Donald was featured on episode 98 of The War On Cars podcast, and it’s worth a listen.

And the concept of “free parking” during holidays is awful, and I love the idea of still charging for parking on holidays, but using the revenue to help the homeless or other disadvantaged local groups in the community.

For me, the trick with the metal trays is to just very gently heat them to release any of the ice from sticking to the sides. Once that’s done, they come out very cleanly. Zero fracturing or fragmenting. It’s beautiful.

especially because it looks like the cubes are not uniform in shape

The image is deceptive. The cubes are uniform, and the “fins” are angled to beging with, and the lever straightens them, which ejects the cubes.

This image might give you a better idea:

But the cubes aren’t PERFECT in their shape, so if that bothers you, then there’s no way around it with this style of tray.

I think it probably would be possible to make an ice cube tray in the twist style out of metal, if it was a relatively flexible metal.

Yes, I think that would be possible, but you’ll likely end up with fractured cubes. Silicone trays are the best for perfect cubes, but they make the ice taste bad.

Good luck in your search!

Okay, so I just transitioned from an ice cube maker back to ice cube trays, and I was looking for a BIFL option that wasn’t plastic (or silicone)

I ended up buying both those metal cubes designed for whiskey, as well as a metal ice cube tray that has this lever that breaks apart the ice cubes after they have become solid.

My conclusion is that the metal tray with the lever is by far one of the best ice cube trays that you can get.

It will last forever, zero weird taste, easy to use, not terribly expensive, and definitely something that I would recommend.

All other options are either gonna make the cubes taste bad, introduce plastic into your cubes, may not last as long as you’d like, or just suck at being functional.

The one I got is from the brand Onyx, and looks like this:

Thanks for sharing. I can finally get off LT.

IMO, there should be a maximum cap to wealth (not just income, but total wealth). Not only to reduce the opportunity for exploitation of others, but also so any one individual can’t be rich enough to control a government.

After a certain point, taxes should ramp up so high that making any more brings no benefit to the individual. They would be free to retire, fuck off, and give everyone else a chance to earn a living wage.

If wealth was not being hoarded as it continues to be, everyone would be better off.

This is exciting, TBH.

I’m going to try it out! Storage space be damned 😂

What kind of storage space does it take up, and how good are the results?

They’re basically all compromised in one way or another. 😞

Unfortunately Linux phones, including Sailfish, aren’t really fit for daily use yet, imo.

Consider this:

“Jolla’s AppSupport enables embedded Linux platforms to run Android apps seamlessly.” (SOURCE)

This takes “one less car” to a whole new level!

But parents shouldn’t give 10 year olds responsibility over 7 year olds, and I’m very firm in that belief.

This is the reply I gave someone else, and it addresses your points, too.

I’m going to leave that as my last reply.

I’m going to leave this here as my last reply, and I do hope that you take the time to read it: Children’s Independent Mobility: an international comparison and recommendations for action (PDF)

And I quote the following findings and recommendations from the authors:

" At age 7, a majority of Finnish children can already travel to places within walking distance or cycle to places alone; by age 8 a majority can cross main roads, travel home from school and go out after dark alone, by age 9 a majority can cycle on main roads alone, and by age 10 a majority can travel on local buses alone"

“Withholding independent mobility at a young age may expose children to greater risk later in their childhood.”

Note the following responses below, starting at kids age 7. It’s not a coincidence that the countries who give their kids more mobile independence, are also the ones who Unicef ranks as having the greatest well-being and achieve higher education levels:

Then I hope you can take some time to read this post, which was written specifically about this child’s death, and how authorities dealt with it.

And I quote:

But in fact what the parents did was something normal, rational, and common. “Ten-year-olds and 7-year-olds have been walking to and from school, unaccompanied by adults, for over 100 years,” says Pimentel.

The implications of this prosecution “are very troubling for parents everywhere who can never provide a guarantee against their kids getting hit by a car, even if they were right there with them,” notes Diane Redleaf, author of They Took the Kids Last Night and Let Grow’s legal consultant.

I will close by saying that while it may sound “insane” to let kids have responsibility and independence, the reality is, this is normal in most of the world.

Incorrect.

Being old enough to walk home alone is not equivalent to being old enough to escort a younger sibling on top of that.

Cite a source, please.

I would say 12~13 bare minimum to simultaneously watch over a 7 year old, alone, while also being in a higher danger area (like a 4 lane busy road)

What do you base that on?

