#Building Science

[reasonsforhope]

If you're feeling anxious or depressed about the climate and want to do something to help right now, from your bed, for free...

Start helping with citizen science projects

What's a citizen science project? Basically, it's crowdsourced science. In this case, crowdsourced climate science, that you can help with!

You don't need qualifications or any training besides the slideshow at the start of a project. There are a lot of things that humans can do way better than machines can, even with only minimal training, that are vital to science - especially digitizing records and building searchable databases

Like labeling trees in aerial photos so that scientists have better datasets to use for restoration.

Or counting cells in fossilized plants to track the impacts of climate change.

Or digitizing old atmospheric data to help scientists track the warming effects of El Niño.

Or counting penguins to help scientists better protect them.

Those are all on one of the most prominent citizen science platforms, called Zooniverse, but there are a ton of others, too.

Oh, and btw, you don't have to worry about messing up, because several people see each image. Studies show that if you pool the opinions of however many regular people (different by field), it matches the accuracy rate of a trained scientist in the field.

--

I spent a lot of time doing this when I was really badly injured and housebound, and it was so good for me to be able to HELP and DO SOMETHING, even when I was in too much pain to leave my bed. So if you are chronically ill/disabled/for whatever reason can't participate or volunteer for things in person, I highly highly recommend.

Next time you wish you could do something - anything - to help

Remember that actually, you can. And help with some science.

[innovapanel]

Futureproof your investment with Innova Panel. Francis Pimentel of the Eco Channel takes a deep dive into the technology of the InnovaPanel, the next generation of structural insulated panels. Learn more as she investigates Future Proofing Your Investment with the InnovaPanel,

[foxirori]

~

Sorry I know too much and like sharing. It's very possible that the older homes are not just full of mold due to poorly controlled moisture in basements (and ventilation), but super drafty because they didn't even know about air sealing - so you're right on the money about holes causing whistling. Creaking because they weren't built to brace against the wind they ended up having, since we build to minimum standards as capitalism has been our way of life for hundreds of years. Boilers DEFINTELY make a shit ton of noise through creaking (metal reacting) radiators around the pipes, and then the unit, especially older oil ones. Gas furnaces, however, found in newer homes, also make a shit ton of noise through the ducts. You may not know

That air sealing is a newly understood important technique that keeps the interior walls of our homes from being cold/hot from air traveling to/from the attic or basement. Pretty much stuffing foam (anything non porous that fills the cracks) in the wall top gaps where the top plate wood has two sides of drywall, or around the wooden sills & rim joists of the foundation of the basement. Wind pressure sends air through our homes if we don't do this, so a lot of cold spots were due to that shit.

As for carbon monoxide, new homes are more likely to have that problem because they are sealed tight to be more energy efficient. Although ventilation is now mandated and basements are more water tight, the problem of air quality has become more drastically at risk with minimal code about it in the modern days (imo). All that's required is a constant running bath fan and a CO detector on each floor. I've seen new ovens put off way more CO than older ovens (unless they haven't been cleaned).

By 1978 (usa at least, probably earlier in europe) insulation was mandated to fill the wall of a home (at least in MA, where I worked and had to know this). 2014 to 2018 has seen the implementation mandated air sealing in progressive states.

Sadly, however, The toxicity is more recent and ongoing than we like to talk about. The building codes have massively overhauled, but out of mandated safety concerns and fire codes more than anything, with a little energy efficiency because our monopoly conglomerate energy mega-corporations want to burn less fuel. Up until 1990 asbestos was coming out of the mine in USA selling vermiculite and there is still a class action lawsuit that anyone can send a sample in for testing to get a grant that could help remove this toxic rocky insulation from their home. Asbestos has been re-legalized by the trump administration in 2016 and it is unknown to me how embedded in materials it is/will be. Sure, VOC and lead is possible to avoid, but it's been a thin window of time we've known this.

Cellulose that is now a huge amount of the insulation we use (i've recommended its use), is coated in borax which is toxic to life and meant to repel rodents and pests as well as be fire retardant. -itchy

Fiberglass also makes me itch and its literally tiny (fibers of) glass coated in a resin made from oil, you know, petroleum, that shit from the ground that we need to stop using. Yet fiberglass is everywhere despite being very comparable in price to recycled cotton / cellulose (similar), and not much cheaper than wool / mineral wool (also not the same), all of which are better than fiberglass. I warn people about touching it and sending it airborn, how seriously you should be geared up beforehand and running a filter/washing your clothes several times after. I will never get rid of the itchy feeling after working with it for years.

~

I wouldn't buy a haunted house.

I don't believe in ghosts, but I do believe in mold and carbon monoxide.

[brevitylevity]

I did not know installing windows was so complicated. Legos tricked me.

[eagleflieswiththedove]

Fiberboard - Exterior Inspiration for a medium-sized, modern, gray, two-story exterior home renovation

[legodna]

You guys wanna see a science Lego set? Well, here's Lego DNA!

With a scientifically accurate DNA model, and a historically accurate lab + 5 scientists!

Aims: to promote science to kids and honor Rosalind Franklin.

Less than 4,000 votes needed to get it considered as a real official Lego set to be sold worldwide!

If you like it, please support here and share with your friends: https://ideas.lego.com/projects/c92cd95b-49e7-46ec-b844-ac6482c51139

[thehmn]

Whenever humans appear in fantasy or science fiction we are usually the boring default who aren’t strong or fast or magical and the writer has to make something up to make us interesting but we already have a special ability: our stamina.

We can go forever compared to most other animals on earth. When you look it up you’ll mostly find stuff about running but our ability to walk and walk and walk is insane too. We are not the only creature with this ability but we are among the top.

