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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: August 4th, 2023

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  • Start by defining your available power. How many watt-hours can you generate? A small 100W solar panel can provide an average of 400Wh of energy per day in the winter. That’s more than enough to run a 10-inch tablet 24/7 and LED lighting at night. I’ve seen 360W solar panels for under $100 on the used market. That’s a couple of KWh a day. Even a 100W bicycle generator and a 30 minute workout would power a tablet for 8 hours.

    If power consumption is that big of a factor, perhaps separate devices for video, music, and reading would be beneficial. A dedicated music player can consume less than a watt. An e-paper reader requires fractions of a watt.

    I have a folding 100W panel, a 30Ah 12V LiFePO4 battery, and a charge controller that I use while car camping. It keeps all the electronics running for a group of 4 without relying on a noisy generator. The battery is big enough to compensate for a couple of rainy days.

    My backpacking setup is a 15W panel and a 30Wh battery. That kept my phone and flashlight charged for 2 weeks on the Pacific Crest Trail.





  • You’ve got more than three. There’s the A-hole, P-hole, V-hole, M-hole, two N-holes, and two E-holes. Then there are the manufactured holes: two H-holes when you make a fist, a TT-hole if you squeeze them together, a BB-hole if you’re on the heavy side, and two T-holes for those with foot fetishes. There are up to 3 bonus holes if you have one or more of the various medical stoma, and two extra bonus holes if you’re blind and have prosthetic eyes.

    But you can get by with only one if you tie those sausages together end-to-end.




  • I don’t think most people realize how dependent we are on undocumented workers. Wait until it becomes illegal to hire them and INS roundups start again. Then the carwash price goes up, the daycare closes, or the landscaper goes missing. Maybe the snow doesn’t get plowed or the restaurant prices go up because they can’t find cheap kitchen help. Construction-related companies will be decimated, and the cost of home repairs/remodeling will skyrocket. In my area, electric rates will increase because half of the crews that keep the vegetation trimmed back from the power lines are undocumented.

    They’ll come for the employed undocumented workers first, because they can make it illegal to hire them, just like it used to be 50 years ago. No green card, no work.






  • When video or audio evidence is submitted, it will be questioned as to its authenticity. Who recorded it? On what device? Then we’ll look for other corroborating evidence. Are there other videos that captured the events in the background of the evidence video? Are there witnesses? Is there contradictory evidence?

    Say there’s a video depicting a person committing murder in an alley. The defense will look for video from the adjoining streets that show the presence or absence of the murderer before or after. If those videos show cars driving by with headlights on, they will look for corresponding changes in the luminosity of the crime video. If the crime happened in the daytime, they will check that the shadows correspond to Sun’s position at that moment. They’ll see if the reflections of objects match the scene. They’ll look for evidence that the murderer was not at the scene. Perhaps a neighbor’s surveillance camera shows they were at home or their cell phone indicated they were someplace else.

    But if all these things indicate the suspect was in the alley and the video is legitimate, that’s powerful evidence toward a conviction.



  • We won’t have a clear winner. No matter which candidate “wins”, there will be widespread allegations of voter fraud. There will be protests. Biden will declare a national emergency. What happens after that? I don’t know. But I am prepared for major social unrest.

    A large number of people from both major parties are absolutely unwilling to accept a win by the opposing candidate. I’ve never seen the country so divided.



  • Don’t know what’s up with lemmy.world not showing all the comments, so I hope it’s not a big deal that I’m not replying to each comment.

    The federal government has a tax credit for 30% of the cost of a heat pump water heater or heat pump A/C. These mostly run on 120v, because 1200W of power consumption yields about the equivalent of a 4000W resistive element heater. The drawback is that in a lot of homes, the 120v powering the gas heater is not a separate circuit. In my mom’s house it comes off a wall outlet that also power the kitchen. So if she makes coffee when the water heater is operating it pops the circuit breaker.

    Most homes with gas appliances would require new wiring to use electric equivalents. Hiring an electrician for that job can easily top $2000. People on fixed incomes will have a rough time making this change. Those in rural areas are particularly impacted because they typically rely on propane or they’re off-grid.

    Let folks replace what they already have. Updates should only be required when the property changes hands. Otherwise it creates a lot of resentment and often financial hardship. And the legislation is easy to defeat if you live next to the border. Buy your replacement gas appliance in Nevada or Arizona. This kind of legislation is exactly why people are willing to set aside all the negatives of Trump and vote for him.