#source: ??

[jcmarchi]

The Soils Beneath The Solar Fields - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/the-soils-beneath-the-solar-fields-technology-org/

The Soils Beneath The Solar Fields - Technology Org

Solar fields are designed to channel one of our planet’s resources—sunlight—into energy. But these arrays sit atop yet another valuable resource: soil. Over the last year, Penn master’s student Hannah Winn has been posing the question, what happens to soil health following solar array construction?

Solar panels – illustrative photo. Image credit: Adolfo Cj from Pixabay, free license

 The question is timely, as Penn is on the cusp of a new energy era. Starting this year, solar energy from a solar project in central Pennsylvania will meet roughly 70% of the University’s electrical demand, enabling the University to move a solid step closer to its goal of carbon neutrality by 2042. As part of the project, energy company AES, which developed the project, is supporting renewable energy research at Penn.

“It’s been super eye-opening to go to the solar farms,” Winn says. “In school everything is pretty theoretical, so to actually stand there in the solar facility and learn about the logistics involved, see how many people are involved in a long-term project like this, has been personally very impactful.”

Winn’s project emerged from this partnership. Her advisor, Professor Alain Plante of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, developed a proposal for the research in collaboration with AES’ Sustainability and Impact team. 

“Any land use involves a tradeoff,” says Plante. “Some renewable energy installations may be going into areas where we’re giving up good land for food production. Here, AES was interested in knowing, in addition to the installation itself, whether the soil beneath these panels could be sequestering carbon, offering a potential co-benefit to the solar energy production.”

The work appealed to Winn, who has a background in landscape architecture and an interest in environmental policy. Starting last spring, Winn has made multiple trips to one of the solar fields, known as Great Cove 2, in Pennsylvania’s Franklin County to take soil samples and collect other information about the landscape. AES consultants had previously taken baseline soil samples to record the biological, chemical, and physical properties of the fields prior to construction, and Winn’s samples will provide a look at the soil condition in various phases of the solar field’s construction and operation.  

As she writes her master’s capstone this spring, Winn will be outlining best management practices for solar arrays that could boost the carbon retained in soil, an outcome that could not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with solar facilities, but may also better preserve the land for future agricultural use. 

“Soil is important for everything: for agriculture, for building, for food,” says Winn. “with this research project we’re looking at not only what happens when we put solar projects on soil, but also considering what happens when we leave.”

With society increasingly turning to renewable energy sources like solar to replace fossil fuels, studies like Winn’s will help grant a holistic understanding of impacts to the land and ecosystems, charting a path toward accelerating the benefits of clean energy projects and a more sustainable future. 

Source: University of Pennsylvania

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[charmed-redemption]

reblog from source

GENERAL MEMES: Magic Themed 🌙✨🔮 ↳ Please feel free to tweak them.

Themes: magic, violence, death, addiction

SYMBOLS: ↳ Use “↪” to reverse the characters where applicable!

🔮 - To ask my muse to try and read your muse’s future. 🌙 - For my muse and your muse to work together for a spell. 🎴 - For my muse to do a tarot reading for yours. 🤝🏼- For our muses to combine their powers to fight an enemy. 🥄- For my muse to teach/explain to yours how to brew a potion. ✨ - For my muse to tell yours that magic exists. 🌝 - For my muse to struggle to do a spell that your muse needed them to do. 🩸 - For my muse to overextend their magical abilities in front of/in defence of yours. 💀 - For my muse attempting to resurrect another muse. 🍂 - For my muse to use nature-based magic to come to your muse’s aid. 🔥 - For my muse to use fire-based magic to come to your muse’s aid. 🌊 - For my muse to use water-based magic to come to your muse’s aid. 🌍 - For my muse to use earth-based magic to come to your muse’s aid. 🧊 - For my muse to use ice-based magic to come to your muse’s aid. ⚡ - For my muse to use lightning/electric-based magic to come to your muse’s aid. 💡 - For my muse to use light/energy-based magic to come to your muse’s aid. 🌑 - For my muse to use dark magic to come to your muse’s aid. ✋🏼 - For my muse to attempt to use magic to heal yours. 💥 - For my muse to start to lose control of their magic in front of yours. 🍙 - For my muse to magically conjure our muses some tasty food.

