I disagree. I think it’s more helplessness than apathy.

I don’t approve of all the spying, but I don’t “own” any congress critters, so what can I do? I can’t even opt out of the spying by cancelling my Internet plan and smashing my phone – there’s still tracking through CCTV, face recognition, license plate scanners, etc. I’d have to move to some remote middle of nowhere and live as a subsistence farmer – and even on the way there, I’d be thoroughly tracked. There’s no escape, it’s like we’re all in a giant digital cage.

I just hope they actually have their social security card. A quick googling told me that you need a current ID to get the social security administration to issue a replacement card. Talk about a vicious cycle!

If that’s what you got from my comment, you really shouldn’t be participating in this comment thread. Please leave the conversations for the grownups in the room, thanks.

Huh, I had the opposite reaction. I see your point about satirizing racism, but I couldn’t get past the gratuitous n-bombs every other line.

Mel Brooks

aged pretty well

Some stuff, yeah, but then you have Blazing Saddles. Woof.

Hmm, and what about fish?

I used to be subbed to several local subreddits, including a [mylocation]-social.

The difference in tone between people I knew from the `social meetups vs. the people in the generic city/state subreddits was truly amazing.

SO SAY WE ALL!

What did sea lions ever do to you? :P

Heh, thanks. I have heard good things about the show. I should probably pick it up and start watching at some point. I just really hate that sense of “unfinished story”.

tail end of The Expanse

What? They actually finished it?!

googles

Oh. Season 6. That leaves out an entire 1/3 of the story from the books :(

I’d love to watch the show, but I can’t bear the thought of the story being that unfinished in the TV adaptation :(

Quark is a beauty, and that’s the plain unvarnished truth!

Secretly

Efficient at confusing people, perhaps. Personally, I have no idea what you’re on about.

The next project that happens

If you’re doing multiple projects where you need that same tool, that does tilt the scale towards buying. Rentals are best for one-off things.

Ha, fair enough. Yeah, a quick search shows low-end torque wrenches available for like $25. It’s hard to see a rental making sense at that scale.

Counterpoint: You go to the store to buy the saw you think you’ll need, come home, cut the first piece – boom, same realization. Same time-sink to go back to the store. I don’t think that’s a concern unique to tool libs.

need one weird tool

Well, yeah. We’re talking more expensive things that you only need for one project, or maybe a couple of times. Not the screwdriver set that you use for everything from box-cutting to adjusting the screws on your cabinet doors when they seem wonky.

No, conflating them doesn’t make any sense. You bring home the tool from the tool library, and you bring it back when you’re done. It’s one extra trip vs. going to the hardware store to buy the tool. The concerns about mismeasurements and extra trips don’t apply.

You’d have a point if the thread were about maker spaces, I’ll give you that. As it stands, though, I’d say your concerns are misdirected.

same price or cheaper

Ah, but is it? A quick search shows wood chippers ranging from $400 to $2400. If they’re renting out the $400 model, yeah, you come out ahead by buying even if you’re only chipping things on two weekends (and you could resell on craigslist or something).

But if they’re renting out a $2000 model, I’m not sure how fair it is to compare to the $400 model (I’m not a wood chipper expert).

Wood chippers might be a bad example. I’d think if you need one, you need one multiple times – chipping branches every fall at a cabin, things like that.

But overall, yeah, you make a good point that the rental prices can change the tipping point in rent vs. buy.

Whoosh