#solar panel scam

[awesomecooperlove]

🗑️🗑️🗑️

[genx3791]

Still think solar is reliable enough?

[stumpyjoepete]

I've seen a few ads on youtube where it's a real person reading something that sounds like it was written by a robot. Weird diction, awkward phrasing, monotone delivery, little bits of "one weird trick" type verbiage sprinkled throughout that give the impression that you scrolled down too far on a local news website and wandered into the Outbrain or Taboola ads. I kind of wonder if this is on purpose as a way to target credulous morons specifically.

I've seen ads like this for a few unrelated things, but most recently I saw a, as far as I can tell, NON-scam ad from a solar installer trying to convince you to use the government subsidized loan program to hire them to install solar panels. But it's framed more like... (((they))) don't want you to know that you can avail yourself of a secret government program created and funded for the explicit purpose of giving you cheap solar panels.

It's like trying to market food stamps to sovereign citizens.

[simply-ivanka]

“There are no forbidden questions in science, no matters too sensitive or delicate to be probed, no sacred truths.” Carl Sagan

Ecoinvent, the world’s largest database on the environmental impact of wind and solar technologies, has no data from China, even though it makes most of the world's solar panels

The UN IPCC and IEA have relied on Ecoinvent estimates of life cycle CO2 emissions from solar, but given China refuses to be transparent in their reporting, Ecoinvent fudged the numbers using values from EU and US manufacturing.

As a result, Chinese derived solar PV panels have life cycles in the range of 170 to 250 kg CO2 equivalent per MWh versus the 50 kg CO2 per MWh so commonly used by the IPCC and others in calculating CO2 emission offset credits and in climate modelling.

Consider that advanced combined cycle gas turbine power plants have CO2 emission factors ranging from 300 to 350 kg CO2 per MWh and use a much smaller fraction of the amount of non-renewable materials per unit of energy produced than do solar PV facilities.

It is a well known fact that paring natural gas turbine technologies in a load balancing subservient role to solar PV gives rise to reduced thermal efficiencies of the turbine system. Thereby acting to further reduce the emission reduction benefits of solar PV and its already small marginal difference with a stand alone natural gas system.

The moral of the story is carbon credits are a scam, as are modelling projections of the climate effects of solar PV technologies.

[lamaenthel]

Milkies

[read on ao3][Rexsoka Monthly: May '24 (Slice of Life)]

Rex and Ahsoka have happily settled on Medeina, far from the eye of the Empire, choosing to let go of the past and look to the future and take care of what's most important: their two children, Rajni and Jesse. But when Ahsoka is called away for some emergency repairs, Rex is left to wrangle their two teeny Togrutas without backup. He used to oversee hundreds of troopers. Two babies shouldn't be too hard, right?

Characters: Captain Rex/Ahsoka Tano, Rajni Tano, Jesse Tano Rating: Gen Wordcount: 5,114 Note: Buir is Daddy (Mando'a), Iibu is Mommy (Togruti)

"It'll be two days at most." Ahsoka still rolled up her socks and panties together like she used to when she packed for a field mission. "I wouldn't go if it wasn't important."

"I know." Rex bounced little Rajni on his hip. The white dot on her forehead was still stained weak blue from her birthday hunt. Jesse lay swaddled on the bed, kicking and watching his mother pack with adoring eyes.

"Reikka hired a mechanic to fix the solar panels but he scammed them. If that firewatch tower goes dark…"

"I understand, ner cyare." Rex stepped forward and pulled his wife into his arms. "I don't want to get swept up in a wildfire any more than you do. We'll be fine."

"There's at least a week's worth of milk deep frozen in the garage. Warm one unit at a time, thirty seconds in the nanowave at 35% power. Any faster than that and the sugar will boil."

He took a centering breath. "I know. You already wrote it down."

"I know, I know, I just…" Ahsoka backed away, curled over their son on the bed and kissed his nose. "Jesse hasn't left my sight since I crawled out of that tank," she whispered. Her left lek curled around his neck. "Neither has Rajni, except when you take her fishing. It feels so wrong to leave them. My instincts are screaming at me right now."

Rex eyed her twitchy rear lek, rolling like it wanted to smack. "I can tell." Truth be told, he didn't like the thought of her leaving either, but she wouldn't sleep a wink from the guilt of not helping their community unless she fixed it. At least this way she wouldn't be on her own; Reikka, the village elder, was going up the mountain too, and she'd volunteered her husband and son as protection against both the wild felinxes that roamed the peaks and any scrappers they might encounter. Rex wouldn't want to go up against just one of the burly Togrutas in his prime, let alone in his current shape.

He had to admit, Ahsoka wasn't the only one walking around with an empty baby bump, but he couldn't blame his new belly on growing one of the kits. They ate well on Medeina: Ahsoka's mechanic skills were valued far more here than on Daiyu, and between the garden and the fatty zizibi stew Lyotri down at the bar doled out in exchange for him chopping her firewood, these last few months they'd gone to bed with bursting stomachs instead of the growling ones they used to after splitting a bowl of nuna stew for the third day in a row.

Rex rubbed her back. "I'll hold down the fort until you return to us. Trust me, my love."

"I do." Ahsoka kissed Jesse one more time. "I do. It's not that, I promise. You're the perfect father."

He blushed. Rajni mewled sweetly and patted his burning cheeks. "Don't be ridiculous."

"I'm not. It's not that I think you can't handle them for two days. It's my own dumb hindbrain insisting that I'm abandoning my young. It had nothing to do with your capability as a father."

"I get it, I get it."

"Ugh." Ahsoka pressed her forehead to his. "Two days, and I'll be home. And I'll be with my mate and my babies and we'll all be safe from wildfires."

"Yes we will."

