low-1

In 95%+ of cases, EVs really do make a lot of sense. I'd like one for running around town, picking up groceries, dropping the kids off at school, etc. But for us, when we leave town to go visit family or do some shopping, we have a continuous 1200km (750ish mile) drive before we hit population. And half the year is below -20. They just aren't feasible in our case. Regarding the grid, renewables (wind/solar) aren't anywhere near the point they can make up a substantial part of the supply. They just can't. Residential, sure, but they cannot meet industry's needs at this point, and it'll be quite some time before they can. From a utility perspective, you need to have firm power available as per power sales contracts. Currently, if you have renewables, you NEED to have traditional sources available as back up for base load. And almost all current wind installations are induction machines, meaning they still require some sort of traditional source to provide the reactive power needed to set up the magnetic fields. They do generate power, MW, yes, but they are huge VAR sinks. And with the way infrastructure spending has been over the last however many decades, the entire grid needs a massive amount of attention before it has any hope of meeting the needs of electrification of transport. Most areas are overburdened as it is. Nuclear really is our best option, regardless of people's beliefs. Or some huge leaps in geothermal technology. Without a monumental change in how we live our lives and conduct business, solar and wind won't cut it, full stop. And for frame of reference, I work in massive hydroelectric generating stations.

People tend to forget that a good portion of North America was under a couple of miles of ice in the not-to-distant past, geologically-speaking. We are only able to live here because of climate change. It's also pretty arrogant to think that we as humans can stop geological processes that have been happening over and over since a shit ton of dust came together and coalesced into a giant ball. "Climate" has never been static in the entire history of the planet. Are we speeding it up? Maybe. But one good burp of a volcano throws up exponentially more gases than all of human existence.

Maddening part is that the concerns of the GTA or downtown Vancouver are not the same concerns as the vast majority of the rest of the country. No, I have never really felt the need to have a firearm to protect myself from 2 legged predators (although the big "man hunt" a couple of years ago for those 2 idiot kids from BC ended up in our small town). BUT... I'd love to be able to carry a .357 or bigger in the bush or on the canoe while I'm out spending time hundreds of miles away from the next living person, camping and sleeping in one of the few areas in the world where black, grizzly and polar bears are all known to co-exist. A rifle is good an all and that's why I picked up my 1895, but takes up a lot more packing room, extra weight, and more cumbersome to keep on you all the time while doing physical work. And electric vehicles are NOT a feasible option for anyone I know. The moron has to understand he is supposed to represent the entire country, not just his Laurentian elite buddies.

We used to run a few of those little butane powered ones (they work great), but buying refills got pricey. You can absolutely refill the butane fuel cells, and they do work good. Last year we bought a couple of those battery powered ones with the little cartridges you drop in... Especially just for sitting on the deck, they are way more economical, and the cartridges are super easy to refill. The pads in the butane ones aren't bad to recharge, just a little more cumbersome. Find some permethrin, mix appropriately as per directions (5:1 water to perm for the stuff I have), and refill the cartridge. Or use a syringe or eyedropper to put a few drops on the pads. Either way, they are super cheap to run that way.

They work great if used as intended. We run one in our backyard, out in the far corner. They attract the mosquitoes to them, so keep them away from where you want to spend time. The manual (or info online) tells you where to site them. Clean the traps regularly, ours fills up daily in the early season. I also usually take mine right apart every year and give it a good cleaning. You want them out early to get the early breeding bugs. If you've done it right, they should be permanently reduced over the summer. We used kind of a tandem approach; mosquito magnet in the far corner, thermacells and bug coils on the deck where we want to sit. We live in Northern Manitoba, literally in the middle of a VAST swamp. Summer would suck without them.

Been saying this for a long time. Movies from the late 80s, 90s and into the very start of the 2000s relied on good writing, character and plot development, actual content. Now its all about how far they can push the special effects and not much else. Give me an 80s/90s comedy any day.

We used to wait until all the snow had melted off the ice on the lake here in the spring, take a buddy's old car (diplomat I believe), almost max it out, crank the wheel and see how many 360s we could do before straightening it out again. Did roll it over a few times, but all in good fun lol.

Admittedly a small town kid from rural Manitoba, but our options were bring your own lunch, go home if you live close enough, or go hungry. Pretty sure my wife who grew up in the city was the same.

What baffles me is that most can't see that "equality" and "diversity" are 180 degree polar opposites, yet they still somehow try to advocate for both.

Honestly I’ve taken my camera gear out like 4 times in the last 3 or 4 years, so I’m not in any rush to invest in another system. Back to “hobby”, so I can’t justify to expense right now. Even back when I was shooting more regularly, I was pretty impressed with the mirrorless systems. Last major interest was firearms, went a long ways down that path, jumped into fly fishing this fall and currently investing heavily in ice fishing gear lol. Just got my Eskimo outbreak 850XD yesterday. Picked up one of those Chinese diesel heaters and today’s project was making a fire blanket panel for the removable windows for the exhaust pipe exit. Next is working on power and lighting. Waiting on the ice conversion kit for my helix 7.

I did this somewhat professionally for a number of years, and this was also with about $5-7K in camera equipment. You did just fine. I was using a full frame Nikon dSLR (D750), with a nikkor 14-24mm f2.8 lens. F/2.8, ISO between 4000 and 5000, and between 1 and 5 sec exposures. I also ran them through lightroom mobile to adjust a few levels.

Haven't gone out taking pictures in quite a while, but I was keeping an eye on all the forecasts. Decided I'd throw the battery on the charger after getting home from a 12 hour work day returning a generator to service. Relaxing on the couch enjoying a nice cold beverage, and my phone rang. Work calling, problem with the unit and I needed to go back in and troubleshoot. Motherfucker. It was kind of an expected issue, adjustments we make during maintenance contradict adjustments required for running online, but we need to calibrate everything to spec for our testing, then usually go back afterwards and adjust so it's balanced with the other units... regardless, it's an easy, quick fix. Decided I'd throw my camera in the vehicle just in case, and just as I was leaving site to head back home, the sky exploded. Took the back way home and stopped at the little lake beside town that functions as the float plane base. It was open water yesterday during the day, had skimmed over with ice during the evening and was covered when I was shooting there around 8:30.

Friend put her mom in the ground yesterday. Mmmm....K?

Posted in a different thread, but friend's mother died last week following second shot. Principal here in town is off on indefinite medical leave, had a stroke during the mandatory waiting period following his second shot, rushed to ER, been in steady decline since. This was early summer. Friend's uncle had a stroke following second shot, confined to a wheelchair now and is essentially a vegetable. I don't know of a single person first or even second hand that has had a negative reaction to having covid.

About a month and a half ago, Prince Rupert (north) was 1.62, and North Van was 1.71