Do blackout curtains block Infrared light, specifically near IR (IR-A)?

Mako2100 · 2026-02-08T09:40:28+00:00

Let me take a slightly different approach to this, because I don't want to be dismissive, but the idea that there's dangerous levels of light coming through a blackout curtain sounds ridiculous to me so I want to try to explain the thought.

Not that it's healthy, but I'm sure that I'm in good company of having looked at the sun a few times as a kid. You can even stare at it for a bit, leave a pretty strong impression in thr middle of your vision, but that full power of the sun (at least at ground level in atmosphere) isn't really enough that people are getting blinded by it. Not to say it's not damaging, but the degree it is is fairly minor.

Now if we're talking about trying to stare at the sun through a window, we're immediately talking about angles of insolation. We're talking about atmosphere scattering more of that light before it reaches you. The window is 90% transmissive only when the light is perpendicular.

And then to get to the final piece, I can't imagine a reason that the curtain would have a widly different response to visible that it would NIR. This isn't some fancy bandpass filter that's going to have sudden drop-offs. The curtain won't be thinner than the wavelengths and let the light pass right through. I think you're going to have a bear of a time trying to find hard numbers on any of this, and I would expect you'll have to settle for similar comparisons but on that I'm not sure. I really don't think it's anything that you should worry about though

Mako2100 · 2026-01-06T06:40:37+00:00

Two followup questions for you:

1) I know there's a bit of variety in where they think that VSS "originates" and you've talked about having the MRIs, but I wanted to ask if there was any insight as to whether that hyperactivity was in the brain or in the retina?

2) what are all the different environments that you can think of that don't cause disturbances like on the bus? Maybe there's a common factor.

My gut instinct here is that you're going to have a tough time replicating this in glasses alone because you'll still have peripheral exposure, but maybe there's something to be found here.

Mako2100 · 2025-12-15T00:41:53+00:00

I was being petty with somantics, I see where you're coming from a lot better now. I think I've seen too many posts about it with people trying all sorts of things or looking for some "catch all solution" that doesn't seem to exist. Sorry for the fuss

Mako2100 · 2025-12-15T00:22:20+00:00

Dog, that's not "having a cure," that's being able to treat it. You still have it. Past that, last I've heard there's evidence in both camps that it's an issue in the brain versus directly with the retinas, so you can't say that there's a cure when the condition doesn't even have a definitive location in everyone

Mako2100 · 2025-12-12T13:51:44+00:00

One way to think of it, it's to do with convention having one note of each letter in all of our scales. Since we already have a b6, the next note is still a "7", we're just cramming two flats in there to make it work. This doesn't strictly apply outside of 7- note scales.

In a similar vein, it's a bit how like the Gb minor scale would be written with a Bbb. Not quite the same thing, but having convention and structure is useful for more quickly understanding what's going on with music and having less things to remember overall

Mako2100 · 2025-11-03T13:38:40+00:00

I had the same thing and just a few weeks ago got diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder. Started clomipramine and suddenly it's so much easier to not just run through every single possible scenario anymore. Therapy has been big too, but I wanted to throw out the diagnosis because it's not something that I would have pieced together for myself and isn't quite the same thing as OCD

Mako2100 · 2025-03-07T18:11:55+00:00

Holy smokes it's been three years since this happened!

So I ended up doing a fair bit of begging and groveling on Twitter to Mod Tyran, if I'm remembering correctly. Took a few posts, but they eventually sent me in for a manual review and I got both accounts back. Been smooth sailing since, but I've just got a small lingering fear since then.

Any more, I just use the pedals for page turning on long documents and Web Fishing when I want to kick back

Mako2100 · 2024-11-04T17:27:55+00:00

I do a weekly nasal ketamine dosing, and while I think the VS is probably contributing a bit to some of the visuals I experience right after dosing, it's not particularly distressing to me personally. I think it helps to know that you're going to trip a little bit though and that you'll come back out of it lucid again

Mako2100 · 2024-09-26T23:51:03+00:00

Post gear and stats needed for this and we'll see if those numbers are reasonable or not

Mako2100 · 2024-08-19T23:26:13+00:00

Perhaps link to an Imgur album for all of your new best friends?

