This is so hard to specify because it really depends on a lot of factors. It’s usually more like there are specific models that are really worth getting, or pricepoints or brands depending.

Like, I don’t think cordless drill/drivers that are sub $100 are really worth it if you’re ever going to do more than screw into pre drilled or pre made screw holes. But a Bosch (blue), Dewalt, Milwaukee, Makita, etc are all pretty good. They’re just usually over $100.

You’re right about blenders - I never had a use for Oster blenders, but a BlendTec in 2008 changed my life (well, not really, but did do things that I have uses for at least).

Ohh, pressure cookers - I don’t want to risk it exploding, so I avoid the $70 and under crowd. Actually, I went Kunh Rikon which is pretty expensive, but also really hard to screw up (like 6 layers of safeties), and easy to get refurb parts for seals and such.

Lots of safety equipment - there’s all sorts of … “fake” in that it won’t actually work stuff at super cheap prices. I’m thinking like laser safety glasses or chain saw safety pants. Mid range is def worth it there.

Dishwashers IMHO. I’ve used cheap ones before and they clean poorly and are extremely loud. Depending on your house, you won’t want to be in the next room to them. OTOH, Bosch higher end ones, like the 800 series, cost a pretty penny, but are darn near silent and actually live up to the washing claims - shit just comes clean in them. I’m usually surprised in a good way. Oh, and that third tray for silverware - I’m never going back to the basket (though lots of brands have that now).

Stand Mixers - especially if you want to get into bread or attachments for grinding things. I strongly recommend the Bosch Universal Plus. That thing is like a power tool for the kitchen. We’ve abused it for over 10 years and it’s not slowing down. I know many people online who have had them for 30 years.

Vacuums - look into Sebo.

That’s usually actually down to technique - you need to fill “normal” blenders in a specific way to have enough liquid on the bottom to make the vortex.

You have to be very careful with KitchenAid mixers - I think the 700Pro is the only currently made one that’s worth very much - the gears strip out in most of the cheaper ones, and all of them made from like 2000-2014 or so. At least if you mix anything in there you couldn’t do about as easily with a hand mixer that’s $20 on Amazon.

Some of it is also going to be experience using it.

Like I have Rada and Cuisinart and Wustoff knives. The Rada is super cheap, and very sharp and holds an edge well. But its handle is pretty uncomfortable, and god forbid you’re trying to chop a large cabbage in half, you’ll hurt your hand on the top it’s sooo narrow. But I can hit it with something and it’s going to cut that cabbage the easiest because it’s a narrow blade. The Cuisinart were a gift long ago, and really were just overpriced worse Rada. They have thin blades and don’t hold an edge as well as the Rada. The Wustoff have the most comfortable handles to hold IMO, and nice thicker backs that make them hold up to lots of abuse - you can chop bones and such without worry. They also hold an edge pretty well, but also sharpen nicely. People also seem appreciative of Wustoff so you get some status when using them FWIW.

I actually think there are things that the cheap versions can work as well as the expensive ones, but in such a PITA way that you’ll infrequently use them. Cameras are one of these things - pretty much any camera can take a picture, but try a low end Motorolla phone camera vs a mid range OnePlus or high end Samsung / iPhone and you’ll have so much more frustration with the Motorolla you’ll get a different phone to get a “camera that works”. Same with ILC - you can get a Canon 4000D and it’ll be capable of taking better technical shots than the high end smartphone. It’ll just require quite a lot of skill. Put it next to a high end Canon R5 and you’ll see how the quality of life improvements and everything else will make it a lot more fun to use.

Some are expensive for filtering reasons. It can take some engineering to build HEPA or similar filtration along with seals that actually have the filters work, plus managing motors or filter designs that aid in the high speed airflow needed for a vacuum.

Sure, but I’d also avoid Shark at all costs because they’re not really made to be serviced. Also bagless, which generally suck in a bad way. I’d suggest something like a Sebo model with the electric brush head. Easy to service, last a very long time, use bags which are just cleaner and avoid needing to think about cleaning out dust storage areas to keep airflow up, and have great canister options.

It seems like they already cooperate about as much as is likely, so this is mostly symbolic. I also question whether Russia, China or India - the political players here in my limited opinion, will let UAE throw around more political weight just because they joined BRICS. Heck, China and India are more political competitors than partners.

I actually always thought there was a possibility that what happened to AOL might happen to Google / Facebook / etc. I.e. people inherently don’t like extreme walled gardens, and will splinter off into more open, more random, more innovative spaces. I think the pendulum had swung back over to an early AOL like very limited set of 5 or so big “platforms”, and the issues with that were seen again, just like in the late 90s when people were ditching AOL for “the real Internet” en masse.

I have to say, I think I was very lucky because College prepared me for most aspects of my job.I really can’t think of one that it could have prepared me for that it didn’t - like it didn’t teach me the specific bureaucratic processes for purchasing or getting approval from management etc, but how could it? I’m also lucky to be working in my field many years on.

Ehhh, I’d say that expecting results really varies by the job. Or at least the results are usually KPI that are easily gameable if you don’t care about trying for a random bonus. I kept a job and got pay raises by basically doing the minimum and slacking off pretty hard for a while. I worked another job where they mostly wanted someone to be a warm body ready to talk to a customer, but otherwise didn’t really know if / what you did.

