perestroika

They say that people who don't build battery banks while wearing a sweater will cry about the lack of battery banks in double fur coats. :)

Since today was possibly the last "sweater" weekend here, morning frost is a reality and snow has fallen 500 km northwards...

...I decided that I would be among the first and not the second group. :)

Coincidence has given me an almost unused (43 000 km driven) battery bank of a Mitsubishi i-MIEV (a crap car, don't buy unless you are an EV mechanic).

But in my house, there is already a 24V battery bank made of Nissan Leaf cells and I'm worried about lack of space and fire hazard (if lithium batteries burn, you typically need tons of water to make them do anything else - I have only one ton and pumping it requires that same battery bank).

So I decided that I'd build a new 48V battery bank outside my house, start it up with the MIEV cells and maybe migrate the Leaf cells there later too, after checking and reassembly.

However, winters are cold here and MIEV cells (as I mentioned, the car is crap) lose 30% of their capacity when cold. It thus follows that I must keep my battery warm in winter - and later on, cool in summer. This requires energy. Spending less energy on battery care allows using more energy for useful things. :)

Thus it follows that I need a battery enclosure. :) It must have wheels so construction bureaucrats can be waved away with an explanation (a generator on wheels doesn't need a building permit either). And it must have thermal insulation.

The insulation is PIR foam, 10 cm thick. Maybe I'll make some parts even thicker. The wheeled platform was salvaged from a bankrupt boat factory, I don't know its original purpose. The bottom plywood is 20 mm waterproof ply, and the top layer (PIR is very delicate, don't put batteries directly on PIR) is 9 mm waterproof ply.

The design I stole from an anarchist squat which existed in 2009, where styrofoam was used for a similar purpose, with the difference that squatters used lead acid batteries and their battery room was indoors (now it's advisable to imagine the sound of clattering teeth, it was cold there in winter).

Inside the box, there will be:

• balancers / equalizers
• some DC heating ribbon
• a thermostat or a microcontroller-driven thermometer + relay
• a circulation fan (thermal stratification is bad)
• battery monitors with an alarm function
• a smoke alarm

Since PIR aborsbs sound, the piezo buzzers of the alarm devices will have to be unsoldered and brought to a plastic box on the surface of the enclosure. :)

The arrangement of cells has been chosen to provide access from outside, get a reasonable ratio between volume and surface (avoid flat shape) and to minimize the cutting of materials (several sides are made of PIR sheet cut to length only).

Some more pictures:

• Main tools for working with PIR
• Test fitting
• Closing up
• Securing with fiber tape (you can tow a car with a roll of it)

End result of today's work:

Originally found here. It seems that cops in California entered a still unexplored abyss of incompetence. Fortunately nobody was hurt, so it can be considered comic relief - except by the medical company whose MRI machine they cooked.

Officer Kenneth Franco drew on his "twelve hours of narcotics training" and discovered the facility was using more electricity than nearby stores, the lawsuit said.

"Officer Franco, therefore, concluded (the facility) was cultivating cannabis, disregarding the fact that it is a diagnostic facility utilizing an MRI machine, X-ray machine and other heavy medical equipment -- unlike the surrounding businesses selling flowers, chocolates and children's merchandise," the suit said.

After bursting into the diagnostics center in October last year, the SWAT team found only offices, a single employee and medical devices, including a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine, a diagnostic tool that uses high-powered magnets to create detailed scans of a patient's body.

Disregarding a sign warning that metal objects should be kept well away, one officer wandered near the machine "dangling a rifle in his right hand," the lawsuit said.

"Expectedly, the magnetic force of the MRI machine attracted the LAPD officer's loose rifle, securing it to the machine," the suit said.

Instead of seeking expert advice on how to retrieve the weapon, one officer decided to activate the emergency shutdown button.

"This action caused the MRI's magnet to rapidly lose superconductivity, leading to the evaporation of approximately 2,000 liters of helium gas and resulting in extensive damage to the MRI machine," the suit said.

The officer then retrieved his gun, but left a magazine full of bullets on the floor of the MRI office, the suit says.

The suit, which was filed in California last week, seeks unspecified damages and costs.

Kolleegid anarhistid, meile võib olla tööd. Aastal 2008 tõstsime meie sildi "Ei politseiriigile", kui siseminister Jüri Pihl pärast Pronksiööd politsei õigustega üle põhiseaduse ratsutada tahtis. Põhiõiguste piiramise teema ei ole sellest ajast kordagi täielikult silmapiirilt kadunud (netivabadus, metainfo talletamine, sõrmejäljed, jne). Praegu on sama sildi tõstnud kas jälle meie, või seekord keskid teised. Sildil on esialgu ka küsimärke.

Tallinnas, Põhjala tehase Ankrusaalis toimub 4. septembril kell algusega kell 19:00 uue korrakaitseseaduse kriitiline arutelu. Arutelu juhtatavad sisse õigusteadlane Paloma Krõõt Tupay ja vandeadvokaat Kalev Aavik.

Olete oodatud, kuid ma ei julge lubada koosoleku kohta midagi, kuna ei tunne kedagi selle korraldajatest. Info toimumisest leidsin Feministeeriumi kaudu.

