Fondots

@Fondots@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Are the inside parts of toilets universal?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Pretty much exactly what you probably think they are, I think they’re mostly a thing for people living off grid and maybe some RVs

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Are the inside parts of toilets universal?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Sort of

  For most toilets there’s universal fittings that will work just fine, you may need to adjust them a little bit, but they’re made to be adjusted, and they’ll work just fine with most toilets.

  If you have the original factory parts in your toilet, they may not be adjustable, and if you tried to swap them into another toilet they may not fit/work in other brands/models, or they may kind of work, but maybe not quite right.

  There are a handful of brands that don’t tend to play well with the universal fit parts, I want to say Kohler is one, and if you go to a hardware store, most likely they’re going to stock the universal parts, then a couple of the most common oddball brands.

  There’s also of course some weird toilets that are just totally different- pressure assisted flush, composting or incinerator toilets, etc. that aren’t even working on the same principle as most toilets, but I think the odds are that if you have one of those, you know that already.

  Also I haven’t played with any toilets that were manufactured that way, but I did retrofit one of my toilets to be a dual-flush. Those kits seem pretty universal, but probably double-check before trying to put them in an oddball toilet.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why don't we have cool vending machines in the US?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think you underestimate how many Americans just want a cup of Joe with cream and sugar. A whole lot of us are out there drinking gas station/convenience store coffee or brewing a cup or pot every day of store brand pre-ground.

  And the ongoing joke about people getting frustrated with just wanting a “large coffee” and being confused by starbucks calling it a “venti” and spouting off about how they don’t want any fru-fru mocha-chino late bullshit even though no one asked.

  I think the bigger issue is that of how Americans get around and how available real estate is.

  Japan has a lot more people who can/will walk, take the train, etc. that’s a lot more opportunities for them to walk by a vending machine.

  Americans tend to get around in our cars, so if you want to sell them a coffee, snacks, hot meal, etc. they need to be able to park somewhere.

  And vending machine food isn’t exactly a huge draw, people probably aren’t going to go to your parking lot with a row of vending machines just to grab something to eat, so you kind of need something else to draw them in, some bathrooms, gas pumps, or at least convenient parking to other stuff they need to get to, so you might as well stick a gas station there, and since you’re going to need a cashier you might as well move that vending inside and you can get more and more variety of merchandise on shelves that you can cram into some vending machines so it might as well just be a convenience store.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨why does every single flashlight have multiple settings that you have to scroll through?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Sounds like you’re describing a maglite

  Maglites are perfectly fine flashlights for most people, maybe a little heavy but sometimes that’s kind of the point (a lot of cops and security guards and such took to carrying them when their agencies started prohibiting nightsticks and batons, especially the bigger 4 or 6 cell models) for a long time they were basically the default flashlight, you had maglites, you had the big spotlight looking things that took a 6v battery, you had cheap plastic flashlights, and you had various small penlights and such (which were often mini maglites) and that was like 90% of what you’d ever encounter.

  There’s a good chance if you go rooting around in your dad or grandfather’s car trunk, garage, basement, workshop, toolbox, etc. you’ll find a maglite or 3 kicking around somewhere. I know I keep one in my car for emergencies and I’ll probably inherit a half dozen more from my parents someday.

  They still make them, pretty sure they switched over to LEDs (one of their selling points used to be they had a spare bulb stored in the tail cap) and I’m sure they’re still perfectly reliable and rugged, you can probably still find them at most of the places you’d think to go buy a flashlight, and a standard 2 D cell maglite still costs in the neighborhood of $20-$30.

  But there are a bunch of flashlight nerds out there these days, who want really specific form factors, battery types, features, led color temperatures, etc. and they’d probably pooh-pooh the humble maglite.

  I get it to an extent, I have flashlights I like better, but I’m not about to nerd out about them, and if you someone sent me out with instructions to buy them a flashlight with no other requirements listed, I’d probably buy a maglite and feel pretty confident that it’s going to be an acceptable flashlight.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How modern is it to have "sympathetic" portrayals of Hell?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Historically hell has often been depicted as a rather cold place, away from the warmth of god’s love or what have you.