Oh, college prepared me for that with unrelated classes that were requirements. And random other bullshit.

Honestly, I think it would be better if we had actual trained councilors / therapists to take some tickets, maybe as a different department that was trained on taking or working with the same ticketing system but also handling confidentiality correctly. The people who contact IT just to talk or to bitch about the current state of the world as seen through a technology lens, or those who are overstressed about tech… I’m not really a people person, I’m a tech person, hence why I didn’t go into social services or the like.

The military history wasn’t so useful but there’s way more history made without guns than with them.

I’d argue that a lot of people have found Sun Tzu useful way outside of a military context, but also it’s useful IMO to see where force fails or succeeds, and not just militarily. I might argue (as just an armchair person) that hostile takeovers etc might have some analogs. Stuff like comparing how various empires handled integrating conquests might sort of apply to mergers (though maybe that’s not exactly military)… Even just the importance and limitations of morale in sprints etc.

There’s actually a service called jolly rodger that you can forward calls to that uses AI and such to try and do this. It’s pretty cheap, under $20 a year (and also does voicemail and transcribes the calls to a text). I think it does cut down on junk calls, they tend to just hangup.

Honestly I’m constantly amazed it was on this long. I think not having ratings or traditional competition lets streaming shows go longer than they should.

It was never that good, and it just started declining from the pilot. I slogged through S3 due to “giving it a fair chance”, and I regret that every time I think about S3, which I’ve mostly forgotten. ANY other sci fi show and I would have dropped it probably in the first episode, or at my most tenacious in the first season.

I would guess America is so wildly diverse, like most countries, that there’s no real “Average American”. Sure, median income isn’t great and recent inflation has screwed with poorer people all the way through to probably upper middle class.

However, I don’t think there’s “one reason” for people being / feeling poor. It also depends on what you mean by “life changing”.

Anyway - I’d say there’s are very poor people. Some of this is generational poverty, some of it is no family support, some of it is addiction, some of it is mental illness, some of it is bad choices. A social safety net would really help here. For whatever reason the US is against much of one.

There’s working poor, where supposedly the value they bring to a company isn’t sufficient to pay a living wage. I guess elsewhere this is government forced to be a higher minimum wage way more than in the US. This I think is also leading to lots of apathy now in service workers, which means atrocious service at most places, which is finally starting to impact people higher up the income chain. Though it’s usually scoffing that no one is doing a good job anymore.

Middle class people get squeezed by inflation a LOT, and children are incredibly expensive. As you get into middle middle and upper middle classes there’s also the spending problems. This is either driven by lack of or failures of public options, so people are paying for home schooling / private schooling, paying ever more out of pocket to get access to medical care at ever higher rates, and really any service needed can be astronomical or else often worse than doing nothing unless you know a guy. There’s also all the credit card debt that with higher interest rates are squeezing people even more. Some of this is unnecessary spending running out of control, but some of it is lack of wages keeping up with inflation mixed with many things having way more ongoing costs than they used to. Either they have planned obsolesce (Back in the 90s no one had to buy a new landline phone, or wireless phone every 2 years), they have subscriptions (again, in the 90s you bought a car or a radio, you bought a computer, you bought a game, whatever - it lasted with no ongoing payments), and many things just don’t last at all. Then there’s the interest in experiences - which is a transient thing, so you’re always paying for a new one. I’d also say there’s a huge burden on everyone related to college - and it is getting less obvious by the year if that hit in loan payments “forever” is worth the supposed economic boost. My parents grew up when college was like $8,000 max for 4 years and room etc - you could work your way through it, and the boost to lifetime expected earnings was pretty easy to overshadow the effort or loan if any needed. I might have been the last generation to get through with $20k in debt from 4 years, which while I’m still paying on isn’t enough to overshadow the earning benefits. Today (and for the last 15 years or more) it’s more and more for a 4 year degree, while the expected positions aren’t going up in pay very much at all. But if you do go to college that’s going to hit you and your parents for a long time also.

As you get to upper middle and upper class - upper middle is scared shitless by the inflation, wage increase demands, etc that might cause them to fall out of that class, so they can feel “poor” even though they’re far from it.

TL;DR: there are a lot of poor Americans, and many who are “doing OK” either drowning in debt or just feeling insecure even if not technically poor.

I actually use waterproof earbuds because I don’t want to blare my podcast or whatever to everyone in the house.

I have no idea why Mastodon does what it does, but I also have no idea why anyone would build a weird auto reposting group thing for Mastodon. I honestly don’t understand how I’m supposed to use it, or preview what a group is. The listing I saw doesn’t tell me anything. Very odd.

I mean, to the extent politically we supported the Afganistan and Iraq war, this isn’t much different as far as I can tell. Much of the US is pretty pro war for some reason.

There was also Sisko using bioweapons for a personal vendetta, Odo not fitting in and constantly trying to go with the changelings who are a group of fascist racist violent manipulators, etc.

I haven’t seen DS9 since the first run I don’t think, so my memory is hazy, but did the show make those things “good things” or were they flaws in the characters?