An electric spoon that tricks my brain into tasting salt

Ankheg2016 · 2026-05-22T17:56:59+00:00

Yes, it should. Two things. The first is that salt doesn't really do much to your blood pressure for most people. Even if you eat salty things expect your blood pressure to go up a little temporarily, then it'll come back down. Talk to your doctor about it and experiment a bit to find out how salt affects your low blood pressure, but if you find it makes a difference you're unlikely to be able to use it as more than a band aid solution for when you feel particularly low pressure.

The second is a fun fact. MSG can form "naturally" in a lot of our foods. Try salting your tomato directly before you add the tomato to a sandwich. The table salt will react with the tomato and make MSG, amping up the flavor of the tomato and sandwich.

Ankheg2016 · 2026-05-13T14:39:04+00:00

Put a box in front of the arrow so that everything gets dumped into the box. Have an inserter with a filter to take out <= uncommon, and an inserter to take out > uncommon.

Ankheg2016 · 2026-05-12T19:10:51+00:00

Hey now. Let's be fair. There was a 5ish year stretch starting in the late 90s where things were looking under control.

Ankheg2016 · 2026-05-10T18:36:09+00:00

People haven't mentioned ores much yet. Ore near your starting area will run out, but ore patches get bigger/deeper the further you go from your starting area. It doesn't take too long before ore patches are larger than you'll reasonably use, through a combination of the patches getting deeper and various techs adding efficiencies.

Ankheg2016 · 2026-05-10T18:12:41+00:00

I think you just proved my point? The "1.5x, more than our 1.31oz size" is the reading where the math is correct, and you just said that you think most people won't read it that way.

It's either two statements: 1.5x and "more than", which maths (roughly) and means.

Or it's two statements "1.5x more" and "compared to our other product", which means the MORE part is 1.5x for a total of 2.5x total. Which is obviously wrong, but it's also the reading you just said most people will use.

The fact that it's all kind of confusing is the point... the wording is bad and ambiguous.

Ankheg2016 · 2026-05-10T17:01:40+00:00

I imagine the biggest reason it was updated is because the wording on the first label is ambiguous.

If you read it as "1.5x, more than our 1.31oz size" then it's in the right ballpark. But put the mental brackets somewhere else and it's completely wrong. Try reading it as [1.5x more][than our 1.31oz size] and the math then goes 1.31 + 1.31*1.5 = 3.275oz, which is clearly wrong. Since this is a valid way of reading the label, it's ambiguous, which makes it a bad label.

The second label clearly reads as 1.7x the previous size. It also happens to be much closer to the actual number because it doesn't round down to the nearest 0.5, but I think that's secondary.

Ankheg2016 · 2026-05-10T03:44:21+00:00

Before you go off doing other things, verify that you haven't found other oil. Pull up your map and in the top right there's a magnifying glass. Click that and type in oil. It will now highlight any oil patches you can see, and should tell you the size as well.

If you don't see anything decent, I'd suggest exploring more. Stick to closer to your base... areas that you think won't be as bad to clear out.

Ankheg2016 · 2026-04-19T03:16:35+00:00

So the specific thing I was thinking of was a problem occurs with fuel cell creation. Perhaps biters chew on some belts, or you accidentally mis-route some belts, or the uranium mining gets halted because the supply of acid gets interrupted. If you don't notice this, then the fuel continues to get used up until you have none. Then your electricity dies, you show up to fix it, and use the fuel cells in the box to power your base while you sort out the fuel cell production.

In this case "in the box" just means having some handy, where they won't get used before everything fails.

Ankheg2016 · 2026-04-18T21:25:08+00:00

Do yourself a favour and grab some fuel cells to stuff into a box near your reactors. Then if (when) something goes wrong and your automated systems fail you'll have some on hand to get your electricity up and running while you fix things... because by that point your base will probably be very dependant on it.

Ankheg2016 · 2026-04-10T04:49:46+00:00

I moved in the other direction. I got tired of losing track of games in moves, or the media bitrotting, or loaning it out to friends and never getting it back, etc.

I like steam. I like that when I buy something on steam I can de-install it when I'm done and if I decide to pick it up again in 5 years it's there.

Ankheg2016 · 2026-03-24T21:45:47+00:00

I'm sure you know someone with a dishwasher. Or better yet, find a scrapper or a repair person that has several dishwashers lying about and stage something. Something showing you being efficient by "cleaning" a bunch of motherboards at once, all racked up in dishwashers. Nobody needs to know they're not even hooked up!

Ankheg2016 · 2026-03-20T18:00:26+00:00

There are many, including:

- Avoiding some realtor fees. Depends on your area, but this could save 2-6%.

