Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2023/12/how-to-build-a-small-solar-power-system/ Image: a solar panel with charge controller and lead-acid battery. Photo by Marie Verdeil. View original image View dithered image Readers have told me they like to build small-scale photovoltaic installations like those that power Low-tech Magazine’s website and office. However, they don’t know where to start and what components to buy. This guide…
Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Can’t Think, Can’t Remember: More Americans Say They’re in a Cognitive Fog Adults in their 20s, 30s and 40s are driving the trend. Researchers point to long Covid as a major cause. Francesca Paris In reporting for this article, Francesca Paris talked to 16 researchers and medical professionals who study disability, long…
Last week, Walmart made headlines with a claim that new weight loss drugs might be making people buy less food. Walmart US CEO John Furner told Bloomberg that people taking Wegovy, Ozempic, and similar drugs showed a “slight change” in their purchasing habits: “just less units, slightly less calories.” How does Walmart know this? Because,…
Marc Tessier-Lavigne was cleared of accusations of scientific fraud and misconduct. But the review said his work had “multiple problems” and “fell below customary standards of scientific rigor.” Marc Tessier-Lavigne, a noted scientist, announced he would resign as president of Stanford University.Credit…Carolyn Fong for The New York Times July 19, 2023Updated 6:18 p.m. ET Following…
Andreas Malm’s 2021 nonfiction book How to Blow Up a Pipeline was a punchy 161-page manifesto on the role of violence in social movements, probing why rich-world climate activists have largely shunned tactics like sabotage. Director Daniel Goldhaber’s fictionalized film adaptation releasing this week, on the other hand, offers a stylized, tense picture of…
The subject of online anonymity came up at a house party a few weeks back. One of the people there—a friend I’d known for years—said he couldn’t get over the fact that a privacy reporter like me would use their full name on any social site. I told him that hiding behind an online…
It’s hard to live in the modern world without feeling like you should start committing some felonies. Shutterstock Dan Brooks Thought Experiments Sometimes, in idle moments, I get a vision of my teenage son’s son — my imaginary unborn grandson — manually pollinating soybeans for 12 hours a day in exchange for a ration of…
Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson are choosing a terrible time to leave Earth. Getty; The Atlantic Dear billionaires, no one cares whom you beat to space. After Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, announced that he would join the first crewed flight by his rocket company, Blue Origin, later this month, Richard Branson just couldn’t…
Camille Stevens-Rumann never used to worry about seeing dead trees. As a wildland firefighter in the American west, she encountered untold numbers killed in blazes she helped to extinguish. She knew fires are integral to forests in this part of the world; they prune out smaller trees, giving room to the rest and even help…
The Pill Helped Start the Sexual Revolution. What Will Phexxi Do? Saundra Pelletier is marketing a new form of birth control to women wary of hormones. Ms. Pelletier’s back is tattoed with feminist symbols.Credit…Michelle Groskopf for The New York Times June 10, 2021Updated 12:20 p.m. ET SAN DIEGO — If you’re a woman aged 18…