Real world, it's a royal pain in the butt trying to get a not-smart TV. There's a couple of companies that sell them at consumer-accessible prices and they aren't as frequently on the kinds of deep discounts bigger brands go for. You might just have to steer your parents towards using an Apple TV (the only ads are for Apple's own services plus nice integration with iPhones if your parents happen to be iPhone users) then set it up to boot straight to the Apple TV so they never see the Smart TV OS, and of course never connect the Smart TV to the Internet so whatever data harvesting it does do is useless

Looks like it depends on the model for if it has DRM of not. Here's an article from 2015 where they said they were bringing the DRM back and this reddit thread has some users discussing their history of sometimes putting in DRM on the machines and sometimes not.

The same reddit thread also points out that Nestle got onto the bandwagon of disposable plastic cups with DRM tied to their brand of coffee maker, so as usual, fuck nestle too

Makeup is pretty bad for your skin but really I was most concerned about how it might become a crutch or even cause of self esteem issues, as well as not wanting to perpetuate the stereotype that all women must wear makeup. But I think I might have been wrong about it on the emotional and gender fronts because she has so much fun putting makeup on as well as doing her younger brother's makeup and nails

I rewatched Kingsman Secret Service earlier this week and holy crap I forgot just how good that film is. Brilliant pacing, great subversion of expectations and probably the most fun fight scenes of any film I've seen.

The company I currently work at is relocating its HQ to Atlanta GA due to similar incentives. I'm slightly curious just how many millions of dollars in incentives they're receiving to relocate ~30 employees and hire another 30-60 local employees, because apparently Atlanta outbit Dallas TX on the questionable business incentives

No time like the present to patch up rocky childhood relationships with family members!

I learned very quickly I had already lost on the makeup battle by the time my daughter was 2. I thought maybe we could make it until she was a teenager but NOPE

Also worth noting often if you see what looks like Amish folks driving a car, especially if its for personal errands they're often not Amish but Mennonite.

I very consistently manage to shop at the same time as one Mennonite family, so I'll see them getting groceries then load up their car and drive home

My understanding is the faith has exclusions to the rules for when its necessary for work, so an Amish IT Administrator wouldn't be impossible!

That sounds super interesting! Can you link me/tell me how that works networking wise at a high level? I've been poking at a number of distributed compute and decentralized software lately just because every single one has its own unique solutions to the various chicken/egg problems that decrentalization pose

Most hospitals have a charity fund. It is based on my income. If I am broke and make crap wages, my share might be reduced to 0 usd.

Currently working through this with the local hospital and about $8k of various visits over the last 4 years of so while we had some mix of no insurance, garbage insurance and Medicaid (federally funded low income insurance) and it's literally all being wiped away. The lady who processes the applications explained to me that it's on a sliding scale, so if you make $1 over the threshhold for 100% waiver, it might be a 95% waiver. Notably some of the debt turned out to be a billing error where they should have billed Medicaid in the first place, but that was one of the smaller bills in the pile of debt

Ah the company that convinced people that adding DRM to coffee was okay because they made it "easier" to make coffee (meanwhile I've faught far more with every kurig I've encountered than any $5 drip coffee machine I've ever encountered)

Good luck ignoring bullshit signs when going through airport security and customs. Let us know how that goes for you

If the store is technically on a highway that can mean it is both unsafe and illegal to walk/bike there (depending on local laws of course)

The fact that stores and schools and other critical public spaces can be located on highways is certainly something that should be talked about more

From my experience this varies wildly regionally. My family in LA will put on shoes as part of getting dressed in the morning, but in Wisconsin you take your shoes off at the door since theres a good chance they're wet or even muddy depending on the season

Just wait until you start seeing the new combination flags where it's divided diagnoally and displays two flags communicating opposing and incompatible values. So far I've seen American/Israeli, American/Trump and American/Confederate Battle flags. The irony clearly goes so far over their heads, not to mention how these flags technically violate the official rules for flag display

I do think it's telling that I haven't seen any American/LGBTQ flags for who the designers of these flags cater to

Are northerners born in fridges?

You might be underestimating how extreme the weather gets in the American North. During the summer it'll be over 100F heat index for 3-4 months, but then in the winter the wind chill will fall as low as -45 (take your pick on units because that's a point of parity for Celsius and Fahrenheit) personally I'm uncomfortable once it gets over 70F but even when the temperature plunges into the deep negatives, you just bundle up and limit your time outside and it's not too bad. It doesn't feel much colder at -20 than it does at -5, but 90 and 110 degree heat indexes definitely feel significantly different. Climate change destabilizing the polar vortex is clearly making the extreme cold practically an annual occurrence now.

On the subject of Texas, if you were visiting a region with high humidity that may well be why the AC was running so hard. I'm not sure if the mold risk is universal or far lower for a stone structures but high humidity can ruin structures and make you very sick by incubating mold. Also modern structures are designed to be heavily insulated to the point where artificial ventilation is needed to replace stale CO2 rich air, which also means the interior needs to be regulated since it won't just breath with the outside to correct like older structures, so trapped moisture will remain trapped and fester

Unusually authentic Mexican food. Up here 90% of Mexican places are run by white dudes who make semi-authentic “fusion” dishes that are mainly just spicy. Cross the border and less than 15 minutes in, there is one family-run chain (Rancho Chico, Rancho Grande) with super-cheap 100% authentic foods run and staffed solely by Mexicans. And like, holy shit, that’s good food.

A friend's boyfriend is a Mexican citizen working on immigrating and he explained it to me once that for non-citizens it's far easier to start a business than to get a job, so many immigrants end up starting shops or restaurants related to their culture as they slowly work their way through the immigration process. This has led to absolutely amazing Mexican and Latin American cuisine in every corner of the country as well as lots of brilliant ethnic stores specializing in hard to get items for people from that culture. I live in a small town of about 12k and have 1 Mexican store, 1 Mexican ice cream shop and 3 Mexican restaurants! In rural Wisconsin!

With kids being able to pause when you have to stop the kids from killing themselves or eachother is usually a plus

Ehhh I should've figured info from a source like this would be woefully misrepresented