"Yep."

"Yep."

"Yep." Ahsoka buried her face in his chest and groaned.

Ahsoka left before dawn; it all went to hell by noon. First Rajni, who had never in her life shown the slightest inclination of wanting to stick her head through the narrow railings on their dinky porch stairs did just that; then, while Rex was frantically sawing through the wooden bar that held his wailing daughter's head captive, Jesse decided that it was the perfect time for a total diaper blowout. Thankfully milk-fed kits didn't make much of a smell, but it was very yellow and… everywhere.

"I was a Captain in the Grand Army of the Republic. I oversaw over five hundred men. But somehow—Raj'ika, my love, hold still—the two of you manage to cause as much trouble as a whole platoon of clone troopers, right under my nose no less. How does that happen?"

"Boo!" Rajni wailed pathetically. "Boo–ooo–ooo…"

"Almost there, Raj'ika. Almost, just one more second—" Rex wrenched the railing free and carefully lifted her, trying to avoid getting too much of Jesse's osik on her. "You're alright, my baby. You're fine. See? You're free. No more trap."

Rajni pawed at him, desperate for the reassurance of a hug. "Boo!"

Rex sighed and gave in. He couldn't resist that pathetic little cry, not for anything in the galaxy. "Let's go wash," he mumbled.

Jesse, tied on his back, cooed happily and chomped his ear with his blunt milk fangs.

"Raj?" Rex called as he finished toweling off Jesse. "Where are you, my baby?"

"Huh?" Rajni peeked her head around the door, still naked and as slippery as a freshly-caught rocktrout from the sanisteam.

"Come dry off."

"Nuh!" Rajni grinned and bolted.

"Rajni!" Rex hastily tied the towel around his waist before following her out to the living room. "Raj'ika…"

All he heard was a high-pitched giggle. He followed the line of tiny wet footprints with his eyes, tracking the circle around the sofa, behind the bookcase in the far corner, through the kitchen and finally back to his overstuffed chair, a wet smear indicating where Rajni had crawled underneath it.

Rex sighed. "Rajni, come out of there. Please don't get dirty again."

He received no answer, just another giggle. He rolled his eyes and fetched Ahsoka's jar of tea eggs from the kitchen cooler. "Mmmm, eggs," he said loudly. "I love eggs."

The giggling stopped, replaced by an inquisitive chirp.

"Especially Iibu's special eggs. Mmmmm. Jesse, do you want one?"

Jesse chirped, eyes wide.

"Nuh!" Rajni dragged herself out from under the chair, covered in a gray streaked layer of dust. "Nuh! Boo!"

"Oh hello, Rajni," Rex said calmly, making a mental note to get Ahsoka to repair the damn MSE droid on her workbench. He split a marinated egg in half and smeared a little yolk on his finger. Jesse was still too young to eat anything but milk, but he could have a taste. "Did you want an egg?"

Rajni stomped her foot. "Muh!" Her infantile rage at seeing her brother tasting her egg was hilarious, though Rex kept his face as neutral as he could. "Boo muh! Muh! Muh!"

"Hmm?" Rex tilted his head. Jesse held onto his finger for better leverage as he licked off the spicy-sweet yolk.

"Muh-huh-huuuh!" Rajni wailed, collapsing in despair.

Jesse grunted and his eyes crossed. Everything between Rex's abs and his knees suddenly turned very warm. And yellow.

"Guess we're all going back in," he mumbled, snatching up his sobbing daughter before she could escape again.

The sun was down. The living room was dark except for the glow of the viewscreen, where Kento Koi's heroics held Rajni absolutely captivated. She watched the Nautolan superhero lift up the giant rock and save the Quarrens with big, unblinking eyes as she sucked on her cup of milk, absently petting Rex's arm with a soft hand.

Rex held his son's bottle with one hand and transferred a chewed nuna nugget to his daughter's mouth with the other. She never looked away from the viewscreen, too enchanted by the yellow Nautolan to do anything but release the sippy cup and open her mouth when Rex tapped her jaw.

"You look comfortable." Ahsoka's hologram reclined on her side, propping up her head on one hand. She looked sad. "I wish I was snuggled up with all of you."

"So do we." He smiled and tapped Rajni. She yanked away her milk with a loud pop! and a small gasp for air and opened up obediently.

"Are they being good?"

"Well, I had to do an emergency renovation on the stair railing." He laughed at his wife's look of confusion. "Rajni shoved her head in there and got stuck. Had to cut her out."

"Oh no!" Ahsoka exclaimed, dismayed.

"She's fine."

"Why did she do that?"

"As much as I'd love to have insight into the brain of a toddler…"

Ahsoka grunted. "I know, I just mean—what was she trying to accomplish?"

"Only she knows." Rex lifted his arm so Rajni could readjust and crawl underneath it.

"Iibu!" she squeaked, grinning.

"Rajni." Ahsoka lowered her voice. "Rajni, prrishk'ti Buir. Nahma kufuntha."

Rex's Togruti was far from perfect, but he recognized the words for listen and no mischief.

Rajni's face fell. She looked away with a pout identical to her mother's.

"I was looking right at her, too," Rex said. "She was crawling down the stairs, and then she just… did it. Couldn't even stop her."

Ahsoka snorted. "She needs a leash."

"She's just being a curious little kit. No harm done. I'll cut every other railing in the morning so she can't do it again." Rex accidentally swallowed one of Rajni's nuggets. He popped another one in and hoped she didn't notice. "And then Jesse sh—" he caught himself, glanced at Rajni, "pooped down my back."

Ahsoka barked out a laugh. "Oh no."

"Oh no is right. It got all over all of us." He relinquished the nugget to his daughter. "How're the repairs going?"

