Solving this problem is easy, if A or D were correct, P = 0.5, if C or B were correct P = 0.25, since A and D require P = 0.25, and since C and B require P = 0 or 0.5 respectively, there is no correct solution that can be given, therefore the solution is “Undefined”.

Anyway, have a good troll!

On the other hand, I have heard people ask that question, answered yes, and then checked my receipt later to find out that I just handed $0.57 to round out the cashier’s drawer.

1. There are many successful and beneficial implementations of socialist policies that do more good than harm, especially outside of the US. Most government institutions in the US and abroad are fundamentally socialist in nature–and some of them work very well (especially outside the US).

2. While there was once some truth to what you’ve said, I think you’re gravely over-simplifying the nature of what gives humans meaning and purpose in life. For one, it’s an extremely subjective topic, but for example, what gives me meaning has very little to do with the relationship between non-action and risk. Rather, things that have meaning for me are things I enjoy doing, and things I enjoy seeing. I don’t enjoy the thought of going out to hunt for food with hand-tools at the risk of hunger or death, maybe some people do–and if that gives them meaning, that’s fine, but that’s not how we need to live our lives.

3. Yes this I agree with, limits are everything. Where limits are designed is important. What I am discussing is not a program that would guarantee that everyone is capable of going out and buying a yacht. I am discussing social safety-net programs that ensure equal access to comfortable housing, enough food, good medical care, and the means to comfortably pursue a job, education, or business endeavor–and in addition, take care of those who are unable to care for themselves. At this point in our technological and social development as a species, these should be considered basics that can be guaranteed to everyone. To do this would not strip away the meaning of life, rather it would enable people to feel meaning in life and the foundation to build up greater meaning for themselves.

Some of the greatest threats to human health and life come from needs-based anxiety, and with the declining population growth rate, high degree of depression, and high rate of suicide, it’s imperative that we re-frame how we think about and treat each other.

TL;DR: Yeah, I 100% agree, if everyone had a strong safety net, we’d be much better off.

When it works it works. I mean I have met several people who’ve expressed a lot of sincere dissatisfaction with the VA’s medical services, including limited access to mental healthcare among other things. Particularly of concern is the high degree of veterans who end up on the street–many with severe mental health issues, with some even self-medicating and/or dealing with addictions.

Of course, I’m sure there are more factors that contribute to homeless veterans than limited accessibility to medical care, mental healthcare, and other social services provided by the VA–but it is important to consider.

…and of course, as you are aware, it’s better to have those social systems in-place than nothing at all. Even when run to a degree of mediocrity, socialist programs can and do tend to benefit a population. While not everyone may like the Supplemental Security Income and FAFSA programs: without them, I wouldn’t be able to attend a university as a future job-seeking student.

Specifically without SSI, many who are unable to pursue a degree would end up homeless and hungry, becoming a greater burden on society. In my opinion, it’s unfortunate that you have to have a disability in order to qualify for this safety-net program; as I know several people who turned to less favorable means of providing for themselves, because they were rock-bottom and didn’t qualify for any programs.

So, yeah, the VA program, and many other programs in the US are great examples of both some of the harms, but also the significant positive benefits that socialist policies can have for a population. Indeed, the greatest harms done by socialist programs in the US seem to be caused by their limitations and inability to properly serve enough people. Providing a everyone access to a solid safety net would do wonders for us as a society and for our economy.

I use LibreOffice! Calc, Draw, and Writer are very user friendly once you get used to where the tools are. Impress is a pretty good replacement for Powerpoint: the stock graphics leave a lot to be desired–but that’s a simple fix with a good stock image service. About the only thing LO doesn’t do is notes, but I’d check out Xournal++ if you were looking for a way to replace OneNote. Plus, LibreOffice doesn’t push OneDrive down your throat. It’s been a win-win for me.

Another thing to consider if you really like typesetting is to learn LaTeX: it’s a slightly steep learning curve(especially for advanced topics), but it’ll do things that your typical WYSIWYG word-processing suite couldn’t dream of doing. Plus there are a lot of templates available that you can adapt for your purposes.

We do have a term for that, it’s a little bit of a trigger-word for certain demographics, but the correct term is socialism.

To be fair, it sounds like poetry that an AI model would spit out after being trained on text scraped from the internet…

Thanks, that is fascinating, I’m definitely gonna check that out. No microscope yet, but it is on my list of things to obtain, although a proper HEPA filter and fan/motor will come first though, haha! Kind-of wondering if I should switch majors, but I’m already in my 400 series engineering classes–oof.

Oh, that’s a great idea! I’m clearly new to mycology, so I’m just kind-of experimenting–but you’re right, we’re talking billions of spores, and only two need to meet in order to form a strain. Hmm…

Yep, and the best way to make sure these places keep going is to contribute!

