No shit.

Like all new technologies, there is a time when bunches of companies jump on the band wagon to get in on the action. You can see it all throughout the history of the industrial revolution.

They mostly know that there will come a great weeding out of those that can't handle the technology or just fail from poor management. But they are betting they will be among the 1% that wins the race and remain to dominate the market.

The rest will just bide their time until the next Big Thing comes along. And the process starts over again.

As someone with long COVID, I can vouch the debilitating mental effects. I was teaching math to 4th through 8th grade students when I got it. I can remember standing in a classroom talking about a lesson and just having my mind go blank in mid sentence. I couldn't function. Not knowing what I was talking about or even where I was. Thankfully the students where very understanding and someone would finish my point I was making. I still suffer from it yet today, nearly 2 years later.

I have respiratory issues despite every CT scan showing nothing more than a couple of small pneumonia scars form long ago. I should be able to breathe just fine with no reduction of lung capacity. It stems from a lack coordination with my diaphragm - It runs backwards when I exert myself causing shortness of breath. Another sign of probable brain injury. And despite using a therapy tool to try and fix the issue, at best it just helps a little.

The upshot is I have pretty much stopped doing a lot of things I used to do because of the difficulties breathing and I spend a lot more time away from people due to an unreasonable fear of COVID.

It has caused me to retire earlier than I wanted to. And my life has greatly changed - and not for the better either.

The "rules" the Amish live by are determined by the Elders of that group. They can be quite strict or fairly loose. And can vary by a fair bit from colony to colony even as neighbors. Cell phones can be fine for one group and be forbidden for the next.

Like some much in life, the rules are open to interpretation.

And we are only bound by a DNR IF we have the actual document in hand. Or as EMS, if CPR has already been started when we arrive, we are automatically obligated to continue. If it ain't written down, it never happened. Nursing homes are supposed to provide the documents any time we transport such a patient as part of their medical history papers. And yes, we treat and transport a lot of such patients with a DNR that needs to go to a hospital for some reason.

Worst case scenario, entering a home with family gathered and grandma has a heart attack. And half the family wants me to start CPR and the other half tries to tell me grandma to let grandma go. I will ask them if they have the documents and they don't answer me because they are too busy fighting each other to respond to me. And my poor driver is trying to literally breakup a fight while I'm doing CPR.

Source: A very old and happily retired medic

Eh, such products minimize the waste of things that would otherwise be thrown away and lost. Us humans have been processing the scraps and leftovers of our food into other edible products for as long as we can remember - Waste not, Want not.

The problem is the disconnect modern urbanites have from their food and not knowing how it gets made. If you like deli ham eat it! (in moderation as all things should be), it's not all that different in processing than a hot dog, sausage, or hamburger. Or even cheese.....

Yes it is.

When processed, the meat bits, (and yes they are leftover meat bits), are ground into a paste with water added, (nearly all ham you buy has "Water Added" listed on the tag - exception would be something like "country ham" or prosciutto ham), then pumped into a carboy, (the paste is then called babbit), seasonings are then mixed in and then molded by machine into a glorious block 'o ham! To be sold at your local Deli as part of a delicious sandwich for which you happily pay your "hardly earned" monies.

Pfffttt, Microsoft has been there, done this, and got a whole closet full of tee shirts for stuff like this many times over the years. In the end the users don't care and can't stop it. And they are, by in large, too lazy to change to something else to completely avoid it.

It hasn't ever affected the bottom line enough to matter to them. They will just pull this ~~bug~~ feature and wait for a better day. Or perhaps they will figure out a way to introduce it piecemeal to disguise it better.

Minnesota is currently working on a similar law to stop surcharges and just have a final price.

I'm well old enough to be your daddy. Here are some things you should pay attention to.

Have a reason to get up every day you can breathe. Because if you have no reason to, you will wither and die. I've seen it happen and it ain't pretty.

Time will seem to accelerate. You will slowly start to notice that the "past" gets farther behind you quicker and the "now" flies by to become that "past" and the "future" gets here far too soon.

Like it or not, you are getting closer every day to dying rather than living no matter what you do. Make your peace with that concept because no one gets out alive.

Buy a nice suit. You will probably be going to the weddings of the children of your friends or your own children. And far more sadly, the funerals of family and friends. And at some point in time, the funerals will out number the weddings.

Start doing things for society. Get involved in your community. Help build a park or two or three, teach kids something - I spent 4 years tutoring/teaching math to kids in a small rural school during COVID. It did cost me some health, (Thanks! long COVID), but it was worth everything it cost and I would do it all over again. Those kids did more for me than I could do for them.

Physical exercise is great but don't forget to exercise the mind also. Because if you don't, you will lose cognition and the ability to think perhaps faster than your physical health - and this is my greatest fear. Cultivate hobbies that stimulate mental challenges. And a diet of video games ain't it. Go fishing, bird watching, gardening, do art. Something, anything, that challenges the mind to solve problems and be creative. I design and build metal model steam engines and 3D printed items to try and keep my mind sharp. I try to learn new skills every chance I get.

As much as it might be fun to travel the world and see new places and people, there is a whole world to explore right outside your door. Go explore it and really learn the details of it. It will surprise you with it's beauty and complexity. You don't need to be rich to explore the world.

Teach something to someone. You know things - pass it on to others. Do not let the knowledge die with you.

Learn to laugh at yourself - do not fear looking silly. It can help make people feel more comfortable with you and with themselves.

And finally, live a good life. Be kind and be there for the world when it needs you. Leave a legacy for others to remember you by - even if it was only a kind word at the right time. The memory of you is all the world will have - leave your mark on it.

Good Luck! We all need it!

What makes me curious is, not that he went to Russia, but just how did he get there?

From what I read, he had traveled to Alberta Canada and then it looks like he just flew to Russia from there. I'm under the impression that there is no commercial air travel from the US or Canada to Russia. So where did he fly to after he left Canada? China? North Korea? Cuba? Taylor Swift's private jet?

Ahhh, the old "let's make something a right that only the rich can afford." For all the "eat the rich" rhetoric here, there seems to be a lot of desire to increase the class divide even more by limiting rights to how much money you have.

It's already very difficult to nearly impossible to obtain a purchase and carry permit in the state since Maryland is "May issue" state and NOT a "Shall issue" state. This means you can be denied a permit at the whim of local law enforcement unless you have an "in" with whoever is in charge. This is purely performative theater to buy votes.

And the two groups that really should have liability insurance - drug gangs and law enforcement - will be completely unaffected by this requirement.

Disclaimer: I'm old and retired. My wife is 7 years younger than me and we've been married 37 years.

You will always stop and look at and admire a pretty young lady. You might even think to yourself, "If I was 40 years younger!" And then immediately think to yourself "But any way".

As you get older you will become more attracted to older women. Not because you think they are prettier than younger women, that's biology for you. But, you will find the personality and cultural reference points of age far more compelling than plain beauty in your relationships. Turns out, shared life experiences and culture means more in the long run than the smell of bubble gum and all the drama of youth.