No Stupid Questions

By relationships, I mean both platonic and romantic. I'm just doing a bit of soul searching and reflecting on things I've done in the past.

For example, I used to get a weird sense of satisfaction by rejecting girls that showed interest in dating me, even though deep down I wanted a relationship and wanted to give them a chance. Not in a cruel way, just in a "sorry I'm not looking for a relationship right now" kind of way.

I also used to sabotage friendships that were forming before I got too close to the person. Sometimes I ghosted people, acted cold around them, or just didn't go out socially with them. The result was exactly what you'd expect - people just stopped speaking to me and didn't make an effort anymore, just as I hadn't with them.

I've hurt people that cared about me and can't figure out whether it's fear of getting close, fear of showing my vulnerabilities, or something else entirely.

My domestic cats seem to locate any open available cardboard box and happily plop themselves into it. This got me thinking, would outdoor cats settle into a random box they find as easily too? What about big cats?

My mustache hairs point down and look sloppy when I try to go full handlebar, what's the best way to tame it? Like should I brush it and blow dry after showering? Or something else?

I’ve often been told that this isn’t actually true but I can’t help but feel that it does happen. Until recently I hadn’t shaved for about a year, maybe two. Now I feel like it’s growing back quicker than what it did the last time (after shaving on a more regular basis).

Target has a fearsome reputation on the internet regarding how far it goes to stop shoplifting. As is commonly told, it is supposed to track repeat small time shoplifters until they have one last theft that puts them over $1000 (or whatever the magic felony amount is) and only then does Target drop the net and get the shoplifter convicted on a felony for the total amount that has been stolen over weeks or months as one charge.

As the story is told, it smells strange to me and creates many, many followup questions in my mind. I think those questions would be answered by reading through a court case. As famous as Target is, I feel like more dedicated online crime news followers would know of the case and how it played out. Can anyone point me at it?

Edit: The tale told here.

Former U.S. presidents are authorized a security detail from the Secret Service for life. If Trump loses the election and flees the country, does his security detail have to go with him if he requests it?

I imagine this could go down in a variety of ways: He departs the U.S. before he's sentenced and just never returns, or he attempts to flees or does flees the U.S. after his sentencing. Either way, what happens to his security detail?

If he attempts to flees after he's sentenced, I would hope the detail would refuse to take part in it (if he can even board a plane/leave the country to begin with), but given all their failings, who knows.

How are you supposed to decide where to get care for emergent conditions? Where is the dividing line between "just book a clinic visit", "head into urgent care when you get a chance", and "go inmediately to the ER"?

So this is a question I've always struggled with and it makes me feel very dumb especially because I literally am a EMR. This feels like something I should know. But at the same time I have also called to book a clinic visit before and had the scheduler tell me to go to the ER immediately only for it to wind up being nothing.

Certain things are obvious of course. Like if I need stitches or there is other major trauma then I know to go to the ER. If it is something like a concerning infection then I know urgent care can sort me out. For a skin rash that's probably a clinic visit. If urgent care is closed and it can't wait then default to the ER. But there are also the issues where I genuinely don't know on what side of the line they should fall. This is especially an issue for things that have been going on for a while which I know could be severe but almost certainly aren't.

For example (not asking for medical advice) I've been having repeated extended periods of heart palpitations for the past 2 weeks. At first I just chalked it up to screwing up my anxiety med schedule while I was on vacation because my med situation does cause heart palpitations if I screw it up. So I didn't think much of it at first but now I've been back on my meds properly for 2 weeks with no change. So, that's cardiac symptoms which in a patient would make me tell them to immediately go to the ER just to be safe. But at the same time it's been going on for 2 weeks and it's probably just some vitamin deficiency or something so it probably wouldn't kill me to wait a week for a clinic appointment (no walk in clinic here). Do I split the difference and go to urgent care? It's like schrodingers medical issue, it's both the worlds most benign thing and a symptom of immediate death until someone looks into it, so how do I know who should open that schrodingers box?

