In my school they encouraged you to come up with techniques like this.

You’re either very lucky and were in a school that went against established norms, or you’re young enough that you were taught the “new” math that boomers hate. Because this is the new math.

Boomers, GenX, and elder millennials were primarily taught via rote memorization. You simply memorized the times tables, and committed “8*3=24” to memory. You didn’t calculate it every time. You just memorized the tables, regurgitated them ad nauseam to appease the teachers, and then referred to those memorized tables for any multiplication you needed to do.

For reference, this is the times table I’m referring to. Our quizzes/tests required you to fill out the entire thing in less than 5 minutes:

We had to fill this out multiple times per week. The goal of the time limit was to force you to memorize it, instead of calculating it out every time. You simply didn’t have time to calculate each one out. Then once you had it memorized, if you ever had to do 8*3, you would just refer to your memorized times tables for it.

But the issue with this is that it doesn’t teach you how to actually do the math in your head, it just teaches you the times tables. You aren’t calculating it out each time, so you don’t develop any shortcuts or methods to make it easier. If a teacher ever saw you turn 9+7 into 10+6, they would bust out the red pen and start slashing. Even though 10+6 is undeniably easier to do in your head, the teachers weren’t concerned with that; They wanted to know that you had memorized what 9+7 is. These memes are primarily aimed at the millennials and GenX with ADHD, because they were the ones who got bored of rote memorization and started coming up with shortcuts (which then got docked points on their quizzes.)

Yup, this is what parents are complaining about when they say math has changed. Before, math was primarily about rote memorization. You just memorized that 9+7 is 16. There were multiplication tables you were expected to memorize and regurgitate ad nauseam. Sure you could count it out on your fingers, but that only works for numbers under 11. For anything above that, you just referred to your memorized addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division tables. But this also meant that numbers outside of those tables were really difficult to do in your head, because you were poorly equipped to actually calculate them out.

Common core math is attempting to make math easier to do in your head, by teaching the concepts (rather than promoting rote memorization) and helping students learn shortcuts to avoid getting lost. 9+7 is 16, but it’s also 10+6 or 8*2, which are much easier to visualize in your head without counting on your fingers.

I had pretty much the exact opposite experience; I had several million karma spread across 20 or 30 accounts, and never had a single ban until the API-colypse.

When I mass edited and deleted my comments on my first account, I got permabanned on basically every pro-Spez sub I had ever touched. Then when I did the same with subsequent accounts, they all got site-banned for ban evasion.

I went back a few months later when I heard people had been unbanned and their comments had been restored. And sure enough, all of my accounts were unbanned and had all of their comments unedited and undeleted. Reddit did some sneaky shit to preserve old data and ensure they could actually sell to LLMs.

Yeah, it’s a toss-up between the Nvidia Shield and the Apple TV 4K. Go with Nvidia if you want to be able to load your own custom launcher. Go with Apple TV 4K if you want ease of setup. Either one will be a workhorse of a device, both have robust app stores to run whatever streaming services you prefer, and both will run whatever custom media you want to throw at it via Plex, Kodi, or VLC’s network play.

Yeah, the issue was with Windows doing funky things with GRUB during an update. GRUB is a popular bootloader, which detects which OSes you have installed, and presents them in a menu. But Windows has been setting Windows Bootloader to run instead of GRUB when it updates. And Windows’ Bootloader doesn’t automatically detect Linux installs. If you use your BIOS to choose your OS (instead of using GRUB) you’re fine.

Even then, the fix is relatively simple in most cases. It’s just running a command in Windows’ Command Prompt, (the specific command is a little bit different depending on your specific distro) to re-enable GRUB after the update disables it.

Warning: You basically get no time off. Even when you’re off, you’re expected to be on-call. And no, you’re not paid extra for that.

With the rise of computers, railroad scheduling got precise. It eventually reached a point where railroad companies began cutting workers, because they were able to bounce one conductor from train to train the same way airlines bounce pilots from one flight to the next. They cut so many workers that it got to the point where a single sick person can bring the entire system to a screeching halt. Instead of actually keeping enough people on the roster to actually fill their needs, they just started implementing increasingly strict attendance policies, to the point that railroad workers have basically zero time off.

This led to the 2022 strike, where railroad workers were eventually allowed one day of PTO per year. They’re either working or on call for the other 364 days.

The most common reason to get a new number is because you were the victim of identity theft. The gross part is that getting a new SSN doesn’t actually remove your old SSN. It just ties your new SSN to your old one; You can use either one interchangeably, because the new one just automatically routes back to the old one. This means there are now two numbers that can be used to steal your identity, instead of just one. And it doesn’t prevent the people who already have your old number from continuing to use it.

In this two thousand and twenty fourth year of our lord, there are still people using databases that don’t automatically append a unique number to entries to avoid this exact scenario…

If it was just an expired license, did you get it renewed afterwards? Oftentimes, cops will issue a “fix it” ticket to encourage people to actually take care of their stuff. Basically, you’ll be able to show the judge that you got it remedied. The judge will likely look at your (otherwise spotless) record, and outright dismiss it, or knock it down to a small fine. The cop knows this will likely be dismissed if you get it taken care of, so they really just issue the ticket to force you to actually stop procrastinating and get it done. It basically puts a deadline on your renewal.

If you haven’t renewed yet, you should start that now. At least be able to show the judge that you’re working on it.

I could fit 90% of my survival-related stuff into a 5 gallon Home Depot bucket in the trunk of my car. I know this for a fact, because I literally have a 5 gallon bucket full of survival gear in the trunk of my car right now, (because I’m going camping this weekend, not because I’m a crazy prepper…) It holds everything I need, except for my sleeping stuff and clothes, which just get thrown into a duffle.

It wouldn’t cover consumables like food or water, but it would at least be enough to survive in relative comfort. It’s really just a matter of how off-the-grid you want to be. I have a small saw and hatchet for making firewood. A wood burning stove for cooking and heat. The 5 gallon bucket actually doubles as a camp toilet, (I use compostable bags and toilet gel,) and a few other essentials like cutlery, a mess kit, cordage, etc.

As for living like you’re always ready to vanish, it can be a lifestyle choice, but is often done out of necessity or survival instead. Victims of abuse, for instance, often learn to pack light and avoid buying things. So if their abuser ever finds them, they can ghost in less than a day.

My guess is that OP was caught street racing. They tick a lot of boxes for someone who would street race. My guess is that they’re stationed at Fort Dearborn, in Chicago. That’s an army base. Freshly enlisted army chuds tend to see their first paycheck, get excited that they suddenly have big-boy money, (and aren’t paying rent because they’re living on base) and they impulsively buy a sports car. And this means they’re only one step away from street racing. All it takes is a weekend of off-base shenanigans when he sees some local car enthusiasts, and now OP is hit with street racing charges.

Many areas have begun cracking down on racing, to the point that it can outright get your car seized (not just impounded for pickup later. Completely seized), and your license revoked. Not sure about Chicago/Illinois specifically, but many areas have started implementing harsher and harsher penalties for it on the city/county level.

If this is the case, the cop is basically saying “rat on your street racing buddies so we can bust all of them, or else we’re throwing the book at you.”

OP needs to delete this post and talk to an attorney.

Throwback to the NES Classic ROM having a ripper/uploader’s signature in the game code. Because Nintendo didn’t ever bother archiving their own games, and just downloaded ROMs from the same sites they were trying to shut down.