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Renting a sewing machine from the library

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Re: Renting a sewing machine from the library

#221
post #99

I signed my daughter up for a library card when she was two. She can't read yet. I believed you can't teach a child to love libraries. You keep taking them, and let the room do the rest. That room do wonders and it did that to me and I am sure will do that to her too.

A relative used to drive the library bus where I grew up in. Getting a library card must be one of my earliest memories. Along with learning the alphabet and skiing.

Re: Renting a sewing machine from the library

#222
post #37

> 55% of Finns visit libraries at least once a month. Wait what? That seems insanely high even for a progressive society. As a reference point UK is at 30% on YEARLY STATS NOT MONTHLY >In England, 30% of adults aged 16 and over used a public library service at least once in the previous 12 months.

I moved to Finland, and starting when my child was about three years old I took him to Oodi every weekend. The soft-play area was heaven for him, and he liked flicking through the donald-duck comic books. Even now, when he's nine, I go every month or two with him for an afternoon. He has no shortage of books at home, but he gets to run around, look at books, and play with other kids. He enjoys himself enormously.

I'm probably in the middle of the stat myself and know people from both sides. My first thought was also that a lot of parents and children visit libraries almost daily and pupils and students visit libraries on school breaks and after school alone or with friends.

On one hand, you have a lot of busy and tired adults and a lot of old people that might not use libraries (often), but you also have the massively active younger demographics. I don't know how that would balance out and how the stats were counted. Maybe they fit somehow.

Re: Renting a sewing machine from the library

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds safe: https://ciceroinstitute.org/news-media/more-than-50-of-homel... "In 8 states, over 50% of unsheltered homeless individuals are registered sex offenders. National average: ~13% when including those with “unknown addresses.” "

Buried lede: this is, in large part, a self-created problem. Many states set restrictions on where people who are registered sex offenders are allowed to live (e.g. disallowing them from living close to schools and day care centers), and those restrictions can make it much more difficult for these people to find housing. (Anecdotally, I've heard of situations where these restrictions effectively ban sex offenders fro…

I could see that happening. This idea isn't perfect, but beats the alternatives: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_Village

Re: Renting a sewing machine from the library

#225
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think musical instruments, especially digital ones like synthesizers or effects but also guitars and other acoustic instruments, have become a lot more affordable the last decade without severely impacting quality. You don't really need the expensive stuff anymore when you can record a quality recording with a second hand iPad and a below $100 microphone. Rental of expensive stuff will always be expensive too due t…

There's still a lot of crap cheap guitars out there, and some truly dreadful cheap amps

Yes. But about 200+ currency units especially in used gear can get you something genuinely usable, if you know what to look for. But knowing and variety is a problem in itself.

Not so lucky if you want e.g. a sax bigger than an alto, a bassoon, oboe, french horn... Some instruments just don't seem to have dirt cheap versions.

(No, I don't have a problem. I can stop any time!)

Re: Renting a sewing machine from the library

#229
post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whoa are they that different from a typical motorcycle brake? Because I never had a problem with those, all the way from 1990s japanese scooters. They are simple, reliable and don't require much maintenance. They even work ok on 75% water-dot mix on completely weared-out pads if you can't fix'em on the road. Worst thing that can happen is hose rupture, which is extremely rare, good hoses just work forever, brakes bec…

I've never worked on a motorcycle, but I have worked on hydraulic brakes on several cars, including when I was recently given the opportunity to learn how to bend and flare rigid brake lines. The problem on bicycles is that everything is small and light, and that nothing is really standardized at this point. You need a bleed kit for mineral oil, and a different one for DOT fluid. Each of those probably comes with a f…

Well I can see where excessive minituarization of hydraulics makes it a mess. One can't really lower working volume past some threshold, and the rest of system gets very fragile.

I don't really get why it's even needed, it's not like you need to drop 80km/h from a 150kg bike every other minute.

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