u/aintmt

Just back from the Thai Market on Brattle. Love these Cambridge street fairs - wish there was one every weekend!

Wandering around the Square afterward, discovered that Spindler's of NoCa has set up in the back of the Leavitt & Peirce store. Some of the best chocolates we've found in the Boston area - maybe anywhere? - now convenient for us Red Liners. Nice to have another "real" local shop in the mix.

Been trying to grow epazote, since fresh is so much better than dried. Whether grown outdoors or inside, it seems to bolt before producing a lot of leaves. The seed clusters have not dried in many weeks. Is this normal?

To get seed to try again next spring, I cut a few still-green stems, and dried in a plastic bag. The result was a whole lot of seeds, still pale green when fully dry. I've put a few into a pot to see if they are viable. While waiting for germination, does anyone here know more about this?

The seeds smell wonderful - much stronger than the leaves. Does anyone here know if they are safe to eat, and could be used instead of leaves to make beans?

Thanks for any advice,

Been a big fan of the company's consumer products since the pre-merger days of Goldstar. Always found performance, price/value ratio and reliability excellent.

Recently needed to replace an over-the-range microwave, and LG had the only locally in-stock model that was an exact fit: MVEM1721F. Seemed OK, but (as many others on this forum have reported), the inside light started to fade after a couple of months. Soon failed completely, making the oven useless for most of our purposes. Even a flashlight didn't help much, given the microwave shield grid on the window.

Still under warranty, and I was prepared to fix it myself if the dealer would give me the part. But they wouldn't, and it took a 90-minute service call to remove the oven, replace the light, and put it all back together. And I had to pay for the repair guy to remove and replace the oven, not to mention a whole lot of preparation, vacuuming up afterward, and re-setting the whole stove area and cabinet contents.

I asked the tech if the warranty would be extended for the defect. He said not, and that even the replaced part was no longer covered within the original warranty! (Is that even legal?)

Guess what - failed again!

Worst part: every other microwave I've used has allowed easy replacement of the lamp by unscrewing a cover in the cooking compartment. Not this one! Perhaps because they use a special circuit-board with the LED instead of just an appliance-rated filament bulb, which wouldn't need protection from leaked microwaves. And that board is EXPENSIVE, as well as complicated to reach.

We'll replace the oven at some point. And never, ever buy another LG product!

We use many Li-ion batteries, mostly 18650s, and trust "smart" chargers (e.g. XTAR VC4) to preserve battery life. Phones are set to give warning at 40% and 80% charge, which seems to preserve battery life nicely while keeping the option of fuller charge/discharge if needed.

Small appliances like toothbrush, water-flosser, etc. have only a pilot light for full-charge vs. need-recharge. So not as easy to extend device life. We could just do short charging cycles without hitting either limit very often. We could guide this with one full charge/discharge cycle to determine approximate charge time, but haven't bothered yet.

Question: if the choice is between full discharge then partial charge, or full charge then partial discharge, which is better for Li-ion battery life? Or does it depend on specific battery chemistry?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Responses much appreciated; very helpful. Had many rechargeable appliances fail early - a few expensive enough to break apart cases and solder in a new battery (when available). Didn't realize that current circuitry favors battery life over planned obsolescence - a welcome change! Perhaps the realized that brand loyalty depends on service life as well as initial capability.

Again, thanks!

Trying to remember a movie where an early scene shows a newspaper edition being set up, printed, delivered to vendors, sold, read, and finally used to line a birdcage or wrap fish or something. Not the usual "spinning paper" trope; more a humorous look at the industry's product trajectory.

Probably 1940s-50s, in B&W IIRC. Can anyone here please help? Thanks!

Add: Not Teacher's Pet or Deadline USA.

When I was just starting to grow monarda, and didn't have a lot of spare cash, I ordered a packet of mixed seed from some long-forgotten store. At $5 for just 25 seeds, the price seemed high. Reading suggested that germination of these tiny seeds would be difficult, with low yield. I started each one in a tiny pot with ordinary garden soil.

As it happened, I got 23 successful seedlings. Most grew into familiar colors. One really stood out: a strong orange-pink, like a padparadscha sapphire or fresh-cut wild salmon. I let it spread in a garden corner, and enjoyed the contrast with redder and pinker shades.

