Hijack This Thread

[keith]

IMG_4959 copy.jpg

We're over in the St.Louis area again this week checking in on my dad. My dad doesn't cook even a little so my wife was cooking up a mountain of food to put in the freezer yesterday when she notified me there was a leak under the kitchen sink. She wasn't kidding. The bottom of the cabinet has almost caved in at the middle. A quick look around and I determined the leak was coming from the top of the garbage disposal which dad thinks is the original from 35-ish years ago when the house was built. The old disposal is a 3/4 hp Kenmore and I replaced it with a 3/4 hp InSinkerator that was a direct drop in. I didn't make a single change to the plumbing, including the drain outlet, to install the new disposal.

But the real story is the existing plumbing under the sink. When my parents built this house I worked in floor covering and knew all the local contractors, so my dad asked who he should talk to about building. There was one that I always thought was clearly better than the others. He was old school (plaster walls, plywood instead of OSB, etc.), used better materials and paid more attention to detail. He was more expensive but built a better house. Flash forward 35 years and I'm looking at the plumbing under the sink and remembered why I recommended this guy. There's a clean out at the bottom, followed by a "Y" with separate traps for each side of the sink, and the vent is both air gapped (required because the sink is in a peninsula more than 3' from a wall) and tied into the outside vent system as a backup (which is not required). It probably took twice as long to plumb the drain lines under this sink but it sure is nice for whoever has to get in there when something inevitably goes wrong.

The only thing I'm not crazy about is the bare romex running to the disposal but that's how they did it at the time. If I had my electrical tools with me I would have installed a GFCI outlet on the side of the cabinet where the wire comes in and put a heavy cord on the disposal. I may do that next month while I'm fixing the bottom shelf of the cabinet.

My 2 cents says you should have taken the opportunity to ditch the horrible anti environment garbage gobbler all together and start a compost pile instead.

[neonzx]

My 2 cents says you should have taken the opportunity to ditch the horrible anti environment garbage gobbler all together and start a compost pile instead.

Garbage disposals are awful because many people think that description is literal for all food waste. Four times over the years I have tenant service calls because their sinks were not draining. Three times was it they put a bunch of cooked rice down in it (bad) and once was peeled potato skins (bad). This is because of the starch in both and they stick together. The rice is a bit worse because it keeps expanding with more water.

We are not permitted to put compost bins in our community (association rules), but they do have kitchen trash cans to put their excessive food leftover or expired stuff in from the fridge.

[Shizzle Popped]

My 2 cents says you should have taken the opportunity to ditch the horrible anti environment garbage gobbler all together and start a compost pile instead.

My dad’s 91 and won’t be doing a compost pile or changing the way he operates. He doesn’t use the disposal a lot but he does use it after he scrapes stuff off the dishes before they go in the dishwasher. Right now we’re just trying to keep him healthy and independent enough that he doesn’t have to move into assisted living.

[keith]

My 2 cents says you should have taken the opportunity to ditch the horrible anti environment garbage gobbler all together and start a compost pile instead.

Garbage disposals are awful because many people think that description is literal for all food waste. Four times over the years I have tenant service calls because their sinks were not draining. Three times was it they put a bunch of cooked rice down in it (bad) and once was peeled potato skins (bad). This is because of the starch in both and they stick together. The rice is a bit worse because it keeps expanding with more water.

We are not permitted to put compost bins in our community (association rules), but they do have kitchen trash cans to put their excessive food leftover or expired stuff in from the fridge.

Biggest problem: they waste a LOT of water. Australia all but banned them during the big drought in the early 2000's

[keith]

My 2 cents says you should have taken the opportunity to ditch the horrible anti environment garbage gobbler all together and start a compost pile instead.

Garbage disposals are awful because many people think that description is literal for all food waste. Four times over the years I have tenant service calls because their sinks were not draining. Three times was it they put a bunch of cooked rice down in it (bad) and once was peeled potato skins (bad). This is because of the starch in both and they stick together. The rice is a bit worse because it keeps expanding with more water.

We are not permitted to put compost bins in our community (association rules), but they do have kitchen trash cans to put their excessive food leftover or expired stuff in from the fridge.

Biggest problem: they waste a LOT of water and they make it hard on the wastewater system. Australia all but banned them during the big drought in the early 2000's.

Eta: i just spent 10 minuts trying to paste a url in here but the damn machine refuses to let me. Dunno whats going on.

