It was like 102 degrees (~39°C) yesterday evening (and about as humid as Vietnam), but he was SOOOOOO BORED. So I got him out of the house. He made it eleven feet into the park, pooped, and immediately went to the pool afterwards to wait for me to fill it.
Nice. Where do you get one of those for a reasonable price these days?
My first dog, I got exactly that for $4 from a grocery store as a seasonal thing
However, after our second dog was a fiasco, I got rid of that since we weren’t getting another dog.
Now our third dog has not been swimming. She’s a rescue who still reacts against other dogs so we can’t bring her to a lake or dog park. I want one of these pools again to see if she’d take to it, but she doesn’t like to get wet so odds are not in my favor. I think the same pool was $28 last time I saw one, and I’m not interested in throwing away that much money. Almost all “baby pools” I see now are inflatable, which wouldn’t survive a dogs first use. So are there really no cheap plastic pools anymore?
which causes more road wear and more tire wear (and more micro plastics
I’ll buy more tire wear and microplastics, but argue the reduction in carbon emissions still makes it a better choice. However I don’t think there’s a noticeable difference in road wear. We’ve all heard the claim that road wear increases dramatically with weight, but compared to large trucks, EVs are still in the category of “close to zero”
no established break-even point for carbon emissions over ICE vehicles. The estimates… vary wildly–from 13,000 miles to 94,000.
I once read an article that I wish I kept, that addressed this (for US) by calculating per state, based on each state’s typical energy portfolio. While you’d really need your local energy portfolio, state level really improved accuracy and gave something you could use.
West Virginia and Wyoming really stood out. As the two states still getting most of their electricity from coal the break-even is further out - I think it was as long as 14 years typical driving. Don’t buy an EV yet if you live in those states, unless you have solar.
Several states with more renewables or nuclear, had break-even as low as 2 years typical driving.
For most of us, the breakeven is low enough to consider the switch. It’s important to remember that electricity generation is getting cleaner all the time, even in Wyoming, so it’s quite likely the break-even point will move toward you over the years of owning a vehicle
And I don’t get this. I mean I also love the feel of power you get from a large engine turning over, but really? You over there in that mustang making all that noise and effort, really straining to accelerate, while my Tesla effortlessly leaves you in the dust? Do people not understand how much more powerful it feel to be the fastest car with seemingly no effort?
I think of the mining issues somewhat like nuclear power. That mining is also very problematic and destructive to the environment. However in both cases, it’s a relatively small amount. Even if the local environmental or social cost is higher, it is such a small amount of material that the overall cost is still lower.
Also, consider supply and demand. Every article talking about how bad. The mining is, mentions how there’s reasons more developed countries don’t do it. Recent years have seen several announcements of newly discovered resource in the US, for example. Will they be mined, despite higher worker safety and environmental protection? One way to encourage this is higher demand, raising the price enough to drive their profitability
There will always be a better choice on the horizon, but you can’t let that into delaying forever. Batteries in use right now are better the environment, even when judging by the entire lifecycle, and if sodium batteries happen, they are farther off than you’re likely to keep your vehicle. It does not pay to keep pushing it off
Only you can judge your own circumstances but it really seems like fear of difference makes worries loom larger.
Here in the US
my Tesla was the most expensive car I ever bought
but price had dropped and continues to drop
cheaper than the average new car, cheaper than the custom trucks so many neighbors have
it was like $120 to buy a full set of adapters and cables to allow me to plugin anywhere to any type of outlet
installing a level 2 home charger (if you can) was essentially the same cost as installing a new stove circuit - expensive but quite doable
superchargers are all over the place and easy to find. I know people who can’t charge at home just goto the supercharger once a week
since I can charge at home, I’ve only used superchargers over 100 miles from home
it’s really nice to never have to go to the local gas station: charging my car is like charging my phone, get into the habit and it’s always ready to go. Once people get used to this, they’ll never accept the idea of a technology like hydrogen where you would have to go refuel yet again
it’s roomier, more practical than my Subaru
it’s faster more powerful than my old Grand Am
my local garage services them, or at least inspects them, since I haven’t yet needed service
I think they were trying to say that every individual who uses their car less is an improvement.
