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What makes a great burger for you? On the contrary, what can ruin it?
  • I MUCH prefer them to be caramelized. It just takes me like an hour or two

    Have you ever tried the trick where you add baking soda to accelerate the Maillard reaction? Just a small pinch for a couple of onions, and you’re done in 15min or so. Too much and not as tasty.

  • Can non-airborne viruses become airborne through mutation?
  • To properly answer, we need to define what we mean as “airborne” which has gotten a bunch of people very upset recently. Prior to the COVID pandemic, the transmission model for respiratory viruses focussed on 3 distinct models of transmission:

    • Fomites are collections of excretions on surfaces containing live virus. An infectious person cough into their hand, pick their nose, or similar, then touch the doorknob. The next person touches the doorknob, then their mucus membrane (nose, eye, mouth) and they get infected.
    • Droplets are large collections of excretions that are transmitted during talking, shouting, singing, coughing, or sneezing. They are ballistically expelled, but don’t remain in the air. An infected person expels these droplets, and must be in range of another person who is struck by these droplets in their mucus membranes to be infected.
    • Finally, airborne transmission occurs when micro droplets small enough to ride on air currents are expelled from infected people, and non infected people inhale them into their airways.

    COVID was presumed to only be transmitted through the first 2 methods. But weird things were observed, where transmission occurred when people (or ferret model experiments) were separated by barriers through which ballistic droplets couldn’t pass, like air ducts with multiple 90° bends. People also got sick after being in rooms many minutes after infected people had been present, long after ballistic droplets would have harmlessly fallen to the ground.

    In reality, droplet models were just close range transmission, and airborne long range transmission of bio-aerosols, or micro droplets created from breathing, shouting, singing, coughing, or sneezing. The range was more a function of the transmissibility of the virus. Highly infective things can infect at low doses at long range. Less infective things occur with much higher doses, when people are quite close to one another. This folded in the prior models quite nicely. It was, however, not well accepted.

    If a disease is to be transmitted by bio-aerosols, the disease vector needs to be able to enter the body through the surfaces with which it will interact upon being “breathed in”. This doesn’t work well for the STI viruses or bacteria, nor the malarial parasite, as they aren’t actively expelled in the respiratory system, so don’t generate bio-aerosols, and require access to highly specific host cells not easily accessed through the respiratory system at the necessary volumes to create an infection.

    So, no, not really possible for non-respiratory viruses to become “airborne” in that sense.there would need to be a LOT of intermediate steps.

    But diseases that we used to consider to be transmitted by the now defunct ballistic droplet model can become “airborne” (instead of “droplet”) if their ability to infect a subject becomes more successful at lower doses of pathogen such that it can occur at longer range, and over longer times.

  • Uses for local AI?
  • generate some minor descriptions for generic stuff in my TTRPG campaigns.

    Need a quick 200 word description of the interior of an apothecary? Or a band of marauding orcs? It’s been a huge time saver for me.

  • Sen. Mark Kelly Emerges As Unexpected VP Candidate For Kamala Harris
  • 3 Astronauts. 1 candidate. Only really got to know one astronaut (family friend) and one candidate (supervised her training in an unrelated field) super well. I’ve had long term interactions with two wannabes who were disasters.

  • Sen. Mark Kelly Emerges As Unexpected VP Candidate For Kamala Harris
  • Unfortunately, in contrast to astronauts, most of the politicians I’ve met are complete shits. Only met a few at the civic level who are excellent. And one at the federal level. Everyone else has been truly🤮.

  • Sen. Mark Kelly Emerges As Unexpected VP Candidate For Kamala Harris
  • It’s funny. Literally every astronaut I’ve met is exactly like this - quietly competent, affable, team player. As is the astronaut candidate I’ve met.

    And yet…

    Every person I’ve met who has been keen on becoming an astronaut or astronaut candidate has been an insufferable self-aggrandizing jerk face. Like, just awful people who suck all the air out of any room they’re in, expounding on how they (or the idea they’re selling) are the most amazing thing ever.

  • What are the unwritten rules of the Tour de France?
  • If the yellow jersey calls for one, pee stops for the peleton are mandatory.

    If a train breaks up the peleton at a level crossing, and you’re on the far side, you wait.

    The final stage should have no impact on the overall classification. But this year it will as it’s a TT in Nice, not a stroll down the Champs, so it will!

    If the yellow jersey falls or has a mechanical, the group they’re in, waits. (Mostly true for any competitor with a chance to win in that group)

    In a breakaway, if you’re competing for points in one classification, you don’t contest points in the others if other members of the group are trying for those. So if you’re rocking the polkadot, you take it easy at the sprints.

  • what's your favorite hydration drink? bonus points if it's a drink mix
  • How do you boost intramuscular water retention? I get so dehydrated sometimes my brain burns and hurts.

    Those sound like two very different things. Typically your cells manage this just fine on their own with just plain water intake provided the kidneys are working fine. Time to attain equilibrium is also important. For example, dumping a bag of IV fluid into someone’s veins will help replenish the volume of fluid in their blood vessels quickly at the outset. But it will move to the other parts of the body (or get dumped by the kidneys if the intravascular volume is already adequate).