[Phoenix520]

Our county started taking ALL food waste in the green bins this year. We put ours in compostable bags - we have to use two at a time cuz they don’t always hold together until they hit the trash can. I suppose all cities do this now - they chop up green waste and use it to mulch the little greenways they make at circular freeway exits.

[keith]

Our county started taking ALL food waste in the green bins this year. We put ours in compostable bags - we have to use two at a time cuz they don’t always hold together until they hit the trash can. I suppose all cities do this now - they chop up green waste and use it to mulch the little greenways they make at circular freeway exits.

Yeah, our council takes food scraps in the green waste bins too. Many, but not all, councils around Melbourne do this. It depends on the facilities they contract to for green waste disposal and what they can handle. Its expanding.

[RTH10260]

Fears grow in North Carolina as ultra-extreme Republican eyes governor’s mansion
If Mark Robinson wins gubernatorial race in 2024 there would be no one to hold back a wave of rightwing bills in the state

Adam Gabbatt
Fri 5 May 2023 10.00 BST

To Mark Robinson, gay and transgender people are “filth”, homosexuality is an abominable sin, and the transgender movement is “demonic” and “full of the spirit of the antichrist”.

Muslim Americans, meanwhile, are invaders, and Robinson is not afraid to dabble in antisemitism: in his mind an international cabal of Jewish financiers make up a modern-day “four horsemen of the apocalypse”, who rule the banks in “every single country”.

Lots of people have offensive and conspiracy-minded beliefs. But not all of them are running, as Robinson is, to be governor of North Carolina.

And to people who don’t share Robinson’s views, the problem is that it looks like he could win – furthering the Republican party’s years-long lurch to what was previously rightwing fringe politics.

“Mark Robinson would be the most extreme gubernatorial candidate but also governor that we’ve ever seen in our history,” said Anderson Clayton, the chair of the North Carolina Democratic party.

The risk Robinson would pose if elected in November 2024 – polling is scarce at this stage, but experts believe the race between Robinson and Josh Stein, his expected Democratic opponent, is a toss-up – is real. Republicans control both the state house and senate, and the GOP expanded its lead in last year’s elections.

Roy Cooper, the Democratic governor whose tenure is forced by term limits to come to an end in 2023, has vetoed 52 bills from becoming law in his six years in office, the Assembly reported, including laws that would have rolled back gun control and reduced abortion access.

With a Republican in the governor’s office – particularly a governor like Robinson – there would be no one to hold back a wave of rightwing bills.

“We have bills right now going through our general assembly to ban gender affirming care for trans youth. We have a ban against trans athletes or young people competing in sports right now. We have a lot of discriminatory, just persecuting-our-own-citizens-type of legislation happening in our state,” Clayton said.



https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ernor-race

[Maybenaut]

My 2 cents says you should have taken the opportunity to ditch the horrible anti environment garbage gobbler all together and start a compost pile instead.

Garbage disposals are awful because many people think that description is literal for all food waste. Four times over the years I have tenant service calls because their sinks were not draining. Three times was it they put a bunch of cooked rice down in it (bad) and once was peeled potato skins (bad). This is because of the starch in both and they stick together. The rice is a bit worse because it keeps expanding with more water.

We are not permitted to put compost bins in our community (association rules), but they do have kitchen trash cans to put their excessive food leftover or expired stuff in from the fridge.

Biggest problem: they waste a LOT of water and they make it hard on the wastewater system. Australia all but banned them during the big drought in the early 2000's.

Eta: i just spent 10 minuts trying to paste a url in here but the damn machine refuses to let me. Dunno whats going on.

We don’t have a garbage disposal because we have a septic system, and you shouldn’t put food waste in the system because it can’t break it down.

We had a compost pile, but it attracted a lot of unwanted animal and insects.

So we got a Vitamix indoor composter. I grinds and dehydrates the food particles so what you’re left with dirt that is completely dry and smells like whatever you composted (ours usually smells like coffee grounds, but sometimes orange or banana peels). Since all the bacteria or mold spores or whatever is dead, the composted material is sterile. We mix ours with potting soil and add a little extra fertilizer.

Since we have a solar system on the house that generates the electricity that runs it, we’re not so concerned about trading one thing that’s bad for the environment with another.

