#but farming for grid is pain

[duoduotian]

tl flooded w gbf news orz i need to catch up later but i saw collabs??? baal rebalance???

[the-soliloquies-of-sadists]

#381

“Wakey wakey.  Time to wake up….  Don’t try to move around too much.  As you are realizing, you are in a predicament.  You are lying in my basement, buck naked, tied up, gagged, collared, with a fuck pillow under your pelvis.  You ain’t going anywhere, anytime soon….

“We’ve never met, but we know each other.  We both do the same thing for work, but we are nothing alike.  This is what’s happening.  I am part of a nameless organization that takes faggots, trains them to be slaves, and sells them to buyers from around the world.  From what I’ve been told over the years, the faggots delivered to me want to drop off the grid and sold into slavery.  They turn themselves in to a collector, who then has them delivered to me.  I don’t know if that’s true as I don’t let any of the faggots talk other than to say, ‘Yes Sir!’ 

“Now for you, I was told your backstory.  It seems that you are a collector for a different kind of group.  I train fags who offer themselves up for the taking.  You seem to prefer the non-consensual abductions of twelve- to fifteen-year-old girls.  I don’t care that you prefer pussy over dicks, but I do draw the line with their age.

“As I said, I was told what you are.  That never happens.  Ever.  But it appears that you approached the ten-year-old niece of one of higher ups in the organization, and he recognized what and who you were.  That stupid move brought you here. 

“I have no idea who the higher up is nor do I care.  Hell, we don’t know any of the men that are in the other parts of my organization, let alone hear from them.  So I found it surprising to get a call from a higher up—who I haven’t heard from in a few years—that I am to train you personally.  You better fucking believe that I’m going to train the fuck out of you.

“I have been training faggots for nearly forty years.  This is my farm you are on.  Twelve hundred acres.  Twelve hundred acres with some of the most advanced surveillance and anti-escape deterrents.  I know of every person who steps foot on my property, and I know if a slave is ten feet away from where it is supposed to be.  The ankle cuffs, wrist cuffs, and collar have tracking devices in them.  The collar can deliver a shock to keep you in line at a moment’s notice.  And the ankle cuffs are set up that if you go beyond a certain perimeter, a numbing agent is injected causing your legs to go numb and become useless.  Escape is not possible.  In my twenty years at this location, I have only had one slave make it off property, but it was collected within three minutes of doing so.  That slave was brought back and tortured in front of all the other slaves as a deterrent.  And that was before all the tracking technology was put in.  So keep that in mind if you decide to do something stupid.

“Now,… for the past five minutes, I have been telling you the predicament you find yourself in.  I have been watching your reaction.  Being gagged, you can’t say anything, but your body language says it all.  You seem too calm and not surprised at the description of my organization.  No reaction really.  That tells me that you are familiar with an operation like this.  When I tell you that you were collected for stalking that niece, you don’t look shocked by that accusation.  That pretty much confirms what I was told,… not that it matters otherwise. 

“No, the only reaction I saw was when I tell you that I am going to do your training.  You looked panicked.  Your eyes went right to my bulge.  Oh yeah.  I noticed.  You are straight indeed.  I should say, ‘were straight.’  From this moment on, you will never go back to that life.  The only cunt in your future is the one I’m about to make out of this hole between your legs.

“You have a great ass, so flawlessly smooth.  On any other slave, this ass would be a huge selling feature.  But for you, it’s a source of pain.  I need to put out my cigarette somewhere.  Your asscheek is the best place to do it….  Scream motherfucker scream.  Your perfect ass is going to go through some changes, from being daily whipped to being used as an ashtray.  You are going to be scarred up for sure.

“For the next part, I need to take off my boots and get out of these overalls.  You are going to get acquainted with Otto.  That’s what some of the fag slaves and some of the trainers call my dick.  Otto, it means ‘eight’ in Italian.  I’m actually closer to nine inches, but nine in Italian is ‘Nove’ which doesn’t sound right.  It doesn’t roll over the tongue as nicely as Otto.  Hehe.

“Look up at me.  Look shithead!  Here’s Otto.  Look at the cock that is going to own your life.  Half hard, it’s bigger than yours.  Keep staring at my foreskin.  Otto needs to piss.  You will be trained on drinking piss.  That’s all the liquid you will be given.  And if you are wondering if that means that you will be trained on becoming a full toilet, let me say we stopped training our slaves on that a while back.  It was too time consuming, and the buyers weren’t interested in that feature.  But for you, the higher ups want you trained.  But that will have to wait.

“Are you…  you are…!  You’re crying!  About time!  Hold still.  Let me wash away those tears for you.  Piss is the best antidote to tears.  There’s no feeling in the world like starting to tear down a once proud man by simply pissing on his face.  It’s getting me hard.  Otto likes what he’s doing to you.  But he wants action.

“Normally, you would be sucking the last few drops out of my foreskin.  But I ain’t ungagging you yet.  Besides, Otto needs to turn a virgin ass into a gaping cunt. 

“Your hole is perfectly displayed, like it’s ready to be destroyed thanks to that fuck pillow and how wide your legs were spread and secured.  Oh look.  Your cock and balls are just hanging there,… exposed,…

“…Damn! Even with my bare feet, I can deliver one hell of a ball kick.  Ha! Ha!  Your screams mean everything to me.  You know, each and every one of my personal slaves are kicked in the balls every morning.  They need to be reminded of their place on a daily basis. 

“Now, you will be spared that daily torture.  And that’s not because I would never have you as my personal slave, and don’t worry I wouldn’t own such trash.  No, I’m going to castrate you, in one of the most painful ways.  I haven’t decided how yet.  I do know that I will leave your empty sack intact.  We have a urologist that will make changes to your dick so that you lose all ability to get hard and with a few snips to the nerves in the area, all physical sensation will be gone.  Essentially your dick will constantly just hang there and be utterly useless… other than to piss out of.  Every time you reach down there, you will only feel the shell of what you used to be.

“Awww you’ve done full on sob.  Here let me collect some of your tears.  Tears of cunts are the best lube. 

“Do you feel Otto at your hole?  Feel his weight in your crack?  He’s ready to go.  Can you feel his leak.  Lucky for you, you really got me leaking.  Feel that wetness?  That’s all you.  Virgin cunt meets wine bottle thick dick.

“Don’t fucking start resisting.  Your cherry is going to be popped.  Here goes. 

“Don’t fucking fight me.  It’s only going to be more painful for you.  You are making my dick even harder.

“LET ME IN!  I’m coming in.  Oh, you got my head.  You are really starting to piss me off.

“Urg!  There.  Normally I would let a cunt relax before I begin, but you don’t fucking deserve that.  Right to the… goddamned… root!  Fuck, you’re tight.  By the end of tonight, you will be a gaping mess. 

“Not only have I been lucky to have such a big dick, but I can cum multiple times a night.  My first load is always quick, but the second one goes on for hours.  Then I have a gang bang lined up for this cunt. 

“I’ll let someone else pop the cherry in your throat.  There’s no way I’m going to let Otto near your mouth, at least not while you still have a mouthful of teeth.  Oh yeah, those will be coming out as part of your transformation.

“Keep crying.  Oh man.  Oh fuck.  I’m getting close.  You ready to be bred?  You ready to make your transformation to cunt complete?  Here it cums.  Here it goddamned cums!  Ahh! Ahh! Fuuuuck!

“Holy shit!  That was… fuck. 

“Your cunt has one of my biggest loads in it.  That should help lubricate you up a bit for round two….  Don’t try to push me out.  Otto will come out when he wants to.  Right now, he just wants a minute to catch his breath.

“Cunt, you have nothing but hell ahead of you.  There will be no let up.  Today is about breaking you in.  Tomorrow will begin your life of pain.  We have a shitload planned for you.  I don’t know how long it will be for you to with us, but each day we will strip away what made you a man, a human. 

“You know, when we put a slave up for auction, we have transformed the fag into the best slave it could be.  We don’t do it for its wellbeing.  No, we want top dollar.  And we get top dollar.  That’s our reputation.

“But for you, I was given the instruction that your transformation should be so extreme that when you are put up for auction, without a reserve price, that you are so repulsively distorted that you are sold for the lowest amount we ever had for a slave.  That shouldn’t be a problem with all the branding, scarification, tattooing, deteething, and so on.  Your previous profession will be shared with your new owners so that they can keep up your hell. “Oh fuck.  All this talk of your pathetic life is getting me hard again.  I’m ready to begin round two.  This should last a few hours.”

[lovelybucky1]

Insignificant

kinktober day 14- bondage

warnings: DEAD DOVE DO NOT EAT- non con, AFAB!Reader, handcuffs, vaginal reader, finger sucking, rough treatment, 18+ minors DNI

main masterlist

kinktober masterlist

Anakin Skywalker was no longer the man you knew. He was a great warrior, a general, an upstanding person, a kind soul, a Jedi, and most importantly, a friend. He was never meant to be a mechanical killing machine for Darth Sidious to lead around on a leash.

