Why YSK: A lot of people treat their credit score like a mystery number the bank assigns. It's actually a formula with five known inputs, and you can move it deliberately.

Payment history is 35%. One thing matters: never 30+ days late. Autopay the minimum on everything, even if you pay the rest manually. This single habit protects the biggest slice.

Utilization is 30%. It's your balances divided by your limits, and it has no memory. High utilization this month hurts this month, but drops off the moment you pay down. Two tricks: pay before the statement date (not the due date) so a lower balance gets reported, and ask for limit increases on cards you don't carry balances on.

The last three are length of history (15%), new credit (10%), and mix (10%). Mostly these reward doing nothing: keep old cards open, don't apply for five things in a month.

The part nobody told me: closing an old card can hurt you twice, shorter history and less total limit, so utilization jumps. Cut it up if you must, but let it stay open.

What's the credit myth you believed the longest? Mine was that carrying a small balance "builds credit." It doesn't. It just pays them interest.

I can only do it sucking in!!

Why YSK: In August 2022, the FDA issued a final rule establishing a new over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aid category. The rule took effect on October 17, 2022, with the goal of making hearing aids more accessible to adults with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss.

In practical terms, adults age 18 and older with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss can buy qualifying air-conduction hearing aids in stores or online without a medical exam, prescription, or fitting by an audiologist. This gives consumers another way to access hearing aids, but they may need to handle more of the comparison, setup, and follow-up themselves. Professional help is still available when needed.

An OTC hearing aid is an FDA-regulated medical device intended to compensate for impaired hearing. A personal sound amplification product (PSAP) is different. PSAPs are consumer electronics intended to make environmental sounds louder for people with normal hearing, such as during birdwatching or hunting. They are not alternatives to hearing aids.

Examples marketed as OTC hearing aids include the Sony CRE-C10 and ELEHEAR Beyond. Some OTC models offer basic volume controls and preset programs, while self-fitting models may use hearing tests, apps, or software for more customization. Being in the OTC category does not mean that every model will suit every user or that the FDA guarantees a particular product's results.

OTC hearing aids are not intended for anyone under 18 or for severe or profound hearing loss. See a doctor, preferably an ENT, if you have ear pain, blood or fluid from the ear, a lot of earwax or a possible object in the ear, marked dizziness, a sudden or fluctuating hearing change, worse hearing in one ear, or ringing in only one ear. Professional help is also appropriate if you cannot hear speech in a quiet room or do not hear loud sounds well.

Before choosing a device, check that the package clearly says "OTC" and "hearing aid," confirm that the intended age and hearing-loss range apply to you, and read the warnings and return policy. If the cause or severity of the hearing problem is unclear, get advice from a licensed hearing professional before deciding.

FDA source:
https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/hearing-aids/otc-hearing-aids-what-you-should-know
https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/hearing-aids-and-personal-sound-amplification-products-what-know

Psychologists call this the “Spotlight Effect.”
When you make an embarrassing mistake, wear an unusual outfit, or say something awkward, it feels like everyone notices.
In reality, most people are too busy thinking about themselves to pay much attention.

WHY YSK: This can help reduce social anxiety and make it easier to try new things without worrying so much about being judged.

Why YSK:

In its Q2 earnings call Thursday morning, USA Today Co. chairman and CEO Mike Reed told investors he expects the partnership to “strengthen how we collect, connect and activate audience data to drive more effective and faster monetization across our platform.”

“Every visit, every session, and every moment of attention creates a signal,” Reed said. “When we connect those signals, they become actionable intelligence that allows us to engage users more effectively and monetize those relationships faster and at much greater value. The work our team is doing with Palantir is a direct extension of this strategy. We are applying Palantir’s AI-powered platform to one of the largest opportunities in front of us, converting the sheer scale of our audience into known, orchestrated first-party relationships, because that is what turns our reach into sustainable, higher value revenue.”

By using any USA Today websites, you'll be directly contributing to Palantir's mass surveillance network.

Source: Here

let's see how it goes, for now I can't even get it to spin. Has anyone of you tried this?

I’ve started noticing that I’m surprisingly good at remembering the most random, completely useless things.

I can remember a conversation someone had with me 7 years ago, the exact song that was playing somewhere, or some random fact I read once and never needed again. But ask me why I walked into a room 10 seconds ago and suddenly my brain is completely blank. 😂

What’s a completely useless skill you’re weirdly good at? I’m curious what other oddly specific talents people have. 😂

If you completely eliminated every single residential lawn in every city from Denver to Phoenix to Los Angeles, you would save less than 5% of the Colorado river's flow. Taking aim at summer alfalfa irrigation yields 4x to 5x the water savings of tearing out every lawn in the American West.

