TheVat

Arguably the biggest bang for the buck in the US would be a massive change in public nutrition and nutrition education. At this point it would probably require a benign dictatorship to get many Americans to eat halfway decent meals. Stern admonition from doctors doesn't work too well. A lot of our healthcare system seems to consist of duct taping up the mess after people have spent years eating junk and avoiding non motorized transport. (the months I spent in France were a real eye-opener - most everyone is thinner, more personally capable of mobility, and there is a collective frowning upon junk food and snacking. In Sweden, they had Lördagsgodis, which is where everyone only eats sweets on Saturday - again, unimaginable in the US!)

"Even people whose lives have been made various by learning sometimes find it hard to keep a fast hold on their habitual views of life, on their faith in the Invisible - nay, on the sense that their past joys and sorrows are a real experience, when they are suddenly transported to a new land, where the beings around them know nothing of their history, and share none of their ideas - where their mother earth shows another lap, and human life has other forms than those on which their souls have been nourished. Minds that have been unhinged from their old faith and love have perhaps sought this Lethean influence of exile in which the past becomes dreamy because its symbols have all vanished, and the present too is dreamy because it is linked with no memories.” ― George Eliot, Silas Marner

A similar strategy also explains the literal meaning of Brontosaurus: thunder lizard.

Environmental protest continues to take endless forms most beautiful. The use of chalk paint, to facilitate its removal, was a good way to downplay the vandalism aspect. And since Darwin's seminal studies included observations on chalk beds extending from England into N France, it seems a more respectful choice in terms of recognizing his contributions. (I may be over-connecting dots here) https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jan/13/just-stop-oil-activists-spray-paint-charles-darwin-grave Lee said: “We are trying to get the government to act on climate change. They are not doing enough.” Bligh said: “We’ve done this because there’s no hope for the world, really. We’ve done it on Darwin’s grave specifically because he would be turning in that grave because of the sixth mass extinction taking place now.” Lee added: “I believe he would approve because he was a good scientist and he would be following the science, and he would be as upset as us with the government for ignoring the science.” The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service confirmed on Friday that 2024 was the warmest on record globally and the first calendar year that the average temperature exceeded 1.5C above preindustrial levels.

The systemic problem is that healthcare works best when viewed as a public good, like say primary education, and not a profit centered enterprise. Just as free public education somewhat resolved a massive literacy differential caused by economic inequality, so could national healthcare help the 27 million left out in the cold. (but we have this Right Wing ideology ascendant now, that the poor are somehow undeserving, that everyone paying into a NHC system is somehow a handout to shiftless freeloaders.)

One glaring problem with referendums here is that they are often Trojan horse proposals. Some special interest group (often corporate-backed) will write up something that sounds vaguely progressive like "protecting children" or "defending freedom to" or "maximize choice" while actually reducing fundamental rights in its implementation. Voting for trained legislators who can spot deceptive bills (or pointless ones that are just partisan grandstanding) is often the better option.

I am in process of trying to get information from Universal Security Instruments, the manufacturer. The website was not too illuminating on what they do with the radioactive material, just a vague mention of a "disposal department" if you want to mail it back to them. In my experience vague language usually means they just dump it. And the FAQ actually says it's okay to just toss them out. Hazmat days come every two years in my small city. And their list makes no mention of ionization smoke detectors, so it's anyone's guess what they would do. This is all so typical of the whole recycling experience in the US, where corporations drag their feet on closed loop recycling or actively lobby against it.

First, to all of you big box electronics stores who claim to recycle everything: grrr. Recent experience revealed how much the local Best Buy was actually throwing away because there's still a lot of e-waste that no US company has set up a method of harvesting. It's the usual reasons - lax regulations, cutting corners, labor costs of dismantling materials to extract the goodies, etc. So, given that my pile of six expired smoke alarms has six little chunks of americium 241 (HL=432 y), I don't think my local landfill is the proper place for them. What am I supposed to do, mail them at my expense to First Alert or whichever company manufactured them? Can I trust they will reuse the radioisotopes? Or should I mail them to the DOE with a note, please forward to Yucca Flat? I suspect the DOE would be unamused. I cannot find a straightforward answer on the web, just a lot of vague hints from zealous recyclers that I will burn in Hell if I landfill radioactive materials no matter how tiny their emissions. (these units are less than one microcurie or around 33 k becquerel ) (Our smoke alarm upgrade is partly prompted by the current news, and our proximity here to a tinder-dry national forest.)

