Seconded, I use a Define 7 and it’s fantastic. Best big black box I’ve ever owned.

I like that you’re thinking of alternatives, though! Don’t ever lose that, it’s less common than you might think.

It’d be bad. Real bad. An algae bloom of massive proportions. It has one huge issue.

Enough algae to make the rivers run green will use up enough oxygen at night to kill off fish and oxygen hungry invertebrates, starting a chain reaction of death.

Now you have a river full of dead organisms, so they start decomposing thanks to microbes. You know what many types of bacteria love? Oxygen. So they start using up oxygen, multiplying all the while. Night hits and the algae need to use oxygen, but a bunch die because there’s not enough. Now the river is full of literally hundreds, maybe thousands of tons of decomposing matter. The river largely goes anoxic (meaning there’s no oxygen) so things start dying left and right. A bunch of those bacteria can live with and without oxygen, so they use up what they can and keep on chugging without.

Now we’ve moved from aerobic respiration to anaerobic. You know what the primary byproducts of anaerobic respiration are? Organic acids and alcohols, which smell. The river begins to smell like an infected wound. It’s no longer green but deep, murky brown from the suspension of decomposing organisms. This continues until the river flushes everything out, but it kills what’s downstream as it continues until it hits the ocean, where it likely continues to kill everything in the vicinity until it becomes dilute enough.

I’m a microbiologist and worked with algae and cyanobacteria as an undergrad. Never underestimate the impact of uncountable billions of trillions of living organisms.

I work as, amongst other things, an ergonomist and was here to comment exactly this. The Steelcase Leap or Gesture are nearly always my recommendations.

Not really all that different. I have had multiple autistic friends and coworkers. Only two things really stand out and they’re absolutely generalizations that are untrue for some people and exist on a continuum for the rest.

First, I find the autistic crowd interrupts people more, sometimes a lot more, and some ramble quite a bit without getting to the point. It can be frustrating for the NTs and I’ve had to implement conch shell protocols and thought mapping so we can get through meetings and conversations effectively.

Second, the autistic folks tend to be blunter in speech but also often can take things straight. I don’t have to dance around issues as much. We put everything out on the table, work through it, then move on.

Edit: I should mention that I’m neurotypical but have CPTSD due to parental abuse. Those with CPTSD can have significant behavioral overlap with autism. Before getting a lot of therapy, I displayed multiple traits often associated with autism, including alexithymia. Thanks Dad!

Good imagery!

I did my part and sent them a “do this and I’ll never buy a Haier product” email. Corporations exist to maximize profits. Communities like ours just have to learn how to make it clear to them that shutting us out will hurt their profitability.

I think we should all be really proud of ourselves. We banded together and, regardless of WHY Haier is doing this, got them to open a line of communication. This is a huge win!

Hell yes! My sister-in-law has your same year but the diesel version and that thing is a champ. It’s rated at 45 mpg on the highway but she typically gets 50+, even with nearly 200k miles on it.

I had a 2004 1.8t Jetta for 12 years but I swapped it for a Prius. I love the Prius features and fuel economy but I miss how damn quick that my Jetta was, plus I loved the interior color scheme.

I’m 50% of the way there and it sucks. Everything hurts at some point.

Tell Brian thank you. I just used his and ordered one too.

Edit: I really did order one though, my current bidet needs an upgrade.

It’s good for me because I’m piss poor at programming. In my defense, I’m not a programmer or even programmer adjacent. I do see how it wouldn’t be useful to a pro. It also has occasionally given me garbage advice that an expert would spot right away while I had to figure out in my own that it was ‘hallucinating’ again. There’s nothing better for learning than troubleshooting, though!

If you want to get next level green, plant a nitrogen fixing plant, like clover. It won’t directly enrich the soil as it’ll only fix as much nitrogen as it can use itself, but when you mow your lawn and the clover bits biodegrade, that’ll increase your soil’s bioavailable nitrogen content. Decades ago in the UK, it was considered a source of pride to have some clover in your lawn.

Isn’t toad in the hood sausages in Yorkshire pudding?

Yep. I just woke up, it’s nearly 13:00, and I have no idea how I slept this late. I went to bed at midnight. I set the alarm for nine!

Here’s a great article that’s starting to make the rounds. He was an awful person.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/henry-kissinger-war-criminal-dead-1234804748/

I’m poly and am now in a monogamous marriage but was in a few poly relationships prior. I’m 99.5% okay with this.

Poly was fun but had high overhead - there’s a certain amount of work required for any relationship and it seems to increase to some extent as you get closer with someone. Two partners was literally double the work, sometimes more. A lot of people thought I was a swinger which always pissed me off. A couple of non-poly girlfriends thought it gave them carte blanche to fuck around on the side while I was staying monogamous for them. Classy.

My very last poly partner was simply horrid and ultimately turned me off to poly. Successful polyamory requires trust and communication. We had been unintentionally monogamous for awhile and it turned out she was not communicating some unfulfilled needs. To be fair, they were valid needs, but I couldn’t have known to fulfill them without being told first.

When she and I started dating, we were only seeing each other and had agreed that we’d only consider bringing new people to the relationship if our “core” relationship was solid. That was always my condition in every poly relationship. Years later, without any prior warning, she told me about the issues she had with us and mandated that the only way she’d be willing for us to stay together was if I were to support her starting a relationship with an absolute trainwreck of a human being. He was a socially awkward, late twenties, literally virginal fellow that had never been in a relationship of any kind before and he nailed the cocky, oblivious, “kind of an asshole but projects the blame on you” engineer stereotype on the head so hard you could feel it across county lines. I noped the fuck out so hard. Looking back, my ex had glaring warning signs you could see from space, but I was pretty young and nieve, plus I was madly in love with her even before we started dating. This and an earlier relationship with a narcissistic abuser are the only relationships I regret.

I met my now wife a few months after my ex and I split. She didn’t want to do poly and I was pretty burned out on it, so I had no complaints. I do miss it sometimes. I’m a bit of a flirt and I really miss that, the excitement of hitting it off with a new person and all the chemistry and interesting things to learn about them. Still, I wouldn’t trade what I have with my wife for all the dates in the world.

I’ll do digging, thank you!

Also, great screenname! I’m also a fan of the best beetle ever. Snoots and boots!

Hey…do we have a weevil time community?

Those look great! Where do you get yours? They’re on Amazon but they’re expensive and I’m tired of supporting Bezos.

Dad, is that you?

I use Liftoff and it works great, plus it’s free and doesn’t sell any of my personal data.