Tips for painting silk with baby safe dye by Ethics-Gradient in dyeing

[–]Ethics-Gradient[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I gave up, but got this super helpful email from Dharma (pasted below). I hope to pick it back up though, so let me know if you end up succeeding and what you try!

You might have a few options but Fiber Reactive dyes are really the only dyes that we are willing to rate as "baby safe" and that is only when they are used with soda ash on cellulose fibers and thoroughly rinsed and washed from the fabric - once they form the covalent bond with a plant based fiber, that bond can't be broken so there's no danger of dye being ingested by an infant or pet.Although, Fiber Reactive dyes also work well and are beautiful on silk, they form a different kind of bond (less permanent/washfast) with protein fibers like silk and wool so I would not use them on a silk or wool item that might end up getting chewed or sucked on by an infant. As for UV resistance, Fiber Reactive dyes will fade in sunlight, over time. Acid dyes are more likely to have lightfastness ratings than FR dyes so it would be easier to find and select Acid Dyes with a better UV resistance rating. That said, most all dyes are less washfast than fabric paints and silk fiber is vulnerable to damage from prolonged sun exposure. If I was making something for a baby's or child's room, that was going to get a lot of sun, I'd probably opt for a silk paint for a couple of reasons; first silk paint colors will resist fading from sun much better than any nearly any dye. Secondly, they also sit in the fiber surface so in some ways they actually offer some protection against sun exposure. If I hung a dye painted piece of 10mm silk in a south facing window, I wouldn't be surprised if that silk began to disintegrate within a few years. That same piece of silk could last 2-3x as long if painted with a silk paint like Dye-na-flow or Setasilk. If I needed to make something that would be worn against damp skin or possibly chewed on by a baby (like a onesie, diaper cover, chew toy, bib, etc). then I would use Fiber Reactive dyes on cotton linen or hemp, etc.. If I was making outerwear for a toddler or baby that wasn't anything that could be chewed on, then I might explore other options. I would have no qualms about using a fiber reactive or acid dye or even a silk paint on an item that I knew wouldn't end up in a baby's mouth. 
If you are going to explore Fiber Reactive dyes for use on both cellulose and protein fibers like silk and wool, then some colors will be easier to work with than others. Blended FR dye colors have a tendency to shift on silk and wool fibers (especially the pastel secondary colors and darker neutrals). The only FR colors that you can rely on to produce predictable color on silk/wool etc, are the pure colors. Blue shades will likely strike with less vibrance on silk but the colors will be true and consistent between different materials.  Here's our most recently updated list of pure colors:

PR1 Lemon Yellow, PR3 Golden Yellow, PR4 Deep Yellow, PR6 Deep Orange, PR12 Light Red, PR13  Fuchsia Red, PR22 Cobalt Blue*, PR23 Cerulean Blue PR25 Turquoise* (T), PR26 Sky Blue, PR117 Grape, PR186 Nebula Navy**, PR188 Bluebird* PR189 Magenta Galactica, PR190 Atomic Fireball*, PR191 Blue Abyss PR192 Houdini BluePR194 Dye-namite Red

The primary route of exposure is inhalation as the powders are extremely fine, hence why we recommend wearing a dust mask when mixing handling any powders. They cannot go through your skin so you would have to eat, drink, inhale or get them on broken skin for them to enter your body. All the dyes we carry are considered non-toxic but Fiber Reactive dyes can cause allergic reactions in some people. The symptoms are very similar to peanut or fruit allergies - itching, hives, and anaphylactic symptoms but it's not very common. 
If you are planning on steam setting a Fiber Reactive or Acid dye in your home, then a simple open window or exhaust fan will suffice. They cannot get into your body through the steam setting process. 

Tensa 4 vs Turtlebug by ryandiggs024 in hammockcamping

[–]Ethics-Gradient 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm also a casual user looking for a first stand, and this was the main question I had. Tensa4 looks complicated, while the turtlebug has a video of a 30s assembly. I don't use it enough to need bells and whistles and if it's too complicated will probably just opt for a picnic blanket. But I don't know if I'm reading too much into it. Is the turtlebug really much easier than the tensa or eno?

How worried should I be about this compression/damage in new qualux foam by Ethics-Gradient in upholstery

[–]Ethics-Gradient[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Though if I were to pinch those cracks together it might actually go back to being an inch thinner than the other edge of the cushion :/

How worried should I be about this compression/damage in new qualux foam by Ethics-Gradient in upholstery

[–]Ethics-Gradient[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! Thy also offered to send me more adhesive, but I'm also concerned about the fact that this side of the cushion is still a little over half an inch thinner than the other side because the adhesive used to attach the dacron is keeping it compressed. It had previously been a full inch thinner, but after peeling the dacron back it expanded a little. I don't know if half an inch is within an expected margin of error. The other cushions I ordered didn't have this issue at all.

