I was camping at an event. I had recently finished recharging a large lipo battery (3S 9000mah). The battery went from normal to nuclear in a second or 2.

Thankfully I had it clear of flammables and in a lipo bag. Even so, it started 3 grass fires in the time it took to get it out of the marquee and wet enough to extinguish it. The event volunteers were there within 40 seconds, with fire extinguishers. Thankfully we already had it under control by then.

Lesson learnt, always use a fire resistant container to charge in e.g. an ammo can or a cooking pot. Also assume it can turn into a fireball with absolutely no warning, and plan accordingly.

First off, good on you from the rescue!

As a parent, I get both sides. It’s absolutely horrifying, but so easy to lose focus. You can start chatting, and not realise you’re not tracking the child. You can also both assume the other has eyes on them.

It’s better to assume problems like this as systematic, rather than personal failures. If a small child has access to the water, they should be explicitly monitored. If you can’t (as a group) do that, then they shouldn’t have easy access to the water. You can also train children in water safety from a young age. Babies can be taught self rescue from around when they can crawl.

It’s so easy to lose focus. It requires constant concentration, at a time when your life has been turned upside down, and you are often suffering from sleep deprivation. A (apparently) calm ‘normal’ situation and your brain can relax back and switch off from parenting mode.

I think superfoil is the generic name (or possibly another brand).

I used suction cups, with thumb screw threads to attach them. Just poke a hole and push it through on each corner. It also holds it slightly clear of the glass. Suction cups also mean you can apply it either inside the glass, or outside (better, but harder).

Sometimes you want to keep ALL the energy out. The films also act to trap thermal energy in too.

I’ve personally used superfoil, it keeps all the light energy out. 42°C outside, in a double glazed UK home, and I still didn’t need the Aircon until mid afternoon.

Ulefone armor 27T pro

It’s a bit of a brick, but is ruggedised to hell and has a stupidly large battery. It also has thermal and night vision cameras. The only weaknesses I’ve found are the camera being less good than the top end pixel phones, and it’s heavy.

Some relatives of mine were in that very boat, in Spain. It required some admin, and annoying coordination of appointments (they weren’t there all the time), but wasn’t THAT difficult.

It’s been obvious for years now that British living in Europe would need to deal with the loss of EU access. Most EU countries made it as easy as they could to comply.

I would hope that the host country would still show some flexibility. However, I can also see a retired Ex-pat ranting at the official, and so burning any goodwill that would have got them any rule bending to dig them out of the hole they made.

I just said f*** it, and got a waterproof phone. It actually has an awesome underwater photography mode.

As for the speaker. There are sound generators that blast the speakers clear of water. You preferably don’t want to just let it air dry in the future. A build up of crap on the speaker could mess with sound generation.

Could you use a long rifle as a stick for a protest sign?

It definitely helped that we had both completely compromised the German spy network in Britain, as well as cracking their codes.

The spies let the British feed critical bits of false intelligence to the germans, in a stream of good, if slightly useless or out of date, intelligence.

The breaking of enigma then meant we could monitor, in near real time, how the Germans reacted to it. Limiting the intelligence just enough to make them feel they worked for it, but not so much they missed it.

The culmination was on D-day. Agent Garbo actually messaged the Germans warning them that the landings were on their way to Normandy, before they arrived. However, the British knew exactly how long it would take to actually reach the people that mattered. It arrived just after reports of the landings happening. It was then followed by a panicked warning. The Normandy landings were a diversion, and the main force was leaving for Calais! This kept the German tanks tied up for a critical 3 days.

90% of people would be fine with it too, maybe more. Unfortunately, it would be VERY easy to catch someone in a very bad state, and make it even worse. Without the context of what sort of person they are, and what they are currently in for, it’s FAR more likely to run into someone who wouldn’t see the funny side.

Don’t get me wrong, it could be hilarious. E.g. the guy who did the same at a nursing home, where he also lived. The heart attack induced was just an unfortunate outcome that put it in the news.

Likely if he had done it to people he knew, and by extension that this particular prank wouldn’t excessively affect them negatively.

Pranking your friends in public, poor taste, but possibly acceptable. Pranking random members of the public, at what could be the worst time of their life…

As a counter example, I remember listening to a radio interview with a woman who accidentally joined a boxing gym, and decided to roll with it. Even after 3 years training, it apparently took new men about 6 weeks to blast past her in strength.

And jumping back to my earlier comment. Societies tend to amplify differences. Men are stronger, so are expected to do jobs requiring strength. This, in turn leads to stronger men, reinforcing the stereotype.

In short, there’s not much baseline difference between men and women. There are however differences. Societies and cultures often amplify them, particularly when it improves division of labour. In an agrarian society they might not be able to afford the split, so the situation you read about plays out. Men can’t afford to powerhouse, while women need to pick up significant physical labour.

It’s also an unfortunate fact that testosterone makes it a LOT easier to put on muscle mass. A good chunk of men don’t take advantage of it, but the biology still holds. It’s also worth noting that men are on average taller than women. Our volume of muscle is often bigger to start with.

My wife does quite a bit more strength based exercise than I do. The force multiplier on my exercise however means I can easily out power her, when it comes to brute strength.

It’s worth noting however that a lot of the initial strength gain of exercise isn’t muscle increase, but better control. Both men and women can increase this, fairly evenly. The difference tells most once that caps out.

The 2 often feed off each other too. E.g. men are slightly stronger than women, on average. Men are then expected to take on the strong protector role, while women are expected to act weak and subservient. This amplifies the original slight difference massively, reinforcing the social stereotype.

Women seem to have a preference for cooperation, with their ranking within the group mattering most. Men seem to err towards intergroup competition, where your teams ranking matters most. These necessitate different types of social skills, which feeds the stereotype, which feeds the original difference.

Retirement age can be gamed. Even worse, it’s to the rich’s benefit, and our cost. Life expectancy is harder to game in a way that hurts the plebs.

👍 Which is why I didn’t say retirement age, it can be gamed. Life expectancy can be gamed too, but I would call it acceptable if they managed to raise it significantly.

I heard there was also a quirk of electing a replacement. Prior to August 3rd, it would have been a new election. While republicans would normally win, they have an issue with their primary. The other republican could have run and split the vote. This could have let a democrat sneak in for 6 months.

Term limits just push things to the unelected “advisors” and aids.

An age limit would be a better option. I would push for 90% of life expectancy, which is 71 in the US. If you’re over that age, you can’t run again.

I’ve noticed there seems to be a divide between deep thinking and wide thinking.

Deep thinking tends to be directed and has a tight focus. It covers a lot of intellectual thinking.

Wide thinking is a lot more integrated, it’s how we instinctively know how a particular action will affect others, both directly and indirectly. It integrates a lot of topics, but at a far shallower level.

As an aspie, I’m good at deep thinking. I struggle with wide thinking. I suspect I am fairly blind to a lot of wide thinking effects. Whether their more intuitive thinking is better or worse than my logical deep thinking is a different matter.

Karma is generally associated with some form of personal scoreboard. E.g. if you have bad luck it’s either because you did something bad, or a “due” your share of good luck.

Karma is a lie, but it’s a useful lie (like truth or mercy) I explicitly know that my good deeds won’t get rewarded I do it because it can help make the world a better place. If I’m lucky, that will loop around to help me down the road, but I don’t expect it.