fwiw, this story is also covered here, imho a more credible source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/1/palestinians-demand-international-inquiry-after-mass-grave-found-in-gaza

gotta admit, that is a lot safer approach than trying some shit on the real thing

wrong, western philosophy is often based on dichotomies - something is either this or that, but it is more of an analytical tool (I am not nature despite that I am a part of nature). Eastern philosophies are often mystic, though there is western mysticism - that some aspects of existence are incomprehensible on a rational basis and therefore dichotomies are illusory. But such a perspective does not inherently make people better stewards of the environment - in fact they might conclude that their every action is “natural” by definition.

Have you tried your hand at biochar? I know composting the chips for mulch is high value in a farm operation, but a few tons of biochar can work like a permanent upgrade - improving the soil permanently with one addition - though ongoing permaculture operation continues. I am about to make a biochar cooker out of two steel barrels - inner fuel chamber and outer draft shell. It would probably be more effective with wood scraps than chips though - some air passages through the fuel.

To test it out for myself, I made a miniature version documented at https://github.com/jcadej/TLUD-biochar-reactor (uses a gallon paint can for the fuel chamber. You could test it small and see how it does with wood chips. When I make my bigger version, I will add it to the github project. My rough idea is to cut one barrel down the side and squeeze it smaller and bolt it so it fits inside the other.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/36/37/42/36374294e5183a96de3e3e6696f4d3ad.jpg

I have plain ol’ Ubuntu LTS and I do not recall a Steam crash in a decade. Playing with Nvidia GPU on AMD Ryzen in recent years.

I am investigating some components of a system to make biochar with a solar concentrator but it is slow going. My idea is to circulate molten salt through the focus zone of a double-parabola channel. This focuses heat on the target pipe for a broad range of sun angles with no tracking. I have read that a eutectic mix of sodium carbonate and potassium carbonate (aka soda ash and potash, respectively) has a melting point under 500C, and fast pyrolysis is possible with molten salt at this temperature. I am trying to find information about electromagnetic pumping (aka magnetohydrodynamic pumping, just like Red October!) but there are very few such devices sold - mainly for continuous metal casting, apparently. If molten salt could be heated by sun and fast pyrolysis could be done (which makes a larger fraction of pyrolysis oil than slower processes would do), then there would be very little emissions and very little waste heat I think. Still some steam I suppose.

Yes, that would be infuriating.

In my experience with limited diets, it is always advisable to take in as much variety as possible. So even if I only had milk and potatoes, for example, I would scavenge for some edible greens to add. Nutrition is not just about amino acids - there is a whole range of vitamins, minerals, and other less well known substances in foods that keep us healthy. I think if a person is down to having only one of your listed parings available to eat, they have a lot of problems to solve!

I lived a number of years in the rural Dominican Republic, and befriended some very poor Haitians who migrated there illegally. They subsisted on rice and beans to a great extent, but substituted a variety of other starch vegetables (green banana, various root vegetables, bread) when they could - and also learned through community collaboration, which wildly growing green plants were palatable. They would also sometimes buy the local “sausage” which contained about 10% meat byproducts, and the rest was mostly rice with probably some corn and other grains and spices). My point is that nobody reading this is ever likely to be as destitute as an illegal Haitian living off the land, but they still ate a somewhat varied diet.

Governments have always hired “contractors” for various services. So having some interactions with private business in the course of government dealings is not new. But there has been more privatization of services in the past century and I think particularly in the last few decades. In some respects, privatization can be a more economical way for a government to deliver a service - despite that the private company extracts a profit. But there are also many examples of privatization leading to excess costs. I think personally that privatization causes some of the same symptoms in the private firm as having monopoly power.

But the power of the government to coerce your cooperation undoubtedly extends to their hired minions.

Excellent; this seems to show my system has a high reliability, as I have observed, and at the most severe conditions, about 10% or 15% reserve capacity. I expect to have an EV later this decade, and my existing house system will not provide for that. I may need a stand-alone system for EV charging, or some EVs have their own charging (Aptera looks attractive, there may be others?) I haven’t figured it out yet.