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3 yr. ago

  • It's amazing how complicated just the O2 cycle is. Basically, we don't yet how to do it without a whole planet being involved.

    Like, plants do release O2 sometimes, but they also use O2 as fuel when they grow. Growing a plant requires light. On the earth that's easy, just put it in the sun. On Mars there's no atmosphere and no magnetic field, so if you just put a plant on the surface they'll die. So, you need to grow them underground in a mostly earth-like atmosphere at mostly earth-like pressure lit by artificial lights.

    So, you plant a lot of plants deep underground lit by bright artificial lights. Then you need to supply the plants with a lot of water. Some of that water will be released into the air, but some of it will be incorporated into the plant's body. There's a whole water cycle that isn't yet fully understood.

    What about the soil? On earth worms and other bugs break down leaf litter and other things into usable soil and bees pollinate many of the plants. So, do you ship up a bunch of bugs? You'd have to supply a whole ecosystem of them so they live in balance. You could go with hydroponics instead, but then you'd need a constant supply of nutrients for the plants, and given the amount of plant matter needed for just one human, that would be a huge supply of nutrients.

    I'd love to see another honest, scientifically rigorous attempt at a biosphere project. Building a closed ecosystem on Earth is easy-mode compared to doing it anywhere else, but so far all the Biospheres have been failures. IMO until we can easily do it on Earth, we're nowhere near ready to do it in space, on the moon, or on another planet.

  • How exactly can you impeach using anything but the normal channels?

  • "Robertson" is confusing, "square" is straightforward. This Canadian thinks the name Robertson should be forgotten.

  • Nonsense, many presidential kids have traded on their famous names, that wasn't unique to Hunter.

    Nobody said it was unique to hunter, but it's still corruption.

  • Impeachment means a majority of the house needs to vote to impeach him. The house is controlled by MAGA republicans, so that isn't going to happen. Even if it did happen, removal requires 60% of the senate to vote to remove him, and the senate is also controlled by MAGA republicans, so that isn't going to happen. I don't know how "probation" factors into this, but Trump controls the DOJ, so any criminal-related thing isn't going to happen either.

    So, whatever is "warranted", that isn't going to actually happen.

  • The "Biden Crime Family" wasn't true. But, it does seem pretty obvious that Hunter Biden tried to take advantage of his father's political position in order to enrich himself. Joe Biden may not have approved, or have been involved in any way. And, the degree of possible "corruption" seems quaint compared with the absolute bullshit that the Trump family is doing. But, you can't just say that the "Biden Crime Family" was made out of thin air. It was anchored on something real, even though it was blown way out of proportion.

  • Democrats when the Republicans put up a anti-DEI, anti-Trans or similar tip line: "Haha, wouldn't it be a shame if someone called this tip line with bullshit tips so they wasted all their time on wild goose chases? Don't do that, of course! /s"

    Democrats when there's a claim against Donald Trump that comes from a tip line: "Oh my god, do you guys know what Donald Trump did?!?"

    Please guys, allow the Republicans to be the party of gullibility, there's no need to compete for them on that one.

  • Ok, it's more accurate to say that the fact that the screw will cam out is something that was key to its adoption, even if it wasn't designed to happen.

    Quoting “One Good Turn - A natural history of the screwdriver and the screw” by Witold Rybczynski:

    Paradoxically, this very quality is what attracted automobile manufacturers to the Phillips screw. The point of an automated driver turning the screw with increasing force popped out of the recess when the screw was fully set, preventing overscrewing. Thus, a certain degree of cam-out was incorporated into the design from the beginning. However, what worked on the assembly line has bedevilled handymen ever since.

    https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/were-phillips-screwdrivers-designed-to-cam-out/57870/9

  • "... and now that I realize how easily conned I am, I promise not to vote in any future elections because I'd just make the wrong choice."

    (One can dream)

  • Don't misspell things in your quotes.

  • Don't misspell things in your quotes.

  • whose

  • Obviously, the end goal is to ensure that nobody has any rights, just temporary privileges which can easily be stripped at the dictator's whim. That way everyone is always afraid to stand up to them or they'll get locked up, have their citizenship stripped, etc.

  • illegal immigrants being turned away

    This sentence makes no sense. "Turned away" implies that they are rejected at the border. If they're rejected at the border, at no point are they illegal immigrants, they're just people who want to pass the border for whatever reason. The only way they can become illegal immigrants is if they pass the border and are not turned away at the border.

    we have no idea about their criminal history and ignoring them allows drug dealers and gangs to sneak through

    This is Fox News propaganda. Drug dealers and gang members aren't taking their passports to a checkpoint and asking to please be admitted. If they're "sneaking through", it's because the US has one of the largest borders in the world, and it's effectively impossible to police all 9000 km of border, and it's obviously also unrealistic to build a secure wall covering all 9000 km.

  • There was probably at least a year between the screw format being invented and the first screws being manufactured.

  • I think Torx tend to be used on things that are assembled by machines. It might be better to use Torx on things that are machine-assembled. In that case you have to care about the wear and tear on the screw drivers, and a Torx design might last a bit longer. With a square head there's going to be a tendency for the driver to become rounded over time.

  • IMO the only two criteria that matter are:

    1. Is the screw going to slip out while I'm screwing it in or out.
    2. Do I have a screwdriver or screwdriver tip for that screw when I need it.

    Criterion 1 eliminates the flat head and Philips points. They're terrible because they slip out. The flat head not only slips out, it slips out in the most dangerous ways.

    But, criterion 2 eliminates most of the other designs. Even if you're Canadian, which means you do have a Robertson screw driver, you might not have the right Robertson bit. Unlike with Philips or slot, the size of the bit really matters.

    Ikea does a great job of handling this situation because they mostly use hex screws and bolts (which are great), but they also supply the required driver with the parts (which is necessary because many people don't have a tool to tighten hex bolts).

  • With a screwdriver.

  • Philips is designed to allow the screwdriver to slip out so you don't over-torque the screw. If you're stripping them, you're probably using too much torque. But, it might not be your fault, because a lot of people use Philips screws when they shouldn't, and use too much torque when screwing them in.

    As for slotted, those just suck. I guess one benefit is that you can use an over-sized head on small screws. But, slotted is really the wrong choice almost every time.