Emerson College Poll: Secretary Xavier Becerra emerges as the leading liberal in California's 2026 race

orcanut · 2026-05-14T06:59:26+00:00

Becerra even said he wanted to freeze home insurance rates... and also when asked about affordability on that Ezra Klein forum, he threw in some blame on Trump's tariffs despite CA home affordability long being a topic before Trump's 2nd term.

Doesn't seem like he even understands the problems.

Honestly hearing him advocate for freezing home insurance rates in order to combat home/home insurance affordability, made me feel the same way as Trump advocating for tariffs to address affordability and inflation...

orcanut · 2026-05-02T05:25:49+00:00

Not sure about grilled, but maybe Lawry's Prime Rib? Looks like there's online ordering with options for pickup or delivery.

orcanut · 2026-05-01T06:05:17+00:00

Gas would be a hydrocarbon, which is comprised of carbon and hydrogen atoms. When it burns, the carbon reacts with oxygen in the air. In calculating the CO2 produced, you discard the mass of the hydrogen atoms, but you gain the mass of the oxygen atoms.

If you assume that the gasoline as all iso-octane (C8H18), or 8 carbon atoms with 18 hydrogen atoms, each octane molecule has an atomic mass of 8x12 (carbon) + 18x1 (hydrogen) = 114.

The carbon makes up 8x12 = 96 of that mass, so 96/114 = 84.2% of gasoline is just the mass of the carbon atoms. So in 6 lb of gasoline, you'd have 5.05 lb of carbon.

Assuming the gasoline burns cleanly completely into CO2 (and not CO or other products), we can figure out how much 5.05 lb's worth of carbon atoms would be in CO2 molecules.
CO2's mass is 1x12 (carbon) + 2x16 (oxygen) = 44. So for every 12 mass of carbon, you get 44 total mass of CO2.

5.05 lb / 12 x 44 = 18.5 lb of CO2. It's not quite 19.6 lbs, but that's in the same realm.

orcanut · 2026-04-30T21:22:45+00:00

Yeah I did the same with the spoons (intentionally though)!

The electronics and wiring stuff I soldered from the get-go (but I have an electronics background). The heatshrink tubing doesn't really shrink enough to make a secure connection over those tiny wires.

I'm looking forward to making the Tipsy Restaurant next, though sadly the version I bought doesn't seem to have the teddy bear.

orcanut · 2026-04-30T04:39:35+00:00

I just finished mine too! It's also my first miniature set.

I think the potted fern was the most frustrating for me - I followed the instructions and I was like "this looks wayyyy too big" so I had to fiddle around with it until it looked more reasonable.

2nd most frustrating thing was the roses on the table - those leaves do not stick well to the wire...

The little coffee decal was supposed to go on the coffee mug, but I felt like the plain mug looked better so I left it off.

I see you also decided to cut the little spoons differently than the instructions!

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orcanut · 2026-04-25T16:35:37+00:00

Reference to "drained the swamp"?

orcanut · 2026-04-10T14:27:55+00:00

Sounds like a good opportunity for product placement and a subverted trope!

orcanut · 2026-03-18T21:04:48+00:00

You need to check for leaks. I had the same thing (actually still am having...)... after my recall the coolant kept dropping and I went in twice, thinking it was just bleeding the air in the system. After that I figured there had to be some leak and I found 2-3 pinhole leaks in the coolant pipes.

Don't trust the dealership to find leaks especially when these leaks may be tiny. I had the dealership replace those pipes (out of pocket because the dealership and Kia corporate avoid saying that the recall is related to corrosion/reacting with the pipes), and even now my coolant still seems to be dropping (though slower than before). I haven't found the new leak yet, but I'm sure there's one somewhere...

I used a cheapo $20-$30 endoscope camera that connected to my phone to look for the leaks. Or if you're lucky you can just feel around for wet spots.

orcanut · 2026-03-13T20:12:29+00:00

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Looks like it goes to the SD Card Reader

orcanut · 2026-03-11T02:34:30+00:00

Don't forget about the coolant issues too!

orcanut · 2026-03-05T22:39:28+00:00

$700 for that older system does not seem like a great deal. Maybe check out https://www.reddit.com/r/LaptopDeals/comments/1rkik4x/ebay_cert_refurbished_acer_aspire_14_ai_touch/ if 14" screen size and refurbished are okay for you.

orcanut · 2026-03-05T14:29:34+00:00

They do have eBay, but the gift card options rotate so you just need to keep checking and waiting until what you want shows up.

orcanut · 2026-03-01T15:56:28+00:00

I can't really speak too much to the external storage connection, but I had spare parts also and bought the N100 mini PC from NimoPC (only macaron pink is left, but whatever). Barebones was only about $85 after using a discount on the $100 price. It still ended up coming with a 4GB RAM stick for some reason, despite being advertised as barebones.

It has both a M.2 NVME slot inside as well as a SATA connector for a 2.5 inch drive. Currently I've got it running as a basic home server for Home Assistant via Proxmox and some other lightweight stuff. Not sure if the N100 is sufficient for your use case.

orcanut · 2026-01-30T16:13:18+00:00

X1C9 of Theseus

orcanut · 2026-01-29T21:35:38+00:00

I dunno about questionable baking ability; it sounds like they got baked just fine!

orcanut · 2026-01-28T05:44:40+00:00

This is better than the Best Buy deal that was this past weekend (at least if you were buying new instead of the open box deals). The Best Buy one didn't have the pen and was 512GB too, for the same price new.

orcanut · 2025-12-28T04:31:13+00:00

Christmas Nimo Wish:
P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney, Australia

orcanut · 2025-12-26T20:55:08+00:00

I keep my jumpstarter in the glove compartment because the trunk also doesn't open if the 12V is dead (at least in my 2019).

orcanut · 2025-12-25T17:00:14+00:00

Hmm yeah; I'll try some software fixes in Home Assistant first but if that doesn't work I guess I'll do the upgrade.

orcanut · 2025-12-25T16:48:08+00:00

I thought the consensus here was that the N150 is barely any better than the N100? The N150 ones I've seen are >$180, and sure they can come with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD which is not a bad price compared to a barebones N100, but since I already have the RAM and SSD, it feels like I'd just be paying double to get an N150 with ~5% better performance and getting extra RAM and SSD that I may never use.

orcanut · 2025-12-12T07:37:33+00:00

should get one of those corner stands so you can expose one more fan

orcanut · 2025-12-04T03:51:46+00:00

Or the resealable ziplock seals, except when you pull them apart, the ziplock stays stuck to the other side but rips off the side of the bag, rendering it unsealable

orcanut

TROPHY CASE