litchralee

Going from the information from a plastics compatibility chart I found online, a number of common plastics have excellent durability against sodium hydroxide (aka soda lye), such as polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP). When I restored my cast iron pan a few months ago, I used a lye-based oven cleaner sprayed into the pan and placed it into a plastic garbage bag made of low-density polyethylene (LDPE). The bag itself did not dissolve.

That said, my understanding of plastics compatibility is that test is whether a chemical will not degrade the useful properties of the plastic. So a non-compatible plastic might not be visibly damaged but could incur changes in its chemical structure that embrittled or otherwise reduce its lifespan. I was working with a solid cast iron pan, so unless you know exactly what plastic the waffle iron parts are made of, the point to be careful with plastic handles or cords is well-taken.

That said, when using lye, think it would be far preferable to remove the iron component from the waffle iron and then follow the same procedure as many cast iron pan users have done, for the same successful result.

PS see the !castiron@lemmy.world community!

For other people's benefit:

VOO: Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, the ETF version of VFIAX

ATH: "all time high"

As for the question, if the choice of putting money into VOO will be made based primarily on the market conditions, that is market timing, using the definition from the Boglehead wiki here. Part of the Boglehead investment philosophy is to "stay the course", which means following through with whatever your asset allocation plan is, irrespective of market conditions. The primary benefit of this is to control risk, since although no one can predict the future of stock prices, one's exposure to the markets (or lack thereof) is directly controllable.

If you don't currently have an asset allocation plan, then at least think about what you want this money to do: is it retirement, late-life healthcare, early-life healthcare, child education fund, emergency fund, or just spare money? The objective and the time horizon for that objective will indicate whether VOO is a good choice or not.

Any goal short of 5 years is, IMO, generally not a good choice to put into a large-cap index, because the market can -- and has -- suffer sustained downturns for as long, meaning the goal could be missed and without any time for a positive correction.

Minor question: what does pre-fall mean here? Is it pre-autumn? (Yes, I'm American lol, where "fall" also means autumn) Or does it mean the years prior to the fall of the Germany in 1945? Or maybe fall of the Soviet Union? Both would be plausible for the eras where radiation sources got lost on a near regular basis.

If I understand this article correctly, e-scooters in the UK can only be operated on-street and not on sidewalks. (on this point, I'm in full agreement). But also, when used in the street, they must be insured. (IMO, this is weird). So when teenagers between 13-16 are caught operating an uninsured e-scooter, they personally are issued an "IN10 endorsements" which seems to be similar to a traffic ticket elsewhere in the world.

But since 13-16 year olds do not qualify for a UK driving license, this citation results in the delayed effect that when they later obtain a driving license, auto insurers will use the old citation to jack up the premiums.

In my opinion, as a Californian, this is bizarre and the only comparable thing here which has such a delayed effect is for underage possession of alcohol in a car, or drunk driving or bicycling, where the administrative penalty is a one year delay from obtaining a driving license, for persons 13 and up. The distinction here is that California applies this for irresponsibility regarding alcohol, whereas the UK seems to think a lack of insurance for someone who can't even drive yet is somehow in need of equal penalties.

On the flip side, one could argue that UK teenagers using e-scooters now have yet another reason to not bother with driving an automobile at all.

As an IPv6 advocate, it's quite something for me to see it show up in this community. Does that mean IPv6 is now commonplace enough to be dull? Who can say. :)

The other comments have covered a lot of the background and variances throughout the world. But what I'll add is that few countries are purely in one camp or the other. To use the USA as an example, criminal cases are adversarial, in the sense that the defense attorney will duke it out with the government's attorney whether someone goes to prison.

For civil cases like a contract dispute, the procedure is closer to an inquisition system, although with the judge still merely presiding over the process. But attorneys in a USA civil case can depose witnesses, much like how (I think) a European judge-led inquisition would call a witness, and similar to how British coroners conduct an inquest (if murder mystery depictions on the BBC are accurate).