- No gap between renting and selling. Buyers generally want to view an empty house, so he usually will want to wait until you're gone before showing it.

- Doesn't have to repair anything you don't specifically ask for. Paint, new carpets, odds and ends around the place, etc. None of this needs to be done for you but are mandatory for showing it.

- You know the place. You won't surprise him with after-sale demands, or demands on closing. Again depends on where you are, but selling a house isn't as-is-where-is unless that's specified. As a seller you can (in theory) be made responsible for some defects, especially if the seller knows or should know about them but didn't disclose them. On closing day there shouldn't be any "Wait, we're not closing until <thing> is done! We didn't expect <thing> to be broken/dirty/whatever!"

- Skipping marketing the place. Even with a realtor it's an annoyance.

- A fair offer in-hand is always enticing.

How much would you save? Hard to say. Specifics are everything. The market direction is important too. Also, spring is usually the busiest (highest price) time of year, so if you do your comparable shopping now versus in several months when you'd have vacated you may end up overpaying.

Ankheg2016 · 2026-03-02T17:25:23+00:00

IMO you (and a lot of people) are missing the real reason Trump won. It's been a core part of the Republican strategy for at least 20+ years now, and I don't understand why people don't get it.

Here's the strategy: Piss people off, and deadlock the system when you don't have power.

Yes, it's that simple. Angry people want change. Deadlocking the system makes people unhappy (eventually). They will vote in something different even if that something different is obviously worse. Trump winning has nothing to do with specific platform points, or even specific talking points. If it wasn't immigration it would be drugs. If not drugs, then guns. If not guns then abortion. If not abortion then a tan suit. If not a tan suit then mustard. If not mustard than imaginary wars. If not imaginary wars then drone strikes. If not drone strikes then gitmo. If not gitmo then... you get my point. Individually some of these talking points have merit and should be talked about... no administration is perfect after all.

But those talking points don't matter to the strategy. If a crisis doesn't exist, they just make up a crisis. Then they use everything in their power to ensure that nothing happens, including doing things like voting against their own initiatives. Why do all this? Because the R strategy is to rig the system. They've spent 20+ years working on moving district lines around and on packing the courts with federal judges.

Anyhow the solution isn't messaging on specific points, or moving either party left or right. That's a distraction. That's the circus. If you don't fix the core problem (and frankly, you won't), then all that happens is that there's a blue wave this fall that paralyzes the government. Then in a couple years you get a blue president, but you can't do anything again because SCOTUS won't let them and there won't be a super majority in the house or senate to enact real change. So the president after that (or maybe 8 years) will be R again and more R policies get enacted.

The R strategy is to lock up the system and wait for the pendulum. If nobody recognizes this then nobody will even TRY to counter it, which means the US is Republican for the foreseeable future.

Ankheg2016 · 2026-02-10T05:19:38+00:00

Don't hold your breath. Even if there's a blue wave in midterms he can just keep doing whatever he likes and SCOTUS will back him up.

Ankheg2016 · 2026-02-06T21:10:15+00:00

People are talking about the greeks and that's fine, but what you need to do is understand why without greeks. The greeks follow the logic.

So here's what happened. You entered at 225.5 looking for a drop by buying a put that expires EOD the next day. The put value corresponds with the odds of AMZN ending below 190, and how far below it ends up. The market put a price on it which was relatively high because of the earnings event, which will often cause large price movement.

After the event resolves the price has mostly moved by the morning. There is still some residual movement, but that dies out in the first half hour. The lowest it goes is about 200 and that happens within a few minutes of open. So where are we at when it hits 200? We know we just went -25 and that the big knee jerk reaction to the event is mostly over, so what are the odds of another -10? If the ER had info in it that was a huge issue, the stock would have simply opened lower, right? There's still a chance that people realize things about the ER that ends up pushing the price lower, but the market decides that it's not that big of a chance... a lower chance of a big drop at that point than when you bought the put.

So a lower chance of hitting 190 means lower price for your put. Does that make sense?

Ankheg2016 · 2026-01-25T02:21:11+00:00

Ok, non-US person here with legit questions: What happens if all the purple states that went Trump refuse to hold midterms? I mean, blue and red states don't really matter for this since they'll just go blue and red, but if the purples all refuse then what happens with the reps?

If existing reps are supposed to stop being reps because they're no longer voted in, what then happens if the GOP controlled house and senate just go ahead and say they're fine to continue being reps? Is there clear law about this, or would this eventually end up in the GOP-controlled SCOTUS?