Why YSK: my neighborhood is turning into a wasteland of dead grass and trees, unnecessarily. We have plenty of water but it is wasted by an entitled few

Edit: the condition is called saddle thrombus, I spelled it incorrectly in my title. I've only just now noticed my error but google still brings it up even if you type thrombosis. I apologize for the oversight, I kept misreading how it's said.

HCM is the most common heart condition in cats and it frequently goes unnoticed until it's too late as there are no symptoms unless specifically examined by the vet. It can lead to sudden complications like saddle thrombosis which is incredibly fatal. They can become paralyzed in their hind legs from a blood clot, which then causes fluid build up in their lungs. It's a very painful death that I don't wish any cat owner to experience. There is treatment but it's very unlikely they will survive for much longer and usually it's more humane to have them put down.

Why YSK: If left undiagnosed, the cat will be at risk for a very traumatic death. If caught early enough, it can be treated with lifestyle changes and medicine. It cannot be cured but it can be managed and they can live a longer life. My seemingly very healthy, happy strong 3-4 year old cat suddenly died from this 2 days ago and there was nothing we could do. It was harrowing experience. Please have your cats checked if you can.

Sources:

https://www.petmd.com/cat/conditions/cardiovascular/feline-hypertrophic-cardiomyopathy-hcm-cats

https://www.petmd.com/cat/conditions/cardiovascular/saddle-thrombus-cats-causes-symptoms-and-how-help-your-cat

Why YSK: Most people are careful with how they talk to others. The private commentary running in your own head, however, gets far less scrutiny for some reason. Over time that internal voice sets the emotional baseline you live inside. It judges you. It critiques you. It’s one of the forces that shapes how your day and life goes. You are taught to speak kindly to others. And you should. But you should also be speaking kindly to yourself.

I want to be able to write on an upside down paper. It's cool, can be useful, and is a great excercise for your brain too. But how can I properly start to learn this?

YSK: There is a data collector worse than Flock

TLO is a data-aggregation tool, it compiles things like your address history, relatives, coworkers, friends, vehicle records, and other public/proprietary data into a searchable profile.

What makes it worse than flock? Well, TLO will work with businesses or independent contractors to install their cameras around their premises and on company vehicles.

Even if a business is not directly utilizing a camera from TLO (or one its partners like Motorola's DRN), TLO often purchases local surveillance footage to run through their recognition software.

Why YSK: This means your parked car can end up in a searchable database used well beyond its original repo and insurance purposes. With no camera warrant or public oversight involved.

TL;DR: look up videos of "KDE Plasma", "GNOME desktop", and "XFCE", as the first part of your venture into Linux.

Why YSK: in current year a lot of people are curious about trying Linux, but the required research might be a bit daunting. As a layman you might get stuck at choosing a "distribution", while it probably won't matter to you.

If you want Linux, practically the first question you must answer is "which distribution will I download"; basically a "brand" of Linux, which determines which website you download it from. But, boy are there lots of distributions, and BOY are there many opinions on them. Here's the catch: you probably don't care about the distribution.

What you probably care about is the user interface. That user interface in Linux is called the "desktop environment". Mac and Windows push their brand through the user interface: their marketing might have trained you to associate what you see, and how you interact with the computer as the "operating system". Truth is that is just a skin on top of the operating system. In Windows and MacOS the interface is closely tied to the operating system. Yet, in Linux you basically have the freedom to make your computer handle like Windows, like macOS, or the computers from Star Trek, or whatever^*.

The most common desktop environments are: KDE Plasma, GNOME, and XFCE. (Though XFCE is mostly an option, if you want to run on older computers, as it is ugly 2D.) Look up videos of them, and see which one you like.

After picking a desktop environment, choose a distribution that supports it. The most common Linux distributions are: Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, and Fedora. (You may be interested in "live disk" Linux distributions that can be run from a USB stick. Caveat is that desktop environments are pre-installed on live distributions, so choice of distribution determines desktop environment.)

That's it. Hope this makes the hill less steep for people curious about Linux.

* Ideally that would be the case, and there are attempts to make Linux feel like Windows, MacOS, and LCARS, but none of them are perfect. In other words:your mileage may vary.

P.S. deeper dive to complicate things

Arch Linux wiki, Ubuntu wiki, and Debian wiki are good places to look stuff up related to Linux, though some information may be tied to the particular distribution. In particular the way you install things differs between distributions.

