• We were once a nation of Coke vs. Pepsi. The stakes of the game have changed.

    Elizabeth Arvelos Coetzee/WSJ

    For decades, Diet Coke has been a durable pop culture icon, as much a symbol of boardroom swashbuckling as high fashion society. Its buzzy 1980s origins featured endorsements from celebrities including Paula Abdul, Whitney Houston and Demi Moore. More recently, limited-edition Diet Coke cans were released to coincide with “The Devil Wears Prada” sequel.

    The soda is also beloved across generations. It has been given the mantle of “fridge cigarette” by a Gen Z cohort who, according to Cosmopolitan, want to “blow off steam without the actual fumes” and is repped by quintessential baby boomers, including Bill Gates in a TikTok he posted of himself re-creating Warren Buffett’s recipe for Dusty Diet Coke. (That’s a bizarro mix of the soda, vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup and malted milk powder.)

    Even the magic button that summons Diet Cokes to the Oval Office reappeared on the Resolute Desk last January, much to the irritation of the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

    All of this soft-drink soft power belies an uneasy truth for Diet Coke fanatics. The diet soda sweeping the nation is actually the beverage’s own sibling, Coke Zero Sugar—part of a zero-sugar soda boom that accounted for 52% of growth in soft drink sales last year, according to the market research firm Circana. Sales of Diet Coke, by comparison, have been, well, pretty flat since the soda peaked in popularity in 2006.

    In January, President Trump reinstalled a button on the Oval Office Resolute Desk (right) that summons Diet Cokes.

    In January, President Trump reinstalled a button on the Oval Office Resolute Desk (right) that summons Diet Cokes. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

    As Coke Zero gets bigger, and threatens to dethrone “DC” as the most important diet soda property in the Coca-Cola extended universe, the feud between Diet Coke fans and Coke Zero drinkers is getting pretty fizzy.

    Read more …

  • When I turned 63 last year(64 in March) I sat in my favorite chair, looked back at my life, and thought to myself,
    “So… this is the beginning of the final stretch.”
    And slowly, the truths I had avoided all my life began to surface.
    Kids? They’re busy writing their own story.
    Health? Slips away faster than sand through open fingers.
    The government? Just headlines, promises, and numbers that never change your daily reality.
    Aging doesn’t hurt your body first — it hurts your illusions.
    So I sat down with myself and carved out a handful of bitter but necessary truths.
    Kids don’t save you from loneliness
    Children grow, life pulls them in every direction, and you become a memory they visit when time allows.
    You smile… and yet something inside you remains strangely hollow.
    Kids bring joy — but they are not a shield against loneliness.
    Health is not forever
    One day, the outings you once jumped into with enthusiasm feel like a marathon.
    You realize health was never a background character —
    it was the main pillar holding your life steady.
    Retirement and money
    Retirement is not a reward — it’s a reality check.
    Depending on the system is like standing on thin ice.
    Bills grow, needs grow, prices grow… but support doesn’t.
    So I rebuilt my life on new rules — honest, sharp, practical rules for living with dignity.
    Rule 1: Money is more reliable than anything else.
    Love your kids, cherish them —
    but don’t make them your retirement plan.
    Save for yourself.
    Even small savings create big freedom.
    Financial independence is dignity.
    Rule 2: Your health is your real job
    Nothing else matters if your body refuses to cooperate.
    Move. Walk. Stretch.
    Guard your sleep like treasure.
    Eat cleaner. Reduce the poison disguised as sugar and salt.
    Illness doesn’t discriminate,
    but it respects those who take responsibility for themselves.
    Rule 3: Create your own joy
    Waiting for others to make you happy is the fastest way to heartbreak.
    So you learn to enjoy the small things —
    a peaceful breakfast, a good book, music that warms the soul.
    When you know how to make yourself happy, loneliness loses its power.
    Rule 4: Aging is not an excuse to become helpless
    Some people turn aging into a performance of complaints.
    And slowly, even those who love them start stepping away.
    Strength is attractive.
    Resilience is magnetic.
    People respect the ones who stay capable, not the ones who surrender.
    Rule 5: Let go of the past
    The good old days were beautiful — yes.
    But they’re gone, and there is no return ticket.
    Clinging to the past steals the present.
    Life today may look different, but it still holds moments worth living.
    Rule 6: Protect your peace like it’s your property
    Not every argument needs your voice.
    Not every insult needs your response.
    Not every relative deserves access to your emotions.
    Peace is expensive.
    Protect it from drama, negativity, and draining people —
    even if they’re your close ones.
    Rule 7: Keep learning something — anything
    The day you stop learning is the day you start aging.
    A new recipe, a new word, a new app, a new hobby —
    your brain needs movement just like your body does.
    Learning keeps you young.
    Stagnation makes you old.
    Strength and freedom still belong to you
    Aging is an exam no one can take for you.
    You can adapt, rebuild, and rise stronger…
    or sit back, complain, and wait for someone to rescue you.
    And if ….
    No one comes to rescue you ….
    Stand up for yourself …
    Because you still can..
    And that single truth is enough to transform the rest of your life.

  • Elon Musk just defended America better than every politician in Washington combined.

    Musk: “After World War 2, the US could have basically taken over the world and any country.

    Like we got nukes, nobody else got nukes. We don’t even have to lose soldiers. Which country do you want?”

    One nation on earth held a weapon nobody else had.

    Total dominance.

    Zero competition.

    No risk of retaliation.

    Every empire in history that held that kind of advantage used it.

    Rome. The Mongols. The British. The Ottomans.

