batmaniam @ batmaniam @lemmy.world

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2 yr. ago

how much you can build without a complete understanding

We've never actually never had one. I'd have to check the timelines but Tesla was almost certainly working on a functional, but inaccurate atomic model (Bohr). Medicine is actually a great example of all this. We are so used to just kind of knowing "there's a bad bug or bad gene that's making me sick". Like you may not know the details, but you've got some loose concept a bunch of cells in your body are pissed off. For the vast, vasssssssst history of medicine, it was all empirical, and the thing is, it kind of worked... sometimes.

My favorite example of "knowing without fully understanding" is Mendel and his peas. If you do a 4x4 punnet square (that gene cross thing), and look at the frequency of co-inheritance, you can track how far genes are from on another (because the further they are, the more likely there will be a swap during the shuffle). Thing is... because DNA is an integer thing (no such thing as 'half a base pair') it works DOWN TO THE SINGLE BASE PAIR. Mendel was accurately counting the number of freaking base pairs separating genes without knowing what a base pair, or indeed even really a molecule, was.

Tesla would have lived to see some absolutely nutty stuff in physics. Boltzman, Einstein with relativity, it must have seemed like pure madness at the time.

So yeah, we discover new and interesting stuff all the time. I personally think that some of the weird quantum stuff is going seem as rote in the future as germs do to us now. As in, the same way any lay-person shoved into a time machine would at least be able to give the basics to a medieval European, someone from the future would be like "well I don't remember much about quantum tunneling, but...".

And that's all before getting into some of the bizarre things going on in math itself. Be careful if you look into that stuff though, it's easy to fall into the "Terrance Howard" style rabbit hole. Suffice to say there is some really interesting and unexpected implications we're discovering, but if you don't have a solid grasp of theory, it is easy to be led astray but sources that want to gloss over details to talk about a conclusion that isn't actually supported. It's like if you tried to explain time dilation to an ancient Greek, and they excitedly hopped on their fastest chariot thinking they could "fast forward" to the future, because time moves "more slowly" for you when you're going faster, right?

It's funny because I'm a registered libertarian. But the times are what they are.

You are right, it is incredibly use dependent. In a weird way, EVs kinda of outline a lot of the cultural divide in America right now. The majority of America is freaking BIG. If you live on the coast, and are road tripping on the coast, odds are 300 miles seems like a lot because it was settled by horses, but that just doesn't work for a lot of people. At least 3-4 times a year I do 400+ miles one way.

So EVs do make a ton of sense for a LOT of people, but it's definitely not all people. From what I can tell, most of the people that have that need for that range are also 2 car families, in which one EV and one ICE works perfectly. It is so close to almost there, and in many, mannnny use cases it already is. But adding 20% to my travel time was not acceptable when I was shopping for a new vehicle.

Lol, my neighbor across the way put one of those up in 2020, we chit chat so while watering the garden I said "man I wasn't going to vote, but because of your sign yeah, go Biden". I mean I was... But anyway he took down the sign lol.

As an American scout, it's also been funny talking to my friends years after the kind of things you take for granted. I had a friend that took a bunch of people up a moderate hike, but they wound up in what could have very easily turned into a not moderate fuck up. I've never really considered myself a "survivalist", but I was seriously in error in assuming people knew the basics.

This was sort of my impression to. Like I loosely liked him, but couldn't really tell you what he's directly responsible for. Which isn't a bad thing on its own and doesn't mean he wasnt doing a good job, just that I don't know much about him.

So the road trip item you're talking about is incredibly subjective. I just had an ev for a few months, yes I was able to find CCS on the highway, but you're looking at ~1hr charging per 3 driving (give or take). That's a deal breaker for a lot of people.

But youre right, leaving every morning with "a full tank" was wild.

I assumed it was "Harley Quinn" Jim Gordon because THAT Jim absolutely would. He's a damn good cop.

You're wrong. You're so wrong. The warm light of everything good in this world has clearly never warmed your face nor caused the roaches to flee from the empty, echoing cavern that holds not but rot, mold, and regret where a brain is sorely missed. I pity you, your parents that birthed you, and all of humanity at large for now knowing a person could be so misguided. I pray for your strength on the inventible day when the faintest candle of reason illuminates the vaguest shadows of comprehension, and you may finally witness your errors, so long called accomplishments, as they loom over you like demon gods eager to drag you to hell in a cage you've spent a lifetime creating for yourself.

7+9 is dope though.

oh I'm not shortchanging it, I work in the field. It's crazy how "simple" it is in concept and hard to deliver. But it's on par with antibiotics with how many lives it's changed. Like you said, it's like a lot of civil stuff. A solid highway system, for instance. Just some dirt with fancy rocks on it right? Righhhhhhht?

And don't get me wrong, wastewater has tons of complications. Any plant is operated in equal parts science, engineering, and art. It's a living, breathing, bioreactor. They've each got their own distinct personality.

Thrilled you asked! So yes: Treatment is always required, but the final destination of the treated water can vary. For instance, in a lot of places they may have municipal water TO a home or business, but that may be discharged to septic, as opposed to the river. Also in a lot of areas, water may be taken out of an underground aquifer (either by private well or a municipality) but when treated it may be discharged into a river or ocean. That can create problems because if you're near the coast, the empty space in the aquifer may be filled by salt/brackish water that can lead to salinity rises in the aquifer. To solve that some places turn to "ground water recharge", which is just a fancy way of saying "we built a big well to put it back in the aquifer".

