Conspiracy Theory About Cola
"The word "decision" comes from Latin roots, with de meaning "down" or "away from" and caedere meaning "to cut." Therefore, a decision means cutting from any other possibility. A true decision means you are committed to achieving a result and cutting yourself off from any other possibility...
Committed decisions show up in two places: your calendar and your bank account. No matter what you say you value, or even think your priorities are, you have only to look at last year's calendar and bank account to see the decisions you have made about what you truly value." - Carol Hildebrand
People are the New Brands: Other companies have picked up where Elon left off — most notably, Meta. Meta’s worst rebrand happened three years ago when the company tried to wash away its sins by switching from Facebook to Meta. It didn’t work, and brand trust tanked. Its best rebrand, however, came this year, when Mark Zuckerberg went from awkward coat-and-tie-wearing Senate-hearing prop, to gold-chain-donning T-Pain-loving jiu-jitsu fighter. In addition to leaning into his personality, Zuckerberg has made himself more public. He posted 71 Instagrams this year, documenting everything from Taylor Swift concerts to UFC fights. In 2021 he posted just 29 times, mostly product announcements. The extent to which the Zuck has put himself on display this year is astounding. But more important, effective: Since the rebrand, Zuckerberg’s favorability score among what was once his most hostile cohort (18- to 34-year-olds) has increased 73%. This is what it means to choose “person” over “brand.”
https://www.profgalloway.com/people-are-the-new-brands/
Two Conspiracy Theories About Cola: If you must drink cola, drink diet cola, sweetened with aspartame. As far as we know, aspartame has basically zero negative health effects. For example, this recent meta-analysis found no significant effects on blood glucose levels, insulin levels, cholesterol, triglycerides, body weight, or energy intake. There was a tiny effect on HDL cholesterol, but that’s “good” cholesterol, and the effect was to increase it. It’s certainly possible there are some downsides that aren’t yet established—for example, while current evidence suggests aspartame is not genotoxic, it’s still somewhat open. Still, any risks of aspartame are an order of magnitude lower than the huge and indisputable harms of sugar. Water is safer than diet cola, but diet cola is much safer than real cola.
The China Struggle: Having lived in China for seven years and visiting annually since 2015, I've been exposed to the internal Chinese narrative. This narrative portrays China as a benevolent power that never seeks to conquer other lands, aims to help developing countries, and has endured centuries of Western oppression—a continuing story of victimization... Living now in the UK and India, I encounter a contrasting Western and Indian perspective: one that sees China as a calculating power seeking world domination and Western subjugation. This view portrays China as using technology as a Trojan horse to spy on Western countries while relying on stolen ideas rather than innovation. Despite their political differences, the USA, UK, and India share this view of China as a major threat... So, which narrative reflects reality?
