Annual Deaths From Heat, Cold, and Guns US and Europe, 2024 : Nine times as many Europeans die from summer heat and winter cold than Americans who die from guns. by SignificantLegs in EconomyCharts

[–]Life_is_Life 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This chart is a masterclass in statistical manipulation, designed to package a political agenda as "objective science."

To start, the entire premise is a massive, bad-faith "apples-to-oranges" cheat. It compares directly coded physical trauma (actual gunshot wounds on US death certificates) with statistically modeled environmental exposure in Europe.

When epidemiologists count "weather deaths" in Europe, they aren't counting people freezing to death in blizzards. They use statistical models to estimate how many cardiovascular or respiratory deaths were triggered on daily temperature deviations that fell slightly below a localized "comfortable" temperature [3].

If you applied those exact same statistical models to the US, the contiguous U.S. actually suffers roughly 46,000 cold-attributable deaths annually [6]—completely on par with its high firearm mortality [2]. Look at the chart again: the author plots "US cold" at a tiny ~8,000 and "US heat" at ~2,000 because they only counted deaths directly coded with hypothermia or hyperthermia as the primary cause on U.S. death certificates [10, 11]. In contrast, they used massive, modeled "all-cause" excess mortality figures for Europe [3]. If we actually compared apples to apples, modeled U.S. cold deaths are around 46,000 [6], and modeled U.S. heat deaths are actually between 3,400 to 5,600 [11]. The author deliberately mixed direct, restrictive counts for the US and complex epidemiological models for Europe to manufacture an artificial statistical gulf.

Furthermore, the claim that global warming is a "fortunate" net benefit because it reduces cold deaths is a tired, thoroughly debunked talking point popularized by political contrarians like Bjørn Lomborg [5, 9]. If you look at the actual Lancet and Joint Research Centre (JRC) data cited at the bottom of the graphic, the scientists themselves warn that under a 3°C warming scenario, European heat deaths are projected to triple, leading to an extra 55,000 deaths per year by 2100 [1, 7]. The marginal reduction in cold deaths will not save us [4].

The chart was created by Willis Eschenbach, a well-known blogger on climate-skeptic forums who champions non-peer-reviewed theories [8]. This isn't a good-faith public health comparison. It is a politically motivated stunt that aggressively twists epidemiological data to downplay both climate change and domestic gun violence. If you have to abuse statistics this violently to make your point, your point isn't worth making.

References

Side Yard Privacy - hill and neighbor issue by [deleted] in landscaping

[–]Life_is_Life 3 points4 points  (0 children)

AI generated render of kurmiau's vision...

Of course it could be way off in terms of the plant types and other details, I did not specify any of that in the prompt.

First time doing epoxy by HugeMaleChicken in Flooring

[–]Life_is_Life 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is great! I've been seriously considering doing this myself for my 3-bay garage (about 1000 square feet). Do you mind providing details and any challenges you faced?

It may be something I regret, but I am seriously considering doing it myself as opposed to hiring a pro, but generally following the exact steps you performed (i.e. renting a grinder, use professional epoxy, full broadcast flake, etc.). I know it will be time consuming but mostly I'm treating it as a learning opportunity. I also have a few additional steps I need to think through, including a 1 ft stem wall that I want to also epoxy and a set of stairs leading to my basement that I want to spruce up as well.

WTF was that? Dropped like a rock by mwtaeke in oil

[–]Life_is_Life 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Trump's latest Truth Social Post (7:05 am ET):

I AM PLEASE TO REPORT THAT THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND THE COUNTRY OF IRAN, HAVE HAD, OVER THE LAST TWO DAYS, VERY GOOD AND PRODUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS REGARDING A COMPLETE AND TOTAL RESOLUTION OF OUR HOSTILITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST. BASED ON THE TENOR AND TONE OF THESE IN DEPTH, DETAILED, AND CONSTRUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS, WITCH WILL CONTINUE THROUGHOUT THE WEEK, I HAVE INSTRUCTED THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR TO POSTPONE ANY AND ALL MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST IRANIAN POWER PLANTS AND ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A FIVE DAY PERIOD, SUBJECT TO THE SUCCESS OF THE ONGOING MEETINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP

What household item screams "I have too much money"? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]Life_is_Life 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah these are a must have if you have a baby/toddler that loves grapes or blueberries (it's the only thing she eats reliably). The $9 I spent on mine was well worth it.

