I was driven in a Nio SUV in Norway last year. It's a Chinese EV made for the Norwegian market. Smooth, quiet, plush and $40K in US dollars. If you buy it with an exchangeable battery--it works like a propane tank on a gas grill, and Norway has the infrastructure for it--it's $30K. I'd do it in a heartbeat.

I pay Comcash $330 for 2.5Gb internet, full cable package with HBO and all that, and voice landline. I'm sure I could cut it--I really don't need the 2.5Gb, and 75% of the channels, but we do use the landline, believe it or not (we're in a cell tower desert) and I've been with them for 25+ years. I do watch a lot of sports, but most of our other viewing is news and PBS. If I REALLY put my mind to it, I could reduce it a lot but the convenience of status quo is too much, which is what they're counting on. I'm 67, my wife is 70 and VERY non-tech, and teaching her how to cord-cut would take five years off my life (and my marriage).

I was dealt a pretty poor genetic hand. My brother, my father and his father all died of heart attacks at age 60. They were all grossly overweight with uncontrolled high blood pressure. (Luckily, there is absolutely no cancer anywhere, but possibly all the men died before they could get it.) I was kinda overweight, and Covid didn't help. I had been on blood pressure meds for a while, and my readings were good, but I had gained weight over Covid, and even though I exercised and watched what I ate, I had ballooned. Through the use of GLP-1 meds (I got it since I also, like them, had sleep apnea, which I treat with a CPAP) and a new diet called Stop Eating Like a Fecking Pig, I have lost 50 pounds in 16 months, good and slow like you're supposed to. Maybe 25 more to go. I have no doubt that like my blood pressure meds, I will be on some form of GLP-1 for the rest of my life for maintenance. I see they now come in daily pills, making them cheaper to manufacture and dispense. My insurance covers them at perhaps $25 a month. I am exceedingly lucky.

Itâ(TM)s not that simple.

About 8% of all US men over 40 use a CPAP to treat obstructive sleep apnea. (I'm one.) I would bet that at least 40% of all US men over 40 have it, and the incidence only increases as you get older. But with few getting it diagnosed and treated, dementia and Alzheimer's rates are sure to rise. It's partially weight, and partially the structure of your throat. Some GLP-1 drugs are designated to treat obstructive sleep apnea (through weight loss).

I get it. I'm wary of the wireless call-home connections to my Toyota and my Kia, but I can understand your concerns about a potential foreign actor killing my car. Or even a connected domestic actor like Tesla/Musk.

I was just in Norway and was driven in a Nio SUV, a Chinese make made for the Norwegian market. Electric, $50K, and the most plush, silent car I've ever been in. Driver said it was perfect. And in China and Norway, there's a model that's $10K cheaper with a swappable battery. I'd buy one in a second.

Actually, Times Roman, new or not, is named for the Times of London. It was instituted during the ink and paper shortages of WWII. It's slightly condensed compared to other serif fonts, and conserved a page or two a copy of its print edition. It was made for printing on paper. But it makes no sense on screens. In fact, what you're reading right now is a sans-serif font.

Agreed. We took an Uber SUV in Bergen, Norway, which was a Chinese brand made for the Norwegian market called a Nio. Gorgeous car, rode like a dream. Driver said it was the best he had ever driven. Our hotel was down the street from a Nio showroom, and the cost of the SUV was about $50,000, which is actually in line with US pricing, if not a bit low. But the capper was that they also made a model for $10,000 less with a swappable battery, available with a monthly subscription. Five minutes at a station to change batteries, like a propane tank on a gas grill. Norway and China have the infrastructure for it. If we had the infrastructure here, I'd buy one in a second (if the 100% tariffs were removed, of course).

I am lucky enough to share a house with a female orange tabby, a four-year-old idiot named Zoe, named after David Bowie, the first singer I heard in my car when I was bringing her home. I saw her and held her in front of me, and she stuck her tongue up my nose. Classic case of you break it, you bought it. She's hidden in the crawl space of my office drop ceiling twice, but is very loving to everyone, including the various repairmen, plumbers and electricians who visit every so often. I will have to tell her she's exceptional, but I think she knows that already.

It's 27" but if you rub it it's 42".

Hogs will figure that into the cost. Either make it much more--I remember after-school sessions for my son where they charged a dollar a minute if I didn't pick him at 5, and that was 25 years ago--or change the configuration of chargers to include more parking spots around them and multiple cables that start charging your car once the one before you hits 80%. Also, mandate text messages when your car is done, and ban users who abuse the process.

I think I spelled that right. I've been MS free for two years ever since a security update hosed all my printers (the old Brother workhorse, the NEW Brother printer I bought because I thought the old one was broken, and the cheapo POS color printer I bought for the occasional photo). I'm no Mac fanboy, and yes I've had the occasional glitch with my M1 Mini, but nothing like I experienced with Windows.

I can see how AI itself could be useful in some specialized fields, especially medicine, but the few times I've used server-side AI it's been little more than a hyped-up search engine. I truly don't see what any user who is the least bit literate (which is a point) needs it on the CPU running their home computer.

I'm going to start looking for a new small car for local driving in 18 months, and I'm not sure if the greater cost of an EV along with a home charger would outweigh the nearly 50% less for a small used ICE or Hybrid. I currently drive a (paid for) 2013 Kia Soul, top of the line, never had problem in the 7 years I've owned it (bought it used). At this point, I don't know what I'm going to do. I might just rut the Kia into the ground until it dies. By that time, the charging station mess might be closer to a solution, and the cost of EVs might come down a bit.