Given that geographic naming is often based on the surname, I guess we Mericans can count ourselves lucky that we don't live in Vespuccia.

I personally prefer Napoleon BonyPart.

I usually rely on Honest Bob's Total Tubular for all my test tubes. Weirdly, they also sell surfboards.

Thanks to all three of you who weighed in. I see I was wrong to assume such a high kinetic energy required for an escaping molecule. I do understand it would quickly be in equilibrium with the ambient air above the meniscus. And get well, Ex. (my countrymen sometimes now say "be well," a phrase I'm less fond of)

Steam is vapor which is visible because some of the vapor is recondensing at it makes contact with cooler ambient air. So the vapor carries along tiny recondensed droplets of water which give a more visible cloud. The water in the glass under your bed has a temperature of, say, 20 C, but temperature is just the average kinetic energy of all the molecules, right? So there are a few molecules that happen to be so energetic that they happen to escape from the glass as vapor. The average kinetic energy of those escapees is 100 C or more. Their escape will slightly lower the temp of the glass of water, but only briefly because the water keeps staying in thermal equilibrium with the floor and room air.

Haha. No, she totally owns up to it, and empathizes enough to occasionally shrink or (even more shocking) organize and store one of the crap piles. And, to my suprise, a 120 year old coffee grinder works damn well.

On this you have my sympathy. I'm a minimalist married to a packrat. During the five year period between marriages, otherwise known as The Glorious Era of Zen Bliss and Personal Hygiene Lapses, my possessions were at the Gandhi end of the spectrum - a chair (plus two folding ones for guests), a small table, a bankers box of books and personal papers, the previously mentioned topo maps, a sleepable futon (frameless) that folded up into a chair, an all purpose Pyrex bowl (cereal, curry dishes, whatever went in my face hole), and (briefly) the loan of a 23 pound Maine Coon named Old Jules. Given my equally limited wardrobe - basically, one rolling suitcase's worth - Jules often proved handy for added warmth or as a pillow. Television was an internal bio-virtual system activated by running the eyes over character strings printed on dead tree fiber. (this fine arrangement collapsed when I obtained an 18 inch early LCD tv, plus dvd player and amplified antenna) Anyway, now I live amidst the towering crap piles of an Olympic class craphound, occasionally tugging Jenga-like on discrete objects in a crap pile because (maddeningly) it proves useful.

As someone who still travels into remote areas without cellular service, I will note the remarkably enduring utility of maps printed on thin sheets of dead tree fiber. Apparently they don't need batteries - the ink just stays in place! A broader answer is that single tool reliance can create enormous vulnerabilities. Cell towers can go out in storms. Strong solar activity has great mischief potential, too, both on devices and networks. Another thought is that too much reading or video watching on a tiny illuminated screen is hard on the eyes. And, as physicians are reporting, the human neck. Google cellphone neck hump or "text neck." (and then look up, for godssakes)

Vapor. Boiling means to change phase from liquid to gas. That is the definition of boiling. There are street lights (or were) that rely on the relatively low BP of mercury. An electric arc is sent through mercury vapor. USA banned them in 2008.

