bluGill

@bluGill@fedia.io

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It always makes news when the "Doomsday Clock" is moved by a second or minute. What would actually happen if it got to 00:00⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  There would be so much other news that this slow-new-day story wouldn't be covered by anyway. Assuming it even moves - the idea that at 0 it is too late and so it can't reach zero because nobody is left to move it is reasonable.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it possible to reverse pit a copcar before they pit you? Like if you know a cop is going to pit you on their right side, can you use your left back end to hit them first?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  The most common tactic these days is raeio ahead and some other cop throws a tire puncture device in front of your car. You won't go fast with flat tires. They have to be careful not to get other cars but otherwise that is safest for them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Im stupid but have money⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  It is stupid to die with money in the bank. You don't know enough to plan this out exactly though, so the real goal is minimize the money left, but don't run out before you die.

  The first question is what is your situation like.

  How is your retirement savings plans? 6 figures at 25 is a very good amount of savings, 6 figures at 60 is a terrible retirement account.

  What is your education like - this will buy a good college degree, which tends to pay off very well in the long run for young people. (but only if you pick a good degree and study)

  Make sure you have a good amount of emergency savings. 6 months living expenses is the general rule of thumb. You never know when something bad will happen in life - but bad things happen to everyone and savings it a useful way to ride it out.

  Once the above is done:

  Will a better living situation improve your life more than something else? You could go on a cruise every year with that money instead (I picked something wasteful that some people like, others hate). You could buy a really nice piano with that money. You could do lots of other things. Buying a better flat is one good option, but it isn't right for everyone. There is no universal right answer here, only right for you, so you have to decide (and understand sometimes you will be wrong)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How much RAM is in your average EV car, and is it DDR5?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  depends on your applications. Some are fine on 1gb. Some run short on 8gb. I'm under NDA so I can't say more.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How much RAM is in your average EV car, and is it DDR5?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  infotainment is effectively a pc. How much ram would you expect in a pc running all that? Everything else probably isn't much, but that system will have a lot. Often the backseat has sysems which need more.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spotify’s 3rd price hike in 2.5 years hints at potential new normal⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Welcome to inflation. If a price isn't going up regularly someone is getting ripped off.

  When my boss gives me a raise I always compare that to the yearly inflation rate - it has more than once turned what looks good into a loss for me. (I might accept it once in a while, but I'm looking for new jobs soon if they don't fix)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spotify’s 3rd price hike in 2.5 years hints at potential new normal⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  What makes you think it is just one song? In the 1980s it was a mix tape that took the good tracks from several albums. With computers it is a playlist. Or more often it is a play random tracks from my large collection until I hit stop.

  I do listen to just one song once in a while when that is all I have time for, or when some song comes to mind that I want to hear. However mostly it is a playlist that I created.

  There are a few albums that are related collection and work best listened together, but most are just a bunch of songs and you can listen in any order.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there anyway I can screw around with ICE? I need a new hobby I come from a long line of immigrants. If i send my home address and phone number will they actually come and deport me to choose a cntr⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Go to the political party of your choice's monthly meeting. Each party/state has slightly differen't rules, but the major parties have a local chapter in every state. Speak up when the chance is offered / on topic (it won't be everytime). This is where you learn who is planning on running before they announce - in enough detail to have an informed opinion on if they are good. that is where you go to find out how to help those who are running win.

  everything else is noise that won't change much. Get good people elected. Knocking on every door will turn out enough votes toechange election results in your area.

  don't fall for one party good. all are badin different ways. Find one that mostly you can support and reform it. Small issue voteres who get involved change how the party acts (in part by ensuring people who agree are on the ballot, in part because those who do the work get long conversations with the people they support - thus changing how congress thinks).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is ice heavier than water?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  A pound is the same for both. The oz measure is what was different. Thus an oz of metal is heavier than an oz of feathres. However a pound of both weights the same.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨at what point in life it's too late to go back to school?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  i assume you mean as in your increased earnings will no longer pay the expense. The never too late crowd is thinking of school as a pure 'fun' activity which is a valid way to look at things but if you don't like school isn't for you and that is how I'm choosing to interprut your question.

  the question is never answerable unil after the fact: I can calculate after you are dead. However I went to school with someone who went right to college, a mistake because he died in an accident at 21. Other people get mental decline in older years and so it is too late when they are no longer able to learn.