Perhaps the full thrust of the inquisition style can be found in USA federal agencies, whose rulemaking capacity requires asking direct questions to subject matter experts in a public forum, one which eventually leads to a determination on some germane topic, often enacting secondary legislation at the same time. Americans might not necessarily call such an action as a "ruling", but evidence was taken, all sides were heard, and even public comment was accepted, before rendering a decision.

That said, one could argue that such "Article III" rulemaking (eg FCC Commissioners) or judgements (eg Immigration Court) are distinct from the traditional judicial rulings from "Article I" courts (eg US Supreme Court). But that's a Constitutional wrinkle for another discussion.

In Western use, mostly for blowing one's nose or wiping sweat off one's brow. Sometimes in a cinematic manner which evokes refinement in the course of labor. Might also be used to blot tears, either one's own or to give to someone who has tears but no hanky.

In East Asian use, as a hand towel, since many public bathrooms do not provision paper towels. Very useful in the USA as well, since many restrooms are moving towards air dryers of varying quality. But a handkerchief is always on-hand and can also reduce time spent in the restroom.

I personally keep two handkerchiefs on me, for both the Western and East Asian use-cases.

I am always deeply enthralled when math and comp-sci unite to yield an elegant result, where my definition of elegance is: efficient + minimal.

I mean, you're still using a resource that was provisioned only for emergency use. The rough analogy is borrowing the exterior-mounted fire extinguisher of your apartment building to use it as a temporary paperweight, and then putting it back after two minutes.

Your use of it in this way might be benign, but if everyone is doing that, someone will eventually mess up and that resource won't be there when it's truly needed. Plus, what is the objective from calling your own elevator while you're in it? Just yell lol

I don't mean to sound boring, but while there's a time and place for pranks and fun in an elevator, I personally think the emergency equipment is off-limits. Everything else is fair game, up to and including playing Doom on the LCD screen that modern elevators seem to have.

Could you explain more about what you observed? Many elevator phones have an inbound number, so that emergency responders can return a call, although it would be unlisted for obvious reasons. So far as I'm aware, the phone is akin to a normal phone line, rather than being a special line like a payphone. So if you did find the number, it may be possible to call it.

That said, I can't endorse messing around with the emergency equipment in an elevator, even though it's not actively in use. Enough prank calls might cause the property management to disconnect the line, making it unavailable when an actual emergency arises. And even though that would incur legal liability for the management, that would still mean someone who needed help couldn't get help.

EDIT: And just to get ahead of anyone suggesting that calling the emergency phone is a way to test it, it really isn't. A true test would be making an outbound call to the emergency dispatcher, and then asking them to verify the caller ID and return the call. Good property management should already be doing this regularly, in the same way as testing the fire alarms and checking extinguishers.

(I'm assuming you're in USA)

The other commenters have correctly described how you could run metallic conduit (EMT) or PVC, and that would be perfectly acceptable for "low voltage" wires like twisted pair Ethernet. But it's also kinda overbuilding it, because EMT or PVC are also suitable for "line voltage" AC electricity. Other conduit types are available, depending on your jurisdiction, since EMT is meant to provide physical protection and PVC is meant for be water-resistant. And both provide physical support for the wires within. None of these qualities are really required for Cat 5/6 cabling.

Here in California, it is permissible to use ENT -- with an N -- also known as Smurf tube for its blue color, for line-voltage applications where no environmental protection (physical, UV, vibrations) is required. Smurf tube is made from thin, corrugated plastic in standard sizes, so it's easy to pass through top-plates and anchor to studs. This makes it an excellent choice for organizing low-voltage wires, or for future proofing.

Indeed, if you really wanted to, you could terminate the Smurf tube into standard outlet boxes, so that there's zero exposure to the insulation batts within the wall, for when you later fish the cables through. For a still-acceptable arrangement, the Smurf tube could be anchored just above where you've cut out a hole for the future wall-plate, allowing retrieval of the cable through that hole. You should not later use these conduits for AC electricity though, and mixing low-voltage and line-voltage in the same conduit or box is typically prohibited.

