https://ask.metafilter.com/ The past 24 hours of questions at Ask MetaFilter Sat, 17 Oct 2026 02:09:48 GMT Sat, 17 Oct 2026 02:09:48 GMT en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60
I am looking for a small box / rack which will be a place to organize external drives (SSD, HD, USB floppy or optical drives). It would be great but not required, if it had an integrated USB hub so those drives could be connected to the hub while sitting in the rack]]> https://ask.metafilter.com/390970/Rack-Em-and-Stack-Em tag:ask.metafilter.com,2026:site.390970 Sat, 17 Oct 2026 02:09:48 GMT TimHare DeskOrganizing DriveOrganizing USBDrives https://ask.metafilter.com/390970/Rack-Em-and-Stack-Em/rss my Wise card appears to have been lost in the mail, and a replacement won't arrive on time. Mr. Blah and I going to have to use what we have on hand. What's the best tactic?

We have Mastercards from our credit union that charges some fees for international transactions. We have Amex, which does too and I think it's less accepted in these places. We have Apple cards but I need to try to see if I have an actual card for it, separate from it existing digitally in our electronic wallets. It's basically too late to get a new card from somewhere. Help?]]> https://ask.metafilter.com/390969/Spending-money-in-Singapore-Thailand-and-Indonesia-How tag:ask.metafilter.com,2026:site.390969 Sat, 17 Oct 2026 00:54:16 GMT BlahLaLa ForeignCurrency Travel TravelMoney https://ask.metafilter.com/390969/Spending-money-in-Singapore-Thailand-and-Indonesia-How/rss https://ask.metafilter.com/390968/Bagpipe-rental-in-Hartford-Connecticut tag:ask.metafilter.com,2026:site.390968 Sat, 17 Oct 2026 00:46:45 GMT wheatlets Bagpipes Connecticut Hartford rental https://ask.metafilter.com/390968/Bagpipe-rental-in-Hartford-Connecticut/rss
The dark gloomy weather has arrived where i am and I've noticed an immediate difference in my energy levels. I don't know if I'm depressed, but my energy is very low and I find it super hard to wake up at the right time in the morning. Considering investing in one of those lamps that are recommended for people who have Seasonal Affective Disorder. Looking for any info and/or recommendations on which products have been useful for you!]]> https://ask.metafilter.com/390967/Did-you-ever-use-an-SAD-light-did-it-help-and-where-did-you-buy-it tag:ask.metafilter.com,2026:site.390967 Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:24:03 GMT winterportage autumn darkness lamp sad sunlight https://ask.metafilter.com/390967/Did-you-ever-use-an-SAD-light-did-it-help-and-where-did-you-buy-it/rss process intervention in any states or counties, specifically related to accessing or purging voter roles, messing with mail voting, gaining provisional agreements about access to ballots after the election, establishing collusion with specific state and local officials, etc?

What I Am Not Asking About
I am not asking about fascist rhetoric, media manipulation, targeted ICE deployments, efforts to deport Ilhan Omar, physical assaults at Trump rallies, the SAVE act, existing voter ID laws, or anything like that. All that stuff is horrible anti-democratic bullshit but it's not what I'm asking about.

What I Am Asking About
I'm asking about things like post-2024 voter roll purges, formal or informal agreements with any local election officials or state governors, court cases that went in the Administration's favor, options to-be-anticipated related to vote seizure by USPS or other mechanisms, and any kind of planning around administrative fuckery like seizing ballot boxes.

Basically I just am looking for any evidence that the Administration has made headway on plans to interfere in the election at the scale and in the states that would be needed to throw the midterms.

For context of what motivates the question, I have doomier friends who insist to me that the purge is already happening, etc. without specific reporting, so I'm just trying to find reporting on the state of affairs here. A lot of people I know basically think the voters who oppose Trump will show up on election to find out that they're no longer on the rolls and their ballots are cancelled.