Increasingly, you're seeing some places essentially sell their treated water. Santa Rosa CA, for instance, built an entire pipeline that goes from their treatment facility to another municipality to be injected into their groundwater.

So yes, everywhere treats it, but the final destination makes a difference. Las Vegas (or anyone else on the river) only gets credit for what goes back into the river, so any evaporation etc is a problem. It sounds trivial, but there is a reason those other strategies exist. It essentially doubles every pipe, limits where you can park a treatment plant etc. Vegas also does some great grey water re-use. That essentially means it doesn't go "back" but can get used many many times, limiting the initial draw.

Wastewater is funny because it's far from rocket science, but the numbers to implement any of it get staggering very quickly.

I don't know about power, but Vegas is actually incredibly water efficient. Due to the way the water rights work with the Colorado river, they're not allowed very much, but it doesn't "count" if you put it back in. So nearly every drop they use is treated and put back (probably cleaner, tbh). Boggles the brain, but somehow it's actually a fairly sustainable city. More than any other other major metro, in any event.

Man, late to this party but if you want a wild ride this guy's got a few... Humans to elements. I realize the statement wasn't looking for a response but if you actually want to know buckle up...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ett_8wLJ87U

Yeah you say that and should be right but I'm more worried about January than I am November...

If only. That would be amazing and thank you for the dream, but they've all got private security, I don't see how this could be done without someone being shot, which changes the whole context and would make it something that could be spun to easily.

But it brings up the whole issue doesn't it? The court feels they will never have to deal with the consequences of any of this. Surely a trump-style president would never come after them.

Damnit, we've been to this movie.

1. Yes: you absolutely want the outdoor rated PVC if you're getting sun exposure. You can cheat, it's not like the white stuff will be immediately destroyed, but if you want something that will last a bunch of seasons, the "grey" stuff is the way to go. Double check that it's UV rated though, and doesn't just happen to be grey.
2. To get around all of that, you can bury it. Because you're just doing it for the garden, you don't need to dig down to the frost line. Just make sure you clear the line at the end of the season. Another advantage is that you'll minimize the amount of water that's been baking in the sun idle in the pipes. If it's a heatwave and they're in direct sun, that water can get downright hot to the touch. I've never lost a plant because of it but frankly I'm kind of surprised by that. If you do bury, you might consider running some electrical conduit at the same time, even if you don't put wires in it (DO however include a pull cable for later use). What you do at either end of that is a whole other project, but you can always just cap it and get it to it when you get to it. Solar + Battery usual works great for garden automation stuff, but being able to run an ethernet cable can simplify a lot.
3. Plastic will hold up fine, but as others have mentioned you might want one of these.. The union allows to remove it. You could do a more simple threaded system IF you are able to completely and freely rotate everything "down stream" of the valve. I'm just going to say the stupid part out loud because I learned pipe stuff the hard way: A ball valve threaded on both sides cannot be loosened from one side without tightening the other (again, unless that other side can freely rotate). Edit: alternatively unions are sold separately, and sometimes you can eek out some flow advantages that way but it's in no way worth thinking about at garden water flow rates.
4. Finally, a last alternative I've seen done well for gardens that sort of "wrong done right" is putting posts up and stringing a hose over head. It kind of seemed like as much work/expense as burying it, but I guess they had the posts, it came out really sharp in the end. You need a pretty high quality hose though. Baking in the sun and sagging under the water weight can end badly.

Climate change and the housing crisis means both the cost of replacing a home AND the likelihood of needing to is going up. They may not be on the brink of going under, but may be trying to avoid getting into that position.

It is an enormous problem. When a property becomes un-insurable it loses value. When that happens to a TON of property it'll have massive knock ons. Something like 1/3rd of all assets in the US are commercial realestate. This next adjustment will not be pretty, and the real irony is a ton of people who got priced out of home ownership in the first place are going to suffer no matter what.

That's the part that people don't get and is intentionally hard to find numbers on. The entire appeal was on it not being an influencer centric space. The entire value was always at odds with monetizing that value beyond it's upkeep and paying the people (who apparently aren't that many) a reasonable salary. It is the worst growth case you could have ever had.

My dad was a farmer. I AM AN ORPHAN.

Edit: Ok, I feel bad. But like... I know one dumbass with a cough that won't go away (7 years and counting) because they wouldn't effing listen to me about DE, another who rolled his tractor on to himself and died. Don't take it lightly man. The bill always comes due. We all do what we have to, lord knows I've done some dumb shit, but it ain't cute to dismiss it.

That and post-scarcity doesn't mean "zero scarcity". Like if someone wanted to create a picard funkpop the size of a planet, I don't think they'd be allowed the resource budget.

It's like how it doesn't matter where you live, if you want to buy on the silk road, you need bitcoin. Presumably even the federation can't just make latinum whenever they please, or we wouldn't see them haggle with it. Although, it would be fun to see that they could and just take the responsibility of not crashing non-federation cultures entire economies very seriously, either out of respect or treaty.

Damnit, I want a LD episode where the crew is frustrated and desperately wants to just "buy" their problem away but can't because an economist at command says it'll mean they have to rescue all these non-federation colonies that are currently self sufficient. Come to think of it it's right there with the "you break it you own it" concept of the prime directive.