Ürituse kutse leiab siit (ettevaatust, Facebooki link).

Colleagues, anarchists, we may have some work awaiting. Back in 2008, we raised the banner "No to a police state" when interior minister Jüri Pihl wanted to ride roughly over the constitution after the "bronze statue riot". The topic has never really died after that (internet freedoms, data retention, fingerprinting requirements, etc). Currently, someone has raised the same banner, but we don't yet know if it's us or someone else. :)

On September 4 at 19:00 in Tallinn, at the "Anchor hall" (Ankrusaal) of the Põhjala factory, there will be a critical discussion of the new law enforcement bill. An introduction will be made by Paloma Krõõt Tupay (who researches law) and Kalev Aavik (who practises as a lawyer).

You're welcome to join, but I cannot promise anything about the event, because I don't have contact with the organizers. I found the information via Feministeerium.

An invitation to the event can be found here (beware, Facebook link).

This is not just a "happy birthday" post for Linux, but also a reminder that despite it becoming big and professional, the freedom to tinker with Linux remains accessible.

I had to use this freedom recently when I discovered that V4L video pipelines could buffer up to 32 frames both on the encoder and decoder (unacceptable, we demand minimum latency!) so it was again time to recompile the kernel. :)

My previous time to recompile parts of Linux had been a week ago. Some hacker had discovered a way of tricking their WiFi card beyond the legally permitted power - with what I understand as thermal compensation settings. Wanting to taste the sweet extra milliwatts, I noticed that nobody was packaging that driver as a binary, so the only way to get it was to patch and recompile its kernel module.

Finally of course, thanks to Linux we have countless open-source drivers and if you want to venture onto the path that Linus Torvalds took - of building an operating system - congratulations, you have less obstacles in your way. :) Some people have taken this path with the Circle project and you can compile your homebrew and bare-metal kernel for a Raspberry Pi with reasonable effort, and it can even draw on the screen, write to serial ports and flip GPIO lines without reverse-engineering anyone's trade secrets. :)

Järjehoidja .ee anarhistidele: lemm.ee serveris on kah anarhismi teemaline kanal. See loodi äsja ning suurt midagi hetkel veel ei toimu. :)

A bookmark for anarhists in .ee: please note, on the server lemm.ee, there is also a channel about anarchism. It appeared recently and there is not much to see currently. :)

In the article, researchers modeled the passage of the solar system through the galactic interstellar medium, components of which move at differing velocities and orbits.

They found that approximately 2-3 megayears ago, the solar system most likely entered a cloud of mainly cold hydrogen, and the density of the cloud was such that it should have considerably compressed the heliosphere (Sun's bubble of radiation and fields). Earth would have been outside the heliosphere either permanently or periodically. Currently the heliosphere ends far beyond the most distant planet, at approximately 130 Earth-Sun distances (astronomical units).

This would have greatly subdued the influence of solar wind on Earth, at the same time exposing the planet to interstellar cosmic rays. It is further speculated that studies which analyze Earth climate during the aforementioned period may benefit from accounting for this possibility.

Researchers sought confirmation for their model from geological records and found some, in the isotope content of iron and plutonium in sediments: iron 60 and plutonium 244 aren't produced by processes on Earth, so an influx would mean that solar wind no longer sufficed to beat back interstellar gas and dust (the latter containing radioisotopes from supernova explosions).

"By studying geological radioisotopes on Earth, we can learn about the past of the heliosphere. 60Fe is predominantly produced in supernova explosions and becomes trapped in interstellar dust grains. 60Fe has a half-life of 2.6 Myr, and 244Pu has a half-life of 80.7 Myr. 60Fe is not naturally produced on Earth, and so its presence is an indicator of supernova explosions within the last few (~10) million years. 244Pu is produced through the r-process that is thought to occur in neutron star mergers22. Evidence for the deposition of extraterrestrial 60Fe onto Earth has been found in deep-sea sediments and ferromanganese crusts between 1.7 and 3.2 Ma (refs. 23,24,25,26,27), in Antarctic snow [28] and in lunar samples [29]. The abundances were derived from new high-precision accelerator mass spectrometry measurements. The 244Pu/60Fe influx ratios are similar at ~2 Ma, and there is evidence of a second peak at ~7 Ma (refs. 23,24)."

Since Estonian readers know already, this summary is only for English speakers: after many years of haunting the political landscape with gradually growing vote counts, the Estonian Conservative People's Party (authoritarian right), has finally collapsed into a crisis.

It's not a crisis of values (they are all still conservative and many are authoritarian too), but a crisis of internal democracy due to the dictatorial habits of the "ruling family" - father and son Mart and Martin Helme.

Three prominent members, one of whom intending to challenge the party leader in internal elections, were kicked out during a board meeting, after which several more prominent members (among them several MPs and one MEP) either left the party of announced intention of leaving.

Everyone involved had adequate warning about the lack of internal democracy, it is just that they tolerated it longer than anticipated. The big bang comes after years of gradual kick-outs.

