I stopped checking the site so regularly, and as tends to happen with not-yet-solidified habits, I fell off the Tildes wagon for a bit.

What interesting updates, news, changes, drama, or discussions would you say has highlighted the past two months?

Thanks!

I'm a father of two girls, ages are 6 and 4. Miss 6 has had a wobbly tooth for a few weeks now (the way she has harped on it felt like years) now last week it came out. Being that it was loose for so long I thought I had come to terms with that, I hadn't. It's odd but it shook me harder than I would have expected.

What milestone has your little one hit that you weren't ready for? prepare this foolish dad for more things to come!

There are two big unrelated things giving gaming a lot of exposure right now. One is people broadcasting gaming sessions (e.g. Critical Role). The other is that a lot of shows are doing an RPG episode (e.g. Community).

How much of this is a good thing? What happens to the community when the vast majority of fans don't actually play the game? And is anything being done to transition people from audience to participants?

Solved thanks to @MrGrey in the comments! Leaving the post text here for posterity.

Whenever I join a new site one of the first things I do is customize the style to my liking with CSS skins. I'm having a little trouble here, though, specifically with the fact that no matter what I do, I can't increase the width of the paragraphs in posts and comments.

As far as I can tell, the div.topic-text-full element spans all the way across the main element, with just a little margin space. .topic-text-full's child p elements only span maybe 80% of .topic-text-full's width, though, and my attempts to make them wider have met with failure:

.topic-full-text p {
  width: 10%;
  }

successfully shrinks the element, and so do any other widths under 100%. Setting it to any number above 100% makes no changes. Similarly, setting the width in pixels can shrink the element width, but not increase it.

The same goes if you replace .topic-full-text with .comment-text.

Is there something very simple that I'm missing? It just really bugs me that the paragraphs don't go all the way across, but since that's such a small issue I'd rather fix it on my end rather than file an official complaint about it.

Tildes, I'd like some opinions please! I work in a genetics lab as a research assistant and I've got the opportunity to pursue a PhD under the supervision of the lab director whilst maintaining my current position and salary, with work I'd probably be doing anyway contributing to my thesis.

I feel like this is a pretty good opportunity: I'm not getting any younger and I have a young family, so going back to school to do this on a studentship is not an option, and my employer is willing to fund half the tuition fees and cover materials/ reagents etc. Word in the media is that there is a glut of PhDs at the moment, but I don't have my heart set on an academic career, so I won't be crushed if I end up in industry. I'm based in Europe, so would be looking at taking 3 years for the whole degree, which is coincidentally when my current contract is up.

Has anyone pursued a PhD under similar conditions? What was your experience like? Was getting your PhD worth it (especially in the life sciences/biotech)?

Thanks!

I made an embarrassingly verbose post yesterday attempting to put into words and seek advice on difficulties in executing sustained steps towards building a future. It's something I've struggled with all my life, coasting along, with the mirage of action towards goals forever ahead, always tomorrow, or next week, or when I get home. I think Pink Floyd wrote something about missing the starting gun.

(...Goddamn I haven't listened to Pink Floyd in years. That's some good stuff right there.)

Anyway reading and replying to the (much appreciated) comments from you lovely people got me thinking and, frankly, a little bit motivated to be an agent for some change. However something I've learned to notice by now is that that initial drive tends to have a nauseatingly short half-life. So how can we regularly stir things up to keep the reaction going?

So here's what I'm thinking: Starting a short weekly post in ~talk detailing what I've worked on or otherwise accomplished (or not accomplished) from Monday to Sunday open to input, encouragement or criticism. Actually, if other people would be interested in committing to something like this I'd almost prefer to make it a public thing where people (including myself) can log their weekly progress in the comments of a thread dedicated to such a thing.

Obviously this is a bit rough around the edges so I'll think about it this week and pending suggestions or objection will probably put the first one up next Sunday or Monday.

I think this might be a Neat Thing, yeah?

There was a story posted to Hacker News, The Return of the Super-Elite from Jacobin magazine. It was on the front page for a little bit of time. I refreshed and it was on the 2nd page.

