I hope there was space. :)

I once had to replace an alternator on a Peugeot 308, ended up cursing and got a cold (was working in a snow storm as the car was needed next day) because it was impossible to fit my hands where I had to work, so everything was super slow.

About ten years ago, when I built my house, I decided that solar power would suffice. It did not - got a grid connection last year - but solar power is giving me the biggest part, so my grid connection is a laughable 3 x 6 amps. :)

Around 2009 or so, a fellow anarchist linked an ecological footprint calculator in a forum. I ran it, and found out that 60% of my footprint came from driving a lot (I don’t fly, except for flying drones), and most of that from buying fuel. So I built an electric moped-car. But I built it wrong and had to dismantle it, sell the metal for scrap and build another. It lasted a few years, then I was forced to switch to a temporary gas-powered microvan. When the microvan broke down, I spotted an auction: someone was selling an electric microcar which the social ministry had crashed. So I got it, managed to fix it, and finally I could produce my own fuel for driving. The road here has obviously been steep and littered with failed projects, but now I can even support other folks who drive that kind of stupidly made microcars, while I bide my time to build a proper electric moped-car.

I am working on the part of communications - not being a passive consumer but giving some and getting some in return. Found out that some folks have started experimenting with MeshCore and MeshTastic in my town, so I intend to join those nets and see if they’re usable for chatting with a friend.

I am also working on other kinds of communications (agile ultra wideband frequency hopping with SDR) but sadly, this is less solarpunk and more like miltech.

Dehydration can be done with vacuum, perhaps?

The neat thing about them:

First, the pair of habitats can be rolled by operating the cylinders as momentum wheels. If one habitat’s rotation is slightly off, the two cylinders will rotate about each other. Once the plane formed by the two axes of rotation is perpendicular in the roll axis to the orbit, then the pair of cylinders can be yawed to aim at the Sun by exerting a force between the two sunward bearings. Pushing the cylinders away from each other will cause both cylinders to gyroscopically precess, and the system will yaw in one direction, while pushing them towards each other will cause yaw in the other direction. The counter-rotating habitats have no net gyroscopic effect, and so this slight precession can continue throughout the habitat’s orbit, keeping it aimed at the Sun. This is a novel application of control moment gyroscopes.

From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O'Neill_cylinder

For me, the title link does not seem to lead directly to a readable article.

If the same effect happens for others too, here is another link:

https://diabetesjournals.org/care/article/49/6/901/164764/Misguided-Brushes-of-a-Pen-Continue-to-Dismantle

Guessing a bit for additional perspective: even when one pigeon knows better how to get there, it may decide to stay within eyesight of the other “clueless” pigeon, even if the other pigeon is heading in a somewhat wrong direction.

This avoids the scenario of being the only pigeon in the area. If there are two pigeons and a hawk, safety is considerably improved for any individual pigeon. If there are a zillion pigeons and a hawk, safety is humongously improved for any individual pigeon. And I guess that’s why it makes sense to flock a bit, even if the other flock member is clueless.

Interesting.

I’m tempted to propose an alternative explanation: vibrating water might enter the tissues of the rice seeds faster. I tried to see if they had a control group with other sounds, but it seems they did not. And indeed, this kind of a control group would be hard to create, as one would have to know pretty damn “well what kind of sound will cause statoliths in cells to move?”

Plant… vision?

I read the PDF and the test plants clearly had distinct populations of leaves. If one can remove all other confounding factors and expose a rock-solid correlation to the shape of an artificial host plant… then wow. If one can find a biomechanism which mediates this, then more wows. :)

I hope this turns out to be true, because vision without a nervous sysytem (or plants with neuron-like structures) would be something worth reading about. :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boquila

I have no idea of the base reason, but I think it could be something like:

• aircraft headlights are white (and kept on at low altitudes)
• white reflects best (short of reflectors)
• white blades may reduce collision risk at night

…but since every decent wind turbine has signal lights too, I think it’s mostly bureaucratic inertia that prevents making exceptions. One could always file a permanent NOTAM above an experimental wind generator, telling pilots “here is a wind generator of non-standard colors” and I think it would be OK.

The only “haunted” place I have had the chance to repeatedly observe, the second floor warehouse of a car parts company, matches this hypothesis quite nicely. The floor is plywood on metal beams, and picks up street vibrations occasionally. This has never bothered me, but one person who works there says the place is haunted. :)

I kindly remind that in this community, a text-based source is encouraged instead of plain video (fortunately YouTube can show transcripts), and focus should be on experiments or discoveries.

I believe the cross-post to “technology” was more appropriate, as it got a lot more discussion there. :)

That was extremely fast for an infection. All I can say: if there are symptoms of an infection, treat it. If it spreads, find emergency treatment.

