No Stupid Questions

You're still giving them lots of money. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Burger King, KFC, Mc Donalds, Netflix, ..

The line is very faint but it's clearly there

You helped me a lot with my move! I appreciate it.

The forecast for my area next week has temps as low as -20F (-28C), with a lower windchill (I think around -30F/-34C). We will have snow on the ground but I don't believe it is expected to snow on the coldest days. Side note - we are around 4500ft/1372m above sea level.

So far the winter has been pretty mild and hasn't gone below 0F/-17C at all. Snow has also been sparse with I think less than 2 inches (5cm) each time, quickly melting. So I haven't gotten a chance to really get used to such cold temps. We can get some pretty fast winds. I think it mostly sticks between 20-25 mph (32-40 kph). Also a very arid climate. I have a hard time getting my home above 30% humidity. Not sure on the outdoor numbers.

Is there anything different I should be doing for myself and for my dogs? I feel like these temps are dangerous for exposed skin? Not sure.

One of my dogs has medium length hair and the other one is short hair.

For me I have stuff like longjohns, thicker sweatpants, sweatshirts, windbreaker, I also have a wool coat. Then like thicker socks and some fur lined boots. - I'm thinking I need to add a scarf or something for my face and then also make myself wear gloves? I have some sheepskin gloves so I was thinking of putting on like regular winter gloves and then the sheepskin over it?

For the dogs they have a wind resistant fur lined coat and then some winter shoes. So I'm guessing they need something for their head - I have a soft head covering for them but it is slightly too big and keeps falling over their eyes when we practice wearing it. Do I need to get them something that covers their legs and belly better as well?

I was also wondering if I should even be taking them out at all when it's that cold. I mean I know it is that cold often elsewhere but they are used to the dry heat of the south of the US and I don't want them to end up not wanting to go outside ever again haha.

I still feel very unprepared for winter weather so I hope my fellow Lemmings can help!

This is sort of an odd prompt but I'll elaborate.

I've always been a lone wolf. Primarily it has been due to intense social anxiety. I also fall somewhere on the asexual spectrum. So I've mostly gone though life by myself. Friendships and relationships have just never been a thing for me. I'm also in my 30s, so it's not as if I'm going to change the way I am.

Several years back, I started working my current job. Most people I worked with were either ok or were assholes. But there was one who was always kind to me. She always jokes around with me and was cheerful and happy when everyone else was a grumpy asshole. We work only a few feet from each other for hours almost every single day.

Through the years, I noticed myself getting happy when she would arrive at work or when our schedules would overlap more. I am happy every day to see her and enjoy spending time with her. I absolutely never get tired of seeing her and look forward to it every single day. She has even called me a friend on numerous occasions which I have almost never had anyone do before. We spend our days simultaneously working and also trying to out goober one another. She started referring to me as her friend at one point and it made me really happy whenever she would say it.

She is married and has children and has her own busy life outside of work. I often feel bad whenever I end up texting her outside of work because I know I am taking her away from where she wants to be. She's not one of those parents that spends their off hours getting away from the household...she is the opposite...wanting to spend every waking moment not at work with her kids.

It's selfish and wrong of me, but sometimes I get jealous when she interacts with her other work friend. Or it sometimes makes me sad to know that I most likely don't mean as much to her as she does to me. I would do honestly absolutely anything for her. I even let her family stay with me for a few days when they were temporarily without power or water.

When I see my other coworkers, I honestly could take them or leave them. But my whole day gets brightened when I see my one coworker that I am close to. I never get tired of seeing her.

I've almost never ever had this happen before. The only ever time this happened was with another sweet, funny, coworker who eventually moved away. I liked both of them very much and it pained me so much when the other left. I was depressed for months.

Since I'm an asexual, I never really see people and want to make out or have sex with them. But is that what is happening with my brain? Is my description normal friend behavior or is it wrong for me to feel this level of happiness and connection around my coworker? Is it normal to like a friend this much or is there something wrong with me? Am I supposed to try to find other people instead to have this sort of feeling with instead of my coworker? Is it wrong to want to hang out outside of work? Where is the line supposed to be drawn between what is socially acceptable and what isn't?

Thanks. I'm stupid ig.

Ants release chemicals when they die that attract other ants, to fight off the threat. This is annoying, because squishing an ant that bit you is likely to attract more bitey ants.

Do ants have a chemical signal for "all ye who enter here, either turn back or abandon all hope"? Can you teach a hive to fear a certain place? Or do they just keep coming forever?

In the USA. Would be great if the calculator also had a state version but it's ok if not.

I was awarded SSDI this year and am currently withdrawing money from my IRA to stay afloat.

I found the IRS forms - mainly in publication 915 - to calculate my tax burden, but because I also got a lump some from SSDI backpay this year it feels too complicated.

Basically I am trying to see if it makes sense from a tax perspective to withdraw more from my IRA before the end of the year or to wait til next year, and if so, how much more.

I am single and only ever do the standard deduction. I don't think I qualify for the earned income credit or any other credits that I'm aware of. I'm not in a state with the new IRS direct file program unfortunately.

