Back-coiling is a game changer. Every other coil is reversed, leaving a net zero in coils. It just pulls out straight.

The engineering requirements are also a lot higher. It’s the difference between a nut, bolt and spanner, compared to a welding machine.

There’s an awkward open secret in the UK.

The new forest has a significant ‘wild’ pony population. More than the forest can support over winter. The excess is gathered up and sold. While some are brought as riders, most are sold to france. On a completely unrelated note. France has no problem eating horse.

The pyramids were built by skilled labour. One of the options for paying taxes was to work on public works. It was also seen as a religious event, akin to modern missionaries.

Room is too well insulated and sealed. Once the bedroom door is closed, the air exchange is too low. I’m planning to fit a heat exchanging fan system next year to permanently fix it.

Opening a window isn’t as bad as it first seems. Most of the heat in a home (at least a brick one) is in the structure. Change the air, close the window, and it will rapidly warm up again. It’s only leaving it open for longer periods that cool it down.

If you’ve not got one, I would highly recommend getting an air quality meter.

I had this issue last night, awake randomly at 2-3am. When I checked, the air quality was terrible. (It’s bespoke scale put it at 10 out of 100) after opening a window and letting it improve, I happily drifted back off.

It turned out I didn’t wake up randomly, I was dragged awake from a light sleep due to the air quality plummeting. It won’t apply to everyone, but it’s worth checking if it’s a common problem.

(For reference, 10% air was CO2 of 2360ppm, and VOCs at 5000ppm with 80% humidity. Fresh air is CO2<500, VOCs<100)

0.5% is so tiny that it disappears into the noise. It’s a 1 in 200 difference. In theory, it would make a difference. In practice, you won’t be able to measure it. Other confounding factors would bury it.

The difference is about 0.5%. A mass weighing 100kg at the north pole would only weigh 99.5kg at the equator. Most of the difference is the centerfugal force of the earth’s rotation.

I’ve not checked the numbers, but apparently it’s detectable in Olympic sports. More height records get broken at equatorial latitudes that higher ones.

To be fair, my research is decades old at this point.

Some slight ramdom paper reading, back in my uni days. Though I’ve ran across it via other sources over the years since. Unfortunately I don’t have any links to hand though.

It might better be described as people put numbers into categories. Most people have a 10-20 category. 19.99 fits. 20.00 gets bumped up to the next box. It’s a sub/semi conscious thing. If we use our higher thought process, we can deal with the numbers. That takes effort however, by default, we chunk. The price just abuses a common rollover point most people share.

It’s a subconscious thing. It’s how our brain is wired. It’s a bit like advertising. Most people don’t like ads. However, when confronted my 2 similar products, we will go with the familiar one. The source of that familiarity is irrelevant, ads make it familiar, just the same as using it, or a recommendation.

It’s possible to override both of these effects, but that requires a level of conscious effort. I can almost guarantee you’ve been caught by both at different times. You just didn’t notice (since noticing would allow you to correct).

Basically, $19.99 is in the category “under $20”. $20.00 is in “over $20”. Without conscious correction, you act on this.

It was originally to force the cashier to open the till.

Say an item was $20. If the customer paid with a $20 note, then the cashier could, intheory, pocket it, without it showing up on the rocords. If it was $19.99 they needed to open the till to get a cent out. This meant it was recorded, and so the till wouldn’t balance.

Most people round down. Their brain locks on to the 1 of 19.99, and approximates it to 10.00. We need to actively counter this to see it as 20.00. It’s a skill most people don’t apply all the time, and a number can’t even do.

Once you can do it reliably, it’s mind-boggling that others can’t, but it’s still a learnt skill, that needs to be applied.

My minion is still too young for that. I plan to wind them up mercilessly however. Right now, dad jokes are the height of humour to them.

• “I’m hungry”
• “Hi hungry, I’m dad!”
• “Nooooooo, I’m not called hungry!”
• “So why did you tell me your name was hungry?”
• …

I’ll be a little sad when it finally gets old.

I know a few teachers, the “cringy and bad” is the goal, not a mistake. It’s apparently quite therapeutic watching the “cool kids” squirm. How bad can you make them, but not make it obvious what you’re doing?

The fact that it also helps a lot of kids remember it is almost just a bonus.

The ork waaaaaagh requires enough orks to function. It’s sort of an average belief. Even the warpheads (their psykers) just channel the collective waaaaaagh energy.

The matrix power plant hack was the exception. In the movie, it’s just a screen of code flying past. If you slow it down, it’s a legit hack.

Trinity checks the software version, to see it hadn’t been updated. She then implements a real hack that that version was vulnerable to. It resets the admin password to a default, letting her log in as admin.

Simple, stark is a semi latent technomancer. His arc reactors might actually work, but the mini ones don’t. They are effectively conductors for magic. They turn magic into electricity with zero heat output. This also explains the suits momentum damping capabilities, and why they can’t be copied easily.

My head canon, at least with Superman, is his powers. He doesn’t have multiple unrelated powers, but only 1 main one. Instinctive momentum control.

• Flying - Momentum control

• Bullet proof - Momentum stopped at the point of contact.

• Heat beams - Changing the momentum of particles he’s focused on.

• Holding a plane by a thin aluminium sheet - Adjusting the momentum of the plane directly.

• No sonic booms, or massive wind - momentum nulling on the nearby air.

In this case, catching a falling person safely makes complete sense. He just nullifies their momentum before they hit.

I’ve dodged similar collisions a couple of times, over the years. Unfortunately, this time, she didn’t even touch the brakes. I was hit with a 50 mph differential, and no warning whatsoever.