Single people and empty nesters might eat out often, but most families with kids save money by cooking at home. This means all soups, roasts, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, gravies, powdered sports drinks, kool aid, spaghetti, rice, oatmeal, ice cubes, etc. will be made with tap water. I don't know too many families that crack open a bottle of Mountain Spring Water to add it to their Campbell's soup. Even our morning coffee is made with tap water, along with the water in people's through-the-door fridge taps.

One report I read suggested to reduce the amount of fluoride added to the municipal water supply rather than eliminate it completely.

If you read the Terms and Conditions of MyHeritage:
Any use of the DNA Services for law enforcement purposes, forensic examinations, criminal investigations, "cold case" investigations, identification of unknown deceased people, location of relatives of deceased people using cadaver DNA, and/or all similar purposes, is strictly prohibited, unless a court order is obtained. https://www.myheritage.com/ter...

And from the Privacy Policy of MyHeritage:
We will not provide information to law enforcement unless we are required by a valid court order or subpoena for genetic information. https://www.myheritage.com/pri...

The story in the NYT doesn't give enough information about the investigation to draw a conclusion. From the article: It was a decision that appears to have violated key parameters of a Justice Department policy that calls for investigators to operate only in DNA databases "that provide explicit notice to their service users and the public that law enforcement may use their service sites."

Does having a notice in both the ToS and Privacy Policy stating that law enforcement may request data with a subpoena or court order provide notice to the users of the service? And what was the exact wording in MyHeritage's ToS and PP back in December 2022? It is a valid question but the NYT opinion piece doesn't give enough details to adequately form an opinion of our own.

This one could be tricky. The area around Destin / Fort Walton Beach is relatively shallow and the ship itself is 175 ft (53 m) (keel to funnel) tall. Typically there needs to be at least 50-ish feet (15 m) of clearance between the top of the structure and the water's surface. They might decide to remove the funnels (smokestacks) to allow the ship to be sunk in a shallower location. This would leave the interesting parts of the ship more accessible to recreational divers while still giving enough clearance above the ship.

There is a website that catalogs the artificial reefs in the Destin/Fort Walton Beach area. I have personally made a dive on the Eglin Barge back in the 1990s. At about 60 feet in depth it was a dive just at the depth limit of beginner divers and an easy dive for advance divers. I think it was the first dive I made after receiving my Divemaster rating. Destin FWB artificial reefs

Part of this is the IT dept's fault. How often do users talk to each other and use those terms? Instead of web browser, they think about Chrome or Firefox. Instead of the start menu, most users have all the programs they use pinned to their taskbar or a shortcut on their desktop. Using terms like Start Menu, Taskbar, System Tray, or context menu just confuses them because none of their coworkers use those terms either. We think it is common knowledge where the system tray is located, or how to start the Task Manager, but some of these are items or distinctions that only the IT folks understand.

I'm guessing you drive a car almost every day, but if I told you that your car won't start because your Bendix won't engage with your ring gear, I wouldn't be surprised to see your eyes go a little glassy because those names or terms are not something you interact with each day. If instead I said your starter motor solenoid isn't working, you probably would understand or at least guess what's happening from the context. Assuming every user knows what a "web browser" is instead of just saying "start Chrome" or even "open the internet" highlights our own inability to communicate with our users.

No, it refers to the uncommon occurrence of an active-duty husband giving the Oath of the Commissioned Officer to his wife when she also becomes an officer. Doing it virtually while at sea over a Starlink connection is probably a first.

Yeah, the wording in the story was a little awkward. It probably didn't mean one child had potentially 38 parents viewing because that type of lewd behavior was discouraged after the Tailhook '91 incident. Tailhook scandal

Yeah, I'm sure it will be as common as TikTok and porn at any other work location. I'm sure many people repeatably watch porn on their enterprise managed computers in the work environment. /s

You do know the difference between revenue and profit, right? With $124.3 billion in revenue and $36.3 billion in profit, it means that $88 billion was spent on materials, labor, rent, research, taxes, shipping, lawsuits, fines, etc. From the profit, $3.85 billion was distributed back to the shareholders.

Still, $33 billion is about 30% profit from sales. Not bad but about average for the banking industry and a little above the 20% for the software industry. Most electronic manufacturers are happy with a 3% net profit, but Apple is not your average hardware manufacturer. Personally I would rate them between vanity products and precision electronics instead of average commodity items. NVIDIA had $60.9 billion is sales in 2024, so about half of Apple's sales. I didn't find a published profit amount so I can't make a direct comparison.

Conversely, many of those people you state "can barely make ends meet" have purchased an Apple phone and earbuds, so they've contributed to Apple's profit. Hard to hold Apple responsible for those people voluntarily helping Apple to profit. But isn't it fun to point to someone that has more than you and demand they share some of it?

