What's an aspect of life that's currently done privately that you think should be communalized?
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    evasive_chimpanzee
    3d ago 100%

    Community canneries still exist, but they used to be way more popular. In rural communities where people grow a lot of their own food, people can their own food, but pressure canners take a lot of time for a single batch to come up to pressure, cook, and cool.

    Community canneries have much bigger pressure canners where you could feasibly can everything in one batch. It's also really enables people sharing surpluses, trading, etc.

    Many hobbies are better shared, too. If you have 20 people sharing a super high quality "item", they will have a better experience than if each of those people had to buy their own crappy versions.

    Basically, a whole lot of things can be "libraried".

    14
  • Problem?
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    evasive_chimpanzee
    3d ago 100%

    Yeah, reviewing is about making sure the methods are sound and the conclusions are supported by the data. Whether or not the data are correct is largely something that the reviewer cannot determine.

    If a machine spits out a reading of 5.3, but the paper says 6.2, the reviewer can't catch that. If numbers are too perfect, you might be suspicious of it, but it's really not your job to go all forensic accountant on the data.

    9
  • Can a Four-Year Degree in Any Hard Science Realistically Get You a Good Job?
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    evasive_chimpanzee
    4d ago 100%

    Yeah, nursing is probably a job that is always going to have steady demand, but it seems like (and I could be totally wrong here) there's a pretty broad range of job opportunities where some might work you like a dog and pay horribly, while others are great.

    If you are interested in jobs in your area, definitely reach out to some people to ask their opinions on long term job prospects. Your local hospital's CAT scan technician (or whatever their title is) can tell you if they are hurting for people, or if all of their peers are close to retiring.

    6
  • Can a Four-Year Degree in Any Hard Science Realistically Get You a Good Job?
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    evasive_chimpanzee
    4d ago 100%

    No, as much as high school guidance counselors try to tell you different, there's nothing magical about any STEM degree that will reliably get you a job.

    For most jobs, the "filter" is getting the job itself. Not having a relevant degree might prevent you from getting a job, but having the degree doesn't mean you will be selected. There are exceptions like getting into medical school really sets you on a pathway where as long as you stick with it, you should end up with a job, bit that's cause it's really hard (and expensive) to get into med school, so that part is the "filter".

    You might hear of a particular skillet being really hot that guarantees you a job, and that does happen, but it is really ephemeral. By the time you get a 4 year degree, the landscape may have changed.

    You can absolutely get a job with a 4 year hard science degree, but you can't just go to class, get all A's and step into a job. You need to be connected throughout the process. Also keep in mind what type of job you want to do, and where it is geographically. You might have good job prospects with a geology degree and fossil fuel expertise, but the jobs might be in undesirable locations.

    14
  • diy dendrochronology
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    evasive_chimpanzee
    5d ago 100%

    The first step, in my opinion, is to find any existing local-ish datasets. I reckon that around you, there could be trees that go back well over 1000 years to use as a reference. You could then try to find the oldest ring of the wood in your house. It's probably pretty hard to count back before that, but you could try to make estimates based on the circular ark of the grain pattern to determine a trunk diameter.

    2
  • What's the coolest thing your library has available to check out?
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    evasive_chimpanzee
    6d ago 100%

    My local library system has tools, kitchen implements, a recording studio, musical instruments, stem kits for kids, video games, and art.

    They need a better inventory system, though, cause all the non-book items are inventoried alongside the books. If you want to rent a shovel, you will see every book with "shovel" in the name before you see any actual shovels.

    8
  • What's the coolest thing your library has available to check out?
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    evasive_chimpanzee
    6d ago 100%

    At least at my library, there's basically just a separate form you have to sign to say that if you chop your hand off with a saw, you won't hold them liable, and I think there are more strict limits on how long you can rent things, and what the penalties are for being late.

    4
  • Cargo airships are happening
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    evasive_chimpanzee
    6d ago 100%

    Hyperloops business model is to scoop up funds meant to develop technology to combat climate change. It's Teslas business model, too. It definitely makes me skeptical right off the bat. It's just a matter of if the airships are like electric vehicles (oversold climate harm reduction, but likely still a harm reduction), or if they are like hyperloops (complete scams that can be defeated with high school level math).

    3
  • Indigenous North American Nations, 16th century
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    evasive_chimpanzee
    6d ago 100%

    I have no clue how it's received as a scholarly work, or by the Comanche themselves, but "Empire of the Summer Moon" is a fantastic book on the rise and fall of the Comanches. The long story short is that they captured feral horses lost by the Spanish, trained to be insanely good at riding, rearing, and fighting off of horses. They then took to the great plains as nomadic bison hunters. There were never really that many of them, but they controlled a huge area as basically the mongols of the great plains.