    I need serious electrolytes like 1 to 3 body armours to replenish followed by 48oz water. Followed by hours to recalibrate my body from nausea and migraines.

    How well hydrated a person is before activity matters more for performance and recovery than we often recognize. Lots of studies of elite athletes and dehydration on performance and recovery. Also of these drinks have artificial sweeteners, that may be playing against you.

    Urine can be clear but I can be so thirsty its unbearable. Literally feels like my brain is shrinking.

    That sounds miserable. If better pre-activity hydration doesn’t solve the problem, you might want to speak to a care provider and make sure everything is ok with some tests.

  • what's your favorite hydration drink? bonus points if it's a drink mix
  • The water moving right through is probably a good sign someone is well hydrated! There can be total body water versus intravascular volume depletion scenarios, but not super likely unless someone is sick in other ways.

    The xylitol itself may be contributing to GI water losses (it’s only about 50% absorbed through the gut, and osmotically draws water into/keeps water from being absorbed from the intestinal lumen). Depending on the SSRI, this could be exacerbated by bowel irritability that can present as diarrhea (sertraline is notorious for this).

    Some folks also report more urination with intake of sugar alcohols like xylitol. I don’t have a mechanism of action for that, so take those reports with a grain of salt. (And also some glucose because sodium-glucose symport allows for water absorption without the need for an ATP pump.)

  • what's your favorite hydration drink? bonus points if it's a drink mix
  • Shrubs are delectable! But they could be seen as an intimidating suggestion in this context. IKEA has some affordable fruit concentrates of lingonberry, blueberry, and elderflower you could substitute with a splash of vinegar for a refreshing lower effort treat.

  • what's your favorite hydration drink? bonus points if it's a drink mix
  • Okay, so this isn’t actually about hydration, it’s about the fact that SSRIs commonly cause dry mouth as a side effect due to anticholinergic effects which reduce saliva release Some SSRIs are worse than others, and older TCAs are worse still. But OP is not dehydrated.

    Water is great for hydration, but it is unfortunately not very effective at managing dry mouth due to these side effects. Flavoured beverages typically work better because they promote saliva release.

    I would suggest OP add something with a sour note to their water, like lemon or lime juice which are unsweetened and have effectively no caloric component. Alternatively even just a splash of carbonated water will also work as the bubbles are irritants and will similarly stimulate saliva release.

  • Rivian refreshes the R1S and R1T with more power, performance, and range - ArenaEV
  • Ok gotcha. Don’t have those here, but have encountered Hiluxes on my travels and look to be similar sizes. Looks like a rather small bed, so was surprised you said 6’ bed, unless that is with the tailgate down? Regardless, small electric pickups are definitely missing from the market and everything just keeps getting bigger.

  • Rivian refreshes the R1S and R1T with more power, performance, and range - ArenaEV
  • What ICE vehicle has what you’re looking for? I’m not a truck guy, so I don’t know the lay of the land. Long ago, my family got hooked on (mini)vans. They’ve got more bed space than any pickup, and come with a free topper. Plus you can add the seats back in to haul 8 people. Trips to the garden centre and kids outings are equally a cinch.

  • Rivian refreshes the R1S and R1T with more power, performance, and range - ArenaEV
  • Silverado has a proper bed (at 5’11”) and the mid gate folds into the cab for around 9’ of length, and loads of range. Affordable is NOT going to go together with range at this point. Though typically if one needs the bed it’s rare to also need the range in the same vehicle.

  • Things the guys who stole my phone have texted me to try to get me to unlock it - Gothamist
  • For iPhones, if you have Find My turned on, you can’t activate the device without the iCloud password, unless the owner removes the device from their iCloud account. Which is what the scammers are trying to get her to do here.

  • Out of order stories
  • The value of nonlinear storytelling is not plot advancement but character development. It can help the audience understand why characters are choosing to behave they way they are.

    This does not mean that the “writing is weak” as plot is only a small part of writing. Character motivations and relationships are key components which raise the stakes for the audience to actually care about the events and characters.

    I’d argue in a story where the end is known (there are no surprises in Manhunt) this is even more important.

  • VW just released details of the 2025 VW ID. Buzz's US trims
  • I want the longer wheelbase of the NA variant and the bigger battery that goes with it. In fact, I’d like a bit bigger battery than what’s on offer (given the charging topping out in the 170kw range) to be able to legitimately road trip with it. 5hr drives turn into 7 with a smaller battery and lousy charging curve, and the infrastructure in my neck of the woods isn’t great for where we want to go as a family.

  • VW just released details of the 2025 VW ID. Buzz's US trims
  • I want the longer wheelbase of the NA variant and the bigger battery that goes with it. In fact, I’d like a bit bigger battery than what’s on offer (given the charging topping out in the 170kw range) to be able to legitimately road trip with it. 5hr drives turn into 7 with a smaller battery and lousy charging curve, and the infrastructure in my neck of the woods isn’t great for where we want to go as a family.

  • InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)DR
    DrinkMonkey @lemmy.ca
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