I have worked with a few of these poor bastards.

Brain in a box.

A minority want to live at all costs. This device will help them.

Many suicided while they still could. While in a nursing home in your wheelchair, you can call a taxi that will take you to a local pier. You have just enough strength to wheel your chair to a deep spot off the pier and go over the edge. A few miserable minutes, then peace. This, and all too many similar situations, has haunted me for years. You can't get euthanasia in many places, for whatever reason, so no other option.

Some waited too long, and had miserable final months or years. This device will help them, poor bastards.

If it was me, I would be gone before that final torture. Even a Putin KGB cell would be easier.

A species that has only 50 individuals is usually placed on an endangered list. Too few individuals in the gene pool to survive.

Welcome to 3 headed or 0 headed individuals in a few generations. There are good evolutionary reasons not to marry your cousin.

Am I being Tin Foil Hat here?

Google likes to listen to you, but it is hard to send long audio files over the internet, even as a low quality mp3, it takes up a lot of the data bandwidth on your phone. Tricky.

However, converting it into a text file means you can save a day's worth of text in very much less than a megabyte. (a very large book can be 1/2 megabyte of text). Much cheaper to send this smaller file regularly. Rather unnoticeable, in fact.

Why do I feel uneasy?

Word came installed on my Samsung S8.

So, I am one of those billion downloads. I didn't ask for it, never needed to use it, and am stuck with it, as I cannot uninstall it easily. It doesn't quite bother me enough to google a hack to get rid of it.

Of those billion, how many copies were downloaded by folk who actually wanted it?

Current Fujitsu rechargeable batteries claim to hold 70% charge at 5 years. AAA, AA sizes, maybe more, but that is all I have seen or need.

I can now afford to have devices that I charge every 3 years or so.

Their progenitors, the Panasonic Eneloop, are still recharging well after a decade. Yes, I used to have to charge rarely used devices every year or so with those. I do them all in the same month every year. Easy, on my calendar.

I'm slowly changing over to the Fujistu as old eneloops die, however that is currently a slow process. Happily.

Being pissed all the time!

Hmm, on second thoughts, what is better? 1) to be pissed all the time, or 2) to have drinks every now and then?

Sadly, probably a sign of growing up, I now prefer intermittent drinking. I enjoy it as a contrast to my normal days.

When younger, I can remember being boozed for days. Really, the fun is in the first few hours, or perhaps evening. Less fun after that, exponential decay.

So, I feel sorry for her. Weird.

A friend, who is a sleep apnoea specialist, said the most effective treatment was to lose 5-10kg of weight. That takes some weight of the lower jaw, so it doesn't hang so low when sleeping -> less loud noises/shitty partners/shorter lifespan.

I used to snore. I lost 5kg in weight, drank a bit less alcohol, and my snoring disappeared, except when really tired.

I was part of the biggest demographic of snorers. Yes, there are those that need better masks, but really, most are too fat or drink too much.

Yes, I applaud a better mask, it is needed. But really, most need a simpler fix, They are too fat.

Yes, you fix the fatty snorer with a gizmo, but there is the increased risk of diabetes, heart attacks, osteoarthritis, etc etc etc, which are not addressed. Focus on what is the real problem, not fixing a small part of the problem.

1) bitcoin value goes up and down, so does everything else. Live with it or dont use it.

2) Storing your bitcoins on a server owned by someone else is like giving your cash to someone you dont know. Maybe it will still be there, maybe it wont. If you are on Linux, or Windows or OSX, use a client like electrum (electrum.org). You can store the bitcoin wallet on your own computer, without relying on some not so trusted intermediary. You do do backups dont you?

Yesterday I transferred most of my bitcoin stash (~$500 Aussie) into my own wallet on my own computer, and backed it up elsewhere.

The bitcoin is now safe, the value of it may change up and down. Bit like owning shares, isn't it?

At my sons' 21st birthdays, among the many photos shown, were several of them in the bath, or in the backyard under a sprinkler, with genitalia showing. They were 1 or 2 at the time. These were shown simply to amuse the crowd. My sons were certainly not upset, I doubt anyone in the crowd was upset. I would bet serious money that no one present felt these photos were pornographic in any way.

Two bricks to the testicles of paedophiles would not upset me. Innocent photos of my kids being labelled as pornographic does.

Ok, you eat junk food, and add vitamins, in the hope you now have a 'balanced' diet.

You are assuming that vitamin supplements contain all the goodies you need, on top of junk food.

The catch is, we really don't know about all the good stuff in veggies, beans/pulses, fruits. Assorted veggies lower your risk of cancer, most help you poo well, which also decreases your cancer risk. What are these substances? We don't know yet. Are they in multi vitamin preparations? That's easy to answer. No, because we don't know what they are yet.

We have a million years of eating an omnivore diet, our gut is designed around it

What is more important? Convenience, or your long term health? Make your own choice.

That is a terrible situation, but the physics is still the same: energy in versus energy out. Any surplus is stored. It is still finding an exercise she can do a little more, and finding away of getting a few less calories. The tabs do help, but really only for several months.

"If I take the tabs and lose some weight, then I will be motivated to stay trimmer". That sometimes works, and I confess to being surprised when it does. But sadly not that often.

Sickness really screws with the ability to do exercise. Keep trying every sort of exercise till she finds one that she can do long enough to burn some calories off. I wish you well.

Never been sued, and unlikely to happen. I tell them these drugs will work, for awhile only. I describe the side effects. If they get them, well stop taking them for christ's sake!. A couple days later the drugs are out of their system.

I understand that reality and my patients do as well. Its folk who cant lose weight, and find psychopathic lawyers who will blame someone else, for a big fee, that screw with the system. That gets into the news, but it is really very rare. I don't have any colleagues who have been sued over this, in 30 years.

In my primary physician cohort, now 30 years out, about a third are very active in keeping up to date, a third meet statuary requirements by doing assorted online courses, and I worry about the other third, who get by doing mickey mouse courses that get them over the line.

Pick who you see. Most, even the out of date, are fine for most conditions, but some are better for when the going gets tough.

Nah, as a doctor (in Australia, but i suspect most places are the same), we prescribe them only when a patient goes on & on, "but honestly, I dont eat much...", especially when the waiting room queue is getting longer.

We know they work, for a few months, before becoming less and less effective.

I'm guilty, I prescribe them to turn off a patients demands and get them out of my room, knowing they will see that the response is poor after the first few months.

Eat less, do more. That is reality, everything else is bullshit, or very temporary.

After 3 or 4 months, when the drugs stop working, some are ready to face reality. Those I can work with.

As a primary care physician, I gave in years ago. I now prescribe assorted appetite suppressants whenever some one asks me, it saves me lots of arguments, and a lot of time.

However, I get them back monthly for weigh ins. The drugs work great for a couple months, losing 4~8kg a month, then tapering off to nothing. Folk then realise that this is not a wonder cure.

The only stuff that works long term is eating less +/- exercising more, or surgery to shrink your stomach (actually the latter works pretty well, better than pills long term, in my experience. little change out of $10K, but probably worth it)

Pills are short term appetite suppressants. The following year, you are back to your previous weight, but your wallet is much lighter. Look to advice that you already know about for long term losses.