    3
  • Indigenous North American Nations, 16th century
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    evasive_chimpanzee
    6d ago 100%

    The 16th century is old enough that some people groups went through name changes, and many of the names you are familiar with are not on here. This map also prioritizes the endonym (what they call themselves) name over any exonyms (what other people call them). Some exonyms are just anglicisations of the endonym (or another European language), or sometimes they are direct translations or the native name, or names from another tribe.

    Apsáalooke means "crow" in the Apsáalooke language, so most people call them Crow.

    Additionally, writing these names in the Latin alphabet is not always done the same.

    I do find it hard that you wouldn't recognize more than one name, though. I'm no scholar, but I counted at least 140 that I recognized, and I'm sure I would recognize more of them under other names.

    If there's a tribe who's name you know that isn't on here, it's probably because it was a less popular exonym (like souix, for lakota), or they didn't exist yet (like the Seminoles), or it refers to more than one tribe (like iroquois).

    6
  • Indigenous North American Nations, 16th century
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    evasive_chimpanzee
    6d ago 100%

    They actually are on there. Comanches were originally a subgroup of the shoshoni, who came down from wyoming area after mastering the horse. They call themselves the Nʉmʉnʉʉ, which you can see on the map at the eastern edge of the green shoshoni lands.

    5
  • [QUESTION] For pasta sauces, is it best to use fresh tomatoes or canned?
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    evasive_chimpanzee
    1w ago 100%

    Yeah, I strongly agree. If it's tomato season, and you can grow them yourself, or get them from a neighbor or a local farm (or even a local hothouse offseason), fresh is best. The other 90% of the year, tomatoes that went into a can fresh are going to be better than zombie fruit shipped halfway across the world to get to your supermarket "ripe" in january.

    2
  • Does anyone over-winter their peppers?
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    evasive_chimpanzee
    1w ago 100%

    I overwintered some peppers once by just bringing the plant inside and throwing it under a grow light. So not really doing the "prune and make it go dormant" approach that seems popular.

    I did accidentally do that once when a frost killed all my leaves/soft stems, and I just put the pot into my basement expecting to plant something else the next spring. When I put it outside the next spring, new growth came off the dead-looking woody sticks.

    4
  • Jim Jordan warns FTC to back off suing car dealer accused of overcharging Latinos
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    evasive_chimpanzee
    1w ago 100%

    I'm trying to wrap my head around the logic, and I just can't get it to connect. Are they trying to say that although the ECOA gives them the responsibility, it doesn't give them the power? Like paying someone to mow your lawn, and then saying they aren't allowed on your property?

    Or are they saying that the ECOA gives the FTC the power to challenge companies that discriminate by not giving credit to minorities, but not the power to challenge companies that discriminate by giving bad credit terms to minorities?

    4
  • Roadkill cuisine - fresh kill is preferred and parasites are a concern, so the kill is typically well cooked.
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    evasive_chimpanzee
    1w ago 100%

    Roadkill is practically vegan from an ethics point of view. Veganism is all about the most reasonable reduction of animal harm possible. Eating an animal that's already been killed does not cause further suffering to animals, and since roadkill draws scavengers to the roadside, the presence of roadkill can lead to further animal death. Removing roadkill from the roadside is a net positive for animals. It's also more eco-friendly than the usual alternative which is to ship the carcass to a landfill and undergo anaerobic breakdown.

    6
  • I have a 100 W rigid solar panel including a charge controller that I currently only use for camping to charge batteries (also useful in an emergency at home). It strikes me as a waste that I could be generating more clean energy with equipment that I already have, but I don't have anything in mind to use this energy for. Obviously I could try to tie it into my home to run more of my household on solar, or buy more/bigger batteries to charge, but with 100 W of generation, it's probably not worth it without a significantly increased investment. I tried searching around online, and I found plenty of discussion for what to do with a whole house that generates excess capacity (mainly sell to the grid), but nothing really on what to do with small scale DC generation. Anyone here have thoughts?

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    9

    Does anyone have a good method for dealing with plant debris? I'm thinking about things like stems from plants, or even just pruned bits. I don't have a place to compost effectively. My normal method for woody debris is to cut it to little pieces with garden shears, and for leafy stuff to just let it dry out and crunch it up. After, I'll just stick it in the bottom of a pot that I'm going to put a new plant in. It gets a little broken down, but not as well as I'd like, and I can only do it when I have a new plant to pot, so I end up with a random pile of stuff that sits around for a while. I wish I had like a tiny woodchipper or something.

