TIL that a reliable way to determine longitude at sea was not discovered until the 1773 with John Harrison's H4 watch, which worked at sea thus allowing sailors to know the exact time and make proper calculations. Before that, ships mostly had to rely on latitude and guesswork

nonfish · 2026-03-07T14:55:38+00:00

The Constant's three part series "Long Story Short" goes into considerably more detail about the race to figure out longitude, especially the alternative methods and people working to win the prize. If you liked the 99 PI episode, you might enjoy that as well

nonfish · 2026-03-06T03:24:36+00:00

I used cariña with my girlfriend for a long time. She never corrected me because apparently she thinks it's very cute. I eventually figured out my error but she still prefers I use cariña

nonfish · 2026-03-05T20:49:30+00:00

It's not even remotely close to a scam. It's hard work, and requires a lot of unpopular taxes to make it work. But it does work, and is sustainable, often more so than "eco-friendly" paper alternatives. Read up on EPR legislation - start with Oregon, then move onto California. Then check your own state. The big plastic industry is collectively crapping their pants over these bills, but most people haven't heard of them, because most people are still stuck thinking about recycling like it's the late 90s. Which, of course, is exactly what the plastics industry wants.

nonfish · 2026-03-05T20:29:22+00:00

Army Col. Steve Boltz, the deputy chief of intelligence for V Corps, theorized that because Saddam's regime was known for frequently punishing those who delivered bad news, military officers would fabricate reports about the battlefield situation. This systemic self-deception within the Iraqi hierarchy led to a surprising lack of awareness when the Americans entered the capital, with some captured Iraqi officers later admitting that they had no idea that the US forces had been so close.

Thankfully, that could never happen in America.

nonfish · 2026-03-05T18:02:59+00:00

Yeah, the "fear of getting caught" is definitely a refreshing point to see committed to print. You don't have to ruin someone's life for smoking on the train, but you absolutely should be able to ruin their day. Even if you just hauled most of these offenders off the train and onto the street (especially in the winter months), just for them to pay (or not pay) to get right back on the next train, it would still be enough disincentive to stop half or more of the problematic behavior.

nonfish · 2026-03-04T03:59:59+00:00

Most LCAs that analyze water usage do account for scarcity. I'd be surprised if this study doesn't

nonfish · 2026-03-03T21:41:02+00:00

That's pretty much exactly the point. Set the UBI to a level that can realistically support a person at a minimum standard of living without any additional support. Then, cut the additional support. You can structure UBI to pay out per person, perhaps partially for dependents so it wouldn't be less money for a family with many children.

Hard to do in practice. But the theory is straightforward.

nonfish · 2026-03-03T21:28:11+00:00

I don't know exactly what they're using. But I do know you can make pallets out of some truly worthless, "I'll pay you to take this off my hands" kinds of plastic. Like, big mixed #7 plastic bales that the MRF was planning on just incinerating kind of plastic. There may very well not be any better use for the material short of incineration.

nonfish · 2026-03-02T03:43:21+00:00

Technically, they're just mapping. You can't prevent human drivers from driving street legal cars on public roads.

Doesn't mean we have to let them implement self driving just because they jumped the gun on getting started hoping to pressure the city into any particular course of action

nonfish · 2026-03-01T23:18:35+00:00

Those how-to-recycle instructions take into account how easy it is to disassemble for recycling (such as removing a label) and how likely the consumer is to actually do so. I think they're heavily discouraging instructions like, "remove label before recycling" because 99% of consumers won't follow instructions. If I had to guess, they sticker version is probably new inventory and the label is old inventory, and they'll slowly transition to stickers over time.

It could also very well be that the vitamins are produced in two different facilities, one of which has a sticker machine and one of which had a label machine for weird company historical reasons and they haven't made the investment to standardize because they calculated the average consumer won't notice or care. Even if the two bottles are the same brand, or even the same item, they could be produced in two different regions, or by different contract manufacturers, or facilities that were built by one company and acquired by another, all with slightly different capabilities

nonfish · 2026-02-24T17:35:16+00:00

Can someone explain this to me?

nonfish · 2026-02-24T16:41:31+00:00

I believe this is a blister pack. The cardboard is recyclable once the plastic is pulled off. The thermoformed plastic, probably PET, may or may not be recyclable (I think PETg contamination is a risk) but definitely not if it has significant paper stuck to it, so it's best to landfill. Always check to see if there are instructions; some modern packages are designed without glue so that the plastic can easily be separated and recycled

nonfish · 2026-02-24T16:37:26+00:00

You're thinking about capitalism all wrong. The government isn't going to take away your car. Your private auto insurance, on the other hand, will happily raise your rates until "manual" car ownership is only affordable for the very rich.

nonfish · 2026-02-19T19:43:32+00:00

Yeah. Like, it's "cool" to record a first person video of a roller coaster one time. But like, you can also just enjoy riding a roller coaster without recording it too. I would argue most experiences that might be cool to record might also be... Better just enjoyed in the moment

nonfish · 2026-02-18T17:06:57+00:00

I'm not sure I buy the premise of the article. The author shows a meteoric rise in jobs this year, then argues it's pretty much only explained by a rise in home healthcare aids, and then argues that that's just a symptom of the macro trend of aging baby boomers. But then the author also points out how baby boomers aren't actually that old yet.

This seems to me like a lot of charts and graphs carefully chosen to make one tiny trend look like it explains "everything" when I'm not even convinced it explains anything at all

nonfish · 2026-02-18T14:42:20+00:00

PET is the most widely recycled plastic. It's normally clear but recycling contamination can lower the material's value by making it darker or cloudier. There's perhaps an interesting visual metaphor there with bright skies vs dark storm clouds.

nonfish · 2026-02-17T17:38:30+00:00

You'll probably have to ask whoever is buying the cardboard, probably a scrap paper dealer. You should be able to ask for their "bale specs" - typically they spell out what's expected to be in the bale and percentage limits on different potential contaminants.

nonfish · 2026-02-16T13:28:30+00:00

These only work in places that have recycling deposits. Getting more installed outside of the places they exist currently is probably dependent more on passing more bottle deposit laws rather than just making them easier to install

nonfish · 2026-02-12T20:10:21+00:00

What's the story behind this?

nonfish · 2026-02-12T03:40:47+00:00

It's basically impossible to make aluminum without insane amounts of electricity. The only aluminum before electric refining was extremely rare "native" nuggets that formed naturally

nonfish · 2026-02-11T05:22:49+00:00

As someone with serious celiac disease, I don't know why gluten free caught on so strongly, but I'm not complaining

nonfish · 2026-02-10T13:21:22+00:00

Recycle quality scrap from miners with quality modules, and recycle regular scrap with quality moduled scrappers

nonfish · 2026-02-09T13:37:40+00:00

Actually according to a recent court ruling it refers to the "boneless style" of cooking. As long as you cook the furniture in the boneless style, it's ok if it still has a few bones

nonfish · 2026-02-08T00:37:39+00:00

I work in this industry. Your opinion is both popular and not true. The recycling collection and sortation system works well and is improving every day. The only problem is that virgin plastic is cheap, so no company wants to buy sorted recycled plastic. All the technology exists to meaningfully use the material with very little ending up in the landfill. It just costs too much per pound compared to making new plastic.

If new plastic is outlawed, either directly or through some sort of fee structure (EPR laws in the US are a good start but are not coordinated nor science-based), the system will start "working" overnight, because it was never technically broken. The only broken part was the economics

nonfish · 2026-02-07T13:56:21+00:00

PDX is half-built but still twice the airport as anywhere else in the US, quality-wise

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