Yeah, let’s keep testing if living soil with a variety of nutrients is better than inert growing medium with nitrogen injected.

These are real, current legs. The front 2 of the insect norm of 6

This was kind of cool https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsg81Tn3s28 I didn’t like the first wall example because the clicking cadence changes, but the field and trees were very clear

I absolutely agree that there should be a official name. My problem with birds is that there are 2 official names. The American Ornithological Society approves both of them (kind of). One is Latin/Greek/whatever in Genus species format - that is the one for science literature and taxonomy. The other is in English and silly in my opinion because that’s where people will use it to say nonsense like there is no such thing as a seagull.

There are weirdly rigid common names around birds. There is a whole thing about renaming them right now. They are essentially regulated terms that low level pedants respect. They are the same types of people who would correct you for calling Frankenstein’s monster ‘Frankenstein’.

The plant community is better. You could call a “sunflower” a “tall flower” and nobody would care. You might get a “oh, I’ve never heard that one” but never “there’s no such thing as a ‘tall flower.’” They just fall back to the scientific names when clarity is important.

IMO common names should just be useful. I will call any gull a seagull when talking to non-bird people because that is a term that is commonly understood and how effective communication works.

Wait. Was I not supposed to be talking about this? Next you’re going to tell me that sewage treatment is an innapropriate dinner party topic.

Absolutely! The positive emotions are easily the best of humanity.

I hope you don’t feel that was an attack because the fact that it wasn’t one will never override the emotional response if you feel it is. If you do feel that way, there is probably no reason to read on. You’ll be wasting your own time.

For the record, I didn’t say I agree with anything the right puts forward, I don’t see room to compromise on things I care about, and if you’re talking US I think the “center” is left of the two presidential candidates.

You’re absolutely right those are facts (and those facts get totally ignore by people because the are in conflict with their emotions), but the reason you’re looking at those stats is also emotion based:

Climate change will hurt blank (too many to list) and I LIKE blank (or am AFRAID of blank) so climate change is bad. Access to abortion is good because I VALUE people lives. All children should have food because I WANT to live in a world where everyone, especially those without agency, can be happy, healthy, and get at least a fair shake. Those are my motivations. How we get there is policy. That’s when facts become relevant.

Understanding how we all make decisions based on emotions will help you understand yourself, your motivations, and help you convince people around you that they should also value the same things as you. Practically, you need to go a step further than facts. Ask yourself why that chunk of data is important to you. When you cite it, why would the other person care? Because people are dying? Why does that matter?

This is a long one, and I want to start by saying that your comment is a super popular belief. Even so, I think misses the mark a little bit.

Everything in the political sphere is emotions based. ‘Murder is bad’ isn’t some ultimate truth. We care about other people and ourselves. That emotion then leads to the reasoning that murder is bad and should be illegal. Same goes for everything else.

What conservatives tend to do is say ‘murder is bad’ and ‘there is a group that I hate’. They then abandon the truth of what murder statistics tell them and blame it on the out group which justifies the second emotion. They’re not wrong because it is emotionally centered (again we all do that). They’re wrong because they aren’t willing to examine that emotional motivation vs reality.

All of that to say that if we think the problem is emotionality we are probably making similar mistakes even if the outcome is better. To paraphrase a very true statement in Futurama - There is no scientific consensus that life is valuable.

I think the point is that there isn’t a good enough reason to put internet in a car that negates the risk of it.

It is like adding lead to food. It’s a cheap sweetener with no calories. You can argue that cheap sweeteners aren’t important to you, but I don’t think you can argue that it isn’t a good reason. It just isn’t a good enough reason to negate the risk.

I just lost my dog after her needing people around pretty constantly. My partner and I can mostly arrange working from home, so the situation is not the same. What is the same is how you approach how your dog feels and how to tell when it’s ‘the time’.

You’re probably the most important part of his life. The shelter might let him find a home that can care for him better or it might not (because people are hesitant to adopt older dogs with health issues). What they can’t give is the stability he gets from staying with you. It really sucks that we can’t ask them what they want. I know that my pup would never have chosen a longer life if it meant giving us up.

When is it time? There are resources online about how to judge quality of life. For us it was as simple as picking her favorite things to do and watching to see if she still wanted to do them.

I have second guessed myself a lot - should we have done more vet care, should we have spent more time with her, etc. You’re in a hard situation. The decicions don’t get easier and sometimes are no win. My advice is to make your decisions for him as best you can knowing that your best is not ever going to be the perfect ideal AND it will be good enough.

Something sweet to pair with the salty. Apple chips, dried fruit, caramel corn, or something like that

The op has it right. Definitely dahlias. I can see why you’d think zinnias though. It’s interesting how different (or similar) we can make plants look with dedicated breeding efforts.

Are you using https? On mine the app doesn’t allow just http.

Yes, and you have to dig deep in some places to get below the frost with your foundation. In those places a basement makes sense because you’re digging that far either way. Texas frosts don’t get very deep, so you’re able to have a shallower foundation making a basement just an extra cost.

Wow, that’s great!

It’s so small! I wouldn’t have expected it to fruit that quick. How many years had it been since you took/rooted the cutting?

Yep, 100% reuse of all wastewater and solids!

Nice work on the write up! It is hard sorting things out when they’re half true. For me, drinking water is especially important to get the fact straight on because of how bad it can go if the system fails. It would be silly to disregard anyone saying water wasn’t up to a safe standard, but separating things I would care about out from the fluoride and chlorine background noise is tricky. Thanks for the deeper dive!

Just generally, you can get a report of your municipal water testing. The biggest safety variable that I would be worried about testing at home for is lead in the pipes between me and the treatment plant. That includes my house/building and the municipal pipes.

Now taste, that’s a to each their own situation. Sulfury water is my limit for sure. No thanks!