growsomethinggood
@growsomethinggood@reddthat.com
- Comment on my humps 1 week ago:
Good news! Artists have already covered this one, please enjoy The Bone Game by Drawfee
- Comment on RIMJOBS 5 weeks ago:
You’re thinking of Mpox, ie monkeypox
- Comment on Sleep scientists reveal how often to exercise to reduce insomnia risk 1 month ago:
Tldr if you’re not opening the article, the study doesn’t specifically prescribe an amount of exercise, just that people who consistently exercise (and continue to consistently exercise) get better sleep. Consistent exercise is defined as 2+ times per week, for (an assumed weekly sum of) 1+ hours.
- Comment on Exception implies deficiency. Am I the only one who sees this? 2 months ago:
I think you have identified some small truth, but have made an error in narrowing the scope of where the deficiency actually lies to the individual/group. Exceptions can imply deficiency (among other things) but I would argue that said deficiencies often are in how these groups are treated by society and not inherent to the groups or individuals themselves.
I’m going to use calculus as an example, since there are plenty of reasons you’d expect someone to not be able to do calculus. If you’re sufficiently young, maybe you don’t have the complex reasoning skills to understand calculus (deficiency, but not permanent). If you’re an adult without a math education, would your inability to do calculus be considered a deficiency, or just a lack of opportunity which can be fixed through assistance? If you have been told your kind of person would suck at doing calculus but you really want to learn, and are performing worse than your peers who are told they are good at this naturally, is that a deficiency in the individual or the system they live in? If you have to work more than one job to keep your family housed and don’t have time for calculus, if you are targeted for police violence, if you’re discriminated against by even the most well-meaning people with authority over you, you could be the most brilliant mathematician and it wouldn’t matter- society at large is failing you.
When you’re talking about “exception” here, I think what is really happening is people taking measures to level the playing field for people who have experienced discrimination. In a perfect world with no individual or systemic discrimination, current or historical, these sorts of “exceptions” wouldn’t be necessary! But that’s not the world we live in. The first step to making a more equitable society is recognizing where people got shafted historically and what affect that still has on society today. Getting the short end of the historical stick does not imply immutable qualities about a group of people today.
So, no, I don’t think that giving exceptions to people who need them most inherently implies that they are individually or categorically deficit.
- Comment on Solar Panels Spread Across America's Heartland as Farmers Chase Stable Returns 2 months ago:
Easier to move than, say, wind turbines, but there’s a lot involved to solar installations in the field. Often they have to have significant piles driven into the ground (or you’ve just made a big glass kite ready to blow away), and the individual panels are about as tall as a person and double sided glass (think about shower glass/slider door glass installation and how often you see videos of them exploding). Installation alone can take over a year for larger facilities. I’d imagine there could be some creative solutions to rotating solar with crops, but I generally agree with the other folks suggesting some form of agrovoltaics is more viable with the technology we have currently!
- Comment on Solar Panels Spread Across America's Heartland as Farmers Chase Stable Returns 2 months ago:
In the right places, this can be incredibly reliable income if you’re renting your land for 30+ years, and doesn’t necessarily preclude certain types of farming on the same land. Sheep are very compatible with solar installations since they will naturally graze on vegetation that can affect the panels. Goats however are not compatible since they will eat electrical cables and jump on the panels!
- Comment on How do you refer to the lgbtq+ "community" least excludingly? 3 months ago:
Hey OP, can you elaborate on the context for which you are looking to talk about the queer community? I think that matters a bit. There are more formal and more casual descriptions that I do think are important to discuss the differences of use.
For instance, Gender and Sexual Minorities or GSM is probably the most formal you can go with. This might be appropriate for corporate DEI, but you will get absolutely roasted on social media if you refer to gay people that way. (It’s very clinical, not really something the community uses, but it’s a wide umbrella)
LGBT(QIA+) is a little old school nowadays, a mouthful, and always feels a bit like you’re always going to be missing some letters. If a cishet ally used any variety this, I’m not going to be offended and I’d appreciate that they’re trying- it’s clear that the intention is there and it’s better to signal support imperfectly that be silent imo. This one usually comes up most frequently around Pride Month as there’s a lot more visibility on our community from those who are not in it.
The queer community is probably your best all-purpose use but may not work 100% in formal situations as “queer” has historically been a pejorative. Boomers tend to look at you funny when you use it, and some younger folks who don’t think that slurs can ever be reclaimed can sometimes be put off as well. That said, it’s probably what the majority of the community uses as an umbrella term. This is the one I’d use when chatting with friends. “Gay” can also be used as a substitute for “queer” in this context as many folks will also use that as an umbrella term, but this can be confused with discussing just gay men, so you may have to know your audience.
I had a presumed cishet friend in high school who just used “homosexual”. I wouldn’t recommend. All of the formality of GSM, none of the inclusion.
Other things I would not recommend: alphabet mafia (unless you’re on tiktok), anything that is still generally considered a slur (some folks are reclaiming the f-slur, t-slur and d-slur but I would consider that a deeply personal choice of self expression and not something for cishet folks to use at this time, unless personally invited to use to describe only that person), and lastly, using any of these broad identifiers to refer to specific people who have shared their specific label with you (ie don’t call someone a queer woman when they have told you they identify as bisexual, or a queer man if they said they are a trans man, etc. Some people do identify as queer though, so if they have said as much you can use that specifically then).
That’s a lot of minutia but I think the important thing is, the community generally knows when you are trying your best. Even if you accidentally offend someone, just asking what they would like to be referred to in the future is probably all you need to worry about.