    13
    3

    I've been using my grinder (Baratza maestro plus) for ten years now, and I got it used. I've replaced some parts (e.g., burrs), but I'm wondering if it's finally time to let it go. It seems like it's not grinding as consistently as it once was, but I'm thinking it would be good to quantify it. I've seen sieves used to classify ground coffee, specifically, the brand Kruve seems to be a nice implementation. It's $90 for the cheapest version, though, which doesn't quite seem worth it to me. It seems like it'd be better to just spend the money going towards a new grinder, but I figured it would be good to ask for anyone's experience here.

    15
    12

    Hi everyone, I looked through this community, and I didn't see much discussion of the use of CAD for woodworking, so I figured it was worth a post. I learned CAD ages ago, and I've used it sparingly in my professional life since then. I'm working on a project now that would benefit from CAD, so I figured I'd try to get up and running with a software for personal use. I know sketchup and fusion360 have long been the major players for woodworkers, but I am wary of "free" personal use licenses that can be removed or degraded at any time. As this is Lemmy, I'm sure plenty of you are interested in FOSS options as well. I know there are some programs out there specifically for woodworking, but if I'm going to learn a new software, I want it to be more general purpose so I can use it to make things for 3D printing, etc, if needed. I also want something parametric to be able to easily change designs. For those of you unaware of what that means, it basically means that you can design things with variables instead of exact numbers. That way you can punch in numbers later on to easily update your design. In my case, I'm making cabinet doors in a few different sizes, and I'll be able to generate plans for different doors with only 1 model. Theoretically, I could upload the design for anyone else to use/modify as well on a place like thingiverse (someone give me a shout if they are secretly horrible or something, I'm generally wary of providing value to a corporation for free). This all drove me to FreeCAD. FreeCAD is a FOSS CAD software that has a huge range of different capabilities. The different tools are divided into "workbenches" of different uses such as architectural drafting, 3d printing, openSCAD etc. There are also user created workbenches that you can install. There's even one specifically for woodworking (that I haven't used yet). I've started into some tutorials, and most of them are focused on building a single widget. While that's great if you are planning on making something to 3d print, us woodworkers are usually assembling different parts. The tutorials for woodworking specifically I've followed along with so far seem to follow the same workflow: First, a spreadsheet is set up to establish all the parameters you want to be able to change, then, each part is designed individually. Finally, all of the pieces are brought together and assembled. While this is great if you already have a design in mind or an object, and you are trying to make a model of it, it's not the way I would ideally go about conceptualizing a new design. To make a nightstand, for example, my preferred methodology would be to assemble some simple rectangular panels to represent the top, bottom, back, front, left, and right. After those are in place, I'd start adding joinery, details like routed edges, and cutting out space for a door. It doesn't seem like freecad is necessarily set up to do things that way, though I could be wrong. This might even be how the woodworking workbench does things, I just figured I'd start learning the default workbenches first. Anyone else use freecad or another CAD software? What's your workflow like? Want me to report back once I've had more time to play around with it and learn some stuff?

