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Don't mind me just mowing my roof.
  • Am I really bathing if I’m using water I cannot drink?

    Yes, drinking water is cleaned to the point that it will not make you sick to drink assuming a normal immune system. That is extreme over kill for bathing (and toilets, laundry, etc). The only reason we use drinking water for everything is because infrastructure is expensive and laying non-potable water pipes would cost tons.

  • I doubt future generations will have “basement dwellers” because none of us can afford to own basements.
  • Yes, and you have to dig deep in some places to get below the frost with your foundation. In those places a basement makes sense because you're digging that far either way. Texas frosts don't get very deep, so you're able to have a shallower foundation making a basement just an extra cost.

  • People with experience working in and around municipal water infrastructure: Do you drink tap water? Are there times when you do not?
  • Nice work on the write up! It is hard sorting things out when they're half true. For me, drinking water is especially important to get the fact straight on because of how bad it can go if the system fails. It would be silly to disregard anyone saying water wasn't up to a safe standard, but separating things I would care about out from the fluoride and chlorine background noise is tricky. Thanks for the deeper dive!

  • People with experience working in and around municipal water infrastructure: Do you drink tap water? Are there times when you do not?
  • Just generally, you can get a report of your municipal water testing. The biggest safety variable that I would be worried about testing at home for is lead in the pipes between me and the treatment plant. That includes my house/building and the municipal pipes.

    Now taste, that's a to each their own situation. Sulfury water is my limit for sure. No thanks!

  • People with experience working in and around municipal water infrastructure: Do you drink tap water? Are there times when you do not?
  • Are you talking about using chloramine in disinfection? I think conflating pool water and drinking water standards is a bit of a mistake. Things get added to pools from people's bodies after chlorination that cause weird combined results. Drinking water is disinfected (chlorinated) as a final step. I would object to my municipality using chloramine, but not because I wouldn't drink it.

  • Using they/them pronouns is confusing and difficult to read because one always thinks of a plurality of people. Why not just pick new words to use?
  • Me talking at dinner: "Will you pass me the peas?" Cut to 5 people confused about whether I mean just one of them or if I want the whole table to all hand me the peas.

    I get why they/them can be confusing because of the plural thing, but we are used to a quirky language. With a little practice, the tone and context clear up nearly all confusion. The rest is as easy or hard as what we have to do with an ambiguous "you."

    PS Sorry to the "yous/yous guys" people. I am not trying to turn a blind eye to you obviously superior usage. It just really ruins my point.

  • the sensory biology of plants
  • Their point is that if plants can suffer, and assuming we still want to eat, less plants die or are maimed on a vegan diet than on an omnivorous diet because livestock eats plants too and the conversion to meat is inefficient.

    That means vegan diet is the way for less plant suffering even though you eat them directly. In fact it is because you would eat them directly.

  • Microplastics found to enter agricultural land through wastewater
  • I just don't get the conclusion of all of the biosolids articles. They all point to upstream sources as problems then claim we should do something about them only in biosolids. Our wastewater reflects what we allow in our houses and bodies.

    Why doesn't it ever go like this: "Micro plastics are bad. Our wastewater is telling us that we are creating micro plastics in our homes from the products we buy and use. Let's stop producing products that force people to make micro plastics."

    My guess - the cost of wastewater treatment falls on all of us. We pay for it all, and it isn't cheap. The most effective option is source control, so let's make cradle to grave responsibility for the megacorp producers and watch how fast harmful products get yanked.

  • How to answer "Tell me about yourself" in a job interview?
  • I spend time highlighting how my past experience relates to the job and what I like about the place or job specifically. Depending on the vibe in the room I will add one quick, interesting, and nonoffensive thing about my personal life at the end. Basically recapping a cover letter but in a personable way because my writing is dry

  • Does Gboard spell checker phone home on Android?

    I assumed that Gboard spell checker contacted servers constantly and have it switched off for whatever good that does. I recently tried enabling it to play with other options and noticed that it works when my phone is entirely offline.

    Does anyone know if it works locally or does it just send a bunch of data out once I give it internet access again?

    Bonus question: Does anyone know of a privacy respecting spell checker for android? It looks like Florisboard can work with Hunspell through Nuspell but not on Android. Is that right?

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    Looking for a new mobile OS

    I have been running lineageOS on my OnePlus 2. I liked it, but Lineage has stopped supporting my phone. There are two options that I have been able to find as replacements - postmarketOS and /e/OS. Any thoughts on those or other recommendation? Anything that gets security updates, is open source, and is functional meets my needs.

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    InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)SL
    Slatlun @lemmy.ml
    Posts 3
    Comments 88