Quick notes: Overtreating | Mantra meditation...

• “Doctor, is this really necessary?”: Prevent unnecessary medical care — by asking your Doctor these 4 questions first: "Is this really necessary? What are the risks? Are there other options? What happens if I don’t do anything?"



• Doctor's dependency on Big Pharma: The medical industry spends a great deal on marketing to physicians directly, with the majority of the “physician-focused marketing budget” spent on “detailing.” Detailing is when “pharmaceutical representatives talk directly to physicians to ‘promote and market their companies’ drugs.’


• Fastest-charging EV: China's Xpeng G9 SUV claimed to be world's fastest-charging mass-produced EV



• Self-driving tractor: Foxconn to make self-driving electric tractor in Ohio



• Chinese Exascale Supercomputer: OceanLight, operated by the University of Science and Technology of China, races neck and neck with crowning jewels of Western supercomputing achievement such as Frontier and Summit, as well as Japan's Arm-based Fugaku.



• The science behind Mantra meditation:




• Alcohol is a neurotoxin: Stop drinking, keep reading, look after your hearing: A neurologist’s tips for fighting memory loss and Alzheimer’s. “Alcohol is a very, very weak neurotoxin – it’s not good for nerve cells.”



• Afghanistan exit looks even worse a year later: Taliban 2.0 was a mirage, and the Taliban today is Taliban 1.0 with one major difference; they are far better armed than the Taliban that ruled over most of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. Now they ride into battle with American armored vehicles and M-16 rifles that were left behind as the US military rushed for the exits last summer. The Taliban today also face a far weaker opposition movement in Afghanistan than was the case for the pre-9/11 Taliban.



• Bride trafficking along the China-Pakistan economic corridor: Cases of fraudulent marriage between Pakistani women and girls — many of them from marginalized backgrounds and Christian families — and Chinese men who had travelled to Pakistan. The victims were lured with payments to the family and promises of a good life in China, but reported abuse, difficult living conditions, forced pregnancy, or forced prostitution once they reached China.