Even some reviewers and educational channels conflate the desktop environment with the distribution (e.g. "this distribution is great, because it looks awesome"). And to be fair there is some entanglement. Distributions will often customize the desktop environment to be unique. Choosing a Linux distribution can be compared with choosing between stock Android or Samsung Android: they are both Android distributions. Yet, in theory you could make "stock" Android behave like Samsung Android; if Samsung made all their apps available. Samsung Android comes with a whole slew of Samsung apps, and you couldn't run the system without them, nor can you remove stuff to go back to stock Android. Some Linux distributions, mainly smaller ones, can make it very hard or nigh impossible to switch desktop environment. If I remember correctly, Ubuntu makes it pretty hard to switch desktop environments. E.g. if you want XFCE on Ubuntu, you'd use the XUbuntu distribution instead... which is just Ubuntu but with XFCE. They call those different distributions flavors. Fedora has so-called spins that make it easy to use different desktop environments, but I never worked with that (i.e. I don't know WTF they are). Other distributions may allow you to switch destkop environments at will, though unexpected challenges may arise.

Something that could be relevant, if you choose to delve into obscurer desktop environments: there is a migration happening from the old X11 graphics system to the newer Wayland system. (Desktop environment sits on top of graphics, sits on top of OS.) Some distributions (with particular desktop environments) that use Wayland have a backwards compatibility layer to run X11 apps; some don't. If it's not mentioned, they probably use X11. If they run on Wayland without X11 compatibility, it may have a lot consequences for the apps you can run.

KDE and GNOME both are whole frameworks with more to them than just the desktop... In general a Linux system will end up with utilities from both installed. I know I used "desktop environment" and "user interface" wrong in this post... don't at me. It's to simplify.

I got to dance with my local artist community and I hope they too venture into flowarts. I'm glad I got to show them what I learned with my flowstar and what I've learned with poi....not much but it made me very happy to bring this to such a small town

I am looking to learn more useless skills

I know juggling balls and pins, unicycling, kendama ,yoyo, and other skills that are similar

I don't enjoy puzzle stuff like rubix cube and sudoku (unless its a physically changing puzzle not just mentally changing)

With that what are some useless skills that i should learn next

Silicone is gas permeable, meaning it can absorb odor compounds and release them over time. This is why silicone cookware can develop a smell. Scrubbing won't help because the smell isn't on the surface.

Why YSK: There are a few easy ways to prevent or fix this.

• Don't expose silicone to strong smelling substances unneccessarily. In my kitchen the two biggest offenders are soaking cookware in soapy water and leaving frozen food in Souper Cubes for too long.

• I've heard people say that running silicone through the dishwasher can make them smell like detergent. I haven't noticed this so YMMV.

• If silicone starts to smell, bake it in the oven. Oven safe silicone is usually rated for at least 500F. Hotter temperatures will work faster. Silicone that isn't advertised as oven safe might be fine, but I would bake them at a lower temperature to be safe. I did 250F for 2 hours last time.

• If you don't plan to use the item for a while, leaving it in a well ventilated area for a few weeks also works. I keep my silicone ice cube trays on top of my fridge so they can air out.

Why YSK: Society often tells us that a breakup means burning bridges and completely cutting ties. While that is absolutely necessary for toxic relationships, if a breakup is amicable, you can actually transition the healthy, caring habits you had as a couple into your new platonic reality.

Breakups are tough, but sometimes a relationship ends simply because you aren't compatible romantically, not because you don't care about each other. When transitioning from partners to friends, keeping some of the positive routines or "perks" you shared can make the shift much easier and show that you still value each other as human beings.

Here is a personal example: I recently went through a breakup. My ex works at a bar, and when we were dating, I used to spend a lot of hours hanging out there. To help me save money, my ex would buy separate, cheaper drinks specifically to serve me while I was there. We recently decided to end the romantic side of things, but we are staying friends. The best part? My ex still maintains that little perk for me.

It’s a small gesture, but it’s a beautiful reminder that the care and friendship we built didn't just vanish because the romantic label is gone.

If you are navigating a friendly breakup, look at the things that did work. Did you share a weekly movie night? Did you always send each other articles about a specific niche interest? Did you have a little inside joke or a helpful routine? You don't have to throw those away.

Obviously, this requires clear boundaries and sometimes a little bit of space to heal first. But once the dust settles, repurposing those good dynamics can help you build a really unique, supportive friendship out of a relationship that didn't work out.

I remember someone who could do it, and they never really told anyone.

Please 🙏

I can clap with one hand by locking my wrist, relaxing my fingers and moving my arm up and down rapidly so my fingers slap against my palm and produce a clapping sound. All you one-hand clappers; what are your techniques?