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My method of making a slow-burning fire that lasts a good long time for the amount of wood is to do this:

Place a surface of wood on the bottom. On top, place two pieces of wood parallel to each other with a space between. Put a firestarter there. Place two parallel pieces of wood (with a space between) perpendicular to the others, on top. Keep adding more layers in that fashion the longer you want it to burn (even little blocks of wood work for this effect). Light the firestarter. The fire should shoot up through the middle hole, and begin to light all the wood in the center. You'd think it would burn fast, but it doesn't. It does get decently warm, however (by the time the wood topples over, there are a lot of coals, and it should be plenty warm; then you can burn additional wood quickly on those coals, if desired).

If you're having difficulty envisioning the way the wood is stacked, imagine a Jenga stack with the middle piece of each layer taken out.

So, those no-hassle firestarters (for lighting fires to keep your house warm) are getting expensive, these days (those Strike-a-fire ones). We've been dividing them up into several to make them last longer. Yes, you don't need them to light a fire, but they make the process easier.

Within the last few days or so, I discovered a nice substitute. All you do is take a handful of toilet paper, put a reasonable amount of rubbing alcohol in it, and position it like you would your firestarter. Then wipe your hands dry (so they don't catch fire), light a match, toss it on, and watch it burn for a good long time (at least a few minutes).

This is nice, since it's so easy to light. You don't have to wait any time at all (just touch the fire and the toilet paper bursts into flames).

It's also inexpensive. You could take a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a roll of toilet paper camping (for a campfire), for that matter (they'd have more uses than firestarters, of course).

Anyway, of all the flammable substances with which to light a fire I've seen, I'd have to say I like rubbing alcohol and toilet paper the most. It's easy. It's clean. And it's fun. However, to be safe, make sure you don't have rubbing alcohol on your hands or such when you light the fire (it can catch fire instantly).

This is in the substance forum because toilet paper and rubbing alcohol are both substances rather than units.

A pennywhistle, also known as a flagolet, whistle, or tinwhistle, is an instrument with six fingering holes and about a two octave range. Some other instruments, such as low whistles, Irish flutes, and dizi flutes are fingered the same way (although dizi flutes have one or more extra holes, but you don't finger those).

If you've played a lot of music on the pennywhistle that wasn't written for it, you might know that many songs are perfect, except they have a note that's just a half-step lower than the range of your whistle. You might think this requires you to play the whole song an octave higher, or else play it in another key--but you don't! You can play that note (the TI below DO). Here's how:

Cover all the holes as if you're playing the lowest DO. Keep doing that while you cover half of the very end of your instrument (the opening on the end), and blow. You can cover it with your pinky, or if your pinky is too far away, you can lean the end of your instrument against something to cover half of it up. It may take some practice and time, but you can indeed get good at using this method in a song.

I came upon this miraculously while experimenting with my whistle(s) one day--probably between 2007 and 2010, or so.

I play a lot of hymns on the pennywhistle, and several of them benefit from this.

Right now, there's a lot of hubbub about inflation. People are acting like it's President Biden's fault, but they're ignoring that it's a global problem (not a USA problem only):

https://m.economictimes.com/news/international/business/view-how-global-is-inflation/articleshow/87679145.cms

That article is insightful, but there are more causes of inflation that it doesn't address (although I'll try to address the one it does mention, too). Here are some potential causes of inflation:

1. Supply is down (which means people can charge more for items; this is the one the article hit on; however, fewer people are being paid, too, I imagine, so that probably balances things out a little; I mean, if people aren't being paid, there's less money to spend, so money is more valuable; as long as the rich people don't go buying billions of loaves of bread or something, that should be a source of deflation in many markets, but it could increase the cost of already expensive things)
2. Cryptocurrency (Cryptocurrentcy means there's additional money circulating that isn't national currency, so national currency isn't going to be worth as much; it's as simple as that. The more people value cryptocurrency, the less they're going to value national currency. The more cryptocurrency deflates, the more national currency inflates. Inflation potential here wouldn't be so bad if people didn't actually spend cryptocurrency like real money, but with PayPal accepting it, you can buy pretty much everything with it--instead of with national currency, which makes national currency less important--and that's a big problem, even for people who like cryptocurrency. National currency is a major source of regulation and national control. If it's devalued, that could lead to a lot of problems and global instability.)
3. People dying. There's a pandemic. Their money has to go somewhere. That leads to inflation.
4. If people are spending more money that they otherwise would just save, that could cause inflation among the rest of the populace. Unspent money can effectively act like money that doesn't exist. If there's less money in circulation, inflation is probably going to go down. It does appear that people have been buying up just about everything for a while now; so, it could be an issue.
5. General inflation that usually occurs already (much of this could be political, but not just with Biden--you have to consider all the presidents that went before him). This has been balanced out in large part by a rising number of products and services (more ways to spend your money, and more things to spend it on means your money is more valuable, especially if a lot of those things aren't even necessary). However, if we have a declining number of products and services, and people only care about necessary stuff, then that's a big problem, inflation-wise.

The purpose of this post is to list all of the following products with lightless displays that I find:

* Computer monitors
* Laptops (and similar)
* Android tablets
* Android smartphones

but not the following:
* E-readers
* Non-Android tablets/phones

Here's what I know about, so far:
* Hisense A7 CC (a Chinese color E-ink Android 10 smartphone, with bluetooth; it costs between $400 and $600; it has a backlight: I don't know if you can turn it off)
* Dasung-Paperlike (an E-ink computer monitor; it costs about $1,000)
* Probably other Hisense E-ink products

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-06-vitamin-d-deficiency-addiction-opioids.html

Vitamin D also reduces opioid addiction (as well as addiction to ultraviolet light).

https://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/10217-easy-holiday-sugar-cookies

This article talks about what they often used before baking soda and baking powder. Fascinating.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210325190246.htm

This is pretty interesting. It could solve a lot of problems.

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How to make noise-canceling headphones:

1. Get a pair of earbuds.
2. Put them on.
3. Get a pair of noise canceling earmuffs.
4. Put them on, over the earbuds.

Enjoy.

life_hacks

Well, I figured out a way to make something like homemade club soda:

* Mix water and citric acid
* Add some baking soda
* Stir for a while

It will fizz and get bubbly, and be carbonated.

I imagine you could do the same thing with ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and baking soda, since it reacts, too.

But, if you don't want to drink plain carbonated water with somewhat of a salty taste, you might try mixing baking soda into orange juice, lemonade, limeade or something instead.

Note that the sourness from the citric acid can disappear when mixed with water and baking soda.

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