    They conquered until they collapsed.

    America had a bigger advantage than all of them combined.

    And it rebuilt the countries it just defeated.

    Musk: “The United States actually helped rebuild countries. So it helped rebuild Europe, it helped rebuild Japan. This is very unusual behavior, almost unprecedented.”

    Almost unprecedented?

    It had never happened before.

    Not once in 5,000 years of recorded history.

    The Marshall Plan wasn’t foreign aid. It was the most radical act of restraint any superpower ever committed.

    America turned its enemies into allies.

    Turned rubble into economies. Turned surrender into partnership.

    Germany went from ashes to the economic engine of Europe in a generation.

    Japan went from unconditional surrender to the third largest economy on earth.

    Three years after the war, America was flying food into Berlin.

    A city in the heart of the nation that just tried to destroy it.

    That’s not policy.

    That’s a civilization deciding what it is at the exact moment it has the power to be anything.

    You’re being told a story right now.

    That America is the villain of history. You hear it everywhere. Media. Universities. Social platforms.

    Musk: “There’s always like, well America’s done bad things. Well of course America’s done bad things, but one needs to look at the whole track record.”

    Every nation on earth has dark chapters. Every single one.

    The difference is what a country does when nobody can stop it.

    And when nobody could stop America, it fed its enemies and rebuilt their cities.

    Musk: “The history of China suggests that China is not acquisitive. Meaning they’re not going to go out and invade a whole bunch of countries.”

    Probably right. China has historically built walls, not fleets.

    But the real question isn’t about borders anymore.

    We’re approaching a moment that mirrors 1945 in ways nobody has fully processed yet.

    AI is going to give a handful of people a power advantage that makes nuclear monopoly look quaint.

    If someone is going to hold that kind of power, who do you want it to be?

    The country that conquered when it could?

    Or the one that rebuilt when it didn’t have to?

    Every alliance. Every trade route. Every economy.

    Billions lifted out of poverty.

    All of it traces back to one act of restraint that had never been done before.

    And carries no guarantee of being repeated.

    The most powerful thing America ever did wasn’t building the bomb.

    It was what it didn’t do after.

    https://x.com/r0ck3t23/status/2054491938955415570?s=20

  • From TV Dinners to Smartphones

    The 1950s meal was a gateway drug for screen addiction.

     ET

    image

    William Gottlieb/Corbis via Getty Images

    Our zombie-like modern addiction to screens isn’t as new as you may think. In the late 1940s, television sets began to appear in American homes. After gathering at the supper table to dine and talk about their days, parents and children moved into the den to be entertained by the novel contraptions. So far, so good.

    Then two things happened.

    In 1950, newspaper advertisements began promoting “TV trays” or “TV tray tables.” These were storable metal trays on tubular legs. Tray tables had one purpose: to be unfolded before a TV set so that instead of conversing with others around a dining-room table, people could eat while mutely staring at a TV screen.

    The TV tray tables were generic; no one owned the name. But the second society-altering development was trademarked.

    Nebraska-based C.A. Swanson & Sons Co., which began as an egg-and-poultry concern, introduced something called the TV Dinner. In 1953, when Swanson purchased some of its initial advertising, the phrase had almost no foothold in American culture. Within a couple of years, most Americans were quite familiar with TV Dinners.

    Read more …

  • 18 3-D Printer Filament Types And Uses Comparison Guide

    3D printer filament is among the most important 3D printing materials as you cannot produce any object without it. This page aims to help you understand the different 3D printing filament types, so you can choose the best 3D printer filament for you.

    3d printer filaments 3d printers easy to print pla abs support material 3d print

    Which is the best 3D printer filament PLA or ABS? What are the properties of the best 3D printer materials?

    If you do, then you will find an answer here. A 3D printer plastic, also known as the filament for 3D printing, serves as the 3D printer ink.

    3D printer filaments come in different types and your filament choice might depend on the object that you are trying to build. 3D printers can accommodate one or more types of filaments.

    If you want to learn the different types of filaments and support material for 3D printers on the market, their purposes, and edges against each other you are on the right page!

    Check out below to find the different 3D printing supplies and discover the best 3D filaments for your 3D printers.

    Contents [show]

    What is a 3D Printer Filament

    What are 3D printing filaments? A 3D filament is a 3D printer plastic that is used to make three-dimensional printing. In 3D printing, the most popular filaments are ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) and PLA (Polylactic Acid).

    However, there are more filaments for 3D printers out there other than PLA or ABS. Some of them are heat resistant, food-safe, and chemical resistant. Perhaps, you already read or hear some of them. Meanwhile, others might be new to you.

    Check out the next sections to learn the 3D printer filaments available on the market. Some of them make great support material for projects that need one.

    What filaments do 3D printers use?

    There are many filaments available in the market. They have different qualities and properties. Some are tough, flexible, and heat-resistant. Meanwhile, others are weak, brittle or with adhesion issues. They are also available in various diameters and layers. Here are the types of 3D printing filaments that you can choose from.

    #1. ABS 3D Printing Filament

    3d printer canada abs 3d printing with plastic 3d printed printing materials pla filament

    Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene a.k.a. ABS filament is the most popular or commonly used 3D printer filament. In fact, it is used in a wide variety of applications because it is tough and high impact-resistant.

    This filament is also strong and slightly flexible, which makes it a good material for 3D printing. In addition, it can be easily extruded, which makes it very easy to print.

    To read the rest of this article about 3-D printing filaments, please click HERE to go to allthat3d.com

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