I do think that conduit is true future proofing. Who knows if CAT6, 7, or 8 just gets replaced (finally) with fibre optic cables. Or perhaps you decide to become a ham radio operator and thus need to run specialized coax. Or maybe you really want a 50 ft HDMI cable from the upstairs living room down to the man-cave in this basement. Running wire today is temporary, but conduit is forever haha.

Normally, the bonding arrangement should also include a connection to the slab, by way of a piece of rebar poking up from the foundation. The point of bonding is to attach as many normally-grounded things together, and this usually happens around the service entrance, as a matter of convenience. Here in California, we might use an outlet box on the side of the house to reveal the rebar bonding link, but perhaps Canada puts it somewhere else due to the heat loss in winter.

I should add that I might have a bit of a complex grounding situation. I'm sharing a well and internet connection with my old house which is about 200' away on the same property.

That the new house is a subordinate structure has a small impact on how the bonding is set up. Since neutral and ground are already bonded at the service for the old house -- and I'm assuming there are no transformers used over that 200 ft wire run -- the new house must make sure to not bond ground and neutral. Indeed, after the bonding point in the old house, ground and neutral should never be intentionally bonded anywhere else. A mistaken bond can lead to the "objectionable currents" I mentioned earlier, but this is diagnosed the same way by turning stuff off to see if the voltage goes away.

But apart from this difference compared to the old house, all other things should be bonded to the new house's ground: water fitting, shield wires (if present) on any telecom wires, gas pipe. Because of your substantial distance between the two structures, it's possible that the grounding system would have been simpler if the electrical service was "derived" using a transformer, such that the new house would have a different service that would be bonded to its ground, just like a standard home. But that ship has sailed.

A brass fitting on the poly pipe bringing water into my new house is at the same potential as my slab - that is, 20V from electrical ground.

Once the source of your ground current is found and mitigated, you may also consider bonding this water fitting to ground, at both the old and new homes. That way, if a future issue arises with the ground, it won't be using the water as a conductor and causing a shock risk. Even if you don't find the source of ground current, this is still a good idea, since some ground currents are perfectly natural -- especially over 200 ft -- but the risks posed by them can be mitigated by forcing everything to be at the same voltage (thus no more shock risk).

Indeed, one way that electricians test for the magnitude of a ground fault is to set up a temporary bond and measure the current through it. If large residual currents start to flow, it might indicate that the proper bonding elsewhere is faulty. I think you correctly assessed your issue as definitely non-trivial and an electrician should investigate thoroughly.

I'm using Cat6 copper to share the internet and am only getting 100Mbps on the link.

Seeing as you've already buried the cable, my comments are a bit late. But ground issues for twisted-pair Ethernet cables between buildings is a known issue, with no real solutions other than using non-conductive fibre optic cables or wireless links to bridge between buildings. At my work, we somewhat regularly see issues with twisted-pair cables running between buildings on campus, with the typical result being the death of the switch port where the cable plugs into.

It's true that Ethernet is supposed to use mini-transformers to isolate the grounds at either end of the cable, but that's not the only issue: having 200 ft of conductor means that a distant lightning strike induces a sizable voltage on these wires, even when underground. Those mini-transformers behind each port might only tolerate 2000 volt spikes, so if they've already been damaged by induced voltages, degraded performance would permanently affect the switch port, although the cable might still be intact.

You may want to re-verify your Ethernet cable using different equipment at the ends, but it may only be a matter of time until future issues arise. At work, we solved most of our woes by changing to wireless APs (eg Ubiquiti) aimed using line-of-sight for existing buildings. Between new buildings, we run fibre cables and then use a converter to turn it back into standard twisted-pair Ethernet once inside the structure.