Everybody reading these comments and considering the implications needs to go read Blindsight by Peter Watts. It's a first contact story set in the near-ish future, and really goes into consciousness and intelligence. Very thought provoking if you thought this comment chain was interesting.

Just putting it out there, but the National Weather Service has a free API here.

You have to discover it somehow, and that's what they're asking for help with.

Sounds from the example like OP doesn't want to miss out on media they might enjoy just because they're not hanging out with young people anymore. Seems like a reasonable thing to want.

I believe there's a way to do it using iptables, but I'd have to look into it more again. You might get more experienced people answering if you search for "openVPN force traffic through VPN iptables" or something similar. Let me know if that helps!

The Linux client isn't perfect, but you can download the openVPN config file and set up individual server connections yourself. It's all laid out on their website, fairly simple. If you know what you're doing, you can also edit the config files to allow IP-based split tunneling.

Proton has their own cloud storage called Proton Drive. If you buy the top VPN tier I think it includes all of the premium Proton services, Drive included. I think it's like 500 gigs for a single user account and 2 terabytes if you get the family account.

Thanks for the thoughtful response! I guess the whole "identify with" part is what is tripping me up here. I don't live my life thinking about how I am attracted to whatever, I just am. Do you have more of an explanation for me on what it means for other people? Not trying to be inflammatory, just want to understand, because I've been curious about the "preference" thing for a while.

I don't really think that breaks the analogy; there are people who would refuse to eat mushrooms on pizza altogether, there are people who would not be unhappy with the mushrooms, and there are people who would only want mushrooms. In other words, a spectrum, right?

Honest question, why is there a difference between preference and orientation? If I'm ordering pizza and ask you for your topping preference, you'd tell me pepperoni, for instance. You don't get to choose what your preference is, it's just what you prefer. There may be reasons you have that preference (the taste of pepperoni, you don't like mushrooms, etc.), but it's not a conscious decision to prefer pepperoni, it's just what you like. I couldn't negotiate with you to make you like mushrooms over pepperoni, it's something you have to discover on your own.

I guess what I'm getting at is that I don't understand why there's a difference.

What would happen then if you took a tree which only has leaves at the top and submerged it to just under the leaves? Does the bark need to be exposed to air as well or would it just rot out like timber does?

I feel they should be paid the median income of individuals in their represented areas. Might be a good way to get them to give a shit about the people they represent. I'm sure there would be complications, but it seems like a nice idea.