SENTENCES:

“Oh my god, how long until you’re done with that potion!” “Oh my god, how long until you’re done with that spell!” “You shouldn’t use your powers for personal gain.” “They’re my powers, my magic, and I’ll use it to do what I damned well please.” “Why don’t you make yourself useful and start lighting the candles?” “What happened back there? It looked like that spell took a lot out of you.” “Love spells are fucked up, you know? You shouldn’t do that.” “Did you do that on purpose? You witch.” “Asshole stole my spell!” “Your magic has made you a monster.” “What happened to you [ name ]. What happened to the [ witch / fairy / etc ] I met at [ time / location / event ]? You’re a monster.” “Oh I’m the monster, look at them!” “This is bullshit, that’s not my future, you’re a fraud!” “Just because you don’t want to believe in it, doesn’t ,mean it’s not true.” “You can deny it all you want, but you saw it, magic is real.” “This school is where we learn how to control and use our powers, plus it’s nice to meet other [ witch / fairy / etc ] when you don’t really have anyone to relate to in the ‘real world’.” “I can do the spell, for a price that is.” “You shouldn’t take advantage of people who need your help, you should want to use your magic to protect them.” “Magic is one of the most powerful forces on this earth!” “Dark magic can be… addictive…” “It doesn’t work like that, magic can only do so much.” “What are you talking about! I’m the one in control! Look at what I can do!” “Magic doesn’t have to always come at a price, not if you use it properly.” “Magic always has a price.” “How did you do that!? That’s impossible!” “The dark magic, it turned [ him / her / them ] into a different person. It does that to people.” “I’m powerful and I’m pissed off, you do not want to get in my way.” “I had to wean myself off the dark magic on my own.” “I’m fine, it was just a big spell… don’t worry about me.” “I can’t control it, I can’t control my powers! I can’t stop!” “Breathe, just breathe, relax, you’re a powerful [ witch / fairy / etc ], you can take back control.” “That was flashy, but ultimately useless.” “How did you do that spell? Can you teach me?” “Magic is supposed to help people! You aren’t supposed to use it to hurt them.” “[ he / she / they ] is using dark magic, we need to stop them before something terrible happens.” “You can’t just use magic to solve all of your problems.” “Why tidy your rooms when you can just use magic?” “There’s no going back from it if you cast that spell.” “[ he / she / they ] tricked me into helping them with a dark spell. People got hurt. It was my fault.” “I can’t stop doing it, the dark magic, it’s addictive.” “Life isn’t always fair, I have magic, why shouldn’t I use it?” “I want to show the world how powerful I am, they should be afraid of me, I could wipe them all out with a thought.” “You’re losing control, you need to focus.” “Are you serious!? [ he / she / they ] is the most powerful  [ witch / fairy / etc ] I’ve heard of! We can’t stop [ him / her / them ], we don’t stand a chance!”

[seanmonstar]

I'm an independent open source maintainer

tl;dr - I'm independent, sponsor me!

I'm doing something new. I'm an independent open source maintainer! In the beginning of June, I left my position at AWS.1

I'm still focused on Rust, async, and HTTP stuff. Projects like hyper, reqwest, h3, tower, and any other new ideas that come along. I just won't be doing so as an employee.

So, then how do I get paid? Let me just clear up a couple ways I'm not. I'm not making separate licenses. I'm not charging for features.2 I'm not selling prioritization on roadmaps. Rather, I plan to make maintenance work my primary focus.

Maintenance can feel like riding a squared unicycle while juggling water balloons. Some of those balloons are:3

Designing proposals, interviewing users, re-writing those proposals.

Coding, coding, coding.

Triaging a never-ending supply of issues.

Spelunking in ancient code paths to understand and fix weird bugs.

Following a proper security policy with responsible disclosure, collaborating privately, and preparing detailed reports.

Reviewing pull requests for quality and sticking to the vision, and hopefully teaching potential collaborators.

Writing articles and giving talks, as a form of marketing and teaching.

Pretending to be a project manager.

It's a lot of work, so who would pay for all that?

Does your company depend on my work? Become a sponsor! Consider it a form of business risk mitigation. You can use GitHub Sponsors or Patreon. I can also work with an invoice system, for any requiring that.

I am also interested in some deeper relationships with companies that want more. What exactly those relationships will look like will evolve. It would likely be things that look like office hours, support or private advice. If you want to explore that with me, reach out at sean@seanmonstar.com.

I learned a lot from my 3 years at AWS. Many lessons, some anti-lessons. Overall, I'm very grateful for my time there. But I had been planning this change for a while. And it was quite refreshing taking off a few weeks before jumping back into it all. ↩︎

A win about being independent is that no single company is deciding what features should be added. ↩︎

This would be a good subject for another article. There's a lot more to it, and it'd probably be surprising to people how many hats are needed to maintain popular open source libraries, besides "just being a programmer". At least, if you want to do it well. ↩︎

[longreads]

How Concerned Citizens Drove a Neo-Nazi Out of Rural Maine

Christopher Pohlhaus planned to build a fascist training compound in the woods of rural Maine. The local journalists, veterans, lumberjacks, and policymakers weren't having it.