5 hours later and it's down to #113, page 4. It has 88 points. The second youngest submission on page 4 is 16 hours old. On page 3, the youngest item is 6 hours old, and has only 7 points. So this article is newer, has a respectable amount of points but within 5 hours has been relegated to page 4, whereas an item that has fewer points and is 1 hour older is sitting on page 3.

edit: the rank keeps dropping, when I first wrote this post it was at #111, then #112, and when I submitted it was at #113, I just refreshed and it's at #114. Other submissions near the range of points and hours are ranking on page 1. On page 5 all items are from 1, 2 or 3 days ago.

I've noticed that any pro-unionization talk seems to disappear much more quickly than other stories.

So let's get our tinfoil hats on and ask is Hacker News suppressing leftist articles or suppressing articles of a certain type altogether?

Or maybe it's just a conspiracy of a bad algorithm for determining where submissions rank?

For those unaware the Librem 5 is an upcoming Linux smartphone developped by Purism that seems to be doing everything right. Frankly I think this might be humanity's last chance to have a Libre mobile option before the Google/Apple duopoly gets too far ahead.

I really, really want to back the thing but after going through the exchange rate, duties and customs I think it works out to nearly 900CAD which I just can't afford right now, though I might end up pulling the trigger anyway. Call it 400$ for a phone and 400$ to support a worthy cause, eh?

I feel like this would be good for transparency. It's a feature Facebook used to have and then took away— but I think something that either shows each edit's version in a timeline, or a diff, or just a "first and final revision" comparison would be nice.

I'd prefer the first suggestion (a chronological version history), but any form of viewing a comment's history would be really appreciated!

Firefly has a fairly large cast, and I believe this really adds to the different perspectives they can show for any single topic. For this post, I want to discuss what Firefly says about work.

I decided against writing an essay for this, so I thought I'll just mention a few things that stood out to me.

Your job is your adventure

I always found Kaylee's story on how she joined the crew really endearing. She had a love and passion for ships, and let her knowledge (and unspoken hard work) offer her an opportunity to travel and experience new things. I love how her job, as the ship's mechanic, is a part of who she is.

Work can be hard and hard to come by

Ultimately, Firefly is a story about survival. Mal takes jobs that can be dirty, they're not fully equipped for and just a little...illegal. However, you have to work with what you can get with what you have. And there's nothing wrong with doing any job to survive...of course this leads to...

Your job doesn't need to define you, but it can reflect who you are

Inara works a job that comes with a lot of judgement. She takes pride in her work and doesn't let anyone shame her for it, though they definitely do try.

One of my favourite Simon moments is when he has Jayne in the operating chair after learning that Jayne betrayed him and his sister. Simon tells Jayne that he'll always be safe when he's in the chair. Simon is a doctor, and though he obviously has a great ability to do harm, he never will.

Jayne's all about the money. I think it's shown that Jayne would love to do "respectable" work, but doesn't have the opportunity. He would rather play the hero, but can't, so he's all about making as much money as he can. His morals are probably the greyest of the crew. Still, he feels shame, and learns that when you comprise your morals for a payday, that is you. Ultimately, it's not who he wants to be, and definitely not what he wants to be remembered for.

I think there's something really universal about the themes that Firefly has about work. After all, most of us will spend a significant portion of our lives at work, and I think it's not hard to relate at least a little bit.

I've been into Kamen Rider and Super Sentai for a few years and I'm wondering if there are any other fans on this site. (I was going to make this a general tokusatsu topic, but I'm not into Garo or Space Sheriff or, idk, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, so I wouldn't be able to contribute to discussions on them.)

Do you have a favorite installment of KR or Sentai? I'd have to say my fav Rider is W; the partner dynamic, and the detective noir style and subversions thereof, really tickled my fancy. For Sentai I guess my favorite was ToQger, but I feel kind of cheap saying that since it was the first series I saw all the way through; but I loved how silly and serious it was at the same time, and while I usually hate the kind of Red that ToQger had, Right had a really good reason for being that way.

Anyone watching Build and LuPat? I'm loving them both. Build feels like a shonen anime and I'm sure it's on purpose, and sometimes it makes me roll my eyes, but I like the characters and how they bounce off each other (even if Misora and Sawa could be given a bit more to do). LuPat is shaping up to be a really great Sentai; I can't wait for the two teams to inevitably team up, like we all know they're going to.

