I live in southeastern Colorado. Here, Halloween is observed in the late afternoon, after school if it's on a school day and only in the business district. All of the businesses give out candy, and nobody has to worry about kids being out after dark.

Thank you, that was very interesting, and looking up Duty Solicitor in Wikipedia filled out the explanation, including some limitations and exceptions that weren't explained but seemed fairly reasonable. I can see why this doesn't appear in the various mystery programs: it would get in the way of the protagonist's solving the case and that Just Wouldn't Do.

And here in the USA, you have the right to an attorney, and if you can't afford one, one will be provided at government expense. Judging only by what I've seen on various TV programs produced in England, you don't have that right in Blighty. Do you have it in Germany? I'm not trying to put you down, I'm just looking for information here.

Simply stating: We Do Not Accept DOCx or XLSx formats, forces compliance. Since MS can produce ODF (allegedly), that's how you get compliance.

There's always going to be a few people who won't do it, mostly because they're afraid to upset some important customer. How you get around that isn't obvious. However, you can start by making it a requirement that anything that comes in that's in an MS format is sent back with some boilerplate added telling the sender why it's rejected and a list of acceptable formats. Making that automatic, so that the chicken droids can't ignore the policy may be all you need.

Back when I was in Boot Camp (USN) we were given gas masks one afternoon and herded into a sealed chamber to see for ourselves that they work. Once we'd had time to try them out, we were ordered to remove them, and find out for ourselves what a low-concentration of teal gas was like, followed by having us exit the chamber at double-time to help clear it out of our eyes. Some things you can try out for yourself, others are too hard hitting for that.

Yes I was in the Navy. If the helmsman and the duty office stick the ship on a sandbar the Captain still gets the blame.

And now you know why the Captain spends so much time on the bridge at sea. BTW, every time the Captain comes on the Bridge or leaves it is logged in case it later becomes important. (I was in the Navy too.)

Statistical contortions might provide copium, but don't prove anything. I gave you a straightforward parameter median household income. Something economists have been using for generations. You had to cherry-pick — and your cherry is rotten, because you complained about the period of COVID lock-downs, much of it presided over by your champion.

And you provided no citations. No wonder, your moderation is so high :)

Yeah the cops need to take this one seriously.

You're making a common mistake here: the cops don't have any authority to prosecute criminals or to decide how, or even if the perps get punished. That's up to the court system and to what the local laws say. Yes, I agree that the perps here need to be punished, but let's be realistic about who gets to do it.

Why do the Islamists have so much trouble assimilating?

What makes you think that they want to assimilate? From how they act, many of them want to take over the countries they move to and impose Sharia Law on them.

Also Trump is wrecking the economy and nobody wants to acknowledge that

Because it just is not true. Median household incomes in the US are just steadily rising (inflation-adjusted) since he took office in 2024.

If these were highly remote locations and getting a human to them in time to fix a problem was going to be a challenge, then maybe remote controllability would be important. But this is a damn supermarket; there's going to be somewhere there or nearby constantly. Dear Lord.

There's no reason that there can't be a thermometer and controls built in, and only accessible from the back. Add on a clipboard with pages printed with lines for date, time, temperature, initials and you have a way to keep track of the temperature without outside access. Add on controls to adjust things and you've got everything you need.

I remember an episode of NCIS where McGee used a paint gun to cover the lenses of some surveillance cameras so that DiNozo could get into a junk yard and retrieve some evidence they needed.

that presented themselves as "male" were paid more per task and perceived as more "human-like" than their "female" counterparts

Those complaining loudest are the ones, who can't define the term "woman".

Please note that in the text I quoted, only satellite relativistic corrections were listed, and those have nothing to do with particle physics.

"Don't forget GPS satellite relativistic corrections!"

That came from studying Special Relativity, not Particle Physics. A completely different branch of physics altogether.