Vitamix 068051 FoodCycler FC-50, 2L Capacity, Grey https://a.co/d/dkrzhq4

[Reddog]

Thank you, I’ll definitely look into this. I didn’t realize something like that existed.
Are there items that shouldn’t be used.

[RVInit]

We have a compost tumbler outside and it works great. I keep a large plastic coffee can in the kitchen and take it out once or twice a day with the kitchen scraps. Since I cook everything fresh, we have a surprising amount of scraps for two people. A few years ago I had a Can=o-Worms which I kept in a spare bedroom. I used red wigglers. That also works great, does not produce any foul odors, and I never had any escapees. We don't have room in mom's house to set up one of those, but I really liked it, it can handle lots of food as the colony of worms will grow along with the food. You can put newspaper along with food scraps, they will eat it up. I would tear it in strips and add it to the mix.

https://www.wayfair.com/keyword.php?keyword=can-o-worms

[MsDaisy 2]

I’m so fucking tired of spring allergies, buckets of snot and bags of snotty tissues. I never had allergies as a young’un. Some things do suck getting old but it still beats the alternative…

[sugar magnolia]

I’m so fucking tired of spring allergies, buckets of snot and bags of snotty tissues. I never had allergies as a young’un. Some things do suck getting old but it still beats the alternative…

I have alllll the things for allergies and sinus issues. Would you like to share my day time pills, night time pills, nasal spray, powder puffer, occasional injections, or inhaler? I had sinus problems as a kid but never this constant onslaught of allergies. I can travel 50 miles from my house and they kick in too. The oleander in NOLA almost killed me every time I caught a whiff of it.

[Sam the Centipede]

IMG_4959 copy.jpg
my wife was cooking up a mountain of food to put in the freezer yesterday when she notified me there was a leak under the kitchen sink.

So you celebrated the Sinko de Mayo?

[Shizzle Popped]

IMG_4959 copy.jpg
my wife was cooking up a mountain of food to put in the freezer yesterday when she notified me there was a leak under the kitchen sink.

So you celebrated the Sinko de Mayo?

Ha, Ha! Mayo and whatever other ancient contaminants were lurking in that old beast. Fixing old plumbing isn't exactly my favorite job but you do what has to be done. I do draw the line at working on the ejection pump for our basement bathroom though. That's a shitty job by definition.

[Maybenaut]

Thank you, I’ll definitely look into this. I didn’t realize something like that existed.
Are there items that shouldn’t be used.

Yeah, here’s what they recommend you don’t put in it:

Items that you cannot compost include: lime peels, meat, fat, grease, oils, dairy products, and yard trimmings treated with chemical pesticides.

We put chicken bones and eggshells in ours, which they say is OK.

[John Thomas8]

Instead of jamming a sportsball-related court case in the court case section, I started this one about what appears to be a miscarriage of "social media justice" in the hidden sportsball area:

viewtopic.php?t=2104#p192321

[RTH10260]

‘The forever prisoner’: Abu Zubaydah’s drawings expose the US’s depraved torture policy
Exclusive: For 21 years, the detainee has been in US custody without charge, tortured and sexually humiliated, with no prospect for release

Warning: the images and descriptions of torture in this article are extremely graphic

Ed Pilkington in New York
Thu 11 May 2023 11.00 BST

A detainee held in the US prison camp at Guantánamo Bay who was used as a human guinea pig in the CIA’s post-9/11 torture program has produced the most comprehensive and detailed account yet seen of the brutal techniques to which he was subjected.

Abu Zubaydah has created a series of 40 drawings that chronicle the torture he endured in a number of CIA dark sites between 2002 and 2006 and at Guantánamo Bay. In the absence of a full official accounting of the torture program, which the CIA and the FBI have labored for years to keep secret, the images give a unique and searing insight into a grisly period in US history.

The drawings, which Zubaydah has annotated with his own words, depict gruesome acts of violence, sexual and religious humiliation, and prolonged psychological terror committed against him and other detainees. They were sketched from memory in his Guantánamo cell and sent to one of his lawyers, Prof Mark Denbeaux.

Together with his students at the Center for Policy and Research at Seton Hall University law school, Denbeaux compiled Zubaydah’s images and words into a new report. The Guardian is posting the report, American Torturers: FBI and CIA Abuses at Dark Sites and Guantánamo, for the first time along with a set of never-before-seen sketches.

