I haven't connected any appliances to my network, but I may try Zigbee.

I'm not optimistic about the future of home appliances. Without stronger privacy protections, there's little stopping manufacturers from adding cellular modems to avoid the need for wi-fi to collect and transmit user data, with features/usability locked behind accepting ToS.

There is a lot to check, if you know what to look for. https://gijn.org/resource/guide-detecting-ai-generated-content/

I thought it looked a little off but couldn't put my finger on why. Saw your comment and ran the image through ZeroGPT.
It's fake

I'm sorry I am not authorized to give refunds, but I hope that the following Andre the Giant facts will help: he was widely known as the "Gentle Giant" because his real-life personality was exceptionally kind, friendly, and generous. He was soft-spoken and gentle around children, lifting them up and being patient so they wouldn't be scared. He disliked arrogance and mean-spirited people, and would physically "reprimand" bully coworkers in the ring.

In a video with Ben Shapiro he questioned if the news we were hearing regarding Israel and Gaza could be trusted. Shapiro looked mortified that a fellow conservative would even entertain such a thought. It's been alluded that was the moment that Kirk sealed his fate.

Mostly because flush electronic door handles aren't as safe or reliable as non-retractable handles. They fail more often than their mechanical counterparts, especially in emergencies like crashes and fire.

I hope that I am wrong about this, but I am not optimistic about Talarico.

He said all the right things to position himself as not just a progressive candidate, but as a christian candidate. White, male, middle aged, handsome, well spoken, seemingly levelheaded, and gives off strong Mr. Rogers vibes. Those things make him comparatively more palatable than most other democratic candidates, especially in Texas.

However, the democrats have had more than a handful of bad actors and turncoats in recent years. Candidates that talk the blue talk and walk the blue walk, but once they take office they quickly turn face. Sinema, Fetterman, Gillibrand, Robin Webb; not an exhaustive list of democrats that turned their backs to the rhetoric and policies that got them elected, but their the ones that spring to my mind first. Schumer, Jeffries, Pelosi, and a host of others could be rightly accused of actively aiding the republican-led undermining of the rule of law (and civil rights) while in office.

The Streisand effect has a long history of backfiring on public officials, so much so that it's not too far of a stretch to wonder if the administration banked on the FCC debacle to elevate Talarico. To be clear, I'm not entirely pessimistic about Talarico; I want to believe that there are still good people who want to get into public service for the right reasons. I'm just not optimistic because he's almost too good. Running a sleeper candidate against one of the stronger progressive voices in congress (who frequently and loudly called out the GOP's bullshit) is exactly the kind of thing that the far-right think tanks would do.

Whole blood is not sold for profit, but organizations do charge hospitals a handling fee to cover operational costs... but I just realized as I was typing this that you aren't talking about the organizations that collect blood, but the hospitals.

I looked up what it generally costs for a one-unit (1pt, ~470ml) blood transfusion, and it's over $2000! I'd like to think that all the blood and platelet donations I've made over the years had saved lives, which objectively they probably did. But now knowing how much hospitals and insurance companies are profiting off of the act of donating makes it feel less like a selfless act of compassion and more like cattle being herded into a milking parlor.

Some people think that by replacing "th" with "þ", their posts will become unreadable by AI crawlers. However...

It's a meme where someone issues a threat against someone else, then veils it against moderation & reporting by appending "in Minecraft." e.g. a user responds to your post with "I'm gonna burn your house down", which can be construed as a real-world douchebaggery. But if they say "I'm gonna burn your house down in Minecraft", there's plausible deniability because it's infers online douchebaggery where real physical harm is unlikely.

Entire too relatable. I grew up in much the same way. Having that feeling as my baseline, my "normal", made everything else feel wrong, but I could never fully put my finger on why. I developed a sense of stoicism so that I could get through each day showing as little outward reaction as possible. However, I confused that stoicism for calmness and stability; inside my mind everything still roiled as my instincts and senses were always watching and waiting, preparing for the next time things became dangerous.

