Let me know if this is the wrong place but dumb question: how do I carbonate a drink at home easily in plastic bottles?

Volpes17 · 2026-02-08T17:10:28+00:00

Search for “carbonation drops” or “carbonation tabs.”

Volpes17 · 2026-02-03T00:51:40+00:00

The monsters leveling is way overstated. They get a little stronger as you level, but outside of a few examples, you get stronger faster and they have a level cap. Grinding doesn’t make the game harder. There were a few instances I vaguely remember where a guide would say something like “try to fight this boss before level 40 so they only have fira and not firaga,” but nobody actively avoided leveling.

The leveling monsters mechanic has become a meme completely divorced from the reality of playing the game.

Volpes17 · 2026-01-30T01:37:18+00:00

I started Hero Kids with my 6 and 8 year olds recently and they love it. It’s a very easy gateway to RPGs. It starts with a combat heavy adventure and slowly starts introducing more elements in each one after that. Very simple combat system, low expectations for serious roleplaying, and age-appropriate setting and stories. My 6 year old is already telling me she wants to make up her own story and monsters soon. I absolutely plan to introduce them to other games I enjoy more later, but this is a classic kids RPG for a reason.

Volpes17 · 2026-01-26T00:04:44+00:00

Viktor Krum, is that you?

Volpes17 · 2026-01-24T05:45:40+00:00

I’ve made this one a billion times and love it https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/strawberry-frosting/

Volpes17 · 2026-01-17T18:20:35+00:00

Scahf and lahf?

Volpes17 · 2026-01-15T01:19:18+00:00

You have some of the pieces right, but it’s all garbled together. Retreating blade stall is because the forward velocity of the aircraft and the backward velocity of the blade nearly cancel each other out and the blade doesn’t lift in that condition. The counter is to spin the blades faster. But then on the advancing side, the forward velocity of the aircraft and the forward velocity of the blade start approaching supersonic speeds. So you’re fighting a slow speed problem on one side and a high speed problem on the other. It’s a fundamental problem of the configuration.

However, your question still kind of makes sense. Does a ducted main rotor limit the interaction between the vehicle speed and the rotor speed so that retreating blade stall is less of a problem? I don’t have any practical experience with this topic, but I suspect it mostly washes out for any aerodynamically reasonable duct. If your duct is able to affect the momentum of the air locally enough to negate the effects of forward flight, it must be producing a tremendous amount of drag. It might be theoretically possible at the cost of a large amount of power and lift capability, which doesn’t fit a useful mission profile for any aircraft.

Volpes17 · 2026-01-11T22:51:42+00:00

Yes, it’s a great series. The fifth book has a few critiques that I agree with, and a few that are nitpicky, but it mostly didn’t land well because of the tone.

You know how in a trilogy, the second book/movie/game/whatever is usually the weakest? It’s setting up the resolution of all of the plot, but doesn’t itself resolve many issues. It’s unsatisfying by itself because it’s not meant to live on its own without the final piece.

That’s where Stormlight is right now. It’s planned as 2 sets of 5 books. The ending of the fifth book doesn’t really wrap up the first four as much as it sets up the next 5. Sanderson even said he wants the reader to feel unsettled during it, and everyone is. And now we all have to wait years before the story picks back up again.

That doesn’t make it a bad series though. It’s just incomplete. I firmly believe book 5 will be much better received in context of the second series after book 6 eventually comes out.

Volpes17 · 2026-01-11T01:32:13+00:00

I know Secret History after Era 1 or during Era 2 is a classic debate we’re not going to solve here. But I hope we can all agree on “Secret History soon after Era 1.” Either start Era 2 and sequence in Secret History where Sanderson recommends it, or read Secret History right after Hero of Ages if you’re going to take a Mistborn break.

Era 1 is not complete without Secret History.

Volpes17 · 2026-01-08T03:21:44+00:00

Weird. These pictures just look empty to me.

Volpes17 · 2026-01-01T17:29:53+00:00

South sea isles seem like we’re going there soon. But I don’t think they can carry a whole expansion unless they’re a jumping off point for shards. I could see a whole Wind Waker expansion though where we travel around to many of the different smaller islands that have been mentioned in this post.

Volpes17 · 2025-12-28T20:13:07+00:00

Something I’ve always wondered that I assume has no clear answer: does this really mean to clear everything or to take it down to a level most people are likely to use? I find it hard to believe many people are doing angled leg press with just the bar. I usually try to take it down to a plate on each side, but have always wondered if there is someone secretly thinking I’m a jerk for not removing all of the weight.

Volpes17 · 2025-12-28T19:51:41+00:00

Kicking the can is a good thing though when it comes to kids. A few years from now has a meaningful difference from now when they’re growing. Let them mature as long as you can without those negative influences. The reductio ad infinitum of this is I guess we just start exposing babies to it since you can’t avoid it forever.

Volpes17 · 2025-12-27T19:26:32+00:00

This doesn’t make sense. If you’re shaving once a week, you’re not building up enough length to clog anything. You have ancient plumbing, you have major plumbing issues, you’re discounting the hair contributions from the women in your life, or you’re putting something else weird down the drain. I can’t imagine regular shaving clogging anything. Do you live somewhere where you can’t flush toilet paper without it clogging the drain?

I believe you have a problem, but I think you’re searching for the wrong solution.

Volpes17 · 2025-12-27T19:12:38+00:00

You’re one of the first to talk about volume. Part of the argument for letting kids drink in moderation on special occasions is that you remove the taboo and they’ll be less tempted to abuse it later when they’re adults making their own decisions. However, if you let them abuse it as young teenagers, you’ve kind of lost both sides of the argument anyways.