"Well the good news is that the solar panels themselves work perfectly fine. The problem is that some critter chewed its way into the conduit and munched on the wires between the panels and the batteries, so it can't collect any of that electricity."

"Uh-oh."

Rajni tossed her empty sippy cup. "Uh-oh!" she sang.

"No throwing." Rex snapped his fingers and pointed, fixing Rajni with a stern look until she got up with an annoyed grumble and retrieved it. "So you'll be longer?"

"No, thankfully. I just hate rewiring. I always cut my fingertips up."

"Poor thing."

"Precisely. Feel sorry for me. I'm all alone up here with owie fingers."

Rex snorted and hoisted up Jesse to burp him.

"Is he taking a bottle okay?" Ahsoka asked anxiously.

"Took him a second, but he figured it out. It's making him gassy though."

"He's swallowing too much air, then. He isn't keeping proper suction."

"That's what I figured. Anything I can do to fix it?"

Ahsoka shook her head. "I don't think we have any other nipple tops. You'll have to go to the general store in the morning."

Rex jumped; Rajni had stuck one cold hand up his shirt and grabbed his nipple. "That won't work, little one, mine aren't as talented as Iibu's." He removed her little vise fingers with a wince.

Ahsoka burst into laughter. "Do you remember the week after we settled here and he bit your nipple in the middle of the night thinking it was me?"

Rex would never forget the trauma of that chomp. "I almost launched him across the room jumping up so fast. He was still attached."

"Luckily we're sturdy little things." Ahsoka's hologram flickered a few times as she settled fully on her side, pillowing her head on her arm. "I miss you."

Jesse belched in his ear and ejected half of his dinner down his back. Rex just sighed. "And I miss you." He barely caught Rajni as she launched herself up and onto the back of the sofa, eager to lick up the milk. "I've, ah…"

"You've got your hands full. I'll let you go." Ahsoka smiled sadly. "I love you. And I love you, Rajni, and you, Jesse."

"Iibu." Rajni beamed at her from air jail.

"We love you. Goodnight, ner cyare." Ahsoka's hologram disappeared, leaving them with only the viewscreen's light. "Let's clean up," Rex said wearily, hauling his son to the fresher once again.

The clock on Rex's bedside table said 02:40—way too early for this banthashit—when he opened his eyes to the sound of a crash. The lamp on Ahsoka's side was on the floor, and while Jesse was still sound asleep in his little pillow lounger, Rajni was a flash of tan and orange as she streaked across the room.

The pink bantha jammies her mother had made for her had been flung to parts unknown in order to give her more freedom of movement. She zipped in circles on all fours on the floor, not giving a single damn about the lamp she had just sent flying. Her brown eyes shone with eerie green in the moonlight as she did her best impression of a wild tooka.

"Rajni," Rex groaned. He sat up, confirmed the lamp wasn't broken and therefore not a danger, then laid back down. "Please no zooms tonight."

"Zoom!" Rajni bounced off the headboard at the speed of sound and did a backflip across the room. "Zoom! Zoom!"

Rex knew there was no stopping her once she started. She just had to wear herself out. He curled around Jesse protectively, wondering how he was going to survive both of them doing this once Jesse learned how to crawl, and waited for it to be over.

Rex thought that if he had Rajni tied to his front and Jesse strapped to his back, he'd be avoiding chaos at the general store. Both of the kids loved being carried in their wraps. He didn't anticipate Rajni thrashing and screeching like a thimiar in a snare, acting for all the world like she was being tortured.

"No down," he said firmly, giving apologetic looks to the other shoppers. "You're being naughty."

"Doh!" Rajni squirmed, trying to shimmy loose.

"I said no, Rajni," Rex said, busting out the Captain baritone. "You can't get down right now. You don't have shoes." Neither of them ever did, so it was a ridiculous excuse and he knew it. Rajni did too, throwing him the same venomous look her mother used to give him when he'd tell her to stop doing backflips off of the B2's.

She may have had his eyes, but that attitude was all Ahsoka.

Both of the kids missed her desperately. He knew it was why Rajni was acting out, and poor Jesse was so gassy from the bottle that he'd had to massage his tummy and bend him in half until he finally tooted for almost ten seconds straight. Rex couldn't figure why he was having so much trouble with the bottle when Rajni never did, but his poor boy was miserable.

He found two different nipple tops that advertised themselves as preventing colic and paid for them, a jar of pickled tamtam feet and shahar candy for Ahsoka, and a marrow bone for his teething daughter.

"Here." Rex waggled it in her face once he was back out on the dirt road.

Rajni tilted her head. Her eyes narrowed right before going in for the chomp.

The bone kept her busy until they returned. The first thing he did was try out the new nipples for Jesse; he outright refused the first, but the second one he reluctantly accepted after Rex rubbed it on his lips for a few minutes, coaxing him to at least try for Buir.

Rajni cried the entire time, toddling aimlessly around the house in search of Ahsoka, chirping pathetically like a lost kitten.

Rex put Jesse down for a nap after he drank his fill and he was fairly sure that he wouldn't regurgitate it. He settled on the porch, sitting on the pillowed bench with Rajni and a holobook.

"Moo, moo goes the…" He glanced down at his squirming daughter. "Rajni, what animal goes moo? Show Buir."

"Iibu," Rajni said miserably, eyes still red from her earlier crying fit.

"I know, Raj'ika. I miss Iibu too." Every time she chirped for Ahsoka, Rex's heart shattered anew.

"Iibu." She buried her face in her hands and burst into tears again.

"Udesii, ner Raj'ika," Rex cooed, putting aside the old holobook and pulling her into his embrace. "Iibu will come home soon. She had to go help fix something that is far away."