  Anecdotally, 20 or so years ago, that’s what I remember being taught in CCD class when my parents were still making me go.

  Dante’s Inferno (c. 1321) for example, depicts the 9th and deepest circle of hell as a large frozen lake. And many of the damned he encountered throughout the different circles are at least somewhat sympathetic, especially at the first level of where the inhabitants are by and large good people who just to not be Christians. (And to be clear, Dante often found himself at odds with the church, so his works don’t necessarily reflect official doctrine and were absolutely written to reflect his own agenda, that said a lot of our modern ideas about hell owe a lot to Dante’s depiction, and any actual mention of hell in the Bible is scarce to non-existent depending on how you interpret certain passages, so his version is just as valid as any other in my opinion)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How come the US does not put a bounty on Putin like they did Bin Laden?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m obviously not planning a Pennsylvania secession movement anytime soon, but just in case it ever comes to that

  General policy, not necessarily Pennsylvania specific, in no specific order:

  Universal healthcare (including all vision, dental, psychiatric, addiction treatment, gender affirming care, etc.) constitutionally enshrined access to abortion and birth control, abolish the death penalty, legalize all drug use with pardons for all non violent drug offences, huge corporate, wealth and inheritance taxes and major tax cuts for anyone making under 100k/year per person, major investment in nuclear and renewable energy, bans on fracking, free college or technical education for all up to a bachelor’s degree or equivalent certifications, UBI, low-income housing, major police reform, a ban on homeschooling except when necessary due to medical issues and a ban on private and charter schools except for very specific magnet schools that cater to particular vocations and enormous amounts of oversight and regulations on those schools, absolute separation of church and state (Churches and religions get no more legal recognition or exemptions than any other private social club would be entitled to,) a plan to phase out all reliance on non-renewable energy, down-payment assistance for first time homebuyers, high speed Internet access as a human right, major public health spending (we will get hit with another pandemic eventually, and there’s a damn good chance it will be far worse than covid,) a ban on corporate ownership of housing, basically all government services and requirements will be free of charge, legal recognition of poly marriage, election reform with ranked-choice voting, and major gun reform (too much to go into detail here but mainstream republicans and democrats would both hate my gun plans)

  And probably a few dozen other major points, but thats what I could spout off from the top of my head

  Pennsylvania-specific (disclaimer, I’m based out of the Philly area, so my opinions are the strongest about this region, and I’d need to read up on most of the rest of the state):

  High speed rail connecting, at a minimum, Philly, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Scranton, state college, and Erie

  Commuter rail along the Schuylkill connecting philly and reading (side note/fun fact: the legal remnants of the old reading railroad company, yes the one from monopoly, that used to connect those two and other cities, is now a chain of movie theaters, with locations mostly in Australia, New Zealand, and California) probably as an extension of the Norristown high speed line which we’re also going to reroute to have a stop inside the King of Prussia Mall

  Really more rail in general, but that seems like a good starting place and we can continue building out a network from there.

  The sixers are staying put, if they want a new stadium they can put one in the existing sports complex. We’re also going to cover vine street and reconnect the two halves of Chinatown.

  This is very low priority, but I’d like to find a constructive use to refurbish the SS United States instead of turning it into an artificial reef.

  We’re doing away with the PLCB bullshit, you should be able to buy beer, wine, and liquor at any grocery store.

  We’re getting rid of any remaining blue laws- not being allowed to hunt on Sundays, dealerships not being able to sell cars, etc.

  An absolute ban on confederate imagery except for museums, historical reenactments, etc. I see more confederate flags being flown in parts of PA than I have in a lot of the actual south, what side of the mason-dixon line do these idiots think our state lies on? Especially in this hypothetical scenario since we’re not even going to be part of America after this is all over and I don’t want any of these shitheads getting the wrong idea that our movement is some sort of “the south shall rise again” thing.

