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Americans are asleep, post European windows
  • I think it’s a joke that American houses (in the eyes of Europeans) are made out of sticks (stud framing in the house) and paper (drywall is made from gypsum and has a paper backing)

    In European countries, their houses are made of tougher materials like stone, concrete, or some other material I’m forgetting about

    It’s a known thing in America that stray bullets end up in people’s houses (and sometimes their residents) when it’s an American holiday like 4th of July or Memorial Day

  • YSK: The Wadsworth Constant of YouTube videos
  • It’s wild how short some videos are with sponsorblock enabled to skip almost everything. I don’t watch LTT for ethical reasons anymore, but damn, did some 10 minute videos go by in like 2 minutes

  • What are some frugal (but not penny-wise/pound-foolish) things you've picked up re: cars?
  • Stay on top of changing your fluids. Oil changes are a lot cheaper than a new engine (plus labor) or any other big component of your car, like transmission or radiator. Change your engine oil (about every 5K miles), transmission fluid, engine coolant, brake fluid (every 3-6 years), diff fluid (if you have a differential), transfer case fluid (if you have a transfer case), and power steering fluid (if it’s hydraulic based)

    If you live in a salty area (i.e. a place that snows a lot), learn how to apply Fluid Film or any oil-based thin film for rust prevention under your car. It’ll keep the car going for a lot longer and fluid film is a lot cheaper than a new sub frame or structural component of your car

    Service manuals from the manufacturers are available for subscription, but if you know where to find them, I’d be curious to see, because my search engine skills have gotten worse as time has progressed. I think Toyota and Honda sells their subscription for 2 days of access for $20 and you should be able to download the relevant PDFs you want

    As for appearances for you car, don’t eat or really keep anything in your car, unless it is for the car and its emergency kit. So I try to take everything out of the car with me if my car doesn’t need it like clothes, groceries, or anything like that. This makes car break-ins less likely to occur, and if it does, it’s more of a bad day or two (depending on your skillset/money you have) instead of a gut-wrenching moment when you realize they stole a sentimental valuable. Don’t park under trees to avoid leaves or tree sap. Neither under power lines because of bird poo

    Remember that cars are depreciating tools to get you from point A to point B. The most important part of it is that it’s mechanically sound and the safety features for it work. The next part is that it blows cold AC and hot air for heat. Anything beyond that is a bonus

  • Coffee shrinks the brain
  • Yeah, caffeine blocks the adenosine receptors in your brain. Adenosine is a chemical your body produces throughout the day to signal you getting tired. That’s why when you drink coffee, a few hours later you might feel a “crash”, because all of the tiredness comes rushing back into your brain at once

    Like the article suggests, that blocking of adenosine receptors happening too late can mess with your sleep quality, because your body wants to sleep, but your brain can’t because it doesn’t feel tired. So you might end up getting poorer sleep. This could lead to poorer long term memory storage/encoding, because one of the functions of sleep is to take short term memories and store it in your long term memory.

  • Young Europeans more likely to quit driving and have fewer children to save planet
  • I’m not European nor am I that young, but I share the same sentiment. Commuting by car isn’t good in a lot of aspects and kids are too expensive. Also having kids in this climate seems extremely stressful. Not only do you have to worry about extremely invasive tech, but you also have to worry about the changing climate and the (what seems like) global cost of living crisis

  • How do you keep yourself from eating all your candy-stash in one sitting?
  • Personally, I find American candy way too sweet. As in one full-sized bar of any chocolate candy is disgustingly sweet, and makes me feel unwell if I get anywhere close to finishing a bar

    I am American btw, and I grew up eating this stuff for a few weeks after Halloween, but then my tastebuds developed and my answer to that question is to “just eat a couple of pieces a day”

    If you want an actual answer, I’d consider trying to remove willpower from the equation and donate or throw away a majority of the candy you have. If you still want to keep candy, then putting it in inconvenient places might make it easier to eat less. Think like keeping it on the opposite side of your residence where you would usually lounge/mindlessly snack and only eating it in a designated area.

