I want to send a thank you to a local government official. getting flowers delivered is like minimum $50 these days so fuck that. something like a gift card might be inappropriate for a government employee to accept.

any ideas?

What is your choice of hot drink between the two? A cup of tea or a cup of coffee?

I used to be big on drinking tea including herbals which was relaxing while reading a book or looking up about subjects in the I.T field for me.

But coffee? I drink it in the morning ready for my day and work search, keeps me upright that caffeine stuff but I don't drink more than 2 cups due to caffeine contents.

I used to drink quite a lot of it in the workplace (Deadlines and projects tend to make you do that)

So what about you? Are you a tea enjoyer or a coffee enjoyer?

Why do it seems that pedophilia is, nowadays, percieved as the most vicious crime, along with terrorism? Why not, for example, sexual assault?

I mean it as an actual question, but first I should clarify my intent :

-I'm not advocating for normalizing pedophilia

-I have been a victim of it myself. Luckily, I've mostly recovered from it and live a happy life.

-Because of my political commitments, which are totally unrelated to this question, I've met some old people from the 70s who advocated for the depenalization of consensual sex between minors and adults (if such a thing exist, which can legitimately be doubted).

-I'm friend with one of them but I could never understand how that idea came to their minds. She knows I oppose the very idea. But it got me curious.

What I want to ask is, what, in contemporary history, contributed to make pedophilia the #1 vicious crime, surpassing rape in most consciences (if I'm not mistaken), in your opinion?

Feel free to delete this if that's not acceptable. Also, I didn't include the word "pedophilia" in the title to avoid triggering people who may have such experiences.

I'd put it on my website, which contains my real name anyway, but Signal says that I should only share it with people I trust. Also, the link (signal.me/...) contains long base64 string with unknown content. What do you think?

For me it is when companies/services market themselves as donating to XYZ cause if I buy their product. If they want to donate, they should have already done that with the money they have. Asking me to give them profit so that they can donate is so obviously pretentious.

What are the rubber circles for on the back of my pc case? Should I just leave them like that if don't have a need for them? Or are they likely to let I'm dust into the motherboard?

Edit: thanks for all the replies, so just for water cooling I have no need for.

And why did you stop watching them?

EDIT: Thanks so much everyone. Great answers. This has been fun. Keep it going as long as you want!

DISCLAIMER: Silly Thought Exercise: NOT AN ENDORSEMENT OF REPLACING BIDEN. I personally do not think replacing Biden is a good idea at this stage in the election. I think that's more dangerous than keeping him, sadly, but he's who we've got. I'm just looking for shitposty thoughts on this question, please and thank you.

What-over-the-top absurd person would you choose to replace Biden who you think could actually body Trump, and why?

For an example, my choice would be based on the idea that the only thing that makes a bully like Trump wilt is a bigger bully. Secondly, US citizens love trash talking and sports and absolutely will vote for someone who is already famous, they certainly love their celebrities. Finally, what better sport for trash talk than basketball?

In that, my choice would be basketball legend Larry Bird. (he's famously apolitical, so it's hard to know if he would actually be politically aligned against Trump.)

...but, the thing is, Larry Bird is a masterclass trash talker.

And that is really what throws Trump off and throws him into obscene tantrums where his composure is lost and he comes off like a whining loser: when he's been taken down a peg by someone else. Nothing sticks deeper in his craw. I don't think he could handle Larry Bird's level of shit-talk, Bird is like god-tier.

I can imagine Bird calling Trump out and saying he can smell his shit-filled diaper from across the auditorium, obviously Bird would describe more colorfully than I. The thing is, I can also see that absolutely throwing Trump into hysterics.

Also, at 67 Bird's a fucking spring chicken compared to Biden or Trump.

So, I'm hoping for answers that are a bit silly, like this. Larry Bird is obviously not actually a good choice for this. I just like chuckling at the idea, because real life has gotten so absurd I need to hide in even deeper absurdity.

What's your absurd Biden replacement? Please, I think we could use some laughs.

By far my most favorite use is as a notepad that I always have with me. I use a custom keyboard to make typing faster and more accurate.

Anything y'all like to do with your phones that you feel like most people miss out on?

My wife has been on a rom-com binge over the last year or so and something I’ve noticed when I’m vaguely paying attention or walking past is that almost every single rom-com features people who are, at the very least, middle to upper-middle class. These characters all live in gigantic houses/apartments, have beautifully sparkling brand-new cars, take month-long vacations to their beachfront properties… it’s just so unrealistic and out of line with the life that the vast majority of us lead.

I understand some concepts - large rooms are easier to film in, rich people own nice things that set a beautiful scene, it’s not interesting to discuss financial issues all the time etc. but this seems (from my anecdotal perspective) to almost be a rule of the genre.

Some more food for thought:

https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a867107/rom-coms-diversity-wealth-income/

Looking for an "AI" that would tackle my day-to-day issues that are not related to programming, for example acting as a personal assistant / life coach, creating lesson plans for classes I teach at school, explaining how things work and teaching me new skills effectively, etc.

I need it to be able to consider web search options for more comprehensive answers.

Doesn't have to be free, as I'd be happy to pay if it's truly worth it.

So far I've tried:

1. Most common options at Poe, including Claude Sonnet 3.5, GPT4o and others. The issue here is that I'm not seeing which one is actually smarter and which one hallucinates more.
2. Perplexity
3. Phind
4. Gemini
5. Bing AI

I have never had a GPT4 subscription so I might consider that if it's objectively the best option.

What can you recommend? 🙂

As the title says. I go for a 20 minute walk and when I stop moving, I'm not feeling tired or even agitated at all, yet my legs feel like they're pulsating in different areas, always near the skin. It's not synchronised with my heartbeat. It stops after a few minutes.

Chat GPT says these are just muscle twitches caused by dehydration or lack of electrolytes. I'm not convinced. Why does it feel almost on the skin and not deeper in the muscles? Why do I feel it after a 20 minute walk that doesn't make me sweat but I don't feel it after a 40 minute leg focused workout???? Wouldn't that be more strenuous on the legs?? Does this thing even have a name?

Thanks

Are there any comprehensive websites to use for a car problem?

The driver side drl on my 2020 passat is out and I cannot find the hub inside of it for it. I think it is going to require some disassembly. Checked google and youtube for hours, something needs to come off for it. I poked around and pulled out the turn signal but there are no other capped holes accessible through under the hood or body cover which I removed to poke around. My dad is a car guy but he knows old cars, not newer ones. He helped me a bit but has severe macular degeneration and can’t see in there. I felt up everything and found nothing. I took a look at the module online and I think I might have located that which would need to be removed but a few things look like they need to be removed to access it.