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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 11th, 2023

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  • That was my initial reaction, thinking China MUST hold more treasury bonds than anyone else, right? Turns out that’s typically Japan ($1 trillion), and the UK has generally held roughly the same number as China (both in the $700B range). Maybe the US anticipated and had contingencies ready if it was just China doing the selling, but when the other big holders started a slow bleed, it might’ve given them pause? Dunno.

    We also don’t know who held what more recently than January and I don’t know if the data gap is the usual lag or if the the people who do this work at the Treasury department got “DOGE’d”.

    Bottom line, it’s been fun to think about but I don’t think we should put too much stock in conspiracy theories originating on Substack.


  • There’s a theory being batted around without too much evidence (hold tight, Snopes is on it) that Mark Carney talked European and Japanese leaders into accumulating US Treasury bonds, and then slow-selling them to make Trump squirm once he imposed the broad-brush tariffs to spook the T-bill market.

    The theory sounds mostly plausible in that Carney was in Europe for closed door meetings with European leaders shortly after being designated PM, and that Trump backed off so quickly and used the language of “the bond market is tricky” to justify the change in direction. Dropping demand for T-bills leads the Fed to increase yields to keep the borrowing taps on, means expensive borrowing for them, means no money for tax cuts for billionaires.

    On the other hand, the story originates from a twice-fired shock-jock’s Substack.

    But it sounds like something a wicked smart Harvard/Oxford educated economist would dream up and pull off…

    ¯\(ツ)






  • Most answers here are missing the benefits of a home Mac running 24/7 if you’re already part of the Apple ecosystem. For example, you can have it sync all your iCloud data (documents, photos, iTunes content) and back them up locally, then elsewhere outside of Apple’s ecosystem. You can also have it act as a local CDN for OS updates, whereby it will cache OS downloads locally so any subsequent updates will be super quick.

    On the downside, I found native Docker on macOS kinda sucked, and just installed Ubuntu on my 2012 Mac Mini (now running Proxmox for funsies), but I have an old iMac to do the caching. You could probably virtualize and get both benefits, and I am considering moving to a new M4 mini for the power savings and sheer speed. That M4 Pro chip has absolutely incredible Geekbench numbers while sipping power.







  • How do you boost intramuscular water retention? I get so dehydrated sometimes my brain burns and hurts.

    Those sound like two very different things. Typically your cells manage this just fine on their own with just plain water intake provided the kidneys are working fine. Time to attain equilibrium is also important. For example, dumping a bag of IV fluid into someone’s veins will help replenish the volume of fluid in their blood vessels quickly at the outset. But it will move to the other parts of the body (or get dumped by the kidneys if the intravascular volume is already adequate).

    I need serious electrolytes like 1 to 3 body armours to replenish followed by 48oz water. Followed by hours to recalibrate my body from nausea and migraines.

    How well hydrated a person is before activity matters more for performance and recovery than we often recognize. Lots of studies of elite athletes and dehydration on performance and recovery. Also of these drinks have artificial sweeteners, that may be playing against you.

    Urine can be clear but I can be so thirsty its unbearable. Literally feels like my brain is shrinking.

    That sounds miserable. If better pre-activity hydration doesn’t solve the problem, you might want to speak to a care provider and make sure everything is ok with some tests.


  • The water moving right through is probably a good sign someone is well hydrated! There can be total body water versus intravascular volume depletion scenarios, but not super likely unless someone is sick in other ways.

    The xylitol itself may be contributing to GI water losses (it’s only about 50% absorbed through the gut, and osmotically draws water into/keeps water from being absorbed from the intestinal lumen). Depending on the SSRI, this could be exacerbated by bowel irritability that can present as diarrhea (sertraline is notorious for this).

    Some folks also report more urination with intake of sugar alcohols like xylitol. I don’t have a mechanism of action for that, so take those reports with a grain of salt. (And also some glucose because sodium-glucose symport allows for water absorption without the need for an ATP pump.)



  • Okay, so this isn’t actually about hydration, it’s about the fact that SSRIs commonly cause dry mouth as a side effect due to anticholinergic effects which reduce saliva release Some SSRIs are worse than others, and older TCAs are worse still. But OP is not dehydrated.

    Water is great for hydration, but it is unfortunately not very effective at managing dry mouth due to these side effects. Flavoured beverages typically work better because they promote saliva release.

    I would suggest OP add something with a sour note to their water, like lemon or lime juice which are unsweetened and have effectively no caloric component. Alternatively even just a splash of carbonated water will also work as the bubbles are irritants and will similarly stimulate saliva release.