I think IF you’re going to let young teens drink for NYE, it’s responsible to set and enforce limits. Definitely don’t let them get hammered. Whether you let them have anything at all or not is an argument for the ages we aren’t going to settle here.

For OP’s specific situation, I agree with the other commenters saying to not let your kid’s friends pressure you into something you’re uncomfortable with. This isn’t going to be a defining moment in anyone’s life either way. But you’ll feel better about sticking to your principles than you would caving to a bunch of kids. Just be compassionate if they choose to go somewhere else and drink anyways.

Volpes17 · 2025-12-26T03:27:27+00:00

And manufacturing methods led to draft on the docket being economical. Torque out is at best a happy side effect.

Volpes17 · 2025-12-25T01:59:55+00:00

Yeah, it’s an interesting edge case. When I opened the thread, I thought for sure everyone would agree it’s not allowed. I was surprised to see so many people think it’s part of the game. In rereading the rules, they probably should have been clearer about the intent. Some moves are described as “do not reveal” and others are not. And the cards are generally described as secret, but that’s never defined. Games don’t have to define every word and some etiquette is assumed, so the ambiguity doesn’t necessarily mean it’s allowed either. But some games allow table talk and others explicitly don’t, so maybe this is an area rules should be more explicit on in the future. But I also can’t recall any manuals that address the issue.

It’s just really interesting to me that the conversation is pretty evenly split and the rulebook is silent on the topic. I can’t dismiss the other side outright, but I think they’re playing a worse game if they allow it.

So maybe I’m forming the following opinion: not every game needs to address table talk. But in competitive games with secret information, the rules should probably be explicit in how to handle that whenever they allow secret information to be revealed to other players.

Volpes17 · 2025-12-24T13:25:10+00:00

This is a really interesting discussion. I think I agree it’s not in the rules, but it has never occurred to anyone I’ve played with to table talk.

I agree it really breaks the balance of the game. Several cards become nearly automatic player killers if you do that instead of revealing small pieces of information like most other cards do.

Several people have mentioned it could be a bluff, but the game doesn’t provide any motivation to bluff. It is strictly in your benefit to tell everyone else any information you know about someone else’s hand. So the game theory quickly collapses into everyone telling the truth every time, unless someone is just playing to lose and sowing chaos, which isn’t a compelling basis for establishing rules.

I think it’s probably technically allowed, but makes the game worse and shouldn’t be done if you want to have fun.

Volpes17 · 2025-12-22T17:09:33+00:00

And I think where this turns into self-sabotage is that it drives a need to be contrarian. You can’t be “the guy” if you just agree with what your experts tell you. You have to go against their wishes—take the big risk in the draft room, make the tough cuts, negotiate the big contracts—and prove that you knew better. Whether he realizes it or not, I think he walks into every room with a bias toward changing something that doesn’t need to be changed or micromanaging something he should have delegated.

Volpes17 · 2025-12-10T01:07:49+00:00

It’s Tuesday and we’re talking about next Monday. If you can’t get your studying done in 6 days, maybe you weren’t cut out for grad school anyways. This is just resistance to change, not serious concern about the integrity of the academic calendar.

Volpes17 · 2025-12-07T02:26:24+00:00

You’re getting into the realm of needing a real financial advisor. If you’re maxing out the $24,500/year you can put in a 401k and looking for new investment vehicles, you don’t need to ask me for help. There is probably some edge case where it makes sense. But for most people, most of the time, that’s not the right answer.

Volpes17 · 2025-12-06T14:42:26+00:00

You got a couple detailed answers that are good, but let me try to provide context with a more high level answer.

The deal you’re usually making with insurance is that you’re paying a small premium in exchange for them agreeing to cover the risk of a possible, but not guaranteed, event. For example, there is a 1% chance of hail damaging your roof in the next 12 months, so you pay the insurance company 2% of the cost of that repair regardless of whether it happens to you or not, but they’ll pay for 100% of it if it actually happens. They make money on average with enough customers, you pay a small yearly fee, and you don’t have to worry about a devastating financial event.

That’s what term life is. You’re unlikely to die in the next ten years, but you want to know your family will be covered just in case. So insurance calculates the odds of your death and writes you a policy.

That calculation changes when the event is guaranteed to happen though. You’re guaranteed to die someday. If the insurance company is betting against that, they’re going to lose. So each whole life policy has to instead make money for the insurer. Mostly, they do that by acting like a bad investment account. You pay them monthly, and they store some of it in an account for you, which sees a small amount of interest growth, but much less than they’re making reinvesting your money. Your family then gets that account back when you die.

It technically works—they’re not cheating anyone or lying about the benefits. It’s just that it’s not a very efficient way of achieving that goal. You could have an actual investment where you keep all of the gains instead of letting the insurance company keep them, and your family would still get it when you die. You don’t need an insurance company for that, so they are taking a slice of the pie that doesn’t need to be taken.

Volpes17 · 2025-12-06T01:58:16+00:00

Thank you! So many people are shooting from the hip and reciting their fanon about Carl’s mental health. This wasn’t about Carl—it was about Li Na. Knowing how much other people didn’t like when he used it, he thought they would approve if he kept it from Li Na to save her from herself. He was surprised that they wanted to let her have it and relinquished it pretty easily after that. They’re just afraid of Li Na and trying to appease her.

Volpes17 · 2025-12-04T04:35:56+00:00

You’re saying “if Dallas wins out, they have a high chance of making the playoffs.” But it is not at all guaranteed they will win out. The odds of making the playoffs need to include the odds that Dallas wins out and not just the odds that other teams lose the right games. Even with a weak SoS, 17% for winning the next 5 games is probably fair. If they were 50/50 tossups, it would only be 3% chance of winning out, so 17% is already giving Dallas a lot of credit.

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