I haven’t finished the book, but The Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics is also a good read on the subject.

What about !explainlikeimfive@lemmy.world which already has 13k subscribers? I answered a question there a couple days ago

Historically, yes. But the prices are generally not bad compared to what I’ve heard in other countries. For instance, the main power utility near me for residential service charges a base fee of $14/month to be connected to the grid and 11.661¢/kWh ($0.11661/kWh). There are some exceptions to this, of course. I actually live in a small town that for whatever reason has historically operated its own electric utility. They maintain the local grid and connections to homes but don’t have generators. They buy the electricity from the previously mentioned utility at a wholesale rate of around 6.5¢/kWh and we as customers pay 10.4¢/kWh. Our base connection fee is closer to $25/month but that also covers our water and sewer connection and trash (including yard waste) and recycling collection. Our town has a good solar energy program, though, so a lot of homes have put solar panels on their roof and there have been days where the town has generated 100% of its electricity from solar panels in the town.

There are some areas that have gone for a more “deregulated” approach where customers have a choice of who they pay for their electricity. I’m not sure how that really works, though, since I don’t think companies are out there building additional electric lines for their customers. Texas is one of the main places I can think that has done this but it seems like the companies have made higher profits for themselves while lowering prices by not maintaining the grid. I have a friend who lives in Texas and he’s always complaining about losing power randomly. I think California was trying to do something similar a long time ago but I’m not sure they’re doing that anymore. That was tied to the whole Enron debacle. I can recommend a book called Conspiracy of Fools by Kurt Eichenwald for more on Enron; it’s not Explain Like I’m Five but still pretty easy to follow even if you don’t understand the accounting concepts they ignored.

I’m no expert, but I might be able to help. Generally and historically in the U.S. one electric company (often called power companies) would handle the entire operation for a local area. They own the generators, long distance transmission lines, and the “last mile” connection to consumers, whether residential, commercial, or industrial. These are expensive systems to build so it doesn’t really make sense to have more than one company providing this service to an area. The power companies are granted a monopoly for whatever area they serve by the state, but in return they are also closely regulated by the state for the business side of the operation, such as how much they can charge for electricity but also making sure they have enough generation capacity and that the distribution system is adequately maintained. They are also regulated by the federal government to make sure they meet technical standards for compatibility. The regulation ensures the companies make a profit by try to keep it relatively small since electricity is a basic necessity. Power company stocks are generally considered a stable, reliable investment. They won’t necessarily grow much, but they should always make a profit.

Each power company is responsible for their own area and the network they operate, often called a grid. However, for resilience they’re usually connected to neighboring grids so that they can get extra electricity if needed. This isn’t free; they will have to buy the electricity from the neighboring grid but it will probably be at a discounted rate. They might also sell electricity to a neighboring grid, of course. I don’t know why they aren’t all just connected to each other in one big grid, though.

Neat idea!

Yes, but multiple tanks throughout the building means they don’t have to pump all the water all the way to the top. They only need to pump the water for the highest floors to the top.

I’m no expert, but I’ve looked at this in the past. Most large buildings have their own water tanks inside them. If you think of an image of a New York skyline away from the skyscrapers you might picture small water towers on top of most of the buildings. Those are the tanks that supply water for the building. Skyscrapers will have multiple tanks inside the building itself, maybe one every 5 or 10 floors up. There will always be one at the top of the building but it might not be as obvious looking as a small water tower. Each tank will serve just the floors in between it and the next tank below. When the tank needs to be refilled it just draws from the tank below it. This way the building doesn’t pump all the water it needs all the way to the top floor; it only pumps water as high as it needs to go. Keeping water in a tank means it still works like a traditional gravity-fed system and should function for a while even in the event of a power outage.

Handling wastewater is relatively easier, it still just needs to flow down. The pipes just drain into one or more pipes going down to the bottom of the building.

There are more upvotes on this post than subscribers to the new community. I think we’ll need to see some posts first!

From the article:

The disease is distinct from irritable bowel syndrome (or IBS) although some of the symptoms overlap.

I also have IBS, although as a diagnosis it feels more like a catch-all for when there’s clearly a problem but they’ve ruled out more serious diseases like ulcerative colitis. I have other friends with the same diagnosis as me but very clearly different triggers, symptoms, and things that help, so it seems like we really have some different diseases. That said, I’ve seen some significant improvement in the past few years thanks to a combination of medicines. Not a cure, but less bad days and flare-ups often don’t last as long. I actually saw an as the other day for a completely different medication than any I currently take, so if you haven’t talked to your gastroenterologist about treatment options since before the pandemic it might be worth checking in.

This is perhaps the best analogy for what he’s doing that I’ve seen. The only thing I could add is that for creative projects like movies (or books, paintings, sculptures, etc.), especially ones you are trying to release and get paid for, at some point you have to stop yourself from making tweaks or adjustments to the product and decide it’s good enough to release, because there will probably always be something you think can be better or you just aren’t sure you’ve chosen the best option. In fact, the longer you look at it, the more likely you are to second-guess even correct choices you’ve made because you’ve stared at it for so long.

The other thing a creative person needs to do once it’s released is to let it go. You can’t go back and keep second-guessing yourself. You also can’t look back 20 or 30 years later and think with all the experience you’ve gained in the intervening years or the new tools that are now available you could do it so much better. Accept it for what it is, a product of that era and that stage of your career. And there’s no guarantee that the new tools or experience will actually yield a better product. Sometimes the limitations force us to be more creative and the solutions end up being better than if we had no challenges.

I followed the link to Fandango but either I’m using it wrong or there are no showings near me. The runtime is listed as 20 hours 22 minutes, though.

glad that our generation 1 product even has a chance against a $457.18 billion industry

we capture even 1% of that and we win

I mean, yeah, just about any product should be able to celebrate if they were able to hit $4.5 billion in sales. That’s still a big number. But here’s the thing: capturing 1% in that market still will be really hard. Getting 0.1% would be something to celebrate for a first-gen product from a startup. Getting 0.01% should probably be something to celebrate, and if that’s too small of a number to be celebrating then your company’s probably going to fail.

It even says as much in the bonus text!

Welp, feel bad for the kid whose picture was featured with this headline!

“Hey Tina, one of the stock photos you did was published as the feature image for an article in an international newspaper!”

“Really?! What was the article about? The benefits of exercise?”

Yes, it should definitely be optional

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That could be an improvement over following 3 or 4 identically named communities on different instances

The big challenge of the Moon vs Mars is that Mars at least has an atmosphere. It’s not nearly as thick as Earth’s but it’s something and you can do some aerodynamic braking. The Moon basically has nothing; you have to use rockets all the way down.

I wish there was a better explanation of the color in the article. As I expected, Texas is last likely to be cloudy (and warmer than other options). It’s where I was wanting to go since the last eclipse, but now my stepdaughter is dealing with back problems and we might roll the dice on a shorter drive to Ohio or Indiana, if we can go at all.

If they have the corral I put it in the corral. If not I will bring it back to the store or try to avoid taking it to my car in the first place so I can leave it at the store and not come back.

The key is to return the cart to a designated location where the store is asking that they be returned.