Tag: USA

Protected Sea Turtle Nesting Grounds in Florida | July 12 2026, 03:47

How sweet. On a Florida beach, a square meter is surrounded with ribbons and there’s a sign that reads:

DO NOT DISTURB! SEA TURTLE NEST HERE. VIOLATORS SUBJECT TO FINES AND IMPRISONMENT!

Florida Statute

Chapter 379.2431(1)

No person may take, possess, disturb, mutilate, destroy, cause to be destroyed, sell, offer for sale, transfer, harm, or harass any sea turtle, its nest, or eggs at any time.

Upon conviction, an individual may be incarcerated for up to 60 days or fined up to $500, or subject to both penalties simultaneously, plus an additional fine of $100 for each sea turtle egg destroyed or taken.

The US Endangered Species Act of 1973

No person may take, harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect any sea turtle, its nest, and/or eggs, or attempt such conduct.

Any person who knowingly violates any provision of this Act may be subjected to a civil penalty of up to $25,000 or a criminal penalty of up to $100,000 and imprisonment for up to one year.

If you witness a violation, see an injured or stranded turtle or disoriented hatchlings, please contact the FWC (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission) at 888-404-FWCC (3922), *FWC or #FWC.

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Next to this site, some Mexicans were sitting and talking loudly. I jokingly asked if they were disturbing the eggs. It seems they didn’t understand English, but they moved away just in case.

Understanding Your Dishwasher: Hot Water Connections and Built-In Heat Exchangers | June 08 2026, 12:43

I know how a dishwasher works. I’ve fixed it a couple of times => read the technical details. In the USA, it’s connected to the hot water supply on entry. Dishwashers have a weak heating element; it increases the temperature by only ~3°C/min, so heating up a full tray from scratch takes a while. It’s a good practice to run the hot water tap to warm up before starting the dishwasher. In countries with 220V, dishwashers often heat the water themselves. Bosch has an interesting solution: a heat exchanger in the wall. While the water heats up and is sprayed by the spray arms, a new batch of water pours into the heat exchanger. Then, the temperature of the new water batch slowly rises – while the ambient temperature in the chamber gradually drops, to avoid thermal shock for glasses when switching from dirty to clean water. And additionally, the heat exchanger provides a cold surface for drying – water from steam condenses there.

And everything stops not just on a timer (or rather, not only), but also by a turbidity sensor — an aquasensor. An infrared LED and a phototransistor inside the tray. It shines a beam through the water: strong signal received — water is clear, dishes are clean, time to wrap up; weak signal — too much dirt, need to keep running. That is, the machine itself decides whether to add a rinse. It also estimates the volume and dirtiness of the load — partly by the same turbidity, partly by how much the water cools when it’s sprayed onto the cold dishes (thermal mass) => the same Auto program can last either 1.5 hours or 3.

And here’s the most counterintuitive part. You should not rinse dishes before loading them. It’s not just soap, but a cocktail of surfactants (reduce surface tension), emulsifiers (make fats mix with water), dispersants (keep washed off dirt suspended so it doesn’t settle back), and enzymes (protease, amylase). Enzymes need food to latch onto. The main dirt on dishes is not fat (handled by surfactants and emulsifiers), but dried/burnt proteins and starches – large polymer molecules, insoluble in water and just mechanically adhering to the plate. You can’t knock them off with a jet, and there’s no one to rub them off. Enzymes — biological catalysts, cut these long molecules into small soluble pieces (protein into peptides and amino acids, starch into sugars), and these bits then easily wash away with water. Protease works on proteins, amylase on starch, sometimes lipase is added for fats. If you rinse everything off in advance – they just have nothing to do, washing off idly. If the aquasensor sees clean water at the start, it decides there’s not much to do, shortens the cycle, reduces intensity. Rinsing — you make the machine wash worse (but faster). Just scrape off solid chunks and load as is.

Insight about capsules. With each drain, water also carries away the dissolved detergent, so the machine injects the main dose only in the main wash — after it has drained the dirty preliminary water. But the pre-wash compartment is open, with holes, and the detergent leaks out right away. The capsule only opens in the main cycle, so for the first 10 minutes the machine runs clean water idly and no one is dealing with the fat then. That’s why powder is better than capsules: you can charge both compartments, and the pre-wash immediately tackles the fat.

The Evolution of Telegrams: A Luxury Legal Service in the USA | June 07 2026, 15:04

WHOA, in the US, telegrams haven’t yet been blocked, and they have transformed into an insanely expensive elite legal service, monopolized by American Telegram and iTelegram (both successors of Western Union). An urgent cable costs $34.95 base plus $0.79 per word. Additionally, they officially charge a $20.00 surcharge for home delivery, $25.00 for sending on a weekend, and up to $200.00 if you dictate the text to a live operator. Even sending a regular e-mail through their service will set you back $14.95.

The main source of income is the emergency cancellation of commercial contracts under the federal “3-day rule.” By law, contracts are terminated the second a telegram is sent. Companies are required to recognize the timestamp of American Telegram, authorized by the FCC, which provides ironclad protection in court. For 100% legal force, the service cunningly imposes on clients a delivery report and an archive copy — at $12.95 for each checkbox.

Their rates still include astonishing rules: “a word” is considered any group of characters up to 7 signs (more than that counts as two words), and a fee of $10.00 is automatically imposed for text in any language other than English. Special “War Zone” rates for messages to soldiers still apply ($20.00 base + $0.89 per word) and international cablegrams to sea vessels are sent strictly at the “risk and peril of the sender” with no guarantee of response.

Imagine, to save money, entire code books were published in the early 20th century that replaced complex thoughts with a combination of letters that looked like a word (link in the comments). POTUS and SCOTUS are from there.

