My personal theory:

First off, raw milk does taste noticably different than pasteurized and homogenized milk you find at the store.

Pasteurization: heating the milk triggers the unfolding of proteins (Denaturation). This is what kills the bacteria but can also change the flavor of the milk.

Homogenization. This process breaks up the fat into smaller segments so they stay in solution in the milk. The result is a less creamy flavor.

People instinctually associate flavor with nutritional value. They think that better flavored food = better for you. This sort-of works in tomatoes and a few other fruit/vegetables. However taste perception is a complex blend of genetics, environmental conditions, and psychology. So the results are inherently unpredictable and completely unreliable.

The unpasteurized crowd all fall for the 'it tastes better so it must be better". They then make all sorts of excuses to justify their instinct. " Big corporate milk is evil!!" Blah blah blah.

Large corporations rarely innovate and try new things. Most innovation comes from smaller players with limited market share taking risks.

Large companies buy out smaller ones who create cash cows from taking large risks. The large company then milks the cash cows until they are completely dead.

The consolidation of studios to a few megacorporations has led to this inevitable end. The solution is simple: break them up. If we have 30 or so similar sized studios competing, we will get better movies/TV again.

I am of the opinion that most “supply” issues are due to investors. Except in certain geographic areas we do not have a shortage of actual physical housing. What we have is a shortage of available housing at a mixed pricepoints for purchase.

All housing that investors purchase for rentals removes it from the supply.

Traditionally investors have sought out entry level housing for rent. They invest in building rental complexes. They make all cash purchases and then rent it out to people who otherwise would have been first-time homebuyers. Investors used to be the low end offer. Blatant price fixing has increased rent outrageously. Now investors are the high end offer and removing supply constantly.

With AirB&B, the middle and even upper range market that traditionally has had less investor competition is now a major target. This has led to price wars for investment purposes on previously safe segments.

The first solution to the housing supply is simple: taxing income from rent so that selling the property is financially more lucrative. It will have to include a prohibition against rental increases to cover the taxes as well.

The second is to mandate zoning and new construction to match the market needs not the needs of the investors.

Last would be to create a program where builders who focus on entry level housing receive incentives from governments (also include hefty penalty for substandard construction).

Not really exeptional except it is commercial grade. It’s not the random stuff you get from the local brand. The local brand is whatever. Sometimes it’s really good, other times it’s pretty poor.

The most common difference is in a test called “falling number”. Falling number is a fast easy way to figure out if an enzyme that degrades starch has been activated (alpha-amylase). Intact starch in flour creates a matrix in solution and thickens it. When alpha-amylase is activated it degrades the starch and makes it thinner.

For baking you want a thicker dough that holds together. It’s how you get light and fluffy breads. The thicker dough traps CO2 produced by yeast or an acid/base reaction better.

Timeshares are written up as if they were property. Property that she shares with other people and is contractually required to pay for the upkeep. It’s basically a never ending money generator for the owners. Think of it a hotel where all the rooms are rented out to people who agreed to pay for them no matter if they use it or not.

As the owner of “property” she has a few choices. First off read the contract.

The management company sometimes reserves the right to buy the property back. Usually a good option - the “Owner” loses money but gets out of the never-ending bills.

She can also sell/give the timeshare to somebody else on the timeshare selling site. This transfers the ownership to somebody else who might like it.

If the property has degraded in value because of lack of maintenance from the management she might be able to get out by civil lawsuit. This is unlikely as most timeshare companies do exactly the bare minimum to meet their contractual obligations.

I did a little assassin creed run this summer. Started with Unity and went to Odyssey.

Unity by far has the best story-line. The game mechanics are also more focused on being an assassin, not a brawler. Sneak and stab, drop smoke and disappear when you get in trouble.

Syndicate - they changed the focus to more brawling. However the mechanics were pretty bad and the storyline was predictable and stupid to say the least. You can still play the assasin for most of it if you want.

Origins - They went all out into brawling with this one. Complicated all of the controls. Easiest way to make it through the game is as an archer. The story lines are dull and some are just plain weird. The offer you tons of different options in gear but only a few are worth keeping. Not much chance to actually assainate anyone. Lots of weird half baked stuff like the naval warfare in the story line but nowhere else.

