Plugging "Hi my nephew's birthday is coming up soon and I want to get a gift for him. He likes dinosaurs and roblox. What gift can I get him that's in the range of $50?" into the free version of ChatGPT returns the following (I removed the links to the products):

Here are two great gift ideas under $50 that combine his love for dinosaurs and Roblox:

Roblox $50 Gift Card

Perfect for a Roblox fan — lets him choose his own Robux to spend on in-game items.

Comes with a free exclusive virtual item, as noted by Walmart, Best Buy, and others.

Instant digital delivery or physical card options make it easy and flexible.

Jurassic World Imaginext Thrashing Indominus Rex (14″)

A large, interactive dinosaur figure (~14″ tall) with thrashing action—great for imaginative play.

Priced at $49.99, so it stays within your budget.

Why these are top picks:

The Roblox gift card is a flexible present that he can use for virtual gear, outfits, or game passes—personalized fun guaranteed. Cards also include bonus Robux and exclusive items .

The Imaginext Indominus Rex is a hands-on toy that encourages creative, active play. It's well-reviewed and fits your price range perfectly.

How to choose: Digital vs. physical gift: The Roblox card can be emailed (great for last-minute gifting) or bought as a tangible card.

Play preferences: Go for the dinosaur figure if he loves real-world play. Choose the gift card if he's big on Roblox screen time.

Bonus idea: You could pair them–get the gift card as the main gift and tuck the dinosaur figure into the package for a fun hatching surprise.

If you'd like other recommendations—perhaps dinosaur LEGO sets or interactive dinosaur books—just say the word!

--- This is why AI is going to eat traditional key-word searching's lunch.

Here's a copy of the 2001 BBC adaption from the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/e.-m-forster-the-machine-stops

You might be interested in this, then: https://www.myforevernotes.com/

God, I miss Grantland. It was some of THE best writing on the web at the time. ESPN killed it and Bill Simmons went on to create The Ringer, which he then sold to Spotify. The Ringer pre-Spotify was good, but not as good as Grantland was.

Ah, thank you so much for reminding me of Grantland!!

There's this: https://blueskydirectory.com/starter-packs/all

They asked for something like Bluesky starter packs on Mastodon, not Bluesky starter packs on Bluesky.

In order to save, you need to earn enough to do so.

The average salary in the U.S. is $66,622, and the average household income is $80,610.

The average housing cost is $2,715 per month, or $32,580 a year. Average food costs for a single person are around $9,000 a year. Average total utility costs are $7,200. Average healthcare costs per person are $14,570. Average car ownership costs are $12,182 per year.

These average expenses total $75532 per year, meaning the average single person with an average salary is $8910 in debt. You can do the math for the average two-car household yourself.

And we haven't even accounted for taxes. Or the costs of raising a child.

Now, admittedly, this average person/average houshold most likely does not exist. But simply looking at averages points out the problem that most people are already stretched financially too thin to stock away something for retirement.

Over half the United States population earns less than $100k a year, and the median income for all earners (the middle point, right smack in the middle of all earners of all ages and genders) is roughly $40k.

I'm sure all you folks earning over $150k a year with stock options are doing fine, but realize you guys are in the top 20% of income earners in the U.S. whether you feel like you are or not.

66k/80k for income sounds like a median, whereas $2,715 sounds like a mean housing cost.

A quick search found between $1,500-$2,000 a month for median rent prices. If you adjust for a $1,600 rent, your above person is left with 3k, before considering that all the other expenditures are absolutely insane.

Options: - Live in a city, ditch the car. This gives you a $2,600 rent budget under the same other expenses. - Eat less expensive food. $9,000/year (>$8/meal) for food for a single person is high. No takeout.

People like to pretend the situation is worse than it is - some people have it bad, but tighten your purse and live less lavishly. Work on getting a better job (if you need to or can), and when you make more money don't increase expenses.

I think it takes a bit of a mindset shift. If your salary is $X, you can't start your expense plan with how much your apartment costs. There are expenses A. that are ironclad-mandatory, in that you must make them or you're really fucking yourself: Taxes and debt interest are examples. They need to come out of your salary before any other calculations are done. Your actual income (that you can spend) is $X-A. Then you have B. expenses that you have to pay, but you have at least theoretical control of by shopping around, like the cost of your apartment, cars, child care, groceries, and so on. Those come out next. Then, you have C. discretionary spending, everything left over. Often this is zero or negative :(

Too many people put retirement savings in bucket C, where it actually should be considered bucket A. It needs to come out before you even consider anything else. Your money left over after taxes, paying interest, AND savings, is what you have left to decide whether you can afford this apartment or that car.

I think there are a lot of people for whom this is true, but also a lot of people for whom this is terrible advice. Your not likely to reach retirement age if you take your retirement savings out before your apartment or food and wind up evicted or starving.

No, but if doing that leads people to conclude that they need to move in with roommates, that might be preferable. Roommates are certainly a great way to reduce expenses. It has downsides but it is what many poor people in other countries do naturally.

Roommates, or if you're just getting started what I did could be reasonable, live with parents for a bit longer. Saved quite a lot in a year since they didn't have me pay rent, and got my first raise right around when I moved out.

And on GGP's mindset shift: Right away I put what my parents thought was an unusually high percent into my 401k, with the reasoning that if I never saw it then I'll never miss it. And it worked. I only see the amount that actually goes into my bank account and have managed all my costs based on that.

I wish I had done that automatic contribution years ago at my first couple of jobs. I thought it didn't matter and I could hardly afford it, and I would make a lot more in subsequent years. In a way I was right but my lifestyle could have been better, cheaper, and healthier. Spending more money didn't help my social life like I thought it would.

I think you've overstated housing costs, as crazy as that sounds. The places with really high rent pay more and also see people get with roommates. So the average rent/mortgage is not the same as the average person's housing expenses.

Most people cannot afford to save a lot of money for retirement, especially while paying into Social Security or other government programs. But that has never been possible in the entire world, and it generally still isn't. Even in cases where it was, such as the boomers, it still didn't really happen. To be fair the boomers fully expected that their taxes would go toward Social Security in their old age.

Play an RPG via your video conferencing platform of choice. You don't need to use a Virtual Table Top like Roll20, either. Use the built-in whiteboard function of your video conference platform or use a site like excalidraw.com.

HyperCard on the Mac solved this problem on System 6 through Mac OS 9. It was very easy to build your own stacks and even build stand-alone apps. With HyperCard, MacWrite, and MacPaint or even ClarisWorks (alter AppleWorks) bundled with the hardware, pre-OS X Macs were fairly personal in both hardware and software right out of the box. And when Apple started to bundle Claris Emailer and Claris Organizer with Macs along side SoundJam (and later iTunes), you really didn't need much more for the average Performa user.

The number of exceptional people is surpassed only by the number of exceptional publicists.

This is a useful tool for any homeowner, not just those threatened by wildfire. Good luck and godspeed to those currently in harm's way in California.