""If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by." - Sun Tzu

For English speakers: boring but scandalous tax news from Estonia. If the proposed changes are passed into law, it will no longer be possible to pay a progressive income tax in Estonia even voluntarily (by having an automatically taxed "entrepreneur's private account"). It's surreal. The state budget is tearing apart after the COVID expenses, military expenses due to our dear eastern neighbour [both unavoidable, I would say] and meanwhile politicians find ways to ease the tax burden on the well-earning (I am one of them and have paid the higher tax tier on some years). And of course - the really wealthy folks who own actual companies - they never had to pay it. Me, I'm going to wait until the dust settles and publish something about this farce, as I think the progressive tax system should be expanded, not ended.

Lühikokkuvõte: Eestis ei saa astmelist tulumaksu enam isegi vabatahtlikult maksta. Päris rikkad pole seda kunagi maksma pidanud, aga nüüd ei saa seda maksta ka üksi tegutsevad väikeettevõtjad. Riigieelarve käriseb pärast pandeemiat ja sõda Ukrainas sunnib peale vältimatud kõrged kaitsekulutused, aga meil plaanitakse jõukamate klasside maksukoormust langetada. Sürreaalne. :o Ootan, kuni tolm langeb ja pilt selgineb, siis tuleb selle kohta artikkel.

For English speakers: I've previously written about the Helsinki thermal store. Now I'm happy to mention the planned Vantaa thermal store, which is going to be built for 200 million euros and will store nearly enough heat to keep Vantaa warm through the winter (specifically 90 GWh). It's going to be charged with waste heat and direct electrical heating during periods of renewable energy overproduction.

Olen varem kirjutanud Helsingi soojushoidlast, nüüd saan mainida Vantaa oma - see rajatakse ca. 200 miljoni euro eest ja suudab valmides salvestada põhimõtteliselt kogu Vantaa talvise vajaduse jagu küttesoojust. Soojushoidlat kavatsetakse täita jääksoojusega solgiveest, andmekeskustest ja 2 x 60 MW otsese elektriküttega taastuvenergia ületoodangu perioodidel. Väga huvitav projekt, millele õnnestumist sooviks.

For English speakers: an article from the Estonian public broadcaster about the Slovakian public broadcaster (and government). Unfortunately, there's some sad news - the new government of Slovakia is intending to tear down and rebuild from scratch their public broadcasting company. And everyone knows what that means: convenient people will be installed in the offices that count, so that news could be more favourable for the government in future. Stage 1 of authoritarian takeover. There is opposition to it, of course, and hopefully it won't get anywhere.

Slovakkia kandist on nukrad uudised: uus valitsus juba sirutab kätt avalik-õigusliku meedia järele, eesmärgiga et suure ümber struktureerimise kattevarjus "omad joped" ametisse panna ja tulevikus omale meelepärasemaid uudiseid toota. Riigi autoritaarse ülevõtmise retseptis on selline liigutus tähtsal kohal. Loodetavasti ebaõnnestub.

For English speakers: adopting a progressive income tax would be currently supported by 60% of Estonia's voters and opposed by 30% (support has previously been as high as 75%). The measure would be supported by 5 parties out of 6 and narrowly opposed by 1 party (which is split in the question). This has been the situation for 20 years. And the result? We have no progressive income tax, because politicians (who are nearly without exception high-income persons) aren't that keen on listening to the population in certain questions, and the population - easily distracted and clumsy at demanding stuff. :o

Nagu näha, toetaks meedet (jätkuvalt, juba ca. 20 aastat) nii elanikkonna enamus kui parteide enamus. Kõik peale praeguse peaministri erakonna toetaks astmelist tulumaksu, ja peaministri erakonnast kah pooled. Paraku ei ole seda juhtunud. Kurvastusega tuleb tõdeda, et poliitikuid (kes on pea eranditult kõrge sissetulekuga isikud) teatud küsimustes valijate soovid eriti ei huvita - valijad aga on hajameelsed ja oskamatud asjade nõudmisel. :o

I feared he would be martyred, when he returned to Russia after getting poisoned by the FSB and helping Bellingcat track down the agents who poisoned him (nobody in power did anything about them). Back then, his life was saved by a pilot deciding to make an emergency landing and a doctor suspecting a neurotoxin.

What finally took his life will be difficult to ascertain due to lack of transparency - a remote location, an extremely authoritarian system, war, politically controlled law enforcement and courts. Still, a day before death, Navalny appeared in court for another potential addition to his already 19-year sentence - in good spirits.

During Navalny's imprisonment, the regime made a sustained effort to break that spirit, issuing a constant stream of disciplinary punishments (a total of 27 times): for not placing his hands behind his back, for incorrectly introducing himself, for uttering a profanity, for failing to clear leaves in the yard, for citing the European Court of Human Rights’ demand for his release, for addressing the guard without using a patronym, and for declining to wash the fence.

They also transfered him to the far north and previously used sleep deprivement against him. I tend to assume that they also killed him, either directly or indirectly.

He was definitely not the perfect politician, but did things which a common politician never dares to do, which suggests having some principles. When they came for anarchists, he didn't forget them, but also spoke for anarchists.