Editing to add this link from another comment because I had no idea that (of course) there’s organized opposition by entrenched interests to prevent anything for the public good https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/06/dark-roof-lobby-white-reflective-roofs-laws-lobbying-urban-heat-islands/

I don’t think the current roofs are painted black - they’re naturally black because roofing tar and asphalt shingles are black by default (a lot of sheet metal roofing is too but you can at least get that in most colors). So it’s not a matter of swapping out paint but adding something new. It also adds a new maintenance cost - keeping the white roof clean/maintained. Paint flakes off, tarps etc wear and become tattered, dirt and pollen collect on the surface. None of this is a dealbreaker by any means but our society seems to run on defaults and there’s a lot of inertia in construction and a lot of pressure on builders to keep materials costs down (even if doing so costs the owners or occupants more in the long run).

I hope this continues to take off because it really is a big improvement.

There are some interesting proposals for electric ships using containerized batteries which can be loaded/unloaded with the same cranes they use for shipping containers and charged in port. https://cleantechnica.com/2025/05/24/beyond-the-harbor-electrifying-short-sea-routes-and-hybridizing-blue-water-shipping/

It may not be suitable for transoceanic trips but a lot of shipping follows the coasts or even travels by river where this may be more practical.

Such a great project!

Sounds like ‘installed’ might be overselling it a little unfortunately - given that jerks carried them off. There are a few types of epoxy that could help. Pretty sure even JB Weld will stick wood to concrete. And they make some amazing specialist adhesives. It won’t stop the city but might delay the NIMBYs for a day or two. (Especially if they’re as old as I am and they throw their back out trying to pick it up the first time).

The reasons I’ve seen mostly have to do with upfront cost and convenience for maintenance. Support structures for solar panels can be pretty crude and basic if they’re just sitting low on a field. For a parking lot you need a much taller structure which will likely deal with more wind, but which is also designed to minimize the number of support posts so it’s not in the way, and to survive idiots running into it with their Ford fteen thousand.

If something goes wrong in a field the crew can just drive there and start working. If there’s a problem with the panels over a parking lot they may need to clear part of the lot, bring in bucket lifts, etc.

It can definitely be done and I think it’s a great idea all around but they’re usually looking with an eye towards how quickly the project pays for itself.

That seems like it would work quite well! Especially if the patio screen guarantees other critters won’t try to come in.

Not sure what tools you have access to but If you have a table saw you can cut a notch into the wood for the plexi before you assemble the frame.

I just helped my folks turn a porch into a catio - we used a layer of chicken wire on the inside with a layer of fabric bug screen on the outside. Years ago one of our cats got startled and ran right through a screen on our screen porch (fell one story into deep snow and kept right on going. He was fine, my dad was pissed). For this one we built wooden frames and stapled the screen and chicken wire on and attached those to the porch with wood screws. You could run slats from house to fence for support.

This sounds wonderful, I’d love to have that kind of network again. I’m curious about how they went about the technical side of things - if it’s all tunneled together or if they’re running cables to nearby houses and setting up wireless relays or something. There’s so much cool stuff we could bring back if we weren’t under constant attack from the internet at large.

So I know some folks who are the type to upgrade every couple years. Generally their old devices get sold on facebook marketplace or craigslist or they give them to me (usually when they’re fed up trying to sell them). I also find plenty of laptops dumped, still working, into corporate ewaste. Most of the ones I end up with get cleaned up, reinstalled, and handed off to a charity.

The better answer is yes there are places people use to give them away for free. Many towns and cities have free groups like Buy Nothing, Everything is Free, or Freecycle. If really recommend these for how easy they are to use. Some recycling centers have swap shops where working items are made available for free to town residents and volunteers can likely point you to relevant charities (such as refugee resettlement orgs or programs providing housing and items to help folks get back on their feet. Makerspaces/hackerspaces are also likely to take working machines, and there’s an outside chance some high school tech program will want them, though that will depend on their needs.

This is my go-to solution - I personally prefer Linux Mint with MATE for a desktop environment.

But if you, like me, have relatives who flatly refuse to use anything but windows (even as they complain about having to relearn the operating system every few years anyways!) then this might be useful to you: https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/22/windows_10_ltsc/?td=rt-3a

Whatever it takes to keep working tech out of the landfill and the potential replacement computers sitting on store shelves.

I really do recommend trying Linux though, it’s been my daily driver for years, including all through college when my windows partition died and I found myself making due with the mint partition I was testing out just to get assignments done. For older computers and Chromebooks Alpine Linux is great but a little more work.

This is cool, kind of a small scale version of resin and fiberglass! Thanks!

The lack of official touchscreens/GPS/center console media etc seems like a good step - at the very least, unnecessary antennas and microphones should be easier to spot/replace with an old MP3 player with one annoying song.

So genuine question: are the parts like batteries/motors safe and otherwise good enough to be used in ICE conversions? Or is there some kind of software/network boobytrap to be circumvented? The car itself is a horribly flawed surveillance box, but it seems like the flaws I’ve seen are mostly a sort of problem by compilation, like the finished product is worse than the sum of it’s parts. Is there a chance at least that this overproduction could help provide parts for conversion vehicles?

Boss makes a dollar…

Depends on the area but thrift stores can be great for toys - if only because survivorship bias says anything that makes it there will last a long long time.

Local free groups like Buy Nothing can also be great for sports equipment, school supplies, kid sized furniture etc.

If it works, I’ll share any designs and lessons learned here!

I was wondering if it was something like this, thanks! I’ll see if I can get enough of it off to see if the main sheet is a fresnel lens

I’m clear on the other side of the continent but I really appreciate it, thank you! I hope you can find someone who’ll use it! And I’ll definitely post my progress!

Thanks! I’m hoping to build a solar forge - I used to do some blacksmithing using coal, but some videos of these things show them burning through steel - if they can get that hot, I could even forge weld again. I’ve still got most of my tools, minus the forge.

Honestly a utility vehicle that isn’t a surveillance box is like all I want from an electric vehicle

We had a kitchen scale with a damaged control panel - the on/off button stopped working. I opened it up, cut one of the battery wires, and soldered in a switch. Cut a hole in the case with an xacto knife, glued the switch through it and put it all back together. Now it has a hardware power switch. If you’re comfortable with basic soldering, maybe that would work for you?