The key thing is to only slightly coat them. If you smear too much on them, they won’t ignite that easily.

But yeah. The wax should be very runny and hot, so it gets soaked up by the pad. And then heat it, so it re-melts, for example with a very hot heating gun or baking oven.

And when you want to use it, just tear the cotton apart a bit, so the fibers get exposed, and it will ignite instantly.

I like it more than petrol jelly, because it’s hardened and not as sticky.

“Napalm” is usually considered as a weapon. What you meant is probably just “emergency firestarter”, or as I would call it, turbo-tinder :D

I personally prefer using cotton pads, that are soaked in liquid candle wax. When it’s cold, it hardens and the whole pad gets stiff and hydrophobic.

Instead of having to lift a glass jar, you can just slip a few of those discs into your pocket or a small bag.

And because the wax is hard, you don’t have to worry about storage, and they will stay that way forever. With your polystyrene goo, you have to remember that the jar will never be 100% gas tight and it will evalorate over time.

The pads even work when wet (because they won’t get wet) and can be used with a ferrocerium rod.

Also, styrofoam releases toxic gases when ignited, wax won’t.

It’s a water level indicator, made for hydroculture setups.

I use LECA (expanded clay pebbles), which are constantly standing a few centimeters high in nutrient water and are moist all the time.

I only have to water every few weeks because of that, and the indicator tells me when to water again.

Here’s a post I made about that setup if you’re interested, including a schematic. Sadly only in German.
https://photon.slrpnk.net/post/slrpnk.net/17681128

I don’t have any “secret advice” so to speak off, sadly. But I can tell you everything I do “right”.

First of all, I have zero experience with orchids yet, except those ones. Everything I know is from what I’ve researched.

First, high air humidity and indirect light. They don’t like direct sun blasting on them or prolonged very low RHs, like most other houseplants.
That’s why they’re behind a very thin white curtain, or in my bathroom.

And about those rock pebbles: they’re called “LECA”, or hydroton, or expanded clay pebbles. They’re a kind of hydroponic medium.
Because they’re in this special setup, called “semi-hydro”, they receive optimal conditions, with lots of air, nutrients, and steady stable water supply. Because they have stable and perfect conditions, they are less stressed and grow optimally.

Regarding the other benefits of hydroponics itself (pest control, etc.), you can read countless reports and literature about it, and also check out !hydroponics@slrpnk.net in the meantime, where I might make a post about this setup soon.

It’s absolutely great, I really recommend you trying that!

Sadly, yes. I got them at Lidl here in Germany, when they were in stock.

I really hope they will be back soon!

Same. I still really love Gnome with my heart, but it just felt… inferior… compared to KDE 6.

Everything looked sharper, like if I had switched from 720p to 4k, I could access my hardware better (e.g. control the brightness of my monitor, etc.) and much more.

Hey :) I’m very sorry that you now feel bad because of my post. I just wanted to inspire some people out there, because a lot of plants/ orchids get thrown out, even in way better conditions.

I even noticed a few people throwing orchids into the trash after they finished blooming! :o

Really, please don’t feel bad. My journey to zero waste is also very long, even after a few years. Every little bit counts!
I still produce A LOT of waste, I just wanted to inspire others a bit with my submission.

Cheers!

Feel free to share a few pictures here! I’d he happy to see them! :)

The key trick is humidity. I placed them under a humidity dome/ plastic bag for the first month, with some indirect light and very dilute nutrient solution. I didn’t want them to loose too much water. I also sprayed them with some rooting hormones, but that’s totally optional and probably not needed.

And after the month, I slowly introduced them to the environmental air and increased the fertilizer strength to about 1 mS EC, so they have something to feed on. I am currently about to increase it even more, because they seem to need it. I was just very careful in the beginning, because orchids are supposed to be very sensitive and light feeders.

Sure, mushroom spores can be unhealthy. But they’re only produced by ripe fruiting bodies, and in this case, we have mycelium, basically the “root structure”.

The cool thing about it is that you can form it to any shape you want.

For acoustic insulation, you need more than just a nice material. You need physical structures that allow the sound waves to break and dissipate. I already thought abour the puffed up concrete, but as a sheet only being a few centimetres thick, it weights too much and reflects too much noise.

Acoustic foam, you know, those with pyramids, is great, but often flammable, and, you guessed it, another source of non-recyclable plastic trash some day. I will definitely consider it, but only if I don’t find something else.

Both the plant fiber based/ supplemented concrete and mycelium are more eco friendly and have great properties, like being non-flammable by nature, not having unhealthy chemicals (formaldehyde, etc.), being shapeable, and more.

Dried mycelium is supposed to be inflammable, since it is made out of chitin, not wood. That’s why it is quite hyped as building material. Usually, with most other, you have to add flame retardants, but those chemicals can be a bit harmful.

Also, I just love mushrooms (as an organism) and think, that they can also be very useful for things other than food.

Androids home screen is just another app, and you can replace pretty much anything.
Your default phone caller app, camera app, and as mentioned the launcher. Even the default icon pack! I’ve already posted my Android customisation here, I’ll see if I can find it :)

You can get custom tailored contact lenses from your optometrist. They’ll literally topographically map out your eyes and give you high tech material lenses, that are supposed to be super smooth to wear, and the best thing, they can last up to 5 years!

I will try them the first time tomorrow, and then in some time I will report you back. You can save this comment if you want :)

For the Android home screen I can wholeheartedly recommend you Kvaesitso. It has a very similar workflow to Gnome, you will love it :)

Here’s my perspective. I’m exactly that kind of guy you mean.

As soon as someone mentions “immutable distro”, I get triggered and start shilling for Bazzite et al.

Why you might ask? Because I like using it, and because the guys behind it are chill dudes with a great vision and a lot of know-how.

I’m just a normal guy without IT skills. I can’t code myself, I can’t review someone’s else code, I can’t do anything.

But I wish I could.

The only thing I am able to is making it more well known.
If someone asks “What distro do you recommend for gaming?”, I’ll say “Bazzite”.

Someone else might say “Arch”, and another one “Tumbleweed”. Everyone likes their own thing, and everyone shills for something else :)

I really wish your theory was real, then I could make some $$$, but everything here is FOSS. The devs are just as broke as I am…

I think the “raisiny”-effect on the leaves is just because of dehydration. Remember, the roots were pretty much non-existing up until now.
But I think it will recover :)