- Comment on How do you refer to the lgbtq+ "community" least excludingly? 3 months ago:
I think there are ways OP can use queer respectfully, and there are ways they may accidentally slip into something that can sound homophobic, so, tread with caution. “The queer community” is fine, that reads to me with the same respect as “queer theory” in an academic setting. “The queers” =homophobic (unless you are part of that community and are being ironic), “are you queer?” =also bad, “my queer colleague” =not good unless that is the specific label they identify with, etc.
Alphabet mafia is best left to the Gen Z kids on TikTok, even as one of them queers myself I’d never use that in a serious setting.
- Comment on Eight solar farms pass into community ownership in 'biggest ever' UK transfer 3 months ago:
Is community energy in the UK that significantly different that the US? Community solar is growing here, and it tends to be for individuals who get direct credits on their energy bills. This can be useful for people who want to benefit from solar but don’t own property or their property isn’t solar compatible.
- Comment on Best service for filing taxes? 3 months ago:
I can also vouch for FreeTaxUSA, I’ve compared it against a few major tax companies and at least for relatively simple stuff, they were totally identical results, and just as easy to use.
There are a few options for free filing based on income (generally, lower that $79k) here: irs.gov/…/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-fre…
And if you’re in one of 12 lucky states, there’s an IRS Direct File trial program:
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- Comment on Thousands of Software Engineers Say the Job Market Is Getting Much Worse 3 months ago:
Coding skills are almost always valuable even if you’re not coding directly. Depending on what you’re good at/interested in, I’d recommend data analysis (everyone has data! Gotta look at it somehow), database management, engineering roles other than just software engineering, IT, etc. Might not pay exactly as well as a big coding job out the gate, but it’ll certainly be interesting if you like coding.
- Comment on Sweeping Reset Underway for New York State Renewable Development | Developers Cancel Contracts for Over 8 GW of Projects, Hope to Rebid at Higher Cost 4 months ago:
The full article appears to be paywalled, but, some rough thoughts on headline alone: this isn’t tremendously unexpected, or likely to have a strong impact on renewables investments besides a slightly slower timeline. The short answer is that a lot of things, material and labor, are more expensive now than when these contracts were likely signed. Renewable technology as a whole is getting more inexpensive over time (particularly solar panels), but the technology alone isn’t the whole picture. You have to have installers and maintainers, metal and concrete. I expect these projects to end up with successful re-bids quickly, and delays of around a year or so because of it.
- Comment on Why we should be putting solar panels on our fields and lakes | DW 4 months ago:
Caveat: I haven’t watched the video (sorry!) so this may be covered there.
Fields: yes, totally. Lakes: MUCH iffier for solar. Floating solar has been a bit of a pipe dream for quite some time now. Not saying it can’t be done! But the biggest issue is that water+electricity is very tricky. Water (not purified) is conductive, as are the bodies of little critters that want to crawl all over the sudden islands now in their habitat, and it usually doesn’t go great for them or your electronics. Water can be corrosive, and what do you do if your lake is in a location where it will freeze in the winter?
Where I think you can go well with combining solar and water: canal “roof” style (well above the water, the sun there not really used for any other purpose, allows animals to access water, prevents water from evaporating). I think there is a place for floating solar to combo with dams (often a water supply you don’t want evaporating too quickly, you’ve got your electrical hookups right there, the dam itself is essentially a giant battery) but you have to solve the electricity+water issue somehow (raising it up like a big floating parking garage has been considered, maybe something like that?) before I think we start seeing it rolled out.
Fields are great for so many reasons- easily accessible for installation/maintenance/emergency services, pretty abundant in the US, fairly close to where people are, gives rental income to farmers who may be struggling, etc. Many times solar farms can be used in conjunction with conventional farming, usually under the blanket term of “agrovoltaics”.
One of my favorite ideas for places to put solar though is retired golf courses- already fairly flat with paths for vehicles, cleared of trees, near people, can’t farm on it due to the chemicals used to maintain that specific grass, etc.
Solar is only growing in the US (and hopefully the world) in the next decade! It’s great to think about what novel places we can plan to put it to maximize access and utility for everyone (including distributed grid options).
- Comment on Native Americans are building their own solar farms 5 months ago:
This is a specific provision of the Inflation Reduction Act! This legistation is a huge step in the right direction for clean energy for so many people, and I am so glad that a solid chunk of that is going directly to indigenous communities.
- Comment on ‘World’s largest offshore wind farm’ produces power for the first time 6 months ago:
Hey this is a pretty common misconception! Project lifespan here is used like a financial term, not an engineering one. It’s cost of initial project + maintainance and other costs, compared to energy generation $ minus energy losses over time from equipment degrading. Infrastructure requires maintenance and replacement, and 35 years here is kind of a “best by” guarantee.
Also, 35 years is actually a pretty long time! From now, that’s 2058; looking backwards, that’s 1988. Take a look at what wind turbine engineering looked like in 1988 and the difference to modern equipment is enormous. 35 years is a full generation of people: someone 18 today will be 53 when this project needs refurbishment.
This is a really exciting project (I think the article quoted some 5% total energy generation for the UK? That is truly insane) and I don’t think that excitement should be outweighed by pretty mundane lifespan number! This much clean energy is awesome, will be present for a long long time, and get recycled and rebuilt when it has run its course.
- Comment on ‘World’s largest offshore wind farm’ produces power for the first time 6 months ago:
This is a typical “lifespan” of these types of projects, that is to say, the lifespan where it produces sufficient amounts of energy versus the degradation of the equipment to justify upkeep costs (which may be greater for offshore wind than on-shore). It’s not going to break down over night after 35 years, it could go 50 or even more, but at lower energy production. The other reason for these lifespan calculations is that, in 35 years, the technology may far out pace what is currently installed in likely a prime location, and maybe local energy demands have changed. If that’s the case, a “repower” may occur where existing infrastructure is adapted to new equipment which produces far more energy.