Unfortunately, I didn't know that this was unusual, perhaps even a mutation. So when I moved away, I didn't think to save a potful, or even take a photo. A few years later, I went back to find that new owners had bulldozed most of my garden to put in raised vegetable beds.

So I've been searching ever since, and never found monarda that color in any plant shop or arboretum. Might anyone here know if it is a known cultivar or cross, perhaps commercially available?

Thanks!

Just found a brand-new set of Utica no-iron percale sheets at the bottom of an old packing box. No idea how they came to me. I gave them a wash in case of mildew, and tried them out. Wonderful feel - actually improved my sleep.

Now I want to replace my cheap big-box sheets with these. eBay and Etsy seem to have a few, but not a full set in any one size or pattern. And not cheap - apparently, they are collectible!

I'm hoping that something equivalent is still being manufactured. Pretty ignorant in matters of bedding, and no big bed & bath specialty shops around to ask an expert. Can anyone here please suggest some current brands that would have about the same feel and be easy to launder without ironing?

Thanks for any ideas.

TL;DR: Seeking a commercial source for a nice-tasting mixed herbal concentrate to which we can add menthol for greater effect.

We go through a lot of cough drops. (Not smokers, but plenty of allergies, dust sensitivities, etc.) There are plenty of lozenge types out there, but they deliver the soothing effect too slowly unless chewed. And that's not good for people with dental issues. There are powerful liquid drops, like the infamous Buckley's Mixture. - works great, but pretty intense flavor and smell. (We do keep a bottle around for emergencies. Ain't nothin' like it for fast results.)

Commercial liquids usually seem to be medicated, and some of us have enough trouble staying awake without opiates. Best compromise so far has been Hall's sugar-free Minis - kind of expensive, though.

My personal favorite is Ricola sugar-free herbal lemon drops. Consisting mostly of isomalt (or so Google says), they can be dissolved in water. But since the actives/flavorants are not water-soluble, they tend to cream out. Tried adding various emulsifiers (lecithin, mustard), but not very effective. And the mix gets pretty weak; adding additional menthol doesn't work well. I've also melted the Ricola drops in a microwave and tried mixing in more menthol and eucalyptus oil, pouring out the mix onto a silicone sheet to harden, and busting it into small pieces. Messy, and needs either a gas mask or better ventilation than we have.

Had some success dissolving the Ricola drops in hot glycerin, propylene glycol or mixtures, sometimes with a little water, adding extra menthol and eucalyptus: cools to a paste that's not too hard to handle. But liquid would be much more convenient.

Ricola's ingredients are listed on the package, but not how much or what varieties of each herb/spice. Brought the list to a local herbal store; they had most (not all), and only in dried-leaf form. Haven't found much relevant via Google.

So - can anyone here please suggest a commercial source for a strong, nice-tasting oil- or alcohol-based herbal concentrate, which we can mix with menthol, eucalyptus oil and something like glycerin to dispense from a dropper bottle?

Thanks for any help!

This can be split into two questions:

1. How closely related are all humans?

It is often asserted that we overlap by more than 99% genetically. Not sure how meaningful this number is, given SNPs, "junk" DNA and other factors that may not show themselves in phenotype (appearance). Can anyone here cite or point to a best-guess estimate for the furthest apart any two individual humans genomes can be or have been observed to be?

2. Could mini-migration events have significantly reduced cousinship degree for the whole current world population?

Lots of web-browsing over several years turns up a lot of perspectives on maximum cousin distance (or lowest degree of consanguinity). I've found furthest-cousinhood numbers as high as about 75, and estimates that most people will never meet anyone more than about a 35th cousin.

I have also looked for, but not easily found, studies (even speculations) on how small and isolated populations need to be to induce cultural practices enforcing out-marriage, whether ad-hoc or embodied in collective annual matchmaking rituals. Again, if anyone here knows about this sort of thing (which I don't), please share some results/insights.

The subject line reflects a speculation I've had since reading about Heyerdahl and others' beliefs and findings about early Pacific Islanders trading with the west coast of South America, and also about the failed Viking colonization of the Canadian Maritimes. So for someone who can do the math (I wouldn't know where to start): Had a Viking settlement like L'Anse aux Meadows occurred when indigenous peoples were around, and instead of avoiding or killing each other they intermarried, how much would the production of a single child have changed pedigree and cousinship for all humans?

