India is nuts as well.

Honduras has the added spice of being very mountainous around the major population zones. Most major roads on the edge of a cliff or very steep hill. So you get the “this traffic is nuts” combined with “oh fuck that’s a long ways down.” Frequent mud/rock slides along the routes add a bit more spice as well.

Push more of my customers to prepay or to 3rd party financing.

To be honest my industry has been in a recession for 3 years already. A global recession that cuts the costs of inputs would be awesome.

North Africa is a bit wild and slightly terrifying. For pure terror Honduras takes the blue ribbon.

They still are if they are grown right. The low price for many years has meant that growers half-ass taking care of them. Red delicious struggle to take up calcium from the roots. They need to be foliar fed with it during the early growing season.

Like everything, it depends upon the country and the IP protection sought. Even in the U.S. with the most stupid IP laws, the standard PVP (plant variety protection) has what is called breeders rights. This allows a breeder or researcher to use the genetics for research or development of other products. In most countries around the world this is the only type of IP available.

In the U.S. every so often a dickhead gets a utility patent on a variety or inbred. This has fallen out of practice for any variety sold internationally as the patent is not respected once the plants cross the border. Instead they patent GMO or mutagenic traits. Since these can be inventions, they are usually protected internationally.

I worked for an company that specialized in growing apples for 5 years. They are seriously dull. I always enjoyed talking about the grass they grew between the rows than than apples. I still have a few of them as customers although I ban all that bullshit apple talk. Yawn…

Apples are stored in large coolers with all the O2 removed. The lack of O2 prevents molds from growing. They are also all coated with some complex polymers to help prevent yeast and bacterial activity. They can last for about a year in storage. They juice apples that don’t make the grade or start to break down in storage. Once the juice market is full, they dump the apples to dairies or feedlots.

Apples varieties are all clones of one plant. They don’t really change over time. Fruit quality like the infamous red delicious mealiness is due to growing temperature, water, fruit load and nutrition. Every apple variety has its own special needs and growers often screw it up especially in mixed variety orchards. Climate change also adds complexity as apple varieties are genetically uniform and therefore respond to environmental stresses uniformly. So you can get good and bad years for certain varieties. For example cosmic crisp can be variable in internal quality depending on the year (From a WSU presentation in 2022). So they have done all sorts of trials to ensure a more reliable performance.

Special Note for those that like to visit older orchards: When visiting a older orchard, you must carefully wash all of the fruit. Every older orchard on the planet is contaminated with lead and arsenic (lead arsenate was used for over 100 years as an insecticide). These are not transported by the trees to the fruit but the dirt is still contaminated.

It’s not unusual in the U.S. for people to study one subject in school and end up working in a completely different field. Not to the same extent that I have. I am a bit of a outlier.

Early on in my career I took advantage of my employers “continuing education” programs. These allowed me to continuously take graduate level courses for years. I have attended 6 different universities. Education, experience and not being afraid to apply to all sorts of positions is how I have such a varied career path.

How can I be so optimistic? I have done it several times. It was nerve wracking the first couple of times I did it, but I succeeded every time.

Context: Historically there were two separate types of scouts: Mormons and everyone else. The two programs were only tengentally related. Mormons made up around 50% of the numbers. For Mormons 100% of the teen boys were enrolled in the program (whether they wanted to or not). The scout leaders were voluntold to run the program usually with zero experience. Parents did fun things like make rules they had to have their eagle scout before they could drive. etc… So let’s just say, it was a complete and absolute clusterfuck.

I was forced to be in the Mormon version. I had zero interest in it. I thought the whole merit badges and stuff was bullshit so I never completed any of them.

One of my fondest memories was the jamboree I got to go home early from because I was kicked out. Apparently a snipe hunt, unauthorized bonfire, a hatchet throwing contest against the main lodge, and flipping off the camp leader and walking away was a no no. Before I got the boot, I did win all sorts of contests like knot tying, fire building, and first aide (had a bit of practical experience for some reason). That was the last one I had to go to for some odd reason.

I have changed my career multiple times: Ranching/farmer, Statistician, Microbiologist, Geneticist, International Marketing, Agronomist, and eventually Sales. 2 years ago I started my own business at the age of 47. I have had to learn bookkeeping and accounting which is not fun (fuck QuickBooks). I have also lived in 2 countries with many moves of 2,000 to 3,000km to new jobs.

Here’s the key: You don’t have to choose permanently. Pick the one that you are comfortable with doing now and go for it. If you fail, try again or try the other option.

The guitar sounds like it has the lowest barriers for entry. So I would do that one first. If it doesn’t work out, go do the medical route. If that doesn’t work out, try something else. There’s always options and you have another 20+ years to work.

Looks like you have one cup. Do you have 2 girls?

I’m sorry…

The reddit UI sucked in the past and sucks more now. The main reason that reddit grew was because of the incredible apps that 3rd parties made like RiF.

Lemmy now has a bunch of mature and efficient apps that are easy to use.

A real punk fan would tell you “I’m Cool” but you need to “Fuck Youself”, “I Hate You”, and “Go Away”.

Piracy decreases the cost of discovery and increases the probability that those engaged in it will attend events, buy merchandise etc.

When Netflix was originally expanding out it reportedly looked at the highest active shows on piracy sites to select their material.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-24108673