  Really we’re just generally going to finally drag a lot of Pennsyltucky kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

  Major infrastructure spending. I’d say this should be a general not-pennsylvania-specific issue, but holy shit have you seen the state of some of our roads and bridges? You can usually tell by feel the exact moment you cross over the state border.

  We’re really going to lean into being “Penn’s Woods” and preserve our natural resources and wildlife. We have some amazing parks, forests, etc. here and I want to make sure it stays that way. You can barely drive 10 minutes through much of the state without crossing some small river or stream, and I want all of those waterways to be clean and teeming with life. I’ve never seen our state amphibian- the eastern hellbender, in person in the wild and I’d like to fix that.

  Some goofy, not totally serious proposals

  Mehmet Oz is not allowed to set foot on Pennsylvanian territory.

  Any building in Philly taller than City Hall must have a William Penn statue at the top. We finally managed to break the curse with the Comcast building and we’re really going to cover our bases.

  We may look into annexing the south jersey shore.

  An official Pennsylvanian English dictionary covering the Philly, Pittsburgh, NEPA, and other dialects, covering definitions, spelling, and pronunciations of such words and phrases as : Yinz, youse/youse guys, jawn, Schuylkill, Bala Cynwyd, Conshohocken, heyna, jeet, water (“wooder,”) creek (“crick”) and many others.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How come the US does not put a bounty on Putin like they did Bin Laden?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Do they control a territory? Do they claim to be the official government of that territory? Can they back up and defend those claims? Do the civilians living in that territory overall recognize their authority as the government of that territory? Do other nations recognize them as the government of that territory?

  It’s not a totally black and white issue

  If I hypothetically rallied up a group of supporters who share my views and ideals and start carrying out terrorist attacks to force the government to address the issues I’m championing, I don’t think many would consider me to be a government. I’m still acknowledging the authority and legitimacy of the government, and am just acting in opposition to it.

  If my goal is to seize control of a territory, let’s say Pennsylvania, I’m starting to look a bit like a country. But unless I have the support of enough Pennsylvanians, and have the resources and manpower to back up my claim, and can get other nations to recognize it, it’s a pretty empty claim.

  If I manage to win over the popular support of the citizenry, they may start to regard me as the legitimate ruler of Pennsylvania, however just because they’re willing to follow me, doesn’t mean that anyone outside of the state is recognizing my claim. Other countries aren’t going to engage in diplomacy with me the same way they would with other nations, they’re going to continue regarding Pennsylvania as part of the US until I manage to actually have control over the territory. That means in some way removing the existing government from power, and more importantly defending my claim from the US government, who isn’t going to just roll over and accept my claim.

  So let’s say we manage to take control over Pennsylvania, the citizens support me, we’ve ousted the previous government, and are generally filling all the roles you would expect a government to handle, and at least for now we’re somehow managing to hold off the US government and defending our claim to Pennsylvania.

  At this point, we’re the defacto government of Pennsylvania. However we still lack recognition. The US government is still trying to retake control and has not recognized our independence, nor has any other country, we’re seen as rebels, warlords, etc. by the rest of the world. We’re essentially on our own, unable to trade with other countries.

  From here let’s imagine a couple different scenarios

  1. Some countries start to recognize my legitimacy. They offer to support my regime and to open up trade. Popular support from my citizens remains high, and we’re managing to hold off the US government. At this point we’re in a situation not unlike Taiwan or Palestine. Whether we’re a legitimate government is going to depend on who you ask around the world, with answers ranging from that we’re a group of rebels trying to secede from the US to having their full support and recognition as the legitimate government of an independent nation.

  2. Our rebellion is a resounding success. The US backs off, recognizes our independence, other countries also recognize our independence, maybe we even join NAFTA. It would be hard to argue that we’re not a legitimate government at that point.

  3. I start to lose the support of Pennsylvanians, and they stop recognizing my authority, even though I still manage to maintain control over my territory by force. Some countries, especially those that are not friendly to the US, may still recognize my claim, although in the eyes of most of the world, I’m probably just a terrorist or warlord.

