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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • I’ve had that problem. The craziest thing about this is the pain. Most of the time, the reason I discover my flashlight turned on is I feel a dull burning sensation on my thigh. I always think “huh, that’s annoying. Must be a random aberration on my skin like a zit or a bug bite”. But the burning grows hotter until eventually I either pull my phone out to feel the spot on my thigh or I go to the bathroom to check. I swear it’s happened to me a half dozen times or so by now.

    It’s not a big deal. The burning isn’t burning. Just uncomfortable having a bright LED on my skin for that long.


  • I’m not an expert, but as a lay person I agree with you.

    However, I’m guessing people running these experiments are just looking at all the options. Hydroponics is pretty much a solved solution, no? I suppose it makes sense to run these experiments to prove what we already know. I suppose there is a hyper slim chance that lunar soil was somehow beneficial for the plant and made growing easier.

    I think the nitrogen issue is probably secondary to the water issue. Hydroponics use way less water. Water is heavy and expensive to ship to the moon. Anything to reduce weight will probably be the priority.

    I don’t see how shipping more soil and more water would be better than hydroponics, but sometimes we write papers for problems we don’t have yet, but might have in the future. Some moon colony might be struggling for physical space and need to use soil to grow supplies in an emergency? Might be nice to know they can reserve some moon land and follow these guides to produce food in the soil.

    My wife got her PhD in Physics and one of her favorite anecdotes is the critical piece of technology that made her project possible was derived from a mathematical paper written 200 years ago. The dude didn’t have the technology or science to know where his math would be useful, but he published it anyways. Eventually, someone needed it and found it useful.

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯




  • I was comparing it to civil or mechanical engineering. I agree that programming/software is growing and “infiltrating” our lives. That’s why I think it will become a licensed/certified term in the future. Software engineer will require a cert and some products will require certified engineers. Whereas web apps developers (most likely) will not use that title most of the time and we will just bifurcate those who work on “critical software” and those that do not.



  • Software engineering is just what any “engineering” field would be if they didn’t have standards. We have some geniuses and we have some idiots.

    Mechanical engineers, civil engineers, electrical engineers, etc. are often forced to adhere to some sort of standard. It means something to say “I’m a civil engineer” (in most developed nations). You are genuinely liable in some instances for your work. You have to adhere to codes and policies and formats.

    Software engineering is the wild west right now. No rules. No standards. And in most industries we may never need a standard because software rarely kills.

    However, software is becoming increasingly important in our daily lives. There will likely come a day wherein similar standards take precedence and the name “software engineer” is only allowed to those who adhere to those standards and have the proper certs/licenses. I believe Canada already does this.

    Software engineers would be responsible for critical software, e.g: ensuring phones connecting to an emergency operator don’t fail, building pacemakers, securing medical records, etc. I know some of these tasks already have “experts” behind them. But I don’t think software has any licensing/governing.

    Directly opposed to “engineering” would be the grunt work which I do.