@Daniel said in The hidden world of First Wap: So Bernard, do you have a house phone and no cellphone? I have a cell phone but it's off 99% of the time. I pay roughly $5/mo. so it's available for travel emergencies, or when I need to receive a code for 2-factor authentication. I find cell phones awkward, too small, too noisy, and too complex. But even my home phone is rarely used. I'm so not a phone person. The one in our house when I was growing up was unavailable when we were children, and as teenagers could be used to confirm meetup times, but not for general chin wagging. I use my camera for taking pictures and my video camera for videos. I own no other electronics. That would make a cellphone a reasonable option.

@Steve-Miller said in YouTube just ate TV: It’s the only TV I watch these days. Just curious if you pay for YouTube. Do you pay a subscription fee for YouTube?Do you occasionally pay extra to stream live sports on YouTube? (Yes, YouTube is my primary source of TV and I pay subscription for YouTube to get rid of the ads.)

Some interesting bogleheads discussion about selecting a successor trustee. https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=423874

Those utility offers are often a great deal. I insulated the attic at one house for exactly what the utility rebate covered. Even better was the water company offer to swap older toilets for new ones. I swapped out 6 toilets in the apartment building, mostly because the old ones were shot.

Edit as of late Thursday: University of Pennsylvania and USC have joined the “no, thanks” list. The battle for academic freedom and institutional sovereignty in higher education continues to play out as another university has rejected a White House offer for expanded access to federal funding in return for agreeing to a series of demands. Brown University on Wednesday declined an offer by the Trump administration to join a compact that would potentially give preferential funding in exchange for a list of changes to school policy, including no longer considering sex and ethnicity in admissions and capping international enrollment. The letter was sent to nine universities at the beginning of the month. The compact is aimed at “the proactive improvement of higher education for the betterment of the country,” according to a letter sent to the universities. Out of the nine offers, only Brown University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have rejected the proposal. Other schools – a mix of public and private universities – have either said they are reviewing the compact or haven’t commented publicly. https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/16/us/trump-universities-compact-funding

Have wondered where all the tariff money goes. Do I want to know?

Will wait for the movie.

I am an alcoholic living with a Parkinson's patient. Having no luck trying to find a joke for this.

@wtg said in About those shutdown firings: “And we have laws here, and the things that are being articulated here are not within the law.” Louder for the people in the back!!

@CHAS said in Checking out the competition: @AndyD A two liter, two turbo gas burner should be quite zippy. Also 7speed automatic and 4wd, with 328bhp... so everyone can drive it 0-60 in under 5sec and max 172mph. Sat in a couple, about £23k for a 3yr old with 30k miles on the clock. Maybe get one late next year. Sorry off topic. Back to the threats of China. Their spying on and hack of our government was discussed in Parliament today.

I remember that. Seems so ancient watching the clip.

@Steve-Miller thanks!