wolframhydroxide

@wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How do I deal with the outside world when I have germaphobia and don't really like outside?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh, it’s DEFINITELY not for everyone, but as something wildly outside the norm (unless you’re in a fallout game) I think it serves to prove a point: whatever the OP needs to do to feel safe enough to engage with society, they should do, but the onus is on them. They have to set and communicate boundaries. They can’t assume that people will change how they live their lives for them. If that means that they look like a batman villain when they go to the grocery store? Well, turns out everybody else has their own problems, and nobody really cares. If they can find a solution that makes them feel like they can engage with society in a healthy way, then they should go all-in.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How do I deal with the outside world when I have germaphobia and don't really like outside?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  I have been wearing a P100, 3M 6000-series half-face respirator everywhere I go in public for the last 5 years (genuinely far more comfortable than any other mask I’ve ever worn). I have particularly compelling reasons why I feel this is necessary. In my experience, it’s an effective measure, and I literally teach high school 8 hours a day with it on. In my experience, the trick is this:

  • What the other people around you think of you is absolutely meaningless. Doesn’t matter. Ignore them.
  • if someone wants you somewhere badly enough to demand you go out of your comfort zone, then they want you there badly enough to be brought out of their own comfort zone by having Darth Fucking Vader show up.
  • People who look at you weird are not people you want to be around. People who ask you why you are wearing it are worth a brief explanation, and the simple fact is, nobody really gives enough of a shit for it to matter.
  • I have gotten very good at not inhaling when I don’t have my respirator up, so I’ll take it off momentarily to explain the situation to anyone who asks, and they are, 19 times out of 20, immediately understanding and we both go on with our days.
  • You have to make your own threat model. For me, I’m to the point where I’ll downgrade to an N-95 in my therapist’s office (since we’re 1-on-1 and nobody else has been in that room for 15 minutes) and when I go to a triannual game night at a friend’s house, because i know they’re all vaccinated, and I trust them to tell me if they’re sick.
  • Outside of some place like Japan, where societal pressure has led to an actual culture of hygiene, propriety, and basic consideration of others, you simply cannot assume that people give a flying fuck about their effects on the people around them. In a million ways, from cutting in line or on the highway, to playing music or a phone call on speaker on public transit, to the myriad externalities of the way they live, they inconvenience you and others around them. This is, unfortunately, normalised throughout most of the world, and bad hygiene surrounding infectious disease is just another part of that. Unlike playing music on a bus, however, poor infectious disease hygiene can lead to someone else’s death. You have to decide the precise level of risk and investment you’re willing to accept, and fuck anyone who disagrees with you. They can either deal with your non-negotiables or not. Set a clear fucking boundary. Rather than demanding that they act in accordance with your whims, judge by their past actions how they fit into your threat model and inform them of your new criteria by which you feel safe to engage with them and the world.
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Glass⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  The throne has been abdicated ever since Comet Drop. Someone’s gotta give serious answers to absurd scientific questions!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Glass⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m the other guy, wolframhydroxide

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Glass⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Indeed, the post was originally going to be a reply to this comment.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Gotta commend them for the effort⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  le updoots

  fake: … gay: …

  4c*an

  Hmm… Projection much?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Glass⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Let’s consider what it would take to have unbreakable (effectively infinite) surface tension:

  Either existing intermolecular forces would need to be dialed to infinity, or a new intermolecular force must come into action. In either case, it would make it energetically favourable for gaseous water to immediately condense into liquid whenever a gaseous molecule interacted with another water molecule. It would be an ice-ix scenario. All water would fall out of the atmosphere within hours, everything which uses lungs would find them filling with fluid. No water could be poured or create any droplet smaller than itself or otherwise separate from other water. However, that’s not even the weirdest bit.

  If this new or altered intermolecular force functionally increased the attractive forces between molecules of water, and only water, to infinity, all water would immediately collapse such that the individual atoms would undergo fusion, breaking the bonds of the molecules in a conflagration of nuclear fire.

  But let’s assume that it reaches just before the point at which the atomic bonds break. The water will likely take on the properties of a glass, becoming effectively solid, everywhere, just like ice-ix.

  So let’s be more generous and assume that the intermolecular forces are increased to be only strong enough to make it effectively impossible to break surface tension. We’d see a significantly higher viscosity, but what else?

  Well, the intermolecular forces will probably still SIGNIFICANTLY decrease the solubility of pretty much everything, everywhere, all at once (but especially covalent gases, which do not dissociate).

  This means that, in every living thing, at the same time, bubbles of oxygen and nitrogen will be coming out in the blood/hemolymph/cell membranes, not only making respiration functionally impossible (or at the very least far less efficient), but also embolizing every living thing with the precipitated gases. Everything alive dies, immediately.

  If those two gases aren’t enough, it will probably also significantly change the dissociation constants of pretty much every ionic compound, making them far less likely to dissociate in water, effectively causing large portions of the salt in the sea and other dissolved solids to precipitate in a cloud of powdered solids that would make the banded iron formations of the great oxygenation event look like a child’s sandbox.