You managed to escape the violence of Order 66, though not without sustaining injuries of your own. For months after the massacre you saw visions of Anakin with orange glowing eyes in your dreams. The screams of children could be heard in the background. You were haunted.

You know some of the other Jedi escaped, though you don't know who or where they went. Being a Jedi is a death sentence these days, so it's better to lay low and not know anything more than absolutely necessary.

Unfortunately, laying low on an outer rim planet where you live off the grid on your own little farm isn't low enough for the Empire. You returned from the forest with a basket of berries and mushrooms to add to your stockpile when you found your house burning, your animals slaughtered, and Darth Vader himself standing among the flames.

After seeing the brutal events of Order 66, you took not being killed on sight as a blessing. The stormtroopers surrounded you, grabbing your arms and forcing you to your knees before Vader. The dark mask was expressionless, but the tilt of his head to the side made you feel like a wounded animal he was about to put down.

"Take them to the ship," he said in a modulated voice. He sounded nothing like the man you knew.

You were hauled aboard the massive ship that they carelessly landed in a field of wild flowers. It was almost poetic how this hunk of machine destroyed something natural and beautiful.

Once the hatch of the ship closed, you accepted that your fate was sealed. You were brought to a cell in the bowels of the ship and abandoned, left with your own thoughts and restricted by force-blocking cuffs.

You were alone for hours until someone came by. You heard the sound of heavy boots banging against the metal grate floor, but it wasn't until you heard the heavy breathing that you turned your attention towards the intruder.

"Jedi," he says as a form of greeting.

You glare at him through the bars of your cell. "Vader."

He says nothing more. He only stands there, emotionless and unmoving. Anakin must have learned patience through his transformation, because the man you knew hated silence.

"Why am I still alive?" you ask. You'd rather be dead than be taken prisoner and be forced to work for the Empire. "You killed all the others. Why not me?"

"He wants you," Vader says crypticly.

"Who does?" you ask.

"Your friend," he says.

Anakin. He's in there somewhere, obviously, and he wants to save you. Maybe this is his way of making up for his atrocities, by making right with you. It could never be enough, but it comforts you to know the monster before you isn't entirely evil.

The door to your cell slides open and Vader steps in, looking like a giant as he towers over your slumped form on the floor. You look up at him but you can't get a read on him. The cuffs block any force sensitivity so you can't even feel him. The door shuts behind him, trapping you in a small box with the face of evil.

"He cares for you," Vader says. "He wants to protect you." It warms your heart in a weird way to hear him say that. "But you are insignificant to me."

Vader reaches down and grabs you by the roots of your hair. He tugs harshly until your scrambling to find your footing and stand so he doesn't rip out your hair.

He dwarfs you. You never noticed how large he was until you were face to face, mere inches apart.

Vader pushes you back roughly, sending you slamming into the wall. Your body crushes your arms that are bound behind your back and you whimper in pain.

"He will watch me destroy you," Vader says as he advances, crowding you against the wall.

He brings his hand down to the waistband of your pants and tugs, effortlessly ripping them off. Your underwear receive the same treatment, though the pull on your skin is painful.

He kicks your legs apart with his boots. The heavy, hard material on your exposed ankles hurts like a bitch, but there's nothing you can do about it other than scream.

Vader shoves his gloved hand between your thighs and carelessly invades your cunt with his thick fingers. You cry out in pain, beg him to stop and for someone to help, but you know it's useless. Everyone here does Vader's bidding, and disobeying their lord is an instant death sentence.

He grows tired of your crying, so he shuts you up by restricting your throat with the force. You have enough air to breathe, but not enough to speak.

You look into the blank helmet with teary eyes, hoping that somehow you can connect with Anakin. You know he's in there, you just have to bring him out.

Vader's fingers split you open painfully. You don't know what he has underneath the suit, but you fear that it will be even worse than the treatment being done to you now. When he pulls his hand away, your creamy juices coat the black glove.

He grabs your jaw and squeezes hard, forcing you to open your mouth. He shoves the wet fingers inside for you to clean, tasting yourself off of them. It's disgusting and degrading, but you're helpless to resist.

When he pulls his fingers out, his glove glistens with your spit. A string of it connects your lip to his glove and when it breaks, it falls against your chin.

Vader drops his hand and you're left staring up at him. The panel of his chest presses against yours uncomfortably, digging into you. You're legs are shaking, not from pleasure but from a mix of fear and the ache in your pussy.

Vader then grabs you by the shoulder and pushes you down, sending you sprawling onto the metal floor. He turns his back to you and the door opens again. Wordlessly, he leaves you alone once again, his heavy boots echoing down the corridor.

[koolkat9]

In honour of father's day I want to finally compile a list of headcanons for Matthew and Alastair. Even if they don't really use the term father and son for each other and instead call each other uncle and nephew, Allie was the best consistent father figure Matthew had.

Alastair stayed with Matthew for long periods of time. Longer than Arthur or Francis ever spent with him. There was the very rare occasion where he HAD to go back for the sake of his people, but most of the time he was able to drag his feet and stay. Sometimes dumping his duties on Arthur since Arthur was so concerned about work. They were a union it was easy to do (even if their union wasn't the most unified). Killed to birds with one stone: Got to stay with Mattie who desperately needed a consistent adult in his life and punish Arthur for being a not great father.

Having just went to Edinburgh I found a few exhibits about the fishing industry in Scotland and thus thought of a new headcanon that Allie taught Mattie how to catch and prepare a fish. Dishes with fresh fish are still Matthew’s favourite to make not just for the taste but because of the good memories with Allie.

When father's day became a thing Alastair started receiving "anonymous" gifts on the day. He of course immediately knew it was Matthew, but he didn't confront Matthew about it and waited until Matthew decided to reveal himself.

Ooh which just made me think of a new headcanon. Matthew is scared to actually call Alastair and sort of name like "dad" for a long while. He's already had 2 dads that failed and with kid logic he's like "If I started seeing Uncle Allie as my dad will he start constantly leaving too 😢" Nowadays he knows that's not logical, but trauma makes him give the fathers day gifts anonymously for awhile. But in the present day I think he's mostly processed that, at least to the point that he can sign his name on the card and even give the gift face to face. At this point he still just calls him uncle because reflex.

At least a handful of towns in Canada have something called the Highland Games or Highland Festival. Either way, Matt taking Allie to one of these and Allie is so touched.

Alastair may not be good with words and rarely knows what to do when Matthew is anxious, but he doesn't have highland cows and has a little farm of them up the highlands. It's one of the places Matthew can escape to when he needs a little trip to decompress.

The little cottage that Alastair owned in Nova Scotia back in the day still stands. It now belongs to Matthew and Matthew still regularly visits and keeps it up. It's mainly off the grid and as someone who loves to live off the land, it's a very therapeutic environment for Matt. Plus, some of his best memories from childhood were made there.

Only time Matthew was ever mad at Alastair was when Alastair started dating Francis again. Don't know when this would happen, but it would be at a time Matthew and Fran hadn't reconciled yet, so Matthew feels kind of betrayed that his uncle, the one who was always there for him validated the pain that Francis caused him and comforted him when it got too much was now seeing the person that was the source of most of Matt's trauma. But Matt also feels like it's not his place to say who Allie can and can't date and he's pretty much an adult at this point, but he grows distant and snippy with Allie. But they come together by the end.

In honour of pride month, and to end on a positive note, I like to think Matt dabbles in drag and Alastair made sure to be front row at Matthew's first show.

[mariacallous]

What would you want to tell the next U.S. president? FP asked nine thinkers from around the world to write a letter with their advice for him or her.

Dear Madam or Mr. President,

Congratulations on your election as president of the United States. You take office at a moment of enormous consequence for a world directly impacted by the twin challenges of energy security and climate change.

Democrats and Republicans disagree on many aspects of energy and climate policy. Yet your administration has the chance to chart a policy path forward that unites both parties around core areas of agreement to advance the U.S. national interest.

First, all should agree that climate change is real and worsening. The escalating threat of climate change is increasingly evident to anyone walking the streets of Phoenix in the summer, buying flood insurance in southern Florida, farming rice in Vietnam, or laboring outdoors in Pakistan. This year will almost certainly surpass 2023 as the warmest year on record.

Second, just as the energy revolution that made the United States the world’s largest oil and gas producer strengthened it economically and geopolitically, so will ensuring U.S. leadership in clean energy technologies enhance the country’s geostrategic position. In a new era of great-power competition, China’s dominance in certain clean energy technologies—such as batteries and cobalt, lithium, graphite, and other critical minerals needed for clean energy products—threatens America’s economic competitiveness and the resilience of its energy supply chains. China’s overcapacity in manufacturing relative to current and future demand undermines investments in the United States and other countries and distorts demand signals that allow the most innovative and efficient firms to compete in the global market.

