When I bought a laptop after self publishing my first book, I went with a thinkpad specifically because they handle linux so well. t480
That’s been a few years now, and it’s still running smooth, no issues at all, even with mint having been upgraded a few times.
Damn, that’s that’s bonkers. I’d jump all over a local opportunity like that, just to have something to piddle around with trying linux distros for entertainment. Even a crappy laptop at that price is a fun thing
It was about ants having different smells, caused when either threatened or injured for the most part.
Specifically, as an example I remembered because I’ve smelled it, the most common upper of ant you’ll find in houses (here in the US anyway) smells cheesy. It’s even called the odorous house ant. That’s because of a type of chemical called methyl ketones. Ketones are basically really volatile organic compounds; acetone is a ketone.
Now, regarding what some people can’t smell vs those that can, reports were mixed. But, it does seem that formic acid can’t be smelled by everyone, and some ketones can’t be smelled by everyone. You either have the right genes active or you don’t. But, apparently, tiktok has yet again caused problems with inaccurate info spread, so people think that you either smell ants, or you don’t, which isn’t the case, it comes down to the chemicals they produce, and those vary.
That being said, there is still the possibility that the reason any given individual hasn’t smelled ants is because they’ve never gotten close enough, or run across large numbers of the little ladies in one place. Most people aren’t going to get close to a bunch of crushed ants, and if ants are alive chances are you aren’t getting close enough to take a sniff unless you’re a real weirdo.
And yes, I’m one of those weirdos that has gotten up close to both living and dead ants. Not to sniff them, but out of curiosity. Hence why I have smelled them in small numbers as well as larger groups. Some ants are really unconcerned about something the size of a human, particularly when it moves slowly enough not to seem like an insectivore coming in for a meal. So you can, if you’re careful, get up close enough to use a magnifying glass to get better looks at them doing their thing (and don’t burn them, it’s not at all okay).
When you get that close, even though there’s no alarm pheromones, every ant type I ever got close to had that pungent, acrid smell of formic acid. It’s similar to vinegar or other acids that you might use around the house, but definitely not the same. Like I said elsewhere, it’s earthier and more pungent.
My area has some red ants, and if enough of those die, they smell like pepper. As in standard table pepper.
I went and read up on it, was going to edit in , but I’ll just do it here.
Apparently it isn’t the formic acid, it’s other chemicals, and not all ants produce them. I have smelled what they’re talking about, or at least three descriptions of one kind of ant smelling like funky cheese is something I have run into.
So you’re totally right, and my assumption was wrong.
But damn, formic acid, even dilute, really is pungent. Nose wrinkling, sneeze inducing for me.
Edit: after a nap, I read more, and apparently, being able to smell formic acid is a genetic thing. But wading through llm generated bullshit to find more reliable info buried the real lede. As an aside, that’s the original word for the phrase; it wasn’t lead, it was a newspaper jargon thing, even though lead works just as well as lede.
Those are different things, and I think it important to say that because your question reads like you’re conflating them, when you aren’t; you’re asking how far it does stretch, not saying that locker rooms are the same as a social club.
Which isn’t directed at you, but any passersby that didn’t catch it
As far as that goes, I’m actually okay with shared lockers/showers/bathrooms, so long as you can find privacy as an individual. Stalls with good isolation for them what care in other words. I don’t, however, think it would be okay to enforce that at this point in time
Sure, of course they are.
I’ll even go so far as to say that even more fine grained groups are okay. What becomes a problem is when every group excludes people that really shouldn’t be.
You get a chess club, why the fuck can’t a woman join? Right? Calling it a men’s club is just exclusionary for no purpose. Even the girl/boy Scout divide was pointless in any real sense, and was a missed opportunity for those scouts to have guidance on how a scout is supposed to treat others.
Hell, when it comes right down to it, even a specific cis organization is fine, just the way trans specific ones are. The problem, again, is when a club is exclusionary just for the sake of it.
We all have aspects of our lives that aren’t shared by people with other genders and/or types of genitals. There’s struggles and discrete experiences that a trans man can have that I never will, and vice versa.
But, again, once it ceases to be about that kind of specificity, it starts being bigotry in disguise and needs to fuck right off. Ain’t no good reason women shouldn’t be allowed into things like community action groups. A gender division there is just pointless and stupid. If they also exclude trans men, it’s as bad (maybe even worse).
Hell, the masons are full of shit in that regard. Fraternal orders are hypothetically okay, but since when have the masons actually been about men sharing the unique aspects of life that men share? It’s just exclusionary bullshit (and I’ve seen it from the inside, so I know it’s utter bullshit). They’re the best example of how not to be a gender based organization.
I’m not saying that men shouldn’t be able to gather and just hang out. We should, as should women. There really is a different vibe, and there’s no way around that. But once you start organizing that on a bigger scale, you have a different threshold to meet.
Since, historically, most of the men’s organizations not only excluded women, but actively served to continue oppression of women, being a de facto patriarchal enforcement group, those groups get the worst attention. They weren’t really men’s groups, they were power control groups that men only could use to gain, maintain, and exploit control. That’s why there’s pushback on them, not the fact that they were/are gendered.
Has to be, it’s got that same “bite” that other acids have, only a little more earthy
I had no idea it was a genetic thing that not everyone has. It’s pretty awesome that after fifty years slogging through life, I still run across cool new shit like this
Mark my territory
Man, the long earth series is so fucking good. It isn’t as well known as his discworld stuff, obviously, and it isn’t fantasy based in the usual sense, but the story arc over the series is just so well built, and the world building is a delight.
No shit, in my first book, there’s a zombie bigfoot. Well, not the standard bigfoot, a variant, and it wasn’t “just” a zombie, it had other powers and stuff.
But hybrid beasties are fun
I dunno, OP’s mom comes to mind. And to my cock
The butsecks
Happens every damn year.
It’s also going to be great for people with health issues that impact thermoregulation. And there’s a ton of diseases that do so. Currently, the typical cooling vest is a glorified ice pack holder, and even less comfortable than that sounds
Dude. Don’t be a dick.
First, you don’t have to test every day, just frequently. And I was because two people in my household are immune compromised. Since my kid did get covid, there was a span where I was testing every day, as were the two adults with immune system compromisement.
Second, I’m disabled and was dealing with my own medical issues which necessitated regular trips to the doctor, so it wasn’t just home testing being done.
Third, I’m not a fucking moron, and I was in the medical field back when I could still work.
So, I know I didn’t fucking have covid, or I wouldn’t have fucking said so.
Maybe not starting from a place of condescension would be a good thing for you in the future@
Luckily (less luck an more a nigh religious isolation and mask use habit) I missed getting covid. The timing of me quitting and covid starting was a wonderful thing though. I can’t imagine trying to maintain that addiction with all the risks being increased and supplies of the cigarettes being lower.
I had started chantix well before the first reports started making it into my awareness, and by the time the first waves of deaths here in the US were puckering buttholes, I was done smoking, and had moved over to zero nicotine vape pens to handle the habits of having something to do with my hands and mouth (other than trying to suck cock at glory holes, which didn’t seem wise with covid raging anyway).
The masks originally muted the allergies when out in the world, but this house is old as a Neanderthal dick, and at least twice as dusty, so I was often tempted to just wear a mask at home too lol.
Fuck, that was a wild couple of years. Covid was fucking traumatic even though I never caught it. My anxiety spiked just now remembering how bad it was.
Selling stale parsnips
It would be worth it :)
Gotta love wins like that