It’s also called a “Muslim toilet” and common in the Middle East. Nowhere near as sophisticated as a Japanese washlet, though.

When I was doing my military service in France, circa 1990, it was standard issue and our officers said "La boussole Silva sait où elle va" (the Silva compass knows where it's going). I still have mine, complete with NATO 6400 milliradian scale.

I don’t have any insight beyond the (paywalled) article. The M2 is nowhere near the leap in performance previous Apple Silicon generations have made us expect, however.

Basically Apple's lost its chip-making mojo since Gerard Williams left the company to start Nuvia in 2019. The iPhone 14's GPU was too hot and inefficient so they had to reuse the previous one.

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/inside-apples-war-for-chip-talent?rc=6k0bdw

We'll get a boost from the recently online TSMC 3nm fab, but clearly architectural improvements are running behind.

How so? I have both (also the NB20000, but I don’t EDC the latter), gave my wife the gen 1, she absolutely loves it. She’s a much heavier power bank user than I am (her iPhone X battery is on its last legs) and her previous Anker 20,000mAh power bank was a real boat anchor in her purse. The UI in the Gen 2 is improved, it has those natty yellow ports and slightly higher output.

Here’s a positive review, apparently by the person who maintains the spreadsheet:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ultralight/comments/w8mx0p/nitecore_nb10000_gen_2_power_bank/

Conversely here is a negative review:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ultralight/comments/w848tp/my_opinion_of_nitecore_power_banks_after_1200/

He complains of durability of the ports, and I can see that. I take good care of my gear and must be the only person on the planet who doesn’t have ripped Apple charge cables despite their inadequate strain relief, whereas my wife and daughter are much rougher on their gear, so that might be worth considering in Anker vs Nitecore.

I don’t hike in the great outdoors, which seems to be the core Ultralight demographic, but urban dwellers benefit from lighter gear too.

One other good 10,000mAh power bank is the Xiaomi Pro, with its solid aluminum rather than plastic case, but that also makes it heavier than the carbon fiber Nitecore, and it’s harder to find in the US:

https://www.mi.com/uk/product/xiaomi-22-5w-power-bank-10000/

Duralex Freshbox stack and nest. I don't know if they're sold outside France, unlike their drinking glasses.

Maybe check Corelle?

OK, I switched to an Apple-branded USB-A to Lightning cable and Klein ET920 tester, verified with an Apple 10W USB charger that it did 5.07V 1.68A on an old iPad Pro with Lightning connector (it was 87% full so probably not drawing at its fullest).

When put on the Nitecore on, it did the same 5.07V 1.56–1.68A whether I turned on slow-charge mode or not. At this point I think it's a placebo, and if you want fast charging up to the rated 18W you must use USB-C, but on USB-A YMMV depending on the cable.

This also confirms my feeling that every power bank maker should adopt the Anker 737's status display feature, and that a USB multimeter is a must-have accessory.

Yes, corrected my post. Not sure why it isn't doing the 10W standard USB-A is capable of, even if it can't do the non-standard Apple 12W charging mode at 2.4A. I'll try again with a different power meter and cables.

Which is actually based in Paris (well, St Cloud).

Good question. I tried charging my 12.9” iPad Pro with my USB-A and my USB-C multimeters:

• USB-C, low-charge mode On: 5V 3A, 15W
• USB-C, low-charge mode off: 11V, 1.67A, 18W
• USB-A, low-charge mode On: 5V 1A, 5W
• USB-A, low-charge mode off: same

Make of that what you will. The USB-A tests were done with an AmazonBasics C-A cable rated at 10Gbps.

You have to manually engage the feature by long-pressing the mode button. Presumably it’s mainly for USB-A since it doesn’t negotiate power like PD does, thus the risk of overload.

They totally should do Wh instead of meaningless mAh. A big part of Anker’s problem is they use cylinder batteries like 18650s hence the poor density.

Nitecore NB10000 Gen 2 by a wide margin.

Ankers are OK, but much bulkier.

Steelcase are the best (better than overhyped Hermann-Miller, I used to have an Aeron) but certainly not at that price, even used. Think closer to $1000. I bought my Leap in 2008 and it’s still going strong, though the upholstery is stained. I had to replace the gas cylinder at the 12 year mark, a $100 part I changed myself.

Check out /r/OfficeChairs/

I believe it is too smooth and it doesn't stick to the cement in concrete well enough.

In India, illegal sand mining is a big mafia business. Apparently only some specific kinds of sand are usable for concrete, and the world is running out.

No, the quality was always terrible. I have furniture of theirs I bought around 2012—2014 and it's all more or less fallen apart in less than 5 years, so even worse quality than IKEA.

From my Yelp review:

> Don't be fooled by the glitzy showrooms and "made in America" promises of quality, this chain sells essentially disposable furniture. > > When we were expecting our first child 7 years ago, we moved from an apartment to a single-family home. We wanted to also upgrade from IKEA and equivalent to proper furniture. I bought some heirloom pieces from Thos. Moser (a dining table, two end-chairs, a coffee table, a rocking chair and two foot stools) but they are quite expensive, and we got many other pieces from Room and Board: a queen bed, nightstands, two dressers, six Thatcher dining chairs, Pisa leaning bookshelves, side tables and a coffee table with rounded angles). > > Unfortunately after 7 years the furniture turned out to be much less durable than I expected. The finish on the coffee table is worn and ugly, the bed required extensive work even though we only use a mattress, no boxsprings, and the spokes on the Thatcher chairs are coming unglued. > > A proper Windsor chair like the Thatcher should have "through-holed and wedged" construction that ensures the spokes don't move. The Moser chairs have that, of course, and in retrospect I deeply regret cheaping out. I could have bought 2 buy-it-for-life Moser chairs for the price of the 6 Thatcher chairs that are now essentially kindling. To add insult to injury, Room and Board refuses to stand by their product and are refusing to repair them. > > In the Bay Area, we've had good luck with Hoot Judkins furniture, which are better quality for the price (not all though, they have a wide range that goes from meh to Amish-grade).

I'd get the Bosch Professional (blue line, not green) of 12V tools (and in fact that's what I have). They all share the same batteries, and you have a wide variety of useful tools. Milwaukee's M12 system is also good, but harder to get in the UK.

Green Bell, sold in the US as Seki Edge.

If you have very thick nails for some reason, you may need to get the ones that look like pliers instead.

They're not powder-coated, it's Teflon to prevent the blades from getting fouled by adhesives, only the cutting edge is exposed.

I'd say both are durable (I have both, though I tend to use the Klein more), but Whiteley makes industrial scissors as well, including ones designed to cut Kevlar, so they have some expertise making tools for highly technical and demanding jobs.

I have a European-style Knipex stripping gun that is incredibly reliable and won't nick the wires. Well worth investing in.

Ginghers are still the benchmark for sewing scissors in the US, but they were bought out by Fiskars, production was shifted, and Kai has been giving them tough competition.

EMT shears are meant to cut fabrics and tough seat belt webbing (although most EMTs will use a cutting hook on the latter). They usually have an offset blade with an angle to make cutting easier.

Electricians' scissors have short, stout blades meant to cut through reasonably thick copper wire, so they are made of harder metal and have thicker blades to resist chipping and damage.

> Sadly I have never found the "file" on the back useful.

No, nor the wire stripping notches.

Try these instead:

https://www.whiteley.co.uk/store/diy/wilkinson-black-electricians-snips/

Or tried to use their fabric scissors to cut paper…