Eric_the_Cerise's recent activity
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Comment on Artemis II April 1 launch in ~space
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Comment on Why the US Navy won't open Hormuz in ~society
Eric_the_Cerise Link ParentI suppose there is a chance that the US Navy is literally incapable of meeting the challenge. I'll stipulate that. However, in all of these kinds of discussions, there is an inherent underlying...I suppose there is a chance that the US Navy is literally incapable of meeting the challenge. I'll stipulate that.
However, in all of these kinds of discussions, there is an inherent underlying assumption that the US is not supposed to suffer losses, or at least, not significant losses. To say that, in securing the strait, the US might well lose one or more high-value, expensive boats, that potentially hundreds of US military personnel might be injured or die ... this is not the same as saying that the US cannot do it, but only that the US chooses not to even try ... but, again, does not bat an eye at trying to foist off the exact same job on literally any other country on Earth that's willing to try.
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Comment on Why the US Navy won't open Hormuz in ~society
Eric_the_Cerise Link ParentIt may be a nit-pick, but I feel it's an important distinction. The US Navy absolutely can do this. Trump is just not willing to risk US lives or hardware to do it, but he's perfectly happy to...do what the US Navy cannot.
It may be a nit-pick, but I feel it's an important distinction. The US Navy absolutely can do this. Trump is just not willing to risk US lives or hardware to do it, but he's perfectly happy to threaten and cajole his "allies" into risking their people and hardware, to help clean up the mess he's caused.
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Comment on What is your favourite shark? in ~talk
Eric_the_Cerise Link ParentProbably still my favorite, too.Probably still my favorite, too.
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Comment on What is your favourite shark? in ~talk
Eric_the_Cerise Link Parent(per Wikipedia, emphasis mine) Holy crap ... may just be my new favorite shark now, too.They reach sexual maturity around 150 years of age and their pups are born alive after an estimated gestation period of 8 to 18 years.
(per Wikipedia, emphasis mine)
Holy crap ... may just be my new favorite shark now, too.
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Comment on NASA's Artemis II L-1 countdown status news conference in ~space
Eric_the_Cerise Link ParentNot disagreeing with your point -- all true -- but I would argue the most relevant difference is that these people have 8+ years of additional training and experience.Not disagreeing with your point -- all true -- but I would argue the most relevant difference is that these people have 8+ years of additional training and experience.
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Comment on NASA's Artemis II L-1 countdown status news conference in ~space
Eric_the_Cerise Link ParentYou (or rather, they) have the dates wrong here ... the launch windows are daily from April 1st thru the 6th.Wednesday through to Monday (April 4 to 9)
You (or rather, they) have the dates wrong here ... the launch windows are daily from April 1st thru the 6th.
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Comment on NASA's Artemis II L-1 countdown status news conference in ~space
Eric_the_Cerise LinkA couple of interesting tidbits ... they're sending a bunch of old farts. At 47 years old, Christina Koch is the youngest person on the crew (and, ironically, the most experienced, with almost a...A couple of interesting tidbits ... they're sending a bunch of old farts. At 47 years old, Christina Koch is the youngest person on the crew (and, ironically, the most experienced, with almost a year in space already), and all four of them will become the 4 oldest people to visit the Moon, older than everyone who went on the Apollo missions.
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Comment on How to turn anything into a router in ~comp
Eric_the_Cerise Link ParentAgreed. I have a rice cooker that I never use anymore, which I was hoping to repurpose as a router...Agreed. I have a rice cooker that I never use anymore, which I was hoping to repurpose as a router...
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Comment on US-Israeli plan for Kurdish invasion of Iran reportedly collapsed amid leaks, distrust in ~society
Eric_the_Cerise LinkMy dad was born and raised in Hungary during the Soviet era. He came to the US as a political refugee, and I suppose he was happier with the US than he ever was with Communist Hungary. But 60+...My dad was born and raised in Hungary during the Soviet era. He came to the US as a political refugee, and I suppose he was happier with the US than he ever was with Communist Hungary.
But 60+ years later, he still remembered, he was still bitter; I still heard the stories about how the US "Radio Free Europe" kept urging Hungarians to "rise up against the USSR" and promising how, if they did, the US would be right there to help them.
Then, in 1956, the Hungarians did rise up against the USSR -- actually kicked them out of the country for a month or so. And then, when the Soviets rolled into Budapest with tanks and machine guns -- killed my uncle, in fact, a decade before I was even born -- you guessed it; the US did nothing.