I live outside Boston, which has among the best transit in the US but it doesn’t take me everywhere. My town is quite walkable but also hilly and with weather. I do choose to walk, or ride the train when I can, but I still need a car. Improving this enough for most prople to dispense with cars will be a very long time. In the meantime, my use of EV, walk, train is a huge improvement of my brother in the Midwest using ICE car for everything
bro is literally just advocating for public transportation
Seems to me that bro is arguing against EVs when that may be the best choice in an individuals control. Even if we’re all for public transportation, that takes years and millions to improve, so EVs may be the best choice available for the time being
This idea overlaps the big truck mentality: most EVs are much lighter. The weight penalty averages only about 20% over an equivalent ICE, so the type of vehicle you get can be a much bigger impact. My EV is a mid sized SUV that may be the biggest car I’ve ever owned and it weighs 4,000 lbs. I’m not claiming it’s light, but it’s much better than you seem to think
too many people never plugged them in, so you just have a slightly heavier ICE car
they would have been a great transition to full EV, but full EVs are now functional enough for most people (we need to get the volume up to get the price down)
I suppose they’re still right for some people but generally it’s just Toyota looking back to do what they should have been doing ten years ago
Really the biggest part of the price gap now seems to be volume. Not enough new cars to offset the R&D and bring prices down. Not enough new cars for there to be a healthy used car market. And especially not enough non-premium cars
I always heard the concern about electrical service but wonder at the reality. A level 2 charger is the same as a stove circuit: do none of you have electric stoves? You don’t even need that: some people are fine with just an extension cord, some people need a “dryer outlet”, I have never come close to needing the level 2 charger: is it really important that my EV charges in a couple hours vs by morning?
Also, hasn’t 200a service been standard for new homes for a couple decades? If someone can afford an EV, they are much more likely to have a newer home so already have 200a service
If it’s not a concern for my phone, why should it be for my vehicle? It is so nice never having to go to a local gas station, when all I need to do is plug in at night
But I had a lucky start in a previous owner upgrading to 200a service …. Maybe to install central air? When I moved in, I got all gas appliances, but 20 years later, everything is coming up for replacement. Times have changed. Technology is changing. Our understanding of our impact on the environment is changing.
The timing is perfect.
I replaced my old gas stove with induction, and a big rebate
i have teens just starting to drive so I let them use my old Subaru and bought myself an EV, and a huge rebate
I installed a level 2 charger, with a rebate
My furnace and AC are past their life expectancy and there are huge rebates on heat pumps ….
Hi all. I have a 2 storey, ~1200 sq ft home in a hot climate. I have a single HVAC unit...central air and ductwork, electric AC/heat. There is no zoning to the system. The thermostat is downstairs....
Here’s a couple of cheaper ideas you can try before replacing your unit:
I have a smart thermostat that lets me configure the fan to be on X minutes every hour. Helps circulation, evens out temps
it has remote sensors, and I can tell it which to follow at any time or to average
I have partly closeable vents, so I can direct more heat downstairs in winter, more cool upstairs in summer. This is not as effective as dampers and you need to watch shutting down too much airflow, but it’s cheap diy that can make a difference
my brother swears by pointing a pedestal fan up the stairway
Meet Sherlock. He's about 1½ years old and weighs 70 pounds. This guy spent two hours bouncing all over the four-acre dog park, and still wanted to play once we got home....
This happens a lot: I apply for a job and they ask for my complete address. Why? I would understand if they just want to know what city/town I’m in: That has bearing on how easily I can get to the office....
