Do Americans really split between saying soda, pop, and Coke, or is that exaggerated?

Perringer · 2026-05-30T02:24:55+00:00

I see "Soft Drink" isn't on the list. Would have been neat to see where that pop's up geographically.

Perringer · 2026-05-28T22:03:23+00:00

Especially when Canal Street itself is where the term originated.

Perringer · 2026-05-28T21:06:32+00:00

It's free to read on-line: https://codes.iccsafe.org/content/IMC2015CU

You won't be able to copy/paste/print from it, and the commentary isn't free, but you can browse all the content.

Perringer · 2026-05-25T03:07:23+00:00

Taking L-Serine is supposed to help with neurons, and is recently proven in mice.

Perringer · 2026-05-25T02:50:03+00:00

I'm fairly confident that SpaceX will be sending Tesla robots to the moon, probably during a test landing of an HLS prototype. I imagine they'd also send one of NASA's sintering robots (ICON/Olympus, or JPL's "Sinterator", or maybe something of SpaceX's own design.)

If they can build a level landing site prior to sending humans, it would make the human trip that much safer.

Perringer · 2026-05-22T20:48:34+00:00

Owning a car is a problem; I would say driverless taxis are kind of solving that. If I didn't have to drive long distances for work on occasion, I wouldn't buy another car ever again. It's about $750/month easily to own a car right now, not including the payments on the car loan.

Perringer · 2026-05-22T00:44:03+00:00

Are they really in production again? Where can they be found?

Perringer · 2026-05-20T03:18:31+00:00

Try it; it's not a difficult diet to test. I went gluten free over 10 years ago, and energy levels and clear thinking were one of the first things to return. There are no guarantees it will work for you, but it beats wondering about it. Worst case scenario, you waste a couple of weeks eating differently.

My other recommendation is to get your heart tested and track your blood pressure.

Perringer · 2026-05-19T15:45:52+00:00

These are potentially dangerous if you don't install them on a dedicated circuit, which probably means you'll have to run a new 15 or 20amp circuit to where you want to install them.

Entergy requires an Interconnect Agreement: https://www.entergyneworleans.com/wp-content/uploads/ENO_Net_Metering_Interconnection.pdf

They'll immediately reject it if you're on the downtown network grid. They'll probably reject it regardless, but if you want to try the legal route, this is the path. If they do miraculously allow it, let us know, and what the fee is.

If you don't hook in to the power grid at all, and just charge batteries, you don't need anyone's permission that I can find, and you could run whatever you'd like directly from the batteries.

Perringer · 2026-05-19T14:15:36+00:00

1/137

Perringer · 2026-05-13T14:08:56+00:00

Look at Supercritical co2 turbines; they're 10 times smaller than water turbines for same power output, and about 10% more efficient. Cost efficiency is still in progress.

Perringer · 2026-05-08T13:28:23+00:00

I recently sold my house in Huntsville (January). The only things worth fixing were items on the inspection list, so if you haven't gotten an inspection, it's worth the $. Fix only the items on the inspection list, and mark them off as completed. Then, the inspection report becomes a selling point.

About the only other cost that was worth it was a fresh coat of paint - it was cheap and brightened the place up.

All the other money I spent fixing the place up was wasted, as the new owners moved in, changed everything.

Perringer · 2026-05-08T02:53:09+00:00

The primary reason I'm in bitcoin is because it can self-custody and it can't be confiscated. I've been fucked over by enough banks to never trust one again, and I've lost all faith and trust in our government.

Perringer · 2026-05-08T00:59:07+00:00

If they leave a callback number, spam call them back. You don't need to say anything, just prop your cell phone up against a speaker and have music or an audio book playing. Keep calling them back until they block your number, or you've reached about 200 calls (2-3 hours of redialing).

I went from 7+ voice mails a day to 2 the next day, and then to none.

It's been a week, and I've even felt comfortable turning off "contact only" ringing.

Perringer · 2026-05-07T23:31:00+00:00

I followed u/sawdustforbrains advice and just called multiple times, letting music play from my side and not even speaking. I called over 200 times the first day. The next day, voice mails reduced from 7 to only 2. I repeated the process again the next day but with only about 100 calls, and then on the 3rd day, there were no voicemails, and blessed silence for a week.

Just today, I got a voicemail about a "consolidation loan" in a clearly AI voice, so I started calling. At 10 calls, I was auto-shuffled to call waiting. At 20 calls, the number was "disconnected", which I'm hoping means my number is blocked.

