• 9 Posts
  • 1.17K Comments
Joined 3 years ago
cake
Cake day: June 30th, 2023

help-circle











  • I’m pretty new to hydro, though I’ve previously done a bit of aquaponics.

    My tl;dr is that different plants take to different hydroponic growing methods, and they have different requirements for pH and nutrient content (usually referred to by electrical conductance or EC). Nutrient content is obviously a super advanced topic if you want to get into it, but the majority of people just use off the shelf mixes, and occasionally dump a bunch of the solution (can be used to water plants in soil) and top it back off.

    You can get books from the library or find charts online that have like (plant, growing methods, pH, EC).

    The simplest method is kratky, which you see in that picture, where it’s just a plant growing in a bottle of solution. Some plants work well that way, others dont.

    You can buy a bottle of 1 single nutrient mix that you just have to dilute, but it’s a bit pricier than if you get a 2 part mix. There are nutrients that will react with each other and be unusable to the plants if you mix them in a concentrated form, so the 1 part mixes are more dilute despite costing about the same. The nutrients can be a little pricey for a bottle, but you only use a tiny bit of it.

    The process is basically:

    • dilute nutrient concentrate with water till it matches the target for whatever plant you are using
    • increase or decrease pH as needed (they sell products for this, but you can use some household stuff for cheaper)
    • add to whatever type of system you are using
    • periodically top off with more water as it evaporates and/or dump/refresh with new solution

    You can start with seedlings you started in soil by just rinsing the soil off, or you can sprout seeds yourself in something soil-less with some dilute nutrient solution. I’ve been using cotton balls since I want something biodegradable.


  • Yeah, there’s also a bit of a difference in that voting is connected to where you live, while selective service registration doesnt really matter where you live, just that you exist (and are male). They can find you if they need to.

    Also, I’ve lived in multiple states with “automatic voter registration”, and it’s really a misnomer. All it is is an extra check box when you get a driver’s license, so registration is: 1) not happening if you dont have a driver’s license, 2) not happening if you choose not to check the box.

    I’ve made this rant before, but every country has voter registration somehow. Even Australia where you are required to vote, it’s still on the individual to enroll and update their enrollment whenever they move. Similarly, I’ve had Dutch people tell me they dont have to register to vote, and this is also not true because they have to register to exist at whatever address they live at, and voting registration is conferred along with that.

    Some places let you prove you can vote when you go to the polling location, but that’s still effectively the same thing.

    The only way for it to be truly automatic is if you live in a microstate that doesnt have multiple voting districts, or the government surveils you to keep track of where you live.





  • It’s literally Mali. Having alternate country codes is just a way to take advantage of countries with less of a presence on the internet to be able to get better domain names and at a lower price. .ml specifically was given away for free.

    The worst, I think, is .io since the profits of those domains should go to the chagossians, but it just goes to the British government.


  • This is the right answer. “Opposition leader” or a “shadow cabinet” are not meaningful terms in American politics. It’s like asking who the President of the UK is.

    You could go for somewhat equivalent congressional roles like House/Senate minority leaders, or you could try to point to specific political figures that seem to be trying harder to oppose the regime who may or may not be in the federal government like governors, or people like the chair of the DNC.



  • HOAs have a lot of applications that aren’t horrible, you just probably dont hear about them. Neighborhoods with HOAs are often centrally planned, so there will be common areas that require upkeep like pools, clubhouses, parks, etc. They essentially take on a form of government role. In a lot of neighborhoods that are not part of an incorporated city, they do things like trash collection, road upkeep, snow plowing, etc.

    I’ve lived in 2 places with an HOA, and in the one, all they did was the landscaping, even around all the yards of the houses. In the other, they handled the park/pool/clubhouse, and they did trash collection.

    The down sides are often because the people in charge are just retirees who hunger for power, and there isnt much oversight from real government. Most people dont care enough to try to oust the bad leaders, so they stay in control, and they often do things that are illegal, but no one calls them out on it.