offmychest

I've seen it so many times because of the US, but it will never click.

Historically, on the Fahrenheit scale the freezing point of water was 32 °F, and the boiling point was 212 °F (at standard atmospheric pressure)

What the fuck dude... 32 and 212?

According to a German story, Fahrenheit actually chose the lowest air temperature measured in his hometown Danzig (Gdańsk, Poland) in winter 1708–09 as 0 °F, and only later had the need to be able to make this value reproducible using brine.[12][failed verification]

According to a letter Fahrenheit wrote to his friend Herman Boerhaave,[13] his scale was built on the work of Ole Rømer, whom he had met earlier. In Rømer scale, brine freezes at zero, water freezes and melts at 7.5 degrees, body temperature is 22.5, and water boils at 60 degrees. Fahrenheit multiplied each value by 4 in order to eliminate fractions and make the scale more fine-grained. He then re-calibrated his scale using the melting point of ice and normal human body temperature (which were at 30 and 90 degrees); he adjusted the scale so that the melting point of ice would be 32 degrees, and body temperature 96 degrees, so that 64 intervals would separate the two, allowing him to mark degree lines on his instruments by simply bisecting the interval 6 times (since 64 = 2^6).

Again, what the actual fuck? It's just adjusted to the personal preferences of a dude with little account for the world.

• 0F = -17C (coldest point in Danzig in 1708)
• 32F = 0C (water freezing point)
• 100F = 37.78C (human body temperature)
• 212F = 100C (boiling point of water)

Makes no sense at all. And yet, some USAmericans like to parrot this reasoning

Early in the 20th century, Halsey and Dale suggested that reasons for resistance to use the centigrade (now Celsius) system in the U.S. included the larger size of each degree Celsius and the lower zero point in the Fahrenheit system; and claimed the Fahrenheit scale is more intuitive than Celsius for describing outdoor temperatures in temperate latitudes, with 100 °F being a hot summer day and 0 °F a cold winter day

What the fuck is a "hot summer day" and a "cold winter day"? That's completely arbitrary. For some Brits 25C in summer can be "unbearable heat". 37C may be the average summer day for some people around the equator. For some people in the North, -17C can be an average winter day with -40C being a "cold winter day".

Is it US exceptionalism keeping Fahrenheit alive? Is it just tradition? In what world do 0, 32, 100, and 212 make sense as reference points?

Bonkers...

Sometimes I wish I still had cancer

I'm going to keep it fairly vague because I don't feel ready to tell my friends and family this, but it's as the title says. Sometimes I wish I still had cancer.

When I was in high school, I was diagnosed with a rare type of brain cancer. The treatment itself wasn't too bad, but it took nearly a year to get the right diagnosis so I spent that time being treated for miscellaneous diseases I didn't have. I got the all clear after I finished treatment and moved on with my life, feeling pretty safe and secure. As I was approaching the 5 year mark (the point generally regarded as the "you're out of the woods now" mark), a routine scan found that the tumor had returned, but had metastasized to my spine. I went through heavy dose chemo, with a stem cell transplant and a long in-patient stay. Although I'm technically in remission now, and have been so for 5 years, I've never stopped looking over my shoulder, and even find myself wishing I still had cancer.

I know it sounds horrible, I'm incredibly grateful to my team of doctors and nurses, but such a huge portion of my life has been spent in the hospital that in some ways, being sick just seems easier than regular life. I know how to go sit in a chair and be poked with needles and pumped full of poison. I still struggle with things like getting out of bed and going into work. I don't know, I guess it just seems like normal life isn't normal in some ways.

It doesn't make you more profound.

It just makes things hard to read.

Stop it.

Feel free to share your own holiday get-together horror stories.

One brother-in-law has no filter between his brain and his speech, and usually that makes him a lot of fun and our favorite. But out of the blue today he starts talking about how America is the best (hard disagree, but he's American so I can give that a pass), people who don't like America should leave (stupid, but I see where you're coming from) and especially the blacks should go back to Africa (WTF!?!). I don't get how otherwise nice guys can be so full of hate for a whole class of people for no reason.

Edit: A sister-in-law says that slavery was the blacks' fault, because they sold their own. BIL's wife says the N word is the same level as "white trash".

[Edited title and body to change Selfish to Doomer.]

These Doomer Nihilists are so sure the world is so completely fucked, that they just nope out of any meaningful action that might mitigate what's coming.

