Astronomy because it makes me feel funny. Or simply stargazing. I don’t see a need to differentiate because the vibe changes every time I go out specifically for this.

There’s a convenience. It’s something that I can dabble in just by stepping outside at night, it’s something I can work into a trip if there’s a significantly darker sky within an hour of my itinerary, it’s something I can plan a trip specifically for. As a night owl, it’s also something that occurs during the “bonus hours” of the day, so I can still do all the daytime entertainment activities and still get more fun time. Do I feel tired the next day? I don’t want to talk about it. But I can stay out to 3am if the conditions are good. Hell, last time, I saw the darkest skies of my life yet and didn’t hit bed until sunset. 100% worth it to me.

There’s an overview effect. This is the primary driver of the hobby. I can’t promise it matches the feeling astronauts feel seeing Earth from space, but I have to beleive that the knowledge of that feeling, the knowledge of how distant every point of light is, the feeling of knowing millions of other people are seeing an essentially identical sky right now, just gives me such a twisted feeling. I’m alone, yet we’re all together on this planet, but the planet is alone. I can feel the overwhelming feeling that none of this view is tangible. I can look towards the moon, I can look towards some visible planets, I can use a telescope or binoculars to see them better. The moon has texture that feels tangible, but then I can consider the fact that every single planet in our solar system, the ones that are single-color dots by eye, would fit in the space between is and the moon. Just 400,000 km. Just the space astronauts travel in a couple days. More mass of planets than is even fathomable, more surface area, an order of magnitude or two more area than we have on Earth, fits between us and the nearest body. We’re stuck here. None of the beautiful things we can spot in deep space are tangible, reachable, achievable. They’re not even fathomable in size. Every nebula in sight, every cluster, everything visible is far, far greater than the size of our entire solar system. Unfathomably large, intangibly far. When I’m out in truly dark skies, especially with clear horizons, it’s just an insane feeling because it feels it’s just a solid sky dome because it takes all the same focus. But the focus is at infinity. My eyes just can’t tell a mile from a lightyear because there’s nothing of context. If I’m deep in thought, one of the coolest things to me is seeing a plane fly through. Suddenly, the context clues of knowing 200 people are in the tiny structure overhead make me feel so incredibly small. The blurs and blubs I’ve been sizing up suddenly, scarily, have a tiny plane in front of it, and the scale hits me like a train. Similar things can happen with distant horizon objects and the Milky Way band.

And sometimes I take pictures.

Seconding this option. While it’s not necessarily the theme here, it’s one of my most active hobbyist/interest communities. I posted here once and was given some pointers and how to improve the things I called out

I was thinking if the train hit this guy, it’d be the end of that lineage

Look at the way it jets out. It jets sideways. The preview picture to this article even shows it. The only thing curving the flame upwards is convection. The instant the gas is out of the jet, it’s depressurized

I’ve spent a lot of time testing and modifying my hvac and general home circulation. My main tool is a smoke pencil, basically a pushbutton vape. Air is stupidly stagnant. Suction vents have stupidly low influence over the air even within arm’s length of the duct. Convection is the only thing carrying stove gasses upwards and if there’s no heat because it’s not lit, the methane isn’t going up on its own. Just diffusing into the air with a preference for sinking. But the amount coming out is pretty low for a reasonable lighting attempt and the dangerous ignitable level is much, much higher than what that attempt will dispense. A couple flaps with a hand towel or toaster tray will disperse it plenty for good measure

That is the opposite of another comment here. I guess I’ll beleive neither and refuse both tests to play it safe

The gas wouldn’t have gone upwards into the vent. It’s a heavy molecule for starters, but also just depressurized on release, making it colder. It’d sink down. The reason the vent is important when running is because the gas fumes are going to be significantly heated and rise via convection.

Unnecessarily reductive. It’s both the ceilings and walls. There is no single solution. We also have no idea of they have an attic or vaulted ceilings. An attic full of hot air is a heat bank that will radiate into the living space all night. All insulation will do is slow the transfer. Really good attic floor insulation will help retain heat in the attic, so you still want to improve attic ventilation. But, if you reduce the amount of heat going into the attic in the first place, you reduce how much insulation and ventilation you need to reach a certain cost/benefit ratio. It’s usually more feasible to do half a job addressing each than it is to make just one variable perfect. So, when it comes to replacing a roof covering that needs replacing anyway, doesn’t it make sense to do that as best as feasible?