Odyssey - it’s basically the same as origins. They spent more time fleshing out the mechanics. Added in a ton of options but you only use a few. Added in a ton more brawling combat and very little assassination. In many instances trying to play as an assassin is just not possible. The combat is often broken. Beating the bosses is all the same. Spam arrows while dodging until they weaken, get a hit in and run away- repeat. Save often because the game crashes regularly.

Yes I played all the way through and beat the main quests and side quest on all of them.

I have a Dyson. It’s really quite terrible with weak suction. I got it free from my sister-in-law when it “broke”. It took me an hour to disassemble it and clear out all the clogged sections. In order to keep it working it needs a full disassemble and cleaning around once a year. It’s an excellent example of a shitty design.

My other vacuum is one I got 18 years ago that still works well. The brand has since gone to shit so I can’t recommend them now.

What to look for:

First look at the amps on the bottom. Amps = suction power. The more amps it draws the stronger the motor is.

Second you want a beater bar. This is the belt driven part that spins. This makes the vacuum much more effective on carpet. It gets pet hair a lot better.

Third you want something with common easily replaced air filters. These clog easily and need to be replaced constantly. Look for machines with oversized filters.

And last, look for something simple to break apart and fix that you can find affordable replacement parts for online. Fixing a broken vacuum is generally pretty simple.

These are generally midrange machines not the cheapest but not the most expensive. In the long-term these tend to be the most economical in terms of performance/cost.

Windows did a few vital things that Apple failed miserably on in the 90’s.

Mac dropped support for legacy software and hardware on every new OS in the 90’s. Microsoft maintained backwards capability. It was a major reason windows was more resource intensive and had more bugs. It was a smart move because windows OS was able to handle more software and hardware than Macs. This is the top reason why windows demolished Mac in sales.

Microsoft’s business model allowed greater range of pricepoints. Most users in business or at home do not need the capabilities of the lowest priced Mac model. You don’t need much to check e-mail, browse the web, and do some basic word processing. Apple did not service this largest section of the market at all.

I have been attempting to use Linux for 20 years now. It has found its niche used for me over the years. For example when my kids were toddlers they had a old machine that defaulted to PBSkids. Before that I used it to run a gaming server.

Currently I have a old laptop that I dual boot with win 10 and whatever Linux distro I feel like trying at the moment.

The win 10 on the laptop barely meets the minimum hardware requirements and takes 10 minutes to load.

I have tried a few different distros and always had a few issues with the setup. All sorts of different ones - screen orientation, WiFi connection, printer hell, keyboard layout etc. Takes me days to fix the bugs or give up.

Mint takes 2 minutes to load and so far is working seamlessly. It’s apt manager is the easiest I have used in a Linux distro. It found my network printer automatically. It runs smoother than windows 7 did on my laptop.

With Microsoft ending win 10 for the shitty win 11, I imagine many people are looking for alternatives. If Mint continues to work to make setup and usage easy, it will gain market share rapidly. It’s not all the way there yet, but it’s a hell of a lot better than before.

Evaluating products based upon quality not being loyal to a brand ca save you a ton of money.

Brand loyalty is taking advantage of the brain being lazy. It doesn’t want to reprocess every little thing. So when something has worked well in the past, people tend to grab the same brand. It takes a lot for people to reconsider their choices again.

Once companies break the brand loyalty due to shit performance, it is extremely difficult to get it back. This is why mismanaged brands that have gone to shit, always attempt to rebrand themselves.

The most memorable example of this for me was a long time ago. I was newly married and very poor. I was just starting to build my tool collection in the apartment.

I needed a circular saw to repair some craigslist furniture. So I carefully went around to the hardware stores looking at the prices. They were all more than I was willing to spend.

Then in Walmart one day I took a look at what they offered. It was pretty much an exact replica of the top of the line model at 1/4 of the price. The box was a bit dusty and next to another saw with the same name and UPC. It was obviously a newer box of the same item. It was the cheapest looking thing I could imagine. Completely different from the older one. It looked like a great way to lose some fingers and toes.

