Fondots

I was recently reading some Wikipedia article on my phone and when I was scrolling I accidentally hit a button to edit it and was greeted by a message that my IP was banned from editing for the next 10 months.

I haven't even attempted to edit Wikipedia in probably 20 years. Admittedly last time I did I was probably about 14 years old, and it may have been some juvenile vandalism, but somehow I don't think that they managed to trace me from a computer in my high school library to my current cell phone, or that anything I did warranted a 21 year ban

So obviously it's because phones using cellular Internet go through IP addresses only slightly less often than most people breathe.

It feels like that sort of IP ban really isn't particularly useful. The vandals probably aren't usually on that address and most of the time it's getting used by random people who probably don't even think about editing Wikipedia.

I dabble in ham radio stuff, you can (and many people do) send data, video, etc. using ham radio equipment. It's a bit more specialized than just sending voice or Morse code, but it's absolutely doable.

Not amateur radio, but back in about the 80s there were even a couple countries that experimented with distributing computer programs over regular FM radio. They'd play some electronic buzzing noises that you'd record to a tape then to run it as a program. I know the BBC did it, and I believe Finland also had a radio station doing it for a bit.

In a world where the internet as we know it never came together, I could definitely imagine those sorts of technologies evolving into something that still looks a hell of a lot like the internet.

I think there's a fine line to be walked

Personally the only lights on my PC itself are the Ethernet ports on the back, and one little blue power indicator on the front

And since I built it in an HTPC case and stuffed it into my entertainment center, you kind of need to be looking at it from just the right angle to even see those. The case itself is a pretty unassuming black rectangle that looks pretty much like any other piece of AV equipment you might expect to see under a TV. About the size of a normal AV receiver, with a disc drive, a power and reset button, 2 USB ports, and a headphone and microphone jack.

My keyboard is a Keychron Q6 max with side-printed shine-through key caps, and my mouse is a Gameball Thumb (I like trackballs, and it's nice since I'm gaming on the couch so not much convenient flat space to move a mouse around) which has single ring of LEDs around the trackball and a small indicator LED to show the DPI settings on the mouse. Both of those turn off when they're idle, and when they're in use I have them set to a pretty simple spinning color mode.

My setup is in a finished basement and the lights are usually down so it's nice having them light up for the ease of seeing what I'm doing, and the simple color animations aren't too distracting.

Where my lighting excess does come in though is with the Philips hue lights I have synced up to my TV the overhead lights, a light strip behind my tv, and a light tube underneath it. Between that and the surround sound I think it's really immersive for movies and gaming. I think I've hit a good balance of it having some wow factor without being too distracting but opinions will of course vary on that.

I'm way out of my element, and I don't feel like doing the math right now, but I think it may be worth considering that helium is very light, I think last time I saw it brought up someone said that 1g of helium is like 5 or 6 liters at standard temperature/pressure. Not a huge quantity by any means, but significantly more than you'd probably imagine picturing a gram of water or whatever. I have no idea what kinds of amounts, pressures, etc. are needed for helium to be used in any of the applications we want it for, but I suspect it's a lot more than that.

Also as far as mining goes, except for the fact that it's on the moon, it seems like harvesting regolith is probably a fairly straightforward operation, it's just moon dust, the stuff that's covering pretty much the entire surface a few meters deep. Seems like all that's really needed would be some space bulldozers and dump trucks (though of course I'm sure there's a whole lot more challenges that I'm not thinking of)

To say nothing about whatever is needed to process the regolith, I wouldn't even know where to begin with that.

But helium also isn't the only thing we'd be looking to harvest from regolith. Let's say it takes us 50 years to harvest enough helium for whatever we need it for (no idea if that estimate is over, under, or about right) over those 50 years we'd also be harvesting all of the iron and silicon and whatever else we need to build out the infrastructure to use the helium.

And of course the cost/benefit analysis can be all over the place depending on if you're thinking about this as some sort of capitalist profit-seeking venture or if it's more of a "for the good of all mankind" or "scientific research for its own sake" kind of thing.

Lot of things to consider. I'm not saying that mining the moon necessarily makes sense, I also don't know if it doesn't there's a lot of factors at play.

The whole article continues that

As of 2023, Williams is assigned to domestic violence cases

Yeah, sounds like a real stand-up, sensitive, emotionally-intelligent dude that I'd want handling those kinds of cases.

I'm also pretty sure that somewhere in OoT someone says that bomb flowers are the raw material for bombs

I have a friend who used to work in a pet food warehouse. They had some massive blast doors and fire suppression systems

Sounds like overkill for a bunch of dog and cat food, but when you think about it food is absolutely packed full of energy, caloric content is kind of the main point of food. Most of it is dry kibble, so it's not like you can count it having a hgligh moisture content to keep it from watching fire, and I can absolutely imagine a situation there where the right conditions might exist for a dust explosion like you hear about in grain silos and such.

I would assume that fireworks warehouses probably have about 1000X the fire safety measures than dog food does. Maybe I'm giving the powers that be too much credit though, because it does seem like every year I hear about some fireworks warehouse or factory somewhere blowing up.

I don't know if I can pick just one favorite hot dog, so instead I'm just gonna wax philosphical about hot dogs at whoever cares enough to read this.

Most importantly is to start with a quality hotdog, something with a natural casing, that snap is critical I like all-beef personally but I'm not outright opposed to some frankenweenies either.