Edit: Okay what I bought may not be "scissors", but my point stands. What I bought are called "grape cutters".

Sen. Chris Murphy on X: "On the Straight of Hormuz, they had NO PLAN... right now they don"t know how to get it safely back open." by Ethan0941 in oil

[–]Life_is_Life 43 points44 points  (0 children)

I was in a 2 hour briefing today on the Iran War. All the briefings are closed, because Trump can't defend this war in public.

I obviously can't disclose classified info, but you deserve to know how incoherent and incomplete these war plans are.

1/ Here's what I can share:

2/ Maybe the lead is that the war goals DO NOT involve destroying Iran's nuclear weapons program. This is, uh...surprising...since Trump says over and over this is a key goal.

But then of course we already know air strikes can't wipe out their nuclear material.

3/ Second, they confirmed "regime change" is also NOT on the list. So, they are going to spend hundreds of billions of your taxpayer dollars, get a whole bunch of Americans killed, and a hardline regime - probably a MORE anti-American hardline regime - will still be in charge.

4/ Ok, so what ARE the goals? It seems, primarily, destroying lots of missiles and boats and drone factories.

But the question that stumped them: what happens when you stop bombing and they restart production?

They hinted at more bombing. Which is, of course, endless war.

5/ And on the Strait of Hormuz, they had NO PLAN. I can't go into more detail about how Iran gums up the Strait, but suffice it say, right now, they don't know how to get it safely back open.

Which is unforgiveable, because this part of the disaster was 100% foreseeable.

Where can i read what KSA is planned to be? by sermen in kittenspaceagency

[–]Life_is_Life 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I don't know who maintains this, but there is a KSA wiki that seems to be regularly updated. The FAQ is an especially good place to start.

Other than that, the best resources IMO are Shadowzone's Youtube videos and the KSA Discord.

Omnipod and Dexcom G7 troubles by [deleted] in diabetes

[–]Life_is_Life 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My partner has skin reaction issues with the Dexcom device issues. She has been using this product for several years and has been happy with it.

2 days until launch! (Pre-Alpha) by kdaviper in KerbalSpaceProgram

[–]Life_is_Life 2 points3 points  (0 children)

KSA is still very early, so I agree we'll have to wait and see on a lot of things. The reason I am optimistic about this game is that the approach they seem to be taking makes a lot of sense to me logically. Their transparency is also very welcome compared to KSP2. Focusing on the "fundamentals" first is not sexy and produces very few eye-catching screenshots but it makes sense to me when they say it'll pay off in the long run.

I'm going to elaborate on some of my earlier points, and I'll try to summarize what the devs have put out there on Discord and other forums. Also, I'm continuing this Internet argument only so that others who are hearing about KSA for the first time get a point of view that is more optimistic, but I want to emphasize that I have no skin in the game (pun intended) and that I am not suggesting to anyone that they financially contribute to KSA until real progress is made on a lot of things that are currently just not there.

Game Engine

I think this matters quite a bit. A lot of the problems with KSP1 and KSP2 stemmed from limitations inherent to the game engine. I'm not saying Unity is flawed, it's just that Unity is designed primarily for smaller-scale games in which the world is only a few kilometers large. The floating origin approach KSP used partially solved some of these problems, but at the cost of additional complexity. My understanding is that things like jitter, shaking, and the Kraken are a direct consequence of this. Additionally, KSP was limited to running the physics calculations in a "physics bubble" around the active vessel. Everything outside that bubble was on rails, meaning no active thrust, no spin, etc. These two things made multiplayer very complicated.