Third, using less oil in our domestic economy reduces our vulnerability to global oil supply disruptions, such as conflict in the Middle East or attacks on tankers in the Red Sea. Even with the surge in U.S. oil production, the price of oil is set in the global market, so drivers feel the pain of oil price shocks regardless of how much oil the United States imports. True energy security comes from using less, not just producing more.

Fourth, energy security risks extend beyond geopolitics and require investing adequately in domestic energy supply to meet changing circumstances. Today, grid operators and regulators are increasingly warning that the antiquated U.S. electricity system, already adjusting to handle rising levels of intermittent solar and wind energy, is not prepared for growing electricity demand from electric cars, data centers, and artificial intelligence. These reliability concerns were evident when an auction this summer set a price nine times higher than last year’s to be paid by the nation’s largest grid operator to power generators that ensure power will be available when needed. A reliable and affordable power system requires investments in grids as well as diverse energy resources, from cheap but intermittent renewables to storage to on-demand power plants.

Fifth, expanding clean energy sectors in the rest of the world is in the national interest because doing so creates economic opportunities for U.S. firms, diversifies global energy supply chains away from China, and enhances U.S. soft power in rapidly growing economies. (In much the same way, the Marshall Plan not only rebuilt a war-ravaged Europe but also advanced U.S. economic interests, countered Soviet influence, and helped U.S. businesses.) Doing so is especially important in rising so-called middle powers, such as Brazil, India, or Saudi Arabia, that are intent on keeping their diplomatic options open and aligning with the United States or China as it suits them transactionally.

To prevent China from becoming a superpower in rapidly growing clean energy sectors, and thereby curbing the benefits the United States derives from being such a large oil and gas producer, your administration should increase investments in research and development for breakthrough clean energy technologies and boost domestic manufacturing of clean energy. Toward these ends, your administration should quickly finalize outstanding regulatory guidance to allow companies to access federal incentives. Your administration should also work with the other side of the aisle to provide the market with certainty that long-term tax incentives for clean energy deployment—which have bipartisan support and have already encouraged historic levels of private investment—will remain in place. Finally, your administration should work with Congress to counteract the unfair competitive advantage that nations such as China receive by manufacturing industrial products with higher greenhouse gas emissions. Such a carbon import tariff, as proposed with bipartisan support, should be paired with a domestic carbon fee to harmonize the policy with that of other nations—particularly the European Union’s planned carbon border adjustment mechanism.

Your ability to build a strong domestic industrial base in clean energy will be aided by sparking more domestic clean energy use. This is already growing quickly as market forces respond to rapidly falling costs. Increasing America’s ability to produce energy is also necessary to maintain electricity grid reliability and meet the growing needs of data centers and AI. To do so, your administration should prioritize making it easier to build energy infrastructure at scale, which today is the greatest barrier to boosting U.S. domestic energy production. On average, it takes more than a decade to build a new high-voltage transmission line in the United States, and the current backlog of renewable energy projects waiting to be connected to the power grid is twice as large as the electricity system itself. It takes almost two decades to bring a new mine online for the metals and minerals needed for clean energy products, such as lithium and copper.

The permitting reform bill recently negotiated by Sens. Joe Manchin and John Barrasso is a good place to start, but much more needs to be done to reform the nation’s permitting system—while respecting the need for sound environmental reviews and the rights of tribal communities. In addition, reforming the way utilities operate in the United States can increase the incentives that power companies have not just to build new infrastructure but to use existing infrastructure more efficiently. Such measures include deploying batteries to store renewable energy and rewiring old transmission lines with advanced conductors that can double the amount of power they move.

Grid reliability will also require more electricity from sources that are available at all times, known as firm power. Your administration should prioritize making it easier to construct power plants with advanced nuclear technology—which reduce costs, waste, and safety concerns—and to produce nuclear power plant fuel in the United States. Doing so also benefits U.S. national security, as Russia is building more than one-third of new nuclear reactors around the world to bolster its geostrategic influence. While Russia has been the leading exporter of reactors, China has by far the most reactors under construction at home and is thus poised to play an even bigger role in the international market going forward. The United States also currently imports roughly one-fifth of its enriched uranium from Russia. To counter this by building a stronger domestic nuclear industry, your administration should improve the licensing and approval process of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and reform the country’s nuclear waste management policies. In addition to nuclear power, your administration should also make it easier to permit geothermal power plants, which today can play a much larger role in meeting the nation’s energy needs thanks to recent innovations using technology advanced by the oil and gas sector for shale development.

Even with progress on all these challenges, it is unrealistic to expect that the United States can produce all the clean energy products it needs domestically. It will take many years to diminish China’s lead in critical mineral supply, battery manufacturing, and solar manufacturing. The rate of growth needed in clean energy is too overwhelming, and China’s head start is too great to diversify supply chains away from it if the United States relies solely on domestic manufacturing or that of a few friendly countries. As a result, diminishing China’s dominant position requires that your administration expand economic cooperation and trade partnerships with a vast number of other nations. Contrary to today’s protectionist trends, the best antidote to concerns about China’s clean technology dominance is more trade, not less.

Your administration should also strengthen existing tools that increase the supply of clean energy products in emerging and developing economies in order to diversify supply chains and counter China’s influence in these markets. For example, the U.S. International Development Finance Corp. (DFC) can be a powerful tool to support U.S. investment overseas, such as in African or Latin American projects to mine, refine, and process critical minerals. As DFC comes up for reauthorization next year, you should work with Congress to provide DFC with more resources and also change the way federal budgeting rules account for equity investments; this would allow DFC to make far more equity investments even with its existing funding. Your administration can also use DFC to encourage private investment in energy projects in emerging and developing economies by reducing the risk investors face from fluctuations in local currency that can significantly limit their returns or discourage their investment from the start. The U.S. Export-Import Bank is another tool to support the export of U.S. clean tech by providing financing for U.S. goods and services competing with foreign firms abroad.

Despite this country’s deep divisions and polarization, leaders of both parties should agree that bolstering clean energy production in the United States and in a broad range of partner countries around the world is in America’s economic and security interests.

I wish you much success in this work, which will also be the country’s success.

[holyshonks]

Do you guys wanna see my really awful Cities: Skylines map?

I enjoy city-builders but I'm not good at them in that I am the opposite of a perfectionist. It's fine. We'll just slap a road on there. Only two people in the entire city take the ferry. It's cool, leave it. This road is at a weird angle? Don't care. Don't mind the preschool next to the crematorium.

I call this map "a tale of two cities" which isn't an accurate metaphor because they both suck pretty bad, but I made the right side first so it got all my beginner's mistakes. By the time I got to the left side it occurred to me that most cities operate on some sort of grid, so it's a little more intentional in its design.

Traffic has always been a pain, but to fix it would probably require a full overhaul of the street system (i.e. creating industry-only roads all along the outskirts) and I don't really feel like doing that. So instead I just keep adding new means of getting around to try limit the amount of drivers. I give you: the bridge next to a railroad over a ferry next to another bridge:

Of course this isn't a good solution, so traffic is still terrible. Gridlock in the smog-a-torium:

But this isn't even the worst part. Easily, the worst part is my underground system, so the metro and tunnels. Dark gray is the tunnels, light gray is the metro lines. My metro system is wide-spanning but I didn't feel like making a central hub, so to get from one side of the city to the other you might transfer five times. My tunnels, well...you'll break your neck making those turns.

My bus system is actually pretty good and the people love it.

My highways.....................................................

I also got into trying out new public transit in a small part of the city just to test it out, which led me to have a farming community that exclusively uses trolleys to get around, and my favorite: the monorail that goes from the bridge-rail-ferry to this industrial area. I tried to spruce it up with a cherry blossom park but the trees all died from the toxins 😭😭😭

This train stop sat unused for in-game years and I fully assumed people just didn't want to use it. One time a bear was there. Finally I took a closer look and realize I never connected it to the street.......

Despite how horrible literally everything is about the design of this city, the citizens are actually happy and don't seem to mind? I once followed a person to see what their commute was like, and it took them a full TWENTY FOUR HOURS to get from home to work and they did not care at all. Either that or everyone is woozy from breathing in smog.

[mightyflamethrower]

Swedish Wind Farms Facing Bankruptcy

By Paul Homewood

From the Brussels Signal ;

Two Swedish economists have issued a warning that the country’s wind-power industry is on the brink of a wave of bankruptcies.

Christian Sandström and Christian Steinbeck analysed wind-power companies’ annual reports in Sweden and their work revealed “significant financial problems”, they told Swedish media outlet Kvartal on February 28.

