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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 30th, 2023

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  • I’m not sure the builder profits much more by using engineered timber given its expense compared to concrete. Given the environmental cost of building with concrete, it’s important to find alternative materials.

    Even in your anecdote, it’s not as though the addition of a single floor was the cause of the fire, just like the material type wasn’t. It’s much easier for an incomplete building to go up in flames than a completed and occupied one.

    Technology isn’t always a solution, but it’s not like pressurized stairwells, automatic hallway segmentation, or even sprinkler systems are things of science fiction. These are all pretty established techniques of fire control.

    In terms of prevention, given the number one cause of fires in homes and buildings is in the kitchen, the easiest solution is opting out of the methane infrastructure in new projects. Though there’s a rather large industry that pushes for this practice to continue, so that’s a difficult thing to do.

    Also, to bring it back to the topic relevant to this post, I’m not advocating to make escape harder in a burning building by eliminating stairwells. My point is precisely what’s in the content of the post - single stairwell buildings in other areas don’t have people on the upper floors dying hand over foot because they had to descend an extra flight or two.

    If it was harder, I’m sure we would have heard about the trend of every building seven levels and up having dead bodies pile up in the stairwell after someone tried to flambé a quail.










  • Professor Santiago Gallino specializing in retail management was interviewed last year by NPR for a piece about these tags.

    While the labels give retailers the ability to increase prices suddenly, Gallino doubts companies like Walmart will take advantage of the technology in that way.

    “To be honest, I don’t think that’s the underlying main driver of this,” Gallino said. “These are companies that tend to have a long-term relationship with their customers and I think the risk of frustrating them could be too risky, so I would be surprised if they try to do that.”

    Rather than seeing an opportunity to use surge pricing, Gallino says retailers are likely drawn to electronic shelf tags to ensure consistency between online and in-store pricing.

    What a prophet.



  • Given the noise Musk has been making surrounding the political landscape in Germany, the United Kingdom, and lately Canada, it stands to reason that the richest person on the planet is actively trying to make the world revolve around him.

    Sentiment similar to yours was undoubtedly stated a century ago throughout Europe; ‘You overestimate the impact Germany has on the citizenry outside of it.’ Look where that attitude got the world, and here you are saying the same thing.


  • Certainly not an expert in the field here, but I’m not sure there’s much environmental benefit from laundry bags of that sort, given the collected microplastics optimistically end up - Germany excluded - collated in your local landfill.

    Guppyfriend even recommends sealing them in a container for disposal to ensure they don’t blow around during waste collection and transport. This assumes of course that you can successfully transfer microplastic fibres from a large bag into a small container without spillage, but that’s a matter separate from my conjecture.

    Guppyfriend's FAQ

    Source

    While I don’t think any particular company that makes similar bags is purposefully guilty of this, the marketing strategy used to promote these as environmentally responsible products just smells like greenwashing to me.

    The ones I’ve had are also made of synthetic materials, and so eventually break down and begin releasing their own fibres.

    Frankly, the true environmental benefit I see is something I’ve never seen advertised: I can wash groups clothes I want kept from intermingling in the same load and therefore run the machine half as often.


  • That’s understandable. I imagine a large section of the user base doesn’t navigate to a specific community to look through posts, and instead just skip through the main feed. I didn’t realise the community until you pointed it out.

    While I agree with your sentiment that no one wants to be so bombarded with foreign politics, at the very least the joke that user made was in keeping with the theme of the meme.

    Regarding your final question, depending on your method of consuming this content, you may be able to entirely block comments by setting a blacklist of words, perhaps including ‘Republican’ in this case. The same I know is true on most applications for post titles, but I’m just assuming here the same is applicable to comments.

    Either way, best wishes with the situation in the fatherland, I do hope to visit some day.


  • If the word ‘Republican’ were omitted, that comment could be applicable in most countries on the planet.

    It’s kind of nitpicking anyway, don’t you think? Almost as nitpicky as pointing out when the country of the United States is referred to by the name of the continent it shares with other nations.





  • Ah well I can see that kind of distance being an issue. While I’d say cold is a solvable problem with bar mitts and stuff, that time of day is certainly dark.

    I don’t know your area of course, but maybe there’s an early morning commuter train or bus or something that could get you closer? For a time I rode to a station 20 minutes away, hopped on transit, then got off and rode another 15 minutes to get where I was going.

    Maybe carpool? Though it might be unlikely any of your coworkers also live in your town.