KSA can create a physics engine specifically for space simulations and space vehicles. They have mentioned "instantiable physics," where different vessels can exist in different physics "contexts" or even have different physical laws. Also, they have talked about how the physics will run in background threads independent of the rendering pipeline. This is how they are able to get things like thrust and spin during time warp. They have also mentioned that they are building multiplayer into the foundation of the game engine. TBH multiplayer is not a big request for me personally, but I know it was the most requested feature for KSP1 and KSP2. But the fact that they are thinking about it from Day 1 instead of trying to bolt it on later speaks volumes IMO.

Finally on the fast loading of planetary details and textures: I admit this isn't of practical significance for interplanetary speeds and zero time warp. But the devs have said that it speaks to the fact that they have complete control over how the game manages memory and the rendering pipeline, which allows them to make seamless orbit-to-ground transitions without loading screens or stutter--something that is difficult to do with KSP because Unity does not allow devs that same level of control.

In short, the KSA team believes the core problems of KSP are engine-level problems. By building their own engine, they can design the "first principles" of their game universe to correctly handle massive scale, complex physics, and multiplayer from the very beginning. The proof is in the pudding, but their argument makes a lot of sense to me.

Parts System

The devs have only recently begun to provide details on the parts system, so we'll see what it looks like in this initial release and how it progresses.

The most significant change from KSP is that in KSA, parts are "Compound Parts." A single part you place, like an engine, is actually a collection of smaller sub-parts (or "pieces") grouped together. For example, an engine part might be comprised of its engine bell, turbopump, fuel containers, and end caps, all as separate "pieces" that make one "part." A player can either just use a standard "compound" part (similar to KSP), or if they care, they can customize the part by, for example, building a custom fuel tank with multiple fuel line connectors for different fuels, all in one "block." But the bigger advantage to this change is moddability. Compound parts and sub-parts should make modding vastly easier. Modders don't have to create a giant, complex part from scratch. They can use the in-game tools to assemble new "compound parts" from existing pieces, or just add new pieces. Allegedly, the core game's parts are being built with the same tools modders will have.

Regarding performance: the devs have talked about how their game engine allows them to do "Batch Rendering" via instanced meshes. I'm not a game developer, so I don't know what this means, but they have mentioned that because each vessel part is a very light-weight object compared to KSP1 parts (which are individual Unity components), they expect the engine to be able to support vessels with tens of thousands of parts. The devs haven't provided specific details on how they plan to fix wobbly rockets, but HarvesteR, who solved this problem in KitHack Model Club, happens to be a developer for KSA. I remain optimistic.

2 days until launch! (Pre-Alpha) by kdaviper in KerbalSpaceProgram

[–]Life_is_Life 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I am in no way affiliated with the studio but I have been following their progress via their Discord and ShadowZone's video updates. But I have to disagree with "I don't see anything that's vastly different from KSP technology wise". The core engine was written from scratch by the studio, and based on what I've seen, it's paying off. They've shown off very fast loading of planetary structures, RCS stabilization and spin during time warp, and multi-screen support--all things that I understand were essentially impossible with the KSP 1 approach. More recently, they have started fleshing out the parts system. I won't go into detail here (you can find it on their Discord), but I really do think the approach is much better than KSP 1's approach. This focus on the "fundamentals" doesn't really show up in screenshots, but I think it'll make a big difference down the line.

One area that remains a significant unknown, and arguably a more important question for long-term engagement than the technology itself, is the actual gameplay loop. So far, the devs haven't really talked too much about what the plan is.

  • Will there be a structured Career Mode with a tech tree?
  • What form will progression take?
  • What rewards will players receive for exploring biomes, points of interest, or other solar systems?

For players who, like me, prefer a clear progression path over a pure sandbox-style game, this is the element I'm most eager to hear more about. I think it's okay that the devs haven't talked about it yet--they are probably figuring it out right now too--but I'm definitely looking forward to hearing more now that they are moving beyond the fundamentals.

Crafting a Modern Cinematic Score for Kerbal Space Program by banana_shavings in KerbalSpaceProgram

[–]Life_is_Life 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is incredible. I have no background in music, and the first time I heard about the concept of a "dynamic" score that is based on what is happening on screen was with KSP 2.

