There are plenty of companies that will sell your name, email addresses, phone numbers, street addresses, marital status, and relative’s names. They obtain the information from publicly sold databases. I had access to one that had all that, plus the registration info for the car I drive, my estimated income, my military record, my driving record, my political party preference, and pictures of my home that had been on the realtor’s website.

The scary one was when a phone center employee in the Philippines stole my wife’s debit card number and then did two big Western Union MoneyGram transfers to a couple of Filipino men. That means bad actors have access to the credit companies’ databases from which Western Union draws their proof of identity questions, like who holds your mortgage, where you lived when you were 10, and the make/model of your first vehicle.

If you’re well-off enough to be a financial fraud target, paying a company for identity theft protection is probably well worth it. Put fraud alerts in with all the major credit bureaus too. That usually stops identity thieves from accessing your credit. If you use 2FA with your phone, make sure your telecom provider will not transfer your number to a new device without in-person authorization and authentication.

Absentee ballot. Always worked for me in the Navy.

When you shop for a place to live, do you buy/rent nothing because nothing is “perfect”? Or do you weigh the benefits and detriments of each available option and choose the best one?

There’s a clear choice, and if you need to see what voter apathy gets you, look at Venezuela. We got a second chance because the Jan 6 attempt failed. If you don’t vote, the usurper might win.

They don’t ban solely by IP. When you’re banned, they note the IPs you use, but because most internet account IPs are not static, they watch what new accounts from the IP do. If they go to the same subreddits as the banned account, it gets the ban hammer.

For those who are confused by what we mean by “free training”, read this article:

https://www.techradar.com/news/captcha-if-you-can-how-youve-been-training-ai-for-years-without-realising-it

No joke.

https://youtu.be/xbdqDe8M41A

I once tried sardine ice cream. I love sardines and I love ice cream. The only place I want them to mix is AFTER they are in my stomach.

Bet you don’t like Hawaiian pizza then.

Lift up the lid on the tank. Push down the float. If it still won’t fill, fill the tank with water from the sink or shower, then flush normally.

Do we have a sentient soul? I would say no, and as proof I point to those suffering from Alzheimer’s. That disease robs a person of their memory, so by the time of death they have lost much of who they were. If the sentient soul exists, it must be able to remember, otherwise it cannot retain the traits that make the individual unique. It should retain all the memories of our life. Yet those with Alzheimer’s forget who they are. How is this possible if we possess a sentient soul? If we cannot retain memories in this life, how will we do so in the next?

What about those with major brain damage from stroke or mishap? Part of their brain died, and whatever that part contained, it’s now gone. Is their soul now split? Did part of it “move on” with the dead part of the brain?

Using generator exhaust is inviting overheating the tank. I’ve been around one when the relief valve pops, and that’s a big fire waiting for a spark. It doesn’t take a lot of heat - maybe 30 watts - to keep the pressure up. They make tank wrap heaters specifically for this purpose. But I needed power (this was during one of California’s infamous “Public Safety Power Shutoffs” used to avoid wildfires). So I used what I had; a washtub and water.

The standard 20# tank has only one safety device - an overfill protection mechanism that prevents filling the tank more than 80%. The propane regulator for portable propane appliances is where the flow limiting device is located. That heavily limits the flow of propane if it detects insufficient backpressure on the outlet side of the regulator when initially pressurizing it (turning on the tank valve).

I have no issue with the 500 gallon tank. It has plenty of surface area in contact with the propane and good air circulation around the entire tank.

I was thinking of Buddhists who worship no god but believe in reincarnation. I also have friends who claim to be atheists yet believe there is an afterlife in a higher dimension.

My personal belief is that the last state of the biological computer we call a brain becomes our eternity. Religion is designed to make that last thought a hopeful one.

