my_first_acct

Joined 10 years ago

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Comment · 5 years ago
Comment · 6 years ago
Yes to all that. I'll add: loved ones often have the idea that they will take care of the afflicted one until the very end.

What they don't realize is that caring for an Alzheimer's sufferer, in the later stages, can take years off the loved one's life. It is a hard, depressing, 24-hour job to take care of all the physical needs of someone who is no longer mentally there. Even worse if the caregiver is old or has health issues.

So do your family a favor, if finances allow, and urge them, while you still are able, to plan put you in an appropriate living arrangement (in an institution, or with full-time paid caregivers) when the time comes.

And I'm sorry about your diagnosis. Best wishes.

Comment · 6 years ago
Comment · 6 years ago
Comment · 6 years ago
The Norwegian Meteorological Institute provides free, worldwide weather forecast information via an API [1].

Perhaps some public-minded German-speaking developer could create a free no-ad app using this data, to provide WetterOnline with some competition.

[1] api.met.no

Comment · 7 years ago
A facetious/serious question: If "Sold by Amazon" had too high a rate of reported counterfeits, could it be kicked off the Amazon platform?

But seriously, my point is that "Sold by Amazon" should have a counterfeit rate of near zero. I'm willing to help QC third-party sellers. But "Sold by Amazon" should do its own QC. Just as "Sold by Walmart" does (for now).

Comment · 7 years ago
Good to know. Thanks.
Comment · 7 years ago
Comment · 7 years ago
There is an elsewhere.

The OP suggests bn.com (Barnes and Noble) for books. I haven't tried them myself. Yet.

For household goods I like walmart.com (the sold-by-Walmart items, not the ones from 3rd-party sellers). Free 2-day shipping (in the US) for orders over $35. A supply chain that (I hope and assume) does not allow 3rd party sellers to introduce counterfeits, unlike the so-called "sold by Amazon" items that are promiscuously commingled with items supplied by 3rd-party sellers.

So for anything where a counterfeit product could pose a health risk, I check walmart.com first.

(I feel a bit strange touting Walmart as the underdog, since it certainly comes with its own set of baggage, but it does seem to be one of the few companies big enough to keep Amazon from gaining a complete monopoly).

Comment · 7 years ago
Comment · 7 years ago
Which gives me an excuse to post a link of Tom Lehrer singing about Wernher von Braun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJ9HrZq7Ro with the famous lines,

"'Once the rockets go up, who cares where they come down? That's not my department,' says Wernher von Braun."

Comment · 7 years ago
In this discussion, I've explicitly (and quite off topic) expressed support for the Union side in the US Civil War, and I've implicitly supported Ukraine's side in the Crimean dispute. I don't think that gives you enough data points to deduce whether I choose sides on the basis of ethnicity, or because of a liking for the letter U, or (most probable?) a curmudgeonly dislike of change.
Comment · 7 years ago
Are you asking me? I would find it hard to be consistent: Kosovo, Abkhazia, Palestine, Chechnya, Crimea, so many choices to make, so many fine differences, so much tangled history.

I do (retrospectively) support the US decision in 1861 to prevent the Confederate states from seceding, despite the expressed will of the white, property-owning part of the local population, so there's that.

Comment · 7 years ago

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