  4. The US government is successful in ousting me, I manage to flee to a country that recognizes me as the legitimate ruler of Pennsylvania or at least is willing to tolerate my presence, and I set up a government-in-exile. I continue to conduct myself as though I am the ruler of Pennsylvania, maybe some Pennsylvanians and other people and countries throughout the world continue to recognize me as such, but without the ability to actually exercise that authority over my territory, it’s a pretty empty claim.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Phonebooks⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Same goes for a lot of generic-sounding “A” business names- Acme, Apex, Ajax, A+, American-whatever, etc.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How do I know if a medical issue should be addressed by a Clinic Visit, Urgent Care, or the Emergency Room?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I work in 911 dispatch, it drives me nuts how many people lose consciousness for various reasons, and then when they come to they say they’re fine and don’t need to be checked out.

  There’s maybe some very narrow exceptions for people with known conditions that they’re already managing with the help of a doctor and they know exactly what’s causing it.

  But in general, if you’re losing consciousness that’s a bad sign and you need to see a doctor about that ASAP

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there a wig that doesn't heat your head?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m also bald, but even before I started shaving my head and had long hair I wore a lot of hats. Still helped keep the sun off me and I tend to run kind of hot so it helped keep sweaty hair out of my face.

  I have a couple hats similar to those kicking around, they mostly get used when I’m camping, hiking, etc.

  My main every day summer hats are a panama straw fedora, a linen flat cap, and very occasionally a trucker cap that I mostly use as my fishing hat.

  I also have a straw cowboy hat that I only bust out occasionally, when I’m both feeling a little silly and I’m gonna be out in direct sun for a long time, like out in the middle of my lake on my kayak. It looks a little goofy, I’m certainly no cowboy, but it’s practically like walking around with a shade umbrella on my head.

  I tend to run pretty hot and sweaty, so when the sun isn’t a concern, I often wear a bandana to keep sweat out of my face.

  My wife has a very big, floppy hat she wears at the beach sometimes, looks like straw but is actually some sort of recycled plastic.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there a wig that doesn't heat your head?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  My mom would not be able to wear a hat during the summer obviously heat would stay in and she would get too hot.

  I think you’re starting from a faulty assumption here.

  In general, it’s often wise to wear a hat in the summer and can help you feel cooler providing a little bit of portable shade, and helps keep the sun out of your eyes and off your face/neck/ears/shoulders.

  It’s just about finding the right hat, something lightweight, breathable, and preferably lighter in color (to reflect the sun’s rays instead of absorbing them) and maybe with a wider brim.

  Straw hats are a fairly traditional option, something like a panama hat (actually made from palms, also made in Ecuador and not panama BTW) is a classic option, but this is 2024 so there’s lots of moisture wicking synthetic material options out there as well. For other natural materials, linen is also a good choice, certain types and weaves of cotton can be pretty light and breathable, and honestly even some lighter weight wool hats aren’t too bad.

  Take a look at people who work or spend a lot of time outdoors in warmer climates, you’ll see a lot of people wearing hats or cultures where people traditionally wore a lot of hats even if they’ve fallen out of style. Baseball caps, visors, cowboy hats, fedoras, pith helmets, beater hats, various types of headscarves, big floppy sun hats, bucket hats, asian conical hats, sombreros, etc.

  I wear hats pretty much year-round. The hats I like in the summer are different from my winter hats, but it’s pretty rare that I go out without some kind of hat, and when I forget to grab one on my way out the door, I feel less comfortable for it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How come drug dealers seem to have a messed up house or at least a messed up car with a bunch of trash in it?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The house behind my parents has had a string of terrible tenants. Loud assholes, people who let their dogs run loose, people with unruly kids, etc.

  Otherwise a pretty decent neighborhood.

  There was a younger dude living there for a while, kept kind of weird hours, but my parents never thought much of that, figured he was going to school, working night shift somewhere, etc. Mostly kept to himself, never bothered my parents in any way, always dressed professionally, etc.

