NeuronautML
You mentioned popcorn lung 3 times already and i did look it up and i think you don't understand what popcorn lung is, so i will write it for whoever is reading because i didn't know either.
Popcorn lung is a colloquialism for an illness named bronchiolitis obliterans, caused by diacetyl, a product found on early black market vapes that has been banned or discontinued for nearly 10 years now. Most clear market vapes already had discontinued the use of dyacetyl because they knew of the health risks, but only black market vapes were using it as a means to save money.
Moreover, dyacetyl was not being used in nicotine vapes, it was being used in Cannabis vapes, as such, no exclusively nicotine products vaper who used store bought liquids was ever exposed to popcorn lung. So maybe you should read up on what popcorn lung is, before posting several comments about it. I don't vape but i have family members who quit smoking because of vapes and i don't appreciate your blatant misinformation about them. If there are legitimate criticisms of vaping, by all means post them, but this is a falsehood you are propagating.
In Europe i haven't met anyone in my circle of friends and extended circle who doesn't completely hate Israel and zionism. I don't push my views on anyone, especially the younger teen family members, but i was pleasantly surprised to see them saying they were going to an anti israeli protest.
The only people who currently have any support for Israel are boomers and even they are going from "supporting Israel right to exist" to "everyone is in the wrong" stage right now. This is highly anecdotal at this point but i hope we're seeing a shift to acknowledging evil where evil is.
It's fine if you're careful. I never got Lasik because you can only get it once and it only lasts 10-15 years until your eyesight degrades again. Then it's back to glasses or contacts. Especially after 45-50 when it really goes downhill.
I skipped Lasik because my yearly contacts cost is 120 €, which over 15 years would net me 1800€. Lasik was quoted to me at 5000 € for both eyes. You could be a statistical fortuity and it lasts more than 15 years, but considering you get used to something it's not permanent and have to change back i figured might as well stick with lenses.
There's also orthokerathology, which is some rigid contacts you use only when sleeping that shape your eyes for up to 48 hours so you see well. They're more expensive than contacts, cheaper than lasik and much safer because you only sleep with them. Alas, i can't wear those because my astigmatism is too high for current technology, but i hear they're getting better with it.
FYI if you use contacts (from https://www.allaboutvision.com/contacts/acanthamoeba-keratitis.htm with some extra tidbits from other websites i found while getting informed about this)
Never use tap water with your contact lenses. The FDA has recommended that contact lenses should not be exposed to water of any kind.
Do not swim, shower or use a hot tub while wearing contacts. If you do decide to wear your lenses while swimming, wear airtight swim goggles over them.
Soak your lenses in fresh disinfecting solution every night. Don’t use a wetting solution or saline solution that isn’t intended for disinfection.
Always wash your hands before handling your lenses.
Always clean your contacts immediately upon removal (unless you are wearing disposable contact lenses that are replaced daily). To clean your lenses, rub the lenses under a stream of multipurpose solution – even if using a “no-rub” solution – and store them in a clean case filled with fresh (not “topped off”) multipurpose or disinfecting solution.
Wash your case with solution and not tap water.
Replace your case at least once every 3 months with a new one.
And if you do get a red eye with a burning sensation and blurry vision that does not go away and you use contacts, do remind your doctor that you're specifically worried about acanthamoeba and would like to make sure that you're not at risk, as this woman visited several ophthalmologists every 2 days and not one of them thought about it. The treatment was eye drops. Now she is blind and needs a transplant.
And it's been greatly eroded recently when the powers that be determined some genocides are ok and others are not. A long-standing pattern of selective rules application, ranging from matters of nuclear disarmament, trade sanctions on places for no reason, land seizure for military bases with no permission and indigenous displacement, land seizure for colonization, indiscriminate civilian murder, detention and torture with no trial or accusation, sex crimes against civilians, application of tactics of terrorism and so on.
On the other side, indiscriminate land grab invasions, war crimes, sexual crimes on civilians including children, concentration camps, destruction of civilian infrastructure, genocide and so on.
It feels nobody really needs to follow any rules anymore. Everybody is violating international laws and the conventions that separate us from the worst of the worst evil and it's disheartening. It's whoever is the strongest does whatever they feel like with impunity, mostly, and everyone else just shrugs along. We absolutely suck as an intelligent sapient species at a global level and it's a shame to be what we have become.
Here we go again with Biden investigating and questioning.
I'm sure the outcome of this questioning will be the same as in the previous dozens of times.
Also, those people who go and buy properties in Southern Europe are often older and don't learn the local language or integrate at all. Instead, they create segregated communities with their own English speaking cafés and restaurants that disrupt the normal fabric of the country.
It is that, but it's not just that. Whole regions are becoming so dedicated to tourism that investment is going to little else, which doesn't really create a lot of well paying jobs for the young people. In fact, tourism only pays well to business owners. For everyone else, it's an incredibly precarious job where you make money sometimes and other times you don't. Even when you do, tourism is considered unskilled labor for teens and young adults without degrees, mostly. It's a major cause of low fertility, I'd wager, since poor young people make no kids.
Everything becomes a sort of resort, with businesses catering mostly to tourists, with business owners feeling even apathetic about serving locals, as they pay less and don't tip. The same is happening in several regions in southern Portugal. A resortification, if you will, of entire regions.
It's like the whole world designated that country as a holiday country because of the weather and beauty, but the locals also want high paying tech jobs and factories. The government is making too much bank to change it and business owners are making a lot of pressure not to.
So men can refuse service at arms, but they can't refuse service, so how is that better ? Either way you're still drafted into war. Possibly into medical service as well. So it's not harsher, it's the same or worse, because you could be drafted to maintenance near the front lines, whereas medical is usually a ways back. Or as a woman you could volunteer to maintenance, logistics or recruitment before being drafted, then you're not forced into medical. You're likely not even put near the front lines as a woman.
So your statement that it is harsher on women is not correct. It's actually quite insensitive for the men who die in the front lines for the country.