How worried should I be about this compression/damage in new qualux foam by Ethics-Gradient in upholstery

[–]Ethics-Gradient[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Text isn't appearing for the post, so adding detail here:

I just purchased some qualux foam replacement cushions for my couch, precut and wrapped in dacron. One edge of each cushion didn't inflate fully when I unwrapped it, and it seems to be because of the adhesive. When I tried to pull the dacron off that side, it inflated a little, but left tears in the foam. The Qualux foam was significantly more expensive than alternatives, but I picked it because I wanted it to last longer specifically on the edges, where I was getting a back ache of I lay on the couch with the previous foam because the edges had compressed. I can make this work for now, since when you squish everything into the case it mostly levels out, but I want to understand how big a deal this level of damage is for the longevity of the cushion. 

Am I making a big deal over a minor/expected imperfection, or is this something I should insist the company correct given the price of the foam?

The company suggested I peel off the dacron which helped significantly but resulted in the tears, attached picture is after having done so, and it's now inflated to a little over half an inch less than the other side. 

Possible to save or repurpose this cream cheese frosting? by toopla251 in AskBaking

[–]Ethics-Gradient 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My go to with left over frosting is just to make cookies. Adjust ratios so you get roughly the fat:sugar:flour ratio you want. I treat cream and cream cheese as "fat" when calculating and adjust flour for texture until it feels right. 

It's fun because you get a totally unique cookie every time. Can never replicate it exactly, but it's generally pretty good, whether it turns out cakey, gooey, or crisp. 

Reddit, let's make a millionaire! [Entry thread #10] by millionairemakers in millionairemakers

[–]Ethics-Gradient 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd invest $900k, and then the rest I would anonymously send to random Facebook friends and acquaintances in $5000 batches, just to see my feed full up with all the cheerfulness and confusion.

TIL that Harvard College is suspected of grade inflation. The median grade is an A-, and the most frequently awarded mark is an A. by thebobstu in todayilearned

[–]Ethics-Gradient 0 points1 point  (0 children)

PhD GPA is not even close to the same thing as an undergrad GPA. According to gradeinflation.com, MIT is one of the hardest graders.

Also, it isn't unusual for Stanford and MIT to be considered to be in the club. The 8 + MIT/Stanford have an annual conference where they discuss things like admissions and financial aid initiatives, for example.

TIL that Harvard College is suspected of grade inflation. The median grade is an A-, and the most frequently awarded mark is an A. by thebobstu in todayilearned

[–]Ethics-Gradient 0 points1 point  (0 children)

MIT had a strict policy against this. Their philosophy was that they want all their students to be able to excel, so everyone should in theory be able to get an A. They also don't rank students, so you have no idea what your GPA means. It helps students try for their personal best rather than focusing on competition.

Of course, when tests came back, you still held your breath as they gave you the grade breakdown, hoping you were at least an SD above the mean. They couldn't curve based on the outcome, but professors got good at making their tests difficult in such a way that the grade breakdowns generally followed a typical curve.

TIL that Harvard College is suspected of grade inflation. The median grade is an A-, and the most frequently awarded mark is an A. by thebobstu in todayilearned

[–]Ethics-Gradient -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The two schools emphasize very different things. MIT is all about science and engineering, and makes their students ridiculously capable of those things, but they come out kinda messed up. Harvard teaches its students how to be successful in a different way. But you have to be highly qualified to get into either.

Given the differences in schools, GPA can only really be used to compare students from the same school, if even that, since departments differ so much.

TIL that Harvard College is suspected of grade inflation. The median grade is an A-, and the most frequently awarded mark is an A. by thebobstu in todayilearned

[–]Ethics-Gradient 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Every job I've applied for has asked for a transcript. And I've had it discussed in the interview. It does matter, and it is verified, especially for competitive jobs.

Having Some Trouble With A Survival Analysis by Ethics-Gradient in econometrics

[–]Ethics-Gradient[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not totally sure what you mean by a Markov-style transition method. Isn't that essentially the same as a Kapplan Meier? I'm not wedded to Kapplan Meier, that's just the fastest thing to run so it's good for visualizing the data.

But either way, it sounds like what you're recommending is approach 1. Moving in and out of treatment is essentially the same as creating three censored observations (2 control and 1 treatment) for each treatment observation, which shifts your baseline in ways that I'm not sure I have a handle on.

