Please share the podcast name! That sounds like something I’d enjoy.

Network Effect by Martha Wells, read by Kevin R Free.

It’s a great book, and the reading/delivery is really entertaining. I highly recommend it if you’re a fan of science fiction!

Short answer: racism. Long answer, racism and colonialism.

Yes, it’s definitely a problem. Folks are working on it. Lots of great new authors out there to read if you look hard enough. Ask your local librarian or bookseller for a hand finding stuff, they are great at this sort of thing. When I was looking for stuff for my kid a local bookstore turned me on to Rick Riordan Presents. The author of the Percy Jackson series made a publishing imprint that solely focuses on underrepresented mythologies and so far everything I’ve read from it has been great.

If you want something a bit more adult, Nnedi Okorafor has some really fantastic adult and YA novels that are based around Nigerian mythologies.

There’s lots more out there, this is just what’s at the top of my brain. I’ll try to edit if I remember any other authors or series. I’ve been on more of a sci-fi kick lately so that’s what’s in my brain right now (ps go read Murderbot Diaries if you haven’t already).

Letting kids (and kids at heart) go wild with their imagination and dress up.

Meeting/seeing neighbors.

Eating candy.

I feel really sad for all the folks on lemmy having a bad/frustrating Halloween. I think it doesn’t have to be that way, but it does definitely take neighborhood-level effort. We’re really lucky to live in a big Halloween neighborhood in a walkable area. We saw all our favorite neighbors and met some new ones, and enjoyed all the creative decorations and costumes we saw while we were out.

But the best part of the night is always getting to see people light up when you recognize their costume. Every time I see a kid dressed as Batman and go “whoa there’s Batman!” or compliment a princess on their beautiful dress, you can just see them stand up straighter or strike a pose and it’s awesome to see everyone dressing up and enjoying themselves. I probably saw a dozen Marios tonight from age 2 to age 20 and every single one of them was over the moon when I complimented their costume.

I think it’s more like sunlight energy + adhesion energy - cohesion energy, because the capillary action is also helping to lift the water but generally yes the energy is coming from a combination of the chemical forces in the water and the pressure gradient from the sunlight/heat.

Generally, yes, but in the case of trees there is also negative pressure (vacuum) exerted from transpiration when water leaves the top of the tree and “pulls” other water up behind it.

What you are describing is not osmosis, it is capillary action. Capillary action is caused by the forces between the water molecules and the molecules of the tube overcoming the force of gravity. You can read more here: https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Physical_and_Theoretical_Chemistry_Textbook_Maps/Supplemental_Modules_(Physical_and_Theoretical_Chemistry)/Physical_Properties_of_Matter/States_of_Matter/Properties_of_Liquids/Capillary_Action

Briefly, the water molecules are attracted to the molecules of the tube by adhesive force. The liquid molecules are also attracted to each other by cohesive force. The interplay of these forces causes capillary action.

However, it seems that tree sap moves by more than just capillary action. If you scroll down part way in this book they talk about it a bit: https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/phy2053bc/chapter/cohesion-and-adhesion-in-liquids-surface-tension-and-capillary-action/

Yeah. 😢 If anyone feels like donating, here are a few orgs that could use the cash:

South Toe VFD: https://www.gofundme.com/f/donate-to-south-toe-fire-depts-hurricane-efforts

Mountain Community Health Partnership: https://www.mchp.care/

Yancey County Helene recovery venmo: https://account.venmo.com/u/YanceyCountyGovt-HeleneRelief?catchAll=u&catchAll=YanceyCountyGovt-HeleneRelief

Western North Carolina 😭

Hoping to get back there soon and bring my tourism $$ with me when they are ready. The mountains are my happy place and make me feel like a kid again.

Also, bike riding (when I’m not in a conflict with cars) is giving me a lot of joy. Especially when there are other bikers about.

Acetaminophen (Tylenol) if I can’t get it under control without meds but I agree with the other posters about trying to figure out the root cause! For me, the main causes of headaches used to be hormones from the pill until I switched to a different form of birth control (IUD). Nowadays my headaches are mostly dry eye or allergy related so I keep eye drops on hand and take allergy meds and I’m down to headaches once every week or two. Staying hydrated and taking fish oil supplements has also helped my dry eyes.

Not OP, but we have a bidet and a basket of cut up t-shirt cloths next to the toilet that are single-use and then go in the wash every week. I wouldn’t personally reuse washcloths for wiping out of fear of UTIs, but I’m extra paranoid.

Nazis get worse if you don’t actively oppose them. That can look like punching them, but it can also look like actively ostracizing them by taking away their jobs, denying them participation in community events, or just straight up shaming them in public.

Pacifism only works if the other side isn’t willing to kill you. These jackasses fantasize about genociding people as a hobby, so if you think pacifism is going to work for you then go right ahead but I’ll be over here working on my defensive skills.

In many situations nazi-punching is not your best tactical decision, especially in the presence of cops. Using your words to hurt the poor Nazi snowflakes feelings works just as well and has the added benefit of potentially provoking them into getting themselves arrested if there are cops watching.

Agreed. We have kept wearing masks in specific places (public transit, crowded events, airplanes) and it really does make a difference. I never get sick from airplane trips any more, which used to be a fairly regular occurrence.

I will say, I was never able to figure out how to stop a properly fitted mask from giving me a terrible headache after 8 hours of use so I’m glad I work from home and don’t need to make the choice of mask vs comfort at work.

I have a white Prius named Shadowfax so if I need to go somewhere fast I can yell “run Shadowfax, show us the meaning of haste!”