I stopped using them when they switched to instacart -- the instacart shoppers really don't care about service, they're just trying to deliver orders as fast as possible so they can more to the next one. They'll pack ice cream with a warm rotisserie chicken so you end up with molten ice cream as it sits in their trunk for 45 minutes while they make 2 deliveries before yours. And in the half dozen or so times I used them, not a single order was correct.

Now I use Amazon Whole Foods because even though they use gig drivers for the delivery, the food is well packed (and they use foil lined bags for cold products that do a decent job of keeping cold foods cold.

That's probably true, but kids want a lot of things they shouldn't have. I'm sure I would have loved to have a real phone as a toddler, but my sister and I got a lot of mileage out of our Fisher Price phone, making lots of pretend calls, which was probably better for our developing brains than a real phone.

Yet the chronic 'loser' US is somehow the superpower hegemon

And the USA is even losing its hegemony with the Iran war that's causing global pain without global consensus that it was neccessary, but the real loser in the USA is the American taxpayer who gives up domestic social benefits to fund these wars.

And, the lesson that the USA never seems to learn is that just having air superiority doesn't win a war.

Because they signed the paperwork saying they wanted to be part of the little club and gave that little club the power to take away their house.

Doesn't the patent just document how it works so individuals can create and release 3D models of the device so anyone can create their own?

Even ignoring RVU's, most specialists will want to treat a problem with their speciality if it would be an effective treatment so a second opinion is almost always a good idea. I shopped around for treatment for a procedure I needed, the robotic surgeon recommended robotic surgery, the laser specialist recommended laser surgery, the general internal medicine doctor gave a few less invasive alternatives. I researched them all, went back to my PCP and picked the procedure I wanted to have done.

Most people see a PCP that doesn't really have the means to recommend you for thousands of dollars of treatments that he'll oversee. Instead he refers you to a specialist, but you still have your PCP to rely on to say "Hey, this specialist says I need surgery for this, is that reasonable or should I get a second opinion".

But when you go to the dentist and he says you have 15 cavities and need two root canals immediately and he can get you an appointment as soon as tomorrow to get started, a lot of people will just do it without seeking a second opinion since there's a lot of friction to finding a new dentist and undergoing a second exam.

When I needed a root canal, I self-referred myself to an endodontist both as a second opinion and for his expertise at doing the procedure. My dentist's dental tech seemed surprised I wanted to go somewhere else for the root canal, she said "Well, most people like Dr Xxxxx do it, he's very good at root canals".

If not for the need for video conferencing, she'd have been fine with an audio only device.

Or "Your reefer is set to 35 degrees but you're hauling chilled beer, we set it to 40 degrees to save fuel"

https://www.sf.gov/information--operating-and-maintenance-ex...

When the annual allowable increase does not completely cover the landlord’s yearly increase in operating and maintenance expenses for a property, a landlord may petition for an additional base rent increase of up to 7%. This is known as an Operating and Maintenance or O&M increase. In determining whether an O&M increase is justified, all operating expenses must be considered (excluding debt service), including: property taxes, repairs, maintenance, insurance, pest control, garbage, water, etc