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Joined 3 months ago
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Cake day: February 14th, 2025

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  • People who work in research often have their whole life built around their specific field of research, to the point where their transferable skills and knowledge are minimized or excluded. Financially, they’re usually dependent on the institution they work for to a far greater degree than most professions are, which is part of why tenure exists. They also—but certainly not always—are neurodivergent. Their area of research is necessarily something they’re passionate about.

    I can totally see this happening. There’s a lot going on in the world right now. Many people are experiencing extreme anxiety about world events they don’t have power over.

    Being personally bullied by the government specifically about the work that is tremendously personally important would be devastating.



  • Yep the real challenge is understanding when it’s fucked vs when it’s slightly off kilter and a professional can give it a stern look and fix it, but with most things these days it’s always a “well, we can get you a new module, but it’s on back order; it’ll take 6 weeks to come in, maybe buy a new widget”.

    In lieu of nothing, there’s UV lights for drinking water that might fit the need that are reasonably reliable… or maybe just a binge of bigclive opening things up might give the key for cracking that UV light. good luck!










  • I recently set up some solar panels. Turned them on very close to noon. Well, look at that! So much power! Four hours later, i was getting 10 percent of that number.

    I know that solar power levels change throughout the day. But when it’s put into concrete terms like “I can run my refrigerator on this … oh, only for 2 hours a day” it helped me really understand.

    So to answer your question - we use fossil fuels in the grid to as a disposable battery to handle changes in demand and times when renewables aren’t available.

    As for EVs - many train routes aren’t electrified. EV trucks are impractical for long-haul, and the infrastructure is nowhere to be seen. Even in EV friendly areas, it’s hard to find a charger that is easy to reach with a heavy-haul truck. That’s before we talk about whether there’s trucks to drive, and the cost of the truck. For individuals, an EV is simply beyond the finances of many people. Road trips are an edge case, but some people travel a lot for work and can’t afford to stop every 3 hrs for 30-60 min, if the charger is available, and twice as often in winter.

    We are making progress on every front.