Or I have. I am not sure which way this works. Also I don't know what proportion of your payment is from the SS trust funds (which accrue interest) and what is from incoming payments (which don't, I would guess). I wonder how "transparent" our government really ever is, on such matters. 🙂

Fibre and vitamins, which these foods contain, are important for good health. But that's another topic. One you need to research, it sounds like. Let me make this real simple: do not put raw fresh human excrement on your crops. Your risk (and that of other family members) of cholera or other infection is too high to be experimenting with this. Do your research on composting manure, so that you can put something on there that's been through a process to eliminate human pathogens. While boiling, a form of pasteurization, will kill bacteria, there are still hazards from raw excrement from contact with your hands and shoes when you are gardening. Raw excrement on the surface of your garden (or tracked into other areas on your shoe soles) can also potentially transmit pathogens to some household pets (unless they are absolutely kept indoors at all times, something few of us achieve in the RW). If you think you can do the handwashing, boot washing, pet sequestering, child discouragement (from, say, plucking a ripe cherry tomato or strawberry while out playing in the yard), etc. then yes, you could probably reduce your risk. I am going to speculate that you have never had a severe GI tract infection, or you might take these risks more seriously. I have experienced one, and that was enough. As the saying goes, "You probably won't die...but you will wish you could." I will also point out that the odor factor can become more prominent than you expected. Basically, having your garden reek of raw sewage is not going to win you friends in the neighborhood (or much love from family members).

The US had a baby boom after WW2. Which lasted until 1964. Because of this, there are many more people now reaching the age to collect SS. Processing applications is thus extra slow, going through our federal bureaucracy. Payments to you are made from people who are presently paying in to social security, not from the money you paid in years ago. The working people currently paying money in, some of that goes towards your SS payment, and the rest into the SS trust fund. If I understand it correctly, if you end up waiting a little longer for your first payment, it will be slightly larger, in compensation for you receiving benefits for fewer total months of retirement.

Maybe others have said enough, but I want to suggest that this kind of equivocation is removing clarity and precision from your postings here. Actual thought, aka cognition, is an emergent process in large networks of neurons, which opens up to holistic descriptions. This doesn't mean there are tiny thought processes in individual cells, or that cells have the same causal powers (in miniature) that sentient creatures do. This opens a trapdoor into panpsychism and metaphysical conjectures that are untestable pseudoscience. Remember, when a biologist uses a word like "communication" to refer to chemical interactions between organelles or between cells, it is a specialized usage that does not imply anything akin somewhat to thought . Or when a biochemist speaks of a reaction, it is no way like a person reacting to shocking news. Different functional levels may use the same nomenclature, but the terms refer in very different ways.

You buy vast quantities of meat, requiring a large fridge and chest freezer. While I don't want to discourage environmentalism, I would say that meat consumption and large appliances are an awkward fit. And the meat, eggs, etc sold at Sam's is cheap in part because it is produced in a way that pledges fealty to Monsanto and the eco-destructive cutting corners of Big Ag. It is not organic or free-range or anything else usually associated with environmentalism. He needs to be debriefed.

Simpler solution: skip Sam's and go to the nearby megalomart. Sam's doesn't save that much, and encourages food waste due to selling perishable items in such large sizes that consumers don't use it up before expiration date. And you then support the traditional retail model where cash is still accepted and anonymity is okay. I buy groceries and most small fungible goods with cash, preferring to not leave a data track in every purchase. With cash, all megalomart knows is "somebody bought some Silk almond yogurt today." And that is all they need to know. (another benefit of cash: the clerk doesn't hand the money back to you and say your bill isn't working) PostScript re Sam's - one thing estate executors often encounter (per a lawyer pal) are home-dwelling elderly who die and have accumulated enormous hoards of Sam's Club food, often years beyond expiration. It gets landfilled, usually. (once in a while, an eco-minded relative will take the stuff that has no animal product, like expired canned vegetables or dry grains)

Max size of object that can go into the turbofan safely. Agree, a "weak laser" cannot mince birds in advance. About as feasible as installing a sushi chef in front of each engine.

And we do have split ticket voting here, where you can vote for, say, a populist oaf for president on the basis of one hot-button issue you like him for, but then vote for the opposing party for your Congress person(s) so as to impose a restraint through the legislative side on issues where you don't trust the oaf. The Constitutional separation of powers is, in theory, designed to restrain autocratic tendencies. I guess we'll see.