helix

For those of you looking for these recipes, they're from Cooking for Engineers. Which should shock nobody. But it's a great site. Sadly seems to be defunct, but I can personally vouch for the recipes being presented in a foolproof* manner. Not only is the card layout great (honestly, just having the oven temperature right there instead of having to keep trying to find it in the recipe is a game changer), but every step has a photo. None of this "until done" rubbish, it'll have a photo of "yeah, here's how it should look, and no, this photo isn't overly produced".

And unlike most cooking blogs, the commentariat substitutions are generally competent!

If you're still not sold on the site, may I add that he once took a pair of calipers to Chili's to test their claim that "their new Smokehouse Bacon Burgers [...] have 'the thickest bacon you've ever seen'."

Unsurprisingly, his verdict was:

So yeah, definitely check out his website, whether you're a novice or experienced cook, whether you're an engineer or someone who didn't even know what a caliper was before you started reading this. I highly recommend starting with the shepherd's pie (yes, it's the same one from Joy of Cooking), and either the creme brulee or the biscotti for dessert. The recipe image OP used was for espresso brownies. Presumably roasting your own beans is optional, though.

———

*It's me. I'm the fool. I'm proof that even a fool can follow the recipes.

kitty

And, irrigation canals.

Saves 82% of water evaporation. 💧

Actually, do cover the fields as well (in some areas at least).

The problem with putting solar panels over fields is that most farm machinery is big and so you can't get it through the panels unless the rows of panels are too far apart to get most of the benefit from the shade. So most of the cultivation has to be done by hand ... and the panels are usually low enough to make it a lot harder on the workers because you spend more time stooping over and at odd angles. So yeah, you do get greater yields per acre with this method!

... you also are spending a lot more on labor costs and your workers are getting hurt more to do it.

So in most cases, OP is right. Don't cover fields. Cover parking lots and canals.

Depends on what kind of fields you're putting them in. Grazing fields don't require farm machinery running through them, and the solar panels allow places for sheep and cattle to rest in the shade. This makes a huge difference to the comfort of the animals here in Australia; there are farms that have already incorporated solar panels for that reason.

The linked article in the earlier reblog is talking about crops like zucchini and eggplant, which afaik are generally harvested by hand. I don't know if such crops are usually planted by machine the way that wheat is, but considering there's an apparent increase in yield while also reducing the water use, the inconvenience would likely be worth it for at least some farms even if it changes the sowing technique. (Or alternately, you only cover part of the field, allowing for space between the rows of panels for machinery to be driven. Now that some tractors can be driven by GPS with minimal control by the farmer, that also reduces the chance of collisions and damage to the panels.)

Additionally, if there was wide uptake, I would expect that solar panels could be placed on higher supports, reducing the amount of stooping required. That's a potentially solvable problem. And with some parts of the world – including Australia – becoming drier as the climate changes, the fact that crops can be grown under solar panels with less water is no small matter. It could mean that more of the dwindling supply of irrigation water could be saved for crops like wheat, which are currently impractical to grow under solar panels.

But even if it isn't practicable for large-scale farming operations to put solar panels over crops, there's still millions of hectares of grazing land that could have solar panels put over it perfectly happily. We don't have to limit ourselves to car parks and canals.

I think the lesson is “ put solar panels where they would maximize benefit, and don’t assume you know where that is until you research it.”

shout out to my partner coming home from work one night to me watching MASH and doing a puzzle and immediately saying "goddamn it's like a nursing home in here"

She's being so big and brave.

Did I just employ the "Treat Them Like You are A Kindergarten Teacher Again" method with my insurance company today? I surely did. Did it work? Probably better than intended because I made an actual doctor feel contrite.

So, my insurance has been trying to not cover my SNRI because it is new on the market and no generic available yet, so pricey.

I apply for a refill and the request gets locked for review. Again. For the 3rd time.

This time I call and immediately ask to speak to the actual doctor making these clinical decisions. Very politely. Must be a slow day because they allow it.

ME: [Teacher voice] I'm calling in regards to the SNRI you have placed a lock on. Why was this decision made?

DOC: Well, there are dozens of other medications on the market in that tier, and far cheaper for you and [insurer]. We have sent a request to your doctor to consider alternatives.

ME: I am aware of that. So, can you do me a HUGE favor and look up my prescription history really quickly and tell me how many SSRIs and SNRIs were only filled once in 2022 for me, showing they were poorly tolerated?

DOC: It looks like eight.

ME: Great job! Now, can you please look at my genetic test for psychiatric drug tolerance and tell me how many medications are listed in the safe category?

DOC: Two.

ME: Awesome! Now, can you tell me what type that other drug is that I'm not taking?

DOC: Yeah, totally, it's an MAOI.

ME: That's correct, you're really knowledgeable! Should I be taking something as dangerous as an MAOI with my other medications, or even just in general?

DOC: It's contraindicated for sure.

ME: It is! So true! So, last question since you've been incredibly smart and helpful. Is it less expensive for [insurer] to pay out for the medication knowing they already get a huge manufacturer discount anyway, or is it more expensive for them to pay for me to need potentially long-term inpatient psychiatric care?

DOC: I'll clear the code, ma'am and flag it as medically necessary. I'm sorry about this.

