With the art of glass blowing, is it possible to blow a bauble around a 2-to-6 inch tall figurine?

And if it is, I would like to find someone willing to do so and ship to the US west coast. :)

Hello, folks. Hoping I can get some opinions on my situation.

My 12-yo watches a lot of YouTube. It is mostly streaming personalities who have a lot to say on a variety of topics. I have either watched these videos with them, overheard them from another room, or looked some up from their history and viewed them myself.

I have problems with them and want to do something about it.

I care little about the topics being discussed; my child is allowed to be interested in their own things, even those separate from ours (their parents), and it's also reasonable for them to disagree with us. All of that is fine.

My problem is with how these streamers present their content:

1. They do not provide critical scrutinization of the issues.
2. They do not apply logical rationalization or reason to the stances they take.
3. They do not cite sources of repute to justify their positions.
4. They are needlessly hyperbolic.
5. They examine no dissenting opinions.
6. They present themselves as authorities on every topic with zero credentials to support that assertion.
7. They succumb to, support, and repeat what is obviously propaganda.

To say nothing of the fact that the value the entertainment potential and viewership counts more than the content of their arguments.

I was raised allowed to moderate my own content because I was trusted to be intelligent and wise enough to critically select what I watched or read and learn from the mistakes I made if I consumed something negatively influential. I have tried to extend this same trust to my 12-yo, but their constant repetition of what they hear and their inability to form a cogent argument makes me feel like their YouTube viewing habits are teaching them to accept concepts at face-value simply because they are popular.

I don't feel it would be productive to start out-right blocking content and pundits because this would feel more hegemonic than educational. I'd rather increase the likelihood that they'd critique and dismiss the content than decrease the likelihood that they'd view it.

I would love to hear what others have to say about this situation.

Chicken?

I'm looking for recommendations for an Android app to track and report GPS-type data (if such an app exists). Specifically, I'm hoping to be able to extract stops, origin/destination, roads/route traveled, and speed information.

Two use cases:

1. Friend does an ad-hoc delivery service where requests are phoned in when they're needed rather than scheduled ahead of time. The ability to see where they started, where they went, and what roads/distance they traveled as they scurry about all day without having to enter it all manually into a map program later on would be invaluable to calculating expenses.
2. Same friend was pulled over, while I was also in the vehicle, for speeding but was definitely not exceeding the speed limit. I would've loved to be able to pull up some GPS data that said what speed we were going at the time on the road in question.

Is there a way to specify where photos are saved? I don't see an option in the settings menu and it seems to be defaulted to (Android) Internal/Pictures/

So I have these old, original Game Boy (like, the grey one with the maroon buttons) games I wanna play again (original Pokemon Blue). What can I get to do so?

I bought a GB on eBay but the screen was barely visible. I'm comfortable partially building/programming something myself, and would also be fine with an adapter or some such that allows me to play the cartridge or copy its contents so I can play on my laptop or Raspberry Pi or whatever.

Suggestions sought!

I'm trying to figure out what's happening to me and I'm not sure where to look.

For the last several years, whenever I listen to silence-filling noise (white, brown, pink, etc.) I tend to hear additional sounds. It's like having your radio tuned to a MHz that's just off a tiny bit, so you hear static but there's just a slight edge of voices or something that you can't quite make out but is definitely there. Sometimes, instead of voices, it's also patterns in the noise or various pitches.

It happens in a variety of situations, like Youtube videos, audio tracks from meditation apps and noise generators, and even devices that have no audio input or antenna and are specifically for noise as you'd find in the waiting room of a massage clinic. It even happens when it's a completely benign source like an air fan. And the sounds I hear match the volume of the source.

Do I have superpowers? A brain tumor? Am I just sensitive to imperfect wave form generation? Am I part-dog? Have I done damage to myself from listening to Metallica way too loud for too many years?

Where do I start looking into this? Does anyone have any possible explanations for what I'm experiencing that might lead me in the right direction?

Looking for recommendations on how to SMS from a computer, á la Pushbullet or some such. Currently using Google Messages with companion desktop/web app and love the experience, but am on a de-Googling quest and looking for alternatives.

Prefer FOSS options (love the Fossify stuff, for example) but an willing to pay a slight premium if required. Would like solution to be compatible with any web browser and Windows but Linux (Mint) would work, too.

Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks in advance!

Has anyone heard of this AppCrypt by Cisdem? I'm normally wary of things not FOSS and I couldn't find much information about the app or the company.

I like that I can require authentication (screen unlock) for certain apps on my phone, so I can hand it to my kids and know they aren't opening my work email, etc. I'd like to be able to do that for my desktop as well.

I am looking for a recording tool/app (preferably for Android) which would allow me to start recording a video and have that video saved to the cloud as I record it. I already have several ways to automatically upload video files to the could once the recording has ended and the file is saved to the device. I want something that will save a video in progress to the cloud as I record it.

An example use-case would be an activist filming coverage of an event where the device is accidentally destroyed or confiscated by authorities mid-stream/record. The ability to go and find what was recorded before it has to be completed, saved, and then uploaded is extremely valuable to me. The upload to cloud option is, of course, in case access the device can not be restored; I'd like to go find what was captured up until the moment of disruption from any device so long as I have the credentials.

I avoid mainstream services like YouTube and Facebook but will use them if I must, preferring FOSS, decentralized, privacy respecting, etc. options where possible.

Any suggestions are much appreciated!

Question for the group on a problem I'm trying to solve: How can I block internet access for some apps on standard, OOTB Android?

My current set-up is to use Proton VPN with the Android settings "Always-on VPN" and "Block connections without VPN" and then use Proton VPN's Split-tunneling to exclude certain apps from using the VPN. This has the desired effect of blocking certain apps from having access to the internet.

However, I now find that I need to use certain Apps without the VPN but with internet access. In the past, I'd used something like NetGuard to control which apps have internet access, but, as Android only allows one VPN slot, this would require me to swap out Proton VPN.

So my problem statement: I'd like to be able to continue to use Proton VPN, exclude some apps from using that VPN but still have access to the internet, and block still other apps from the internet entirely. I'm struggling to find a way to do this.

Any suggestions are welcome!