partial_accumen

The rate isn’t too bad actually, but when your household is a larger consumer anyway and you’re charging 2 EVs consumption gets up there. We have also switched to an induction stove, heat pump water heater, added a heat pump dryer, and just recently had our gas furnace ripped out and a cold climate heat pump put in for the HVAC.

With all of that the electricity usage the bill goes up, but we can wipe it out with solar and now we don’t have natural gas bills or gasoline costs for transportation. The up front costs can be high with this approach, but the monthly bills are nearly non-existent.

The rate around here is now down to $0.22/kWh. We were occasionally getting electricity bills around $400/month at worst, but we haven’t had an electrical bill since April of this year with our solar panels on the roof now.

Yep, for decades. They used to be much larger consuming the space of a large table. Now they are small units like this:

Just search for “surface mount rework” or the nickname “hot air pencil”.

I take it you’ve never seen what kind of damage and desecration a cat can do to a couch?

Don’t ask him about the fate of his first love. Its still a tenders spot. No amount of upholstery will remove that damage.

Immortality

Immortality seems like a good idea, but there’s going to be a LONG time from when the last living thing dies out to the heat death of the universe where you’ll finally join non-existance. EONs of nothing to do likely floating in a vacuum or being trapped on all sides by rock/debris. No thanks.

I always thought the “fix” to a traditional soldiering iron was a hot air pencil.

Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, said Moscow would be forced to use “more powerful and destructive weapons” against Ukraine if Kyiv started firing long-range Western missiles at Russia.

Hey Vyacheslav, what weapons besides nuclear (and maybe biological) weapons does russia have that it hasn’t used against Ukraine already? Do you think if you use a nuclear weapon against Ukraine that that ends the war? Do you think the rest of the world will just say “welp, I guess russia used a nuke, better let them have Ukraine now”. Not even close.

Sorry for the long story, just sitting here late in bed not knowing what I should do.

First, don’t put much weight in what me, as an internet stranger, is saying.

I do see a psychiatrist

That’s a much better source of advice.

However, if it were me, I would not have him in my life. You have your own family and likely career. Imagine what he might do to both of those things. You said he has accused you of physically abusing him. Could you imagine him showing up at your employer saying those things and how that would affect your life? From what you’re describing he hasn’t changed a bit over all of these years. If you feel absolutely driven to do something for him, offer to pay for him to see a therapist. However, I don’t recommend even this. I’m reminded of the quote:

“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” - Maya Angelou

He’s chosen his path in life. Don’t let his poor choices negatively affect your life and your wife.

On multi-lane merge ramps is the guy in the right lane signalling his left blinker because his steering wheel is turned or is he planning to dive into your lane before the merge?

No… it’s pretty easy

Look into some history of India, as a sovereign nation, and how they were treated by the West for most of the 20th century. The Soviet Union was a much needed friend to India when the rest of the West turned their back after the British were kicked out. I don’t blame India for some of the continued engagement with russia. However, Ukraine was also part of the nation (Soviet Union) that helped India, and I’m not seeing weigh positively for Ukraine. I say this as an American. The West (including the USA) has done some pretty messed up stuff to other nations in the 20th century.

Only 4% of marketers overall think X ads provide “brand safety” — certainty that their ads won’t appear alongside extreme content —

The 4% may represent lumpy pillow manufacturers, sellers of freeze dried survival food, random cryptocurrency products, and Trump 2024 flag/tshirt providers.

The spokesperson added that X’s “brand safety rate is on average 99%, as validated by DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science,” companies that analyze the value of digital advertising placements.

“But that 1% remaining will have your products featured next to ads denying the holocaust, hate speech against LGBTQ+ communities, and ads discrediting proven science in favor of, oh I don’t know, phrenology or something” -the spokesperson probably

It also encourages any other researchers and scientists to strongly commit to new projects for the state. /s

Overnight the most popular search on Yandex is “How to ‘quiet quit’ when you are a scientist”

“Victims of”? No.

“Beneficiaries of”? Yes.

I thought exactly the same thing. If they’re not a 3D printed rocket company then they’re just another of a field of rocket companies? Why would a customer choose them. The article enlightened me to who:

In a private letter to “investors, advisors, and friends” summarizing the company’s operations after the first half of 2024, Relativity said it currently has a backlog of $2.6 billion in commercial launches and is in discussion or has signed a contract with many major megaconstellation providers (but not SpaceX). Ellis would not confirm this, but multiple people have told Ars that Relativity recently signed a deal for multiple launches with Amazon’s Project Kuiper constellation.

There is at least $2.6 billion worth of customer that wants a SpaceX like launch product, but is unwilling to buy from an Elon Musk company. With how toxic Musk’s behavior is these days, I could see that customer market growing. The US government is putting LOTS of payloads into orbit in SpaceX’s Falcon 9 because there’s nothing even close to it in price and performance. If Relativity can even get close to Falcon 9, they’ll almost certainly pick up a large chunk of US payload contracts as the government doesn’t like to have a single supplier for nation security reasons.

To people joining this thread later asking where a commercial product of this is, or pointing out that 10% solar efficiency is way below other existing products, you’re missing the point.

This is basic research to prove one single aspect of solar panel construction. That question apparently was: “We currently know that PET backsheets work for solar panels, but can we use a different material which may have less CO2 impact and still produce a working solar panel?” The answer being “yes”. That is a big step that other people doing other research and product development can build on. It may be years (or never!) that a product comes to market with sisal fiber backsheets, but the answers from the work done here are integrated into the body of knowledge that will produce the next improvement in solar panels.

I got an answer from the article. Essentially this guy was a known critic of the government already having spent time in prison for very direct criticisms. So he posted a dot. A completely benign post and then the following occurred:

“[he] posted a single dot in reply to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s tweet, and that comment was liked far more than Khamenei’s original tweet”

…and…

“Iran watchers say the leadership has felt insecure about the high level of dissent in the country for a while”

So a known critic did the thing you do to your old sibling where you put your finger an inch away from them and say “What? I’m not touching you. I’m not touching you!” and then your sibling is tired of your shit and smacks you very hard.

The rockets that launch those satellites were developed using tax dollars.

Are you referring to the NASA contracts for Dragon cargo delivery flights to the ISS?

That comes at a huge cost which is highly subsidized by US tax payers.

Hang on. Which subsidy are you saying Starlink is getting that is highly subsidized by US taxpayers? Starlink got rejected for the $900m broadband subsidy.

Note for clarity: Musk is an asshat.

Putin, you can’t invade another country killing thousands of their civilians and then get upset when that country comes into yours and starts taking your territory. Using a nuke here doesn’t make you look strong, it makes you look extremely weak.

I think even China and India would sever any remaining ties to russia if russia uses a nuke.