I just bought a new ThinkPad which had several SSD options. I chose the slower 1 terabyte disk instead. I'd rather have everything I need with me, even if it is a little slower.

As for backups, I have a daily cron job which rsyncs between my laptop and my home server.

When I have massive changes I make sure I'm hooked up to the wired home network, otherwise it just goes on over wifi.

"Unless you outright ban guns....or possibly legislate it so that only single shot weapons are legal, you're not going to change or do anything."

Single shot weapons aren't very useful for hunting. I have a single-shot breach action 12ga. shotgun. I missed several ducks and geese this year because I only had one shot -- by the time you reload they're gone.

I think it'd be a real hassle at gun ranges too.

My first programming course in High School taught me TI Basic. If I remember correctly, the course was titled "American History" or something like that, taught by the football coach.

"While it can be argued that I benefit in the form of the content I DO want being paid for by the ads, there are other revenue models that mysteriously work for much content."

Do you remember the hosting model for hobby-sites before Google Ads were so easy to implement? Remember Angefire, Geocities and 50megs? Those free hosting sites had terrible blinking flashy ads all over the place. You couldn't control placement, quantity or if they had pop-ups, etc.

I think that the current situation with user control over their ads is a much better situation.

My website isn't worth professional hosting. It's basically a blog with code snippets and short how-to posts for stuff I work on. I spend a couple hours a month answering user questions and reading thank-you emails from people who found my content useful. The site is hosted on Bluehost (which is pretty cheap) and Google Ads just cover costs so I don't have to spend any money on it.

Could there be a different revenue model? Sure, probably. But figuring out what it is, implementing it and supporting it is going to take more work than the two hours per month I think my site is worth.

They have recently softened their stance on caffeine to appear more rational and relevant

I'm not sure what would count as recent. As far as I know it's been clearly taught that Coffee and Tea were the only drinks officially against the Word of Wisdom. Mormons have been drinking coffee substitutes like Postum for a long time (like great-grandparents long time).

As for caffeine specifically, some local leaders may have interpreted things more strictly, but I have never seen any official church statement saying that it's against the Word of Wisdom.

What this means is that drinking hot peppermint tea is forbidden

It's actually just black/green teas. Herbal teas are fine. A drink being cold doesn't necessarily make it OK (eg. cold frappuccino is still against the Word of Wisdom), and being caffeine free doesn't make it OK, such as decaf coffee (also against the Word of Wisdom).

As for Jolt, Bawls, energy drinks, guarana, etc. it comes down to a principle of not letting the body be in control of the spirit. As such, we are taught to avoid addictions of any sort. So if you drink Jolt sometimes and it isn't addicting to you, that's fine (besides it being pretty gross...). If someone else finds themselves needing that can of Bawls to get going every morning, then maybe they need to get off that addiction.

I'm a Mormon, and my caffeinated beverages of choice are Guarana and Barq's root beer.

I have a Fisher space pen and it writes well enough, but it globs occasionally and is thicker than the average ballpoint.

I don't currently own a technical pen, but I agree with the guy who posted a link to some. Technical pens are where it's at for that sort of thing.

I thought most high schools offered a selection of science classes and you had to take x science classes to graduate.

My high school offered general science, biology, human biology, chemistry and physics. IIRC, you had to take two science classes during your 4 years of HS to graduate.

My high school was in rural Michigan and there were only 116 students in my graduating class, so it's not like it was a big or fancy school. Have things changed that much since 2000?

My 6 year old has been asking me to teach him to program. He played with kturtle for a little while, but turning is relative to the current position and in degrees, and he always ends up distracted by games and videos.

Recently I've started teaching him TI-86 Basic. He is very excited about printing things to the screen.

A couple of pros:
* It's self contained with no distractions
* Commands are all on the screen so you don't have to memorize them
* It's one place where Basic is still useful
* IO is simple

The other TI calculators are probably just as good, but I had the 86 in my closet.

This year I'm putting my foot down. Teenagers and parents with no costume don't get any candy.

Did you know that Minnesota has 15 non-native species of earthworms in its forest?

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialanimals/earthworms/index.html

"All of the terrestrial earthworms in Minnesota are non-native...at least seven species are invading our hardwood forests and causing the loss of tree seedlings, wildflowers, and ferns."

I've seen before/after photos of forests where earthworms moved in and the undergrowth just disappeared. I don't think that increasing the use of non-native worms is a good idea.

I lived in Brazil for 3 years, and while it's a lot easier to find the black market in Brazil than in the US, it's no where near 90% illegal. Even where Redock and Abbedias type knock-off options are available Brazilians recognize and would rather have the real deal.

For the most part the people who have illegal utilities are shack dwellers (even poorer than those in brick-built favelas). Even most of the brick buildings in the favelas have an electric and water meter attached and in use.

The combi vans are popular and cheaper than the bus, but police busts make them risky, and they're hard to get in and out of. As a result it's mostly poorer working men who need to save the R$0.25 per ride who take them.

My experience was mainly in Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo (the city itself and several suburbs), so maybe Rio is a different story.