It is significantly more acceptable to slow down and stop talking than a lot of people think

Not starting at zero is a common practice in science and data processing. The difference between bad and good data visualization is in relevance. Good data visualization starts an axis at non-zero numbers because the fluctuation is more relevant than the zero. Bad data visualization hides relevant data to present an alternate takeaway.

Here, a change in birth rate of even 0.1 or 0.2 is a major societal change, and showing that change is more relevant than showing the zero (how would it even be possible that there were zero births in a year, anyways?)

There’s a concept in Japanese called chuunibyou, which translates to “8th grade syndrome.” Basically, teenagers (and especially early teenagers) are exceptionally cringe. Frankly, I feel reasonably confident that everyone has at least several memories that keep them up at night from that time in their lives. I wouldn’t worry too much about it.

Same vibe as Cato in the Roman Senate: ml delenda est

Vestigial may not be the correct word. We do use our nails quite a lot for finer manipulation of tools

Acrylamide is also a persistent neurotoxin, meaning that it can’t be flushed out of your body and any acrylamide that you collect in your body will just continue to collect

The immune system is strong and defends your body against germs.

The immune system works 100% of 50% of the time. Immunology is the best way to convince someone that it’s a miracle that they’re still alive. Anyways, get vaccinated. Don’t rely on your immune system to figure things out

Patriotic duck