Also, if you can, consider donating to instance/server hosts and developers.

I used the tip of a specialized tooth-brush, and I dipped it into water and then swiped-up spores from the sample. I wouldn’t recommend it though, because it turns out the brush fibers are too stiff and caught on the agar, pulling the plate around. It’s probably better just to stick to swabs and use the same method.

Side thought: a lot of people recommend the z-shape swabbing, but it seems kind-of counterproductive if you’re trying to select for the apparent speed and strength of mycelium growth.

Not to mention the periodic spore clouds, haha! It would be really cool if it were possible though!

I wonder if it would be possible to get some radiotrophic fungi to absorb IR and UV, so they could functionally act as a thermal barrier, cooling during the summer and heating during the winter…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiotrophic_fungus

Well, for a redneck FFU I would probably just be shooting from the hip–because I’d be building the fan from scratch–meaning it would be easier to build then measure the airflow rate of the custom fan, and then modify the design of the fan or modify the filter size until I get something good.

As far as resources, this seems to be on-point if you want to just buy the parts outright in a less redneck manner: https://learn.freshcap.com/growing/keeping-it-clean-how-to-design-and-build-a-laminar-flow-hood/

Haha, I’m an engineering student, so I understand the jargon struggle, haha! Well, cheers and mush luck on your adventures!

Nice! Yeah, I mostly want it for convenience of working with agar–but the need just isn’t there yet. I’m considering a redneck version using one of the 4" thick MERV 12 filters, which are rated to filter 0.3um particles, just not 99.99% of them. I know for a fact it would be much better than my SAB in terms of contamination risk, and I’m considering building my own wooden impeller fan, so if I can scrap an old high RPM motor–I may be able to finagle a basic FFU together for under $50.

I love this thing that people forget about open source. Like the whole FreeCAD community, there’s a whole group of people who don’t even use the vanilla UI–because they don’t have to, haha! Of course, it does take skill, but if you’re skilled enough to make pull request…

Yeah, I’m a Reddit refugee, and I heard a bunch of people complaining about there being no “centralized login”, and I’m like–bruh, that’s WHY WE MOVED HERE, lmao!

Random trivia: it’s actually not the liquid water that matters, it’s the water vapor due to the pressure-temperature relationship of water in the gas phase (since gasses are significantly more compressible than liquids). It’s also important to note that water vapor does not behave like an ideal gas above ~1.5PSI, and it has a different temperature-pressure curve than gasses like N2, O2, and CO2, which is why you need to purge air at the beginning of the canning process in order to achieve a high enough temperature.

…and yeah, it’s crazy how altitude and atmospheric pressure matters, the weight of the air around us is literally pushing down on the rocker weight, affecting the relative internal pressure.

Thermodynamics is pretty awesome! XD

When I use the word “expanding”, I am referring to “increasing in volume”. So you could just “expand your spawn” (making more spawn), or “expand to bulk” (inoculating your fruiting blocks). Oh, and definitely try to find actual fuel pellets if you can, they’re usually much cheaper per pound than food-grade BBQ smoking pellets. I have found the basic fuel pellets at stores like Tractor Supply Hardware, but you have to ask an employee to check the stock in the back (since they’re out of season).

If you do end-up buying hardwood smoking pellets, be wary that some smoking pellets can contain additives like molasses, which means too much sugar for basic pasteurization with Lipa’s Tek–so always check the ingredients with smoker pellets.

A cheap and easy method for expanding spawn is Lipa’s Tek. Renegade Mushrooms goes over the method in this youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD_k-dAyE5Y

Basically a 40 pound bag of Hardwood Fuel Pellets (make sure they’re hardwood) can go for around 6-7USD. If you’re in a pinch, want a specific species of tree, or want certified organic, you can find hardwood pellets for smoking meats that go for somewhere around 0.50USD/lb in 20-40lb bags.

The reason this method works is that fuel pellets have less sugars and starches, and they are already partially pasteurized in the pellet press. So, as long as your pellets are stored well, a two-hour pasteurization at 200F is more than enough to get rid of most of the competing organisms. This is especially true of Pleurotus sp. (the Oysters), and from what I’ve heard, Hericium sp. (Lion’s Mane, etc), but I’m currently waiting on some Pholiota adiposa (Chestnut) to fruit that seemed to do well in pasteurized HWFP.

Give it a try, it’s a lot cheaper in terms of dollar cost, energy use, and time than wet-sterilizing in a small Pressure Cooker–but it’s best for expanding from spawn into more spawn or for bulking. You won’t get the same sized flushes as with something like grain or Master’s Mix, but you can easily whip up a lot more substrate–so it all comes out in the wash. I just retired 6 spent bags of P. ostreatus and they all seemed to do pretty well, and fruited more than once.