Navigating Price Adjustment Policies at Major Retailers | May 27 2026, 21:53

I found out that if you bought a jacket or a TV (for instance, at Target, Best Buy, or Costco), and a week later that item went on sale, you can come back with your receipt within 14–30 days. This is an official policy of almost all major Western retailers, it’s a standard of customer service and is called Price Adjustment. However, a receipt is often necessary. Most stores suspend this policy during the Black Friday season, Cyber Monday, and special holiday promotions.

The Overmedication of American Children: A Deep Dive into Prescription Trends | May 13 2026, 19:29

Today I dug up something interesting about kids and pills.

Local doctors are somewhat surprised that I’m not on any medication. Recently, an acquaintance of a doctor said in passing that he has lots of young patients who regularly take 12–14 pills a day. I started researching — and my eyes nearly popped out.

I found that according to CDC data, nearly one in five children under 12 years old are on prescription drugs. In the 12–19 age cohort, it’s every third one. Moreover, the rate among boys up to 12 years old is one and a half times higher than among girls, which is largely explained by early ADHD diagnoses. If we’re talking about long-term use (3 months or more continuously), a fifth of all children and teenagers are involved. It is reported that ADHD was diagnosed in 11.4% of children, about 7 million people, approximately every ninth child in the country. Of those with an active diagnosis, 53.6% are taking stimulants (Adderall, Ritalin, Concerta, and equivalents). In terms of the entire child population, this means about 6% of American children are constantly on psychostimulants. Besides ADHD, there are antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds, and antipsychotics. 9.3% of all children ages 5–17 have taken some kind of “mental health” medication. Among teenagers 12–17 years old — 10.7%.

This is probably the most interesting thing I’ve found. The variability between states is threefold. In Louisiana, ADHD is diagnosed in nearly every fifth child, in California – three times less often. In Louisiana 80.2% of the diagnosed children were immediately put on medication, in California – 66.7%. The southern cluster (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina) consistently shows the highest figures.

Even more interesting is the breakdown by urbanization. In large metropolises, 7.1% of children take psychotropic drugs, in small towns — 8.5%, in rural areas — 12.1%. Yet, the proportion of those receiving psychotherapy is the same everywhere — about 11–13%. Why is that? Because rural areas disastrously lack psychologists and behavioral specialists, and the pill becomes the only alternative.

There’s a separate phenomenon — polypharmacy. This is the simultaneous use of 2+ drugs for over a month. Growth from 1.8% in the early 2000s to 3.3% today. About 300,000 American children regularly take three or more classes of psychotropic substances at the same time. And for children with complex chronic conditions (Children with Medical Complexity), the situation is completely off: 52.7% take 5+ medications daily, and 19.5% take more than 10 medications per day. Thus, the stories about 12–14 pills a day. Reports say that approximately every 12th child in the USA, taking multiple drugs concurrently, risks serious drug interaction. For teenage girls on combination therapy, this risk reaches 20%.

Reading why this has happened.

It turns out that here the child’s psyche is increasingly perceived as neurochemistry that needs to be corrected with a pill, rather than as a result of sleep, stress, family environment, and a heap of other factors. Or at least the parents understand that since the rest is not fixed, the pills are an easy way out. Deprescribing (planned drug withdrawal) is hardly practiced — it’s easier to prescribe than to take off.

Secondly, rates for commercial insurance visits to a psychotherapist are on average 22% lower than for a visit to a somatic specialist. As a result, 18.2% of psychologists operate outside insurance networks (compared to 1.7% of somatic specialists). Our family pays an average of $1507 a year for psychotherapy on top of the insurance. But the pill is covered by the formulary, and the prescription copay is minimal. What choice will a tired family make? Why we are unable to raise children without mental health issues is another big topic.

Well, and another interesting point. According to our laws, an official ADHD diagnosis requires the school to provide the child with “Sec 504”: double time on tests, reduced homework, a separate quiet room for exams, allowed breaks during lessons. In the race for college admission, many parents from affluent layers consciously go for a diagnosis — it’s a legal way to give a child an advantage. And here’s the delicate part: Sec 504 specifically forbids the school from considering the effect of “mitigating measures,” which the law counts as medication. Meaning, even if the child on medication is fully functional and excels in studies — their privileges are maintained. There is simply no incentive for the family to decrease the dosage or get off the drug. The system is set up to keep the child on medication until graduation.

Sky-High Prices at the CIA-Adjacent Gas Station | April 11 2026, 21:16

We have one gas station near the CIA that simply sets gas prices 40 percent higher than anywhere else. Just an ordinary shabby station that follows the principle of “if it works, don’t fix it.”

Navigating Tornado Warnings: Safety Over Probability in the US | March 16 2026, 17:59

Today a tornado warning was issued. A warning is issued if radar detects conditions favorable for the formation of a tornado. In the end, there was a little rain at the exact predicted time (within about 10 minutes). It came, poured down, and moved on. Everything was canceled everywhere. A bunch of people are still on edge. The principle in the USA: safety is more important than anything, even if the probability is nearly zero, if the consequences threaten life, a small probability is weighed against high seriousness and ultimately maximum protocols are activated. When assessing risk, the most pessimistic option is chosen because if you’re wrong – you remain responsible. People head down to basements, children are locked in gyms, etc.

Everything seems fine, but such a reaction to bad weather and similar troubles instills a behavior of excessive caution for life, and people simply choose comfort and are scared to death of thunderstorms and snowfalls. Not sure if this is right or wrong.

Check out the weekly temperature swing from 21 to 0 and back to 23.