Anyway I'd really like to talk about these shows with anyone else who's a fan!

Whats this about?

@wanda-seldon started a thread over at ~science in hopes of generating more user created content. My plan is to post some introductions myself, in fields like mechanical engineering and automation (is anyone interested in it anyways?). But until I feel like I would do it proper, I figured I'd try something similar with a much lower barrier of entry. I'll write about some hobbies of mine, in a way that goes more indepth about the process, but still shallow enough to function as an introduction. And if folks are interested in more in-depth stuff or pointers on where to go, I'll take care of that.

So on todays topic, homebrewing. What is it, why would you bother, and what's actually involved in it?

What's Homebrewing?

Put simply, homebrewing is the art of making beer yourself. It's not really that complicated to be honest.

Why Homebrewing?

• It's (relatively) cheap.

If you got a few basic kitchen items (pots, ladle, cups, etc), you already have most items needed for brewing a small quantity. A few additional tools will be required, like a food grade plastic container, a water lock, etc. but if you treat them proper they can be used for years after years. Ingredient cost is neglible.

• Quality.

A common reaction many have with homebrewed beer is how thick and rich in flavour it is, compared to your average supermarket beer. Especially if your experience is with light beers (in which case I believe Monty Python said it best, it's fucking close to water). It's like comparing that sad pie you can buy in the cooler section, compared to something fresh out of the oven with the sweetest fruits and crispiest crust.

• Easy to learn, hard to master.

If your goal is to make a good beer, you only need two "skills". Good working hygiene and patience. Beyond that, any complication you want to add is up to you. You can start with a simple ale and work your way towards horribly complicated recipes that seem more like a chemistry exam than a hobby.

Whats actually involved in it?

So what do you actually do? I'll keep it short, even though I could write a book if I wanted to cover everything. Brewing is made out of three phases. The actual brewing, the fermenting and the bottling.

Brewing

You mix malts (and/or barley, wheat, oats, etc) with water, which you will draw a wort from. The wort will be the basis of your beer. A wort is a bit like a tea from a tea mix in this sense. Also it's sickly sweet (so taste test on your own risk). The sugar from the malt will be what is turned into alcohol during fermentation. In a similar way, that we use fruit sugar for wines/ciders or honey for mead.

Fun fact: In Sweden and Norway, elks drunk on rotten (fermented) fruit they eat from the ground is a rare but real phenomena.

Once you have a wort, the wort is boiled up and hops are supplied. Usually hops are divided in two categories. Bitter hops and aroma hops. Though that has more to do with when you add hops in the brewing process. The hops add flavour primarily from the oils (which give the fresh and fruity taste) and the resin (which gives the bitter taste). The resin takes a certain amount of boiling time to properly release, so hops added early in the process will contribute to bitterness.

The liquid is then cooled and stored in a container with a bit of yeast. That marks the start of the fermentation period.

Fermentation

Fermentation is fairly straight forward. Yeast loves sugar. And will keep eating it until most is gone. Alcohol, is a byproduct of this process.

Bottling

Once fermentation is (nearly) done, the beer is transferred into bottles. After a few days of waiting, a pressure should have built inside your bottles which will create the nice bubbliness we know from beers. Toss on a label if you wan't to brag and want to make sure that graphical designer education was not for naught.

Swell, how do I get into it?

How do you get into it? Technically speaking, you could start with no-mash brewing. Though I would recommend against it, as it takes out the charm of actually brewing, since you just add water and call it a day. Alternatively, there are several good sources on this. The american homebrewers association for instance have a good quick guide for some instructions. Though if you wan't to go serious about it, I recommend to read up on the specific processes, and what influences them.

Afterwords

Does it sound interesting? Bring a buddy, and make a day of it. Make your own labels too if you wan't to brag to friends and family. If you have questions, I will answer anything. Need help setting up or want a plan, I can help with that too.

Edit: Would recommend reading @piratepants comment in the comment section. It expands a lot of the things mentioned here, and goes a lot more into the actual processes while brewing. If you got this far, it's worth continueing.