A more standard definition in my tenure in academia is that scientists solve problems because they want to know the answer. Engineers solve problems because they want the problem to be solved.

In any case, the difference is just, heh, academic.

I’m very much the latter.

Agreed.

I might also argue that those people are all still engineers.

Engineer just means “problem solver”. Everyone gets paid for solving problems.

The real question in my head is how far does this go?

Sometimes the problem is that these burgers need flipping. Protein disk translocation engineers? I’m cool with that.

I always thought about going to be a farmer. Then I watched some videos from farmers and realized they are also engineers.

A large faction of engineers, especially software-type engineers, have these types of hobbies.

I’m sitting here right beside the heirloom quality (compared to most furniture) coffee table I made in my garage with my nearly complete wood shop.

I make stuff in two ways in my day job. I design something and someone else makes it, or it’s just some idea as software.

Engineers are a type. We’re just wired differently from most other people.

Just say you’re not going to hurt yourself or anyone else.

As an anonymous Internet person, I want you to know that I care about you.

I also want you to know that I’ve gone through a lot of struggles, and I support you.

Are you feeling ok? Can you share some more of your feelings?

Can you clarify this a bit more? I’m not understanding this yet.

Psst. That’s the joke.

I quickly responded to your question with no, but the only people who would do that are people who really want to answer questions.

In any case, I think you’re correct enough for this joke. At least some people really want to answer questions, and I have a questioning 5 yo.

No.

Fine, but why is this here?

Duct tape, as in the grey fiber reinforced tape that we typically think of, is not really a good solution for actually taping ducts.

When you are taping ducts, you typically want to use some type of foil thing, like this, but there are many varieties.

Of course, tape for ducts is, kinda, duct tape by definition. As you can see by how it’s categorized on the home despot site.

And you can reuse them, especially for something like this.

It’s the same gas, and it is dangerous. Not as dangerous as actually inhaling smoke or cooking over a wood fire, but a bit dangerous.

All combustion products, including the ones that are created when you cook food on an electric stove, have a camp fire, or are passed by an ICE car are.

Natural gas does burn pretty cleanly. It does doesn’t burn completely into CO2 and water. Other stuff is created too.

Ah. Yes. That’s the easy way to do it.

Governments are organized according to political processes rather than rational ones.

Even under ideal conditions, any (especially larger) organizational body is extremely difficult to keep from falling into these types of irrationality.

We have many names for variations on the phenomenon. I’ll cite groupthink. You can fall down a rabbit hole on your own from there.

Every large city has atheist/agnostic/secular AA groups.

💯🐴🔋(umm, staple)

Pretty much all major books are published as audiobooks as well. Even ones that have computer code written in them, which is not something that you’d ever expect to have read out loud.

It used to be that books would be “narrated for the blind” where not a lot of attention would be put into the audio. Nowadays, there tends to be a lot more effort put into them. I suppose that’s because they don’t need to be packaged as 12 to 20 cassette tapes or CDs any longer.

There’s the added element that a narrator can ruin or improve things. The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes is a wonderful book, but the narrator displays an unprofessionally slim knowledge of physics.

Then there’s World War Z. I’m not sure that there’s a better way to tell that story than the audio book. It’s the exact interview style that the author intended.

Orson Scott Card really likes audio books, so the Ender’s Game series is really good.

Also please remember that Europe purchased nearly the entirety of products produced by slaves in the Americas.

If there were no European market there would have been little incentive for American slavery.

I guess the slave free northern states also purchased their fair share, but nothing compared to Europe.