I used to go on walks with my housemate and sometimes her cat would join us. He’d start huffing and puffing halfway through the walk and she’d joke about how out of shape he was but in reality cats just aren’t made for long continuous walking. They hide and attack in quick bursts. Heck I’d sometimes go on walks that turned out to be too long for my dogs despite dogs being endurance hunters like us.

So I think we deserve more acknowledgment for our stamina and endurance in otherworldly settings. We are the race that can keep going long after our party had to sit down and take a breather.

[andoutofharm]

i can’t emphasize enough how absolutely devastating this would be to climate, weather, and ocean science. please contact your representatives and ask them to oppose this proposed budget.

[lalalanayo]

[LANA] The Magic World——Hufflepuff PART

Hufflepuff part this time!

This is the last post for the MAGIC WORLD SET, I'm really excited that I finally accomplished my little dream for almost one year and see many people like this set♥

Basic information

number: 14 CC

swatch: 6-12

game version：1.110

DLC needed: Base game compatible

You can find them easily by searching LANA/Magic in the game.

public time: 2025/04/21

Pay attention

1. The hanging plants have S/M/L sizes

download link: patreon

[imanes]

some people are truly off their rocker and i don't want to attribute it solely to shit i see on twitter bc I've heard this irl a few times these past couple of weeks but i did see someone on twitter today questioning why Palestinians have children... why the fuck not? these children are the hope for a better future; they're the continuation of aeons old bloodlines; parents have a right to have kids even under apartheid. what your question suggests is nothing short of eugenics imho and truly completely disconnected from the humanity of Palestinians and their rights to full, dignified lives with choices and possibilities. like imagine being pro-choice until one of these choices is "can i have a child if my people are being ethnically cleansed". so long as there is life there is hope and that isn't just a trite little saying it's a way of existing and resisting.

[reasonsforhope]

Given the misinformation that's been going around and will be going around, thought this might be helpful to some people

For a lot of reasons, I'm very good at this/at searching, to the point where I have worked as a professional fact-checker for two different publishers. So, here goes:

My Article Fact-Checking Protocol

Thorough Version

Read the full article. Keep an eye out for emotionally loaded words, and all-or-nothing language

Keep an eye out or anything that sounds too good to be true, and in contrast, anything that sounds so awful it must be true

Run the website/source through the amazing Media Bias/Fact Check. They'll tell you about a publication's bias and history of accuracy

Go to the website's home page and read through the headlines. Look at what topics they cover/prioritize, sensationalist headlines, and whether they're framing anything in a way that feels odd/off to you

Do a search related to the topic. This can be keywords, a question, or even just copy-paste the article title (Recommended: use DuckDuckGo so the results don't change based on what Google thinks they can sell you)

If multiple highly credible sources that say the same thing pop up, and there's no major societal biases that might affect the coverage of the topic in those sources (e.g. anything related to the Israel-Palestine conflict/Palestinian genocide, no matter which side), then I'm done!

If there are major societal biases, or I can't get a consensus of sufficiently credible sources, then I do some combination of:

(1) search the topic again + the words "controversy" and/or "fake"

(2) search the opposite of the topic, or do some sort of other filtered search

(3) look up a sufficiently credible news outlet with the opposite point of view of my source, and see what they have to say

(4) if it's a big enough topic, start by looking up 2 of the top national papers and 1 major paper for your region (I usually do the ones in the US, because that's where I am In the US: the LA Times, the Washington Post, and the NY Times)

Adjust "news" to "relevant type of source, e.g. tech, environmental" as relevant for all of the above options

If no red flags come up, and it's a topic I understand enough to smell huge bullshit,

Then I'm usually done!

If there are red flags, or I actually need a certain amount of detail/understanding, then it gets more complicated, but that would be a whole other thing to break down and such

or

tl;dr

Quick Version

Read the full article. Keep an eye out for emotionally loaded words, and all-or-nothing language

Keep an eye out or anything that sounds too good to be true, and in contrast, anything that sounds so awful it must be true.

If I don't know the website:

Run the website/source through the amazing Media Bias/Fact Check. They'll tell you about a publication's bias and history of accuracy

If I trust the source, but something else pinged my radar:

Do a quick web search to verify anything that sounds suspicious or too good/bad to be true (Recommended: use DuckDuckGo)

[arwenkaboom]

🧪 A sleek, functional lab set for realistic hospital builds, research centers, or just super organized Sims. 🧪

Download

Ingame Picture:

🛠️ Base game compatible

🖼️ 2K textures — if you want the objects to look like they do in the previews, make sure you download and enable the HQ mod.

🔍To find everything in-game, just search "simlabs" in the build/buy search bar!

Thanks so much for the support — hope you enjoy the set! 💗

Follow me on other social media: Pinterest / Instagram / Patreon

Early access 4 weeks.

[tea-knight]

[gwydpolls]

Time Travel Question : Miscellaneous II

These Questions are the result of suggestions from the previous iteration.

This category may include suggestions made too late to fall into the correct grouping.

Please add new suggestions below if you have them for future consideration.

[legodna]

Do you wanna build a Lego science set? Here's Lego DNA!

With a scientifically accurate DNA model, and a historically accurate lab + 5 scientists!

Aims: to promote science to kids and young adults and honor Rosalind Franklin and her legacy!

3,800 votes needed (we already have 6,200!) to get it considered as a real official Lego set to be sold worldwide!

If you like it, please support via the link above or here: https://ideas.lego.com/projects/c92cd95b-49e7-46ec-b844-ac6482c51139