A lot of these are adjacent to real observable phenomenon but a nutty belief system has been overlaid and then additional claims are made on the basis of that nutty belief system which are not observable.

For example, Feng Shui in practice is usually pretty sensible “where should I put the sofa” kind of stuff, but if you claim that it’s about the flow of qi through your house and suggest that based on that not only should the sofa go over there, but you need to put a topiary vase on the table next to it, that might be a nice aesthetic touch but there’s no evidence of qi.

Additionally there’s plenty of Traditional Chinese Medicine that became actual medicine because it has observable properties. For example turmeric is a mild anti-inflammatory.

If I’m really honest it was just because I’m a bit of a weird guy and just didn’t fit in.

I mean if all church girls loved me I would’ve probably just ignored the illogical nature of it all, at least for a while.

I remember posing this question to my mum and dad. Their answer was “that’s what missionaries are for”. Honestly they should’ve just said they didn’t know.

Fair enough.

The only reason things burn up when they enter the atmosphere is because they’re moving so fast that the friction from the air generates too much heat.

So yes, if you slow yourself down enough then you could just float down like a feather in the wind.

I have no idea how fast is too fast.

The answer to this depends on how much the magic device with the oxygen weighs.

Also just going to set aside anything to do with sky diving and space suits and having friends and everything else that I don’t know anything about.

I only know this from playing Simple Rockets on android but basically you direct your thrust in the direction you’re moving in order to reduce your velocity, and you’ll fall down to earth.

Think of an orbit as the balance between falling towards earth and zipping past earth. If you fly past too fast then you just fly past and maybe the gravity pulls you a bit but not much. If you fly past too slow the gravity pulls you down to earth and you crash. If you fly past at the same speed you fall towards earth the two directions balance out and you end up just spinning around earth.

Therefore, If you’re in a stable orbit on the space station, and then you slow down, you’ll start to fall down towards it instead of “falling” around it in an orbit.

If you only slow down a little bit you’ll start moving towards Earth but you’ll be moving way too fast for an unshielded human to enter the atmosphere without burning up.

You’d have to slow yourself down, by directing thrust towards the horizon you’re headed towards, enough so that you’re not going fast enough to burn up.

Whether or not you can slow down enough, quickly enough, depends on how much thrust your magic device can provide and how much that device makes you weigh.

Old mate didn’t provide any fascinating insights into the manufacturing practices of soviet era communism, they just trotted out some meme-level anti-capitalist vibe-based hyperbole.

I’m not going to engage in a silly argument about the merits of communism as opposed to capitalism.

I think most places keep a brush in the toilet in a fancy caddy. That’s because the expectation is that everyone scrubs any skid marks before leaving.

I suspect that the plunger is to do with standard sewage pipe guage rather than just “shoddy” workmanship or whatever. That’s why bidet spray is more or less mandatory in South East Asia, the sewage pipes just aren’t wide enough to handle toilet paper.

Water bottles for bikes suffer from this.

You gotta get them really dried out really regularly.

Like if you only have one that you use every day it’s just going to get gross no matter what.

It needs to be bone dry for a few days to kill everything.

If you have 2 and switch once a week, the one that’s out of rotation will dry out and any funk will just die off.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a plunger of any kind kept in someone’s toilet.

Is this an American thing?

Weird take on counter tops.

Things designed for many people to use need to be the best height for most people. I feel confident that most countertops are the best height for most people.

I acknowledge that they are too low for a tall person, and that they’re too high for a short person.

You’re pretty much just saying you want things to be designed for you and that everyone else should adapt to you, rather than you having to make concessions for others like everybody does.

I agree with you, but I’m not sure how great it would actually be.

I don’t know much about it and I suspect others will be along to correct me in a moment, but wasn’t this a feature of soviet era communism?

As in, capitalists all compete in a free market to produce the best chair for the lowest price. Communism is more efficient because we just direct a factory to make 2 types of chair, standard and deluxe.

I’ve had these dual wall glass mugs at home for a few years. So civilised.

https://www.house.com.au/products/baccarat-barista-cafe-double-wall-thermal-glass-mug-2-pack

1. Spray bum
2. Pat dry with TP

The tricky part with phase 1 is managing water pressure. Too little is ineffective. Too much blasts shit everywhere.

Do a test squirt into the bowl so you know what you’ve got to work with. Start with low pressure to get most of it, adjust angle of necessary, then hit it with everything.

Office 365 too

That’s not what I meant at all.

There’s plenty of examples of .ml mods banning users for reasonable criticism.

Yeah that’s not really how lemmy or any anonymous platform works really.

If you espouse a position that others disagree with they will tell you.

If your position is ridiculous then you will be ridiculed.

Personally, I find Lemmy to be a lot less respectful in this way than other platforms. As I said in my earlier comment any opinion that is less than absolutely supportive of the common opinions is heavily ostracized.

A good example would be the situation with Luigi Mangioni. The vast majority of users want mangioni to walk free, and as a result there’s blind support for “jury nullification”. This is obviously a complex issue with legal, social, and historic ramifications, but any opinions other than breathless support for jury nullification in his case will be heavily ostracized.

Yeah so you’ll generally find lemmy users to be quite hostile to your political position. I’m grown up enough not to be “hostile” but to be frank I think your voting choices are very poorly considered.

To your broader question. Lemmy is just like any other platform. If you say silly things people will rebut you. There is no respect for contrary opinions.

I’ve found that lemmy communities tend to be very homogeneous and in many threads if you offer any insights which are not breathless support you’ll be heavily downvoted and get vitriolic responses, or banned.

For example, saying anything critical of China in a .ml thread will result in a ban.

I don’t think this is true.

It’s not exciting to me any more because I hate the way it’s changing the world.

In the 2010s it felt like tech would save us.