And let us not forget the reason NATO exists. Remember Uncle Vlad is still interested in the so called buffer states, which his mentor Joe Stalin tried to do after WW2.

How far will Vlad go to get those buffer states. Europe sometimes seems to hate those who help them. My advice - Learn Cyrillic. If this is how you treat the people who saved you from uncle Adolf, I suggest next time, you get out of your mess all by yourselves. It's what you want.

Had to get clear down here to find an on-topic post, what with the TDS people and even a metric uber alles posting.

The plight of the monarch is very interesting. That we can track individual's movements is even more amazing.

A few years back, there was a large concern about habitat/milkweed loss. One response was people planting milkweed in their back yards.Here in the Pennsylvania mountains, gas lines often run along back roads. Some people have taken to trowing milkweed seeds along the easement, providing a many miles long smorgasbord for the little critters. even heading the right direction (northeast/southwest)

Another strange point. I take the Cape May-Lewes Ferry pretty often, which traverses the Delaware Bay. I've seen Monarch butterflies catching a draft off the back of the ferry to cross the bay. That has to be a great energy saver.

Slashdot being Slashdot, I'll probably be modded offtopic for posting about Monarch Butterflies in a story about Monarch Butterflies

How odd. I haven't had a non-metric car since the late 80's. My whole shop is metric. I work in metric. So many of us here in the USA do.

But I also have the old school tools as well. I make parts on my metric lathe that are measured in inches. I make parts that are metric on one side and standard on the other.

Getting a rageboner about this whole thing is silly, It is just different sizes. But it seems to enrage some eurocentrics.

And acting like Americans are stupid isn't much of a flex when you can only do one measurement system. If you want your parts sized in Barleycorns I can make it for you, and I won't cry about it (hint - 1 barleycorn = 0.846667 centimeters)

Exactly.

Fed by greed and criminal activity, it is the world you dive into with coin.

Add in the ostentatious tools who want to brag about their money or coin, well expecting criminals to not go after you is naive.

It's best for everyone to maintain a low profile in this money grubbing, pop culture world. But what fun would that be for people who grub for money and worship pop culture icons? I use my money to do stuff, they use theirs for some weird clout.

You aren't kidding. We just had another windstorm last night. The good part is it blew a lot of leaves from my yard to the neighbors yard. 8^)

Kinetic energy. And it depends on where the sand hits, and how much of it hits. https://hvit.jsc.nasa.gov/impa.... Impacts by things like paint flecks do interesting things, sand is much larger.

But I wasn't trying for a second to say that sand or ball bearings were going to cause a Kessler event. Although a breach of hydrazine propellent with cause impressive destruction if hits thse catalyst bed. My point was that thinking that your satellites are safe is simply wrong. Doesn't take much technology to break a lot of them.

What makes a Kessler event likely is proliferation of satellites, If 2 collide, that starts the chain reaction.n Now we are talking about much larger pieces then sand or ball bearings. Orbital mechanics and energy transfer takes care of the rest. If you think Kessler is wrong (I do not) use your orbital mechanics and energy transfer savvy to support your claim.

So true, I'm not likely to testify in my field, but my employer likes what I do. A lot of experience in different areas, quick on my feet, and very hard to bullshit.

My boss once told a tech guy who was trying to do that with me - "Don't bullshit a bullshitter, you won't win that game with Ol. Do as he tells you." This was in response to a lighting system problem I had diagnosed.

Pretty good idea posting as the middle card you are. A non-sequitur irrelevant to the matter we're discussing.

Aren't you a little old to be crying when you can't find your binky? P.S. all bold is the same thing as all caps - a clueless person with a rageboner.

A very attractive lady.

People call me as they wish, you are right. Over the years, I've been called Optical engineer, Optical scientistElectromagnetics scientist, Systems design engineer, even process chemist! Depended on what I was doing at the time. Since it is a recognition of my abilities, and meant positively, I take it as a compliment. The Process chemist thing was a little weird, a strange short part of my career.

The only place where it really "matters" is in a courtroom, where the lawyers get all atwitter about degrees in specific fields. Then the person can be an incompetent, but as long as they have the degree, they are somehow an expert.

Oh please, more the memss of universally stoopid 'murricans. Is your hatred of us overcoming what to 99.99 percent of us see is an obvious joke?

For what it is worth the person running the train is called an engineer. For what it is worth, part of the engineer's job is operating the old coal fired engines, their power transmissions, their water consumption, and boilers

This is not dissimilar to today, where engineers are responsible for smooth and safe operation of many facilities. And as a bit of eduction even though I'm a stupid 'Murrican, Here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Occasionally one of us murrican morons can edumacate those who are smarter than us.

But we cannot get our betters to have a sense of humor.

For some time now. Wild wet and wonderful PA, one of the cloudier area, has been using Wind and solar very effectively for some time now.

Solar has an unexpected use. End of line extensions. When there isn't enough ugga-duggas left to meet demand at the last sub-station, solar comes to the rescue.

Placing panels is so much less expensive than getting new right of ways, running new lines, maybe even moving the substation, when new housing developments and businesses need their electricity. And please people, storage batteries are no longer science fiction. There are even bolt on solutions for arrays that don't have tehm now.

Then there is wind. There are places where the wind never stops, the Allegheny Front for instance. At this point, our new wind installs are less than before. The reason? At the moment, what we have now are supplying the power we need at the moment.

Just a note - MacOS is Unix https://www.theregister.com/20.... Linux is Unixy as we say. Note that Unix is "POSIX compliant" now, and has been for a long time, (1993) so the pedants among us might want to weigh in on that.

Point is, I bash around in Terminal half the day. The default is now zsh, but bash sounds better to speak.

Yeah, when I have to go into Windows command line, I have to remember to shift my mental state.

Main point is, I have Apple create the ecosystem while I do paid things. Why should I have to do that? My burn rate overwhelms the cost of the phone or computer very quickly. It's like having a starter motor on a car instead of a hand crank. Obligatory car reference.

Exactly. There is a meme that all Apple users are clueless, with more money than brains. Sure, some are. It would be silly to think that Android and Windows users are the intelligentsia of computer, phone, and tablet users. Some are smart and savvy, some are not

You are trying to make the inferior performance of Android product integration a flex. Yes - I get Apple to provide a functioning integrated system. I have things to do that I am paid for, and those things work so much better with an integrated system that I do not have to futz with while unpaid, simply to make them integrate after a fashion. Just getting a computing device to function is so early 1990's.

And my familiarity with UNIX and its close brother Linux - well, I don't know about sleeping better, but I can get more hours of sleep.

For some, it looks like other places they might put it. Be more inclusive.