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All I wanted was to use magit today, but Spacemacs, which I have used for years, wouldn’t allow me. I could not figure out what the problem was—it likely had something to with dependencies that were out of sync. Failing to resolve the issue, I decided to reinstall emacs and configure it from scratch (with some great LLM help). The fruits of this tinkering is in the init.el file below. It is only about 160 lines long, but covers the vast majority of my requirements surprisingly well. This is a brief log of how this config file came about. ...

Perhaps I should begin building a list of all the lies we are taught in school. That a plant-based diet is healthy for you is presented to you so adamantly and incessantly, you begin treating the claim as self-evident to the point that questioning it becomes a nonstarter. Despite being proclaimed from the highest pulpits by doctors, nutritionists, and public health experts, it lacks both empirical and logical backing. The truth is pretty much the opposite. ...

Background I have been using the note-taking software, Obsidian, for a little more than a year, and it has been a major quality of life upgrade for me. Prior to this, I used Evernote for several years, thanks to the recommendation of Tim Ferriss. Initially, I was a happy customer, but over the years, the subscription costs mounted and the quality of the app degraded. I tested Joplin and Notion but they proved inadequate for my needs. Finally, I landed on Obsidian, finding it through the videos of No Boilerplate. My usage pattern has settled down enough over the past year for me to be able to discuss it. ...

Calendar A calendar is to be used for the following. Time blocking, Marking events that will occur regardless of your presence, Marking due dates. I am using the Full Calendar plugin. Every event is a separate note under a specific folder. The events appear in a calendar timeline. Task Manager A task manager is used for tracking all tasks associated with projects. Be as specific as you need to be. Tasks do not necessarily have due dates. Set scheduled dates and priority for tasks as required. ...

Gold lends itself to being easily alloyed with a number of different metals. Yellow gold is gold alloyed with silver and copper. In rose gold, the concentration of copper is higher, whereas, in green gold, it is silver that has the higher concentration. Red and pink gold are formed by varying the silver and copper amounts. White gold is an alloy with palladium or nickel. Blue gold is formed with indium or gallium; purple gold is made using aluminum. ...

Ninety-seven chapters in and I yet do not understand why Witch Hat Atelier (WHA) is marked seinen. Despite its tragic themes, it does not have the grittiness of Vinland Saga or Berserk. Demon Slayer and Attack on Titan have arguably more darkness than WHA, yet they are labeled as shounen. Also with the number of teenagers in central positions, the manga deliberately circumvents adult themes and emphasizes simplicity, cuteness, and all that you would expect in shounen or shoujo. ...

Witch Hat Atelier’s Qifrey is one of the most intriguing characters I have come across. Gentle and cheerful on the surface, Qifrey masks a fair amount of darkness which occasionally manifests in a scary way. In the beginning, while we are unaware of his past, his interest in the brim caps along with the use of intimidation and memory wiping magic to protect his secret plant doubts about his alignment. Is Coco someone Qifrey protecting merely to serve his goals of tracking down the brim caps? Why is Qifrey not more forthcoming about his knowledge with his peers and students, if not the magical authorities? ...

John Maynard Keynes published The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money in 1936. In it, he advocated for dirigistic inflationary policies to stimulate the economy and aid economic recovery. Idle resources—money, labor, capital—had to be employed; otherwise, they were being wasted. William H Hutt provided one of the earliest rebuttals of the general theory. His book, The Theory of Idle Resources (1939), lists several valid reasons for resource unemployment: ...

Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, in his criticism of usury laws, described the concept of time-preference and its role in lending at interest. Time-preference refers to the discounting of the future, and the concomitant placing of a premium upon the present. If this rate of discounting is high, the time-preference is high. If the discounting rate is low, the time-preference is low. Since we prefer a present good to an equivalent amount of the good at some point in the future, lenders will demand, and borrowers will accept, an interest on a loan. Interest is the price of time-preference. ...

In my previous discussion about the effects of inflation, I missed an important point. This might be the most pernicious of its cultural effects: inflation discourages productivity and encourages speculation. The distortions generated by inflation are not immediately apparent. While an inflationary episode is underway, labor is tricked into accepting the same nominal wage (that is, accepting a lower real wage), since price levels have not risen yet. Soon, prices rise and the decline in purchasing power becomes apparent. Long after the prices have risen are the labor able to negotiate a (nominal) wage increase. This increase is also likely to be lower than the rate of inflation, thus the real wage continues to be lower than what it was prior to the inflationary episode. A decline in real wages discourages productivity. ...