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    I've had irrigation running on my porch for a few years now, so I figured it was worth making a post about how it works, and the pros and cons of it. I'm by no means an expert. Pros: - you don't have to worry about plants drying out on a hot weekend while you are out of town. - you can grow plants in smaller containers than you'd otherwise be able to - you can put plants in spots that would be annoying to water by hand Cons: - it's a lot of plastic. Typically the tubing is polyethylene or vinyl. - you need to drain it in the winter - it takes some time to figure out how to get the right amount of water to your plants - the system that I have (and most off-the-shelf systems, I think) is not compatible with a rain barrel. - you need a hose spigot I have a porch with a lot of plants. My roof hangs over the porch, so I don't get any rain on my plants, and they are completely dependent on watering. This would typically work fine all throughout the spring, but then once summer comes, and the plants need more water, I'd inevitably lose some plants while I'm out of town. I can have friends water plants like my indoor plants that maybe need to be watered once a week, but I'm not going to ask someone to water 30 outdoor plants twice a day. There are a few different common types of automatic irrigation systems. The most common you've probably seen is little sprinklers. Those are not ideal for containerized plants because you'd waste a lot of water, and get your porch/balcony really wet. Theres also things like soaker hoses which arent useful in our case. The type that I have, and recommend, is drip irrigation. It does exactly what it sounds like and drips water right where you want it. There's two types of drip irrigation, and two subcategories of each. Individual emitters or emitter tubing, and each of those are available as simple emitters or pressure compensating. Individual emitters are just single droppers, and tubing is what it sounds like, a tube with a bunch of holes in it at regular intervals. The single droppers come in different sizes for different flow rates, and they are generally more convenient than the emitter tubing unless you have a big planter bed or something where you put a loop of the tubing. If you think about a tube with a bunch of holes in it, the most water will come out of the first hole, and each subsequent hole will put out less and less, until eventually, for a long enough tube, nothing would come out. The water that comes out would also be dependent on what your water pressure is. To use that kind of system, you have to be crafty about it, and maybe arange your plants or run the tubing from thirstiest to least thirsty. Pressure compensating emitters somewhat solve this problem by outputting the same amount of water, as long as the water is somewhere between the highest normal household water pressure and a pretty low pressure. I can tell you firsthand that they dont work perfectly, and you'll have some that put out water faster than others, but it's mostly okay. I actually rearranged my plants to just put the more needy ones under the fastest drippers. One thing you need to always keep in mind is the pressure of the water. I have no clue what the actual numbers are for my water pressure is, so let's say it's at 10 where it comes out of the house. It then passes through the timer (more on that later), which might nock off 1 unit of pressure. The water then has to travel up a floor of my house to where my plants are. The change in height might nock off another unit, and the resistance of that long stretch of skinny tubing might nock off another. Now it's down to 7. Each emitter might take .5 units. Once we get down to 1 unit of pressure, there isn't enough to push past the mechanism inside of the emitters, so you can't have any plants past that point. If you follow the math, that gives me 12 emitters. Technically, the emitters dont reduce the pressure in the main tube, they reduce the flow, which leads to a corresponding drop in pressure. Obviously, bigger diameter tubing can carry more water and water more plants. This is all why a rain barrel would be hard to use, the pressure will be pretty low unless your barrel is up much higher than your plants. Any debris from the barrel could easily clog the drippers, too. I have probably 30 plants on that system, but I was only able to have about 12 with a single line of irrigation tubing, which in the US, at least, is 1/4 inch diameter. I had to run 1/2 inch supply tubing, and I have branches off of that with the 1/4 inch tubing. You might think that tubing with 4 times the cross sectional area could carry 4 times the water, but it's actually way more than that because of math reasons I don't need to get into. The emitters come in different sizes, rated in volume per hour. I have basically all one size because I can always put 2 in a bigger pot. The last thing to mention is the timer. The cheapest ones just have analog dials for "water for x minutes every y hours or days". Figuring out how much water to give takes some time. To start, I would make sure all of the plants are not sitting in completely dry soil. Dry soil, especially with peat in it like lots of potting mix, does not absorb water well, so water might roll off to the side, and down the edge of the container and out the drain holes. Then I'd run the water till you see it start to drip out of the drain holes a lot indicating that the soil is full. Then I'd back it off from that point by a bit. My emitters are rated for 1/2 gallon per hour, and in the spring, with seedlings and cool weather, I might run them for 5 minutes every day or every other day. When it gets to the summer, I have my timer water twice a day, with 10 mi uses in the morning, and another 5 minutes during the heat of the day. I have a "smart" timer that lets me have slightly more complicated schedules like that. If you are a tech savvy person, you could set up automatic rain delay. Lastly, I'm not trying to promote any particular products over others, but [this is the kit I started with](https://www.raindrip.com/products/kits/automatic-watering-kit-with-timer-for-containers-and-hanging-baskets), and I've expanded from there. It seems like the components are all fairly standardized in size, at least in the US, so you can mix and match from different companies to problem. Hope that helps some people, and feel free to ask any questions. TL;DR, irrigation is pretty useful and easy to set up.

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    5

    Every Thanksgiving since I was a child, I've had to make something for Thanksgiving. Typically, and I think this goes for many Americans (and presumably Canadians cause they have a similar Thanksgiving), this involves sharing the kitchen with way too many cooks. It can be difficult to know what tools you'll have in an unfamiliar kitchen, and when/if you'll be able to use the stove, oven, etc. I'm trying to move things towards a better model, where I make the entire menu, and other people are responsible for drinks and cleanup, but there are always holdouts determined whatever particular dish they feel strongly about. My normal approach is: - Insist on making the turkey. The turkey is the most common thing people mess up, and it sucks to have to choke down dry turkey. - Bring an insane amount of my kitchen with me. Words can't describe how frustrating it is to try to cook with only the world's dullest knives, a thermometer that starts at 160 F for "rare beef", and only a salt shaker of iodized salt. - Do as many "make ahead of time" or "make outside of the kitchen" dishes as possible. Sous vide sweet potatoes, salads, etc. What are your methods for ensuring that your Thanksgiving meal doesn't suck? P.s. My packing list for things to bring to cook at another person's house contains: Thermometers, knives, shears, a scale, cutting boards, rimmed baking sheets, cooling racks, a vegetable peeler, a microplane, a pepper grinder, kosher salt, aprons, a big mixing bowl or two, a cake tester, a bread knife, a citrus juicer, a few Mason jars, butcher twine, a gravy separator, all the herbs and spices I'll need, a high wall saute pan, a sturdy frying pan, baking soda, baking powder, yeast, lemons, limes, butter, my sous vide circulator, heavy duty foil, and a liquid measuring cup. Anything you think I'm missing?

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