This was 70 years ago, during the Eisenhower Administration. The US has been pulling this shit for longer than most of us have been walking around. People remember this shit; they pass it on to their kids, and their grandkids. I'm glad the Kurds finally figured it out.
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Comment on "CEO said a thing!" journalism in ~tech
Eric_the_Cerise LinkPretty much holds true for 95% of "Trump says..." headlines, too.Pretty much holds true for 95% of "Trump says..." headlines, too.
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Comment on Scientists uncovered the nutrients bees were missing -- colonies surged fifteen-fold in ~science
Eric_the_Cerise Link ParentBees are domesticated livestock, same as chickens and cows. And broadly speaking, we treat them about as well, at least at a commercial scale. Keeping bees organically, w/o using any chemicals, is...Bees are domesticated livestock, same as chickens and cows. And broadly speaking, we treat them about as well, at least at a commercial scale.
Keeping bees organically, w/o using any chemicals, is extremely difficult in this day; I tried and failed, though I did limit the amount of chemicals I used.
It is worth noting that there is no such thing as organic honey. There might be legal definitions that allow producers to put that label on the honey, but it's not meaningful. Bees go where they want to, harvest pollen and nectar wherever they find it, and it is impossible to assure that they only bring back "organic" ingredients.
But keeping the bees organically, that is possible, and it is worth looking for beekeepers that are trying to do that, because it generally means "happy bees".
I responded to your specific question below.
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Comment on Scientists uncovered the nutrients bees were missing -- colonies surged fifteen-fold in ~science
Eric_the_Cerise Link ParentNutshell version, this is the answer. The broader version would look at not just how expensive it is, but also, how difficult it is. Keeping your own hives is extremely challenging, requiring a...Nutshell version, this is the answer.
The broader version would look at not just how expensive it is, but also, how difficult it is. Keeping your own hives is extremely challenging, requiring a lot of specialized equipment, knowledge, experience, and a significant time investment. And even with all that, bees die ... a lot.
Easier to just rent professional beekeeper services.
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Comment on Scientists uncovered the nutrients bees were missing -- colonies surged fifteen-fold in ~science
Eric_the_Cerise LinkFormer beekeeper here. At first glance, this sounds like a useful supplement for bees. It might be great. But my immediate reaction is that it sounds a bit "Clockwork Orange"-y ... in the same...- Exemplary
Former beekeeper here.
At first glance, this sounds like a useful supplement for bees. It might be great. But my immediate reaction is that it sounds a bit "Clockwork Orange"-y ... in the same sense that people are better off eating healthy food, than taking vitamin supplements to make up for a bad diet.
Which might not be that bad in isolation, but modern beekeeping has been one step after another of "artificial almost-as-good replacement of what they actually need", for decades.
For commercial beekeepers these days, honey production is an after-thought. Only something like 25% of their income comes from honey and honey products. The vast majority of income comes from pollination services, which involves packing up hundreds and thousands of hives onto semis and moving them across the country, several times each season.
The almond crop in California is the beekeepers' "gold rush" ... for the past 20 years, there have literally not been enough bees on the entire continent of North America available to pollinate the almond crop. Every year, they try to find new ways to get even more bees down there, importing them from around the world (and quite likely, spreading new-and-improved diseases and parasites in the process).
And that one month of pollinating almond trees often accounts for more than 50% of the money earned by most beekeepers for the entire year.
Then, they spend the rest of the year moving the hives around to other important pollination crops. The only other one I know of, off the top of my head, is the cranberry pollination in Wisconsin; that's another big one, but I know there are many others.
I guess most people know about the problems with pesticides and lack of natural forage and colony collapse disorder and such-like, but I don't think most people realize the kind of "life" bees live. They're just not meant to spend 48-72 hours locked up in a semi, tooling down the highway ... then spend a couple of weeks in one climate/ecosystem ... then a month in a completely different region ... then a third ... all over the continent.
Even without all of the added stresses of pesticides and etc, just the regular day-to-day life of domesticated honeybees these days is just ridiculously unnatural.
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Comment on New ‘Lord of the Rings’ movie From Stephen Colbert and his son in development at Warner Bros in ~movies
Eric_the_Cerise LinkSo this is what he decided to do with his life after they fired him...So this is what he decided to do with his life after they fired him...
