And, unlike engineers in manufacturing whose deep-pocket corporations bought an exemption, Engineers in the A/E/C field are licensed. And if you screw up you can lose your ability to work in your field…forever.

Indeed, I’m not sure even testing is sufficient. My family recently got it (my wife and I visiting my parents), but thought nothing of it for a week. My father had a sore throat, my mother had watery eyes and some nasal congestion. My father masked indoors (because I don’t want a regular cold either) and chalked my mother’s symptoms to seasonal allergies (the cars were covered with Pine pollen all week). Then, on the drive home, my wife felt off. 10 hours in the car together. She slept in the guest room that night and, just for grins, tested for Covid the next morning. She was positive. We called and had my parent’s test - both positive. I tested negative so I packed my things and rented a hotel room for the week and worked there alone. I tested every other day and was never positive, but I cancelled all my client meetings.

I still never “got it” but…is it really feasible I didn’t have some low level? This is my second trip in a car for multiple hours with someone who tested positive the next day. Granted, I’m about 4 vaccines in (2xOG, 1 updated, 1 XBB variant), but so is my wife. I have to think that I had some sub-clinical level of viral load, or at least below the antigen test threshold, but I’m thankful I escaped symptoms.

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Fun fact: the USA is the largest producer of oil in the world, extracting 50% more than it’s closest rivals (Russia and SA) annually. And we’ve been on top for years.

Still cheaper than inkjets

But, also, this describes every response to a ML prompt.

Very likely. Lots of super geeks on staff.

But it’s also possible some astroenthusiast did the math and emailed it to NASA, and whoever got that endo thought it would be cool and passed it to someone who could schedule the instrument. If you think about your geekiest friend and how they’d react if you sent them something truly unique about their geekdom that they could act on - well, that’s pretty much how every engr/scientist at NASA would react.

When mammals encounter an invasive pathogen, they increase their temperature to assist with the response to eliminate the danger, often requiring only 2-3C above their steady state average. Maybe we aren’t actually causing climate change and Earth is just fighting off the human infection.

You could say the same for a finite element model. A junior engineer with just 4 years of training can solve, explicitly, the deflection at the center of a slender, simple-simple beam of prismatic section and produce an exact (if slightly incorrect) answer. Building a FEM of the same can solve the problem and take longer (to make the model) with similar accuracy, both of which are good enough for design work.

Only a fool wouldn’t have a FEM around though, as it can solve problem that would take centuries for a human to solve. They may as well make a cartoon with the child digging a 3” hole in beach sand and then showing a backhoe making a jagged edged hole of the same size.

I’m pretty sure that middle bit is like a springform pan. The handle is not solid - you squeeze it to make it sit in the waffle maker but when you remove it, it opens a bit to release. I have no room for this in my kitchen but am intensely intrigued. I might buy a new house so I can get a bigger kitchen and have a place for this.

I’m with you. As an engineer, I know a sprinkler works through the transition of potential energy (pressure) to kinetic energy (water jet) and the the law of momentum requires an opposite reaction to the ejected water. For the opposite you would still have the energy of the pump and the momentum of water which must change direction through the flow. OTOH, also as an engineer, I know that there are some effects we ignore or intentionally discount as being insignificant to “real world” applications. Depending on the application, 10% error may be more than close enough, or 0.1% might be. It’s rare that anything beyond the third significant digit affects something an engineer would care about, but physicists deal almost exclusively in those fine differences (having worked with them) and weird things really do happen.

Denial is a coping mechanism. Religion is just the vehicle.

We are made of anti-matter. What is missing is matter. Fight me.

Can someone help me, my left arm foreleg itches.

Interpretive dance or GTFO

This sounds like the setup line for a dad joke.

Doubtful. 20 years in Afghanistan bought us nothing. Half a century of meddling in the rest of central America has produced refugee waves. While we could, theoretically, try to assist the Mexican government with funds we’d probably fuck that up too.

ICU docs who deal with many flu, COVID and other respiratory critical illness

While almost certainly not incompetent at their jobs, they have little reason to have specific knowledge of vaccine efficacy. Without some active immunological research component (which an ICU doctor is unlikely to undertake), they are practitioners seeing a self-selecting population and drawing conclusions from anecdotal evidence. You may as well ask an auto mechanic what they think of a newly formulated fuel additive. Not a slight to the doctors, but a recognition that it’s not their specialty no matter how many vehicles they see.

I’ve read the same thing - that the current iteration of the vaccine is not specific to the most prevalent version of Covid at the moment and is not exceptionally effective at preventing infection. But I’ve also read that the prevalence of complications from the most recent strain are substantially decreased for those who have gotten (the|a recent) vaccine booster. I wouldn’t trust me or my knowledge either though, as I’m not a doctor, much less a degree in immunology. For my information I usually get updates from a good friend who has her PhD in immunology, worked in a lab for two decades, and is now a scientific writer for an immunological journal and sees many of the new research papers coming out.

Personally, it costs me nothing financially to get the vaccine and my reaction is minor at worst with no down time. Same as influenza. OTOH, I stand to lose a great deal, financially, if I get sick (no work=no income) so I will continue to get boosted as new versions come out and I’m eligible.

That would require two things - a functioning public hospital system and a societal commitment to preparedness. Since 46% of the voting US population and 53% of elected national officials are diametric opposed to any preparedness expenditure that doesn’t involve the ability to blow things up, it will never happen.

In a way it’s baffling that we have so many “heavy” elements on Earth, given the way they are formed and how (almost) impossibly rare they should be.