I had to read that, after an earlier thread today claimed Gore did nothing for the climate until after he lost his presidential bid …… that would have been great to post
While I realize AI is not even close to what human writers can do, studios have already been cranking out higher volumes of lower quality videos. We’re already on an enshittication train where that fits right in
Yes, I answered “News” for entertainment, speaking of enshittification. When you find one of the remaining bastions of journalism, support them as you can before we lose those too. And for the love of god, please tell the editor or ai to stop overusing “beloved” everywhere. I don’t know if that’s SEO or poorly trained AI but just stop it.
It’s going to be interesting to find out where the legal system heads with generated sound-alikes. Tom Hanks will always have a job but what about AI Tim Janks who “coincidentally” sounds very similar?
LoL, no. What lineman or electrician would want to bet their lives on you happening to remember? If there’s any code enforcement, that’s a resounding no
So, I learned in physics class at school in the UK that the value of acceleration due to gravity is a constant called g and that it was 9.81m/s^2. I knew that this value is not a true constant as it is affected by terrain and location. However I didn’t know that it can be so significantly different as to be 9.776 m/s^2 in...
I was going to say that even here in the US it was 9.81 m/s^2. I don’t remember ever being taught the number in feet (in NYS) nor seeing it for my kids (in MA). Science was always metric
There’s probably even a small handful of foods doing most of it, like white bread, sweetened cereal, soda. However maybe the trick is to require livable wages for all those fast food workers and hope there’s some truth to franchisee claims that it becomes an unsustainable business
I wonder if part of it is more likelihood to have multiple cars, less likelihood to have someone prepare meals from scratch … or maybe that’s more than a couple decades.
COViD helped me discover a passion for cooking (baking too, but not just baking) so in the last few years my kids have had more meals prepared from scratch, more balanced and nutritious, and a lot more exposure to meals from other cultures.
One of the new tools I got is an air fryer. It’s a really convenient way to make the equivalent of grilled chicken or other foods …. But all too often I find myself feeding it processed junk like chicken strips and frozen fries
In the last couple of years, I replaced all my lawn care equipment with battery powered and it has worked fantastically. I’m sure there will soon be other large batteries that need to be charged....
Yep, automation is part of the plan, as is additional smoke detectors.
I did look at basement ventilation too and I’m not sure I can do much there since the house is stucco over block (only the interior walls are wood frame). I have an existing vent fan out a window well, but I’d need to figure out how to weather seal it if I wanted to automate that …. Plus there’s no way it’s sufficient for a battery fire
That’s an interesting perspective: I had assumed the biggest risk was while charging, and wanted to set up something to control that risk. I do see one reply about automation to prevent overcharging and I’ll definitely do that, however had not really considered whole in storage.
I’ll have to look into that and how expensive it is for larger batteries
Well, if we’re dreaming big …… my gas water heater has a metal cage surrounding the burner section that is supposed to suppress the flame. Supposedly the cage removed heat or something so any flame didn’t extend beyond. I wonder if something like that would keep a battery fire caged
I am talking about gadgets we see in science fiction movies that obey the laws of physics of our universe and could theoretically be constructed, barring the limitations of materials, energy and time faced by our civilization at the moment.
Generation ships. In practice they are outside our capabilities at the moment, but it’s mostly existing engineering … if you could scale up to that, and keep it functional long enough, and keep people healthy long enough, and plan for all eventualities
We could know about it in only 26,000 years due to the speed of light and gravity waves. However I’m not sure how it would affect us at all …
Perhaps there’s a burst of particles going less than the speed of light. We would know about it before those particles got here.
Perhaps you mean the disappearance of the strong gravity well at the center might affect us: I imagine any changes to the structure of the galaxy or it’s movement would take much much much longer to affect us
I don’t see how school is the same scenario at all. In school, you have a natural break every 45 minutes or so, and can choose to do your business then, rather than disrupt class for everyone. Also, kids do need to learn some control, to pick appropriate times when you can. Most importantly, too many kids abuse the freedom to disrupt or skip class: they have no reason to care about a reprimand whereas an adult probably has their income on the line.
