This is my answer as well. It’s not at all because the world [building] is so compelling – there are better (well, crunchier) books out there for that – but the recurring characters and settings and themes, make this series a total comfort to go back to every few years. It’s like a warm blanket.
Plus one for Discworld. I also really like the way Gods, magic and interplanetary travel worked in the Raymond E Feist Universe (the main planet was midkemia?)
Not exactly a new one, but I listened to S-town with great enjoyment. It's a little story about an alleged murder, a truly original American man, and rural Alabama. I was never bored, and I certainly learned something. And you get to hear an amazing Alabama accent.
I have one and pressure is OK (at least if the gauge isn’t stuck). Is there anything else that you can check yourself instead of having it professionally inspected once a year? Does anyone know what they inspect?
Fire related: If you have smoke detectors there should be a button on it to check the battery.
Not fire related: You can check if your home first aid kit needs to be restocked. Sometimes you might take out some bandages and forget to replace them.
Pern. Just the quirk of it’s physical environment that I don’t want to give away, and the way people lived because of it felt very unique to me. It was so integral to the stories, too. You often see unusual environments in fantasy and sci-fi, but often only while setting the stage.
Yes! The planet and strange ecosystem is as much a character as any of the people, constantly affecting the events of the story. It is a story that couldn’t just as well happen on earth.
One of the things I like about the Pern universe (similar to the Wool universe) is that you start with a technologically advanced society that (for whatever reason) loses knowledge, and the way that hidden history impacts society over extended periods
I’ll recommend (as I always do, being a satisfied customer) Filen - scroll down that page and you’ll see the 10gb free tier.
All you need is a working email - get an anonymous forwarder here or here. All the apps are open source, everything is E2EE, the website doesn’t track or fingerprint you and if you decide to upgrade to a paid acct, they accept Monero.
I was gifted a laptop by a nurse 10 years ago while working for Rackspace Hosting. I suspect it had spyware on it. Just trying to protect myself from getting assaulted by this group of women again.
Came here to say this! All the different islands with their overlapping but different cultures, talking dragons, great magic system. It’s awesome. I love the nomadic tribes on their huge floating rafts, especially.
Followed by: do you have a functional fire extinguisher in your kitchen and can you reach it immediately?
Stove top fires are usually easy, just put a lid on whatever to put them out, but there’s always going to be someone who panics and dumps water on a grease fire.
Not too immediately. Take 3 steps back/towards the nearest exit, that’s where you want the extinguisher. Not right next to the stove that’s going to be on fire when you need to get to the extinguisher.
Keep in mind that a standard ABC extinguisher isn’t rated for grease fryers. If it’s just the fat needed to sautee something you’re good, but for an actual deep frying fire you want something in class K.
Ok, please do indulge me on this one, because this whole subject is an enigma to me and has been mentally eating at me over the years.
How do men and women meet in a nightclub and then end up having a one-night stand?
Part of the reason I don’t like clubbing is that it triggers feelings of jealousy within me.
I have a friend, let’s just call him Matt. Whenever I’ve been out with Matt, women have always thrown themselves at him whereas my experiences by comparison have led to nothing but rejection.
There is nothing particularly special about Matt. He’s a year younger than me, looks about average for someone in their early thirties, yet has infinitely more rizz. I can’t put my finger on it.
FYI you should turn over each of your fire extinguishers at least once every 6 months to keep them working right. That means pick it up, rotate it upside-down, and let the stuff inside slide to the top, then turn it back over. I learned this from a fire inspector that I had to guide through a datacenter once.
It really depends on the kind of fire extinguisher as to whether that matters. That said, my understanding is that if it is a dry powder that has settled it would be visible on the pressure gauge.
Really, that is about actually checking the pressure gauge every six months. If you tell someone to look, they never will. If you tell someone they have to do something, they might. Its the same logic behind “testing” a smoke alarm. The electronics are simple enough that you would REALLY need to try to damage them (and they are set up to piss you off with incessant beeping when failing anyway). But by pushing the button every six months, you actually check if there is a battery in it and so forth. Rather than hearing it beep in the morning, telling yourself you’ll fix it when you get home, and never doing so.
How does powder settling affect a pressure gauge? There has been no change to the internal pressure of the vessel, the change loose vs compacted powered will not change the volume of materials inside the extinguisher. The only way the pressure should change is if there’s a leak.
It very much depends on the specific materials which is why it is a “let’s not get into this and just say ‘better safe than sorry’” situation but: Even if the powder is settled, it is going to almost immediately get kicked up and re-mixed once you start spraying. Probably don’t test this for yourself for obvious reasons, but that is why a “fresh” can of spray paint will basically always work. It might not be even for the first few sprays but it rapidly becomes even.
Over simplifying (because molecular dynamics and shit) but think of it like a really crowded room. You basically can’t sit down, let alone lie down, if it is crowded enough. And even if you try, someone will nudge you (or kick you) and you will get going.
As the pressure decreases, the settled powder is less likely to be disturbed and you are more likely to wake up from your nap wondering why nobody else is waiting for the new Star Wars with you. And that is why paint cans have the shaker and so forth.
So if your fire extinguisher has settled/compacted to the point that it is not viable? It is almost guaranteed to be because of a pressure leakage and that would be reflected on the gauge.
Now, there is probably some variant where this can happen regardless. But that would be a bad product anyway because these need to work even if nobody can ever be bothered to find the key to the glass box.
Your logic is not correct. Powder and people are not the same. Volume is volume, and particles of fire retardant are not changing size or quantity. If pressure drops substantially in an extinguisher, it’s leaking.
A can of fresh spray paint works because the seals are all still good and the nozzle isn’t clogged, and cans of used spray paint can leak out pressure or have the nozzle or other plumbing jammed up with dried spray paint.
You’re right, the pressure gauge shouldn’t change without a leak or temperature change (Boyle’s Law and such). But it’s hard to have a 100%, no-leak extinguisher. There’s plenty of points of failure to keep the thing pressurized, and the leak could be imperceptible (over months) or a rapid failure
And you wanna keep contents from settling as well, so you don’t just spray gas when trying to use it. So you mix it a bit and inspect the gauge every so often, because you don’t want it to fail when you need it most
Ideally, it shouldn’t lose pressure. But also ideally, you don’t have a fire that requires an extinguisher in the first place
But yes, you’re right on that one. “Settling” of the fire-retardent wouldn’t cause a pressure change. It’s just part of the safety inspection to check the gauge as well as to “mix” it… keeping it ready to go
Phil Spector. His wall of sound bullshit caused decades of potentially amazing albums to sound like shit, and he's a terrible person who has brought nothing on the world that's worth keeping.
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