• 1 Post
  • 312 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
cake
Cake day: August 4th, 2023

help-circle
  • 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.






  • We are not British. I know it’s hard for those in other countries with strong gun laws to understand. If you can fathom why women would put up with Sharia law, you might also be able to grasp why so many Americans embrace guns. It’s ingrained in our culture.

    Many Americans worry that the government will incrementally take away the right to private ownership of firearms. That’s why these printed guns exist. If it’s impossible to prevent a person from obtaining a firearm, the argument that a ban only affects those willing to follow the law becomes stronger. Unless the intent exists to restrict the tools that can make a weapon, there will be those willing to make them clandestinely - either for personal use or for profit.


  • Guns like these are why gun control will fail to keep guns out of the hands of anyone who can afford a $500 3D printer and a $300 hobby metal lathe. While the model being discussed used some commercial parts, possessing these two tools allows a person to produce everything needed for a functioning multi-shot lethal weapon.

    Instead of a futile effort to deprive people of weapons, we should instead concentrate on preventing, detecting, and treating the conditions that lead to gun violence.


  • 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.



  • By the earliest accounts, McGinness (and the original “kids”) gave up after digging 30 feet. It wasn’t until the Onslow group that they excavated down to 90 feet.

    I would accept that the original pit was a natural sinkhole except for the coconut fiber evidence. As we all know, palm trees don’t grow in that region. Coconut fiber, called coir, was a common trade item because it was used like hemp. Common applications were rope, mattress stuffing, and matting. It can also be mixed with pitch to make a substitute for oakum - a common material used to waterproof ships hulls.







  • 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.