  you can retire at any age when you have enough savings, but some people find it boring and will continue to work anyway - if this is you it can be worth it even if ecconomics don't work out if you get a job you like (or perhaps one that by not wearing on the body you can do longer)

  many jobs pay for your schooling. if this applies the only quesntion is will you have to remain at the job longer than you want to afterwards.

  if paying for your own schooling you can calculate the expected earnings after and compare to the cost to make a decision.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Wireless EV charging hits 90% efficiency in Swiss real-world trials⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  That is what I do - but there are a number of reasons it isn't a good answer. Electric is a lot cheaper, and much better for the environment (My city is powered 100% via wind). However if I have to sit around waiting for my car to charge so I can move it on demand instead of doing those things I'm there to do the whole isn't acceptable.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Wireless EV charging hits 90% efficiency in Swiss real-world trials⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  My city is full of level 2 chargers, and I get nasty messages when I use them because when my car is finally charged I'm in the middle of something else (I have a PHEV that only does level 2 charging, and I need a charge to get back home on electric only on the rare case I go downtown) Even with level 3 though, the time is long enough that you will need something else to do for that half an hour and nobody can plan that close. Most cars with level 3 charging have enough range that most people won't need to charge on a normal day, but when you do you will need something to do in the mean time and if that something else isn't about the time of a charge there is a problem.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Wireless EV charging hits 90% efficiency in Swiss real-world trials⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  inconsiderate people may leave their car plugged in for longer than needed.

  This is a wrong take. It needs to be normal to leave your car plugged into a charger.

  Cars take too long to charge for us to consider it reasonable for someone to stand next to their car waiting while it charges (even worse - as I write this the temperature is -17C, but even when things are nice). We need to expect that people will be doing something else while charging and only come out sometime latter to move their car. If someone is at work they can't leave work until lunch time. If someone is at the symphony/theater it is impolite to leave when the car is done charging as it disturbs everyone else.

  Of course if your car just as enough range to get back home so you don't need to charge for normal trips that is better. However when someone needs a charger it should be considered normal to stay there for 6 hours, there needs to be enough to handle that. (obviously people making a road trip will disconnect as soon as the car is charged so they can continue on, but if you make the trip to a distance city for an event you may need to charge during the event to get back home).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Who shops at small businesses?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  True, but be careful, many of those you list appear to be small business because the big corporate owners have decided to have different name out front which makes it look like small business but they are not. You can tell because they are trying to sell you "services" that you don't need.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there an optimal home/apartment size that most people would be happy with?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  It is my obwervatoin that as houses approach 325m2 people start looking for more luxury in the space vs more. Beyond that more space isn't needed unless you are rich enough to win the cities largest mansion competition and so people who are rich but not rich enough to compete don't go bigger even though they could.

  Live in a pup tent and you want a bigger one, but in a bigger tent you start thinking lights or a cot before bigger.

  there is of course a lot of variation. you can be happy in anything - but you will want more anyway until you get to about 325

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do languages sometimes have letters which don't have consistent pronunciations?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  There are 26 letters in the latin alphabet. There are between 38 and 49 sounds in English depending on dialect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_phonology (I've seen reports as high at 56 but I can't find sources so I'll stick to Wikipedia which is often accurate) There is no way to have nice spelling in English. Some languages using the latin alphabet have various accent marks which help. At this point the dialects of English are different enough that reformed spelling would need to start with reforming how we pronounce words. (there are other alphabets in the world, I have no comment on if any would be better)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do languages sometimes have letters which don't have consistent pronunciations?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  English was written long before the printing press. However it always (at least to my knowledge) used the latin alphabet which predates any written English I can find by more than 1000 years. Note that I'm not an expert on English linguistics, so if is someone claims something before 1200 I'm not aware of it but that doesn't mean they are wrong.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Whatever happened to pickup artists? Did they evolve into alpha males or ascend to a higher plane?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That always worked - on a minority of women. There are only a few men willing to descend to those disgusting levels so it worked out for them. (if it was any more society as we know it would break down).

  The men who did it crossed the political spectrum trying to blame people you don't like for everything does your side no favors.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why don't cars have a way to contact nearby cars like fictional spaceships do?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  What does anything matter. If you deal with someone else at least one of you needs to learn the others systems. You and your neighbor probably speak the same language so it is easy, but the more differences the more there is to learn. You can choose to not deal with people in the US who only know US systems, or you can work with them by learning. I have no idea what your motivations are, but whatever they are they becomes your reasons to do or not do something.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why don't cars have a way to contact nearby cars like fictional spaceships do?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Sigh... Everyone is used to what they have used all their life and refuse to learn anything else...