Rajni continued to sob and shake in his arms. Her sweaty, teary face was jammed so tightly into his neck that he wasn't sure how she was even drawing air to cry. Her normal sunshine smell was soured by her grief. "Ii…Iibu…"

"I know." Tears stung Rex's eyes. "Let's go take a nap with Jesse, 'lek? Buir is sleepy."

"Nuh," Rajni whined, burrowing deeper. "Boo. Iibu. Geh Iibu."

"I can't go get her. She's fixing something very important that keeps us safe." Despite her protests, Rex hoisted Rajni up and toddled down to the bedroom where Jesse was fast asleep. His belly was so round; the poor little guy hadn't had much luck with the first nipple, but the second one did the trick, and now he was stuffed and milk-drunk. Beside him was a zizibi plushie that Ahsoka had crocheted, insides thumping away with a gadget that sounded like her heartbeat.

Rex kicked off his shoes and crawled on top of the covers. "Nap with me." He kissed Rajni and tucked himself tightly around her, one hand resting on Jesse's belly.

"Iibu," Rajni whispered. Her swollen eyes fluttered shut. "Ii…"

Rex kissed her between her montrals until she purred herself to sleep.

"Oof. It has been a day." Ahsoka's hologram lay reclined tonight with her shirt pushed up over her swollen breasts, a pair of hard-working pumps relieving her pressure. Almost every fingertip bore a little white bandage.

"Iibu!" Rajni squeaked, diving for the holoprojector. "Iibu! Iibu!"

"Hello, ner Raj'ika," Ahsoka said warmly. "Say hi to Iibu!"

"Hah! Hah!" Rajni bounced in place.

"She really misses you," Rex said, tearing his eyes away from Ahsoka's chest. "She's been a handful all day."

"I'm sorry, baby," Ahsoka cooed. "Are you being a good girl for Buir?"

"Lah!" Rajni reached through the hologram desperately. When her hands connected with nothing, her excitement quickly drained away to horror. "Ii… Iibu?" Her lower lip quivered. "Iibuuuu…" She burst into tears.

Ahsoka scrambled to sit up, nearly losing one of the pumps in the process. "I miss you too, sweet baby. I'm coming home tomorrow!"

Rajni buried her face in Rex's shoulder and continued to bawl.

"Please don't cry, Rajni!" Ahsoka begged. "Iibu's right here! Look at Iibu!"

"Poor thing. Betrayed by the holoprojector." Rex rubbed her back.

"Rajni, I'm right here!"

"Nuh-huh-huuuh." Rajni melted against his chest.

"Rex, do something!"

"She's been like this all day," Rex sighed. "There's nothing to be done. She misses her mother." He tilted the optical sensor to include Jesse. "Look, Jess, look at Iibu."

Jesse beamed at the hologram. He wiggled in his tight swaddle like a happy little silkworm.

"Is he upset too?" Ahsoka asked, her lip quivering just like Rajni's.

"He's… well, he knows you're missing, but you know how quiet he is." Rex couldn't help but glance at the busy little droids whirring on her ample chest. "He's taking the new nipple top I bought this morning a lot easier. But he still looks at me every time I give him the bottle, like 'what's this bantha poodoo?' He misses you for sure."

"I miss them too." Ahsoka wiped her eyes. "Rajni, Iibu loves you so much. Can I read you a book?"

Rex fetched the picture holobook he'd tried to read with her earlier. "Come on, Rajni, Iibu is sad too. Let's help her feel better."

"Nuh!" Rajni smacked him.

Rex touched his cheek, shocked. "Trooper!"

"Rajni, no hitting!"

Rajni drowned them both out with an ear-piercing scream and melted into a puddle of tears.

Ahsoka sighed. "I think I'm doing more harm than good."

"It's alright, cyare. She just misses you."

"I feel so guilty." Ahsoka sniffed and wiped her nose. "I'll… I'll let you go. I've only got a little bit of soldering to do in the morning and then I'm done. It took me six hours to get up here, but down the mountain will go faster."

"It'll be alright." Rex tried to redirect Rajni into his armpit to muffle her crying. "We'll see you tomorrow. You're doing a good thing."

"Yeah." She didn't sound like she believed him. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." Rex turned off the holoprojector. "Alright. Bed time."

"Nuuuuuh!" Rajni screeched and tried to escape his hold by bending backwards.

"Yes," Rex said, exasperated, and carried her to bed.

For the last month, Jesse was in the habit of only waking up once for a feed, usually around 0300. He wasn't drinking as much in one sitting with the bottle, so it made sense that he would wake up more often, but by 0400 he was on his sixth bottle. Rex fed him in the kitchen, bouncing in place just to stay awake.

"Come on, Jesse." Rex patted his son's back absently, swaying back and forth. "Finish this one. We don't want to waste." He wasn't sure if he could reuse the leftovers from before but he was unable to bring himself to dump Ahsoka's hard work down the drain, so he had taken to pouring out whatever was left in Jesse's bottle into a mug he kept in the cooler. Rajni could drink it in the morning.

Probably. He'd check on the holonet once his eyes uncrossed. He spared a moment to wonder what Ahsoka was doing with whatever she'd pumped out on the mountain.

Jesse released the bottle and squirmed, grunted a few times, then unusually—for him, at least—started to cry.

"Udesii, ad'ika, udesii. Ur'takur laam, ner ad'ika. Ner vutyc jag'ika. There you go, good boy." Rex settled him on his shoulder and patted him until his sobs turned to hiccups. "What's the matter, hmm? Do you miss Iibu too?"

At just over three months Jesse was far too little to nod, but Rex had a feeling he was right. He hummed as he swayed and patted his back, waiting for a burp that didn't want to come.

