You can see how afraid they are of death by how much effort they put in to extend their lives.

I don’t think Christmas was as much about gift giving in Dickens time. I think it was more a time that your family gets to be together. He even alludes to this with Bob Crachit’s daughter having to slave away at work and only getting to see family on Christmas. They don’t really do gifts in the story, they just have a small meal together. It isn’t until Scrooge changes his mindset that gifts start being much of a thing in the story.

Dickens was always focused on the poverty and suffering of the industrial age. I think he would object to our sense today of Christmas being so focused on gifts and not on time with family and friends

I have read it many times and I agree that the story is about a dream/nightmare Ebeneezer has on Christmas Eve. I always saw the story as an old rich man had who does not have much longer to live reflects on his life. He decides he still has time to try and change with what little time he has left.

I think it really could have been framed many ways. Many people reflect on their lives on New Year’s Eve or their birthdays. I think Dickens just decided to choose Christmas for his story.

EDIT: In short, man nearing end of life has existential crisis in dream.

We are all made from matter ejected from a star that lives on and in matter from that star while receiving energy from that star.

Many people get diarrhea when they take antibiotics for long durations. Additionally, the dry weight of human feces is about 25-50 percent gut bacteria.

Volvo tried at one point.

It is possible that any developer could just say “none” even if the extension does collect data? If it has to be manually disclosed, this won’t stop malicious actors. Only trustworthy extension developers would disclose this.