I recall Neil DeGrasse Tyson talking about how there's photos of big cities in the 1920s (or something about that, I may recall the date incorrectly) being full of horses, and 10 years later they'd be full of automobiles. In ten years a horse went from being invaluable to worthless.

And the blame or credit for that all goes to WW I. Why? Because that was the first mechanized war where supplies, including munitions and troops were routinely moved up to the front by trucks instead of horses and/or mules. The Army not only bought huge numbers of trucks, it trained thousands of soldiers to drive them. Then, when the war ended, the Army did what it always does after a war: it discharged most of those soldiers and sold off most of the trucks because they didn't need them anymore and they'd all be obsolete by the time of the next war. Then, lots of those army-surplus trucks were bought by those newly trained drivers and put to use moving things around the country and teamsters changed from men who knew how to handle horses to truck drivers.

If I were to make a protect people policy around this, I would instead make a policy that minimum payments must pay down the card in x number of years (1 or 2). This would keep people's balances lower because though would get approved for as large a cap.

Just yesterday I happened to take a good look at the most recent statement for one of my CCs. On it, there was a section that told me that if I stopped using that card and paid it off with only the minimum monthly payment it would take 14 years to pay it off, and that I'd pay a total of over twice my current balance. Naturally, that's not what I'm doing, but I find it interesting that the company's required to tell you this every month (You don't think they'd tell you if they didn't have to, do you?) and that so few people bother to read it or act on that information.

Do note that I didn't recommend it, I just described it.

Actually, no, the high-limit card wasn't what got my score up; I'd been in and out of the 700s for years, with just that one secured card. In fact, I suspect that having that credit history with a secured card is what got me an invitation to get that other card in the first place.

I had a friend who had a good reason not to pay his balances in full every month. This was a diabetic genius who worked for JPL and had gradually lost his vision to diabetic neuropathy and I was working as his seeing eye person to help him stay productive as long as possible. He had several CCs, all but one at or near limit and that one more that he used for everything while he made minimum payments on all of them. By the time that card was maxed out, at least one other had a low enough balance to be useful again. The reason he did this is because he'd been told that he'd be lucky to reach the age of 37 and he was already in his mid-40s. At this point, he didn't expect to live long enough to pay off all of his cards and no heirs to take over his debt, so why not? If you're curious, he reached about 47, and left the card companies with no way to collect the money he owed when he died.

Actually, there's another reason. Ten years ago, I had very poor credit because I'd never tried to use it. Then I got a secured card and paid it off every month. My credit rating stayed poor. Then, a friend explained to me that keeping a small balance on the card and paying interest the on it would raise my rating because it showed that I was responsible enough to make regular payments. I still have that card, but I also have another, non-secured card with a much higher limit because the credit company's raised it several times without my asking and instead of having a rating of about 550, it's about 711 right now and has been higher. Yes, making monthly payments costs more because of the interest, but in the long run it's been worth it.

Disney doesn't need to remake their old animated features to bring in new audiences. All they have to do is open their vaults and re-release the originals and watch the money roll in. Not only is there a whole new generation of kids that have never seen them, their parents and grandparents would love to see them again.

If you need to recharge your EV on the road and refuel yourself at the same time, the answer is to use truck stops, not gas stations. Truck stops have mini-marts with snack food, sandwiches, both cold and hot and almost always some sort of fast food outlet. Hell, I've even stopped at one that had a Denny's coffee shop attached. And, if the need arises, they generally have laundry and shower facilities, and most of them are open 24/7. Your best bet, probably, is do a bit of research on what chain or chains you're going to find and check ahead of time to make sure they have what you need. And, if you stick to the chains, you don't have to check at every single one; the odds are very good that they only differences you'll find is in which fast food outlet's at any one location, and if any of them have chargers, they probably all do.

And my point is that Linux is much more stable than Windows and always has been.

These days, you can run Windows for days or weeks without rebooting.

Yes and you can also run Linux for months without rebooting. In fact, the only time you need to reboot Linux is because it's the only way to make sure that updates and/or upgrades to your software have replaced the older version.

If you're desperate to get your fridge clean but don't want to do the nasty work, here's a weird trick to make the job easy. All you need is access to a refrigerator dolly and a pickup truck. Put the appliance in the back of the truck and take it to a do it yourself car wash. Just be sure to release the strap so that you can open the door once you're there and put it back on before you leave, and it's as easy as pie to get it clean.

There's another reason that you missed. There used to be a name for young professionals with more income than they needed: yuppies. They were well known for buying expensive gadgets not because they needed them, or even in some case wanted them but because nobody else they knew had them and that let them brag about how wealthy they were and make everybody they know jealous. I'm sure there are still lots of them out there although the name may have changed, and this is probably the target audience for these toys.

The English have an expression for that that seems apt: "It needs eating."

This one is at least 40 years old: Tech support on how to take a leak. Share and enjoy!

In case you're not aware, the word "hoover" is used in some countries as a generic term for a vacuum cleaner. England, btw, is a notable example.