"Boo?" At just over twenty pounds, Rajni's thumpers had no right to be as loud as they were as she thundered down the hall. She turned the corner and slid to a stop, her purple nexu-striped footie pajamas slippery on the wood floor. "Boo!"

Rex shushed her. "Jesse was hungry."

"Gee." Rajni batted her eyelashes at him. The brown in her eyes disappeared, swallowed up by her pupils.

"Is Rajni hungry too?" Rex asked, smiling.

She pointed at the abandoned bottle. "Peez?"

"Of course, my baby. Especially since you asked so nicely." Rex dumped almost two ounces into her sippy cup and handed it over.

Jesse finally let out a burp louder than a tank shell. Rex tied him to his front, sat on the couch with Rajni snuggled against him, and fell asleep before her cartoons hit the first advertisement break.

"Why did you do it again?" Rex asked, frantically sawing through the railing he'd forgotten to take down yesterday.

Rajni scream-cried, bright red and miserable, stuck in the railings like a nerf in a squeeze chute. This time her brother joined her, screeching directly in his ear from where he'd been tied onto Rex's back.

"Alright, there we go, there we—gotcha." Rex swept her up in his arms and glared at the stupid rails. "Listen to Buir. I'm going to take them down right now. If you stick your head in there again before I'm done, I'm not pulling you out until I'm done with the other ones. Suvar, trooper?"

Rajni arched her back and did her best to escape his hold, still screaming.

Rex took a deep breath in, let it out, counted to ten, then went back inside for her wrap. He didn't trust the little troublemaker for a second, especially since she'd looked him dead in the eyes before shoving her head through the railing a second time.

Marrying a carnivore meant that Rex had to make a few adjustments to his diet. He was used to eating meat for every meal now, but to Ahsoka, cooking meant holding whatever chunk of raw meat she was holding near a fire until it was body-temperature warm, so it was a job that he had taken over for all of their sakes.

The cooler was full of nerf steaks marinating in a blend of jogan juice and nose-tingling Shilian spices. A dozen eggs—hard boiled, peeled, and stuffed full of spicy pickle relish—sat beside them, plus some crispy rock peppers filled with soft paneer cheese that Lyotri had traded to him in exchange for their wooden railings and a bowl full of cheesecake filling.

"Rajni!" Rex called, standing at the stove. He spooned up some bright-red mahkani gravy to taste. "Raj'ika, come here and taste this. Tell me if you like it."

Rajni toddled around the corner with a doll in each hand. "Huh?"

"Here." He blew on the spoonful before letting her sip.

She made a face and gagged.

"That bad?" Rex tasted it again, frowning. "It tastes alright to me. You don't like it?"

"Buh!" Rajni spat on the tile floor.

"Thanks a lot, kid."

"Patoo." She fled the kitchen, making vroom vroom noises as she made her dollies fly.

"You like Buir's cooking, don't you son?" Rex patted his son between his little green montral buds.

Jesse grunted and wiggled in his wrap. He was antsy. What he needed was a nap, but every time Rex put him down he started crying, and he couldn't seem to stay asleep for more than a few minutes at a time.

Ahsoka had already commed to tell them she was on her way home. Rex had started cooking almost immediately. He just didn't know what else to do; he had a dozen projects to work on around the house, sure, but he knew Ahsoka as well as he knew himself, and she was always starving after a long march.

Maybe he wasn't crying and chirping for her, but he missed Ahsoka as much as their children did. He missed the way her lekku smelled when she was out in the sun all day, the soft weight of her head on his chest in bed, the way she hummed absently as she worked on droids and farm equipment. He wanted her to know that he missed her too, and cooking her a feast to welcome her home was the best way he figured he could do that.

Well, the best way that he could show her in front of the kids, anyhow.

Rex turned off the burner, put the gravy aside, and took out the turu rice toasting in the oven. It went into the turbo-blender with cinnamon and sugar, then into the bottom of a pie plate once he'd thoroughly pulverized it.

"We're making Iibu a cake," he informed Jesse. "A special cake made out of cheese. I made it for Iibu's birthday last year and she loved it."

"Teez?" Rajni poked her head around the corner again. "Boo teez?"

"Yes, my baby, cheese." He let her lick a little of the creamy filling off his finger. This time she didn't gag.

"Boo." Rajni patted his leg, beaming. "Teez peez?"

"You want more?"

"Peeeeez." Rajni blinked until her pupils expanded.

"Oh, you little stinker," Rex chuckled. "Fine."

He gave Rajni the spoon to keep her busy while he poured the filling into the pie plate, then slipped it into the cooler to chill and harden.

Jesse wiggled in the wrap and whined.

"What's the matter, Jes'ika?" Rex freed him and sniffed his rump, but he smelled clean. "Did you just need your legs free? Hmm?"

"Maybe he's excited for cheesecake."

Rex spun at the sound of his wife's voice. Ahsoka grinned at him; she looked exhausted, dirty, and her hands were covered in bandages, but she was still the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

"Hey!" he exclaimed, grinning. "You sneaky little—"

"Iibu!" Rajni chucked the spoon over her shoulder and darted across the kitchen, flying into her mother's arms. "Iibu! Iibu!"

"My Rajni." Ahsoka's left lek wrapped around Rajni like a hug as she rubbed her head on her daughter, scenting her thoroughly. They both purred loudly enough to make Rex's liver vibrate. "My sweet baby. I missed you so much."

Rajni buried her face in her mother's neck, rumbling like the happiest little tooka in the galaxy.

"How was the walk down?" Rex relinquished Jesse, stifling the laugh that threatened to erupt at the sight of Ahsoka's other lek wrapping him up in a twisty embrace. His high-pitched cricket purr joined his mother and sister in a joyful, subsonic song.