It seems like there has to be some easy dividing line on how to know which one to go to that I just don't know.

Edit: In USA, because that probably matters here.

I was talking to a coworker about these new phishing attacks that send your name and address and sometimes a picture of your house, and I was saying how creepy it is, and they told me that phonebooks were delivered to everyone and used to have like literally everyone in a city listed by last name with their phone number and address. Is that for real?

Betty Sue makes $286,000 per month on Etsy. She started with nothing, and now she's filthy rich.

Come on, man. The chances of that happening to the average person are close to zero. Stories like this give people unrealistic expectations.

every time we go out to eat, I take like two bites and feel like throwing up, and I'm not one to get nauseous easily. this only started when we started dating (wed been best friends for 3 years or so up until that)

its not new food, I've been to these places many times before

A long time ago, the universe was created. This made a lot of people very angry and it has widely been regarded as a bad move. Was the creation of the universe politically motivated or was there some other reason for doing it?

For example I don't know if a cheap mini PC like the GMKtec G5 would be more likely to have firmware/driver related security flaws over a more standard PC like an older Dell Optiplex from Staples.

Maybe there is something else entirely I am overlooking. I'm not sure. Most of the complaints I've heard are in regards to mini PCs containing bloat and potentially malicious things installed.

Our solar system mostly revolves around the sun on the same axis (apart from Pluto). Our galaxy does the same (along with other galaxies). Why? Gravity is linear?

Would it matter if we tried to escape the sun's gravity by going "up?"

SEB, a Sweden based bank is now displaying warnings on its web app when opened in Firefox, recommending to switch to Chrome. Do they have any obligations to comply with web standards? Or is it just a question of competitiveness in the market?

My local grocery store has started stocking a "limited edition" apple pie ice cream (message me for the details, don't want to be shilling). It's one of my favorites -- not only does it have chunks of real apple and graham cracker crust, but the ice cream itself has a delicious apple flavor. The whole thing tastes like you took a slice of apple pie with vanilla ice cream and blended it chunky style.

I always figured there was some boring food-science reason you couldn't make a decent apple ice cream, but this shows it's perfectly possible. So why isn't it more common? Apple pie is one of the most popular deserts, and you find apple flavoring in plenty of drinks and candies. What gives?

So I was a daily smoker and then I would take a rip, and immediately throw up. It would subside after a few hours and I was good for the rest of the day, but I thought it was weird so I stopped smoking for a couple of months, and figured I'd be OK smoking again this weekend. I took 2 hits, and immediately needed to throw up. They weren'tmonster hits nor did I get enough to even make me cough, but as soon as I took the second hit, I had to expell everything. Can someone please give me clarification on what is possibly going on?

Title. Just imagine the possibilities of having your own "homemade internet"!

Like I get the push more air through your mouth and get louder but my voice never breaks. I just get louder and louder and louder until I can't get louder anymore.

One time a friend of mine was a half a block away in the wrong direction and I screamed their name and they jumped because they said it sounded like I was right behind them talking in my normal voice just very loudly.

But then I listen to singers and they get that raw raspy edge to their voice and my voice doesn't do that.

How do you do that?

How the hell did the character get so viral? I've tried watching the skits several times to see if maybe I'm missing something, but for the life of me, I can't seem to see it. Is everyone just biased because it's Tom Hanks? Or is it actually hilarious, and I'm just struggling to understand the humor? Fall/Spooky season is my absolute favorite time of year, but am I just a buzz kill?

Not exactly sure how to articulate this.

My instagram shorts feed feels completely Sci-Fi level manipulative and conditioning.

And I realize that in some ways, I have programmed it.

So it makes me wonder how others are programming and getting programmed by these super manipulative video feeds.

Short of walking up to strangers and asking, “hey, can I compare your feed to mine?” What can someone do to get a more Birds Eye view of what this cancerous infection instagram is doing to society?