refuse

Also of interest is that R&D costs are often used to justify exorbitant drug costs, but it's been pretty widely reported that pharma spends much more on marketing drugs than developing them. Don't forget that these drugs are funded in large part by tax dollars.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/02/11/big-p...

Steganography? Sure, but you might be better off using a code that sounds like normal speech.

It'd be great in a renewables-based grid for energy storage and transport. It could be carefully controlled and monitored because of the partial centralization. I'm not sure it'll ever make much sense for vehicles unless you could increase the density so it's stored as a slush without needing a high-pressure or an ultra low-temp holding tank.

I'd say overall that hydrogen is an attractive proposition because once you have the infra for it, you can substitute whatever color of hydrogen you want. The trick will be making sure we can easily replace gray hydrogen in the future for green.

Maybe one day we'll generate hydrogen with floating renewables in the ocean and just fill up a tanker to bring it to shore. It would make hydrogen a very attractive option for energy storage and transportation.

This reminds me of a firewood seasoning method I saw in (IIRC) Dudley Cook's "The Ax Book", except you pile up your split firewood in concentric circles around a stove pipe with holes drilled all around and along it's length. When the wood is stacked to about breast height, you cover it with shingles/plywood/plastic and put a vent that's been painted black on top of the stove pipe. You end up with air constantly circulating past the wood and significantly reducing seasoning time.

(note, if you try this, make sure to put it on top of some branches so your firewood isn't contacting the ground)

Yes, you too can be MuMufied!

https://www.mumufication.com/

I'll put it on my reading shortlist! Sounds interesting.

Thank you, I hadn't heard of this.

I can't think of a counter culture that wasn't somehow absorbed by the economy and sold back to the masses. It all ends up getting commodified which makes it part of "culture" without the "counter".

I've watched the trend accelerate in my life and I wonder if we're reaching some sort of point (because of social media?) where there is very nearly no culture (counter or otherwise) unless it is commodified. Everything has been reproduced and divorced from it's meaning so we have this neutered insipid idea of culture that inspires nothing.

I've heard a good part of younger generations think differently. I get the impression the pride thing represents more than sexuality to kids who don't share the same context as older generations. They almost treat it like a brand.

Sure but in doing so you've stiffed the people least able to fight it. They don't treat businesses or the middle and upper classes like this because they'd fuck the county 23 different ways in court.

Essentially it's a slow-acting imminent domain without compensation.

Speaking of TLoU, I've tried watching it but it's so overwrought and sentimental. I feel nothing for the characters at all, it's like they're cardboard or the creators set out to create something but had nothing to say. Can't say I liked EP3, started out great but jesus they might as well have had cue cards for feelings.

The fans sure don't like you saying that though.

It's in Oregon, I'd rather not say where exactly because I live in a very, very small community and I'm not sure if it's a widespread problem in the county or a localized issue in my neck of the woods.

A lot of this goes back to the 70's IIRC where Gov. Tom McCall passed a law to limit land use, which was great. Nobody wanted the sprawl you see on the East Coast or in parts of California, it's why Oregon still has a lot of nice areas with small farms and communities instead of shopping centers. Also of concern was, say, timber companies doing a harvest and then selling the land for a housing development or something -- this would also be terrible. Unfortunately, some more activist counties used this to deprive people of property rights which they bought into, I know there was a huge legal dispute over an issue along these lines just outside Portland in the 90's. We also had a ballot measure that was on tge books for about a year or two which would compensate land owners for lost value due to zoning changes, but that was thrown out pretty quickly.

I'm not exactly sure how we got such clear class divides in zoning and if it was intentional or not, but the effect is black and white.

Also of interest is how different counties handled permitting post-wildfires in 2020. There are many wildfire victims from my area who have been unable to rebuild because of permitting issues and what appears to be intentional obstruction by the county.

A side note, I don't know any displaced wildfire victims that received the hundreds of millions in federal aid sent our way. FEMA didn't approve any loans even though hundreds of structures were lost in a poor rural area -- but they were happy to provide water and WiFi, which is...something.

I doubt many will see this comment now but...

In my local community (rural area) the county changed zoning laws on people's residential properties. It's a damned nightmare. You can't rebuild a home or get approval for anything. According to the wording of the law, the county can sell the trees on your property (and you have to allow any heavy equipment on premise to allow this to happen) and they can supercede any water rights you have (water is not scarce here like in the SW). To be clear those last two points haven't been used...yet.

The funny thing is that this happened along class lines in a 'progressive' county. Richer people have MUCH more forgiving zoning and many live right down the street from poor people who essentially don't own the land they live on anymore. The equity they used to have was wiped out almost entirely because nobody wants to buy their property due to zoning (!). Think they can get a loan now? What do you think happened to property values for the rich people?

I'm honestly surprised somebody at the end of their rope hasn't gotten violent about this, it's outrageous.