Water softeners use a salt brine to flush out the ions off the resin beads. The resin beads do eventually wear out but should be good for 5+ years in most residential applications. The softener salt does have to be topped up frequently though. Softeners are not particularly exoensive to keep operating.

If her primary concern is drinking water, you can get an under sink RO filter for a couple hundred. They’re very easy to install yourself. I’ve even helped a friend install one connected to their fridge so that the fridge dispenser would taste better. We are on city water that tests well except for microplastics and it sometimes tastes a little bit like soil or musty. The RO systems come with a particulate filter, carbon stage, Reverse Osmosis membrane, and a remineralization stage. RO is the only way to effectively remove microplastics.

Personally, I would consider having a particulate filter and maybe water softener for the whole house. Neither of those should be crazy expensive. The water softener is only if your city water tests hard or if you have mineral buildup on your shower heads or in your dishwasher. If you’ve done any plumbing work, a particulate filter is pretty easy and affordable to install yourself.

Reverse osmosis for the whole house is simply unnecessary. Install one yourself at the location your family gets their drinking/cooking water.

https://www.mcmaster.com/product/4361K71

This unit from mcmaster carr is what I use. Please be aware that chlorine does damage the RO membrane, so it is important to replace the first two filter stages approximately every 6 months. The fourth stage is recommended to be replaced yearly and the RO stage is supposed to be good for 2 yrs.

https://www.mcmaster.com/4361K81/ https://www.mcmaster.com/4361K82/ https://www.mcmaster.com/4361K83/ https://www.mcmaster.com/4361K84/

Express Water also has some decent under sink and counter top options.

Removing chlorine for the whole home requires a large activated carbon filter. They’re pretty expensive and the media gets saturated and has to be replaced every so often to keep absorbing chlorine. I would only do this if your wife has extremely sensitive skin that is getting irritated from your tap water.

Oh and Reverse Osmosis systems waste more water than they clean without expensive recirculating pumps and controllers. That’s acceptable for a couple gallons of drinking water a day, but would be very wasteful and expensive in a whole-house system.

401(k) is managed by the employer and you can only pick from the funds they have selected. That really doesn’t leave much choice for most people.

That’s why people should consider doing a rollover into IRA anytime they have a job change and not just rollover into the new employer’s 401(k).

The state department published a full transcript.

https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/07/remarks-at-the-opening-of-the-ministerial-on-the-resurgence-of-political-terrorism/

That was a distraction from the real move.

https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/07/remarks-at-the-opening-of-the-ministerial-on-the-resurgence-of-political-terrorism/

They intend to sidestep the judicial system entirely when going after political opponents.

Marble has a density of 0.098 lbs/in³. So a 500lb sphere has a volume of 500lb/.098lb/in³= 5102 in³. That gives a radius of (5102 in³ * (3/(4pi)))^(1/3)= 10.68 in.

Let’s say the bowl it sits in has 2/3 the radius. So 7.12in. That makes the enclosed surface area pi*( 7.12in) ²= 160in². So 500lbs/160in² = 3.14 psi. How fast do you think the water will spray out at 3.14 psi? Without any drag, out of an ideal nozzle, it would be 6.5mph. However, the pressure will actually be higher in the middle and tapers off to 0 at the edge thanks to the flow diverging and drag. So really the pressure drop at the opening is even smaller.

There’s a lot of lifting area which means you don’t actually need much pressure. You can lift entire buildings with large water bags.

How many horcruxes does McConnell have left after this?

If you know anyone with a sensitive nose, ask them if the place you live in smells musty or moldy. I’ve had family members go through similar issues also without any help from the medical system and mold was a major contributing factor. You and anyone else who lives with you will be nose blind to it and won’t be able smell it without spending a week or so elsewhere.

Not exactly the prompt, but “Chuck” Season 2 Episode 13: “Chuck Versus the Suburbs.”

Ants already have taken over the world. They vastly outnumber humans and already live in just about every area humans do.

Which one? He seems to have so many these days, but none of them are the American electorate.

2 * 0 = 0

Doubling the mass of photons is no change.

Repealing Bournoulli’s principle requires changing how kinetic collisions of molecules translates into bulk measurables like pressure and density. There’s no way to predict what that does without first specifying more about what changes are made.

Go ahead and sign up for a non-euclidean geometry course. Constant pi assumes flat geometry, and I’m ok with that.

Liquid cooling is meant to be contained in tubes, fittings, and resevoirs. You have to use mineral oil if you want an aquarium pc.

It disincentivizes speculative holding and buying up inventory to reduce supply without demonstrated demand. Large landlords are willing to sit on vacant inventory in order to keep market rates high. By penalizing holding units vacant, that should incentivise either setting more competitive rents, or selling/not buying excess inventory.

In markets where there is a true undersupply of inventory and there aren’t vacancies then, yes, this policy wouldn’t have much benefit.

That’s why the homestead credit would only be payable to the resident. Residency is what matters here not the paper owner.

I won’t claim there aren’t potential loopholes in a casually described plan, but the one you brought up doesn’t apply without fraudulent claims of residency.

Currently, large corporate landlords are willing to let housing units sit empty vs letting market rates drop. A company with 500 units makes the same amount leasing 400 units at $1500/mo as they would leasing 470 units at $1300/mo and they have less overhead. The realpage software lets them coordinate with all the other corporate landlords without direct communication.

The reason I think this policy would help renters is by making vacant units significantly more expensive and pushing corporate property managers to actually compete rather than sit on vacancies.

I think I’d rather see this adressed on the property tax side with a homestead tax exemption. Let counties and municipalities significantly raise property tax rates then offer homestead tax rebates to the primary resident. Maybe even offer a monthly rebate to match rent/mortgage payments. Rent would go up, but the rebate should match the rent increase.

This would make empty units, short term rentals, and vacation home more expensive to hold on to compared to being pccupied by a long term resident. This would also let each region decide on the ratio of occupied vs unoccupied net property tax rates to dial in what works for them. A coastal community might have a much different equilibrium point than a suburb to a big city for example.

A lot of areas already have homestead exemptions for seniors and low income residents, so it doesn’t even require much in terms of new legal frameworks.

Ground hornets pattern match too. I had a massive nest I had never noticed in an old stump. They hadn’t bothered me despite having walked by numerous times. Then one time I hit the nest with the riding mower. Man that sucked. I’m not outright allergic, but a dozen stings does make me feel sick. After that, anytime I got within 20ft of the nest with the mower they would come out in force.

Then a few years later I had the same thing happen with a raised garden bed. They never bothered me and I didn’t even know they were there, until my weedwacker attacked the entrance of the nest. I had to steer clear of that section of the garden for a few weeks after.

Ground hornets are horrible.

And they will make sure to continue to not know a single thing about what was said. Ignorance isn’t a valid legal defence, but it sure is a common deflection tactic these days. Law makers have a professional and ethical obligation to become informed on the issues their constituents care about, but it seems like it’s rare to find one that remembers that obligation.