Decades of living with that level of hypervigilance paired with the effort needed to put forward a stoic exterior has worn me down. The physical symptoms of chronic mental and emotional exhaustion are debilitating; the body really does pay a toll for the mind's wounds. Maybe if twenty years ago I had the knowledge and resources that I do now, I could have done something to stave off what I'm going through.

All this to say: if you aren't already, please seek counseling as soon as possible. Don't make the same mistake I did; just like the smoker who denies that their habit it harmful, if you don't work to heal your psychological wounds now, then it will eventually catch up to you. Be well, and take care of yourself.

This is probably the right answer, and I can't fully describe the ennui it provokes. It's like the neighbor's kid you watched build a treehouse with his dad grow up to be repeatedly arrested for drunk and disorderly.

Copper cables are easier to reuse or sell as scrap due to the intrinsic value of the metal value and simple structure. Fiber optic cables are harder to reuse because they require precise handling, expensive connectors, and special training and equipment to splice together properly. Unless thieves steal pre-terminated fiber and handle it with extreme care or take entire spools with a buyer ready, fiber is essentially worthless to them since it can't be melted down and reused like copper.

The spacecraft uses radioisotope thermoelectric generators. It converts the heat generated by radioactive decay of plutonium into electricity. Engineers have been able to keep it working all this time by selectively powering down unused systems.

IIRC I read several years ago that the selenium in some anti-dandruff shampoos will degrade the plastic found in faux leather and other similar products. If someone's headphones are falling apart like this after light use, it might be worth looking at what kind of shampoo or other hair products are being used... also don't buy super cheap equipment, you only end up spending more in the long run.

I would wager that this is going to become a test case that is intended to appeal it's way to the SCotUS. The SCotUS has already ruled that many constitutional protections are waived at the border, so it wouldn't be surprising if that is the intended outcome.

Land of the Free™

This is just my personal experience, but I think it reflects a larger issue. Younger people were not 'too inconvenienced to actually go out and vote'; they wanted to support the party that they felt aligned most with their values, only to be ignored and betrayed in favor of the DNC's neoliberal matriarch.

Back in 2016, a group of us, mostly young people, caucused for Bernie Sanders. We had a strong turnout, with more people in our group than for any other candidate. The next largest group was for Hillary Clinton.

The people running the caucus seemed to have their own agenda. They told those supporting other candidates that their choice was "nonviable" and that they needed to switch to a "viable" candidate. Then, they physically ushered them to stand with the Hillary group while they [the staffers] "figured things out". Many of the attendees were first-time caucus-goers, so they didn't know any better and assumed the staffers were just being helpful by directing them.

For those of us who had caucused before, it was clear what was happening: the staffers were trying to inflate Hillary’s numbers. When we tried to speak up, we were told not to interfere or risk being removed.

It was obvious to us that the DNC was working against Bernie, ensuring the nomination went to their chosen candidate. Even Trump acknowledged that Bernie would have been a tougher opponent to run against.

It's wonderful how misunderstood a lot of the 'evil' metal bands are. Bands like Cradle of Filth and Cattle Decapitation have ostensibly repulsive artwork and song titles/lyrics, but the themes and meaning behind the songs meander between tongue-in-cheek fun to philosophical pondering to outright castigation of humanity's treatment of the natural world. Judging a book by its cover and all that stuff...

Then again, there's Behemoth, who literally describe summoning demons and other pagan and satanic rites in their songs. But good grief, the music is so good.

It seems like you may be conflating having ~$500k net worth with being rich, which may not have been your intent, but it seemed that way based on context. I think what the other responder is getting at is that AOC is not rich. She may have a house, a car, and some retirement saved up. All of those are assets, but they do not translate into the kind of liquidity that many other American politicians have.

She was working class before she entered into politics, and some would argue that she still is based on her work and advocacy. I don't want to sound like I'm accusing your of anything, or putting words in your mouth, because that's not my intent; I just want to point out a common belief held by a lot of Americans. Lumping someone in with the rich and then holding them in contempt merely because that person is richer than you is exactly the kind of us-versus-them mentality the ruling class wants us to have.