Kelmon80
Kelmon80 t1_jabvloq wrote
The last Discworld novel sits on my shelves with all the others, but still unread.
Because I decided I just do not want to live in a world where there's no new Pratchett books for me to read. And I love to think Sir Pratchett might perhaps have appreciated the sillyness of that.
But I'm very happy I can buy and read this.
Kelmon80 t1_ja81166 wrote
Reply to The Cost for an American to Comfortably Retire in Every State and Country, mapped by berrysardar
I'm not buying Switzerland being cheaper to retire in than the US, and retiring in Germany only being 1/6th less than in Switzerland (i'd guess doubling what's needed in Germany may be appropriate)
Kelmon80 t1_j506w75 wrote
Reply to comment by Austoman in Woman sues concert venue after getting so drunk she blew up a home, caused $15M in damages by EyeWantItThatWay
That's just insane to me. No-one "got her drunk". She ordered the drinks. Glad that this lawsuit would be loughed out of our courts.
Kelmon80 t1_j3r9xak wrote
>Matt Archer, the director of commercial spaceflight at the UK Space Agency, said he was hugely disappointed that the mission had not been successful – but still pleased that the first launch of satellites from Europe had taken place from British soil.
It's almost as if other nations launch their rockets from the equator for a reason...
Kelmon80 t1_j3q9k1p wrote
Reply to comment by QuestionableAI in Study reveals women who experience domestic abuse are three times more likely to contract HIV infection. by MistWeaver80
Maybe. I could also see domestic abusers and their victims typically coming from more traditional and/or less educated backgrounds, hence, worse sex education, if any.
Kelmon80 t1_j35m0m1 wrote
It's not news to be, but still, any time I read about how vikings interacted with native americans, it blows my mind.
Kelmon80 t1_j180ppa wrote
Reply to comment by Big_Deetz in Finland blocks sale of property near army garrison to Russian citizens. by FINCoffeeDaddy
Except that "forfeiting" your citizenship is extremely hard. Those Russians in exile right now, many dealing with visas running out and soon being forced to return are not hanging on to their Russian passport for shits and giggles.
Kelmon80 t1_j0fphx8 wrote
Reply to comment by amscraylane in Spanish MPs vote to approve new 'menstrual leave' for painful periods by mancinedinburgh
If pads are so expensive - tampons cost you $2000 over your entire lifetime. That's around $2 a month. Far, far less than I spend on condoms. Using a product that's 3 times more expensive is a choice you make, and can't really complain about.
And cheaper solutions exist. Menstrual cups last for ages, and are a one-time purchase, making your lifetime period costs go into double digits.
Man, if I could buy a single, reusable condom for $15 or so that lasts me 10 years, that would be incredible. Sadly, condoms only last that long for incels.
Kelmon80 t1_j0fof7o wrote
I don't quite see how why this specificity is neccessary.
Not that those women with very painful periods don't require leave as everyone who is in (unmanageable) pain - but could this not be handled just as any other kind of chronic/recurring pain issue is handled already? In particular as I understand this law does not mean that any women can just state they're in pain and go home. Just like with any pain issue, you have to see a doctor to grant you sick leave.
So what makes "uterus pain" special compared to migraines, stomach pain, pain in your limbs, etc.? Too painful to work is too painful to work, no matter where.
Kelmon80 t1_j0fn3ek wrote
Reply to comment by PotatoBeautiful in Spanish MPs vote to approve new 'menstrual leave' for painful periods by mancinedinburgh
> but XX people to this day get paid less for same jobs as their peers
Except they're not. The wage gap as it is commonly understood ("women in the same position make 76 cent to a man's dollar") is a complete falsehod.
Men and women with the same qualifications in the same job get paid pretty much (*) exactly the same - the wage gap compares the average salaries of ALL men with that of ALL women. And, guess what - there's more stay-at-home women than stay-at-home men, and there's more men working in more lucrative (and, on average, more demanding and/or dangerous) fields and positions than women.
And while that last part is still in need of fixing (More female CEOs AND more female garbage collectors/construction workers/tradespeople/soldiers) - any individual woman does not get paid less than her male counterpart.
(* The actual difference is between 1 and 2% in my country (government figures), half of which is attributed to men just being more successful in salary negotiations, the other half to actual plain old discrimination)
Kelmon80 t1_izicqko wrote
Reply to Rubella eliminated from Singapore by tonymmorley
The world really needs another win, in terms of completely elimination another disease like that, to curb the increasing amount of anti-vaxxer nonsense.
Kelmon80 t1_iycy2w0 wrote
Reply to comment by Deranox in World’s first test run of a hydrogen jet engine a success by BlitzOrion
Improvement is neither automatic nor always possible.