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why don't cars have a way to contact nearby cars like fictional spaceships do?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Extept in very rural areas there are far too many people around for it to be useful. Unless somehow we can enforce strict rules on what you are allowed to say.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why don't cars have a way to contact nearby cars like fictional spaceships do?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Divide kmh by two and round toethe nearest 5/10 is close enough to mph for discussion purposes. It is off at times, but for discussion purposes it is close enough that your impression of how they drive is the same. (90 vs 100 kmh - not enough to matter in discussion - it matters in court so don't try this in the real world)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How many people would a generation ship need to have for inbreeding to not be an issue?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Of course once they arrive and population expands we can expect random mutations to build up over the next 100k years or so. If you can last that long.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How do people get rid of or sell stolen jewelry? I ask cause the news says the the Louve thieves can never sell it because it so known?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  There are lots of options. Honest jeweler buyers (likely including your local jewelry store and pawn shows - which might be dishonest in other ways but not that) are notified by the local police when jewelry is stolen and they consult the latest description list when buying and inform the police if anything is on that list.

  So as a criminal your options are: use it yourself (either wear it, or as gifts to friends); sell in a different city where hopefully it isn't on the list; sell it to someone who doesn't care that it is stolen; sell to a fence (who will in turn sell it to someone); melt it down for the metals (gold and silver) and jewels.

  Note that buyers of metals are also on the list of those watching for stolen goods. If you bring "a lot" of something to anyone buying metals expect questions. Metals are easy to melt and hard to trace, but if you are selling more than the average person is likely the police will be told to check you out. Often the point of a "fence" is to mix your illegal gold with legal gold and sell to locals jewelers who think everything is legal.

  As other have said jewels are cut.

  You lose a lot of value in all of the above. Jewelry is already way overpriced in general (that is the value is much less than you pay), and hiding your tracks is hard. It is really hard to make this type of crime pay because the police are good at their job.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why don't police use rubber bullets instead of live rounds? I get if someone is holding a loaded weapon. But wouldn't a rubber bullet have the same effect with out putting holes in another person?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The typical cop will never use his gun except during the mandatory training exercises. When they don't need lethal force there are better tools for the job. Their uniform alone is often enough, in more difficult cases their baton is used regularly - while it could be lethal it is a lot easier to control the force to ensure it isn't, once in a while a Taser, though the cops I've known never needed their taser outside of exercises.

  We need cops to have all the tools they need on hand for their job, but each one adds weight and so limits their ability to the the job. Since there are already several good non-lethal tools they use, adding one that isn't going to be used often isn't worth it. They still should have the last resort lethal force tool - but typically it is a backup they never need. (TV shows do not show the reality of being a cop)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Kohler Wants to Put a Tiny Camera in Your Toilet and Analyze the Contents⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  What can they figure out? If they can detect cancer when it is easy to treat I'd pay much more than that.

  i don't think they can detect anything useful, but if they can.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨When did Cash for Chritianity become a thing? When even Jesus the son of god wouldn't stand for it in a church? If they preach why don't they practice from the bible?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  i have never heard of that. Which doesn't mean much as there are thousands of differet christian churches and they disagree on many things.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why are fruits and berries healthy, even though they are mostly just sugar?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Fiber makes a big difference with fruit. it slows down absorbtion on often sugars are locked in fiber needing time.

  Glucose affects the gi it is absorbed directly into the bloodstream. Futose cannot be used directly and so the liver processes it - no gi index applies.

  Sucrose generally implies no fiber and so the simplification works fine. With the added constraint that only half of the molecule is glucose and influences the gi index.

  that is as far as I know things so I need to stop. Even then I'll stand corrected if an expert weighs in (though it is more likely the 'expert' is self proclaimed and really knows less than me so I place a high burdon of proff for correcting me despite this not being where I'm an expert)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why are fruits and berries healthy, even though they are mostly just sugar?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Sugar - sucrose - is split into frutose and glucose in the stomach. your whole thesis is not how digestion works. Frucose is processed in the liver, but all other claims are something I've never seen real science back up

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is anyone NOT steaming their Music?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  There is a lot of great music that I've never heard. (there is even more bad "music") Once in a while I want to hear something different, and streaming does that for me. Not well, but I have a hard time finding something better.