"I hustled as fast as I could. Weather held out, but it's going to rain any second." With both of her arms—and lekku—full of babies, she had no way to hug him, so she pressed her forehead against his in a kov'nyn and sighed happily.

Rex took a deep breath, relishing her familiar sweetspice smell. "I missed you," he murmured. He wrapped his arms around all three of them and held them close. Her heartbeat drummed against his chest, matching the beat of his own.

"And I missed you. They weren't too bad, right?" Ahsoka laughed and leaned back; Jesse was already squirming his way into her shirt in search of milk.

"They were a little spicy, but nothing I couldn't handle." Rex ran his thumb across the wing on her cheek before he kissed her.

"Nuh!" Rajni said crossly, pushing him away. "Muh Iibu!"

"Your Iibu?" Rex asked, raising an eyebrow.

"We will all share Iibu," Ahsoka laughed, "because Iibu missed everyone and wants to see you all. Come on, let's go sit. My legs are tired, I've been walking since the sun came up."

"I've got dinner ready whenever you are. Just need to throw the steaks on the grill." Rex followed her to the sofa and let her get comfortable before he slid in beside them. Jesse was already latched on to one breast. Rajni yanked down her mother's shirt and shamelessly claimed the other side.

"That sounds amazing. I should hop in the sanisteam first, but first…" Ahsoka adjusted so that her head rested on his heart. "My babies." She kissed both of their foreheads. "My mate." She looked up with her big blue eyes, so full of adoration that it took his breath away.

"My mate," he rumbled, meeting her lips in another soft kiss that Rajni squealed in protest at. "My babies. Ner aliit."

"Cuun aliit," Ahsoka said softly, chasing his lips. "Our family."

MANDO'A TRANSLATIONS Udesii, ad'ika: Easy, son Ur'takur laam, ner ad'ika: Chin up, my son Ner vutyc jag'ika: My special little man Suvar: understand Ner/cuun aliit: My family/our family

Tag list: @first-light-of-the-library / @rexsoka-monthly Divider: @rexsoka-monthly

[radioconstructed]

⌖ The only thing between ME and a SECOND RAMPAGE is ADBLOCKING! JOT THAT DOWN!

⌖ Jesus CHRIST, the WORST thing about PUBLIC WIFI is GETTING ADS on EVERYTHING AGAIN! How do you people LIVE LIKE THIS? I'm going to commit a CRIME!

[aoxue]

DJ IS BACK WITH ANOTHER AU IDEA! SL has inherited a ranch from his estranged relative and has absolutely no idea what to do with it OR how to tend to horses. include as many characters as you please >:)

Alright for this AU ask we're having a songxiao Hallmark movie because I've never actually done something like that before

Song Lan is a lawyer at a big city, high power law firm. He went into law hoping to further efforts for climate justice, conservation, etc., before repeatedly finding that most environmental law positions are about helping big actors find loopholes in environmental policy to keep getting away with things. So now he's in, like. Contract law, and it's fine, but not something he's very passionate about, and the firm he's at keeps him too busy to think too hard about it.

He inherits this ranch from some distant, distant relative he's never heard of? Song Lan thinks it's a scam at first, but the paperwork all looks legit. He's friends with Lan Xichen (from college, now a music professor) who tells him to take a much needed break after this most recent big case and check it out. Recurrent minor role as the supportive friend from home who encourages the main character to go out and live a little.

White Snow Ranch is a small operation in a space that once housed a much larger business. Luo Qingyang is the foreman who keeps things running, and she lives on site with her family. Xue Yang is an unreliable stablehand who hasn't been fired yet because he's got such a knack for fixing the machinery around the ranch. He has a side gig that pays him way more per hour doing survey work for Jin Oil, who have been trying to buy up land in the area.

White Snow has a handful of horses at any given time, breeding and selling to local buyers. Some of the other space in the stables gets rented for people to board their own horses. A-Qing is one such boarder. She's a teenage girl who wants to Win The Rodeo This Year. She's the one who does the most to teach city slicker Song Lan how to ride and laughs at him a lot.

Her older brother, Xiao Xingchen, is the kind and attractive large animal vet who makes calls to farms and ranches across the county. He's an environmental activist on the side. He's a pest to the oil companies and corporate farms that keep snatching up land in the area, and the office of Jin Oil's CEO have multiple numbers from him blocked. Romance arc naturally commences.

Song Lan is getting pressured to sell the ranch from pretty much the moment he arrives. Instead of folding (because what is he going to do with a ranch), he (with Xingchen's help) talks to the locals and looks into the sales of land to Jin Oil. And what do you know, the company has been doing subtle but illegal things with their contracts that have been shorting the landowners. Through Hallmark magic, they can press charges, beat the company, and get some kind of a win for he locals in about a month with no retaliation. Because love, hard work, and justice always win, forever (i.e., the 90-minute run time)

Seventh point because I've already accidentally gone over and that's that Song Lan transfers ownership of the ranch to Mianmian, since practically, this is already her gig, which gives her more freedom to make some more radical business decisions and rejuvenate White Snow. They start raising bison in addition to horses as a species restoration effort, for one thing. Maybe they use some of the space for solar panels or wind turbines as a clean energy thing, and maybe Xue Yang keeps that running smoothly. Song Lan keeps doing law stuff with a more environmental justice lean and he and Xiao Xingchen move in together. A-Qing achieves her rodeo dreams. Happily ever after, roll credits

[weirdstuffontemu]

Temu and Amazon had been selling these "Electromagnetic Car Snow Removal Devices", that were supposed to prevent ice from forming and snow from sticking through some mystical science notion. [I can't find one of the several Temu listings that had been on the site months ago, but Amazon still carries it Of Course.]

