Dude, who even knows.
Post reblogged from Kontextmaschine with 18 notes
Ah okay, my bathtub drains all day now.
In February it started only draining once a day at like midnight, then it didn’t drain at all for a few months and I had to bail it out, then it was midnight only again, now it’s full time once more.
Got that?
…but what could that be?
The sewer line from my house to the main has been cracked by roots. Most of the year, it’s above the water table, so when the bathtub drains some water flows out into the soil.
The non-draining parts are in the heart of the wet season, when the water table is above the pipe, and there’s not pressure to drain.
And the “midnight only” parts? Well, midnight is when leaves open their pores for gas exchange, releasing oxygen and taking in carbon dioxide. They wait til then so they lose a minimum of water this way but they still lose a bunch, so to replace it the roots slurp up more water… which, if the soil water level is just a bit above the pipe, brings it briefly below, and the tub drains.
I was told about the pipe by my inspector when I moved in, I’ve held off until I’m further on planning the basement (/2nd floor) because I might want to get a bigger one put in for capacity with multiple units, interestingly last spring I had no tub problems but I had to keep plunging the toilet cause it didn’t have enough suction for turds, but that hasn’t been a thing this year.
Karafuto somehow gives me like +15 Woodcraft
Anyway an implication is you can obtain water in an area with trees but no aboveground sources by tying a plastic bag around the leafy ends of branches; when the pores open and water vapor escapes it’ll condense in the bags, which you can then retrieve.
Learned that one from the Scotsman on my last place’s couch, who had learned it in British Army survival training – the way he told it, a lot of their training was about handling being cut off behind enemy lines, which I guess makes sense.
Post reblogged from Baconmancer with 72 notes
The Scotsman asked what was up with “African-American” as distinct from incidentally African “American” and I was like, “Ah, you want to understand race in America? First, you must learn everything.”
There are three classic topics in American history and they go
1. Race, huh?
2. Why no socialism?
3. The frontier, huh?
and basically the answer to any of those is the other two
(cont)
Photo reblogged from sheske yolo lyutaskau with 969 notes
The Scotsman who was living on my couch last year had come from (and returned to) working on a farm in Iceland right next to Geysir, the original geyser from which the name comes. He said that over the ages the mouth has built up high enough with mineral deposits that the pressure no longer rises enough for the water column to clear the lip and naturally erupt that spectacularly anymore. They used to pour detergent into it to make it blow but environmentalists complained about them effectively just dumping industrial chemicals into nature on the reg, so now they only do it on special occasions.
Post with 3 notes
the Scotsman is not happy about the referendum.
update: he came to offer me a cordless mouse, because he punched his laptop screen in anger and broke it
Photo reblogged from God's on the side of the Proles with 37 notes
it’s incredible how near every supporter of a no vote is unbelievably patronising, insulting and really shitty about Scottish people
Went out to the pub with the Scotsman to watch the MLS/Bayern Munich game yesterday, he was all enthusiastic about the referendum. Was a little ticked that the vote wasn’t limited/extended to Scots anywhere, and instead would be among whoever just happened to be living in Scotland, though.
I think it’s a bad idea, I just don’t see where the money’s going to come from. Industry’s for shit still, no City to siphon from directly or lean on for bond issues, and meanwhile you’ve got a population that wants social democracy as if not only Thatcher but Heath never happened. I guess you could compete with Ireland as the English-speaking European nation that can bend over furthest for multinationals, but you’d probably have to scrap and rebuild a lot of Scots law as a lure and that’d sure run against the social democracy/national pride thing.
He thinks it’ll run off North Sea oil, as if that’s forever, as if they’d just inherit it as a matter of principle and proximity nevermind they don’t have any diplomatic chits to trade in to get claims recognized or any navy to keep them enforced. A+ plan there, mate.
BEST case scenario they play Ireland, Norway, and Sweden off each other bidding for Scottish allegiance and access while extracting a begrudging tolerance from the rump UK in return for not stirring up shit in Wales and Norn Iron, take an immediate quality of life hit back towards the ‘80s at least but keep things patched over with national pride while building up labor-intensive specialty and organic agriculture then start moving up the value chain towards exportable expertise and equipment in that sector, maybe some cultural/landscape tourism on the side, stumble their way towards some kind of northern New Zealand.
Worst case scenario they find themselves frozen out in the region and start to fall into Russia’s orbit by process of elimination, NATO pushes destabilization campaigns and reincorporation starts serving as an imperial palingetic-flavored paste to hold together coalitions south of the border.
Middle course, I see most likely, they start off full of starry-eyed wonder, in international booms it looks like the sky’s the limit, in downturns everything always looks about to fall apart but never quite does, they keep grabbing after the big thing that’s going to make it all finally work - green energy, shipping in the newly ice-free Northern seas, some bullshit that can’t even be predicted yet - until the camel’s back is finally broken and they come crawling back hat in hand in a few decades.
How’s that?
Post with 98 notes
(He was like “but after three generations they should be just American” and I was like “how long have your ancestors been British and you’re still Scottish” and he was like, seriously affronted, but that was the point)
Post with 72 notes
The Scotsman asked what was up with “African-American” as distinct from incidentally African “American” and I was like, “Ah, you want to understand race in America? First, you must learn everything.”
There are three classic topics in American history and they go
1. Race, huh?
2. Why no socialism?
3. The frontier, huh?
and basically the answer to any of those is the other two
Post with 2 notes
Me and the Scotsman are getting along pretty well, actually. We bonded about gardening (he’s a farmer) motorcycles (he’s raced in the Isle of Man TT) and then he insisted on giving me a vintage Burzum t-shirt from when he was crashing on Varg’s couch, because of course he did, because Portland.
Post with 3 notes
There has been a Scotsman on my couch for going on a week now and I still can’t figure out who in the house he belongs to.