StringJunky

Here's more on my post: "Electricity bills are on track to rise an average of 8 percent nationwide by 2030 according to a June analysis from Carnegie Mellon University and North Carolina State University. The culprits? Data centers and cryptocurrency mining. Bills could rise as much as 25 percent in places like Virginia. Science writer Dan Charles explains why electric utilities are adding the cost of data center buildings to their customers' bills while the data companies pay nothing upfront." Electricity Grid Impacts of Rising Demand from Data Centers and Cryptocurrency Mining Operations - PDF link

Data centres are raising demand in the energy sector and doing backdoor deals to lower the cost to them at the expense of domestic consumers. Also, the domestic consumers are being put on the hook, via their bills, for the new infrastructure needed for the data centres. It is a rapidly emerging political issue there.

OK. It seems part of kefir's definition is that grains are used and it is lacto and alcohol process. the reason why I thought this was because you can get freeze-dried kefir bacteria, which doesn't produce the polysaccharide complex.

That sounds like kefir. When fermentation is done, I run it it through a sieve to remove the kefir grains. That process also mixes the solids with the lower liquid. Yours is the same, it just doesn't have the polysaccharide grains that house the bacteria. Basically, it's non-organic kefir imo.

Trump on Fox News:

Yeah, the Epstein files are following him like a bad smell. There's lots of people, including politicians, intent on not letting the files lose attention.

I meant it has been flagged. I imagine reviewers will be following the paper trail leading from this (or lack of) and seeking depositions.

On a positive note, it shows that peer review works.

Doesn't that mean your gut pals are having a party? It's a gas, Man.

To further reduce lactose, you could look into adding lactase enzyme, which converts it into galactose and glucose, "Lactose-free yoghurts The digestive systems of some people partly or completely lack the lactase enzyme. As a result, lactose is not broken down by the digestive process into simpler types of sugars. These people can consume only very small volumes of ordinary milk without discomfort (this is described in Chapter 11). They can, however, often consume fermented milk, in which the lactose is already partly broken down by bacterial enzymes during fermentation. It is also possible to create completely lactose-free fermented milk by adding a lactase enzyme that hydrolyses the lactose into glucose and galactose. Hydrolysis of yoghurt milk can be performed during the fermentation by the addition of lactase to the fermentation tank. Some lactase enzymes are sensitive to low pH. Their activity decreases as fermentation progresses and the pH drops. What type and dosage of lactase enzyme to use therefore depends on how quickly the starter cultures ferment the milk." https://dairyprocessinghandbook.tetrapak.com/chapter/fermented-milk-products

Here's a vintage scuba equipment forum link: https://vintagescuba.proboards.com/ Might be worth a look.

My patience also has its limits @Mordred Another Galileo.

Scotch whisky. American whiskey. Whisky and Whiskey are not made the same way. Whiskey encompasses several styles and ingredients. They are different drinks.

I know what you mean, but one should be mindful not to conflate Zionism with Judaism and Zionists with Jews. Zionism is the politics of deceit. I've listened and communicated with a few antizionist religious Jews and they are very nice people. I sense no dissonance in the way they talk, unlike Zionists, whether they purport to be Jews or not.

That likely point was a while ago, but definitely now. It is sobering that what felt hypothetical in January is rapidly turning into reality. Trump, mass data capture and Zionism are the three worst things happening right now

Yes, quite likely, I think, that insubordination is quite a thing. It appears he's ranted 200 times over Christmas, someone was saying. Coming out with vile and racist comments. If I was a doctor, I'd prescribe 13g of sodium pentothal to calm him down. He's quite desperate for the news cycle to forget about his Epstein connections. Sadly, like Netanyahu with his corruption cases, people are getting killed to try and help them evade their legal/criminal problems.

That makes sense. I remember a case where a man swirled his face in child abuse images with an art editor and the police found out they could reverse the swirl to reveal his face.

On Bluesky, some posters have found, with some of the redacted files, they could copy the redacted areas of some files and then paste it into a new document to reveal the text. Trump's name was mentioned 600 times in those. It turns out someone on the editing team didn't understand to use a secure redaction method.

Penny was slow to drop on that one.

Is USNO-calibrated time just for GPS and military stuff? I presume NIST-calibrated time is what word commerce and everything else runs on? Are the two systems usually in unison i.e. within nanoseconds/microseconds of each other?

Yes, neglected stuff is always going to cost more later on to remedy. DOGE just proved that its planners are fiscally incompetent. I find it interesting that hyped individuals, like Musk, inevitably fall off a credibility-cliff. They just don't know how far to push their luck and yet still maintain their public 'aura'.

Privatization of what should be public utilities is a major bugbear of mine. It just makes no sense. How can making a profit from them make it better for the domestic consumer? Since water/sewage, for example, was privatized in the UK, the infrastructure has become dilapidated and now needs BILLIONS spending on it to repair it. They are claiming poverty. Why haven't they put some of the profit aside for maintenance and upgrades over the last decades since privatization? Is privatisation just a gravy train, where they sap from it and, when it runs dry, expect the consumer to 'top it up' through continuously higher pricing? The future is even more ominous for the domestic consumer, with the massive data companies cutting shifty backdoor deals with utilities to reduce their ongoing energy, water and land use costs for their data centres. This can only mean that the consumer will bear the brunt of that increase. The main issue with faceless, investor-owned utilities is that there can be no personal accountability when big issues arise from bad or unethical decisions. They just get a new board of directors and pretend they've "learnt their lesson". Privatisation is a sibling of 'trickle down' economics. Privatisation was supposed to improve economic efficiency, but guess who gets the benefits of that efficiency?

I was mindful that AI might be involved. Time will tell. I suppose this is the first time I've had to hesitate, hence my asking. Thanks.