NohPhD

NohPhD t1_jeeu6tg wrote

Reply to Where to get Sun in the Winter? by Ok-Gift-7013

I bought a used 1000w metal halide grow light cheap off Craigslist because the grower switched to LEDs. Mounted it in the ceiling in my basement. Doesn’t take any special electrical wiring.

Put a couple of lawn chairs down there. I run it 1-2 hours day, usually right at sunset. It’s so bright you literally have to wear dark sunglasses. It was a real lifesaver for the emotional health of my spouse. The kids love it too, they also wear shades while they play or read. Even the neighborhood kids like to come over. It totally illuminates a 20 x 20 room. Where we are electricity is $0.074/KWH so for 15 cents a day this has been a huge boost to the family’s mental well-being.

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NohPhD t1_jadmtfv wrote

Reply to Do you like living in Washington? by Something-Fierce

Yes, having lived around much of the US, I love SW WA and hopefully am in my forever home.

Downside:
I get affected by Seasonal Affective Disorder but I installed a 1000W metal halide grow light in a garage bay. I sit under that for an hour or two per day (reading) and it helps tremendously with SAD and only cost $0.07-$0.15 per day for ‘treatment.’ I have to wear sunglasses, lol. My dog tracks in so much mud it’s terrible. Always have the Cascadia fault in mind, but no different from California and San Andreas fault. Weeds grow, well like weeds. Good restaurants are few and far between in our rural area.

Upside: Air is extremely clean here. (Forest fires are almost always east and downwind of where we live.). There’s plentiful water here, seafood too. Hunting & fishing is outstanding Get a few days of snow and enough cold days for good fruit production. Cost of living is very reasonable. Mountains and ocean are both an easy hour drive away. Population density is very low, people are friendly. No state income tax! Finally got rid of 4 Mbps DSL (thanks Elon)

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NohPhD t1_ja1kg3c wrote

Reply to how accurate is the greenland ice core oxygen isotope study in regards to earth's climate history ? by Additional-Rhubarb-8

Define accuracy…

[TL/DR] Good estimates is absence of other data but open to nit-picking

One of the primary uses of oxygen isotopes is for a proxy of environmental temperature at the time the ice was deposited, since there is no historical weather station data reaching back hundreds of thousands of years.

Primarily this is a measurement between O-16 and O-18. In a sample. (This ratio can also be measure in seashells of very small marine animals) Neither oxygen isotope is radioactive so that variable is eliminated.

Because O18 is 1.125 x heavier than O16, this makes for slight physical differences between water made of O16 and O18. Think boiling point and vapor pressure.

It turns out that evaporation and sublimation very slightly favors O16 water molecules leaving and O18 water molecules remaining behind.

This is know as fractionation and fractionation is temperature dependent.

The relative abundance of O16/O18 in a sample can be measure with precision in a laboratory and so there is good, reproducible data documenting the ‘curves’ in the lab.

The environment is much more complicated, for example during ice ages more O18 water might be locked up in massive ice sheets leading to some skewing of the temperature estimates. The magnitude is the skew is a function of your assumptions about ice volume and such. Regardless, the estimated local environmental conditions based on Oxygen isotope ratios give a valuable albeit imperfect proxy of the temperature when there is no other data.

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NohPhD t1_j7n9wmw wrote

Reply to comment by atred in (Virology) Has SARS-CoV-2 outcompeted all the other coronaviruses which have been called the ‘common cold’? by jsgui

One interesting factor that might be exacerbating the situation is there exists an anti-COVID medicine that works by promoting mutations in the virus RNA during replication. While this tactic may help the intended recipient it now appears that the medication may be contributing to the unexpectedly high overall mutation rate of the COVID virus.

Who thought this was a good idea in the long run?

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NohPhD t1_j5z7xdz wrote

Reply to Pillow recommendations by babathebear

As a stomach sleeper I accidentally stumbled on the solution for me. My wife and I bought a king sized bed with individually adjustable mattresses. The mattresses are essentially two twin sized mattresses with the bed frames bound together at the head and foot.

I found if I adjust the binding strap at the head end of the mattresses to leave about a 2”-3” gap between the mattresses, I can lay comfortably face down with my face between the mattresses. It’s essentially like the hole in a massage table for your face. I use a thin, hard pillow across the gap to support my forehead which offloads the pressure on my cheeks. The gap is wide enough that plenty of air circulates.

Before discovering this arrange, I used to spin in bed like a rotisserie chicken. Now I’m comfortable all night and wake up with zero aches and pains. When we first bought the mattresses I hated that discontinuity between the mattresses but now I love it.

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NohPhD t1_j43n1ld wrote

Reply to Huge rare earth metals discovery in Arctic Sweden by TheUtopianCat

Considering that many of the ‘rare earth’ elements were discovered in the 18th and 19th centuries from ore that originated from Sweden, I’m simply shocked!

BTW, the US has large ore deposits of these elements too. Much of the rare earth ores also contain thorium, a radioactive element. When the US enacted environmental regulations requiring the safe disposition of the thorium contaminate, the production cost in the US increased. US mines shut down and mining and production moved offshore.

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NohPhD t1_isxeme6 wrote

Reply to comment by aneeta96 in New motorcycle lighting design could save lives by nikan69

In the first half of my life, I rode 175K miles commuting long distances across the high desert in New Mexico. I was involved in three accident, all T-boning a car making a left hand turn across traffic.

All were In the day time.

Driving motorcycles definitely increases your overall survivability, if you can survive the education. It’s a pretty brutal application of applied Darwinism.

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