Maybe it’s something about Jeep owners, but nearly every Jeep I’ve purchased has come with some sort of drug paraphernalia: roaches, roach clips, hat pins (for roaches), lumps of dried weed under the carpets. Come to think of it, maybe these things are in all cars, but only Jeep owners have to dismantle the entire…

Exactly! I usually do it with soapy waste water, like that left behind in the wash sink itself (which I suspect is what you’re doing, too). Not sure what I’ll do once we finally hook up this used portable dishwasher we were, delightfully, given.

It’s nearly a physical thing, my desire to reach into the image above and start editing: “Not to mention its instant cross-device sync,” I’d correct.

Actually, come to think of it, I know why they can’t take pizza boxes or other greasy paper: because you can’t get the grease out of it, and when you pulp the box, the grease and water won’t mix, leaving a layer of grease on the top of the vat. Worse, it’s still all embedded in the pulp, so some of it never rises up…

Me, neither! And I really would like to. I suppose it gunks up the works - technical term - in some way, but I’d definitely like to know more.

Greasy paper would be even harder to recycle, I suspect, but it’s good that some places will take foil with grease, as well! Obviously, you’re 100 percent correct that reuse is the payoff strategy: I always (pedantically and condescendingly, because that’s how I do pretty much everything) remind people that the right…

I’m trying (and failing) to figure out if the environmental and economic cost of covering the stove in tin foil is worth the e/e cost of the water I use in cleanup. Particularly since my local recycle is fairly clear about not really wanting “grease-coated metal foil” in their bins.

Another option is to consider that it is not in your best long-term interest to behave as though you deserve a “rich modern life” simply because you graduated from college or got your first sweet job. You don’t “deserve” that sweet new car, and you can’t afford that sweet new car. Good news: a car that costs a tenth…

Please pull a 4.0 with 350,000 and show what that looks like, while refreshing its internals where necessary. I have just the engine for you. Please hurry. I am very lazy, and it is very old.

Well-said, and heartfelt. Would-be street racers, we’re all there with you: we want to do it, too. But the public roads (and the typical lack of safety equipment you find there) just aren’t the place. Too many “civilians,” people who didn’t ask to take the risk you’re putting them in. And yes, it IS a risk, no matter…

Oddly, different pallets are made of completely different types of wood, and one of the skills of pallet-recyclers is picking out what’s made of what. Now, obviously, pallets in general aren’t going to be high-grade hardwoods or whatever, because they’re inherently semi-disposable industrial goods, but it’s amazing…

And for you poor people out there - that’s me, too - much of the capability we’re talking about here can still be yours:

Standing up.

I’d disagree that traffic will never be 100 percent “cars capable of anticipating sudden stops” within our lifetime, but I’m planning on living a good long while, so that could be the difference. :) But I agree that the programming of these cars will need to work with the current technological framework, whatever that…

Once the technology is stable - and we’re not there yet - the human will be the liability. We’ll phase into automation, handing tasks the computer is better at off, while retaining manual control for the situations in which the human is still superior. For a while, we’ve let the car do things like manage throttle on…

Those decisions will definitely need to be part of the programming of these vehicles - along with lots of moral calculus like “pick between killing your passenger and killing two bystanders” - but this specific situation will be aided by the fact that car-to-car communications will mean that the car behind you will…

It’s interesting, but having lived in these conditions, the issue of dignity never particularly occurred to me. I have my issues with Maslow, but if you subscribe to the hierarchy of needs theory, “dignity” is one of those things people worry about when they’ve got enough food to eat, but not much beforehand. Dignity…

That’s all depressingly familiar. We should start a club. Glad you, too, made it out.

I spent a substantial amount of my adult life homeless; sometimes that meant living on the streets or in the wilderness, sometimes it meant crashing with friends. I got there through bad decisions, most of them mine, mental illness, and substance abuse, although the variety of financial collapses in my region…

If I weren’t shit with a welder, every car I own would be like this. As it is, I have to settle for leaving the roof on but removing everything else, or just driving a Wrangler (since it already has its cage).