I bought a 22KW propane generator. It’s supposed to be plumbed to a large tank, but due to the pandemic I could not get the 500 gallon tank plumbing installed (county permit office was issuing for “emergencies only”). So I tried a 20# cylinder. It iced up after 6 minutes and the generator stalled shortly after. So I bought a 100# tank. That ran for 5 hours until the generator stalled. The tank was still 1/3 full.

What’s happening is that there’s insufficient area for heat transfer. The propane has to vaporize, so it draws heat from the part of the tank in contact with the liquid. The environment provides that heat, but in a small 20# tank there’s not enough surface area to transfer the amount of heat needed to vaporize the quantity of propane required by the generator. The propane stops vaporizing once its temperature drops below the boiling point, and the generator starves. The 100# tank has the same problem when the propane level drops, reducing the surface area in contact with the liquid propane. In the large horizontal tanks, the propane is in contact with a large surface area, and the tank is supported off the ground to provide good air circulation.

Your options are to buy a bigger tank or provide more heat to the small tank. What worked for me was an old washtub filled with water. I put the tank in it, then left the garden hose trickling water into the tub to keep the water from freezing.

If you do opt for a large tank, buy a reconditioned one. They’re half the price of new and last about as long because older tanks were made with thicker steel. Buying will save you money because you’re free to buy from the cheapest supplier. Buy your propane in the summer when the price is low. Get a tank big enough enough to last the whole year. When you lease a tank, the leasing company is the only one that can fill it, so you won’t be able to shop around for the cheapest price. Mine paid for itself in 2 fills (compared my bills with my neighbor who leases their tank).

That atheists don’t believe in an afterlife.

Probably because in a real racing seat there’s a harness to keep you from slouching. I used to have terrible lower back issues with a Recaro bucket seat I converted for a desk chair. Never had a problem with it driving for hours when it was in my car (may it rest in pieces). Then it dawned on me that the seatbelt was maintaining my posture. Added a lap belt and the back problems abated.

You could try substituting bread flour. It has more protein than all-purpose flour, therefore develops gluten faster with less working and resting. But I make hand-pulled noodles from all-purpose flour with 15 minutes of working. I can tell when the dough is ready by how it stretches when I twist it.

Don’t use cake flour. It’s a lower protein flour that is designed to not make much gluten.

It’s all about presentation. I can prep crickets in a way that almost anyone will eat them. Feed them oatmeal for a few days, then slow roast, powder in a blender, combine with sesame oil, salt, and spices, stuff it into wonton wrappers and steam. If nobody knows what’s in them they disappear. But if I do fried crickets like the ones the Korean street vendors sell, very few non-Asians would touch them.

A lot of insects can be prepared using familiar presentations and the unsuspecting will devour them. I found ant cookies delicious - like a molasses cookie. And ground rolly-pollies (sowbug/pillbug/armadillium) could be used to make shrimp shumai and nobody would be the wiser.

Balut - partially developed chicken or duck embryos. It’s served a number of ways, but the one that turned my stomach was boiled in the shell and served like a soft-boiled egg. Watched my Filipino friend eat it. He scooped the whole thing into his mouth and when he bit down, the body cavity of the embryo ruptured, causing the entrails to pop out of his mouth. Then he slurped them back in like spaghetti. That’s about when I refilled the beer pitcher with my puke.

Surströmming - fermented herring. Looks like rotten fish. Smells like rotten fish. Tastes like…well I don’t know. All I can tell you is it was salty, but beyond that all I tasted was vomit. Watching a neophyte eating it will usually treat you to the sound of gagging, followed by vomiting. Maybe your own, since the smell is truly pervasive.

You can turn off the LEDs. I actually prefer them in a dim warm white color which makes them easy to read in low light without being annoying.

I’ve been to a funeral where the guests wrote their farewells on slips of paper, which were then anonymously read by an officiant before being placed in a large ceramic pot with a small fire. It was much better than the traditional “Would anyone like to say something” followed by uncomfortable silence. People were much more willing to write down their thoughts for someone else to read.