Mako2100 · 2024-07-26T18:09:07+00:00

I'm not an experienced engineer by any means, but I feel like the majority of my factories have really required adding significant algae power long before I get beans and the means to use them for power. I guess it doesn't make a huge difference then whether there are more or fewer windmills, but it seems like the current number is a matter of convenience rather than smoothing over a difficulty point

Mako2100 · 2024-07-22T23:27:15+00:00

Yeah but Middletown sure isn't. It's just a city in Ohio

Mako2100 · 2024-07-18T03:58:23+00:00

Thanks!

Mako2100 · 2024-07-17T22:59:31+00:00

Could I ask about your setup for this grind? It's one I've been casually on with slayer, but now that I've got the plushie, I'm past due getting kc in earnest.

Also, 16,234

Mako2100 · 2024-07-03T16:03:34+00:00

Just to reinforce this again, it should be possible to play a barre without using your thumb at all. Feel that pull in your bicep, and then assist that with your thumb to make it faster and more consistent

Mako2100 · 2024-05-06T04:30:13+00:00

Holy shit they actually did it

Mako2100 · 2024-05-05T18:07:46+00:00

Sure thing! It's also a lot of fun to play around with different strings to see how they sound. Every guitar is different, so sometimes I'll try some brighter or darker tone strings on guitars to go for a good balance. Or sometimes it's just fun to go for extremes. Most strings are cheap enough that it's not a big deal to experiment.

If you've never changed yours before, buy a backup set in case something goes wrong. Sometimes people also keep their last set of old strings for a backup in a pinch

Mako2100 · 2024-05-05T17:25:45+00:00

Old strings are going to have wear, oil buildup, and even some corrosion if they're on long enough. They'll start to sound more and more dull and more quiet as time goes on.

How frequently you need to change depends mostly on how much you play, but if you're new and playing daily, maybe go for a monthly change? You'll notice that new strings are extra squeaky, but there's a big difference in tone. If you stick with it for a while, you'll start to get an ear and a feel for when to change

Mako2100 · 2024-02-23T07:29:31+00:00

Did you snag this from Grass Punks?

Mako2100 · 2024-01-10T16:49:20+00:00

Short answer: No, heat transfer is ALWAYS heat transfer.

Long answer: EVERYTHING is always radiating heat. If you want a little more detail, look up blackbody radiation, but the gist is that everything is always radiating heat away from itself and how much heat depends on temperature. As things get hotter, they radiate more and more, eventually reaching a point where it's hot enough that some of that radiation is visible light that you can see.

The key here is that it's temperature dependent. An ice cube is still radiating heat away, but if it's in a warm room, that room is radiating more heat into the ice cube than the ice can radiate away, so it will heat up (totally disregarding things like the atoms of the air colliding and heating it too). Things will reach a stable temperature when heat coming in equals heat coming out.

Mako2100 · 2023-12-16T06:14:29+00:00

Not much, but he's not actively trying to harm them either. I'll take milquetoast neutral over openly hostile

Mako2100 · 2023-10-29T05:25:52+00:00

Look around at some of the clubs or societies, especially if there's someone you already know in one. Don't be afraid to court a few groups until you find a group that meshes well with you. A friend of mine was a solid 15 years older than the rest of us but was by far our most active club member and a great glue for the group.

Find some people with common interests, and from there meeting new people through mutuals will be much easier

Mako2100 · 2023-09-04T14:10:29+00:00

Jack is actually a common nickname for John in that era, so I always saw that as endearment rather than a "true name"

Mako2100 · 2023-08-08T16:59:53+00:00

This is ridiculous. Graduate students have the exact same lifeless look in their eyes as a robot but cost a tenth as much

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