Tour a home with an infrared thermometer camera in summer. I promise you, the ceiling is warm, too. You just don’t hang out 3 meters up.

Hmm. All I can offer then is maybe Metallica. One. Not a love song

Yes, but it is sourced very far away and gets refined into a different product for consumer use that is always available (except during a local crisis) so therefore it’s not something to worry about and is naturally occurring.

Short-sighted concerns.

Your bro is just a prank, bro

I didn’t say they were the same. I said I don’t see how whatever regulations they’re self-imposing on hot liquid cow can’t be equally regulated upon hot liquid seeds.

Eeeexcellent, I’m excited for you.

I’ve seen some science channels posting these over the last few years, making coatings that emit radiation in the “atmospheric window” I think it’s called, but have not yet seen proper products on the market. I could be out of date though. Still, I’d question durability, but I suppose it’d be at least no worse than normal materials, right?

Drum brakes, but for ABS reasons rather than performance. He skids his drum to prove it.

16" rims, with which bias ply tires are mentioned as part of the appeal

That’s all you got close

Exactly. “Go to my house dot Com” would probably trip some people up because they weren’t expecting to be given a website name by audio, instead initially thinking they should go to my house, then being unsure if they missed prior info. Now, it’s the default. For a similar cue reason, I still say things like “Vin number” if I’m trying to be clear as possible, particularly by phone. “can you give me the Vin” is sometimes misunderstood or misheard because “Vin” is a very mumbly word. “Vin number” gives an obvious retroactive explanation.

Humans use context in audio constantly and have to work backwards often to find the full meaning. It’s just natural and smoothpy accomplished. If you’ve ever said “what” and then answered the question when it was being asked the second time, you worked backwards and figured it out

I feel like it resembles a sort of parody song like “I like it here in America” with an accent with rolled Rs repeated by children. I can hear a jingle in my head, but I can’t place the source of my memory. Kinda thinking Loony Toons doing some Mexican maid gig

Edit: “America” from West Side Story? Not actually a parody in original form, but easily repeated by children. Also has a Spanish accent. [redacted part about cross reference, realizing the play is older than the song in question]

You might want to look at metal roofing. White helps and makes sense from a visual standpoint where the base material can only be dyed/painted and not changed, but even painted metal reflects infrared better, which is where the heating energy really exists.

lol

Same. Can’t say I did that exact combo, but I could stand on my mountain bike pedals and clench the seat between my thighs to steer without hands. I did briefly try smoking but a rushed ride to class made me reek of ash, “quit” on the spot (never really started).

But yeah, motorcycles are big and heavy and fast. The weight ratio is way off. I can do some antics, but nowhere near my bicycle level. Part skill, part strength, part knowing that fucking up on a motorcycle at road speeds carries far more consequence than a bicycle.

I do love a slow race. I practice at every red light! I beleive it’s important for all aspects of riding by practicing how to wrangle the motorcycle to your will

[couple edits] One time, I pulled the front brake to see what would happen on ice. What happens is you suddenly learn that steering the front wheel is the only thing that keeps a bicycle balanced. Once it skids, you have no steer, and whatever tilting momentum you had at the time is now permanent. Sliding on the ice was actually quite nice [compared to grinding into pavement].

I didn’t really understand it at the time, but it set the groundwork for a future understanding when I got into motorcycling. Having the front wash out and tipping into a “low side” crash is much more common on motorcycles, as it’s much easier to get to the limits of grip. Same deal with balancing: you’re constantly doing minor movements of the [bars] to keep you upright. It’s not the gyroscopic effect, it’s not your body moving; you’re steering with tiny corrections on a mechanism with geometry that makes it work intuitively and with self-correcting steering.

Every time you want to go left, whether you know it or not, you start with a little motion of pushing the bars right. Even if you ride with no hands on the bars, your body shifts to force the bars the opposite way first. The bars and wheel go right, the tires roll to the right, the bike and body fall left, your arms and/or the geometry pull the wheel and bars left. Bam, you’re now leaning and steering left while still in balance.

Every bicycle and motorcycle works like this. What makes it a skill worth honing is that once you decouple the “countersteer” motion from the entire turning process, it allows you to have much, much better control over the machine. In motorcycles, it’s really valuable to be able to command more or less lean when you misjudge a turn. Something I try to explain to every new rider because bicycles and motorcycles just make it intuitive with the steering geometry, but motorcycles have much larger consequences without any real escalation in required skill beyond general road testing.