I'm told that in Iceland hot dogs generally contain at least some lamb, that sounds delicious to me, I like lamb. I've actually made and smoked my own hot dogs before so that may be something I experiment with in the future. I actually have a trip planned to Iceland next year so that may be something I try to recreate after I come back (I swear I'm not actually going for the hot dogs, just a happy accident, but I figured I might as well do some recon while I'm there)

A good bun is also important, something well-sized to the dogs, soft but structurally sound that's not going to fall apart and get gross and soggy. When I made my own dogs I decided to go all-in and make my own buns as well. Pretty sure I used whatever recipe was the first Google result was for "sourdough hot dog buns" (because of course the crazy foodie who's making his own hot dogs is also maintaining a sourdough starter) and I was very happy with how they came out. Barring that, get any decent brand of bun, there's not that much variation. I like potato buns, but a regular ol' white bun is fine. I also decided at some point that I like top-split as opposed to side-split buns, but that's more of a nice thing to have than something I'm going to agonize over if I can't find them.

Grill your dogs, or roll them around on a hot pan or griddle, don't boil them. If you're really fancy (even I'm not this nuts) get yourself one of those hot dog roller machines you see at gas stations and sports stadiums, I think those are the perfect hot dogs.

Now onto the real meat of the question - toppings

I don't know that I have any one favorite dog, it all depends on my mood.

I hail from the philly area, so when in doubt when I'm presented with any cheap food item in need of a sauce or condiments, my answer is Cheez Whiz (keep that shit off of my cheesesteak though, that's for tourists, I'm provolone all the way)

Closely-related, you have the chili cheese dog or plain old chili dog. These are all options where you really need to make sure to have a bun that's going to hold up to some heavy, wet toppings. I think mustard is not unwelcome on a chili cheese dog, along with chopped onions and maybe some jalapenos. I'm normally a fan of beans in my chilli, but I don't think they have any place in a chili intended to be a hot dog topping.

I've been to Cincinnati and sampled skyline chili from the source. If you expect chili you're going to be disappointed and confused, but if you go in expecting a spiced meat sauce, you might really enjoy it. I think it makes for a damn good hot dog topping.

Outside of the situations where you're going to have chili available for your hot dogs though

I'm also fan of sauerkraut. For the love of God though, don't rinse and squeeze all of the sauer out of your kraut. Let it be sour and funky. Serve it rwith or without heating it up onto your dogs just as it came out of the can, jar, plastic bag, or crock.

For your typical backyard BBQ where you're grabbing the usual condiments off the shelf to have out on a picnic table for the 4th of July or whatever- ketchup has no place on a hot dog. I'll always go mustard, and often relish (I prefer dill relish over sweet if available) and chopped onions are a welcome addition. I think you'd do well to serve them with some baked beans on the side.

I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention the Texas Tommy, allegedly another Philly-area invention, possibly originating in nearby Pottstown (though that's a big " ^[Citation Needed]^" IMO)

I was recently at IKEA and on the way out the door before a fun night of assembling flat-pack furniture, I grabbed a hot dog with some red cabbage and crispy fried onions, and I also thought that was a great combination (the hot dog itself was nothing special)

For a quick & easy weeknight dinner, I don't think it gets much better than a hot dog or two or three prepared in any of the above styles, accompanied with some boxed Mac & Cheese, and some stewed tomatoes.

For a couple local ish places to me that I've felt like I've always gotten a stand-out hotdog, there's Yoccos in Allentown, Jimmy John's near West Chester PA, and of all places, the gift shop behind the chapel in Valley Forge National Historic Park

And of course, honorable mention goes to Costco for being one of the best deals going.

My guess, and I'm just kind of spitballing here, is that it fermented

Lollipops are basically just sugar and sugar is hygroscopic - it readily pulls moisture from the air. Eventually if it's humid enough it could pull enough moisture from the air and start dissolving, so the goo is basically sugar-water

There's a lot of natural yeast and bacteria and such all around you in the air and on just about every surface you could imagine, some was in the jar and found the sugar and started doing it's thing fermenting the sugars

Fermentation takes sugars and turns them into alcohol and carbon dioxide (bit of a simplification)

Carbon dioxide is a gas, so there's the bubbling, and the whistling noise was probably gas escaping from the jar as the pressure built up too high for the seal on the container to handle. The bubbling may have also picked up a bit when the gas started escaping too because under pressure some of it probably dissolved into the sugar goo, like it does into a can of soda, then when you crack the can open the pressure drops and the gas comes out of solution and bubbles.

And of course hand sanitizer is alcohol, so there's the smell.

Personally I would like a revolution resembling Ukraine

You want the US to be invaded by invaded by an even bigger piece of shit country for us to have to fend off?

I think my current pixel 7 pro is probably the nicest looking smartphone I've owned. Prior to this it was the LG G3.

Back in the day I had some Motorola TracFone that looked a lot like a razr that I also thought looked pretty cool.

When my family switched from TracFone I got a Samsung Rogue which I also really liked, but I also remember wishing that my parents had waited a couple months so that I could have gotten my personal pick for the sexiest smartphone of all time instead- the original Motorola Droid. I eventually ended up getting the droid 2, which was, IMO, a fine successor to the droid, but just not as sexy.

I just recently built a computer, though truth be told it's basically my wife's old computer stuffed into a new case, we've been holding onto her old components as she's done upgrades. So it's basically a roughly 10 year old computer, it has one of the last AMD processors from before the ryzen era, but it was a beefy computer when she built it and it's still managing to run most of what's out there on acceptable (for me, I'm not exactly a graphics snob) settings.

Of course it's not gonna be compatible with windows 11, so I've been figuring out what my next move is going to be. Most likely I'll bite the bullet and build basically a whole new PC and recycle this one into a home server or something, it's definitely still got a lot of life left in it, but I'd be lying if the idea of just going over to Linux isn't really tempting