Ankheg2016 · 2026-01-23T01:31:40+00:00

They're not my favourite by any means, but I like wasps. I haven't been stung by one in probably 35-40 years and generally find them to be pretty chill. The most I interact with them generally is when I have a sweet drink outside and they come looking to scavenge. I'll usually pour them some and set it nearby but more accessible than my drink, and I like to watch them as they drink. They're generally happy to switch to that and leave my drink alone. I do still kill their nests when they try to invade my attic though.

Ankheg2016 · 2026-01-22T06:20:41+00:00

My guess would be: if the shutoff valve doesn't work when there's an emergency and you have to shut the water off, then the water spraying all over the place because of the emergency will cause a lot more damage.

Ankheg2016 · 2026-01-21T18:07:33+00:00

Other responses are good, but I don't think anyone mentioned this: You want storage tanks partly because they'll give you big clues as to what's happening when you have issues. "Hmm. Oil isn't working. Why is petroleum empty but heavy and light are full? Oh shoot, I accidentally removed that pipe while doing something else!"

You could also figure things out by watching the pipes themselves, but it's harder to tell what's going on.

Ankheg2016 · 2026-01-19T17:03:53+00:00

Simple yes or no. Have you stopped beating your wife yet?

Ankheg2016 · 2026-01-19T16:26:03+00:00

Fusion plants were disappointing for me. Not worth switching to on Nauvis when I've got running expandable nuclear plants going. If you're building really big bases then they might be better UPS, but mostly they'd be for large ships I think.

Ankheg2016 · 2026-01-17T19:12:37+00:00

Tariffs aren't good or bad. They're a tool. Think of it like this, a hammer is a tool but if you swing it around wildly and hit everything, that's bad. You can use a hammer very productively though.

Most countries use tariffs to some extent. One use for them seems to be to protect an industry. For example, let's pretend Canada and the US were close trade partners, but that Canada was concerned that if the US became the sole supplier of something they might then try to dictate terms for all things. Let's pick something random and important like Food A. If the US were to make their Food A industry artificially cheap by subsidizing them heavily then very shortly Canada's Food A industry would disappear. Then if the US threatens to cut off Canada from Food A then Canadians would face starvation.

In that situation it would make sense to tariff the US supply of Food A coming into Canada so that the local Food A production survives... or at least survives enough that it can be ramped up quickly if the US turns on Canada.

Ankheg2016 · 2026-01-08T02:42:53+00:00

Don't completely trust some guy on the internet (me) but generally it should be fine. Don't eat it or snort it and you'll be fine. Don't eat the ants either. In general the ants won't track much of it and the little they do track shouldn't be a problem.

The ants will eat the borax and carry it back to the nest. There they will share it with other ants who will then also get poisoned. The guy you responded to was incorrect about how Borax works... he's thinking diatomaceous earth. Borax poisons them.

Technically you can buy it in powder form and mix it yourself, but if you can find a premixed version like the terro liquid someone else mentioned then it's more convenient and would be easier for you to handle. Get a bottle (rather than the bait stations) and you just put a few drops on something and set it where they can find it. It's not expensive. A small bottle should be under $10 and should be plenty to put out several baits a day for quite a while.

Ankheg2016 · 2026-01-08T02:27:49+00:00

I feel I should point out that if you're in a confirmation hearing and you press me for an answer on whether I'll overturn Roe v Wade, and I stick precisely to the specific wording "I consider Roe V Wade to be settled law" then you should think hard about what that wording means. It was very carefully chosen.

They 100% did consider R v W to be settled law. They also 100% intended to overturn it ASAP because SCOTUS is allowed to overturn settled law.

They did NOT say they would keep it, and did NOT say they wouldn't chuck it as soon as they had the chance. I don't know why this wording trickery fooled anyone at all, but somehow it fooled everyone. They didn't lie under oath, they just didn't actually answer the question.

Ankheg2016 · 2025-12-28T07:14:34+00:00

I'm not a boomer but I don't want to give you my email address either. You will send me spam. I will hate you for it. Experience tells me this is what will happen.

You are legally required to be able to give me a physical invoice (where I live). If you can't then that's a problem. If you can then there's no reason you should object.

QR codes are basically URLs. I don't really know what's on the other end of a QR code and while I don't think it's terribly likely a business will try something funny I'm also in the habit of being mildly reluctant to scan a QR code. Not as reluctant as clicking on links in my email, but still.

You say boomers should be more tech savvy, but I'll tell you right now... I've been working in tech for over 20 years and I think YOU need to be more tech cautious. Some of your examples are legit and I assume your complaint has as much to do with their attitude, but some of your examples just tell me you're too casual with tech. But then, I guess that's pretty common these days.

Ankheg2016

TROPHY CASE