ME: I appreciate you SO MUCH. You have a great day now.

WALGREENS PHARMACY TECH WITH 5 NOSE RINGS AND PURPLE HAIR STARING AT ME: ........... OKAY! It'll be ready in five minutes. You wanna come work here?

Kill them with kindness

BUT KILL THEM

"being a human is so boring why can't I be one of the COOL animals" okay hey. I hear you. but I actually really super love being an omnivorous persistence hunting primate with a stomach capable of dissolving many literal poisons and the ability to smell geosmin (released in the soil after it rains) at five parts per trillion. I super enjoy being a bipedal terrifyingly agile mammal with some of the most efficient sweat glands in the animal kingdom. I find a lot of joy in being an endotherm with mimicry abilities that rival most other animals with vocal chords. it's sick as hell I'm having a lot of fun

A cat is a machine that turns proteins into violence.

#Helios was declawed by his former owners so he doesn't just slap things he dislikes like most cats#he really only feels confident in hissing at them#Especially because a lot of the thing he doesn't like are bugs and those are sharp sometimes :(#Selene has figured this out and now when she hears him hiss she sprints over the kill the fuck out of the bug#Helios has learned she will do this so he'll hiss at stuff louder and louder until she hears him#A nervous old man and his emotional support homicidal maniac tags by @gallusrostromegalus

I couldn't reblog without the tags because the context is hilarious

A Nervous Old Man (right) and his Emotional Support Violence Machine (Left)

Yes, he is more than twice her size. Yes, he is five times her age. Yes, he cries like a big baby until she kills Unacceptable Scary Things (earwigs) for him.

I couldn't get these two and their dynamic out of my head, @gallusrostromegalus I doodled them (guessed on their collars)

OH MY GOD MY CATS HAVE FANART

so when i got my e-bike it couldn't be delivered to me for some reason it got stuck at a random package warehouse 90% of the way on its route to me. so i had to go on this arduous, like genuinely awful journey to get it that took like 8 hours by bus in the end. anyway then i got it and the bus driver was like "you cant bring a package that big on the bus" and i was like SO fair so the bus left and i opened the bike there at the bus stop and assembled it completely in the hour between the buses. i had to rip every single bit of the huge box it came in and all the inside packaging to BITS. to literally SHREDS. to fit in a little public trashcan because i had no other option. then when the next bus came i put it all on the bike rack and took the bus yay.

so anyway today i was back at that very bus stop with my bike

and i looked at my bike and for a moment felt like it was some sort of animal like maybe a dog and i thought absurdly awww, this is where you were born!

i’m going to be really honest with you guys i think the tendency to read the absolute worst possible intentions into every action you don’t agree with is getting too automatic and it’s eating you from the inside out

SUPPOSEDLY TRANSFEMINIST TMEs STOP USING FEMBOY CHALLENGE: 🔥🔥🔥IMPOSSIBLE🔥🔥🔥

shes not wrong. like. i know several trans femme people who do identify as femboys, like, as their considered and actual gender identity. but when a trans femme uses words like “transvestite” or “shemale” as personal identities you better believe tmes know not to say that shit like it doesnt carry any weight. why is femboy different? its not. it just isnt. these people can MUST be included in the trans feminist analysis but for fucks sake if you’re not trans feminine keep the word out of your mouths. i thought we all understood that members of a minority can reclaim terms that people outside of it cannot.

"femboy" in its original context was coined as an alternative to "trap" "shemale" "dickgirl" and "tranny" when transphobic straight men became embarrassed to use those terms in front of each other. it is a porn category word that was used then and is still used now to justify jerking off to trans women while calling them effeminate men. it's an insult that is being reclaimed by some transfems, and as with all insults, if it was not originally aimed at you then you have no right to reclaim it. we all know that it has nothing to do with being a femme man and you are engaging in bad-faith wordplay games if you claim otherwise.

i don't think any genuinely transfeminist man or boy, cis or trans, of any aesthetic persuasion, would choose to use that particular word if they really thought about it. and if you aren't genuinely transfeminist and at least that bare minimum of thoughtful then i don't wanna fucking know you.

honestly its kind of impressive how successful the rebrand from "trap" to "femboy" that so many people, even a lot of trans women, buy into the idea that they carry different connotations, even though they are used by the same people in the same way. like they explicitly replaced "anything that makes my dick hard is a woman, faggot" with shit like "boys make the best girls because boys know what boys like" but still claim trap and femboy mean different things. both of those phrases are about the idea that feminine men are like women in that you can have sex with them because women are for sex, but they arent trannies though, and we're all supposed to act like this is any different than before. the transmisogyny is still there and still obvious. but they use a slightly less obviously mean word so we have to pretend its fine now even when they keep making the same "this person you thought was an attractive girl actually has a penis" jokes.

I've learned it doesn't even matter if you can convince someone of the harm it does, anymore. The biggest wall I ran into when I made a stance about this was: "Even if you're right that it's a dogwhistle for transmisogynist objectification, too many Genderfuck Queers wear it like a nametag now so it's Empowering and Sexy and that makes you transphobic for telling them to put it down."

or to put it more succinctly; TME folks justify TMA objectification for many reasons, but in 'queer circles' the reason is often because if they didn't tolerate our objectification then they'd have to stop cosplaying it.