lemmefixdat4u

joined 2 years ago
[–] lemmefixdat4u 16 points 6 months ago

Not recommended for lycra or spandex suits, or any suit that has elastic closures, particularly during the summer months. They will rapidly degrade in the heat of the car. My wife left hers in the car after a vacation (never used it). It was tucked in the trunk. Found it a month later and it disintegrated in the wash.

[–] lemmefixdat4u 33 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Well, you're going to piss off the policyholders then. State Farm is a mutual insurance company. It's owned by the policyholders. It's essentially a non-profit, since profits go to reduce premiums or pay dividends to the policyholders.

The thing is, the company isn't turning a profit. When what fills the cup doesn't match the hole in the bottom, at some point the cup will be empty. California has mismanaged the wilderness areas and allowed development without concern for potential fire danger. Climate change, high fuel loads after decades of suppressing natural fires, improperly maintained electrical infrastructure, and a lack of "Fire Wise" education are all contributing to huge wildfires and high property loss rates.

If California were to seize every insurance company in the state, they would quickly be in the same predicament - needing to raise premiums to cover the losses.

The only real solution is to reduce the risk. That's why the NFPA came up with local Fire Safe Councils. We educate the homeowners about how to make our homes resistant to wildfire damage. Using grant money, we reduce the fire danger by clearing hazardous undergrowth. We provide resources for homeowners, like chipping programs, matching funds for tree removal, and other assistance in maintaining defensible space. We have successfully lobbied for insurance discounts when homeowners complete risk reduction measures.

[–] lemmefixdat4u 14 points 7 months ago (2 children)

If you place a tea bag in a cup of water at 20C in a thermally isolated vacuum chamber, when the chamber pressure is reduced to or below the vapor pressure of water at 20C (about 17 torr, or 1/3 psi), it will begin to boil. The vapor produced will be at 20C and the water in the cup will be 20C and begin to decrease, because of latent heat of vaporization needed for the liquid/gas phase change. The water will continue to boil as long as the pressure is maintained at or below the vapor pressure of water at that temperature. Eventually, the water reaches 0C. Then it will stop boiling and begin to freeze as the latent heat of fusion provides the necessary heat to continue evaporation. When all the water has converted to ice, the vapor pressure is greatly reduced. The ice will sublime (go from solid to gas) still, but as that continues to cool the ice, the vapor pressure also drops. As the temperature drops, sublimation will slow until it is nearly zero. So you would end up with a tea bag encased in ice.

In your example, if you suddenly exposed to the cup and tea bag to the vacuum of space by rapidly venting the air, the water would explosively evaporate, shredding the tea bag. You'd be left with bits of tea leaves, an empty cup, and a lot of very fine ice crystals.

[–] lemmefixdat4u 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I see it as one possibility of many. Measures currently employed are limited because most countries are democratic, where politicians must appease the people to stay in office. China could implement one-child because they are a de-facto dictatorship.

[–] lemmefixdat4u 15 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I've tried it many ways. The most efficient method using a fan is to open the windows in a room on the leeward side of the house, then place a fan a few feet in front of the doorway, blowing air into the room. It's more efficient because the impelled air will entrain surrounding air moving a greater volume through the doorway and out all the windows in that room. Then open windows in the farthest rooms to get a cross breeze.

Also look into an attic fan. They exhaust hot air from the attic, and it makes a world of difference in keeping your interior cool. Another trick is to mount shade cloth 6 inches away from the sunny walls of your home. It absorbs most of the solar radiation and keeps your walls cooler.

[–] lemmefixdat4u 7 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Logically, killing humans would be way down on the list of potential Global Warming solutions. We would have to exhaust all other methods first. Just banning private vehicles would save a few billion from extermination. Green energy tech and Nuclear power would save more. Vegetarian diets even more. Reducing organic waste, involuntary birth control, carbon sequestration - it's a long list of better incremental solutions. They may be more costly than extermination, but they're infinitely more ethical. It's only logical if that's the sole solution that ensures some of the population survives. We're a long way from that condition.

[–] lemmefixdat4u 12 points 7 months ago

It wasn't any particular scientific discovery that weakened religion. It was the popularity of science fiction that did it. As Arthur C. Clarke put it, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." People can now imagine how miracles are done without invoking anything supernatural. We might not have the tech to do it yet, but we have a pretty good idea of potential methods. That has placed a lot of "creator god" religions under pressure. Create life? Tech will eventually do it. Create a world? Sure, tech again. Given enough tech, a solar system can be spawned. Water into wine? We're halfway there with Kool-Aid. We already have vimanas (those ancient Hindu flying vehicles). We call them airplanes or helicopters. We can destroy a whole city with a single weapon. So why should we worship a supreme being who supposedly did those things?

Assuming we can conquer poverty, religions that survive will be centered around improving the human condition. Worshipping dieties will eventually fall by the wayside. It will still be a long process. You can't dispel faith with reason and facts. And people in poverty tend to embrace religion because it gives them comfort and hope that things will be better in the afterlife.

[–] lemmefixdat4u 7 points 7 months ago

Animals were doing it long before humans even existed. Some birds will "bathe" in an ant nest because the formic acid excreted by the ants rids them of parasites. There's even a word for it - zoopharmacognosy.

Long before recorded history, people knew what plants were helpful to treat or cure various maladies. Who knows what possessed the first human to chew on willow bark to relieve pain or reduce a fever? The earliest documentation of it was 400 BCE by Hippocrates, but it was probably common knowledge for much longer than that. The Chinese have been using various herbs to treat disease for at least 3000 years.

[–] lemmefixdat4u 28 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Every time I do a search, the bot usually provides enough info. The problem is that I don't trust the bot because it's been wrong before. So I still need to continue the search to find an authoritative answer.

That's the problem with bots. If you trust their answers and they're wrong, it can be a real problem. There was a story a while ago about an Air Canada customer service bot that was giving out bad info about bereavement travel. When a customer tried to get the promised refund, the airline admitted the advice was wrong, but claimed the bot was a separate legal entity, therefore they were not responsible for the advice it gave.

[–] lemmefixdat4u 1 points 7 months ago

Pay-as-you-go phones work. A $15 (sometimes free) basic cellphone with a few minutes are all you need. Once the account is set up, the phone isn't needed. I've made quite a few Google throw-away accounts this way. Just never lose your password and don't turn on 2FA.

As far as Google tracking goes - you can firewall off all the Google servers if you dislike them, or use a router that connects through a VPN if you need that level of privacy.

[–] lemmefixdat4u 0 points 7 months ago (2 children)

An Android TV box doesn't -need- Google once you've downloaded all the apps. But you do need it to keep all those apps up to date. I'm not sure what you gain with not having an account attached to the device. All those streaming services you mentioned require accounts. What's one more?

[–] lemmefixdat4u 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Is this the new Russian assault vehicle?

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