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Comment on Britain mandates heat pumps and solar panels in new homes from 2028 in ~enviro
Eric_the_Cerise Link ParentI've been in the EU for almost a decade now, but I still think in US construction concepts. (Practically) no one uses water to heat their homes there; air heat thru air ducts is where my mind...I've been in the EU for almost a decade now, but I still think in US construction concepts. (Practically) no one uses water to heat their homes there; air heat thru air ducts is where my mind goes, which is why this issue you bring up didn't even occur to me.
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Comment on Everyone but US President Donald Trump understands what he’s done - allied leaders know that any positive gesture they make will count for nothing in ~society
Eric_the_Cerise LinkThe older I get, the more preoccupied I become with the concept of prime causes, first dominoes. I see it in other people's comments, too ... it's not just Trump, it's the fossil fuel industry,...The older I get, the more preoccupied I become with the concept of prime causes, first dominoes. I see it in other people's comments, too ... it's not just Trump, it's the fossil fuel industry, it's the military industrial complex, it's the spineless Republican politicians, etc.
All true, of course, but how did we get here?
I've long said Trump is not--and never has been--the problem. I lay the blame squarely at the feet of the (roughly) half of American voters that thought Trump should run the country, not once but twice. And I stand by that assessment to this day. The wars, the insane healthcare policies, the destructi ... all of it, it is explicitly, maliciously, criminally, the fault of American voters who elected him once, saw what he was capable of, and then said, "yes, please, I would like even more of that".
And yet ... and yet ... why did 77M people think that was a good idea? Did it have anything to do with 30+ years of Faux News and 25+ years of Google search siloing people and 20+ years of Facebook outrage-algorithms? Or 40+ years of Exxon and Co maliciously manipulating anything and everything they could, to distract people from discovering that their one-and-only product was destroying the planet? Is it Capitalism in general, monetizing the dopamine drip for the shiny toy? Was Marx actually right?
( shrug )
Was the US already doomed after 9/11? I think so. But then, would 9/11 have even happened w/o Reagan? Would Reagan have happened w/o the Iranian Revolution? Or does it really all go all the way back to the Civil War? White men still just trying to get the brown people to do all the work for them, so they can live guilt-free lives of redolent leisure?
First dominoes. IDK. The more I look, the more I see other dominoes, stretching back in time. And I'm stuck wondering who to blame, until I come to the conclusion that human nature is just fundamentally incompatible with the modern society we've tried to create. Evolution has not kept pace with innovation; our lizard brains keep interfering.
Meh. Time for coffee. Sorry I don't have a satisfying conclusion here, but that kind of feels like the point.
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Comment on Britain mandates heat pumps and solar panels in new homes from 2028 in ~enviro
Eric_the_Cerise Link ParentThe most common type of heat pumps are air-to-air, and those have trouble heating a home when the outside temps are very cold; in places like Canada, they often require some small secondary...The most common type of heat pumps are air-to-air, and those have trouble heating a home when the outside temps are very cold; in places like Canada, they often require some small secondary heating system (usually just radiant) to "keep up" during the coldest weather, and that quickly changes the calculations. There are other types of heat pumps that work fine, no matter how cold it gets outside, but those tend to have higher up-front costs, or other hurdles.
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Comment on Britain mandates heat pumps and solar panels in new homes from 2028 in ~enviro
Eric_the_Cerise Link ParentThis part, at least, isn't true. It may be accurate that gas has often been cheaper than heat pumps, but even if it wasn't ... it's like switching to electric cars or fluorescent bulbs. People...if using heat pumps saved money, people would ask for it in new builds
This part, at least, isn't true. It may be accurate that gas has often been cheaper than heat pumps, but even if it wasn't ... it's like switching to electric cars or fluorescent bulbs. People just keep on using what they're familiar with, long after the new tech has "proven itself".
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Comment on Britain mandates heat pumps and solar panels in new homes from 2028 in ~enviro
Eric_the_Cerise LinkI have never understood why we didn't all switch to heat pumps decades ago. Even completely ignoring the renewable / climate-change aspect of it, heat pumps are just magically efficient. You could...I have never understood why we didn't all switch to heat pumps decades ago. Even completely ignoring the renewable / climate-change aspect of it, heat pumps are just magically efficient. You could literally burn coal to power a power plant to produce the electricity to run a heat pump to heat your house, and it would be 2-4 times more efficient than burning the coal directly in your house.
Furthermore, the technology is basically the same as refrigeration and air conditioning, meaning we have known about heat pumps, and had the option to use them, as long as we've been using refrigerators.
China put a far-side relay satellite up there a few years ago, so that they could put a lander down on the far side. I assume it's still up there ... maybe ask to borrow some bandwidth on that one?