Of course, after saying that, I do have to add that my ex is a teacher who does not want kids to ask. She controls the potential for abuse with a token (beanie baby) allowing only two to go at once, and she has the privilege of a private school with higher standards for their kids
I’m looking to wall mount a 55” TV at home. It’s weight is specified at about 13kg. Will it be fine to only fasten it in the stud on one of the sides? Our walls are regular drywall.
That seems similar to what I did: a couple 1x6 x40 (about 3/4”) I had laying around, spanning three studs, attached with 3” lag bolts. I painted them white, similar to the taupe in the room. Then I could attach the TV mount centered, and solid (verified by hanging from it, and I’m a big guy).
It is a bit off-center so my old 55” TV meant I could see it from the side on entering the room. I could have made them smaller/shorter to fix that, however it’s cmpletely invisible with my current 65” TV
The local dog park has kiddie pools by the water spigots. ( lemmy.world )
It was like 102 degrees (~39°C) yesterday evening (and about as humid as Vietnam), but he was SOOOOOO BORED. So I got him out of the house. He made it eleven feet into the park, pooped, and immediately went to the pool afterwards to wait for me to fill it.
Sanders Warns 'Absurd' Low Pay of Teachers Fueling Public Education Crisis ( www.commondreams.org )
xkcd #2948: Electric vs Gas ( xkcd.com )
Alt text:...
Looking for some HVAC suggestions to better cool my stifling second floor
Hi all. I have a 2 storey, ~1200 sq ft home in a hot climate. I have a single HVAC unit...central air and ductwork, electric AC/heat. There is no zoning to the system. The thermostat is downstairs....
Here's my dude. I have no idea what he is. ( lemmy.world )
Meet Sherlock. He's about 1½ years old and weighs 70 pounds. This guy spent two hours bouncing all over the four-acre dog park, and still wanted to play once we got home....
Why does a prospective employer need my address? ( lemmy.world )
This happens a lot: I apply for a job and they ask for my complete address. Why? I would understand if they just want to know what city/town I’m in: That has bearing on how easily I can get to the office....
An old picture of my pup popped up in my "2 years ago" feed ( social.n8e.dev )
What if we aimed the Hubble Telescope at Earth? ( www.youtube.com )
Which entertainment jobs are most likely to be disrupted by AI? New study has answers ( www.latimes.com )
A new study estimates that 62,000 entertainment jobs in California will be disrupted by artificial intelligence in the next three years.
Texas power plants have no responsibility to provide electricity in emergencies, judges rule ( www.kut.org )
Does everyone learn the same gravity in school or is it different everywhere?
So, I learned in physics class at school in the UK that the value of acceleration due to gravity is a constant called g and that it was 9.81m/s^2. I knew that this value is not a true constant as it is affected by terrain and location. However I didn’t know that it can be so significantly different as to be 9.776 m/s^2 in...
Why has the percentage of the population that are obese or overweight increased so much in the US?
How to build fire protective battery charger enclosure?
In the last couple of years, I replaced all my lawn care equipment with battery powered and it has worked fantastically. I’m sure there will soon be other large batteries that need to be charged....
What are some popular sci-fi gadgets that are actually possible to construct in theory?
I am talking about gadgets we see in science fiction movies that obey the laws of physics of our universe and could theoretically be constructed, barring the limitations of materials, energy and time faced by our civilization at the moment.
if something happened to the black hole at the center of our galaxy, could we know about that problem before it affected us?
We know that light and even gravitational waves propagate at the speed of light....
[Texas Tribune] “We are dying”: Houston workers protest new state law removing water break requirements ( www.texastribune.org )
archive.is/2CsfM...
Wall mounting TV
I’m looking to wall mount a 55” TV at home. It’s weight is specified at about 13kg. Will it be fine to only fasten it in the stud on one of the sides? Our walls are regular drywall.