So does anyone know of a basic calculator I can run different amounts through?

Thanks

Sometimes drag buys a game on Steam at full price, and then a week later, the game goes on sale. Drag thinks "damn it, drag should have waited". But drag's never that upset, because drag wouldn't have bought the game if it weren't worth the price. Drag failed to save some money, but drag still values the game more than that money, so it's not a big issue.

The concept of negative equity was recently explained to drag, and it sounds like the housing equivalent of that. It happens when the price of housing crashes, but you already have an expensive mortgage out on the house. You still have to pay money worth more than the value of the house. Therefore, your equity, or equivalent share of ownership, is effectively less than zero.

The politician drag was talking to said negative equity is a big problem and it's why we can't just crash the housing market to solve all our cost of living problems. But drag doesn't understand. If you take out a mortgage, you should be able to afford it with your income, and the house should be worth more to you than its market value. Negative equity sounds like a huge bummer, but that politician was talking like it was something life ruining.

Why's negative equity so bad?

I mean the least-harmful/added ingredients and scentfree preferably?

Currently I would guess Ivory...

Okay this feels like such a basic and dumb question but I cannot figure it out. I followed a link to a Mastodon post and saw a reply I wanted to make my own reply to. No problem, I figured I have a CherryPick account which federates with Mastodon so this should be a breeze. The problem is that post IDs are obviously different across instances so I can't simply modify the URL to find the post and it hasn't synced with my instance so I can't use search to find it either. Obviously I can't login to the Mastodon instance with my account either, sadly, as much as I would love that. So I manually looked up the user and found them on my instance, but despite showing more recent posts I can't find the one I want to reply to! The post they replied to is available on my instance, their account is available, why the heck is this one reply just not available! What do I do here, just give up?

I have been trying out various therapy services lately (they all suck and do nothing, but that's another topic). One of the things that the therapists always ask/say is if I do "self care" or tell me to do more "self care". They talk about all kinds of different things that range from eating right to eating something as a treat to exercising to going for a walk to finding a hobby to etc.

So it seems like "self care" is literally anything that benefits your existence. And I'm quite frankly confused. I live alone and have zero responsibilities outside of work. Isn't every moment of every day when I'm not working considered self care? When I go home at the end of the day, I have dinner and dick around on the internet. I don't have kids or pets so there's nothing else to worry about. I don't have any extra responsibilities. My continued existence is "self care". I don't get it.

What I would understand in all of this is if I had maybe like kids or a sick family member I had to take care of. Is that who "self care" is for? People that have extra responsibilities? Because for those of us loners, basically our entire existence is self care. So I'm confused at what any of that is supposed to accomplish. I already do everything for myself.

EDITED: Nectar/drink = mead? Ambrosia/food = ?/manna?

Do I have the autoritah?

Drag knows that being a furry isn't all about sex. It's mostly about liking cartoon animals. But nonetheless, drag did have a preconception of the furry community being a generally sex-positive space due to all the queer floating around. Drag recently had a bizarre experience in which a community of furries was weirdly particular about a certain dirty joke, which had never been a problem in other online communities. Are furries really sex negative compared to most people?

Pure conjectural or anecdotal but it is my intuition that there is something to it

EDIT: My running theory is related to hormesis or tolerance where the body produces an opposite effect to the ligand to maintain homeostasis and there is not a sufficient dose of the exogenous drug taken to override the body's compensatory reaction

So even tho caffeine is a stimulant (adenosine antagonist) it actually causes the body to produce the opposite reaction, causing the reverse effect of making you sleepy

I know I can use an HDMI source like a Raspberry Pi and a small screen for HDMI and could twist copper cable together and measure continuity through them to narrow down which is which but I'm wondering if there is an easier way. Maybe something I connect to either end?

Hey all,

I’ve built an app, and I’m looking to make sure it’s fully secure before launching. I know the importance of running a solid pen test and I want to see how far someone can push it, really dig into every vulnerability, and exploit the system in ways that no one else could.

How do you make sure you’re really breaking through all the defenses without missing anything? What’s the best way to really tear apart a system and expose every last vulnerability? I don’t want a passive scan. I want to make sure my app gets the most thorough testing possible. A deep scanning, breaking through firewalls, and not just skimming the surface. What tools and methods do you recommend for ensuring you’re really getting inside everything, and not missing anything crucial?

Is this something I could take on by myself, or should I look into hiring a professional? I want someone who isn’t afraid to be aggressive with my app, someone who knows how to push past every layer of defense and really get to the core of what’s vulnerable. I’m ready for a deep, full on test that leaves no stone unturned, no access point unchecked. If there are weaknesses hiding anywhere, I want them exposed, exploited, and taken advantage of.

So, what’s the best way to really break in and make sure my app stands up to the most intense scrutiny? Any tools or suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

Want to ensure financial documents cant be parsed by automated systems

Like, if you can trap the heat in could it at least keep the water comfortably hot for an extended period of time, like say 8-16 hours?

I believe ants and honey bees have genetically-coded and baked-in specializations like worker and queen bees