throwup238 (u/throwup238)

throwup238 commented on Trees on city streets cope with drought by drinking from leaky pipes newscientist.com/article/... · Posted by u/bookofjoe

xenotux · 2 hours ago

> While the park trees contained lead isotopes normally associated with air pollution, the street trees had isotopes found in lead water pipes, which were made with metal from geologically old deposits in nearby mines.

I don't understand this part. We didn't use different sources of lead to make leaded gas and lead pipes, no?

throwup238 · an hour ago

Tetraethyllead production was very centralized by Ethyl corp/DuPont and required a higher purity lead ore so their isotope ratios are very well known based on the deposits that they mined. More locally sourced lead used for construction will have different isotope ratios.

throwup238 commented on The oldest unopened bottle of wine in the world openculture.com/2025/08/t... · Posted by u/bookofjoe

4ad · 2 hours ago

> While scientists have considered accessing the liquid to further analyze the content, as of 2024, the bottle has remained unopened because of concerns about how the liquid would react when exposed to air.

...This seems like a trivial non-concern? Just open it in an inert atmosphere?

> While it has reportedly lost its ethanol content

Why, and more importantly how would it lose its ethanol content?

throwup238 · 2 hours ago

> Why, and more importantly how would it lose its ethanol content?

Most wine bottles lose their ethanol within decades because oxygen makes it through the seal and the ethanol evaporates or reacts into something else. Any wine bottle that survives to hundreds of years old, even perfectly sealed, will have bacteria converting ethanol to acetaldehyde and acetic acid via aerobic and anaerobic pathways. 200-300 years is normally the limit before wine loses all ethanol even without a leak.

throwup238 commented on Waymo granted permit to begin testing in New York City cnbc.com/2025/08/22/waymo... · Posted by u/achristmascarl

tialaramex · 2 days ago

I think the US at least does sight tests periodically? The UK still doesn't do that, you're required to have decent vision to drive, but the license renewals are just paperwork, pay the money and click a web form.

There is talk in the UK of requiring sight tests for the elderly. Historically UK licenses required frequent renewal, when they were centralised for convenience they ceased to have a renewal step, and it was kinda-sorta reintroduced much later once they had photographs because of course a 40 year photo is unrecognisable. But because of the focus on photographs the renewal step is integrated to passports, and is a chain-of-likeness documentation process. If I look a big greyer than last time in the photo I upload, pay, wait a few days, OK, some mix of humans and machines says that's the same guy as the other photo except older, replace image, print new ID.

Since it's aligned with passports (which also care about image similarity) there's no room in that step for like "Do your eyes still work?" let alone "Do you know what this fucking sign means?" or anything resembling mandatory continuing education.

throwup238 · 2 days ago

> I think the US at least does sight tests periodically?

Depends on the state because drivers licenses are their remit.

throwup238 commented on VHS-C: When a lazy idea stumbles towards perfection [video] youtube.com/watch?v=HFYWH... · Posted by u/surprisetalk

bsimpson · 2 days ago

YT recently recommended his explanation of how pre-computer pinball machines worked to me - a series of 3, hour-long videos. Gave me something to look forward to on my commute. I shared it with everyone I know, and now I'm sharing it with you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue-1JoJQaEg

Fascinating (and insanely impressive) to see how a bunch of switches and stepper motors implement complex logic.

throwup238 · 2 days ago

Not from the same Youtuber but that video reminded me of another great one about how mechanical bowling alley machines work: https://youtu.be/Iod6uwUGM2E

throwup238 commented on VHS-C: When a lazy idea stumbles towards perfection [video] youtube.com/watch?v=HFYWH... · Posted by u/surprisetalk

AshleyGrant · 2 days ago

I have my name listed in all of his videos going back to right around when he started his Patreon. You can find me on the first "page" as it scrolls by. Love his videos.

throwup238 · 2 days ago

That has me wondering, do any youtubers sell Executive Producer credits for funding like films?

throwup238 commented on Privately-Owned Rail Cars amtrak.com/privately-owne... · Posted by u/jasoncartwright

runamuck · 3 days ago

Any idea how much it costs to buy your own private train car?

throwup238 · 3 days ago

A disused car is $100-200k depending on condition, and it’d probably cost about as much to refurbish into use. An off the shelf fully outfitted luxury car can cost a million or more.

Operating, maintenance, and storage costs dwarf the capital costs within a few years so unless it’s rusting in a backyard, the expensive part is using it rather than buying one. Storage alone costs $30k-50k a year.

throwup238 commented on French firm Gouach is pitching an Infinite Battery with replaceable cells arstechnica.com/gadgets/2... · Posted by u/pabs3

CorrectHorseBat · 3 days ago

How are ebikes not in the high margin category? The Bosch batteries sell for €1000/kWh at the pack level.

I think it's the BMS, Batteries in cars usually get used between 20/80% and have active cooling and heating while ebikes don't.

throwup238 · 3 days ago

High margin means stuff like aerospace, defense, and biotech - although a more accurate phrasing might have been “high value add”

throwup238 commented on A statistical analysis of Rotten Tomatoes statsignificant.com/p/is-... · Posted by u/m463

chongli · 4 days ago

Wouldn't we expect the most truly mediocre movies to have the lowest variance in opinions?

throwup238 · 3 days ago

That might be why the Marvel movies score so highly.

throwup238 commented on French firm Gouach is pitching an Infinite Battery with replaceable cells arstechnica.com/gadgets/2... · Posted by u/pabs3

Animats · 4 days ago

Is this a problem due to bad cell quality control? Car-sized lithium batteries are lasting 200,000+ miles. Why aren't e-bike batteries?

throwup238 · 4 days ago

Battery cells are generally binned like many ICs and the best cells go to cars and other high margin, high performance, or safety critical goods. The lower quality ones go to more cost conscious markets like the ebikes, where problems in quality control can definitely show up, especially if the OEM isn’t careful in how they spec the deliverables QA on the battery manufacturer’s side.