There is a limit to which you can compress hydrogen, and there are limits to how strong a pressure vessel needs to be (read: How heavy it will be).
Cars need about 100kg of tank to store 5kg of hydrogen.
A 737 can carry about 25.000l of fuel, with fuel tank weight more or less negligible, which is around 20 tons. Let's say 22 to account for the tanks as well.
Let's assume a sort of "worst case" - for safety reasons, car-sized hydrogen tanks are used for planes. A full tank being 105kg, this gives you 210 tanks on the plane, for a total of around 1050kg of hydrogen. So about 1/20th the weight in jet fuel. As Hydrogen has three times the energy density as jet fuel, that still leaves you with range reduction of 1/6th, at same load for the plane. And you probably lose quite a bit of space in the plane to accomodate all those small tanks.
Now the best case: You somehow fit two huge pressure vessel into the plane that carry all the hydrogen, and they are of the same shape and weight as the original fuel tanks, but (magically) are at a pressure high enough to get the hydrogen close to its boiling point - 25.000l of it will still be just around 1800kg, or 1/11 the weight of jet fuel, or a 4-fold reduction in flight range - but with the added bonus of also having a much lighter plane, buying you more range. Still, I doubt even in this magically ideal case, you get more than half the original range out of it.
The bottom line is that physics can't be cheated. A hydrogen plane *will* have a far lower range unless you're willing to allocate a considerable amount of additional space for hydrogen storage.
Mind you, that would still make them an interesting alternative on short-range flights, just not an universal replacement.
Kelmon80 t1_iy76fw4 wrote
Reply to Jealousy may depend on the interplay of gender, sexual orientation, and gender of the rival by chrisdh79
For their next study, they will research whether seeing a rich playboy banging supermodels makes people more envious than when seeing a homeless drug addict prostituting themselves for their next hit.
Because clearly, this is a complete mystery as well.
Kelmon80 t1_ixtq0oh wrote
Reply to TIL that turkeys can sometimes reproduce asexually, forming near-clones of themselves. by WaryLouka
Well, it all makes sense now. All those clashes with Greece over area in the mediterrean - it's just Turkey making sure there's space enough for the second one once it goes ahead and fucks itself.
Kelmon80 t1_iwbrg2z wrote
Reply to comment by Rear-gunner in Slaves were brutally branded in ancient Egypt, research shows by Rear-gunner
Iron was a rare, expensive resource back then, and likely a huge investment for an ancient Egyptian farmer (or slave merchant, for that matter). But i fail to see why you can't brand cattle with some iron that's smaller than whatever is in use today. Even a finger-sized branding in the right position would still do its job: Differentiating who's cattle belongs to whom, even if it takes longer to figure out.
I mean, I'm not saying it couldn't have been used for slaves, but that's a huge assumption to make just based on size.
Kelmon80 t1_iv032yk wrote
Reply to TIL that the Persian King Xerxes was so enraged after a storm destroyed his bridges that he ordered the sea be given 300 whiplashes, and branded it with red-hot irons as the soldiers shouted at the water by LethalPoopstain
If true, that may as well have be a well-calculates "show" for his more simple-minded subjects so he's seen as doing something about the tragedy, even if he himself may have thought it was silly.
Or he was a bit bonkers.
In any case, the relationship to gods and other spiritual entities in the ancient world tended to be more direct and transactional - maybe it was generally understood that this way, some water spirit or god was shown who's boss.
Kelmon80 t1_iugvovj wrote
Reply to comment by Tashus in Piet Mondrian artwork displayed upside down for 75 years by farang_
That's a bad comparison, because conducting is actually a skill, "making a Mondrian" isn't. Anyone can do it. As long as it's then hung in a museum with a plaque that says "Mondrian", everyone will stare at it and go "mhhh, ah, yey, yes, amazing".
The greatest trick that the art community played on the world is getting incredibly lazy, and making people believe that they "just don't get good art" if they voice displeasure with their colored lines and crayon squiggles.
I prefer a more "Emperor has no clothes" approach to this.
Kelmon80 t1_jdzx9ja wrote
Reply to TIL that the EU forces soda makers to introduce tethered caps to make sure they are being recycled. by memeiel
They are SO fucking annoying! I don't want some cap in my face while I drink, and I don't want to have to rip them off every time, leaving a potentially sharp piece of plastic I have to be careful to not jam in my face.
And where is the point in that? Here in Germany, all plastic bottles are returned WITH cap to get your deposit back. Who takes off the cap and then throws it away, to, you know, have a bottle you can't close? Escaped mental patients?
How about implementing it ONLY in countries where people - for whatever insane reason - throw those caps away on a regular basis?