That’s a good idea too. All depends on how much freedom the parent wants to give the child.

Yes. I used to give my old phones to my kids for entertainment. Nowadays it seems like music videos are as prevalent as mp3s, so you need a decent display as well.

How about using an older smartphone with the SIM card pulled out? Delete/hide all apps except the one for music and lock down the app store.

As others have responded, your joint pains are not normal. Yes, I had joint and muscle pains in my 20s, but it was always obvious how I got them and they eventually healed after several days.

When I was 55, my fingers started swelling and I was unable to perform simple tasks. My doctor ordered a series of blood tests, CBC (Complete Blood Count), CMP (Comprehensive Metabolic Panel), Rheumatoid factor, Lyme disease (there are 2 tests for this), plus others that I can’t recall off the top of my head. I was eventually diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.

You should find a doctor who won’t ignore your symptoms.

Ron Paul must be crushed. How will his campaign recover from this devastating blow?

Since I’m considered less invested in the community if I don’t have children, I shouldn’t have to pay property taxes, since that money is used to fund public schools. And whatever federal portion of the budget that goes toward public education should be given back to me as well.

Also, does a parent’s extra vote go away when the children reach voting age?

Edit: The more I think about this, the more I like it. I think you’re on the right track, but we need to take this further. You have a greater stake, therefore you should have a larger tax burden as well. You and your family will use more resources than a single person. Roads wear out faster from more driving and increased weight of vehicle. Larger families require larger police and fire departments. Etc., etc. Good idea.

We’ll have to see how comprehensive Apple’s trail maps are. AllTrails has maps for many state and local parks. Gaia has extensive trail information for international hiking trails.

No. It’s not possible to find light reading about lead.

Doubt any heads will roll. I bet this feature was approved by the C-suite and board of directors. Look, we can create two revenue streams with one simple offer—get car buyers to subscribe to On Star so we can collect data, and then sell the data. All legal because nobody reads the fine print in the contract.

It was just my crass humor. I used the noun version of the word “use” because you said you couldn’t figure out how to use it.

What’s the use of giving you the answer when you can look it up on the internet?

Ah, so what would the Internet look like if it were built by altruistic, honest people. Sadly, I must be really jaded an cynical because that’s so hard for me to envision.

Commercial interests were always exploiting resources within their spheres of influence, even before the Internet. As technology improved and new pathways emerged, they ran full speed ahead.

Your example of a news site that didn’t push their algorithms never existed. Even pre-Internet, when news was printed, every newspaper had a certain slant. In New York City—back in the 70s—there were four major papers, NY Times, Wall St Journal, NY Post, Daily News. They all had their biases.

But the one thing they couldn’t do was collect user data. Ads were static and we had a choice to either read or ignore it.

As I’m typing and doing this brain dump—it’s 1:18am, why am I not asleep—I’ve come to realize that the thing I hate most about the current state of the Internet is the vast collection of user data how companies are mining and exploiting it. If we could stop it, I would be fine with most everything else.

That’s hard to answer without qualifying “commercial interests”. I think of banking and other financial institutions as commercial interests, and I like having control of my finances online. I don’t have to wait until the end of the month to see credit card charges (charge notifications that pop up on my phone are nearly instantaneous). I don’t have to make a phone call to my broker to place a stock order.

A lot of people disparage Amazon, but I like the convenience. No more driving to two or three stores to find what I need.

Other commercial interests like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X—yeah, they can disappear and I wouldn’t miss them.

Yes. The conjugates for “to be” are: I am, You are, He/she is, etc.