There’s an article circulating about a new way of long-term energy storage which just about might be practical enough to gain traction. :)

An isomer of pyrimidone is charged with 300 nanometer UVB light, and energy is released in a water solution by changing the pH of the solution.

For anyone with an interest in chemistry, I recommend the scientific paper.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aec6413

Trying to think of critiques:

• the wavelength of light necessary to “charge up” pyrimidone is fairly short (300 nm, UVB ultraviolet light)

• the quantity of UVB light on Earth’s surface is limited (it is mostly absorbed by the ozone layer)

• however, one can artificially produce ultraviolet light from solar electrical power, or figure out molecules that charge with UVA or even blue light, which would be perfect

Positive aspects:

• pyrimidone looks simple, synthesis probably is not hard
• it is solid at room temperature
• it lasts long when charged
• it is compatible with a water environment when energy needs releasing

Addition of hydrochloric acid (HCl) to Dewar pyrimidone (107 mg in 0.46 ml of water) increased the solution temperature to 100°C and induced boiling within 1 s, demonstrating rapid macroscopic heat transfer to an environmentally benign medium under ambient conditions.

Not well, but it drives.

Battery capacity is small. It’s a city car all the way.

Heating is abysmal. I don’t touch it, it drains the battery. I only heat the seats (from the car 12 V system) and windscreen (with a large drone battery and two Chinese 400 W heat blowers).

Different sizes of tyres of front and back wheels are impractical. Changing headlight bulbs is a nightmare (manual says to take off the front bumper, but I deviate from the procedure and leave some screws missing, so I can take out the headlights).

The gear shifter has 2 needless pull cables (not electrical cables) which freeze in winter and cannot be bypassed easily. The motor controller borked itself (high voltage comparator error) and I had to take it apart to fix (fortunately a fix was documented).

One of the steel brake pipes rusted and leaked, and the repair shop refused to lower the battery (I have done it myself) because they didn’t feel comfortable. I had to bypass the steel pipe with a copper pipe, fortunately technical inspection did not notice.

Rear ABS sensors go faulty and start lying, producing error messages. An “original” spare part costs 200 euros, fortunately there’s a trick (installing another car’s sensor in reverse) and it costs 17 euros.

But what I can I ask, it’s a 15 year old car.

I’m in Europe, so we have 230 volts here (two times less amps needed for identical power), but… I charge my i-MIEV with 5.5 amps at night (the whole night) and it’s charged by the morning. Knowing that, I optimized my grid connection down to 3 x 6 amps (three phases, each up to 6 amps).

Of course, if I charge during daytime, I can draw power from the house inverter, so then I charge at 10…13 amps.

These guys sell those chargers for 15 euros. Not sure if the chargers work, but the plugs look compatible and they have positive reviews.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008383594311.html

To manage without an inverter, I would consider a adjustable DC/DC converter.

1. Small step-down converter with current limit:

Input voltage range: 6-40.00V
Output voltage range: 0V-32.00V
Output current: 0-5.1A
Output power range: 0-160W

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006294300036.html

2. Big step-down converter with current limit:

Input voltage: DC12-80V (can not be used for 72V battery)
Output voltage: 2.5V-50V adjustable (only buck) (maximum output voltage = input voltage * 0.8)
Output current: 20A (MAX) 25A overcurrent
Maximum power: 600W
Conversion efficiency: ≥ 93%

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007391865816.html

3. With serious and silent cooling, dual displays (voltage and current), adaptive current limiting that considers temperature, input up to 120 V DC (be careful, this voltage level is deadly):

Input: DC 25-120V
Output: DC 1.2-75V adjustable
Current: 20A (MAX)
Power: 600W (Reduce current based on heat dissipation when voltage difference is high)

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005010659062631.html

Note: dial in less than your full battery voltage. Your upmost level of voltage ripple + measurement error must be a bit below the full battery voltage. Of course, you must have a balancer and BMS (to stop everything in an emergency) on your battery.

If you don’t mind divulging, how does that stack against timber for cost at least for the time?

It’s too expensive but practically indestructible, except in salt water. Unlike wood, it does not offer any favourable thermal properties, so you can only do unheated sheds with it. I came across a pile of it on a bankruptsy auction, which made it possible to afford its use.

I recommend to find some assistance. Even one other person can help immensely at certain points.

I have built a 2-storey shed on a metal frame alone, and it involved highly inconvenient and more than moderately dangerous stages. I would not do it again.

I managed only because I relied heavily on industrial aluminum profiles for machine building (engineer’s Lego beams).