hilbert42

6 ms·

61.
by hilbert42 6mo ago
"But you are simply misinformed about the risk of methanol showing up in your homebrew spirits." I did not say that. I'm sick of being misquoted (at least twice to this story). I well know that methanol only appears in trac
62.
by hilbert42 6mo ago
"…EtOH is a 'satisfactory' antidote for MeOH poisoning…" More info in link in my later reply to pessimizer.
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by hilbert42 6mo ago
I didn't say they did. If you think this ruling (if upheld) won't change things then you're kidding yourself In Poland and other European countries where home distillation has been practiced for centuries nothing would happen
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by hilbert42 6mo ago
Suggest you read the link in my reply to pessimizer .
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by hilbert42 6mo ago
"This is some weird-ass over-elaborate synonym for antidote." I did not say or infer that ethanol should not be used in the treatment of methanol poisoning. Giving ethanol to counteract methanol poisoning is not a simple fix lik
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by hilbert42 6mo ago
Local here. This is what happens when a country is run by accountants and lawyers who are under the thumb of Big Business, especially mining companies—they even get to set their own taxation rates (if they're impeded in any way they&#x
67.
by hilbert42 6mo ago
"This also matches what happens when distilling ethanol from water." Right, normal commercial ethanol production is 95% EtOH, 5% H2O (the constant boiling mixture/azeotrope). That's good enough for most uses but not al
68.
by hilbert42 6mo ago
Where's the authority on that? Ethanol can be used as a temporary measure in methanol poisoning as it temporarily outcompetes methanol in the metabolic process. So it's only useful until proper medical help arrives when better alt
69.
by hilbert42 6mo ago
Homebrewing isn't the issue per se. Methanol from fruit and stuff people normally ferment is pretty negligible. The problem happens when the spirit is sold and broken down/stretched to go futher by middlemen by adding cheaper MeOH
70.
by hilbert42 6mo ago
I keep raising this and I cannot understand why many people can't understand the facts. You're right, it's damn frustrating.
71.
by hilbert42 6mo ago
"Methanol and other additives are still added to most industrial alcohol today." Depends in which country you reside. Where I am the denaturants methanol and pyridine were removed decades ago and replaced with the nontoxic bitte
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by hilbert42 6mo ago
Aren't morals strange? Governments would rather poison and blind those who would imbibe ethanol when it's prohibited or when they do so without paying excise tax. Morally and ethically such action results in a much worse outcome f
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by hilbert42 6mo ago
Exactly. I'm unsure why the myth that EtOH is a 'satisfactory' antidote for MeOH poisoning persists but unfortunately it does—even here on HN. I echoed the dangers of MeOH poisoning (in drink substitution, etc.) in my two pos
74.
by hilbert42 6mo ago
"The common knowledge about methanol being a huge risk is wildly overstated…" Little doubt you're correct on both counts: risk of methanol ingestion isn't high and likely government worries about a likely shortfall in
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by hilbert42 6mo ago
Methanol/CH3OH/MeOH is poisonous and its consumption causes a life-threatening health crisis that often results in death or permanent blindness. As little as 100 ml of methanol can kill or cause lifelong damage to one's heal
76.
by hilbert42 6mo ago
Now all that Social Media, Google account data, online banking info etc. comes home to roost. Unlike Vietnam, one can no longer hide from government in times of unrest. Perhaps that's the wake-up call privacy needs.
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by hilbert42 6mo ago
I can only repeat I've wasted much of my life on fixing and sorting out problems that in reasonable circumstances would never have arisen—lost time 'stolen' from me by those unreasonable moneygrubbing bastards. 'High and
78.
by hilbert42 7mo ago
I give up. How can we ever expect the subtleties of the Oxford comma—or perhaps whether a question mark should end a rhetorical question—to be widely understood when something as simple as use of the apostrophe is widely misunderstood? If s
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by hilbert42 7mo ago
"…they should stop forcing people to create an online Microsoft Account." Proof positive it's mostly cosmetic, deeply problematic issus remain or we'd be able to uninstall Copilot.
80.
by hilbert42 7mo ago
I agree with most of what you say about Windows, technically, it's an excellent and reliable operating system honed over three decades. Like you, I make the above comment based on my long experience from the IBM 360 through to Assemble
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by hilbert42 7mo ago
Trouble is we cognoscenti know it but the great unwashed do not and or don't give a damn about the fact. Google and all of Big Tech well know of our objections but unfortunately we are only hardly perceptible noise to be ignored on the
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by hilbert42 7mo ago
This news confirms my thoughts to abandon Google's line of Android upgrades at the first opportunity. Even before Google's edict I disabled enforced Android updates in case that at Google's demand manufacturers slipstreamed s
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by hilbert42 7mo ago
The rioting in Washington a while back had little to do with people not being able to make ends meet. Many civil wars (including the US Civil War) came about for other reasons.
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by hilbert42 7mo ago
NYT is perhaps an exception for well understood reasons. However, my local newsagent sells only a fraction of the magazine titles (conservatively 25%) of what it sold two to three decades ago. Many of those absent publications haven't
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by hilbert42 7mo ago
"…how much lighter the load on my link is thanks to the filter." Not done any rigorous tests but my experience has been rhat it can be lower than a tenth.
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by hilbert42 7mo ago
"…but no one at the NYT is losing any sleep over people like us." Likely not, but they are over their lost revenues. The profitability of newspapers and magazines has been slashed to ribbons over the past couple of decades and i
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by hilbert42 7mo ago
I actually had one a while back but it became too taxing to keep it up to date. I've covered much of this stuff on HN though.
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by hilbert42 7mo ago
It doesn't have to be that way, you can only push people so far before they riot. History has thousands of instances and many have been very ugly, 1789 and 1917 for instance.
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by hilbert42 7mo ago
"Why would you feel guilty for not visiting a site you’re not paying for and where you’re blocking ads?" This isn't a simple as it sounds, in fact it's rather complicated (far too involved to cover in depth here). In s
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by hilbert42 7mo ago
If Google were just starting YouTube today then DRM would likely be enforced through a dedicated app. The trouble for Google is that millions watch YouTube through web browsers many of whom aren't even using a Google account let alone

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