This is a long one, and I want to start by saying that your comment is a super popular belief. Even so, I think misses the mark a little bit.

Everything in the political sphere is emotions based. 'Murder is bad' isn't some ultimate truth. We care about other people and ourselves. That emotion then leads to the reasoning that murder is bad and should be illegal. Same goes for everything else.

What conservatives tend to do is say 'murder is bad' and 'there is a group that I hate'. They then abandon the truth of what murder statistics tell them and blame it on the out group which justifies the second emotion. They're not wrong because it is emotionally centered (again we all do that). They're wrong because they aren't willing to examine that emotional motivation vs reality.

All of that to say that if we think the problem is emotionality we are probably making similar mistakes even if the outcome is better. To paraphrase a very true statement in Futurama - There is no scientific consensus that life is valuable.

Look up "pink tax" and "gender pay gap".

Am I really bathing if I’m using water I cannot drink?

Yes, drinking water is cleaned to the point that it will not make you sick to drink assuming a normal immune system. That is extreme over kill for bathing (and toilets, laundry, etc). The only reason we use drinking water for everything is because infrastructure is expensive and laying non-potable water pipes would cost tons.

What? All of that tracking data isn't just being used to make cars better? I am sure they'll fix this in the next mandatory update.

I just don't get the conclusion of all of the biosolids articles. They all point to upstream sources as problems then claim we should do something about them only in biosolids. Our wastewater reflects what we allow in our houses and bodies.

Why doesn't it ever go like this: "Micro plastics are bad. Our wastewater is telling us that we are creating micro plastics in our homes from the products we buy and use. Let's stop producing products that force people to make micro plastics."

My guess - the cost of wastewater treatment falls on all of us. We pay for it all, and it isn't cheap. The most effective option is source control, so let's make cradle to grave responsibility for the megacorp producers and watch how fast harmful products get yanked.

https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/soil-texture-analysis-the-jar-test/ a better description and photos

You can use a methodology from soil testing for this that doesn't require extra gear. Sieves (like with soil texturing) will give you a faster more accurate answer. Here it is:

Get a narrow glass jar. Fill it a little way with ground coffee. Fill with water. Shake. Set on shelf and wait a few hours up to a day.

The larger pieces will settle first and the finer settle last. You can see the sorting of them through the glass. If you use consistent amounts of coffee and the same container, you can measure depth of layers. I.e. this grinder makes .5cm of fines to 3cm of ideal to .2cm of too large.

Bonus is you can use this method for making cold brew, so you don't waste the coffee or water.

Phragma means a divider. My guess is someone was saying these tiny bugs are extremely (mega) separate (phragma) from their relatives.

What do elephants eat? Whales?

Keep notes on what you do including outcomes. You can always reinstall, skip all of the extra crap you didn't need to mess around with and have a good clean system without having to back track.

Looks like we were typing at the same time. I totally agree with everything here.

Also, MaximumDerek