https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decoupling_of_wages_from_productivity

I am intimately familiar with that feeling. Because it’s not just popcorn that causes it. In apples, the seed chambers are lined with a hard membrane that is extremely similar in size and texture to a popcorn hull. If you bite too close to the core, or if you eat apple slices from uncored apples, youwill get one stuck in your throat.

Today is my birthday and this is very much how I feel about growing older. It’s not at all what I thought it would be.

The main issue with permafrost is instability. If you build on permafrost, when it melts you’ll lose everything that’s not anchored to bedrock. Imagine the ground 3ft below the surface of your street suddenly collapsing, like a sinkhole. At the very least that would ruin the road, the water and sewer pipes, the electricitu and telecom lines, etc. Melting permafrost also releases A LOT of methane, a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. (Runaway global warning, anyone?) Lastly, after the permafrost melts, the soil that is left isn’t necessarily suitable for agriculture: it washes away easily and is prone to waterlogging.

Of course, these challenges can be overcome with time and money. It might become worth doing once the current arable land turn into deserts. But the scope of it is huge. We’ll have to invent a whole new type of agriculture.

What if only people who make over $500k annually can vote? Is that still a democracy?

That happened so long ago that we wouldn’t even call those people “human”.