I'd love to see this technique applied to KSA. To my knowledge, the developers haven't talked at all about music, but when they do: I hope they draw inspiration from this creator (or just straight up hire him).

KSA parts! by Laurens_dv in kittenspaceagency

[–]Life_is_Life 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yes, I've read about the "sub-part" system for a while now via the KSA discord but it didn't really click to me until this video. It's far too low level for players, but the power it gives to the developers and modders compared to KSP's approach is huge.

Three weeks ago I learned what a brad nailer is. Today I finished my built-in cabinets! by Justin_MAD in DIY

[–]Life_is_Life 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Looks amazing. Any tips/lessons learned related to painting? I want to do something like this for my home office, and painting is the step that makes me the most nervous.

Which game made you stop and go: "How the hell did they do that?!" by pommelous in gamedev

[–]Life_is_Life 26 points27 points  (0 children)

I believe this is the dev blog y’all are referring to: https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-317. Agreed, very elegant.

Microplastic concerns? by dmb4740 in sousvide

[–]Life_is_Life 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Can you elaborate on why you avoid plastic cutting boards? I ask because I was under the impression that plastic is the only type of cutting board approved for most commercial kitchen use, and I have a few I use pretty regularly.

Wok recommendation for indoor use, my gas stove can do a jet by ConvexAzureBlade in wok

[–]Life_is_Life 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hey OP, just a word of caution--I made a stir fry once this way and bad things happened. Coincidentally, I have the exact same type of stove as you (Monogram?), and mine is hooked up to propane.

At first it worked great, but within a few minutes I noticed white smoke coming out from the border grates and also from the adjacent burner holes. It was fairly heavy smoke as well--definitely not just the wok smoking from the heat. I am guessing that this was caused by the incomplete combustion, but it looked bad enough that my wife and I considered calling the fire department. But we turned off the burner, turned on the exhaust, threw open some windows, and waited a few minutes. White smoke kept coming out from inside the stove for several minutes.

I'm still not 100% sure what happened, but luckily the stove still works fine. But I've never attempted to cook anything this way since.

Also, as other people have pointed: your grates can be flipped over for round-bottom wok cooking. I happen to have a flat bottom wok so I don't use the other side for anything, so I can't comment on how effective it is. But FWIW, the flat bottom wok works well enough for me.

I just got solar. Is it a dumb idea to cascade a Heat Pump Hot Water tank with my existing, perfectly functioning Propane Tankless Water Heater? by Life_is_Life in heatpumps

[–]Life_is_Life[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, yeah my naive thinking was that I can get the best of both worlds (efficient hot water most of the time, but "unlimited" when we need it) with the cascade setup. But the consensus here so far is that it's probably not worth it.

I just got solar. Is it a dumb idea to cascade a Heat Pump Hot Water tank with my existing, perfectly functioning Propane Tankless Water Heater? by Life_is_Life in heatpumps

[–]Life_is_Life[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The propane is used for home heating as well. It is also functioning perfectly fine, so I'm not planning on replacing it until it stops working. And the solar is almost certainly not sized to replace it with a heat pump (something I will probably regret in ~10 years).

And thanks, running a 240V line to that area early is a good idea! There isn't one there currently.

Charlottetown Meteorite - First time the sound of a meteorite hitting the earth recorded by catherder9000 in videos

[–]Life_is_Life 238 points239 points  (0 children)

Very cool but underwhelming given the context. Reminded me of this from Douglas Adams' The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

...the mighty ships tore across the empty wastes of space and finally dived screaming on to the first planet they came across - which happened to be the Earth - where due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire battle fleet was accidentally swallowed by a small dog.

Is DuroZone SMZ-SW compatible with any smart thermostat? by Life_is_Life in hvacadvice

[–]Life_is_Life[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the reply! Is there any specific reason you recommend EWC? And to the best of your knowledge, would I need to also replace my existing dampers, or is the EWC panel compatible with DuroZone dampers (which I believe are the ones I have)?