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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: August 4th, 2023

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  • Start by defining your available power. How many watt-hours can you generate? A small 100W solar panel can provide an average of 400Wh of energy per day in the winter. That’s more than enough to run a 10-inch tablet 24/7 and LED lighting at night. I’ve seen 360W solar panels for under $100 on the used market. That’s a couple of KWh a day. Even a 100W bicycle generator and a 30 minute workout would power a tablet for 8 hours.

    If power consumption is that big of a factor, perhaps separate devices for video, music, and reading would be beneficial. A dedicated music player can consume less than a watt. An e-paper reader requires fractions of a watt.

    I have a folding 100W panel, a 30Ah 12V LiFePO4 battery, and a charge controller that I use while car camping. It keeps all the electronics running for a group of 4 without relying on a noisy generator. The battery is big enough to compensate for a couple of rainy days.

    My backpacking setup is a 15W panel and a 30Wh battery. That kept my phone and flashlight charged for 2 weeks on the Pacific Crest Trail.





  • You’ve got more than three. There’s the A-hole, P-hole, V-hole, M-hole, two N-holes, and two E-holes. Then there are the manufactured holes: two H-holes when you make a fist, a TT-hole if you squeeze them together, a BB-hole if you’re on the heavy side, and two T-holes for those with foot fetishes. There are up to 3 bonus holes if you have one or more of the various medical stoma, and two extra bonus holes if you’re blind and have prosthetic eyes.

    But you can get by with only one if you tie those sausages together end-to-end.



  • I don’t think most people realize how dependent we are on undocumented workers. Wait until it becomes illegal to hire them and INS roundups start again. Then the carwash price goes up, the daycare closes, or the landscaper goes missing. Maybe the snow doesn’t get plowed or the restaurant prices go up because they can’t find cheap kitchen help. Construction-related companies will be decimated, and the cost of home repairs/remodeling will skyrocket. In my area, electric rates will increase because half of the crews that keep the vegetation trimmed back from the power lines are undocumented.

    They’ll come for the employed undocumented workers first, because they can make it illegal to hire them, just like it used to be 50 years ago. No green card, no work.








  • If you place a tea bag in a cup of water at 20C in a thermally isolated vacuum chamber, when the chamber pressure is reduced to or below the vapor pressure of water at 20C (about 17 torr, or 1/3 psi), it will begin to boil. The vapor produced will be at 20C and the water in the cup will be 20C and begin to decrease, because of latent heat of vaporization needed for the liquid/gas phase change. The water will continue to boil as long as the pressure is maintained at or below the vapor pressure of water at that temperature. Eventually, the water reaches 0C. Then it will stop boiling and begin to freeze as the latent heat of fusion provides the necessary heat to continue evaporation. When all the water has converted to ice, the vapor pressure is greatly reduced. The ice will sublime (go from solid to gas) still, but as that continues to cool the ice, the vapor pressure also drops. As the temperature drops, sublimation will slow until it is nearly zero. So you would end up with a tea bag encased in ice.

    In your example, if you suddenly exposed to the cup and tea bag to the vacuum of space by rapidly venting the air, the water would explosively evaporate, shredding the tea bag. You’d be left with bits of tea leaves, an empty cup, and a lot of very fine ice crystals.







  • Nope. I’m a RINO. For LGBTQ+ and women’s reproductive rights. For gender equality. For religious freedom without interference from the government. For supporting our kids’ education and well-being. For reasonable gun control measures that involve training and background checks if that cost is borne by the state. Against banning of weapons or special taxes on guns/ammo. For involuntary psychiatric treatment (commitments). I want single-payer healthcare. I want a vetted method of entry for immigrants that doesn’t take years to complete. I want non-violent convicted criminals to have the option to be surgically “tagged”, then allowed to continue their lives knowing that they’re being monitored. Maybe then they can repay their victims. I want to abolish the death penalty. I want to set fines as a percentage of a person’s wealth. I want all non-lethal drugs to be legalized, including prescription drugs. I want the government to provide an interest-free home loan for anyone who can show they can afford the property, currently owns no other property, and will use it as their primary residence. I want a free path to a self-study college degree, but I oppose paying for others to obtain degrees without some form of payback.