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Joined 11 months ago
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Cake day: June 29th, 2024

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  • The thing that bothers me most about office AC, is that the air is stale due to poor maintenance. Yes there are regulations against this, but those are not being enforced because that would cost money and hurr-durr stockholders and hurr-durr employers. Home ACs are just wasteful. I live in a neighbourhood that has many many gardens that are fully paved over. In order to counter the heat, each house has several AC units. Dumb fucks.

    I installed solar panels 5 years ago. Back then, a home battery was ~€9000 , so not worth it. Currently, a home battery starts at ~€1500 but with pitifully low capacity. There’s currently no real incentive to install these. You may save a bit of money, but at its current rate you would look at a 15 year ROI.

    Switching to an EV would be a nice idea for surplus energy, but our anti-environment government has made it very unattractive to buy one, but now I am going off-topic so I’ll save that for another rant.


  • As US-centric as the article is, here’s a perspective from the EU.

    I have a strong opinion on air conditioning. I hate it as I have worked in too many poortly ventilated offices with the AC as its only source of slightly less stale air. There should be laws against poorly maintained office ACs. However, I am going to need it at home, even if I do not like it. I live in a temperate climate that is getting hotter in summers. Fast. The house I live in was never intended for extremely hot weather: flat roof, lots of glass, poor insulation. I did upgrade the insulation, but the huge glass facades of my house make it a greenhouse in the summer unless I take some measures like sun blinds and whatnot. Even then, our top floor gets uncomfortably hot.

    I have installed solar panels that allow me to generate more electricity than I need. However, over the years our neoliberal and current far right government has made it very unattarctive to invest in this as they allowed the commercial energy businesses to impose tariffs on the surplus of generated electricity.

    So now I am seriously considering installing AC to use on hot summer days. Not only do I get my house cooler, I also won’t be charged for generating too much electricity. What I am not going to do, is keep the AC running all day though.

    Fuck this government and its predecessors.





  • I am not sure about ‘ever’ (I am old and have been reading for over 4 decades now), but a book I hate-read recently was Foucault’s pendulum by Umberto Eco. It is meant to be a satire on conspiracy theories and as such it is still a relevant book after 35 years or so. However, the point of satire is to get to the point eventually, preferably within 500 pages. It was pompously written and sometimes felt like a showcase of ‘look how much I know!’.



  • I recently hate-read Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco. I had started reading it twice and stopped after a few chapters. I am aware that the book is meant to be satire, but the point of satire is to be to the point instead of having to slog through 600+ pages of drivel.





  • Counter question: why do you think that you cannot get enough sleep? Do you feel sleep deprived? As somebody else mentioned earlier, you may not need as much sleep.

    A few general tips that may or may not apply to you:

    • No more screen time at least an hour before going to bed. Read a book instead. Blue light will mess with your brain.
    • Do not drink caffeinated drinks or alcohol. I usually stop drinking caffienated drinks around 3PM. I do enjoy a beer though, but I do not have any trouble sleeping.
    • When do you eat your largest meal of the day? You may simply be too busy digesting your main meal.
    • Do you suffer from anxiety, depression or any other mental issues that may prevent you from sleeping? Maybe it would help to have that looked into.

    I normally sleep from 10:30-ish to 6:30-ish. As for running, I mostly do that either late morning or late afternoon, as my energy levels are highest then. However, I have school going kids and a 9 to 5 job. I do not know your situation, so YMMV.


  • I think that the first 20 to 30 years will be very difficult for humanity. There is a distinct reactionionary movement that is blocking or even reversing progress needed to fix various problems (including, but not limited to climate change, destruction of ecosystems, housing problems and the world population aging beyond sustainablitiy). It will get very messy.

    After the boomer generation has died out as well as my own (GenX-er here), humanity can hopefully look forward again. As I age, I really think that it is our two generations that are blocking progress. As millennials and Gen Z ages, they will hopefully learn from us how not to do things.