"Driving an EV (MachE) for the last three years. I wouldn’t say that tire noise is a “problem” but you do notice it more. I can tell the difference between my summer and winter tires from sound alone. My previous vehicles were all fairly loud (either for being performance-y or just old) and tire noise was just something I never thought about. With the quieter car, the differences between tires stands out more.You also notice things like tire life and rolling resistance more, not because they aren’t valuable features on an ICE vehicle, but because there are more things going on there.EVs are heavy and fast in the way that most owners aren’t used to unless they previously owned supercars, so it might be a surprise that the tires don’t last as long. I’m happy for innovation that extends tire life, reduces noise and improves rolling resistance, it is marketed to EVs but really benefits all vehicles. "

"Don't love the focus on individual responsibility here - we know that systemic changes to utilities and industry are what will turn back climate change, not small individual depredations. This seems like an extension of the major efforts of fossil fuel companies to make people feel guilty, then focus on their own actions rather than the actions of the companies...That said, I've used a similar method for many years at Burning Man - a small swamp cooler made from nested 5 gallon buckets and a 12V fan, directed into the tent and under the bed sheets. It can't hope to cool a large space, but having a flow of cool air coming under the sheets can be quite heavenly."

"These are interesting designy objects, but no one has made one that actually works well. The main flaw in all of them is that, by design, they fill up and sling around a bunch of filthy, grimy cleaning fluid full of grit. After a few uses, they become very difficult to clean, and even touching it seems to transfer filth everywhere.My state of the art now is a totally different strategy - with nearly all chains coming with re-usable master links, I pop the chain off with a pair of masterlink pliers (takes about 10 seconds), then submerge the entire chain in a molten wax lubricant (paraffin + teflon + molybdenum disulfide), which I melt in a small crockpot (dedicated to the task - the wax lives it in all the time, and I plug it in an hour before working on my chains).It lubricates the chain, but more importantly, the molten wax is a powerful solvent on its own, and by using a large volume of the wax, the grit and contaminants drop down to the bottom of the crock pot and away from the chain. When it eventually gets too contaminated, I discard that solid puck of gritty wax, and start a fresh batch. The chains end up cleaner than any of these devices have ever achieved, and with far less gunk transfer."

"There is some interesting new research coming out of CU Boulder, particularly Dr. Shelly Miller who was an early proponent of the aerosol transmission theory. Their most recent work, which came out just a few weeks ago, has been on the impact of aerosol transmission during performing arts education activities, and their work goes into a lot of detail, including what types of masks work best - for trombones.https://www.nfhs.org/articles/unprecedented-international-coalition-led-by-performing-arts-organizations-to-commission-covid-19-study/The youtube video is about an hour, but you can speed up the audio and get a very good summary of their ongoing work.This calculator is also very powerful - it distills the research down into a (complex and somewhat arcane) Google Sheet, but that allows you to make relative risk assessments of various types of indoor activities, including details like mask efficiency, type of activity, respiration rate, air changes from the HVAC system, air changes from air purifiers, etc. As with all models it is ongoing and not perfect, but it makes it easy to look at the sensitivity of certain decisions, for instance, "should I cut my group size in half or invest in an air filter?"https://tinyurl.com/covid-estimatorI run an indoor makerspace, and have been the unintentional coordinator of different visits within my family, and we've made good use of the calculator when it comes to setting group sizes, picking locations, and making rules for our workshop."

"I'm calling some BS on the "less than $1/mo". Currently the most efficient energy star rated compact chest freezer uses 137 kWhs/yr in testing, which would be somewhere between $1.50 and $3/mo depending on your local energy prices, and that is assuming two important things - that the frozen objects stay frozen for long periods of time (you aren't emptying everything out of the freezer every few days) and that you aren't opening the lid very often. Neither of these would be true for a trash can, so the consumption will need to go up.On refrigerant, there are a lot of compromises right now in refrigerants - they are either bad for the ozone layer, bad for climate change, or highly flammable. Take your pick...I see this as a very niche product that could make sense in a few specific situations, rather than a game changer for daily life. "

"This is where some of the commercial/soho world is doing much better - crazy routers don't appeal to people who actually have to manage them, or hide them in a commercial space.Example - Ubiquiti In-Wall Access Point - these screw onto a standard in-wall wiring box, and give you a wifi access point as well as a small gigabit switch with POE. The unit itself is powered by POE, so no power cables. The "digital camo" skin is a bit much, but the white or black skins would go with most environments: https://inwall-hd.ui.com/"

"I had the same complaint about the Forester, though you've understood it more deeply, and described it more eloquently. I have owned a number of Subarus over the years, and they are extremely practical. The current line just seems weird and soul-less though - they've always been a bit homely, but with a practical elegance - the new ones seem distracted and jarring. It is a frustrating place to be in, because from a practical perspective they check all the boxes - they just don't make me "want" them.Depending on how hung up you are on the manual transmission, if you were willing to relax that, the few models I'd suggest looking into for your comparison would be the Kia Stinger AWD (fast-back design, not quite a wagon, but similar storage capacity) and the Hybrid Rav4 AWD (same problem as the Forester, checks all the boxes, fails to excite)."

"I'll add a shout-out to J&L Distilling in Boulder, Colorado (http://www.jldistilling.com/). I don't believe they are supplying to the public at the moment, but they are making sanitizer for the local fire department at no cost.Glad to see everyone turning their stills to a quick helpful product like this, hopefully they get the small business support needed to stay afloat after the crisis period has passed."

"Yeah, designs like this are ridiculous. Fun to render, but agreed, pointless in execution. Who would build an office with floor to ceiling windows looking out on lush vegetation, just to climb into a portapotty to get their work done? It has all the worst elements of an open-plan office and a closed-plan office, with the added surveillance nuisance of facial recognition (added just to make it seem high tech, and not like a portapotty office). It seems like a lot of design right now is running backwards - a pretty rendering in search of a problem, rather than a problem receiving a creative solution."