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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 30th, 2023

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  • I assume just tax money like the books in the library. They dont solicit for donations (for money or tools), and the tools are all pretty much the type you would expect for rentals (more durable than you or I would buy for something we might only need once). For example, they have all Park Tool brand bike tools. There might be liability reasons not to take tool donations.

    They also have art, seeds, kids toys, puzzles, and musical instruments.

    They take donations of seeds (which I contribute to) and puzzles.

    It’s a library system with maybe like 8 locations, and they spread the non-book collections across the different branches, so one has the tools, another has art, etc.

    I actually just found some neat stats on my local system, and the expenditure for the system’s whole collection (including books, digital media, and everything) is only 1/10th of the total expenditure. The way they lresent the numbers means i have to calculate things a little weirdly. On average, they spend $0.75 per use of an item. This is going to fluctuate year to year since I only see yearly expenditure and usage, and obviously, items last more than a year.

    I dont have usage rates of the tools specifically, but something like a bike tools kit that costs $280 would need to be used 210 times to be hit the same cost per use of an item. I think that’s definitely doable because the rental periods are only 1 week, and you often need to place a hold to be able to get something.

    Total expenditure of my library on collections is $8 per capita per year. I would gladly 10x that with my tax money. Obviously storage/administration isnt free, but still, it’s absolutely affordable, and I think it would be even for a small system.




  • They list all 36 things, but the majority of them are basically clerical updates, like removing the requirement for forms to be submitted in triplicate because copy machines (and scanners) exist.

    Also, making bootleg vape cartridges get treated the same way as bootleg cigarettes.

    Most of the changes (and I read through all of them) are mostly neutral updates that are more about clarifying policies and updating stuff thats outdated. There is some negative stuff, like adhering to the “gender ideology” executive order on forms.

    Despite what republicans claim, Trump isnt really a gun rights guy. In fact, one of the rules being scrapped is his rule against bump stocks from his first term, because it was ruled against by the courts.


  • Balcony solar that is grid tied is probably not something you want to DIY. The amount of power you can generate probably wouldnt be worth the hoops you’d need to jump through. That’s not including using the smart inverters that plug in (cause that’s not really “diy”).

    Off grid balcony solar isnt super hard. If you have an all-in-one charge controller/battery/inverter (jackery, goal zero, and a million others), you just plug the panels right into it, and you can pull power out the other side with no trouble. That’s also debatably “diy”. Getting a little more advanced than that still isnt too hard.

    https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2023/12/how-to-build-a-small-solar-power-system/

    Personally, I have a goalzero power station and 300W of panels. I wish I had done a little more research before buying the goalzero, cause I probably would have gone a different route (LFP battery, not NMC) because I care way more about charge cycles than energy density.


  • 100%. You need a lot less raw material when you design things to be durable, repairable, interchangeable, and recyclable.

    Couple that with combating the “everyone needs to personally own everything they want to use” notion that leads to overconsumption. Loads of things can just work through formal or informal libraries, e.g., no one needs to personally own a carpet cleaner; better to share a really nice one than have dozens of crappy ones in circulation.



  • scrapping more than three dozen firearms regulations

    I can’t stand how journalists will write something like that and then not include an itemized list.

    Yes, they give some examples, but I want the whole list without having to dig through the federal register myself.

    It matters because some of it is bad, while some is neutral, and some is good.

    I actually looked it up myself on the ATF’s website, which is actually really well set up.

    https://www.atf.gov/rules-and-regulations/atf-launches-new-era-reform

    There are only 4 rules that are being “scrapped”, and they aren’t even actually full rules being removed, just altered. 3 of them are to conform with court cases. The only 1 they are removing on their own is a rule that was meant to be temporary to inform people of a rule change back in the 90’s (making pistols only 21+). Since that change is 30 years old, now, it isnt new, so there’s no need to pretend it is.











  • Like the other commenter noted, these aren’t rich people, they are prepper types. A billionaire isnt getting a $55k bunker.

    The guy who did the shooting is apparently a former cop turned EMT.

    The person he shot also wasn’t a worker trying to do his job, it was a guy who worked for the company who told a mutual acquaintance that he was going to that guy’s house specifically to attack him. When he got there, he asked the guy if he’d ever killed someone, and then he said he had killed someone with his bare hands. He then started going at the guy, who shot him and then immediately rendered aid.

    Not to defend a guy eho is probably a nutjob and a jerk, it sounds like a reasonable act of self defense to me.