Pohlhaus, 37, is a former U.S. marine, an itinerant tattoo artist, and a hardcore white-supremacist influencer. He is loud and hostile, and proud to be both. His voice is pitched surprisingly high, and he has a slight Southern drawl. He has a large body and small bald head; a blue-black tattoo crawls up the right side of his face, from his chin to his forehead. Over the years, Pohlhaus has collected thousands of social media followers, who know him by his nickname: Hammer.

Hammer had been living in Texas for a few years when, in March 2022, he bought the land in Maine. He told his followers that he was going to use it to build a haven, operational center, and training ground for white supremacists.

Check out our excerpt of The Atavist’s latest blockbuster story. 

[cinder-no]

Nitro my beloved?! [1] [2] [3]

[389]

PORTO ROCHA

[jcmarchi]

Why is electrification necessary to prevent global warming? - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/why-is-electrification-necessary-to-prevent-global-warming-technology-org/

Why is electrification necessary to prevent global warming? - Technology Org

Expanding renewable energy is the best way to reduce CO2 emissions

In Japan, more than 90% of CO2, which is the main greenhouse gas, comes from the energy consumption process of combustion engines or thermal power generation. The most effective way to reduce CO2 emissions is to replace fossil fuels with fossil-free energy sources by energy transformation. Among the fossil-free energy sources, solar and wind power generation systems have been pushed forward in the world, and it is thought that it will be possible to generate all electricity with renewable energy from these and other fossil-free energies. Accordingly, the worldwide implementation of restrictions on gasoline-fueled vehicles and the growing utilization of electric vehicles (EV) are based on the assumption that all electricity generation will eventually use alternatives to fossil fuels.

A 45cm2 flexible perovskite solar cell monolithic mini-module developed at Professor Segawa’s laboratory

In recent years, the RE100 (Renewable Energy 100%) global initiative, in which members commit to operating their businesses using only renewable electricity, has expanded to more than 400 companies. The use of renewable energy has become a social responsibility, so any companies that fail to use it will end up being ostracized from the supply chain.

In the case of the U.S. state of Hawaii, where legislation was introduced decreeing that 100% renewable electric energy must be used by 2045, the state government decided to offer tax incentives to consumers as well as businesses that promoted the use of solar power. Now, when solar panels and storage batteries are installed on many offices and houses, the owners receive a tax credit. Since electricity prices in Hawaii are higher than in Japan, the tax credits for solar panel and storage battery packages are proving to be a huge benefit for normal households, and it seems likely that the 100% renewable energy target will be met before the 2045 deadline.

In contrast, Japan’s Sixth Strategic Energy Plan aims to achieve just 36% to 38% renewable energy-based electricity usage by 2030. However, at the current pace, it is unlikely that even this target will be reached as the current Feed-in Tariff (FIT) and Feed-in Premium (FIP) systems hardly work as an incentive to introduce renewables. Perhaps the Japanese government should also start offering tax credits to get companies to utilize their internal reserves. Likewise, they should also encourage Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) — direct agreements between providers of renewable energy and commercial users of electricity whereby the user receives a stable supply of solar power without having to pay up-front costs.

It is also important to consider where renewable energy facilities should be installed — a particularly important issue in a country like Japan where space is limited. With regard to wind power, prospects for offshore wind farms are promising, as that is where the wind is at its strongest and environmental issues can best be avoided. In the field of solar power generation systems, research and development has been proceeding on lightweight, high-efficiency solar cells that can be installed anywhere, such as on the roofs of factories or building walls. One such type is “perovskite solar cells” using organometal iodide. Since Japan is the world’s No. 2 producer of the iodine used in these cells, we can avoid some of the resource-related problems associated with conventional solar cells. Maybe it will be possible in the future to even develop high-performance cells that can be used in things such as EV roofs and electric aircraft. Japan must invest in the development of these types of new technology for renewable energy.