  He was probably the best neighbor my parents ever had in that house.

  Then one day cops raided the place, turns out he’d been dealing a lot of drugs out of there and had a punch bowl full of cocaine sitting out on the kitchen counter.

  Some of the other neighbors apparently had noticed some pretty sketchy characters coming and going from the house, they must have entered from the front door though, because my parents never really noticed anyone.

  My parents would still take the drug dealer over pretty much anyone else that’s lived there.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How do you ask for a haircut?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Shave it all off

  I’m bald

  I do go to get my beard trimmed occasionally though, I just describe what I’m looking for- I like the length, just kind of square it up a bit and make it look neat, and fade in my sideburns.

  It helps that I do a decent enough job of keeping it trimmed on my own, I just go in a handful of times a year before weddings and other fancy events when I need to look particularly nice

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Has there been a depiction of fast food on a space station?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  In Outer Worlds there’s a couple establishments aboard the groundbreaker that could potentially count as fast food by some definition.

  The stand on the citadel in mass effect is maybe fast food-ish

  I vaguely remember seeing some stands in the background of Babylon 5 that could potentially have been something like fast food, but I never got into Babylon 5 too much so I can’t say much about that, I just have some vague memories of some parts I’ve seen that looked like fast food wouldn’t be out of place.

  Pretty much any time there’s a big space station with a city-like interior I assume there’s probably something like fast food somewhere on board, maybe even visible in the background somewhere, though I can’t really think of any particular examples or any time it was specifically highlighted

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If Necromancy suddenly became possible, can the undead be called as a witness during court proceedings?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Going sci-fi, but I think I remember there being a thing in the altered carbon books that kind of relates to this.

  In that series most people have a device implanted that can store their consciousness, it can be backed up, etc. if you die your consciousness can be uploaded to a new body, maybe a clone of your own, maybe another spare body no one was using. They get around long space flights by just sending the stored consciousness into a new body at the destination, prisoners can be uploaded to storage and their bodies used elsewhere, etc. and the only way to reliably kill someone is to destroy that device, and if they’re rich enough they may have a remote backup so even that isn’t a guarantee.

  So murder victims are routinely uploaded into new bodies to testify at their own murder trials.

  Catholics oppose this though, they believe that your soul is separate from your consciousness and can’t be stored in that device, backed up, etc. and so to respect their religious rights they can’t be popped into a new body to testify.

  I imagine that necromancy would have the same and probably stronger opposition from a lot of religious people and we’d run into the same kind of legal issues.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do radio stations all seem to go on commercial at the same time?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, listening is totally allowed, just don’t transmit without a license. Depending on the radio there’s often a way to lock out the PTT button so you don’t accidentally key up.

  Programming the radio can sometimes be a bit of a pain in the ass, CHIRP is a free program that’s often recommended for baofengs, you’ll also need to figure out what repeaters are in your area so you know what frequencies to listen to

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do radio stations all seem to go on commercial at the same time?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Laws and regulations will vary a bit depending on what country you live in, but assuming you’re in the US the process is pretty simple but involves some studying

  Pass the test, buy a radio, start talking.

  There’s 3 classes of license- technician, general, and extra that give you permission to use different bands and modes, extra of course gives you the most options, technician the fewest. If you pass your technician exam you can usually go ahead and take your general exam right then and there, and if you pass that you can go ahead and get extra all in the same sitting.

  Finding somewhere to take the test is the tricky part, but if you look up amateur radio clubs in your area they probably have it published somewhere and I think the ARRL website has a list of places/clubs that do it and when. I think some of them have started offering an online test since covid but I don’t really know how that works.

  There’s a license/test fee, don’t remember what that is off the top of my head, I want to say around $40 but don’t quote me.

  As far as studying, there’s a lot of resources out there, apps, reference books, the FCC publishes the question pool they use for the test, etc.

  As far as radios, you can get a baofeng handheld for like $20 on Amazon, a lot of hams give them shit but they probably also have one or two kicking around because they’re so cheap. They don’t have a lot of bells and whistles but they’re probably the cheapest way to just start talking to other hams.