But for clarity, this was two lanes, a large grass island, and another two lanes with cars going in one direction. They would have only been crossing two lanes, as do other pedestrians in that area. And a motorist seeing two kids about to cross should be able to assess the situation and slow down.

But the point is being missed: kids are being killed by drivers in “safe zones” like school areas, adults killed waiting inside bus shelters, adult pedestrians killed with the right of way at intersections, etc.

The problem are the cars, not the age of the kids.

We can’t keep prioritizing cars, leaving no room for pedestrians and kids to move freely, then blame the victims.

Even in areas where adults are walking their kids through a crosswalk, cars are killing them all.

Age doesn’t matter if the problem affects everyone from 7 to 70 year olds.

God, I really hope you don’t have kids if you seriously think it’s cool to let a unsupervised 10 year old watch a 7 year old near a busy road, that’s exceptionally negligent, lol

LOL. My kids are in their twenties, and when they were that age, it was completely normal for their friends to walk over to our place, or for them to walk to their friend’s place. Or them going to the park with their younger siblings or to play outside.

I have two elementary schools nearby, and it’s totally normal to see young kids walking to school on their own.

And when I was a kid, this was also normal.

And all over the world, this is normal.

What’s not normal is the shift of responsibility from drivers to victims. And this is coming far too common, and needs to be called out at every chance.

We obviously have different perspectives, and experiences, but maybe we can distill this.

Say your property was massive. Would you be OK allowing a 10 and 7 year old play together, or would you want an adult to be there?

I think most people would be OK with that, even in a much smaller front yard, or a cul de sac, or park.

Assuming no predators (humans or animals), the only real concern is cars. And it’s maddening that we won’t allow kids to be kids because of cars in any given community.

Just the other day, there was a story if a teenager getting hit and killed by a car on school property. Cars are the problem. Nearly 100% of the time.

And it’s not the parents or kids’ fault that they want to interact with their community outside of a vehicle. We are punishing the wrong people, in my opinion.

I agree that kids shouldn’t be raising kids.

But these kids were simply walking a few hundred meters from the store to their home in broad daylight, while on the phone with their father, and were old enough to be doing so.

This would be considered completely normal in any other country.

It’s also important to note that I don’t believe any city, state, or country has minimum age laws for kids to walk. Staying at home alone or in a car? Yes, but not walking (or playing outdoors, or riding a bike, etc.)

So for the courts to charge the parents with child neglect and manslaughter seems wildly unbalanced.

Of course, there are always special circumstances when a child should have constant adult supervision (developmental delays, medical needs, etc.), but this wasn’t the issue here.

But according to experts, if younger children (under 8) should be with an adult or older sibling, and if 10 is old enough to walk alone, then 7 with a 10 year old is fine to walk 300m home. It would make both kids safer and more visible, since they are in a “group”.

If the kid was 4 or 5, then that would be different, for sure.

But why is blame being shifted onto the victim here?

There is no reason whatsoever that an older kid and their sibling shouldn’t be able to safely walk two blocks to their home.

This wouldn’t even be a topic for discussion anywhere outside of the united states or for anyone who was a kid before the 90s.

The experts say:

National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (UK)

Every child is different – but some schools advise children under 8 shouldn’t walk home without an adult or older sibling. SOURCE

Ottawa Safety Council (Walk Alone Program, Canada)

… a good guideline for starting to think about letting your child walk alone is age 10. SOURCE

American Academy of Pediatrics (USA)

Children usually are ready to walk to school without an adult when they are in fifth grade or around 10 years old. SOURCE

They also put this poster together:

Every country has the same general consensus.

I really hope you don’t have kids…

Kids and grandkids. And I was also once a kid with a younger sibling. And I see young kids walking to our local school on a regular bases.

If someone is still walking their teenager to school, they should probably stop 😮

Seven year olds are not nearly old enough to wander around 4 lane busy roads unsupervised, full stop.

He was with his older brother, who is 10.

And if a 10 year old is perfectly capable of walking to school (literally according to everyone), a 7 year old with their 10 year old brother should also be perfectly fine walking TWO BLOCKS without the worry of being killed by a driver.

And 4 lane roads should be banned in urban centers. It’s fucking ridiculous to have a goddamn highway in an area where children and families should be able to walk home safely!

Eventually, you won’t.

But if you’re fleshing out the active transportation network adding more capacity to public transportation, you’ll need money from somewhere.

It’s so doable, yet spending millions on “one more lane” seems to always be the default, as if that’s the best (or only) option. 🤷‍♂️