Accepting the Out of Africa hypothesis, the populations of northwestern Europe and northeastern North America would seem to be almost as far removed in space and time (hence genetics) as possible, yet still potentially able to meet.

Is this inquiry silly, poorly posed, too difficult to assess with current knowledge, or otherwise intractable? Thoughts welcome.

TL;DR: Seeking a commercial source for a nice-tasting mixed herbal concentrate to which we can add menthol for greater effect.

We go through a lot of cough drops. (Not smokers, but plenty of allergies, dust sensitivities, etc.) There are plenty of lozenge types out there, but they deliver the soothing effect too slowly unless chewed. And that's not good for people with dental issues. There are powerful liquid drops, like the infamous Buckley's Mixture. - works great, but pretty intense flavor and smell. (We do keep a bottle around for emergencies. Ain't nothin' like it for fast results.)

Commercial liquids usually seem to be medicated, and some of us have enough trouble staying awake without opiates. Best compromise so far has been Hall's sugar-free Minis - kind of expensive, though.

My personal favorite is Ricola sugar-free herbal lemon drops. Consisting mostly of isomalt (or so Google says), they can be dissolved in water. But since the actives/flavorants are not water-soluble, they tend to cream out. Tried adding various emulsifiers (lecithin, mustard), but not very effective. And the mix gets pretty weak; adding additional menthol doesn't work well. I've also melted the Ricola drops in a microwave and tried mixing in more menthol and eucalyptus oil, pouring out the mix onto a silicone sheet to harden, and busting it into small pieces. Messy, and needs either a gas mask or better ventilation than we have.

Had some success dissolving the Ricola drops in hot glycerin, propylene glycol or mixtures, sometimes with a little water, adding extra menthol and eucalyptus: cools to a paste that's not too hard to handle. But liquid would be much more convenient.

Ricola's ingredients are listed on the package, but not how much or what varieties of each herb/spice. Brought the list to a local herbal store; they had most (not all), and only in dried-leaf form. Haven't found much relevant via Google.

So - can anyone here please suggest a commercial source for a strong, nice-tasting oil- or alcohol-based herbal concentrate, which we can mix with menthol, eucalyptus oil and something like glycerin to dispense from a dropper bottle?

Thanks for any help!

"The true warrior leads not with his strengths, but with his weaknesses - which in any case are apparent to his opponent."

Heard this from a teacher years ago, and would like to be able to give source and correct wording. Seemed like a Sun Tzu or von Clausewitz idea, but I haven't been able to find it with web searches. Can anyone here please help?

Thanks!

If (when?) a Kessler avalanche occurs, it will presumably begin in LEO: highly occupied and with missions in many different orbital inclinations.

Simulations often show a rapid spread of secondary-collision debris following initial collision, especially if both impactors are large. Assuming random or equipartition of momentum, later-generation collisions might rapidly create new projectiles in almost every direction in the orbital shell - perhaps with higher inclinations giving faster spreading due to increased intersection frequency with the more-populated near-equatorial orbits? Comments welcome.

My main question, though, is how rapidly the fragment swarm will be carried to higher orbits. (Lower ones, again, should clear quickly due to atmospheric drag.) Would daughter collisions tend to keep momentum in the same shell? When impact angles happen to confer a lot of vertical momentum, would that just create fragments with highly elliptical orbits? If so, perhaps drag at perigee would clear out those as well. Seems like vertical diffusion would require unlikely rear-end collisions to loft debris into a stable, near-circular orbit.

Or is there some other mechanism to add orbital delta-V instead of just elongation?

After nasty experience with the Big F (they admitted admitted errors, but wouldn't make amends or even apologize), I'm seeking a more customer-friendly company. Vanguard seems nicer, but gets middling grades for supporting coal etc. Some friends like TIAA, which apparently is now open to non-teachers. Can folks here recommend other large, stable companies that treat both people and environment well?

Not looking to make stock trades or pay a money manager or investment advisor. Just want a mix of boring/safe long-term mutual fund or ETF investments with at least some in ESG/SRI funds, including international.

Sorry if this isn't worded well; please feel free to suggest better phrasing.

Thanks!