  Radios get expensive quick, that’s one of the reasons I haven’t gotten too into it, I have better things to drop hundreds or thousands of dollars on, but you can find some good deals on used equipment, ebay, flea markets, etc.

  Start with a baofeng, talk to other hams, maybe go to club meetings or events, figure out what else you want to do and go from there.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do radio stations all seem to go on commercial at the same time?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t know the specifics of commercial broadcast radio, but I know with ham radio hams are required to identify every 10 minutes while they’re transmitting including automated repeaters that will usually do it in Morse code

  If you listen to some ham radio communications (sometimes it’s interesting, but usually it’s just old guys talking about antennas) every 10 minutes the repeater will beep out a bunch of Morse code and everyone rattles off their call signs

  For commercial radio I think it’s every hour so at least that often they’ll have to cut to “you’re listening to WXYZ 99.9 FM blah blah blah” which also provides a good segue to a commercial break.

  I’m sure most of them probably just schedule that at the top of the hour to make it easy for themselves

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Should we consider Jesus a zombie?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Holy Grail feels more apt, vessel filled with his semi-literal blood sound phylactery-ish to me

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is investing in real estate immoral if you use it to buy your first home?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  And how crushing would it be if you have no food, no money, no job, and not even a safe place that you’re just allowed to exist for want of $200?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is investing in real estate immoral if you use it to buy your first home?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m also a former renter, current homeowner, and you certainly get more freedom as a homeowner than you normally would as a renter (although you do sometimes hit the jackpot with a landlord who will let you do anything you want to your rental.)

  The second half of your comment though, is putting words in my mouth that I didn’t say. I agree with building codes, safety regulations, permits, etc. I certainly don’t trust the morons living next door to me to not blow their house up and mine along with it because they tried to service their own gas line, and I’m willing to give up that bit of freedom for myself because the benefits outweigh the inconvenience.

  I am, however, not a fan of property taxes, because I’d like to know that if I someday end up disabled, lose my job, and broke, I’d like to know I’d at least be able tocount on having a roof over my head even if I can’t afford to keep the heat and lights on, it would keep me out of the elements and provide some physical security. I like everything those property taxes pay for, but I want it to come out of income taxes.

  There’s also of course the issue of things like eminent domain and civil asset forfeiture. If the government can just take your home away from you, how real is your ownership of it? Just like how a landlord can decide to evict you or sell the property at any time, sure there’s a process they need to go through, but the government has hoops to jump through when they do it as well.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is investing in real estate immoral if you use it to buy your first home?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  They effectively already are, stop paying property taxes on a property that you own and see what happens. They get to set all kinds of restrictions on what you can do with your property, how and when.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How can i make myself poisonous to mosquitos?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Purely annecdotally, picaridin has worked as well or better than DEET for me. I barely get bitten when I use it, and I usually get bitten up pretty badly when I use DEET (though less than when I don’t use it)

  I also find picaridin bug spray to not feel greasy and has less odor than deet, which is nice.

  DEET is also fairly toxic to dogs (and cats, but I don’t have one of those) and while it’s not licensed for use on dogs, it doesn’t appear to be toxic to them, which I appreciate as a dog owner (I’m unsure about cats, that info seemed less readily available but I also didn’t put much effort into finding it)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What do to if I survive a nuclear blast in my city?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The CB radio thing is going to be very location specific, I work in 911 dispatch, I think the state police around me theoretically monitor channel 9 on the highways, but in practice I wouldn’t have a lot of confidence in that, they barely look at info we send them over the computer, CB also has a somewhat limited range, so you’re counting on them having an officer somewhat nearby or you being close to their station.

  As for local police, around me I suspect a few of them probably still have a CB antenna on the roof of their station and maybe even an old radio stashed somewhere in a closet but not hooked up and not being monitored, and the officers definitely don’t have them in their vehicles.