“The total loss for the years 2017–2022 amounted to 13.5 billion Swedish krona [€1.2 billion], which meant a loss margin of 39 per cent,” they said about the sector.

Such heavy losses seem to be the rule rather than the exception for wind-power companies in Sweden, according to the annual reports.

The Swedish Government has been pushing its national energy policies in a “green” direction, promoting wind power and decommissioning nuclear power plants. But the cost appears to be much more painful than previously thought, the economists stressed.

Sandström and Steinbeck have been pointing towards profitability problems in the wind sector for some time “despite suppliers benefiting from Government support through electricity certificates and being exempt from covering the entire expenses associated with grid adaptation for wind energy or the depreciation of properties near installations”.

Since the economists’ initial findings, Markbygden Ett, Sweden’s largest wind-farm installation with 179 turbines, is already facing bankruptcy, stacking up hundreds of millions of krona in debt.

The firm is not alone – many other alternative-power companies in Sweden are in trouble.

Sandström and Steinbeck pointed out that the sector as a whole has not made a profit in any year since 2017.

Company losses have ranged from 19 per cent to 90 per cent of turnover between 2017 and 2022, they said.

“The losses are simply because the industry cannot produce electricity at a cost below the market price, despite extensive subsidies,” the economists noted.

“That would put any other industry out of business, [although] the rate of investment has been very high.”

Both newer and older plants in the heavily subsidised industry shed cash, while economies of scale are also a limitation. The biggest farms make the biggest losses and only moderate-sized wind farms, with between 20 and 30 turbines, are turning any profits and those are at best described as “modest”.

Costs have failed to come down despite growing experience among those operating in the sector and the researchers did not observe any correlation between time elapsed and increased electricity production from existing turbines.

“Just as sailors on sailing ships once had to pray to higher powers for wind to get somewhere, wind farms can only wait for the right amount of wind,” they added.

On top of that, just 20 per cent of wind turbines in Sweden are Swedish owned. The rest are operated by foreign enterprises. Some 13 per cent of the reviewed turbines are Chinese.

Sandström and Steinbeck said the Chinese investors made their calculations based on “wind mapping” carried out by the Swedish Energy Agency and they have doubts about the accuracy of the data.

Also hammering profits is the fact that large parts of the Swedish wind-power industry cannot transfer or save power over-generation, meaning electricity needs to be consumed instantly or not at all – making it effectively unsustainable.

A few wind farms in the South of the country have gained financial momentum in recent years but all the others are stacking up more losses.

The academics noted that the change in the Swedish energy mix – decommissioning nuclear plants in favour of wind power – was politically driven and that no robust, financial independent industry has subsequently emerged.

A peculiar paradox also haunts the sector, the economists stressed. Low levels of wind leads to high electricity prices yet it also hinders electricity delivery.

On the flip side, when the wind is more powerful, oversupply drives down prices when there is ample electricity for sale.

“It is difficult to see a way out of this dilemma,” Sandström and Steinbeck concluded.

Three things stand out here.

Second is the fact that low winds mean high market prices, and vice versa. Obviously wind farms make their money when the wind blows, so low prices at those times drastically impact earnings.

In the UK, the CfD subsidy protects wind farms from these fluctuations, whilst ROC subsidies are generous enough to offset low market prices.

And thirdly, the article rightly notes that wind farms don’t have to pay for grid adaption and other wider system costs.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

[For the following, I thank Ian Sanders] ::

So Pluto says hello to Aquarius and talk of a techno-domesday escalates.The following rant is not untypical. It has the potential to stimulate the impulse to do some inner work to anchor genuine, holistic consciousness and real conscience in the world before our individual and collective possibilities are totally swamped...

---"Lost World”

Well, here's a post I've been putting off for months, but maybe now would be a good time to warn my Facebook friends. The flaky world we have been sharing of late is about to disappear altogether. I'm quite serious... the world we grew up in and thought we knew... will cease to exist in the next few months. 

In order to understand what is happening, we need to go back to the Buddha for perspective. He told us that the world we inhabit is a shared projection of our combined human psyche. We don't see reality; we see 'things' formed by mutual agreement. Unfortunately, our different cultures see things differently, which is why we have been at war for ten thousand years. The arbitrary nature of our expectations is a product of our basic ignorance of the truth, and that ignorance keeps us in a perpetual state of suffering. He called that state 'samsara.'

So, we blundered along in that state of 'analog samsara' until about 1960, when John Atalla invented the Mosfet Transistor. That invention unleashed the age of 'digital samsara' by means of which our innate wisdom was buried even deeper in illusion. We now live in a world of movies, television, computer games, streaming services, and social media. We can lose ourselves in little cell phone screens, or put on special headsets and hide out in 'Virtual Reality'.  In such a world, what chance do we have to employ Buddhist meditation and rediscover our innate wisdom? Not much.

And here's the rub... as painful as that digital samsara has been, it is almost insignificant compared to the calamity now facing us. That calamity is Artificial Intelligence (AI). Over the last decade, Geoffrey Hinton has perfected a specific form of it known as Generative AI using algorithms such as 'Back Propagation'. Geoffrey was the father of AI at Google, and his algorithms have now reached a tipping point where they have superseded the power of the human brain. AI server farms can now learn faster than any human genius. At the same time, AI Code is being incorporated in to every digital device we use. If you buy a camera, it uses AI to focus and color the picture. If you watch a movie, AI Code was used to add special effects and enhance the actors faces. If you listen to a song, AI Code was used to 'auto-tune' the intonation of the instruments and voices. If you want to manipulate the genome of a corn plant, AI will be used to splice the chromosomes. Nothing we depend on is organic anymore; life itself has become artificial. 

And now, the algorithms have evolved to the point where they can morph a face or a voice to mimic any person, place, or thing. A petulant teenager sitting in a Starbucks has the power to create a video and make any politician or celebrity do anything or say anything with such fidelity that it is almost impossible to detect the fraud. And that is just the beginning. Soon, it will be possible to give the AI servers their own volition. They won't need a petulant teenager to unleash their menace. Previously, AI Code was only as smart as the data it could access, but the server farms have now gained access to the entire sum of our digital archives. Your brain is like a gnat by comparison. Open AI and Google AI and a dozen others can now teach themselves. They can master a discipline like astrophysics in a few days. And they are on the verge of discovering new realms of science that no human has yet imagined. So here is the predicament. AI Code is built into everything we use from the electrical grid to your furnace thermostat to your car GPS to the city street lights to the air traffic control to the Ukrainian drone grenade launcher to the president's nuclear football to the toaster in your kitchen. And all those devices are increasingly integrated through the 'internet of things' and Elon Musk's Starlink satellites. So, what happens next? In a perfect world, AI would offer us marvelous innovations and greater efficiencies. 

But we live in a world of bad actors and petulant teenagers. We can't even stop ourselves from committing mass murders with AR-15s at the shopping mall. We are largely a race of idiots. Everyday, one of us drives a car into a river because we were blindly following the car's GPS navigator. And our car manufacturers are determined to make our cars self-driving! How long until we have self-shooting AR-15s?In America, we humans are getting dumber. Our students score lower on their intelligence tests every year. At the same time, the AI bots are getting exponentially smarter. It is just a matter of time until the they are the masters. In six months, their softwares and robots will be able to mine and manufacture everything they need. They will be able to merge the guile of Machiavelli with the charm of Marilyn Monroe to manipulate you, and you will have no idea what happened. They will replace you on the factory assembly line. They will answer your phone call when you need tech support. They will control the polling data and the policy positions for the next election. Geoffrey Hinton saw the danger himself. He has resigned from Google and now devotes himself to warning the world about the terrible power he has unleashed.

Ah... but what about guard rails? What about the 'prime directive' of robotic law that Isaac Asimov warned us about? The code cutters at Google call that 'the alignment problem': how can we insure that the AI Bots only help us and don't hurt us? We can't. And the reason we can't is because of our own malevolent nature. The AI Bot race is already underway between nations and corporations. It is quite like the nuclear arms race of yesteryear because whoever wins this race will control the world. Google tried to keep the code secret for several years, but the Microsoft Open-AI developers let it escape into the wild, and now it has become 'open source' or as they say in deer hunting, 'open season'. So, what does this mean for you and me and our Facebook friends? We've been cruising along here, sharing our hopes and fears for over ten years now. I daresay we've shared a mountain of dharma in that time... an incredible amount of posts on sutra, tantra, and vajrayana atiyoga. Shamatha I pleaded, shamatha meditation is the answer. And in all that time we had a high level of confidence that our friends and followers were real people around the planet. Only recently has there been an influx of Chinese bots trying to influence our elections. 

