Random experience with bicycles and cars: 4 bikes on roof rack: 13 MPG highway. 4 bikes in the bed of a pickup being towed by the same vehicle on the same route: 17 MPG.

I believe Solarpunk fits the bill.

Nathaniel Johnstone and Maddie Cardoza Sing!!! (04/02/2026) YouTube video by Nathaniel Johnstone

Livestream!

Tomorrow! 8:30pm Eastern!

youtube.com/live/WKwIam0...

Less than a week left for the Lantern Oracle kickstarter and it’s been an incredible ride. We are a few clams away from breaking 90k 🙀

If we get to 100k when this finishes, there’s a beautiful coin and 4 additional New England cards as our last stretch goal.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/lap...

"Hail Mary full of Grace."

Andy Weir you magnificent bastard

Nice! A calm work week is always welcome!

Just got back from seeing Project Hail Mary - it's good!

I'd read the book when it came out, they've done a good job adapting it!

I'm so glad you got it treated right away! Here's hoping for a full and fast recovery! My MRI tl;dr: prostate cancer, surgery, best possible outcome. As close to a cure as doctors are willing to admit. I hope your journey is as smooth! ❤️

MRIs are cool. I had one about 6 months ago, the sounds it made were interesting and while you felt nothing you could just sense the science! I hope they can give you some relief from the pain soon, I know they often can't until they're done with the diagnostics. ❤️

Oh no! Headaches can be so brutal! I hope they can help! I had a similar experience a few years ago. CAT scan, spinal tap, hours of tests. Turned out to be a reaction to pine saw dust. I'm sending thoughts of calm and healing!

Nathaniel Johnstone and Maddie Cardoza Sing!!! (03/05/2026) Nathaniel Johnstone and Maddie Cardoza sing a few of their favorite songs. If you're in the chat and want to request a song you should do just that! Bonus points if it's a song that they actually know...

I'm posting this week's livestream link early.

youtube.com/live/AmlCDd4...

I would love it if you shared this with everyone. Thank you!

Fortunately my mom has had the resources to have in-home help for the past couple of years but it's clear that she'll need round the clock care very soon. We are learning so many lessons on how to age so we don't do this to our children. Sending love to both of you!

Good point!

Is that Hans or Franz?

My sailboat is named "Janeway" after Voyager's captain. I keep an old iPhone onboard to alert me if she leaves our mooring and so I can check on her via the app Alfred Camera.

A side effect is that I am starting to receive junk mail at the house addressed to "Kathrine Janeway" and I am not mad!

Anybody know which packaging is the newest and which is the oldest? Looking at the graphic design I feel this is the sequence from newest to oldest, but I can't find any information confirming that.

A sheet of paper from a printer covered in gray and black streaks indicating a bad toner cartridge

A toner cartridge wiper showing an aged and cracked urethane blade

Success! Alas, and as I suspected, the toner cartridge that came with it is no good. The urethane wiper blade in these harden and don't clean the drum anymore. I have a NOS cartridge from eBay on the way which I hope is much newer, barring that I'm going to have to get creative!

This is a brand new, factory sealed, laser printer from 1996. It appears identical to an HP LaserJet 4v but is otherwise unbranded. It has no formatter board or front panel and is 220v 50hz so likely made for the U.K. market. I'm hoping to swap the boards from a LaserJet 4mv into it.

Please be good please be good please be good!

Fetching a Klein bottle from under Cliff Stoll's house YouTube video by Henry Segerman

Mechanic's dollies are a game changer for working on school buses and cars on jack stands but more than anything this post makes me think of Cliff Stoll's Klein Bottle robot retrieving bottles from the crawl space under his house.

youtu.be/Mw54zsON4MI?...

Congratulations and welcome to the fold! Very soon now you will find yourself wondering how you ever had time for a full time job!

A 1992 Toyota RV under construction

Oh no! I'm so sorry to hear that! My surgery went well and the pathology showed excellent margins, they got it all! I'm allow to life things again and I've started to build the frame on my tiny RV project but today I'm deep into the guts of a 30 year old LaserJet I'm trying to bring back to life.

Night’s swathed in dense fog and the stillness that brings. May well be asleep when 2026 rings in, dreaming of Polly Crisis and her band Jackpot, so here’s wishing you all the best from Vancouver!

It's the "season of love and giving"... but this year, doesn't it seem more like a "season of fear and taking"? Like many of you, l've been saddened by the human impact of draconian government budget cuts and how angry many housed Americans are at unhoused Americans. Then, about a month ago, I learned that the only hygiene center in my neighborhood was being shut down. The property was being sold...destined to be developed. For an entire community of my down-and-out neighbors, this hygiene center is the only place to take a shower, wash clothes, repair a bike, or get a sweater, blanket, or hot meal...while also enjoying a little bit of community. And tragically, once a center like this is gone, it's hard to imagine it popping up somewhere else in these NIMBY times. It's an invisible need... an invisible center... helping invisible people. Meanwhile, I'm haunted by the invisible impact of the insatiable greed that's so widespread (and sadly, celebrated) in our multi-millionaire and billionaire class. So, I purchased the center and the land it sits on — the best $2 million I can imagine spending. And now, I get to partner with the wonderful network of volunteers and caring people who run the Lynnwood Hygiene Center. Together, we'll amp up the care-giving and bring hope to the hopeless, better than ever. And the community of my neighbors who are cold, wet, hungry, and overwhelmed...are now happy that their humble little refuge — where love gets traction, and prayers are answered — will stay in business. This is my Christmas gift to my homeless neighbors, to the volunteers who get great joy

“It's an invisible need... an invisible center... helping invisible people. Meanwhile, I'm haunted by the invisible impact of the insatiable greed”

@ricksteves.bsky.social I love you

What skill did you master that you will never, ever use again?

I was going to say "compliance testing for classified computing" but then realized that the knowledge of rules and matrices of parameters I used in that process have made me a better Dungeon Master, so never mind.

Is Galaxy Quest cheating because its a Star Trek parody/homage?

My goto has always been used iPhones from eBay. Quite happy with my current 12 Pro which are $250-300 at the moment.

They are clearly vehicles and so the helpful thing to do is simply assist them onto the street where they belong.

Gary Numan
DEVO
Pink Floyd
Tori Amos
Dido

I met Deb many years ago at the hight of the "maker movement" frenzy.

Her essays on the infrastructure, systems, people and maintenance that make "making" even possible in the first place have stuck with me since then.