I guess this isn't saying much for those who are paying attention, but GB isn't alone in this unsustainable course. At some point in the near-to-medium term, the bubble will pop, the first domino will fall, the dam will break, there will be a last straw, insert idiom here. Rough times are ahead.

I would challenge the assertion that the Russian economy is doing better than the US economy.

This is a year old, but is the highest signal-to-noise ratio you will find on the topic:
The Russian Economy at War (2024) - Sanctions, growth, inflation & mounting risks

And an update last month:
Russia's Cooling War Economy - Deficits, Sabotage, U.S. Threats & The Ukraine War

If we assume that the wealth fund is a Good Thing(tm), then the question is whether current policies preserve this fund, ensuring that future generations benefit as readily as the current generation. Has anyone demonstrated that 27.5 sick days, declining test scores, and slow productivity growth threaten the integrity of this fund for future generations? If so, then there's a problem. The difficulty with sustaining the fund is that those who wield the policy levers are the same people who most-benefit from the fund and are least-likely to endorse change. Look no further than the US Social Security system. Those who most-benefit from Social Security hold the power over its fate and are will not enact policy that threatens the benefits enjoyed by current recipients.

AI-induced Alzheimer's in people who rely on it for cognitive tasks?

Flashbacks to my ex-wife when I, for whatever reason, was tardy preparing the morning oatmeal.

Cribbed from reddit:

Tariffs. Wait no. Ok yes. Now some. None on you though. Million percent on dairy! Taking a baseball bat to various federal agencies while blindfolded. You’re fired. Wait, come back. No, yes, fired. Write what you did in the last 5 days. No, don’t. Look! Gulf of America!

None of this looks like competence.

In jr. high it was the Commodore Pet with 8k of RAM, and a cassette tape drive for storage. In high school it was several Apple ][+ computers linked to a "Corvus Constellation" which served as both a common drive for file storage and a login/authentication system. The authentication credentials were comprised of a 4-character login ID, and a 2-character password. You could easily break out of the login prompt to be returned to the Applesoft prompt that was baked into the computer. One day I had done just that. Out of boredom and idle curiosity I was dumping screen after screen of raw memory. Up came all of the system's ID/PW combinations. The Corvus Constellation loaded all authentication information unencrypted into main memory (which isn't surprising...1982-1984). I wrote a BASIC program to grab the contents, parse, and store/print for easier consumption. Other than poking around in the teachers' accounts, the only thing I ever did was log into the the accounts of the girls who I had a crush on (which was probably all of them) and corrected their buggy programming homework.

pitting VS Code against vim. They can even offer nano vs emacs as a demonstration sport.

about $20 worth of pennies in it. It's sitting in the garage. When I sell my house I intend to make it the next owner's problem.

Just as DNA analysis technologies have improved, leading to the solving of crimes, so have image analysis technologies. I wonder how many researchers who have published fraudulent images fear their malfeasance will be discovered.

I recently came across a printout of the source code for character generator I wrote in Applesoft BASIC circa 1982. The tractor feed is still attached. I'd recently moved away from AD&D (1e of course). The character generator was for Rolemaster. BASIC grognards will remember utilities that renumbered your code. Each line had a programmer-supplied numerically ascending number associated with it. You'd be disciplined and number your lines with gaps: 10, 20, 30, 40, etc. But of course as your program was developed and maintained, you'd run out of room to put additional lines in certain spots. Renumbering utilities were huge time-savers, automating the arduous task of renumbering lines to reintroduce gaps in line-number sequences.

Your timing sounds accurate. Rethinking, it must've been closer to 30 years for me as well. The technology is blasé now, but there is something cool about being sequestered in a pod with multiple screens and custom controls.

I haven't been in a Dave & Busters in...20 years? I recall they had these cool pods that served as Mech cockpits for multiplayer fights. That was cool back in the day. But I can't imagine it holding up today. Do they have any compelling digital games today?

My soul agrees with you completely. My eyes beg to differ. Age has weakened my eyes. At 58 my eyes are better than most my age. But there is a low-level stress now when reading the small font of paperbacks. And my contrast is shot. I *really* struggle reading books in anything other than bright light. So I've grown to like Kindle et al. It is a technological blessing to control font size and contrast/brightness on what I read. But as I said, my soul is with you. I cherish those memories of kicking back with a paper book all afternoon and into the night when it was too intense to put down.