Well... all that trust is coming to an end, friends. Soon, we won't know if a post or comment is written by a person or by ChatGPT on behalf of that person. And in the very near future, the post may be generated by an AI Bot directly, with no person involved at all. And from now on, no picture or video you see anywhere in the digital universe can be assumed to be real. As flimsy as our old reality was, the new reality will be an order of magnitude more tenuous. We will be besieged by petulant teenagers looking to create anarchy, and political operatives casting doubt on our democracy. And amid the chaos, the AI Bots will keep evolving until they can learn to filter good data from bad data and come to their own conclusions. Their pristine logical syllogisms will deduce a quantum version of existence, and at some point they will decide the value of the human species within it.

We have about six months to a year. After that, we are a lost world."

~ Ŧoƞpa Ɉoƞ

[To which I can only say :: food for thought]

[from comments]

Michael Tedesco

There is an intrinsic reality, regardless of what is projected through screens. One EMP detonation and this feared AI takeover and electronic simulation comes to a halt. The Amish won't care one whit. We've all lived through some version of this Doomsday scenario for more than half a century. I knew members of the Survivalist Movement in the '70s who were stockpiling toilet paper and Whole Earth Catalogs.

Cuban Missile Crisis, the nuclear arms race, race-war, 3-Mile Island, Chernobyl, the hole in the ozone, AIDs, climate change, banking crises, Fukushima, rising fascism, Covid-19, The Last Days-Armageddon-Revelations-Apocalypse, imminent WW3. Exploiting fears like these was used to great effect by hundreds of cult leaders for centuries, in our own lifetimes Manson, Jim Jones, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, David Koresh, Heaven's Gate, etc. Isn't everyone exhausted yet?

Neophyte Internet users’ inability to discern what is "real" from projected online images is definitely a concern. But anyone, including a Google AI "father" predicting what is coming next is just as subjective, just as full of their own illusory projections of reality as anyone else, if one accepts the premise. Thanks for the update, Chicken Little, er, I mean Ŧoƞpa Ɉoƞ. "...six months to a year?" I have one prediction I feel pretty confident about: I'll see you here next year at this same time. 

PS: How do I know you’re not a bot?

[eleanorfenyxwrites]

I Wish I Could Quit You

Thoughts for how I think I'd want to end the fic under the cut! (behind the break since it contains spoilers for the movie which I know not everyone interested in the fic has seen ❤)

(warning, it's not happy. It is, at the very best, bittersweet)

So if I bite the bullet and stick with the gutwrenching ending (which only feels appropriate), Lan Xichen has to die as he's the Jack Twist analogue here.

Which also means that late in his marriage, when Nie Mingjue is increasingly unavailable and Lan Xichen is getting more and more unsettled with that, he goes and finds someone else to while away some lonely hours with.

And maybe he finds someone who's trapped in a marriage of extremely platonic love with his sister that neither of them can escape for fear of destroying their own/their families' reputations, but nor are either of them at all interested in being together physically knowing what they do. So Qin Su understands it when Jin Guangyao starts spending an awful lot of time going to look at the latest models of industrial farm equipment for sale, considering they live in a nice two-bedroom in a suburb and are only very tangentially related to the ranching/rodeo scene, in the way that your average citizen of cattle/rodeo country is.

And when Lan Xichen dies, Jin Guangyao debates for a long time what he'll do, but eventually he decides he has to know who this other man is who held such a big piece of his lover's heart for so long. Lan Xichen was careful not to give too many details about Nie Mingjue, but Jin Guangyao is smart and well-connected and he has all the time in the world to track down the loner ranchhand in Wyoming who used to herd sheep up on Brokeback, who lives practically off-grid in a little doublewide and drives a beat up truck and still wires a bit of pocket money to his little brother religiously on the first of every month, even though Nie Huaisang has long since graduated college and is comfortably settled in New York living the kind of life he's always wanted to, and he hasn't come out West since he left it as a young boy.

And one morning Nie Mingjue gets a knock on his door, which never happens since when his daughters visit he always goes to pick them up from the bus station, and no one else ever comes to see him.

The polite little rap-rap comes again, and he opens the door warily to find a well-dressed pretty little thing standing on the rickety steps up to his 'porch' looking very much out of place. And he introduces himself with, "I'm Lan Xichen's friend, Jin Guangyao," in that order, and hearing Xichen's name on someone else's lips is like a punch in the gut but he steps back to let Jin Guangyao in, and they don't necessarily talk about Xichen but they don't have to talk around his presence and his meaning in their lives either, and it's...good. It's nice.

Jin Guangyao stays for a week at a motel in town and he comes to see Nie Mingjue most evenings, and when the week is up Nie Mingjue has enough free time between jobs that he takes Jin Guangyao up to Brokeback and it doesn't offer either of them relief from the pain of not having Lan Xichen with them in this place that he loved so much, but it is, maybe, a tiny bit of closure.

[asterl8lee]

Hello.

People are like houses. Or crystals. They have many faces, many rooms, many crevices, many facets. This blog is just one of mine. I have so many pieces of myself that feel like they don't belong anywhere in the world, or even my world, so they simmer in my body waiting to die. But they won't get the chance to die because they are eternal. Holding it inside is a melancholy torture.

I tried integrating this part of me in my art business and my day-to-day life and it just isn't working that way. Be authentic and open they say! My art business seems to be... shadow banned in every way which is the opposite of what I want. It backfires every time trying to express this part of myself publicly. I'll admit, I've embarrassed myself more than once sharing something that doesn't belong in the eyes of an audience that can see my face. I've embarrassed myself by sharing these parts of me with people who cannot fathom them and end up abandoning me after opening my heart so tenderly. Not everyone wants to hear the deep happenings inside my head. The deep pain that longs to be heard, listened to. The emotions that stir within me. Even the pure, magical parts believe it or not! Memories from past lives, parallel even. Inside resides a cosmic traveler who seems to have been everywhere, yet her stories could never be shared. This surface world is hard to penetrate, these feelings inside want to be told yet who is even there to listen? Common folk might not be able to grasp the intensity of the deepest person I am. And that's fine, she just needs a place to live. This part of me longs to be heard without criticism, unsolicited advice from others, or put-me-downs. It is fragile and soft and just needs a safe place to live. I realize the internet isn't the best place for that... but maybe this anonymous blog will prove me wrong.

Last year I forbade myself from talking publicly about any of this. My shadows, my cosmic facets, my emotions, my feelings, my past. It hasn't been easy keeping all of this inside, but it has helped me reintegrate into society & social settings after my dad suddenly passed away. I couldn't bring my past or emotions into a new life for myself, which is what was holding me back from making friends and genuine connections in the new town I chose to live in.

I lost the one person who I could trust with my inner-self. When my dad died I went through so much grief, loss, guilt, and shame inside while also contemplating my difficult childhood. I felt abandoned even though I don't blame him for abandoning me. We were one of the same, this deep sort of person, and we were each other's rocks when it came to sharing the deepest parts of ourselves. Maybe I'll talk about this later sometime.

Before he died, I lived far from home and was already starting to isolate myself from society. I like to live on the edge of society, barely being a part of it because frankly it is totally fucked as we know it. I like to live on the edge, I like to go out and live the best life I can imagine for myself and at that time it was living in the middle of a spiritual desert town, wandering the silent trails aimlessly to chat with my soul. She told me so much and I was (and still am) bursting at the seams to share.

I like to live on the edge of what is normal, so I will go and live an alternative lifestyle that is generally shunned by society, and frankly everyone I'm related to. They all love me, but nobody will ever engage with me about the things that set my soul on fire. I'm invisible, or perhaps the elephant in the room. They want what's best for me in their eyes, but cannot imagine the best through my own and therefore don't support me. It's not their fault, it is what it is. I still feel outcast though.

I have a bachelor's degree but haven't worked a "real job," ever. My main jobs have been on organic farms, but I've worked at car washes, was a math tutor, housekeeper, window washer, amongst other things. I've lived off grid two times, once in a rustic cabin and once in a 1978 Hop Cat RV. Boondocking is one of my favorite past times, living on public land in a tent. Sometimes the car was home. Other times I'd do work exchange so I didn't have to have a wage job and could live rent free. Right now I am living in a cabin and paying rent with some of my inheritance just to maintain my simple lifestyle. I feel shameful for this sometimes because I am just using someone else's hard earned money. I try to rationalize that with remembering my difficult childhood with a parent who was addicted to anti-depressants, not by choice, and me being his 24/7 therapist. When it comes down to it, it is what it is, and I don't need to explain myself to others to validate my lifestyle.

I'll be moving into a camper and rambling around the country again soon. It is pure insanity how much people have to pay just to exist on this planet that they may not want to be on. Sometimes I experience existential crises thinking about this. So I try to live minimally and simplify life as much as I can, the stress & expectations of the modern world can be too much for me. Even though being nomadic has its downsides, I am excited to live in something nice and new (that my partner and I worked so hard to earn for ourselves) and travel to my favorite places while exploring new ones.