“Abu Zubaydah is the poster child for America’s torture program,” Denbeaux said. “He was the first person to be tortured, having been approved by the Department of Justice based on facts that the CIA knew to be false. His drawings are the ultimate repudiation of the failure and abuses of torture.”




https://www.theguardian.com/law/2023/ma ... ure-policy

[Volkonski]

Poland reverts to historic name for Russia’s Kaliningrad

https://apnews.com/article/russia-polan ... 372daa51cd

Poland is reverting to using its historical name for Kaliningrad, the Russian city and administrative region that sits on its border.

From now on, it will be designated on Polish maps as Krolewiec, based on the recommendation of the government commission for geographic names abroad.

The Kremlin has reacted angrily: spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called it a “process bordering on insanity,” going beyond Russophobia.

The city, formerly known as Koenigsberg, was ceded from Germany to the Soviet Union after World War II. In 1946, it was renamed Kaliningrad, after Mikhail Kalinin, one of the leaders of the Bolshevik Revolution.

The Polish authorities point out that Kalinin was one of six Soviet officials who ordered the execution of more than 21,000 Polish prisoners of war at Katyn and elsewhere in 1940.

They said the current name was artificial, lacking any connection to the city or the region, but the centuries-old name of Krolewiec was part of Poland’s cultural heritage.

[Shizzle Popped]

I'm trying to help a liberal friend and local businesswoman get elected to a town council seat in a deep red Indiana county. It's a bit of a long shot but I think it's worth a try. Sadly, I have no experience at all with this kind of thing. Does anybody have suggestions of what I can do to help?

For reference, here are her FaceBook and Instagram pages. She'd be thrilled to have additional people follow her and like some of her pages, if you feel like it (only if you're comfortable and I'm not asking anybody to donate).

https://www.facebook.com/BlytheForBargersville
https://www.instagram.com/blytheforbargersville

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

I'm trying to help a liberal friend and local businesswoman get elected to a town council seat in a deep red Indiana county. It's a bit of a long shot but I think it's worth a try. Sadly, I have no experience at all with this kind of thing. Does anybody have suggestions of what I can do to help?

Here are some resources:

https://indivisible.org/resource/2023-s ... ating-maga
Nonpartisan

https://emilyslist.org/
PAC which provides funds to pro-choice women Democrats running for local, state and federal offices. This organization is a powerhouse and well funded.

https://www.sheshouldrun.org/starter-kit/
Nonpartisan

https://www.sheshouldrun.org/what-we-do/
Nonpartisan. She Should Run is a great site for educating oneself and for maintaining focus and positivity. I don't know if it provides funding.

https://www.nfdw.com/
National Federation of Democratic Women

https://emergeamerica.org/about/about-emerge/

I suggest she first see if Emerge is available in her state. It provides training for running for office in the particular state. Progressive Arkansas Women PAC first provided training, but when Emerge-AR came into existence we dropped our training program to concentrate on fundraising.

[Shizzle Popped]

Thanks, TRL! That gives me loads of information to go look at!

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Thanks, TRL! That gives me loads of information to go look at!

[Volkonski]

Ron Filipkowski
@ronfilipkowski@bird.makeup
I think I’m just starting to get a little bit less pissed off about last night. I mean where I’m no longer a danger to myself or inanimate objects that can be thrown.

[neonzx]

FIRE SALE ON! ALL PROCEEDS GO TO CHARITY.

https://www.npr.org/2023/05/11/11755335 ... ye-west-ye

Adidas finally has a plan for its stockpile of Yeezy shoes

Adidas plans to sell its stock of unsold Yeezy shoes and will donate the proceeds from the sales to charity, CEO Bjorn Gulden said Thursday.

The German athletic and footwear brand cut ties with Ye, the rapper and fashion designer formerly known as Kanye West, late last year over his antisemitic remarks — leaving the company to figure out what to do with its Yeezy merchandise.

During Adidas' annual shareholder meeting Thursday, Gulden said the company spent months thinking of options on what to do with the unsold sneakers, such as talking with several nongovernmental organizations, before making a decision.

One of the options included simply destroying the shoes, but the company ultimately decided against it, Gulden said.
Unsold Yeezys collect dust as Adidas lags on a plan to repurpose them
Business

"What we are trying to do now over time is to sell parts of this inventory and donate money to the organizations that are helping us and that were also hurt by Kanye's statements," he said.

Whatever his name is this week.. Kanye, Yee or what the F. I don't care.