Bluewing

@Bluewing@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨wtf⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  I live in Minnesota USA-- The Land of 10,000 lakes. It’s actually 14,380 bodies of water 10 acres or larger. 117,000 if you add the waterbodies/ponds smaller than 10 acres. I’m sitting in my house drinking my tea and looking at the lake I live on. Minnesotans own 14,505 registered watercraft per 100,000 people-- the most in the US. And all of us spend LOT of time fishing on them. But it would be extremely illegal to use nets or traps to fish for them. (There are carve outs for Native Americans to do some limited netting).

  So historically, eating fish on a non-commercial scale has been an important thing in this region since before European settlers showed up. But it has never been the main source of meat due to the general extra work it takes. It’s still easier to stick an arrow, (even a well thrown rock), into rabbit or squirrel. And a far bigger payout in calories to shoot that arrow into a white tail deer, elk, or moose with less effort than a fish.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sweatshop⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  But, but, they sometimes hand out freeze pops in hot weather! How much more can you want?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨wtf⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Fishing is fun and good, but you still need access to water with a fish living in it. But a sharp stick or a rock is still cheaper and easier. Even a bow and arrow is very low tech and easily fashioned.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨wtf⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Seafood requires a lot of expensive resources to acquire. Boats, nets, traps, baits, access to the water, and not to mention the inherent risk of being on the ocean. Better to hunt herbivores on land.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨wtf⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  In order to bake an apple pie you must also create the universe.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨wtf⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  A lion can hunt because they come with weapons biologically attached. Humans not so much. And even you could fashion a spear with little effort. Which by your definition would make you a apex predator. And it did so for millennia.

  I’m an old toolmaker that still has a small shop. I could make firearms from scratch if I wanted to. There is nothing special or complex about them. But I choose to purchase them from stores. So perhaps that demotes me from being a apex predator.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨wtf⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Large predators have a species memory that tells them in general messing with a human scent can easily lead to a bad day for you. Because we have spent millennia hunting and killing them. So they have learned to avoid us directly.

  This does not mean that that in certain instances, such as starvation or if they feel cornered and trapped, that you can’t get hurt by them. So when I go out into the forest, and where I live we have black bears, wolves, and now permanent cougars-- and not the ones you might find in a bar on Friday nights either --the only one of those three I find a bit dicey to be around is the cougars. Bears and wolves really don’t like people and make themselves very scarce very fast once they know you are there if there is an open escape route they can take.

  Big cats, on the other hand don’t appear to be the brightest bulbs in the box. And tend to be more of an issue for humans mucking about in the wilds where the cats are found. When I do venture out into areas that I have seen sign or even worse, spotted a cat, I do tend to carry a pistol for self defense in those areas. I’ve not needed to use it and very much hope not to ever need it. But being ‘forearmed is to to be forewarned’ so to speak.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨wtf⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  That and the easy free meals and wamr place to sleep for not much effort in return.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨wtf⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Smart apex hunters always conserve as much energy as they can during a hunt. Because you don’t know when your next meal might show up. And firearms do make hunting a more sure thing. Hunting game, of any kind, is high risk-- higher reward effort. Most hunters go home empty handed or with little to show for the effort. But, if you do get it right, the effort can be handsomely rewarded.

  So if you are smart enough to develop ranged weapons, you eagerly use them to hunt supper.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Order of magnitude is a hell of a drug⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  The last 4 years of my working life, I taught some math in my small rural local school. I introduced a tradition of calculating Pi from scratch by various “silly” means. All shamelessly stolen from Matt Parker of Standup Maths fame on Youtube. The students, (4th through 8th grade), were always highly entertained and may have accidentally learned some math…

  When you least expect it, Pi is there.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Order of magnitude is a hell of a drug⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Not according to her. And I ain’t about to argue the point with her…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Order of magnitude is a hell of a drug⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  As a retired mechanical engineer, the joke is that we don’t really remember the value of Pi, but we think it’s somewhere around 3. But maybe we should use 4 just to be safe.

  In any case, I have to remember 3.14 because one of my Daughters was born on Pi Day. Which, according her, is the second most important day of the year, just right behind Christmas Day, when she was growing up. So when she got into high school that meant that we had to bring enough pie to be served in each of her math classes on that day. (Oddly enough she prefers cheese cake over pie on her Birthday).

  Now I’m not saying being born on Pi Day influenced her life any, but she has a PhD in Mech Engineering.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Innövative sölutiön⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Those machines are referred to as slitters. I designed and built 2 for 3M Abrasive division back in the 1990’s. Talk about a process that involves less than reliable hardware, (I never met an air bar or pneumatic web sensor I didn’t hate), and enough wishful thinking to achieve the speeds 3M wanted them to run at that would make an Alchemist proud. I was constantly amazed that my designs even worked at all.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Innövative sölutiön⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  As someone who spent a few years teaching math, this would be a cause for celebration! I would have had a classroom pizza party the next day. This is creative usage of problem solving math that I could only dream about a classroom of students could come up with.