5 Things You Should Know – Part 79

Here are 5 things you should know.

1. These four sites connect you to a wealth of knowledge and learning.

Here are the sites and a quick word about them.

OpenCourser. Good for finding an online course to take, more for in-depth learning + building professional skills.

NoExcuseList. Great for discovering new learning websites. Neatly categorized into sections (like cooking, music).

KhanAcademy. (Re-)Learn pretty much every subject taught in K-12.

StackExchange. Get answers from people who are super knowledgeable about all sorts of different things.

2. Syncthing: an open source alternative to cloud services that syncs devices without the need for third-party storage.

Site: https://syncthing.net/

FAQ: https://docs.syncthing.net/users/faq.html

Source code: https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing/tree/master

Your devices are synced directly to one other over an encrypted TLS connection. Only limited by your own storage.

3. It’s not recommended to wear ear plugs in bed every night, to allow your ears to drain ear wax properly.

Normally, ears drain themselves of wax naturally. Earwax, known as “cerumen” in medical terminology, protects the inner ear by trapping bacteria, germs, or anything else that may work its way into your ear. It also coats the inside of the ear, preventing irritation of the sensitive skin there. Usually, the wax — produced by hair follicles and glands within the ear — comes out of the ear on its own. Ear plugs can block the process of earwax leaving the ear (as you have noticed), and studies have shown that prolonged use of ear plugs can cause earwax to become hardened and impacted.

Preventing the earwax — and whatever might be trapped in it — from leaving the ear may result in one of two types of infection: inflammation of the middle ear canal (otitis media) or inflammation of the external ear canal (otitis externa). Inflammation of the middle ear canal can cause the eardrum to be infected or ruptured, sometimes resulting in hearing loss and/or smelly discharge from the ear. Infection can also spread to the sinuses, sometimes leading to meningitis, cerebral abscess, or a vertigo-causing fistula. In some cases, ruptured eardrums heal on their own, but sometimes surgery — such as a skin graft — is necessary.

Go ask alice

4. There’s a .gov website where you can OPT-OUT of nearly all unsolicited junk mail (preapproved credit cards, insurance, etc) in less than 1 minute.

Thanks to the FTC: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0262-stopping-unsolicited-mail-phone-calls-and-email

They have you visit the consumer reporting site to OPT OUT: https://www.optoutprescreen.com/?rf=t

This is only for the USA.

5. If your items in your refrigerator are starting to freeze, it may be time to clean the back/underside of it.