your pantry" data you're looking at are probably per serving. Here, let me grab the beans in *my* pantry. Roland BLACK BEANS Habichuelas Negras Supreme Calidad. Net weight 15.5 OZ / 439g. Serving size: 130g. Calories per serving: 180.

There's 453,6 grams per pound, so that's 0,968 pounds. 439/130 = 3,15 servings, times 180 calories = 567. In 0,968 pounds, that's 586 calories.

Or look online. "172 grams of black beans (cooked, boiled, unsalted) contains 227 Calories." Do the math.

I'm not sure exactly how you expect something that is 70% carbs (of which are 36% fibre) and 26% protein to be low-cal. Do you think it has the moisture content of celery or something?