Thing is, it is just an air freshener. Light powers a solar panel to make a motor turn the top of the device to fan whatever scent you put inside around. It has zero, zilch, nada ability to repel water in its solid form. Which is likely why Temu stopped carrying it -- too many complaints about this being a scam. [but Amazon still carries it Of Course.] There was one in the case at Deseret Industries recently!

So what is filling the "miracle ice remover" niche on Temu now?

It's just a USB bullet charger. "Heated snow remover / Does not generate heat."

[rosalesbeausderholle]

They keep calling me to install solar panels and everytime I'm like "I rent, I can't do that" and they're super respectful about it which is how I know they're not a scam because they're not trying to convince me of anything once they know it's not possible but they don't just delete my number of their list??? 😬

[sauntervaguelydown]

My buddy just got targeted by some scammers trying to sell him on solar panels so I’m just gonna warn y’all

If someone shows up at your door trying to sell you solar panels it’s almost definitely a scam. Especially if they say they can repair your roof as part of the deal. EDIT: if you're not sure, ask them about who's responsible for fixing damages + what kinds of damages are covered, and try to pin down an exact answer

Obviously if you don’t own your own house it’s not a problem for you, but for those of you who live in an owned family home, keep it in mind

[hornyemerald-blog]

on the one hand it's pretty hot to get caught in the middle of watching porn by someone cold calling your home, but on the other hand i super don't want to have an extended conversation with a "we're a solar panel scam" guy while i'm horny

[bumblebeeappletree]

Why Solar Panels Aren’t Unfair or a Scam. Get a LARQ Bottle Filtered and start enjoying fresh, pure water today: https://bylarq.com/undecided2 There’s concerns that homes with solar panels are reducing their utility bills at the expense of their neighbors without solar panels. The phenomenon is referred to as “cost shifting”: the idea that the credits utilities pay to solar homes for the solar energy they produce ultimately results in higher bills for customers without solar panels. This has had major implications on public policy…for better or worse. Is the solar energy cost shift real?

Watch How Dead EV Batteries are Perfect for Energy Storage • How Old EV Batter...

Video script and citations:

https://undecidedmf.com/why-solar-pan...

Get my achieve energy security with solar guide:

https://link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide

Follow-up podcast:

Video version - / @stilltbd

Audio version - http://bit.ly/stilltbdfm

[peanut-butter-and-theatre]

look at this Guy

He looks like he's about to come to my doorstep to scam me into buying solar panels :[

[krakenartificer]

Hang on, I got a rant locked and loaded…

OK, so. Here's the thing about being human.

Like any other organism, there are certain physical requirements for continued existence that depend on the structure of your biology. Cats gotta eat meat; they simply cannot get adequate protein from plants. Tomatoes need a regular, even supply of water; they cannot save excess moisture to use during drier weeks -- they have to have about the same amount of water each day. Humans need iron and calcium and soluble fiber.

And humans need social affirmation.

It sounds like some dumb touchy-feely hippie bullshit, but it is not. There is a lot of research on the subject, and it is all quite clear: lack of social connection will kill a human faster than most forms of malnutrition. We can get by without a gallbladder or a stomach or a pancreas, we can get by without sensory organs, we can get by without any of our limbs or with only one-half of our brain or our lungs or our kidneys, but we cannot survive without social connection.

This is a fact that is widely dismissed, ridiculed, or refuted by two types of people … well, by one type of person -- abusive assholes -- but we're gonna break it down for distinctions of methods and response:

1) small-scale abusive assholes (eg: parents, teachers, etc), who want it to be OK that they're depriving you of a fundamental human need that is as essential as water or shelter. They couldn't deny you clothing without having to face the fact that they are, in fact, abusive assholes. But as long as they claim your emotional needs are "unreasonable" and "nothing at all like [physical needs]", then they can abuse you all they want and never have to face the consequences.

They are assisted, in this endeavor, by

2) large-scale abusive assholes (eg: industrial capitalists, politicians, etc), who financially benefit from a) a population that is weak, ineffective, and scarred from long-term emotional malnutrition and b) a population that buys 10% - 1000% more commodities than are actually needed for the population size.

The glorification of "individualism" and "self-reliance" and "standing on your own two feet" accomplishes both of these quite nicely. Let people behave like sensible, rational, self-organizers, and they'll ensure that there are enough lawnmowers in the neighborhood that everyone is able to mow their lawn when they need to. But convince them that borrowing your neighbor's lawnmower is a shameful lack of maturity, and now you can sell 7x as many lawnmowers! And it's the same with so many things: washing machines, hammers, cars, internet access, solar panels, vegetable gardens, child care, … once you start looking at it, you can't stop seeing how many things we're getting scammed into buying by this lie. And then, as an added bonus, that means people don't have to coordinate with their neighbors for things like "who's using the lawnmower today?" or "Could you watch my kids on Saturday and I'll watch yours on Friday instead of vice-versa?", which means that it's much more complicated and intimidating to coordinate with their neighbors for things like "This HOA is bullshit" or "Let's vote against increased police budget" or "My boss is doing [x] … does that seem shady to anyone else?" AND they're also exhausted, from trying to be an entire population of people, and being confused why they're not able to do it, but convinced that they will be able to do it if they only try harder. AND they miss out on the social interaction and support inherent in coordinating these things with their neighbors, which -- as previously mentioned -- is comparable to missing out on magnesium or vitamin C.

So yeah. HUGE benefits to abusive assholes, across the entire spectrum of wealth and influence, for people to believe that relying on other people is Bad™️. Simply convince the populace that it is shameful, weak, and pathetic to ask for -- or even accept -- or even desire -- assistance, and all the rest follows!

TL/DR: helping your friends is punk. Asking for favors is anti-capitalist. Organizing pooled resources for your groupchat is sticking it to the man. Ask for help goddammit!