Hell, they might be right. But it takes an incredibly selfish person to assume their idea of the future is absolute, to the point you just go "If I'm doomed, I'll just let it burn with everyone inside."

I've been called naive, idealistic and cliche just because I believe in the Human capacity to adapt and thrive, and our unique ability as Humans to choose what we believe. How a positive mindset will -literally- move us in a positve direction, generally speaking.

And I admit, I am verying degrees of those things... But am I wrong?

Humans became... And we're still becoming, a collective organism as the internet spreads. It's far from perfect, but it keeps us all connected in one way or another. That gives each and every one of us a little push and tug on the whole.

Unless you are truly isolated in your life, and my heart breaks for those who are, your positivity matters. Your negativity matters. These things spread to anyone who interacts with you, whether it's the slightest bit or enough to get someone to see another perspective. It spreads and it matters.

I just feel like... if more people were a little more naive and idealistic, but informed, we might not be so fucked.

Face it like a Human.

[Edited slightly for clarification]

You might disagree with their opinion of what is "lawful" or "constitutional", but they believed what they were doing was both, and that they were upholding the constitution. However misguided you might think they are in that belief, they are still patriots.

But I fucking hate patriots. They're almost as bad as outright nazis, and in america, I don't see any difference at all. The pledge of allegiance is fascist. The speaker of the house is flanked by fasces. The primacy of the state is obvious: everyone accepts now secret courts (fisa) and "continuity of governance" plans.

I don't need to be governed. I am interested only in liberation for myself and my comrades.

And I am sick of people labeling the J6 patriots as insurrectionists. I guarantee they don't know what propaganda of the deed is. It's a convenient label that liberals have chosen to apply because there is a law about insurrectionists holding office. And upholding such a law is fucking fascist.

So annoying. Prescribed adderall and then they ran out. Spent a month taking life raw and chugging coffee. Prescribed vyvanse then the generic came out. Prescribed lisdexamfetamine and the pharmacy ran out.

There’s something ironic about having adhd people take action to refill their meds every month and I’m so sick of it but I can’t function without it.

Going on 3 months no meds now

Every once in a while I'm hit in the face with a boomer moment, and my wife and her phone are just the pinnacle of this. My wife is GenX, and not even a particularly old one, but damn she will dig in her heels against technology and progress. She has an iPhone and staunchly refuses to use a passcode. She doesn't need one and doesn't want one. Basic security? Oh, no, not convenient. Tap to Pay? Oh, no, she'd rather dig through her purse for a credit card and get flustered while 30 people que up behind her to get on a bus while she tries to find one that has rfid (which she doesn't like because "I want to insert the card myself").

So we get new phones. eSim phones to replace the physical sim ones. And we spend the better part of an hour trying to figure out why her sim won't transfer. Mine was a simple dialog, as was DDs. What's different about hers? iOS is up to date. Phone is compatible. madly searches internet a dozen links in and buried in a t-mobile help page - "make sure bluetooth is on and the phone has a PIN code". MFer.

I suppose it could be worse. Her mother answers facetime video calls by putting the phone to her ear like it's a normal call and then talking the entire time while broadcasting the top of her ear to whoever is on the other end. 🙄

I do not care for anime, or hentai. Or even generally porn/nsfw when I’m browsing lemmy.

I do like to browse all/new to see what else exists. But my god, I’ve blocked so many god damn anime and nsfw communities its getting ridiculous.

Ive turned nsfw off (so tagged posts don’t show) but generally I don’t even want “mildly” nsfw pictures (posing celebrities, scantly clad anime).

I like the concept of the fedeverse and decentralised communities. But there are so many god damn versions of anime and celeb communities.

Well thanks for reading my rant.

I just walked into a store and bought a pair of socks. And before I could pay I was asked for:

• Full name

• Address

• Email

• Phone

To buy a $15 pair of fucking socks.

Businesses, stop this shit. Just let me pay and go home. I will never give a solitary shit about your marketing to me, and this drawn out process at the register only makes me never want to come back.

In a world of daily data leaks and cyber attacks, I’m not giving you one piece of true information anyway.

I produce pottery and lost $450 in comissions and around 20 hours of careful work to make the pieces all special because i didnt teste a new glaze batch even having a bad feeling. It worked the last two times without testing because it was mixed at the clay facility. This time it was brought home instead then mixed later.. Dont be dumb like me and follow your gut feeling if its got a risk attached!! Urgh!