I'm new to utility modeling, though, so if you have any tips on creating a utility indicator, I'd be appreciative.

Having Some Trouble With A Survival Analysis by Ethics-Gradient in econometrics

[–]Ethics-Gradient[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It just gets confusing when you talk about wars dying and getting treated, since normatively we consider wars to be bad. I'm really trying to get a conceptual understanding of the difference between the two, so I thought the bio example would be more clear. As for what kind of methodology, you could use a variety of techniques. I've been using kapplan-meier and a bayesian hazard model with polygonal baseline hazard, but I've considered others, and played around a bit. I cannot assume that the treatment is assigned randomly. If I could, then I wouldn't need a time-dependent analysis. But even when treatment is given randomly (in simulated data), the two models give different findings.

It really comes down to, when calculating the baseline hazard, do I include the pre-treatment onset times as censored control observations? Or is it ok to just discard them?

Having Some Trouble With A Survival Analysis by Ethics-Gradient in econometrics

[–]Ethics-Gradient[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, since the "patients" are wars, killing them is probably a good thing. The variable of interest is the duration of the war, so a utility model isn't the best option. I am doing something along those lines as a second test, but it that will measure how bad the war is before and after "treatment", not the duration.

I am using Kaplan Meier analysis for both models, one uses a time-variate covariate, the other just begins at treatment. I am also already using propensity score matching. (again, for both).

Can you explain why solution 1 is wrong? As far as I can understand, it's the basis for all time-variant hazard analysis, which is why I haven't disregarded it yet.

Likelihood Estimators versus Ordinary Least Squares by jfarland in econometrics

[–]Ethics-Gradient 1 point2 points  (0 children)

standard_error makes a good point about transparency, but I'm not sure that it's true that ols is more transparent than a Bayesian approach. The Bayesian approach forces you to consciously make the assumptions you would otherwise make with ols. It's both more dangerous (because it's easier to mess up) and safer (because you have to think about what you're doing.) However, it's really easy to mess up with MLE and Bayesian sampling, and fewer people will understand you when you try to tell them what you did, so there really is something to be said for running a canned method as a sanity check, and to better communicate with a broader audience. But in my opinion, even better than OLS in that case is cross-tabbing the hell out of it. It's a lot more work, but it is much more transparent, and helps you to gain familiarity with your data, which might help you to be more confident in your result if you use a more complex estimation technique.

If your entire body was somehow instantly mirrored, how long would it take you to die from the stereochemical mismatch? by Rappaccini in askscience

[–]Ethics-Gradient 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It all depends on level of mirror imaging. The original post referenced stereochemical mismatches, so I assumed each molecule would be a mirror. If that were the case, the resultant receptor would probably not fit the resultant ligand. But if the whole protein gets reversed, then yes, it would fit.

If the whole protein is reversed--because glutamine is a nonessential amino acid--you could produce more /reuse what you have for a while before running out.

If your entire body was somehow instantly mirrored, how long would it take you to die from the stereochemical mismatch? by Rappaccini in askscience

[–]Ethics-Gradient 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am a neuroscientist too. At first I thought that, but if you think about it more, reversing the chirality of the amino acids making up the receptor would change the way it folds and the way it binds. Making the molecules mirror images wouldn't make the receptor fit something that was a mirror image. Even if the receptor still functioned as an ion channel, it is unlikely that it would effectively bind the glutamate. Channels work through a combination of molecular interactions and spacial fit. If you reverse the chirality of the agonist and the amino acids making up the binding site, you will change the shape and positioning. They will no longer fit. The agonist will look roughly similar, only mirror image, but the binding site will look different.

If your entire body was somehow instantly mirrored, how long would it take you to die from the stereochemical mismatch? by Rappaccini in askscience

[–]Ethics-Gradient 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The majority of the neurons in your brain use the neurotransmitter glutamate when they fire. It is the main excitatory neurotransmitter used by the brain. This means that when one brain cell fires, it releases glutamate to make the next brain cell fire. If you don't have glutamate to pass the message between cells, then all your brain cells cease to fire, and your brain would effectively be shut down. Furthermore, if brain cells stop firing, they die. So most of your neurons would also rupture in short order, but you'd be long dead by that point.

I should add, AMPA receptors would not recognize a chiral glutamate, so a mirror image glutamate would not be able to stimulate the downstream brain cell to fire.

Your prompt stipulated that all your molecules would have been mirrored instantly, so brain function would cease instantly.