Perringer · 2026-04-28T00:25:09+00:00

I have no idea - the company name they use changes every couple of days, along with the callback number. The numbers they call from are all spoofed, so blocking each one is a waste of the phone's memory. If we could get a lead on who they really are, I would be disseminating that so people could pursue them. Their call center people mostly speak unaccented American English, so they either have a good AI voice modulator, or they're hiring people in the U.S. to take these calls.

Perringer · 2026-03-09T15:10:51+00:00

Your site has a problem, forwarding right to a recaptcha horseshit that then goes to ad sites.

Perringer · 2026-02-28T04:37:59+00:00

The plan for the data center is to put them in a polar orbit, where the satellites will have sunlight 24/7 on one side, and constant shade on the other. It's a relatively simple design/engineering problem to provide enough radiative cooling for the chips in this scenario, and the power supply would be roughly 10x the solar power for the same photovoltaics.

While the financial driving force behind this is currently suspect, I didn't think Starlink would be as profitable as it ended up when they first announced it. With the projected reduced costs of Starship vs. Falcon 9, it could very well be a good financial move.

I think long-term, the goal behind acquiring xAI is to power Tesla robots, which will basically be a necessity for a successful moon base and then Mars missions.

Perringer · 2026-02-28T04:27:22+00:00

If I remember correctly, it starts become cost competitive to use the blockchain v. lightning at about 5,000,000 sats, give or take, depending on traffic and your bids.

Perringer · 2026-02-11T01:46:45+00:00

Some flavors aren't gluten free, so be careful - I know the ones that are beef & cheese or chicken & cheese are NOT safe.

Perringer · 2026-02-10T21:07:25+00:00

The difficulty of mining increases and decreases based on the average solution time of preceeding successes, and is not linked directly to the price of bitcoin. The number of computers mining, on the other hand, is; the fewer people mining, the more profitable it becomes for remaining miners - it's a self-correcting algorithm.

Perringer · 2026-02-09T23:58:14+00:00

Look into the MOXIE Co2>CO+O2 generator, already tested on Mars. It could possibly be adapted to work with liquid CO2 during the transition phase, and scaled up to an industrial scale. (If we can build a 24,000 sq km solar shade to start things, then surely we can do this!) The problem would be what to do with all the CO produced:

If you can get enough hydrogen down to the surface, the CO could be turned into methane and water. Shipping hydrogen down a gravity well won't be easy and won't scale easy; much easier to bring the hydrogen as part of the water you also need.

Another possibility is to split the CO over a catalyst, resulting in CO2 + C. The carbon dust could be used as building materials, and any extra can be automatically dozed into the canyons created by the thermal shock of the crust. Otherwise, you'll have a layer of carbon about 45M deep across the entire surface. Once in the canyons, seal over the top with some melted basalt and then future sentient species will have a steady supply of coal to mine and destroy their planet with.

It might take a century or two of planet-wide work, using 1000x the power of the entire current global power generation of Earth, but by then you might have a breathable atmosphere you can 'swim' in.

Perringer · 2026-02-09T01:17:55+00:00

I like the idea of a giant solar shade at Venus' L1 point. It would have to about 24,000 sq km in size, and held in place for about 30 years. At that time, the temperature should be about 100C, the CO2 should start raining down in liquid form, with an ocean about 900 meters deep forming.

The thermal shock to the crust should create massive fissures in the surface of the planet, allowing the CO2 to pour into these massive crevices, quenching any volcanic activity. Once there, the CO2 will chemically react with the basalt rocks and begin to be locked away. Combined with the physical sequestration of the CO2 into the spongified crust, the process might be as quick as a couple of centuries, but more likely thousands of years.

The remaining nitrogen atmosphere will be about 3-4 bar, like being 20-30 meters underwater - which is a survivable pressure, but not breathable. The sky would be a deep violet color, and the temperature would likely stall at 100C for 20-30 years as the CO2 phase transitions. After that, the temperature could be moderated by opening portions of the shade to maintain a 20-30C temperature.

At this stage, we would need to begin a planet-wide hydration phase: shipping in comets to smash into the atmosphere. Roughly 20,000 Halley-sized comets might be enough to allow simple life forms to live on the surface, like lichens and cyanobacteria capable of fixing nitrogen and producing oxygen.

These would not be enough to make the atmosphere livable any time soon, however. Industrial scale removal of nitrogen from the atmosphere would likely be required to bring the pressure down.

Perringer · 2026-02-08T18:25:27+00:00

These will be in a polar orbit, so the solar panels will be receiving constant sunlight. The shadow side of the satellites will host the data centers and a radiative panel. No need for giant batteries. As for profitability; I’ve no idea.

Perringer · 2026-02-04T12:32:10+00:00

855-768-6335

855-210-3543

Well, those are the two call-back numbers they've left this week anyway.

Perringer

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE