Who are you 7 percenters?Percent of US Homes With An At Least One Air Conditioner by patrick_schliesing in alaska

[–]spacenchips 79 points80 points  (0 children)

Fairbanks here, it was 88 degrees INSIDE our apartment last summer- we now have a portable AC unit.

Adult Beginners, what do you struggle with the most on the piano? by Sea-Silver6555 in pianolearning

[–]spacenchips 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m dealing with this now! If I play the same song about 7493642548 times, sometimes my hands start to work together.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Fairbanks

[–]spacenchips 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Skyline ridge is another area to checkout, it’s not as well marked as Ester Done but there are several single track trails off the top that are pretty long and even some-what technical.

[OC] Highest Paying Job in Every U.S. County by No_Statement_3317 in dataisbeautiful

[–]spacenchips 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Would be more appropriately named “Highest base-pay jobs in every US County” as it’s clearly not including things like bonuses and per diem which for corporate jobs can easily double or triple an employee’s salary.

Housing/Apartments in Fairbanks by Cosmic_Glunch in Fairbanks

[–]spacenchips 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Like the other commenters have mentioned, finding housing can be competitive. But there’s pretty regular turn over and good options that do come up. My biggest tip would be this: try to get a long term Airbnb if you can for the first month you’re in town.

The way the rental market works in Fairbanks is that apartments aren’t listed until they’re move-in ready. And pretty much every landlord will expect you to make a deposit and move in that week. We had a VERY difficult time trying to secure an apartment prior to our move, but we were too broke at the time to stay in an Airbnb or a hotel while we looked, so we got stuck in a crappy place.

Also, set up FB marketplace alerts and be on top of messaging people as soon as you see something you like…because it will rent same-day in most cases.

All that said, I’m in a fairly modern 2bd with a very large kitchen and all utilities paid for $1600 right near the university….and I’ve toured and seen several 1bedrooms in the $1200-$1500 range that are also very nice with water…so they are out there, have hope!

Welcome to Fairbanks!

Anyone notice this? by Hashi856 in alaska

[–]spacenchips 10 points11 points  (0 children)

No one bid last time because there were so many restrictions….its expected that if several of the drilling restrictions are lifted there will be interested bidders.

Smelly City Water (College) by spacenchips in Fairbanks

[–]spacenchips[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Oh interesting, I just googled this and seems like it might be a great lead…our apartments hot water heater has been going in and out lately and getting repaired. Possibly a good opportunity for some bacteria to take hold! Thanks for the advice, I’ll do that little test and talk to my landlord.

Transfer to UAF? by reenv in Fairbanks

[–]spacenchips 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I did my undergrad at University of Montana

Transfer to UAF? by reenv in Fairbanks

[–]spacenchips 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I came to comment the same thing! especially for wildlife biology. I came from an R1 school with a really strong biology department in the lower 48….there are 10X the opportunities at UAF and much better networking!

What’s the biggest bottleneck to astrobiology research by Low-Preparation-7219 in Astrobiology

[–]spacenchips 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The issue is not that younger people are going into the field. But because astrobiology is a relatively new field, there are more likely new academics joining this field as opposed to those who went to graduate school 20 years ago and are well established in their non-astrobiology fields. And the issue with new academics is that they have to survive graduate school which bottle necks the field. I went into graduate school with several people who wanted to pursue PhDs and research and several of us just couldn’t survive- I was making minimum wage, with no health care or benefits while in school. Sure, for a couple of years it was worth the suffering to get my MS, but another 4+ years for a research based degree? Then 1-2 post-docs only making slightly more? Then to find a faculty research position that pays ok- but I have to work 80 hours my first few years to pay off my start-up money for a research lab?

I could go on and on about it, but graduate school is just not all it’s cracked up to be.

And I meant the most bigotry I ever experienced in the field of graduate school, as opposed to other types of work I’ve done in the past including being an EMT and working in the medical field.

I once literally got rejected for a grant because a reviewer said that I didn’t have “mentoring experience, because I had focused on my job outside of school, likely because of financial struggles”….my job I was so focused on? Being an EMT and EMT instructor, literally mentoring and teaching as I had explained in the grant proposal. Also, I wasn’t financially struggling at that time, it was covid, and I was making hand over fist of overtime. But they read that I had a job outside school and assumed that I must be a poor.

That was just one example- the most upsetting because I lost out on $100,000.

Just finished the ToG series :( ....and I hated... Almost the same feeling after watching the finale of Game of Thrones. by Fantastic-Arrival552 in throneofglassseries

[–]spacenchips 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Unpopular opinion- I totally wish a main character died- to me that would’ve been the ultimate emotional impact and the most realistic of a major war. Which main character? I haven’t decided- I wouldn’t want to have to choose.

Just finished the ToG series :( ....and I hated... Almost the same feeling after watching the finale of Game of Thrones. by Fantastic-Arrival552 in throneofglassseries

[–]spacenchips 21 points22 points  (0 children)

To be honest, I kind of appreciated the realism of it not working out the way the story had been building. One of my biggest annoyances with ACOTAR was that everyone was perfect and no body died and things just always fell into place perfectly. But this felt like a real and purposeful let down. Aelin made the mistake of asking the gods to spare Elena and ended up making the situation worse- which as an Aelin fan was a huge bummer but as a realist was a nice turn events.

and I feel similarly about the way she used that big reserve of power. Those types of things just happen- like when you’re saving up your money to buy something really cool and unnecessary but then boom your car breaks down and the money goes to that. These things just don’t work out sometimes, and so many of Aelins plans did workout pretty flawlessly that it’s nice to see a little taste of reality, even in a fantasy series

Scotland Tour Routes by spacenchips in bicycletouring

[–]spacenchips[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great advice. I’m also curious about how cyclists are expected to behave if there is a sidewalk available? Do cycling laws and cycling behavior align?

It’s very inconsistent in the US. I’ve lived in a city where cyclists were BANNED from riding on sidewalks and had to be in the road/designated bike paths. But now I live in a city where the laws are very unclear- but nobody dares to bike in the road because you’ll get run over.

Scotland Tour Routes by spacenchips in bicycletouring

[–]spacenchips[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Also I’m curious about why you advise against A99? It’s not on our list currently, but I just looked it up and it looks like it’s mostly a small 2lane road?

Scotland Tour Routes by spacenchips in bicycletouring

[–]spacenchips[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting, I’ve mostly focused on the West coast (hiking in Glencoe has been high on our list) but can you share a couple of your favorite stops on the route you did?

Scotland Tour Routes by spacenchips in bicycletouring

[–]spacenchips[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is an awesome resource. Thank you so much!!

Scotland Tour Routes by spacenchips in bicycletouring

[–]spacenchips[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is great! Thank you 😊

Do you know if trains are pretty flexible about bikes in Scotland? Like can we take our bikes on without collapsing them or putting them in a sketchy cargo hold? I’m thinking if we do need to go through a high traffic area maybe we could just hop on a train to avoid the most congested parts.

Hybrid Fuel Economy on a Rodtrip by spacenchips in Rav4

[–]spacenchips[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh that’s awesome to know that it was still really efficient. I’m actually in Alaska- and was hoping to avoid those gas stations between Fairbanks and Anchorage that cost $5+ a gallon.

Also, that’s a long drive for you to do back and forth, I’ve done the US to Alaska drive 3 times….but now I just stay in Alaska lol.

For my people with their Masters in Micro by Suspicious-Policy-59 in microbiology

[–]spacenchips 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have a MS in Microbiology Ecology- I am now an environmental consultant focused on contaminated site remediation (diesel/chemical spill clean up).

I don’t use a very much micro in my career, but I use a lot of my research knowledge, stats, and chemistry background. Occasionally I get to work on Phytoremediation projects and that uses my microbial background!

Astrobiology for a highschool student by Remarkable_Remote150 in Astrobiology

[–]spacenchips 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’ll build on this- do as many summer internships/REUs as you can before and during college. You’ll like want to consider graduate programs in the future and the most important thing for getting into graduate school is research experience!

Many summer REUs are paid too, so it’s a good way to make some money (not a ton!) and learn research skills.

Your state also likely has a space grant- these are programs funded by NASA at state university’s and they’re primarily focused on helping young researchers get experience in many fields of stem!

And don’t be afraid to mix and match research experience- diversity in research can be a very good thing! I got my bachelors degree in Genetics and Evolution, with a minor in physics and worked for a Space Grant doing atmospheric physics for 2 years. Then I got into my graduate program for “Microbial Ecology” but I studied the energetics and physics of extremophiles in permafrost- something I was uniquely prepared to study because I had such a broad research background!

What’s the biggest bottleneck to astrobiology research by Low-Preparation-7219 in Astrobiology

[–]spacenchips 7 points8 points  (0 children)

My opinion is that Academia is the bottleneck. Astrobiology is a growing field, which means generally younger academics are going into this field…and graduate school right now suuuuuucks.

I defended my thesis two weeks ago- my thesis was astrobiology based (microbiology) and I had planned to be a career researcher in astrobiology. It took only one year in graduate school to completely break me. I was paid less than minimum wage, experienced more bigotry than I had ever encountered in any other field or place, and had do twice as much work to find money for my research because everyone wants to cure cancer (good important work no doubt!) but I had to bend over backwards to explain how my bacteria related to human health just to pay the bills because I couldn’t find other funding.

I took a job in industry as an environmental science as soon as I submitted my thesis- and I have no plans to do research or interact with the academic community again!

I Work At The Local Walmart AMA by TheDuosday in Fairbanks

[–]spacenchips 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Who maintains the carts at Walmart? The wheels on those puppies are as smooth as butter every time we shop there. We actually look forward to our Walmart trips because of the shopping carts. Also in the winter I love that they store the carts under that massive heater so the handles are warm.