RegularJoe

I didn't mean to imply that they had elderly parents, I just meant that is something to consider if they did.

If you're young and your parents aren't old, it's doable.

It's also doable when you have siblings to take care of older parents. I know you say "Most of our families will be gone in a few years." But what if in less than that time they need care?

Relocating back to where your elderly parents are, especially if you're older can be a hassle. For example, if you are 50 years old and your parents are 75 years old, and they need a caretaker, you would need to relocate, and get a new job later in life (often at a pay decrease).

It starts with libations and food offerings.

Sweets were fed to the gods in ancient Mesopotamia and ancient India[7] and other ancient civilizations.[8] Herodotus mentions that Persian meals featured many desserts, and were more varied in their sweet offerings than the main dishes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dessert#History

The Romans continued the practice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Roman_cuisine#Desserts

back to the main dessert article:

Europeans began to manufacture sugar in the Middle Ages, and more sweet desserts became available.[14] Even then sugar was so expensive usually only the wealthy could indulge on special occasions. The first apple pie recipe was published in 1381;[15] The earliest documentation of the term cupcake was in "Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats" in 1828 in Eliza Leslie's Receipts cookbook.[16]

And then there's this guy:

Evidence for the domestication of the cacao tree exists as early as 5300 BP in South America, in present-day southeast Ecuador by the Mayo-Chinchipe culture, before it was introduced to Mesoamerica.[8] It is unknown when chocolate was first consumed as opposed to other cacao-based drinks, and there is evidence the Olmecs, the earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization, fermented the sweet pulp surrounding the cacao beans into an alcoholic beverage.[9][10]

Chocolate was extremely important to several Mesoamerican societies,[11] and cacao was considered a gift from the gods by the Mayans and the Aztecs.[12][13]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate#History

Now as to "why before bed"? It's become a practice. But here's the thing: nobody is making you eat a sweet nor at a particular time of day.

In the 80s it was rare to see people drinking water, except for "health food nuts". It was far more common to see soft drinks/sodas. Over the years, society has become more accepting of drinking water. You didn't have "hydrohomies" in the 80s. Be the change you want to see in the world.

While rare, these are lawyers specializing in lithium battery fires...

The nationally recognized team at Levin Simes represents clients across the country who experience personal injury as a result of lithium battery fires. To schedule a free consultation, speak with an experienced battery explosion accident lawyer at our firm.

https://www.levinsimes.com/blog/lithium-ion-battery-fire-statistics

Lithium-ion battery fire statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) show 245 fires within 64 waste facilities alone over a seven-year span, which were determined to be caused or likely caused by lithium-ion batteries and lithium metal.

The fires from lithium batteries cited by the EPA cause environmental threats and disruption to regional business, impacting 28 states in all ten EPA regions.

Not only are the threats from fires increasing and jeopardizing manufacturing workers and our environment, but exploding lithium-ion batteries can cause severe and life-changing injuries to consumers. Below, we highlight lithium-ion battery fire statistics and their threat to you.

And even if it's a low chance, it's a chance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendrite_(crystal)

https://www.geologyin.com/2020/09/dendrite-minerals.html

https://www.britannica.com/science/dendrite-crystal

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/encyclopedia/Dendrite_%28crystal%29.html

ChatGPT isn’t on the team.

Except that when someone pastes “ChatGPT thinks that {wall of AI-generated text}”

That person put ChatGPT on the team. And if there was no human input, the competition is free to use that and mock it word for word. Use fear, uncertainty, and doubt to convince your team that anyone can use that, including your competition, if it is published.

The U.S. Copyright Office’s January 2025 report on AI and copyrightability reaffirms the longstanding principle that copyright protection is reserved for works of human authorship. Outputs created entirely by generative artificial intelligence (AI), with no human creative input, are not eligible for copyright protection.

https://natlawreview.com/article/copyright-offices-latest-guidance-ai-and-copyrightability

The size of the event horizon of a black hole depends on the mass of the black hole. The greater the mass, the larger the radius of the event horizon.

One idea you may have heard is that black holes go about sucking things up with their gravity. Actually, it is only very close to a black hole that the strange effects we have been discussing come into play. The gravitational attraction far away from a black hole is the same as that of the star that collapsed to form it.

So, if you are a star or distant planet orbiting around a star that becomes a black hole, your orbit may not be significantly affected by the collapse of the star (although it may be affected by any mass loss that precedes the collapse). If, on the other hand, you venture close to the event horizon, it would be very hard for you to resist the “pull” of the warped spacetime near the black hole. You have to get really close to the black hole to experience any significant effect.

If another star or a spaceship were to pass one or two solar radii from a black hole, Newton’s laws would be adequate to describe what would happen to it. Only very near the event horizon of a black hole is the gravitation so strong that Newton’s laws break down.

https://wisconsin.pressbooks.pub/astronomy/chapter/chapter-24-section-24-5-black-holes/

solar radius is a unit of distance, commonly understood as 695,700 km and expressed as R⊙{\display style R_{\odot }}, used mostly to express the size of an astronomical objects relative to that of the Sun, or their distance from it.

695,700 kilometres (432,300 miles) is approximately 10 times the average radius of Jupiter; 109 times the 6378 km radius of the Earth at its equator; and 1/215 {\textstyle {1 \over 215}} or 0.0047 of an astronomical unit, the approximate average distance between Earth and the Sun.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_radius

At about 0.01 au (two solar radii would be 0.0094), the sun as a black hole would not affect the Earth, nor Venus, nor Mercury.

Mercury is 0.4 astronomical units away from the Sun

https://science.nasa.gov/mercury/facts/

Based on that, we would stay put. A black hole does not emit light, including sunlight. Sunlight warms our planet (so it's going to get mercilessly cold). Many plants would die and they would stop making oxygen. And while you can argue that we can't live without heat from the sun, with 8 billion humans plus all the animals on the planet, I suspect we'll run out of air before the cold kills us. But I could be wrong about asphyxiating before freezing to death.

See also https://science.nasa.gov/universe/what-happens-when-something-gets-too-close-to-a-black-hole/

Edit: as others on here have noted, our star isn't big enough to become a black hole. The above assumes "But what if it did?"

Cliff Clavin approves.

Book series? Try Michael Moorcock's Elric series.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elric_of_Melnibon%C3%A9

EFF has an article on this, too. They have links on how to limit ad tracking on iphone and android.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/03/targeted-advertising-gives-your-location-government-just-ask-cbp

And here's the original article at Politico

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/26/ice-immigration-churches-lawsuits-00802076

Per the article,

"Elon Musk is an aggressive and irresponsible salesman," the plaintiff said. "Who has a long history of making dangerous design choices, and overpromising features of his products."

The plaintiff now expects the American car brand "to properly design, test, market, inspect, repair, and recall the subject Cybertruck."

As of February 2026, Elon Musk's net worth is estimated to be around $852 billion according to Forbes.