  Depending on the interrelation of water’s own dissociation and the intermolecular forces, which I can’t recall at the moment, all acids and bases may suddenly neutralise in a similar event.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Amazon develops methods for inserting ads onto any flat surface in an existing video⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Look at this guy, thinking they’re worthy of “respect”! The fucking temerity, the absolute gall of these poors!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is gold investing a scam?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Don’t forget “skills you can use to make yourself valuable to a small community”, especially the skills to make food, locate and purify water, construct and maintain shelter, maintain and upscale off-grid power, and use ammunition and weapons.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Statistically, probably with the beetles. 🪲⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Fair enough

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Sensory Biology of Plants⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  This is the plot of an episode of the anime “mushishi” called “tree of eternity”, IIRC.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Statistically, probably with the beetles. 🪲⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Dragonflies are likely to be with the mantids at the “we will rip your head off if we like you, you don’t want to know what we do to our enemies” table.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Euler's Meme⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I could me wrong, but I’m fairly sure that, while ‘f’ is a function, ‘f(x)’ is the function’s output, not the function itself. So f(x) is a meme, because function f’s output is a meme. The function itself is a mathematical operation.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨spongebob big guy pants okay⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Without a nervous system, the only thing it can feel is ANGER.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Euler's Meme⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  One of your precepts is flawed. f is not a meme any more than the word “all” is in “all your base are belong to us”. f is defined by text within the overall meme, but while it is part of the meme, it is not the meme itself, as it lacks the content of the remainder of the meme. Your precept is like saying “9 is prime, because it is the prime number ‘19’”. 9 is not prime. It is part of the representation of the number 19. f is not the meme. It is part of the context which defines the meme.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Racism restaurant ⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  For those who are not aware, ^^this^^ is how you turn cheese into american cheese.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just seen the latest American Opinion polls.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  There is nothing more damaging to the narcissistic dictator’s fragile ego than emasculation. Let us merely hope that the hits keep coming.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨You can do anything at Zombocom⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It may get lost, but does it go to eleven?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Save us!!!⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Orson Wells’ War Of The Worlds broadcast

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Smells Great⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  So, when you get to the scale of “a laser that can destroy objects”, it turns out that the reflectance of natural materials is just utterly insufficient. Consider the following: suppose that a mirror finish reflects 90% of the light from a laser in the range you’re looking at (a fair assumption, from what I’ve read). Now, let’s do some basic back-of-the-napkin math: we’ll use a 30 kW laser, which is apparently standard for current destructive laser weapons. Let’s further assume that the laser light is spread over a surface area of 0.04 m^2 (because a spot 20 cm on a side seems to me a fairly high estimate for the spread on a precision laser, even on a moving target, if it’s motion-tracked, I should think). Let us be generous and assume that this reflective paint coating is 0.5mm (0.0005m) thick. Given the paint’s approximate specific heat of 2.302 J/gK (polyethylene) and density of 1400000 g/m^3 (PVC), and let’s also assume the breakdown temp of the reflectance is near the boiling point of PVA (spray paint), which is 112C.

  So, the mass of paint absorbing the energy is 0.04*0.0005*1400000=28 g.

  To heat the entirety of these 28 g of this material by about 90C (from 22 to 112), completely destroying the protective layer, we would need 2.302*28*90 = 5801J

  Now we know that we have 30000*0.93= 3000J/s, so it would take about 2 seconds of lancing to completely destroy the protection. Given that it already takes 2-5 seconds to destroy things with the laser, and it doesn’t actually have to destroy the entire area for the reflectance to deteriorate and let the laser through, this would only be adding another second of work. I think that, no matter what you do, the laser’s gonna win.

  I can give sources for any of these estimates.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Smells Great⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Honestly, I memorised the band once in orgo, and never looked at them again, so you’re more likely to know than I.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Smells Great⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I think that wouldn’t necessarily work once you get to the right wavelengths for it to start interacting with the organic bases of the paints. There’s only so much you can do when someone shoots an infrared laser at the resonant frequency of a C=C double bond.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨egg time⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I believe that, nowadays, it is generally accepted that dinosaurs, crocodilians and birds are all “archosaurs”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Load bearing Tupperware⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The problem is not that any outage occurred. This still happens often. Things just refuse to work sometimes. The issue is that SO MANY eggs were in ONE basket.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨wax on⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  They do, but in order for them to _re_gurgitate, they first must gorge upon it. They eat it, chew it up and spit it out in the shapes necessary (planar, cylindrical, or otherwise).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Amen⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Until a Cartesian Solipsist points out that your senses are inherently fallible, it is impossible to prove that you are not a Boltzmann Brain, and the only thing it is possible to know with certainty is that you exist, in your present moment of experience.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨cox-zucker⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh man, pre-FNAF? Thats the deep magic.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨PRAISE HIM⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Well, there’s gas, liquid, bose-einstein condensate, and plasma at the least.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Should Neutron Stars be Added to the Periodic Table?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That sounds like more of an ESA/JAXA joint venture. The only stuff NASA is going to be doing for the foreseeable future is ensuring the rapid exhort of Space Fascism™

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Should Neutron Stars be Added to the Periodic Table?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Well, we can’t call them atoms, which are defined by the presence of an electron cloud surrounding a nucleus.