I grabbed the solid looking one and walked happily out of the store. It’s had a lot of use since then, and it’s still working flawlessly. I am still the proud owner of all my fingers and toes.

Depressiom is a malfunction of the brain, just like diabetes is of the pancreas. It has both genetic and environmental triggers.

Some people are going to contact the disease early for no apparent reason. They fight it their entire lives.

Other people have strong environmental influences that trigger the disease. The right treatment can effectively stop or even reverse the progression of the disease. Other people are resistant to the treatment the the disease progresses unchecked.

Both diseases are deadly if not treated at all.

The hardest part for people suffering from depression is that the disease itself fights against treatment. All the things that people need to do to feel better are the last things a depress person wants to do: Set a regular sleep cycle, have a strong exercise routine, eat well balanced food, take your medication on time, avoid self-medicating with other drugs, attend therapy regularly, interact with supportive friends, engage in hobbies they enjoy, etc… aka a living hell and a daily battle requiring energy they don’t have. Oh and every part treatment takes time to have an effect as well. So at the beginning (2-5 years) they have to do all that work to still feel like shit at the end of the day.

The smaller restaurants kept their prices tracking actual inflation to maintain their customer base. Lately they have been enjoying increased business because of the nationals screwups.

The local Greek place $65.

The best taco truck in town is $55.

For $75 I can get my local family owned Thai place with leftovers for the next day.

DQ, McD, Subway, KFC, all run between $60-75.

For $70 I can even get my family chipotle and enjoy the guaranteed food poisoning a few hours later.

“Due to the success of the program, vulnerabilities are harder to find. The amount we are paying is now insufficient to justify the time and effort for most researchers.”

As another guy who drives pickups at work. I hate them as well. They have shit visibility, are difficult to park, handle like a tank, and the bed is difficult to get in and out of.

They design them now as toys, not work vehicles.

Not from Turkey and agree with the bear. It’s delicious. I had it when I flew into Samsun and drove around the region. It’s a really beautiful area as well.

First job out of college was as a statistician. I couldn’t lie that much.

Then I worked as a microbiologist. It stunk.

Then I worked as a plant breeder, it was fun but the pay sucked without a Ph.D.

Took a job as and international marketing and product manager (paid the same as the PhD). Traveled all over the world. It was brutal but fun. Jetlag and stress started destroy my health.

Took a job as a consultant to farmers. It wasn’t bad until a new CEO decided to change things and lose a ton of money.

Currently working for a smaller company that basically doesn’t care what I do as long as it’s profitable. Contracting research, selling seeds & beneficial insects, etc to farmers. Set my own schedule and do my own thing. I let the CEO know what I am up too once a year or so. Spent most of the last month playing PlayStation after doing way too much this spring. Gotta pace myself after all.

From what I have seen, unhappy marriages are very common in highly religious/conservative groups.

Most of these groups have stupid “No Sex before marriage” rules. So two horny young adults (teenagers in some cases) get married quickly. Pregnancy follows immediately and they start being parents before they are fully mature.

Fast forward 5-6 years later and they don’t even like each other anymore. The smart ones do the adult decision and divorce.

Way too many of them live misery constantly bickering while claiming to be “happily married” because “divorce is a sin”. They then spend most of their time complaining about their spouses. The kids of course have all sorts of baggage from growing up in the toxic environment.

I would have a plumber look at it. A sink smelling is a possible sign that sewer gases are pushing past the p-trap. This may be because of an obstructed vent.

Jobs was his own worst enemy for a while on the compatibility issue.

New OS launches- all your old programs don’t work on it.

Want to use a floppy to transfer files between a Dos/Win and a Mac? Nope, not compatible. When USB drives started coming out they dropped all support for floppy drives, even in machines with them installed.

Constant driver issues with all sorts of things. Many never got resolved. To be fair the market share for Mac’s was so tiny, offering support for them didn’t make business sense.

Want to play a game? Good luck. The majority of games didn’t work on Mac. Same reason as the drivers.

As for stability issues, for a while I ran a computer lab for a college 50:50 win/Mac machines. They both crashed about equally as often.