Any company that pays for ads closely tracks the efficacy of ads and can more or less prove that the ads are worth it. There’s no guess work.

4 drinks (for women) isn’t a lot. That can be as little as two martinis or three margaritas.

5 (for men) isn’t really a lot either. That’s less than a 6 pack of beer. Or like 3 cocktails depending on how strong they are.

Most people I know will likely have at least one day a month where they drink this much. A birthday party, a holiday celebration, a wedding, a big game, etc. I wouldn’t think twice about a couple drinking this much on a date night. Heck, I’ve been to stuffy work functions that gave me 3 “drink tickets” (which would have put me over the limit). Throw in populations like alcoholics, college kids, service industry workers, etc, and I find it really hard to believe that’s only 5% of the population.

I’ve seen this stat a lot, and anecdotally there’s no way it can be accurate. It really makes me wonder about the methodology of data collection. First, it seems like the heavier of a drinker or drug user you are, the less likely you are to set aside time to participate in a long survey. Second, regardless of the assurances of confidentiality, I’m not sure people would always be honest about the extent of their drinking. In AA, one of the most important steps is admitting you have a problem…

For anyone interested, here’s the paper that explains the survey methodology: https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/reports/rpt47098/Methodological Summary and Definitions/2023-nsduh-method-summary-defs.pdf

And here’s an FAQ: https://nsduhweb.rti.org/respweb/faq.html#q6

A few interesting notes:

• Among people who were selected for the interview but did not complete it, the most common reasons for not responding were (1) refusal to participate by the respondent or by the parent or adult guardian of the adolescent respondent (26.1 percent) and (2) did not participate because the residents were not available, never at home, or did not respond to the web survey (18.9 percent)
• For both data collection procedures, communications with potential respondents stressed confidentiality. Consequently, respondents’ names were not collected with the interview data. For web-based data collection, the website’s https encryption provided sufficient security for information entered from compatible devices via any Internet connection
• The interview questions will take about an hour to complete
• Interview respondents who completed the interview received a $30 incentive

Me after beating

only to immediately lose all my rosaries in

and then spending the next 3 hours barely failing to

As someone who likes the difficulty of Hollow Knight and Silksong (despite being pretty bad at the game), I think the best point in the video is that it would be really nice to give the player options. I would still play on the hard setting, but there are friends I have who would love exploring the map and seeing all the amazing art, but I can’t recommend the game to them because I know they’d be super frustrated within an hour or two.

I wouldn’t call myself a frequent flyer, but I fly at least several times a year, and I’ve taken a lot of different airlines. To your point, I honestly haven’t seen much difference in terms of cancelation or delay between budget and regular airlines. There are 3 main differences in my mind.

First is that budget airlines nickel and dime you. Carry-on isn’t free, it’s an add-on. Your backpack size is thoroughly checked. And if you mess any of that up and they catch it, the upcharge is huge.

The second point is sort of a continuation of the first: on-flight service. Depending on the duration of the flight, non-budget airlines will give you some snacks and drinks for free. Budget airlines charge you for them. (I once had a budget airline try and charge me for water when I was fighting off a headache…) Some of the nicest airlines will even have entertainment consoles built in to the seats, even in economy.

Third is seat space and comfort. The seats on the nicer airlines have noticeably more leg room and more cushion. A lot of them have adjustable headrests and recline a bit. Sounds like a small thing, but I have pretty long legs and a bony ass, so it makes a huge difference to me.

For shorter flights/trips, I’ll still do budget airlines sometimes. For longer flights or if I have a lot of luggage, I usually have a strong preference for the nicer airlines. Of course, depending on how big the cost difference is, I’ll occasionally go against my preference.