    You can also try to buy one of those kSafes to prevent yourself from eating it all too. The idea isn’t to depend on your current willpower to decide for you, but rather the rational thought of your past self to allot yourself a certain amount.

    It’s like a cheat day, if you designate a day where you can pig out, it’s easier to maintain a well-balanced diet outside of the chest day

  • New Megami Tensei Wiki is created away from Fandom
  • This is a good move for wiki maintainers and users. Fandom needs to lose their stranglehold over the wiki farm “market”. Info like this shouldn’t be polluted and bloated with advertisements and it shouldn’t be able to be modified by the whims of Fandom either.

  • Read posts don’t show differently
  • I had to go re-check my settings and saw that a lot of my “mark posts as read” options were unticked

    For me there doesn’t seem to be an icon anymore, but instead the titles get a little bit darker. I also don’t have a button that lets me hide read posts either, but it might be because a setting got reset

    It also seems like the devs introduced a bunch of regressions with the latest big update and have been quietly adding back in features. Things like instance/content filters, multiple accounts, and read settings were quietly added back in

  • Teleport Comes Across As the Kind of E-Bike We Definitely Want, but There's a Big Catch
  • A class 3 e-bike that weighs ~35-40lbs and looks a lot like a bike is really amazing to see. The steep price tag (~$3800) is not something I would purchase on a whim, but would consider given a few years time to save and ponder

    I’d like to see this trend continue, but I do disagree with the gravel bike. It seems like gravel bikes are the crossovers of the bike world.

  • Contributing to an HSA
  • You’ll probably need to provide more details about the premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket maximums of PPO vs HDHP, projected healthcare costs (at least your current year costs so far), and how much you are able to stomach for the cost now vs later

    PPO might be better if you can stomach the premiums and hit your deductible early enough. HDHP might be better if you can stomach the higher deductible and reimburse yourself years down the line after your HSA has had some time to be invested and grow from its investments

    It’s hard to say without concrete numbers and only going based off thoughts and feelings

  • Is breastmilk vegan?
  • I asked my vegan friend if they “swallow” and they said yes, because there was consent to do so. I’d go as far to extend that logic to breast milk being vegan too

    If the former was for pleasure and is vegan, then surely the latter for nourishment is also vegan too. With the basis that both were consensual

  • Living in a van instead of an old-fashioned house
  • He’s recently released a video where he admits that he has had a “home base” for a few months (probably around 6 months at this point). For good reason too, basically his support network needed to be able to reliably plan to meet him at one place. It’s not like he’s renting an apartment to sleep in every night, but rather he’s using it as a place in between long trips where he can rest and his network can stop by and visit

    Granted, he hasn’t had a home base for like years (2020/2021ish). Still, he has a cool channel and gives a more normal vibe than other vanlifers

  • It's important to read it right
  • The ‘H’ and ‘S’ in Rhode Island are already silent, so it really is a meme saying that they live in Rhode Island

    It’s a subversion of the “I live in Spain, but the ‘S’ is silent” joke

  • Bike Riders of lemmy, you okay with me riding my eScooter in the bike lane?
  • As long as you follow the rules of the road, I’m cool with it. The problems I have are with scooter users who ride against traffic

    And personally I wouldn’t want you to go on the sidewalk. I’d rather you stay the course and let me pass as it is a bit more predictable that way

  • Cincinnati City Council’s spending plan (Cincy on Track) if Sale of Rail passes

    What are people’s thoughts on the spending plan and the sale of our rail? On the one hand, it would help address some of our infrastructure and maintenance needs. On the other, it could end up like Chicago’s sale of parking meters

    Right now we get about $25M each year for the leases and tax credit from the rail. The sale would net us $1.625B for maintenance projects and the spending plan is for $250M over the next 10 years

    I’ve received plenty of mailers to vote yes, but it makes me extremely hesitant when a publicly owned infrastructure is being sold to Norfolk Southern (the ones who had the big E. Palestine derailment)

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    greenteadrinker @midwest.social
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