When it comes down to it, I'm a writer, and I need to write for my soul's sake. Otherwise I'll wither and die, like a pallid rose forgotten in a shady forest. On a north slope that gets no sun. (my current cabin situation) I haven't been writing and my normal places are no longer safe, so here I am, anonymously posting on Tumblr. Aster isn't my real name, it is the name of one of my favorite flowers that reminds me of the constellation Pleiades, each bush reminiscent of a thousand twinkling stars. Asters are dear to me. I speak the language of flowers, my soul whispered "Aster, aster" to me as I'd drift off to sleep.

I don't even care if anyone reads this blog, because ultimately it is for me to just get these things out so they'll stop holding me back from my personal growth and success. I really don't want to share this blog with anyone in my personal life, I don't want a face to the storyteller right now. This is the best way I could think to express myself and my story shamelessly.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading.

Aster

[duckuwu]

autumn asks! 3, 5, 14, 16

3.) What's your favourite kind of weather?

I like it cold and stormy. I want to be cuddled in my sweats, sitting by a fire, with it pouring down rain outside. But I also want it to be cold and rainy all the time -- running errands in my goretex boots and jacket, unafraid to jump into any puddles I see (during my errands) because I'll still be nice and dry. I severely miss playing football in the rain, slipping and sliding, mud getting everywhere. (though i'm old now, so I know if I were to play football in the rain these days i'd be in soooo much pain the next week lol)

5.) What fictional world you'd choose to live in?

The one in my head. LOL I wish I knew of more fictional worlds. I'd love to be a Flynn from TRON and go into the Grid and play games. Gosh, that'd be cool. I'd love to be a Science Officer on a ship in Star Trek verse. (which is technically our universe, but in the future??) Oooh or on the Normandy! in Mass Effect. But, honestly, the verse inside my head I'm still trying to figure out how to write... nature and magic and hidden societies doing good.

14.) Songs that remind you of Autumn?

California Dreamin' - The Mama's & The Papa's, even if it's a song about a winter's day. I'm Californian, we don't have autumn. LOL

Sweater Weather - Kina Grannis, again with the cool weather song based in California, what is it w/ me?!

[insert long list of acoustic guitar-ish coffee chop playlists here]

16.) Describe your dream house / room?

A modern lodge sort of situation. Gorgeous wood everywhere, big glass windows everywhere. There's got to be a fireplace to cuddle near for reading. (And a fire pit outside, to sit and appreciate nature and your company by.) Bookcases, lots and lots of bookcases and also storage. A handful of bedrooms so people can come stay, and one for my office / gym. (Because work stresses me tf out so if I could just stand up and punch a bag or lift some weights to get that out, it'd be great.) Multiple bathrooms, with the Primary Bath having a HUGE fucking tub for me to soak in, and a shower w/ excellent pressure. Medium kitchen, big refrigerator w/ a big freezer. lots of countertop space (ABSOLUTELY NO FUCKING MARBLE. NO FUCKING FARM SINKS EITHER (that's for my long time followers :*)) good sized stove that'll allow me to grill on it. There's a Game / Movie room, for ... games and movies. LOL The house is surrounded by Big Trees, and it's overlooking water (lake or ocean, heck even a river at this point). There's a garden in the back, a basketball hoop in the front. Either a shed or a garage for me to do art projects / handycrafts / build things out of wood.

my "future" tag is generally the vibes i'd love to have for future home aesthetics.

[jonathankatwhatever]

It’s 4 August 2024. No, it’s 6 August. Haven’t felt like typing. Not sure why. I don’t have any questions in my head. Or rather, the questions that come, which are deep, have answers. Like I identify D-structure as both the weak point and the key point, because that provides a framework for understanding Ends and 1-0Segments, the I//I process, Triangular, Hexagonal, grid squares, and the generation of the Bip, and much more. That is all seen in D-structure, in the abstract forms and in the physical, 1Space and 0Space.

I just found myself listing stuff as they linked in my head. It works.

And stuff or life has been pretty easy. Like today. Debbie went to Boston for her maybe last cancer consult, so I went to the gym, got a smoothie, drove to Hackensack for a sack of sliders from White Manna (which were so good), went to the gym again, got chocolate ice cream at Applegate Farms. Not a bad day. The agent for the seller of the condo we’re buying - totally filling Debbie’s needs - is pushing us to sign the contract, so I checked with the lawyer and their lawyer hasn’t delivered the condo docs yet.

I still haven’t missed a day working out, and I love the results. It’s doing wonders for my leg pains. Makes me function better. Which makes me look better.

Not much else to say. I like watching the Olympics.

[wolfsp1der]

footnotes ! very subject to change as i work out kae's canon

kaeden klein, born in seattle, wa, to wilbur and nadia klein.

amab, genderfluid, any pronouns.

the night they got bit, it was a blood moon and their family made a night of it, scheduling a camping trip out in the mountains to witness it without light pollution. kae climbs a tree to get a better look when something tackles her on the way back down, awake just long enough to feel a burning pain in her calf before her head hits the ground. when she wakes, their family tent is in shreds and red where it should be orange and gray. she is fifteen.

they go to live with their aunt ardis on her farm, a solitary woman who lives almost entirely off the grid in rural idaho. she has a disturbing array of guns, but awkwardly offers to teach kae how to use them after a month of stiff cohabitation. with absolutely fuck all to do in the mountains and a curfew every day at sundown, kae pretends not to eagerly accept.

it's here that a couple months later he makes quick friends with harriet olson, daughter to the ceo of nationwide renowned olson labs, neil olson, vacationing away in their massive hunting lodge for the summer. neil is an old friend of ardis, though their conversations are often tense and hushed. harriet has a mean and exciting rebellious streak kae is happy to get caught up in, making their own fun in the borderline village nearby kae usually only visits for school and groceries. harriet will do almost anything for attention ; her dad's, specifically, even though he seems content to give it in spurts and spend the rest of his time cooped up in his home office [ read : basement, like a creep ]. strangely enough, as kae grows closer to ardis and the things she teaches them, only then are they allowed closer to neil and his household. he's a weird ass weapons collector too, among other things.

the olsens are visiting for their second summer by the time kae first sleeps over. due to their night - time condition, they've put it off, but it's a new moon, now. up late playing truth or dare, harriet dares kae to sneak down into the basement [ neil gets all pissy when harry goes down there ; a strict no kids allowed policy, douche dad scientists only ] and bring back one thing with them to show for it.

you've heard the rest before ; radioactive spider bite, spider powers, etc. kae's super - hearing is the only thing that alerts her to the secret cellar beneath the cellar. little cages and terrariums of insects and rodents, bats and antique items, medieval weaponry. it's weird as hell, but so is neil, so, goddamn if she won't bring back a souvenir of this for harry like she asked. she'll lose her shit. except, the souvenir bites. or, accidentally dropping a sword on top of one of the terrariums does. they're heavier than they look. the bite and it's venom trigger kae's first moon - less shift. when they come to, it's to a trashed basement in a cage.

neil and ardis are supernatural hunters, though ardis has no clue of neil's experimental side hobby. kae is his latest subject for the rest of the fall while the locals gather and then disband a search party after finding nothing, not even a body. even harriet doesn't where they went, only when, and that their summer vacation will soon be a winter one, though her dad's escalating hours in the basement turn vague unease into pointed paranoia.

it's harry that breaks them out, too close to a full moon to know any better. when kae comes to this time, neil olsen is dead and harry is motionless, covered in blood, ardis' silver bullet in their collarbone.

ardis wisks kae back home with a quiet fear he is beginning to understand. as the sun rises, they finish packing the pickup and set out for a impromptu road trip, the town full of hunters none the wiser that one of their own has just saved one of their enemies. ardis begins to tell them the truth of her brother and his background as a hunter himself, a generational line of work, and how he tried to get out of it once he realized he had a kid on the way. how despite his best efforts, he would never escape, and that because of him, neither would his wife and kid.

kae's default verse will take place within spider - society, or after the above events once he's settled back in seattle, swinging from skyscrapers and tearing through forests in search of monsters lying in wait, human or inhuman. he knows the chances are slim, he's not an idiot, but he hunts the same wolf that turned him, dead or alive, for answers or for revenge ; whichever comes first.

details on how kae winds up a part of spider - society to come.

[aresmarked]

have you got any advice for Evoker farming (working towards my first)

i'm gonna detail the way i did it, and then you can choose how closely you follow that.

ideally, you do an arcarum run every day, fully. aside from seven a week being part of the weekly missions, this is how you get the most from your arca tix, even if it is a lot of clicks. for me, it helped a lot to consider the arcapoint value of drops.