  I’m in a pretty dense suburban area outside of a major city, they might still get some use in more rural areas where cell signals aren’t as reliable, though you’re probably going to run into the same issues with range limitations, in normal ideal conditions, you might get a range of about 20 miles or so, depending on atmospheric conditions, geography, etc. you might get only a fraction of that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The interior of your house is hot, the exterior cool. What would the most efficient orientation be for a box fan? Pushing hot air out of a window or pulling cool air in through it?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Image

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why is it impossible to reverse-engineer closed source software?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  To build on/give some example about what you said with the comments and function names (programmers, excuse the sloppy pseudocode that’s about to follow, it’s been a long time since high school intro to computer science)

  Let’s say in a video game, you run around collecting coins, and if you get 100 coins you earn an extra life

  One small part of that code may look something like:

  IF
  newGame = TRUE
  THEN
  coinCount = 0
  lifeCount = 3
  coinModel.all.visibility = TRUE
  //Players start a new game with 3 lives and 0 coins, and all coins are visible in the level

  IF
  playerModel.isTouching.coinModel.x = TRUE
  THEN
  coinModel.x.visibility = FALSE
  coinCount++
  //If the player character model touches one of the coin models, that coin model disappears, and the players coin count is increased by 1
  IF
  coinCount % 100 = 0
  THEN
  lifeCount++
  //if that coin count is divisible evenly by 100, then the players life count is also increased by 1

  Quick notes for people who have even less programming background than me

  ++ Is used by a lot of programming languages to increase a value by 1

  % is often used as the “modulo” operator, which basically returns the remainder from division. So 10 % 2 = 0, because 10 is evenly divisible by 2, 10 % 3 = 1, because 10 is divisible by 3 but not evenly and leaves a remainder of 1

  // Are comments, they don’t affect the code, they’re just there for human readability to make it more understandable, so you can explain why you did what you did for anyone who has to maintain the code after you, etc.

  Hopefully, between the simple variable names and comments, those pseudocode blocks all pretty readable for laypeople, but if not

  The first block basically detects if you’re starting a new game (IF newGame = TRUE)
  If it is, then it resets your life counter to a default 3, and you start with 0 coins and sets all of the coins in the level to be visible so you can collect them
  Otherwise it would carry over the values from your previous level, or save game, or whatever

  The second block detects if you touch a coin (playerModel.isTouching.coinModel.x = TRUE) If you do, that coin vanishes (coin.x.visibility = FALSE)
  It also increases your coin count (coinCount++)
  Then if your coin count is divisible evenly by 100 (coinCount % 100 = 0) it increases your life total (lifeCount++)

  When the code gets compiled, that gets turned into machine code, basically all 1s and 0s that the computer can understand. The computer doesn’t care if you call a coin a coin or if you call it object1, it’s going to strip all of those human-readable elements out because it would just be a waste of storage and processing power to keep it in.

  So when you recompile that, you don’t get any of the explanatory comments or the easy to read variable names, so you might end up with something looking kind of like this

  IF
  Variable1 = TRUE
  THEN
  Variable2 = 0
  Variable3 = 3
  object1.all.condition1 = TRUE

  IF
  object2.condition2.object1.x = TRUE
  THEN
  object1.x.condition1 = FALSE
  variable2++
  IF
  variable2 % 100 = 0
  THEN
  variable3++

  Which is a lot harder to understand. The code will still work, you could recompile it and run it, but if you want to make any changes, you’d basically need to comb through it, figure out what all the variables, objects, conditions, etc. are, and try to piece together why the programmers who originally wrote the code did it the way they did

  And that’s of course a bit of an oversimplification, for various reasons it may not decompile and recompile exactly 1:1 with the original code, it’s almost like translating the same sentence back and forth between 2 languages with Google translate.

