Want to lose weight? Move to Sri Lanka

I wonder if people are on average taller?

Yep. It is easier to get a projectile into space from the top of Mount Snowdon in Wales than it is in Bournemouth in England for exactly the same reason - not that anyone has knowingly tried it from these places yet, though.

Interesting, and a good reason, the French launch their Ariane rockets in French Guiana. Because of its location near the equator, because they benefit from an extra velocity of 460 meters per second when they are launched eastward

That's a good point. Sri Lanka has the double advantage of lower gravity and equatorial boost of orbital launches eastward.

These differences in gravitational force are felt beyond the surface of the earth. Geosynchronous orbit altitude for satellites is not constant and will go up and down based upon the mass below. Some geosynchronous "parking spots" are cheaper to park in than others. A satellite on a "gravity flat plane" will park and stay put better than a satellite on a "gravity mountain". The second satellite would consume more station keeping fuel over time due to it sliding down the gravity slope.

That's an interesting comment about the geo orbits. Let's say that the average distance of the geo sats forms a ring. What would you guess the variance in distance is from the ring, due to g differences here on earth? How far are they out of line....at that geo distance? Would you know?

Some of that I never knew, most of the rest was forgotten over the years.

Based upon satellite specifications, physics and other unknown things, some satellites will do their "station keeping" by flying a figure 8 pattern, and others will tend to fly more of a hairball pattern. The magnitude of the deviations from nominal are influenced by the flatness of the gravity plane at that altitude.

The one-way time of flight to a geosynchronous bird is about 1/8 second. If you are concerned with the day to day differences in time-of-flight then you are concerned with the magnitude of the satellite's deviation from its nominal position. If you try to monitor the time-of-flight changes from day to day then you become concerned with the pattern being a more predictable "figure eight" or a less predictable "hair ball".

First Ozempic face...

https://www.thecut.com/article/weight-loss-ozempic.html

...."Tirzepatide: a diabetes medication that causes weight loss

A handful of drugs can reduce body weight by 5% to 10%, but similar to lifestyle changes, they don’t work for everyone. For example, orlistat, approved in 1999, only works in about half of patients. However, that trend has changed in recent years. Semaglutide, approved in 2021, helped 86% of patients drop at least 5% of their body weight, with an average weight loss of 15% (compared to 2.4% for placebo). Since its approval, semaglutide (sold under the brand name Wegovy) has been hailed as a “transformative breakthrough” in the battle against obesity. However, the new drug, tirzepatide, has left semaglutide in its shadow: 91% of patients saw a reduction of at least 5%, with an average weight loss of 21% for the highest dose (compared to 3.1% for placebo)."...

https://bigthink.com/health/tirzepatide-novel-obesity-drug-actually-works/

I thought the topic was about the decimation of the Sri Lanka food supply because the government banned fertilizer imports. Lose weight because there's no food to eat.

I just saw a report on that… woke politicians…. Suddenly knee jerk decisions.

...."The Sri Lankan government imposed a ban on the import and use of conventional agricultural chemicals (fertilizers and pesticides) in April 2021. The ban was followed by the active promotion of using organic inputs in farmlands throughout the country. This contributed to a reduction in yield and led to a surge in food prices across the country. Together with other existing challenges in the country, including the COVID-19 pandemic, this shift to organic way of farming further worsened Sri Lanka’s economy in mid-2021.

In November 2021, the Sri Lankan government partially reversed the policy, allowing the import of chemical inputs for critical export crops. Despite the reversal, the subsidies for chemical fertilizers were not reinstated and food prices remained high and in short supply as yields for major crops such as rice had not recovered. With such dire circumstances, concern grew that there would be an increase in the usage of illegal pesticides.

A recently launched report titled Sri Lanka: Impact Assessment Study of 2021 Ban on Conventional Pesticides and Fertilizers conducted by Kynetec for CropLife Asia presents the impact of the lack of chemical pesticides and fertilizers in Sri Lanka’s farming communities, the production of key crops, and changes in the extent of illegal pesticide usage in view of the shifting regulatory and policy landscape."...

https://www.isaaa.org/blog/entry/default.asp?BlogDate=11/9/2022

..."The dramatic fall in yields follows a decision last April by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to ban all chemical fertilisers in Sri Lanka - a move that risks undermining support among rural voters who are key to his family's grip on Sri Lankan politics.

Although the ban was rolled back after widespread protests, only a trickle of chemical fertilisers made it to farms, which will likely lead to an annual drop of at least 30% in paddy yields nationwide, according to agricultural experts."...

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/fertiliser-ban-decimates-sri-lankan-crops-government-popularity-ebbs-2022-03-03/

That’s the problem, with the leadership doing a ‘cold turkey’ all or nothing, instead of transitioning into organic type farming.

The farmers needs time to change their farming practices.

We have the same problem in the U.S. with cutting oil production. Now the political leaders are begging oil producing nation to produce more oil.

too many career politicians making decisions they know little about the consequences.

the bed has been made… now sleep in it.

That's what happens when you take the advice of activists who think that change is as easy as snapping your fingers...poverty is going to cause more suffering than any chemical residues from fertilizers ever would....and he will probably end up getting voted out of office just like somebody else we know who is following the same game plan....

There were people that knew this. The bed has been made. Now there’s a contingency that complain they have to sleep in it, the remainder remains in the shadows because they got what they wanted and didn’t see the big picture.