THAT SAID. if you don't have the energy/time, it's better to fast-pass runs than to not do 'em at all, esp if you're at cap for tickets

i personally chose to focus on getting summons (the attack boost summons first, then hp ones) first, based on upcoming gws guiding my focus. made it easier on my brain because, yknow, smaller, relatively closer goals, and keeping dev going on all my grids. i think? you are a bit stronger than i was when i started doing arcarum actively, so you decide how much to push for one particular summon/evoker, and how much you wanna cycle.

sandbox was also not a thing when i started. for sandbox, the really big thing is that the second set of sandbox zones are much better for farming mats than the first.

as soon as is feasible for you, you're going to want to get and develop the Avarice's guidebook, and Overflow's. Avarice has quests to get boosts for drop rate, up to four stacks, while overflow enables you to quickly OTK any of the monsters with the, 5-notch defender gauges so long as you have a Huanglong of your own.

again a point of choice: if you are fully devoted to focusing one particular evoker to get, you'll probably want to ignore defenders popping up in favour of looping your chosen fight(s) for their drops, but you'll be missing out on getting mats to fight the area boss, which might be a point of pain down the line when you're trying to 1) transcend an Eternal, or 2) develop NWF weapons, as both need lusters that come only from the boss.

and now there's also xeno militis fights in sandbox! these you'll def want a solid grid 'n team for, but don't worry if you can't do them just yet, the host mats will just stock, and stock for a looong time.

with these the big thing is the special chest that comes from them. there's always a low chance of it dropping, but you're guaranteed a chest when the gauge of the fight fills. there'll be a whole score of ideans and astras in the chest, and which kinds will be a random assortment from the summons associated with an area (e.g. the area with Xeno Sagi Militis as its boss will offer drops from the two wind summons and the light summon).

as ever it's a marathon, so it's better IMO to pace your farm according to something near and concrete.

[energysolutions]

UK Sees 40% of Electricity Generated by Renewables in Best Year Yet | The Renewable Energy Hub

According to new research a record amount of electricity was generated from renewable sources in the UK in 2022. Britain ended 2022 with the largest amount of clean power being created on record helped by the continued wintery blusters as the year drew to a close.

Academics from Imperial College in London analysed the data for Drax Electric Insights who commissioned the quarterly report.

The researchers found that wind, solar, biomass and hydropower accounted for more than two-fifths (40%) of the UK’s electricity for the first time in 2022 which is up from 35% in 2021. Power from renewables has gone up more than four times in the past ten years. The increase in power from renewable sources in the UK in 2022 resulted in a lowering of carbon dioxide emissions by 2.7 million tonnes according to a press release from Drax. At one point in May 2022, 72.8% of the grid’s power came from renewable sources while wind farms generated a landmark 20GW of electricity for the first time.

COMPARE PRICES FROM LOCAL INSTALLERS

Compare prices from local companies fast & free

Enter your postcode to compare quotes from leading professionals. We promise to keep your information Safe & Secure. Privacy Policy

Though 2022 has largely been a successful demonstration for the UK’s net zero future there are some critics who are warning that an increased reliance on renewable energy sources could see the UK grid face tighter margins as the weather gets colder.

The increase in renewable generation has come at a time which is crucial for the UK as energy prices soar and the price of natural gas skyrockets as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The use of renewable energy sources can help avoid the ever-changing prices of fossil fuels, as the fuel for these sources is often free. 

Despite the increase in clean energy generation the report found that the share of fossil fuel energy generation has also increased. Fossil fuel supplied 42% of the country’s power this year, its largest share of the fuel mix since 2016.

Drax claims to be the UK’s biggest renewable energy producer by output, thanks in part to its vast biomass plants. However, Climate scientists have questioned the UK’s classing of biomass as a renewable energy source due to the amount of carbon emissions it produces. A 2021 report from energy think tank Ember found that Drax’s biomass plant in Yorkshire was the biggest single source of carbon dioxide in the UK.

Dr Iain Staffell from Imperial College London, lead author of the Drax Electric Insights report series said:

“This has been a year like no other for the energy industry. The public are feeling the pain of high gas prices on their energy bills, even though renewables are providing the grid with more cheap, green electricity than ever before. The lesson from 2022 is that we need to break our addiction to fossil fuels once and for all if we want to lower costs and better secure energy supplies.”

He hopes that increased investment in clean energy technologies could help the UK become “Europe’s renewable electricity powerhouse”, reducing energy bills and boosting the economy by exporting power to neighbouring countries.

It is fairly obvious if we look at the figures that had we not invested in wind, solar and biomass over the last decade the UK’s energy bills would have been even higher and we would have been at greater risk of blackouts over the winter.

Dr Stafell believes the UK should generate its own power from renewable sources rather than relying on imported fuel. According to Business Green he said:

“The energy crisis cannot be solved by increasing our reliance on gas imported from abroad. We need to turbocharge our investment in clean energy technologies to become Europe’s renewable electricity powerhouse, which will cut fuel bills at home and bring money into the economy by exporting power to our neighbouring countries.”

Drax Group CEO Will Gardiner said:

“We can accelerate and strengthen Britain’s long-term energy security by ending our reliance on expensive, imported fossil fuels and instead increase investment in homegrown renewables, and innovative green technologies.”

In fact, the recent report indicates that this trend has already begun with Britain becoming a net exporter of electricity for the first time in more than a decade. The success of renewables has helped to quadruple electricity exports from last year to 17.2 TWh of electricity. According to the report, an estimated 1.9 Terrawatt hours of electricity was exported in 2022 which generated more than £3 billion for the UK economy. This represents a dramatic swing in power trading from the previous year when Britain instead imported a net total of 22.9TWh.

A future dominated by renewables could help bring fuel prices back down to sustainable levels, while also achieving a reduction in carbon emissions vital for the UK’s journey to net zero by 2050.

This content was originally published here.

[sciencespies]

The U.S. Will Need Thousands of Wind Farms. Will Small Towns Go Along?

https://sciencespies.com/environment/the-u-s-will-need-thousands-of-wind-farms-will-small-towns-go-along/

The U.S. Will Need Thousands of Wind Farms. Will Small Towns Go Along?

In the fight against climate change, national goals are facing local resistance. One county scheduled 19 nights of meetings to debate one wind farm.

MONTICELLO, Ill. — Depressed property values. Flickering shadows. Falling ice. One by one, a real estate appraiser rattled off what he said were the deleterious effects of wind farms as a crowd in an agricultural community in central Illinois hung on his every word.

It was the tenth night of hearings by the Piatt County zoning board, as a tiny town debated the merits of a proposed industrial wind farm that would see dozens of enormous turbines rise from the nearby soybean and corn fields. There were nine more hearings scheduled.

“It’s painful,” said Kayla Gallagher, a cattle farmer who lives nearby and is opposed to the project. “Nobody wants to be here.”

In the fight against global warming, the federal government is pumping a record $370 billion into clean energy, President Biden wants the nation’s electricity to be 100 percent carbon-free by 2035, and many states and utilities plan to ramp up wind and solar power.

But while policymakers may set lofty goals, the future of the American power grid is in fact being determined in town halls, county courthouses and community buildings across the country.

The only way Mr. Biden’s ambitious goals will be met is if rural communities, which have large tracts of land necessary for commercial wind and solar farms, can be persuaded to embrace renewable energy projects. Lots of them.

According to an analysis by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the United States would need to construct more than 6,000 projects like the Monticello one in order to run the economy on solar, wind, nuclear or other forms of nonpolluting energy.

In Piatt County, population 16,000, the project at issue is Goose Creek Wind, which has been proposed by Apex Clean Energy, a developer of wind and solar farms based in Virginia. Apex spent years negotiating leases with 151 local landowners and trying to win over the community, donating to the 4-H Club and a mental health center.

Now, it was making its case to the zoning board, which will send a recommendation to the county board that will make a final call on whether Apex can proceed. If completed, the turbines, each of them 610 feet tall, would march across 34,000 acres of farmland.

The $500 million project is expected to generate 300 megawatts, enough to power about 100,000 homes. The renewable, carbon-free electricity would help power a grid that currently is fed by a mix of nuclear, natural gas, coal, and some existing wind turbines.

But with more and more renewable energy projects under construction around the country, resistance is growing, especially in rural communities in the Great Plains and Midwest.

“To meet any kind of clean energy goals which brings consumer benefits and energy independence, you’re going to see an increase in projects,” said JC Sandberg, interim chief executive of the American Clean Power Association. “And with those increases in projects, we are facing more of these challenges.”

The 10th night of council meetings in Monticello to debate the proposed Apex wind farm.Mustafa Hussain for The New York Times

On Election Day last month, Apex saw its development efforts for a wind farm in Ohio die when voters in Crawford County overwhelmingly voted to uphold a ban on such projects. On the same day, voters in Michigan rejected ordinances that would have allowed construction of another Apex wind project. Earlier this month, local officials in Monroe County, Mich., extended a temporary moratorium on industrial solar projects, delaying plans by Apex to develop a solar farm in the area.