Source: University of Tokyo

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[nanaluvbug]

🧀🥪🌶️🥭 The Ravening War portraits  🧀🥪🌶️🥭

patreon * twitch * shop  

[ID: a series of digitally illustrated portraits showing - top left to bottom right - Bishop Raphaniel Charlock (an old radish man with a big red head and large white eyebrows & a scraggly beard. he wears green and gold robes with symbols of the bulb and he smirks at the viewer) Karna Solara (a skinny young chili pepper woman with wavy green hair, freckled light green skin with red blooms on her cheeks. she wears a chili pepper hood lined with small pepper seeds and stares cagily ahead) Thane Delissandro Katzon (a muscular young beef man with bright pinkish skin with small skin variations to resemble pastrami and dark burgundy hair. he wears a bread headress with a swirl of rye covering his ears and he looks ahead, optimistic and determined) Queen Amangeaux Epicée du Peche (a bright mango woman with orange skin, big red hair adorned with a green laurel, and sparkling green/gold makeup. she wears large gold hoop earrings and a high leafy collar) and Colin Provolone (a scraggly cheese man with waxy yellow skin and dark slicked back hair and patchy dark facial hair. he wears a muted, ratty blue bandana around his neck and raises a scarred brow at the viewer with a smirk) End ID.)

[70sscifiart]

One of my favorites by Paul Lehr, used as a 1971 cover to "Earth Abides," by George R. Stewart. It's also in my upcoming art book!

[taizooo]

もともとは10年ほど前にTumblrにすごくハマっていて。いろんな人をフォローしたらかっこいい写真や色が洪水のように出てきて、もう自分で絵を描かなくて良いじゃん、ってなったんです。それで何年も画像を集めていって、そこで集まった色のイメージやモチーフ、レンズの距離感など画面構成を抽象化して、いまの感覚にアウトプットしています。画像の持つ情報量というものが作品の影響になっていますね。

映画『きみの色』山田尚子監督×はくいきしろい対談。嫉妬し合うふたりが語る、色��光の表現｜Tokyo Art Beat

[layla-keating]

#thistension

XO, KITTY — 1.09 “SNAFU”

[nevver]

Arts & Architecture, Sander Patelski

[foodffs]

Noodles with Lamb Sauce (Laghman, 新疆拌面) Xinjiang laghman features chewy noodles served with a bold and rich lamb and tomato sauce that is bursting with flavor.

Recipe: https://omnivorescookbook.com/recipes/uyghur-style-noodles-with-lamb-sauce

[ships-n-bats]

Yeah, the more I really look at Zerith’s whole relationship, the more skeevy it feels to me. 

Not skeevy in a “Zack’s a predator” kind of way, but more in a “Zack doesn’t respect Aerith as a person or partner” kind of way. Regardless of whether or not the two were officially dating or not, him having other women on the side still looks bad and shows a lack of respect towards Aerith and her feelings.

Even if one were to try and argue that “Aerith was Zack’s favorite” like it suggests when he says, “Out of all the girls I’ve gotten along with, you truly are the best.” it still doesn’t change the fact that he still flirted with other girls even when he and Aerith were involved together.

Especially since this kind of line is something a player/womanizer would use when trying to make a girl feel special. It gives off major “You’re not like the other girls. You’re better. You’re special.” It’s meant to flatter the girl and make her feel like he’ll drop all the other girls just for her… even though he was considering other girls at the time.

And that single interaction where Aerith calls him out for his behavior and is lowkey rejecting his advances just solidifies his skeeviness to me. He still tries to rizz her up and play into their past interactions in the hopes of convincing her they can “try again” and downplays his past flirty nature with a, “I’m nice to everyone.”

Yeah, and you’re especially nice to the ladies, Zack. 🙄

Even when she now loves another and only has eyes for Cloud, not him, he still says, “But whenever you feel lonely, call me Aerith.” Which, I’m assuming is supposed to be read as a sweet gesture with him offering a shoulder or ear if she needs one, but feels more like a guy telling a lonely girl to come to him because then she’ll be more desperate and vulnerable around him. Another typical player tactic.

Her response only solidifies this to me, as Aerith cooly responds with a, “Only if I get really lonely.”which just sounds like she’s telling him, “Yeah right, only if I’m desperate enough.”

Aerith is very introspective on her and Zack’s past “thing” and has come to the mature conclusion that not only does she no longer have feelings for him, but that certain traits of his are to be avoided (which is why she compares him to Cloud). She knows what she wants in a relationship and the traits she values in her partner, and Zack does not fit into them. Even when told to his face that she doesn’t like that aspect about him and that she has concerns over it, Zack tries to play it off and deflect, while still leaving the door open for any future possibility of them rekindling what little they had.

Even when it’s glaringly obvious the girl ain’t interested and has moved onto another guy entirely. One of whom she’s said she’s grown to love even more than she initially did towards Zack.

Aerith “liked” Zack, but they weren’t ever actually “dating”. They never kissed or anything like that. It was just a one-sided crush from Aerith.

[lesserknownbots]

CJ from Hello World (MSPFA) by phasedsun?