I love construction: They seem an abnormally high number of clever things they do

The other day I was helping build a house, and we were putting windows in. Part of the process is to put silicon around the window before you press the window frame into it

The silicon helps seal the window, helps it stick, etc

however, the interesting part is that you don't put silicon on the bottom edge

rather, you put the silicon after the window is already in, below the window, because otherwise, the silicon would make a pool of water if it rained

Stuff like that: There's just so much...knowledge in the world of construction

Probably due to tons of experience. Very cool nonetheless.

oh yeah, for sure. It's also passed down from generation to generation

I just saw First Man in theaters. It was very good.

When compared to Apollo 13, I would say it was less historically accurate, but I don't think anything was provably wrong. Apollo 13 had the benefit that every minute of the real event was logged. The cinematography was great... it passed the "no sound in a vacuum" test. Also they are really different types/feels of movie, First Man is a "life journey" and is much more tragic/emotional.

Research shows that at least, regarding the few more-or-less made up parts of the movie, there's been real-life speculation about those things. No spoilers.

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@NathanMerrill /

I've been watching this channel for a couple of weeks now, and I've found it fairly interesting:

It's a Copyright Attorney (Leonard French) that reads legal statements, and provides information/opinion on them

it's rather interesting if you are interested in law

(This video isn't the best of his, but it's about what you can expect each day)

@NathanMerrill If you ever consider building your own house, consider getting windows like you can find them in europe, instead of those "slide half of the window up and down"-windows:)

wait, how are windows normally in the us and europe?

@betseg this is probably the most stereotypical american window type: windowdepotusa.com/files/2012/08/window_depot_double_hung_2.jpg

In the US, most are separated into upper and lower halves where you can slide the lower half up (or sometimes the top half down). Not sure about typical European windows.

they usually work like this^

same here btw (eu type)

on the older ones you have an extra lever for switching between tilt/open

its like 20% tilt/open thing 80% just normal opening in old or new windows here

@flawr Oh yeah, I remember seeing a gif of these some time ago and going "ooooh...".

@El'endiaStarman While I never knew anything else, I learned to appreciate them after learning about the slide-up-and-down-windows :)

just noticed there is even a 99%inv about that

oh wow

and maybe I was only ever in the wrong buildings in the US, but I never found a single door that didn't jam in some way or another XD

also i got the impression that us doors are hollow but is it true

theyre made from solid wood here

@betseg Probably more often than not, yes. Hollow doors are cheaper and lighter whereas solid doors are good for security.

> security

most outer doors are made from steel here btw

indoor doors (english) are mostly wood

the ones here are also usually quite heavy

@flawr All of my windows are like that but slide horizontally rather than vertically

there are some that are hollow, but usually filled iwth some honeycomb like stuff

I am actually quite impressed by how standardized some building elements in the US apparently are. (After having watched tons of videos on youtube:)

And how many great tools have been developed to work with that.

I'm with DJ: all of mine are horizontal

As well as anybody I can think of

Uh, what? All the ones I've encountered were vertical.

TIL: the US is a big place.

Why would I want those European windows? They look finicky and I have no reason to open them upwards

@NathanMerrill Because I don't like sliding windows :D

Well, mine slide just fine

@El'endiaStarman east coast vs west coast thing?

@NathanMerrill Yeah, maybe.

@NathanMerrill something I didn't consider yet: how's the climate where you live?

Varied. We're technically a desert but get plenty of snow and a few thunderstorms a year. Temperatures up to 90/100 each year

@NathanMerrill how about the low temperatures?

I don't know exactly how much, but below 0

I think -10/-20 is generally the coldest day of the year?

Just found a nice climate comparison website

Oh! When I said -10/-20 that was in C

Due to my stay in Canada, I generally say cold temperatures in C

hehe, that is interesting:)

@NathanMerrill Oh, that's not so bad. I was thinking "Wow, that's really cold!". :P

It would be nice to have a location search engine based on climate.

"I want to move somewhere where it is just as cold in the winter but not as hot in the summer."

That website is great: it looks like SLC is more extreme in pretty much every way except rain

SLC is probably farther away from the nearest ocean, right?

Oh yeah. None of our rivers go to the ocean

Looks like Albany is mostly in between Bern and SLC - weatherspark.com/compare/y/56086~2706~24883/…

@El'endiaStarman Except for the low temperatures and the snow

and the "muggy conditions" (just learned a new word :)

Yeah, way more snow there

Oh yeah, we got all the snow. So much snow. :P

And yep, can attest to mugginess during the summer too.

Imagine living on the eighth floor of a dorm building (heat rises) during the beginning/end of summer (hot + humid) with no AC (because it's cold more often than hot and colleges like to save money on student housing) and how much fun all that is!

ACs are pretty much nonexistent here

(except maybe in cars)

@flawr Pretty much the same as Nathan, although perhaps a bit dryer and higher altitude (1000 ft difference)

Actually, I'm not sure if SLC or northern Colorado is dryer

SLC average annual precipitation: 16 in

Denver average annual precipitation: 11 in

Wait no, sorry. 14. 11 was in 2017

Right now we've had a very warm and dry summer. It has rained on maybe 3 days since march, and right now at noon you can still wear a tshirt outside, while we probably would already have had the first snow in "average" years.

We had a massive snow last week, which was a little bit of a surprise.

Could you send some over, please? :)

What area do you live in, (be as vage or specific as you want)?

@flawr We're all out I'm afraid. This last week has been bright and warm (70F/20C)

@flawr Northern Colorado, near-ish Denver

one of the rectangle states

Yep :D

Is it possible to make a spherical rectangle?

(Or for simplicity, a spherical square?)

Nope, 4 90-degree angles means 0 curvature.

you could make a degenerate one by gluing two right-angled spherical triangles together

(so two sides of the rectangle intersect)

@El'endiaStarman good argument