  And even this little snippet of fairly simple and straightforward code would probably going to be backed up by dozens, if not hundreds or thousands of other lines of code just to make this bit work, defining what a coin is, the hit boxes, animations, how it determines if it’s a new game or or continuing a previous game, etc.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tethered Bottle Caps⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  His formatting leaves a bit to be desired, but that basically boils down to

  1. Knives with certain features like a double edge, a handguard, butterfly knives and certain other one-handed opening mechanisms (I assume switchblades, maybe assisted openers, possibly gravity and flick knives) are weapons and can be owned but generally not carried

  Otherwise…

  2. Knives (and I assume this applies to other bladed tools as well since he mentioned an axe)with a blade length of less than about 5.5 inches are ok to carry for no particular reason, as long as either the blade doesn’t lock or it needs two hands to open it (from how he wrote it sounds to me like one or the other of those features is ok, but not both)

  3. You can carry a bigger knife if you have a good reason that you need one, like if you’re going campings/hunting, or clearing brush with a machete (and from how he phrased it sounds like you could also carry a one-handed locking knife with a good reason)

  4. You get carded to prove you’re an adult if you want to buy a sword (I assume knives as well)

  Which is pretty straightforward, and actually similar to a lot of laws in the states (looser than some states I believe, and stricter than others)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tethered Bottle Caps⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Not really relevant to the comment you replied to and only tangentially related to some other comments in this thread. We’re talking about knives and soda caps here.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tethered Bottle Caps⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  A lot of us don’t think of our knives as weapons, they’re tools.

  It’s rare that I don’t carry a knife, and using it in self defense is the furthest thing from my mind every day when I put it in my pocket. I use it for things like opening packages, cutting string, sharpening pencils, use various other tools on the knife like screwdrivers, pliers, awls, I have a lot of outdoor hobbies like camping, hiking, fishing, and knives are kind of indispensable for those pursuits.

  If I’m ever in a situation where I absolutely need to defend myself, and I don’t really foresee that ever being necessary, I’m probably not even going to think of using my knife in self defense, I don’t think of it as a weapon anymore than I think of my wallet being a weapon, it’s just something that lives in my pocket that I frequently need to use.

  And knives make a shitty weapon, if you’re close enough to stab someone, you’re close enough to get punched in the face, or for your assailant to wrestle it out of your hands and stab you with it. You’d be better swinging around pretty much any larger object within arms reach to create some space. They say about knife fights that the loser dies in the street, the winner dies in the ambulance.

  The knives I tend to carry especially aren’t good weapons, most need 2 hands to open, aren’t really designed ergonomically as fighting knives, most are fairly small so I’d have to get really lucky to hit anything vital and would probably just piss them off more and not stop the attack quickly, some of them don’t even have a pointy blade so not good for stabbing (I actually make it a point to choose less threatening looking knives for my EDC needs) some of them don’t lock open so they’d just as like close on my fingers as cause any harm to my assailant, and some of them actually lock in the closed position so definitely not good for a weapon.

  I’m not saying that everyone who carries a knife has the same mindset. Lots of people do carry them as weapons, those people are idiots. And not everyone puts the same thought into the knives they carry and just get something that looks cool whether or not it’s functional for their needs.

  I also don’t carry anything for self defense regularly and don’t own a gun (not opposed to gun ownership in general, but my thoughts on that are part whole ‘nother debate,) in general if I feel like I need to be prepared to defend myself if I go somewhere, I just don’t go there. There’s a bit of privilege to that, since I live in a safe area and can make that call, not everyone is lucky enough to live somewhere they can feel safe. The only exception is the pepper spray I keep with my dogs leash, since my wife or I often end up walking her alone at night, and that’s more of a precaution against loose dogs, coyotes, etc. than against people.

  There’s a lot to say about Americans’ love of violence and weapons and the sort of mindset we have about self defense, and overall I tend to think that a lot of my country is absolutely insane when it comes to those matters. That said, I also think people who look at the little swiss army type knives, or Leatherman multitools I tend to carry and see a terrifying deadly weapon have their own issues to work out too.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tethered Bottle Caps⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  AFAIK, these tethered caps are mostly an EU thing (and at the very least are not widely used in my area of the US) and a lot of European countries are less knife-friendly than the US.