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So basically we should undo the last 150+ years? Although arguably one way or the other governments do exactly that all the time.

Bamboo is on the average much lighter than a comparable piece of wood. Depending on the specific kind of bamboo, it can have a much higher strength-to-weight ratio than lumber. Producing bamboo is much more sustainable than producing wood.

You are moving the goalposts all over the playing field. Examples of what we "get" for foreign aid have already been given and with very little information you have dismissed them. In practice nearly all foreign aid we give is done for some cold-hearted strategic reason. You might not agree...

What percentage of the US Federal Budget do you think foreign aid actually is? I'd bet your guess would be far above the actual number.

The people who help people here are too busy doing the work to make TV commercials about it. Seriously, I can't swing a cat around here without running into people helping others. Not only are there actual government programs helping folks, but there is a small army of not-for-profits also...

You have to hire people to build those prisons. Many of them might be undocumented. You have to also staff those prisons. During a period of record low unemployment. Also, there aren't enough planes and buses to transport them. And it is an interesting question of where you transport them...

You had better fervently pray that those mass deportations do not happen. Forty percent of the people working in the US agriculture sector are undocumented. People will need to eat while this mess gets sorted out. It will take many months, and more probably years, to replace the deported...

My rule of thumb for maintenance procedures on youtube is that the time it will take me to do the job is half the time of the video converted to the next higher unit. So a procedure in a 3 minute youtube video takes me about an hour and a half. The ones that really escalate in time is where...

There are a lot of ways to solve those same problems without using tariffs. Which is why I pointed out that the effects will depend a lot on what the objectives really are. So far that isn't clear to me. If you want/need to screw over a specific country the US government can lock them out of...

It is kind of the end of cycling season here unless you are hardcore or deranged. What I'm noticing at bike shops is a lot of inventory they are trying to clear out. In some cases I've seen 2022 and 2023 models, and I imagine that most shops have a warehouse full of bikes that they are trying...

I run with WTB Byways or Ventures on my bike these days. Not really suited for a heavy e-bike though as it is a very supple tire.

Since we have no real details about how tariffs will be implemented or what the real objectives of having tariffs would be we can't really predict anything.

I think there are a bunch of assumptions here. Curating training data and training an AI is expensive and hard and there aren't a lot of people out there with the skills to do it. Which makes it even more expensive. Nearly all "AI" cameras use a pretrained general-purpose vision model with...

Talk to me after you get your bike over one of these: It isn't a real bike trip if you don't have to carry your bike at least a bit.

Yeah, but that was for the lack of anything better being available. I do not see how any smartphone app is a decent substitute for frequent inspection of your bike and its critical components. Any competent cyclist does a bare minimum safety check before every ride. And you should probably...

One wonders how cyclists managed for decades to keep their brake pads in decent shape without the technological wonders of 2024. I mean, I'm a guy but please.

I didn't even see a bear. The only place with potential grizz activity was on the Great Northern Trail south from Nelson to Salmo. Which was pretty pleasant in spite of the ATVs on about the last ten km into Salmo.

My experience with even the very good battery air pumps is that their limitations keep me going back to a decent portable hand pump. Also, the quality problems found with many of the portable compressors on Amazon makes me a lot nervous. Yes, those are mostly aimed at automobile tires but...

I understand why someone would want to bring a camp stove. Just in my experience the value add of a camp stove that burns wood isn't very high on a trip. In theory yes you'd need less fuel for a given amount of BTUs but in practice it is rare that there will be enough available wood for a...

What exact problem is solved by cooking on a stove like this? You don't need a stove to heat water over a wood fire. You need a stick or two and maybe some wire to suspend the pot. If you want or need to get more elaborate you can take a small grate (that packs pretty small and you can carry...