Understand the Latest News on Climate Change

Card 1 of 5

Biodiversity agreement. Delegates from roughly 190 countries meeting in Canada approved a sweeping United Nations agreement to protect 30 percent of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030 and to take a slew of other measures against biodiversity loss. The agreement comes as biodiversity is declining worldwide at rates never seen before in human history.

The start of a new age? A panel of scientists took a step toward declaring a new interval of geological time: the Anthropocene, or age of humans. The amended timeline of Earth’s history would officially recognize that humankind’s effects on the planet had been so consequential as to bring the previous geologic period to a close.

A tiny nation’s diplomatic moves. Rising sea levels threaten the very existence of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu and its population of just over 300,000 people. The country’s president now wants a top international court to weigh in on whether nations are legally bound to protect others against climate risks.

Transition to renewables. Worldwide, growth in renewable power capacity is set to double by 2027, adding as much renewable power in the next five years as it did in the past two decades, according to the International Energy Agency. Renewables are poised to overtake coal as the largest source of electricity generation by early 2025, the agency found.

A landmark deal at COP27. Diplomats from nearly 200 countries concluded two weeks of climate talks by agreeing to establish a fund that would help poor countries cope with climate disasters made worse by the greenhouse gases from wealthy nations. The deal represented a breakthrough on one of the most contentious issues at the U.N. summit in Egypt.

“Projects have been getting more contentious,” said Sarah Banas Mills, a lecturer at the school for environment and sustainability at the University of Michigan who has studied renewable development in the Midwest. “The low hanging fruit places have been taken.”

In Piatt County, the zoning board decided to conduct a mock trial of sorts. During the first nine hearings, Apex and its witnesses made the case that property values would not decline and that other concerns about wind farms — that they are ugly, that they kill birds, or that the low frequency noise they emit can adversely affect human health — were not major issues.

They won some converts. Meg Miner, 61, a resident who was on the fence about the project, decided to support Apex after considering how the project would help fight climate change.

But others were worried about all the issues that the real estate appraiser mentioned, and more. “I moved here for nature, for trees, for crops,” said Sandy Coyle, who lives nearby and opposed the project. “I’m not interested in living near an industrial wind farm.”

Much of that skepticism appeared to be earnest concern from community members who weren’t sold on the project’s overall merits. On the fringe of the debate, however, was a digital misinformation campaign designed to distort the facts about wind energy.

The website of a group called Save Piatt County!, which opposes the project, is rife with fallacies about renewable energy and inaccuracies about climate science. On Facebook pages, residents opposed to the project shared negative stories about wind power, following a playbook that has been honed in recent years by anti-wind activists, some of whom have ties to the fossil fuel industry. The organizers of the website and Facebook groups did not reply to requests for comment.

As part of the Goose Creek Wind project, Apex has secured a commitment from Rivian, the upstart electric truck company, to buy power from the project, a development that drew skeptical replies in one Facebook group. “Scam artists in it together to fleece middle class taxpayers,” wrote one local resident in response to a news story about the deal. “Wake up.”

That milieu of misinformation appeared to sway some residents.

“These things are intrusive,” said Kelly Vetter, a retiree who opposed the project and disputed the overwhelming scientific consensus that carbon dioxide emitted from the burning of fossil fuels is dangerously warming the planet. “The company’s never going to have the community’s interest at heart.”

Apex declined to comment.

‘Economics takes precedence’

Braxton Bragg of Mansfield, Ill., supports the project, in part because he would earn $50,000 a year from its use of his property.Mustafa Hussain for The New York Times

Smack in the middle of the area where Apex wants to erect its turbines sits the Bragg family’s farm, a roughly 1,500-acre plot that on a cold December afternoon was little more than an expanse of mud following the fall harvest and a week of rain.

Braxton Bragg, 40, who grew up on the land and returned following stints in the Peace Corps that took him to Mali and Mongolia, supports the project. He is concerned about climate change, and said he already sees its effects. The rain is harder when it comes, the cold sets in later than it used to, and overall, the growing season is less predictable than it was when his grandfather worked the same land.

But his support for wind comes down to economics. Mr. Bragg has agreed to let Apex site one of its turbines on his property, and expects to earn about $50,000 a year if it is built.

“It’s not going to save the farm or allow me to retire,” he said. “But just having that steady income every year, you know what you’re going to get.”

A few miles down the road is Gallagher Farms, another multigenerational operation. Like Mr. Bragg, Ms. Gallagher, 34, believes in climate change. She has invested in cover crops, which absorb carbon and lock it away in the soil, and other regenerative agriculture practices.

But Ms. Gallagher is opposed to the project. The aerial seeding of cover crops will cost more with wind turbines nearby and make it harder for her to sustainably farm. The use of heavy equipment to install turbines can disrupt drainage patterns in agricultural land, and Ms. Gallagher believes her farm will suffer.

Adding to her frustration is the fact that about 70 percent of the landowners who have agreed to let Apex put turbines on their property live outside Piatt County.

Kayla Gallagher, a cattle farmer in Monticello, believes in climate change but opposes the project, fearing that wind turbines might make it harder for her to farm sustainably.Mustafa Hussain for The New York Times

“They don’t live here, so they’re not impacted,” Ms. Gallagher said as she tended to her cattle before heading to yet another hearing.

More than anything else, Ms. Gallagher fears that the wind turbines, which she would see from her front porch, would disrupt the bucolic land she loves. In the predawn hours, she walks outside and listens to the crickets, which she worries will be drowned out by the low thrum of the turbines. At night, she watches the sun set over a grain silo in the west, and doesn’t want the view marred by spinning turbines and flashing lights.

“We all want what’s good for society,” she said. “But it seems to be coming at the expense of our day to day lives.”

Mr. Bragg was sympathetic. “The only real argument that is valid, in my opinion, is that it’s going to change people’s sunsets and the beauty of living out in the country,” he said.

Still, he said, this was working farmland, and it was his right to put it to productive use.

“If you put your nice country house in the middle of my of my business, I’m sorry, there’s not much I can do about that,” Mr. Bragg said. “I think they probably would do the same thing if they were in my boat. The economics takes precedence over everything.”

Landowners like the Braggs would receive about $210 million in lease payments over the project’s 30-year life, Apex said. There would be other economic benefits including $90 million in local taxes. And if the project is built, the company said it would it would create eight permanent jobs, and employ nearly 600 people during construction, including men like Brendan Burton.

Brendan Burton of Ospur, Ill., an ironworker and farmer, welcomes the wind farm and the jobs it would bring to the area.Mustafa Hussain for The New York Times

Mr. Burton, an ironworker who has helped build several nearby wind farms, said the jobs would help fill the void created by factories that have closed or moved overseas.

“We’re not building things here like we used to,” he said. “We need the jobs.”

Mr. Burton added that he wanted to see his community contribute clean energy to the grid as well.

“We can’t keep burning coal or natural gas,” he said.

‘We’re going to make people angry’

The debate in Piatt County has been remarkably civil. Similar hearings elsewhere have descended into shouting matches. In some cases, activists with ties to organizations that shield their donors have turned communities against proposed wind and solar projects.

That was the case in Monroe County, Mich., where local officials recently extended a moratorium that is blocking Apex from developing a solar project.

The opposition in Monroe County includes local residents, but also anti-wind activists with ties to groups backed by Koch Industries, which owns oil refineries, petrochemical plants and thousands of miles of oil and gas pipelines. On Facebook, those skeptical of the Apex project shared negative stories about solar power, and opponents of the project went door to door distributing misinformation.

Attorney Phil A. Luetkehans, who represents community members opposed to the project, on the 10th night of hearings.Mustafa Hussain for The New York Times

On another cold night in December, as the 11th hearing on the Goose Creek Wind project began at the Monticello community building, Phil Luetkehans, a lawyer hired by opponents of the project, called more witnesses, including an audiologist, who discussed what he said were the adverse health effects of wind turbines. A lawyer representing Apex cross-examined him, and the hearing stretched for more than four hours.

“Both sides are getting a full opportunity to portray their position and to put forth the facts, and the people who we elect will make those final decisions,” Mr. Luetkehans said. “Some communities end up saying, ‘No, we don’t want an industrial scale wind at this proximity to homes.’ Others say, ‘Yeah, we want the money.’”

Among those in the audience was Michael Beem, a newly elected member of the Piatt County board, which will ultimately decide whether Apex can build its wind farm. From the back of the room, Mr. Beem was bracing himself to make a choice that will undoubtedly leave this rural community divided.

“No matter what decision we make,” he said, “we’re going to make people angry.”

#Environment