All I really know is that so far (1) they have been reviewing voter roles in Republican states for immigration status, (2) the DOJ has not been successful in court, (3) that they have recently filed suit for voter purges in California, and that, as everyone knows, (4) if something lands in the Supreme Court we're dealing with the fact that SCOTUS is in the bag for Trump.]]> https://ask.metafilter.com/390966/Whats-the-Actual-State-of-US-Midterms-Fuckery tag:ask.metafilter.com,2026:site.390966 Fri, 16 Oct 2026 19:43:05 GMT kensington314 Democracy Election MidTerms Trump USPolitics https://ask.metafilter.com/390966/Whats-the-Actual-State-of-US-Midterms-Fuckery/rss
This is complicated. Ok, I am an android user with service through Verizon. I had a Samsung S9+ for like 9 years. Finally I decided to upgrade because some apps were no longer compatible. By some insane twist of fate, THE NIGHT BEFORE I GOT MY NEW PHONE, my old phone had a melt down and did a factory reset, erasing everything.

On factory reset, it LOOKS like all my old voicemails are still there. HOWEVER, the ones that are older than a few years ago are listed, with the phone number and time of the message, but when I press the play button, nothing plays. Voicemails that are more recent play like normal. When I activated my new phone, same thing. All the saved voicemails are there but only the more recent ones actually play the message.
One of these old, missing voice mails was my uncle singing me happy birthday. My uncle passed away years ago but every year, I listen to that message. It is precious to me beyond words.

Here is the crazy part. To access my voice mails, I go to the voicemail app on the phone and there they are. But if I CALL Verizon to get my voice mails (which no one does anymore- they just use the app), theres an option to hear all my old voicemails and... THE ONE FROM MY UNCLE IS STILL THERE AND PLAYABLE! I cried when I realized I could still hear it!

So heres my question – how do I save that voice mail so I don't lose it forever? Its not "on my phone" anymore so I cant download it to anything. Its just... on a Verizon server somewhere. I have to preserve that message, no matter what.]]> https://ask.metafilter.com/390965/How-do-I-save-a-voicemail-that-is-no-longer-on-my-phone tag:ask.metafilter.com,2026:site.390965 Fri, 16 Oct 2026 15:33:49 GMT silverstatue phone samsung verizon voicemail https://ask.metafilter.com/390965/How-do-I-save-a-voicemail-that-is-no-longer-on-my-phone/rss
We drive a 2017 Mini Cooper S. In March, we got a new battery, from the dealer. Since March, said battery has died, three or four times. The car is one of those cars where the engine stops when idling, and a couple of the times the battery has died it's been when attempting to restart at a stop sign after idling. The latest one was at a gas station, which was fortunate because I was at a full-serve station (viva Oregon), and luckily they had a charger so I could be on my way.

Anyway, I called the dealer last night, and explained the situation, and their answer was "you need to drive the car more". Which...what? We aren't heavy users of this car, we probably drive it 2-3 times a week for maybe a total of 20-30 miles. So I get that we're not putting tons of miles a week on it or whatever, but also it seems asinine to me that I should need to drive a car to keep the battery working properly. I've never owned a car where that's a case.

The last battery we had in the car - which was in the car when we bought it, in 2020, and lasted from 2020 until March of this year - did not have this problem. Which is why I'm very hesitant to believe the dealer when they say DRIVE MORE. But at the same time, I want the dealer to fix the problem, if it's a problem they created. How can I get them to believe me when I tell them all this?

Also: are they right? This car isn't super tech-heavy; it doesn't have a backup camera, and the only real user-facing tech in it is a bluetooth connection. It doesn't even have a touchscreen. Otherwise, the car is a fairly dumb car - I'm sure the engine itself has a lot of computing built into it, but from my POV it's a fairly basic car. So what could be causing a perpetual battery drain?

I just need info that I can take to the dealer to help bolster my case. Any thoughts?]]> https://ask.metafilter.com/390964/Just-drive-more-really tag:ask.metafilter.com,2026:site.390964 Fri, 16 Oct 2026 15:27:24 GMT pdb BatteryDrain cars MiniCooper https://ask.metafilter.com/390964/Just-drive-more-really/rss https://ask.metafilter.com/390963/Can-you-recommend-a-great-spine-PT-in-NYC tag:ask.metafilter.com,2026:site.390963 Fri, 16 Oct 2026 13:55:40 GMT swheatie NYC physical therapy https://ask.metafilter.com/390963/Can-you-recommend-a-great-spine-PT-in-NYC/rss