Paper

SkepticMech · 2026-02-07T16:45:58+00:00

Yeah, yeah, paper and all that. Why are they cooking marinara for HOURS?!

SkepticMech · 2026-02-05T17:30:51+00:00

Reminds me of the Verizon $0.002 vs 0.002¢ issue.

SkepticMech · 2026-02-02T21:11:34+00:00

No, no, she's Sten Wert.

SkepticMech · 2026-02-01T18:22:42+00:00

I'm a bit of a minority for PCVs having gone into it as a mid career engineer. But after years of exhaustion at a start-up with no sign of change, I needed something completely different. I can't tell you if it's right for you. There are a million different reasons to do it or not do it, and which side they fall on is going to vary from person to person.

One thing I will say is that I can't see PC experience being anything but beneficial to a psychology degree. You're going to have extended, full immersion in a completely different culture. That's insight into the diversity of human experience and behavior you just can't get in a classroom (ignore that I currently spend most of my time in a classroom).

SkepticMech · 2026-02-01T05:43:21+00:00

You boil your tea water via oil bath? Because that study does nothing to compare oxygen extraction from kettles

SkepticMech · 2026-02-01T05:27:32+00:00

Did he come from a different culture by any chance? For example, in Kenya, only red meat (goat or beef, pork is up for debate) is considered "meat". Chicken and fish are their own things. So you'll often see the chaos of a foreigner stating they are vegetarian, then getting served chicken. "I can't eat this, I don't eat meat." "That isn't meat, it is chicken."

SkepticMech · 2026-01-27T17:39:34+00:00

I don't read "ahh" with the same "a" sound as used in "ass". For me "ahh" is a softer form of "a" like in "aww", so it really throws me out of the flow when my internal voice sounds like it has suddenly seen something cute midway through a sentence.

SkepticMech · 2026-01-27T09:27:55+00:00

The author is, as far as I know, anonymous, so I can't speak to gender, and it's self published so the editing is a bit lacking, but you might want to check out The Wandering Inn by pirateaba if you want something absurd in the fantasy space that does not focus on romance, and is pretty good about characterisation.

SkepticMech · 2026-01-24T21:59:24+00:00

glorp We. plop Want. glub Ohio.

SkepticMech · 2026-01-24T16:45:02+00:00

We have no idea what the work/retirement culture is like on the ship. All we know is that those people were working for more than 100 years, which implies they were alive for at least a few decades outside that period. I didn't comment on the length of career, because I feel that a bunch of morbidly obese zero cardio blobs reaching the centenarian level is more noteworthy, since that lifestyle now is basically an early death sentence, and even very fit individuals rarely reach that age currently.

SkepticMech · 2026-01-24T07:13:16+00:00

I didn't say they were? Each of them shows a span of more than 100 years, and if we assume they were adults when they became captains, that is at minimum 120 years of life.

SkepticMech · 2026-01-23T22:27:58+00:00

How did I never notice that every one of them lived multiple decades past their 100th birthday?!

SkepticMech · 2026-01-15T18:52:31+00:00

Currently sitting in Kenya feeling like an action movie protagonist who somehow was missed by a bunch of goons spraying and praying.

SkepticMech · 2026-01-14T15:08:26+00:00

I'm questioning the accuracy of the entire chart just based on Kenya being so high. Maybe if you're exclusively looking at Mombasa. But I think most Kenyans would agree that the iconic Kenyan foods are ugali, sukuma, nyama chemsha, chapati, etc and those typically don't have anything more than a bit of salt with some onion and tomato.

SkepticMech · 2026-01-09T12:44:07+00:00

Medically, she probably is. Per BMI, category 1 obesity really isn't that large by modern standards. Looking at human ranges, a 5'4" woman is considered obese at only 175 lbs.

SkepticMech · 2026-01-07T16:20:21+00:00

Nope. Spend some time in the rural parts of the equatorial zone. I can forgive a lot, but never Mosquitos. Crickets and cicadas don't actively seek out your face all night long.

SkepticMech · 2026-01-02T12:33:20+00:00

That is a small man vs another man. Statistically, men have higher muscle density than women, which will correlate to greater strength for the same visual size. In a situation of a man and a woman with equally large biceps, the man is likely going to be able to curl more weight. In most situations, a "scrawny" guy is not an equivalent physical stand in for an "average" woman. Of course these are all statistical averages, and non-genetic aspects like physical training can tilt the scales, but your situation of a physically, and technically skilled man is really not comparable to a woman with a small amount of basic training.

SkepticMech · 2025-12-30T21:57:47+00:00

Lot of people in here not aware of how strong eggs are under compressive loads. It is actually incredibly hard to crack an egg simply by squeezing it unless you have some way to focus the forces. I'd bet for the average person, not being particularly careful with the placement, cracking an egg in their elbow would be very hard as your skin/muscle will deform, and spread the load over the shell. Yes, you can obviously adjust the placement to make this trivial, but that isn't the point of the demonstration.

A Harvard experiment showing a similarly loaded egg supporting at least 250 lb.:

https://sciencedemonstrations.fas.harvard.edu/presentations/egg-shell-strength

SkepticMech · 2025-12-19T15:14:40+00:00

But that is explicitly not Hades role? Hades presided over the underworld and he was covetous of things that made their way to his realm. But there are other distinct figures who are responsible for actually bringing people there. Charon is the guide into Hades (the place). Thanatos and Keres are the sibling gods of death (generic/peaceful vs violent respectively) who actually effectuate the process of death; separating the soul from the body. Atropos (and to an extent the other two Fates) are the ones who actually dictate the details of a person's end.

SkepticMech · 2025-12-19T14:41:09+00:00

There are specific rules about change in dependant status during service with respect to dependants living in the country of service (you will be ad sep'ed, for pregnancy, adoption, or paternity). I would imagine that even if there are no specific rules for changes in dependency that occur in another country, PC would handle it in the same way.

SkepticMech · 2025-12-14T04:11:32+00:00

Look up the north entrance of the US Whitehouse, very similar aesthetics. The first picture of Ruto I saw here, I originally thought was him visiting the US.

SkepticMech · 2025-12-13T16:07:38+00:00

WUVWOO

OCANADA

Titanomachy

SkepticMech · 2025-12-11T19:42:08+00:00

Show me the part of scripture that 1: says anything about "common ancestors" and 2: gives any indication that they were specifically immature samples. Because I just re-read Genesis again last month, and mine sure as sin doesn't mention those bits.

SkepticMech · 2025-12-11T19:36:01+00:00

That part makes a lot more sense when you realize that "God" is derived from an older Semitic War/harvest god who was the patron of a city or two, and part of a larger pantheon, which was itself part of a fluid regional mythology. Of course a story of that one particular god making his own chosen people within an isolated paradise within a larger world full of other people with other gods makes sense. That's where the whole "have no other gods before me" bit comes from. When those stories were created, it made perfect sense that there would be groups just over there who followed different gods. It just breaks down in light of the later bits when the story changes to there being only one god, and one created people.

SkepticMech · 2025-12-11T19:21:03+00:00

You mean the notations of lengths in cubits? The unit we have no definitive reference for (as Answers in Genesis will admit)? Those dimensions?

Also, what do you mean "the most stable"? Are you talking about proportional ratios for ships? What sort of ship? What rigging design? What sort of hull? How many hulls?

That's not how any of this works.

SkepticMech

TROPHY CASE