All of them. The localizer antennas broadcast two overlapping signals aligned down the center line of the runway. The plane maneuvers left and right to balance the signals so they are on the runway center line even if they can't see it. The localizer antennas are at the far end of the runway so they transmit down the length of the runway and miles into the approach path. There is a second set of antennas at the other end for approaches from the opposite direction.

If the ground at the end of the runway is lower than the surface of the runway, then the antennas are elevated enough that the signal can be transmitted down the approach path without being obstructed by the terrain. In some locations this might be a few meters, in others it might be dozens of meters.

The decision to place a security wall around the antenna array might be to keep wildlife out, to prevent vandalism, to block the wind, or other local factors. Who knows why the airfield architects or airport managers decided to place a security wall around it? From the accident videos it appears there was a road just on the other side of the antenna array so perhaps keeping people out or at a distance from the radiation pattern was a concern. A plane sliding 300 meters past the end of the runway was bound to hit something - trees, water, structures, cars, rocks, etc.

ILS localizer system

From the press release linked in the article:

I'm more worried about the innocent remote sitting next to my recliner, or more worrisome, sitting on the side of the boardroom with an active microphone and a brand new protocol that might or might not be connected to a 5G cellular system.

SparkLink: Oh, that constant encrypted data stream from the remote? That's just the device polling for new, active devices and searching for the least used channels for best data transfer. The constant band hopping is part of a proprietary QoS algorithm. Data is sent back to our R&D labs to better train the voice recognition. Nothing to see here. Move along.

I'm a big proponent of semi-annual backups. If you have a major problem then copy your user folder onto an external storage and restore to the previous backup.

Once you've restored to the previous backup, allow Windows to install updates and check your programs for updates in the past months. After Windows and all the programs are back to normal, use a program to check the current User folder with the one saved to the external storage using a program to identify differences, like WinMerge, Meld, or Kdiff3. Selectively restore the files that are newer than what was in your backup and you should be close to where you were before the problem.

There was a similar problem in the US in the 1960s when glass bottles were being re-used for soda pop. It required you pay a deposit when you purchased a product which you received back when you returned the empty bottle. Similarly, purchasing a replacement car battery usually requires you pay a "core charge" which you receive back when you return the used battery.

Purchasing a disposable vape in the UK could require paying a 1 pound deposit which you would get back when you returned the expired vape carcass. Those discarded vape units would suddenly become a source of revenue for some people. I mean who wouldn't bend over to pick up a 1 pound coin? If you saw three discarded vapes, would you tote them back to a recycling spot (Tesco, Lidl, etc) for a pound each? There is zero cost to those responsible vapers that return their expired units and an incentive for others to pick up discarded units. Win / Win

Make some noise and tell your local MP that you support a deposit for users instead of a tax for everyone.

You and three friends like to play golf. You select one person to call the golf course each Monday to make reserve a tee time for each Wednesday. You trust this person with this responsibility.

You are also a member of a bowling league. The league has a committee to organize a tournament, selecting which teams play each other, how the winner is selected, and what trophies are awarded. You probably trust the committee.

You have a city counsel that votes on how the utilities are repaired, how the streets are plowed, etc. Do you trust this counsel? What about your State congress? What about the Federal congress?

At what level do you stop trusting a representative group to respect your wishes or to follow the majority of the people that they represent? It's easy to voice your opinion to your golf buddies but harder for most people to let their senators and congress representative know their stance on issues.

How to write to your members of Congress

If you are thinking of elemental molecules, then you might be correct, but if you get into the more complex biological molecules, then things get, well, more complex. One of the most common types of mirror image molecules we interact with is Carvone. It is an essential oil that used for either its spicy or minty smell, depending on its handedness. Here is an abstract from the publication Science Direct:

In the 1970s, Dr. Gilbert V. Levin included both left and right handed lactose on the Mars Viking lander to see if microbes in Mars might metabolize one or the other, thus proving microbial life on Mars existed. He claims there was identifiable proof but never convinced mainstream scientists.

He then went on to try to economically produce left-handed sugar to help diabetics. Left-handed sugar tastes the same to our taste buds, but the body cannot process it and it just passes through the digestive tract. Unfortunately producing left-handed sugar is extremely difficult and expensive - by weight it costs more that the equivalent in gold. https://www.diabetes.co.uk/blo...

These are just two relatively well known examples of left- and right-handed organic molecules having different properties. I would also be worried about the consequences of an off-hand bacteria attacking my system.

Some background articles that might be helpful:

Altermagnets: A new chapter in magnetism and thermal science

Altermagnetism: The Emergence of a New Magnetic Phase