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Cake day: June 5th, 2025

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  • One big advantage is that we can run while breathing out of sync with our steps. Four legged running pretty much requires each inhale and exhale to sync with the compression and expansion of the torso with each stride. Humans, on the other hand, can run full speed while taking multiple steps per breath, depending on terrain and fatigue, which gives more options for pacing.


  • Power is what matters, and power (in watts) = current (in amps) times voltage (in volts). US residential power outlets are 110V and typically cap at 15A, for a power output max of 1650W. But it’s also pretty common to have 20A outlets in kitchens, which would max out at 2200W. Still, there aren’t a lot of 2000W kettles in the US, and it’s pretty standard for the ones you’d buy in a store to only draw about 1500W.

    Meanwhile, in the UK, the standard outlet is 230V, rated for up to 13A, for about 3000W. And culturally, in terms of consumer expectations in the UK, the kettles are generally designed to max that out to use the full capacity of that outlet.

    So on average, the typical US kettle is only about half as powerful as the typical UK kettle. It’s a combination of the US electrical norms and the cultural/consumer expectations, because it is entirely possible to have a 2200W kettle on a pretty standard kitchen circuit in the US.


  • As this thread shows, back pain isn’t caused by just one thing, so each specific person’s back pain won’t be cured by the same one size fits all approach.

    If your back pain is caused by poor posture exacerbated by a weak posterior chain, lifting weights at the gym or doing other strengthening exercises/physical therapy can be helpful. As plenty in this thread can attest, gym time to offset laptop time can go a long way.

    If your back pain is caused by repetitive stress from physical labor, adhering to proper form/technique and rest/recovery cycles to the best of your ability can help.

    If your back pain is exacerbated by the weight you carry, losing weight (or in certain circumstances, breast reduction surgery) can help.

    We’re all just trying to get through life. Sometimes other people’s tips can help, so it’s worth sharing, but we also shouldn’t get too tied to a particular solution that worked for us, as a the solution for everyone else.


  • It’s not uncommon for space images to be color-enhanced. On the one hand, it may feel less authentic. On the other hand, the visible light levels in space may be insufficient for our expectations and uses anyway.

    Another thing to consider is that human perception of color in celestial objects is often just wrong, so enhancing the color of certain objects is more true than what we often see ourselves.

    The sun is the same color all the time: white, consisting of a broad spectrum of all the wavelengths in the visible light range. But our atmosphere scatters the different wavelengths differently, so we see a blue sky and we see yellow, orange, and red sunsets. The atmospheric effects are happening all the time, with all the other light that happens to hit our planet, like the moon seeming to change color while reflecting the same white sunlight.

    The stars in the sky are all sorts of different colors, but appear white to us, because our color-blind rods are much more sensitive than our color-sensitive cones, and the dimness of starlight just all looks like faint white lights regardless of whether the star happens to be red, yellow, blue, or white.

    Meanwhile, relativistic effects might actually shift wavelengths and resolution, too, whether we’re talking about redshift or gravitational lensing, and asking what the “true” image is supposed to be.

    So when we take a long exposure of something in space, that itself may represent something that the human eye can’t see. Using colors to represent the different wavelengths actually present may also require adjustment of what physical filters are used on the capture, and how the actual sensor is configured to account for different wavelengths (including potentially wavelengths not within the visible spectrum), and to account for literal noise captured by the sensor.

    Astrophotography needs to make choices about how to translate sensor data to an actual human-visible image displayed on a screen with its own limited color space of what its pixels can display, or printed on paper with its own limited color space of what inks are available for printing.


  • It doesn’t have to be structured. It just has to give opportunities for repeat interactions, and maybe a promise of future interaction with the same person, in that low pressure environment.

    Dog parks have a bunch of dogs mingling, so their owners will often have the opportunity to get to know each other.

    Neighbors who see each other often have an opportunity to get to know each other. That goes for work neighbors, too, even if they work for another employer entirely (but in the same building or something.

    Regulars at a coffee shop, restaurant, bar, or gym might learn to recognize each other and go from exchanging pleasantries to actually getting to know each other (and the staff).

    Church isn’t as big a thing as it was a few generations ago, but any kind of social meetings, from support groups to volunteer associations, give the opportunity to work together for a common goal.

    This is where hobbies and free time come in. And I’m not going to knock video games and other hobbies where you might interact with people online, but there is something fundamentally different about repeated in-person interactions. So it’s worth making sure that your routine includes regular interaction with people in low-stakes settings.


  • I always needed practical examples, which is why it was helpful to learn physics alongside calculus my senior year in high school. Knowing where the physics equations came from was easier than just blindly memorizing the formulas.

    The specific example of things clicking for me was understanding where the “1/2” came from in distance = 1/2 (acceleration)(time)^2 (the simpler case of initial velocity being 0).

    And then later on, complex numbers didn’t make any sense to me until phase angles in AC circuits showed me a practical application, and vector calculus didn’t make sense to me until I had to actually work out practical applications of Maxwell’s equations.