Mokka mit Schlag » 2024 » December

When I was a young child I believed in God for the same reason I believed in the president or England: other people told me and seemed to act as if there was such a thing, so it didn’t even occur to me doubt it. I also believed in Santa Claus until maybe the age of 8. Fifty years later, I’ve seen lots of evidence that the president exists. I’ve been to England. I even believe in a lot stranger things like neutrinos and mitochondria, mostly because almost everyone who seems to know anything about these things believes in them and tells me I should too. It also helps that believing in them doesn’t seem to lead to any obvious contradictions or problems.

On the other hand I don’t believe in string theory because some people who seem to be smart and have deeply investigated these topics either don’t believe or actively disbelieve. I’ll even say I don’t believe in quantum gravity. I don’t disbelieve in quantum gravity, but there are enough contradictions and problems with every quantum gravity scheme anyone has ever proposed to make me cautious.
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If you’ve ever watched a YouTube video you’ve likely heard way too much about VPNs (mostly though not completely useless for privacy purposes) and DeleteMe (possibly a little helpful for keeping your offline information out of some white pages type sites). However, did you ever wonder where these sites and many other marketers and spammers get your information from in the first place? There are actually many sources, but one place most people don’t think of is the stores you’ve shopped at. These days almost every online merchant you’ve ever registered for an account with freely sells your personal information to anyone and everyone. I don’t know any way to keep them all from doing it but you an reduce the scope of the problem. Here’s how.
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