“Oh boo hoo you shouldn’t ask your friends for favors we’re all adults”

I just spent three hours pulling up carpet and staples for a friend’s home renovation and we all did nothing but chat and joke and have wonderful conversation the whole time.

Helping somebody move or renovate or giving them a ride to the airport is functionally the same as going mini-golfing or playing a board game: it’s an activity that you do that is made more fun by having good company, and which provides something to talk about when the conversation lulls.

[stevesociety8]

In the transition to so-called clean and green electricity, critical minerals and metals bring new challenges to electricity security.

Solar plants, wind farms, and EVs generally require more minerals to build than their fossil fuel-based counterparts. A typical electric car requires six times the mineral inputs of a conventional car, and an onshore wind plant requires nine times more mineral resources than a gas-fired plant. Since 2010, the average amount of minerals needed for a new unit of power generation capacity has increased by 50% as the share of wind and solar renewables in new investments has risen.

Our electricity is increasingly dependent on rare earth minerals and metals mined for wind turbines, solar panels, and EV batteries under atrocious slave labor and environmental conditions in other countries that the DOE and bureaucrats ignore.

China controls a stranglehold of 80% of the global supply monopoly on rare earth minerals and metals, with the Congo in Africa a 90% source of vital cobalt.

On a total component basis for an EV battery, graphite is about 25% to 28% of the whole EV battery. Turkey has the largest reserves of graphite, followed by Brazil and China. Together, these three countries accounted for 66% of the estimated world graphite reserves.

It should concern everyone that all those “blood minerals” come from mining at locations in the world that are never seen by environmentalists, policymakers, or EV buyers.

For instance, to manufacture each EV auto battery, you must process 25,000 pounds of brine for lithium, 30,000 pounds of ore for cobalt, 5,000 pounds of ore for nickel, and 25,000 pounds of ore for copper. All told, just one Tesla EV battery requires the processing of more than 500,000 pounds of materials somewhere on the planet.

A battery for a heavy-duty electric truck can weigh up to 16,000 pounds, which is 16 times more than the Tesla battery!!!! A single truck battery requires 8,000,000 pounds of earth to be dug up. That’s astounding – digging up 8 million pounds of earth for each truck battery!

Policymakers setting “green” policies are oblivious to the reality that Electricity came AFTER the discovery of oil 200 years ago.

ALL electrical generation from hydro, coal, natural gas, nuclear, wind, and solar are ALL built with the products, components, and equipment that are made from the oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil.

All EVs, solar panels, and wind turbines are also built with products, components, and equipment made from crude oil derivatives.

Further, all cars, trucks, excavating equipment, cranes, merchant ships, planes, and trains are also made from the oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil.

Our advanced society uses oil derivatives manufactured from black, cruddy crude oil to make fuels for larger jets, ships, and space launches and to make the 6,000 products made from oil that did not exist 200 years ago. If we weren’t such an advanced society, there would be no need for so-called “big oil.”

We’re over three and a half years into Biden’s presidency, which from the outset promised an “all-government” regulatory onslaught to force a transition away from fossil fuels to “green” electricity.

Demand for products made from oil is stressing the supply chain, thus continuously spiking the cost of products and fuels from fossil fuels to meet society’s materialistic demands.

Most importantly, there is a lost reality that the primary usage of crude oil  is NOT for the generation of electricity but to manufacture derivatives and fuels, which are the ingredients of everything needed by economies and lifestyles to exist and prosper, i.e., all products that did not exist before the 1800s.

None of the six methods for generating electricity can manufacture anything to support a materialistic society! Electricity can charge an iPhone but cannot make the iPhone. Electricity can make the defibrillator work in the hospital, but it cannot make the defibrillator.

Products that need electricity, such as iPhones, defibrillators, computers, data centers, and X-ray machines, are also dependent on the petrochemicals manufactured from crude oil to make all the parts and components of every method to generate electricity.

Looking back at the history of the petroleum industry, it illustrates that the black cruddy looking crude oil was virtually useless unless it could be manufactured (refineries) into oil derivatives that are now the basis of transportation fuels and the oil derivatives that are the basis of products, such as silicon-based semiconductor chips, plastics, lubricants, and medications, that are essential for supporting modern lifestyles.

“Big oil” only exists because of the wealthier countries being addicted to the products and fuels that are manufactured from fossil fuels that make OUR life more comfortable?” OUR needs for smaller and faster electronics and for bigger and faster planes, ships, and launches into outer space are the only reasons that crude oil is needed.

Thus, before we chastise “big oil”, we must ask ourselves, “How dare ME to continuously demand the products and fuels made from oil that make MY life more comfortable?”

Rick Amato’s Politics & Profits 8-minute conversation with Ronald Stein is an 8-minute video conversation on Your America TV that sheds light on the fact that those pursuing net-zero emissions may be oblivious to the reality that wind turbines and solar panels do different things than crude oil. “Mandatory Emissions (just in wealthy countries) To Achieve Net-Zero Is A Fool’s Game.”

Adding huge wind turbine blades and solar panels to generate electricity occasionally is the “green” scam of the century, as “renewables” are increasing fossil fuel demands, but those so-called renewables CANNOT make any products that are the basis of our materialistic world.

Ronald Stein, P.E. is an engineer, energy consultant, speaker, author of books and articles on energy, environmental policy, and human rights, and Founder of PTS Advance, a California based company.

Ron advocates that energy literacy starts with the knowledge that renewable energy is only intermittent electricity generated from unreliable breezes and sunshine, as wind turbines and solar panels cannot manufacture anything for the 8 billion on this planet.

[columbianewsupdates]

Stonegate Law Expert Warns of Increasing Solar Panel Scams

http://dlvr.it/TDjkNx