In case humanity forgets about how to make CPUs, some folks would still remember how to make stateful relays, magnetic core memory, punch cards and pneumatic logic valves.

It would take a bit of time from there back to a CPU.

Here in Estonia, you sometimes wait for a ChaDemo cable to become available.

The operators of charger networks forbid hitting the red button (emergency disconnect) under any conditions unless it’s an emergency.

There’s a silent agreement among drivers that lack of charging opportunities is an emergency. :D If the other guy is not present and their battery has reached 80% or more (charging has slowed to a trickle and they have enough range to drive), it’s considered OK to hit the red button and hijack the cable.

But alas, some cars (guess which, the ones without door handles, specially designed for suicidal drivers) sometimes won’t release the cable.

You also frequently call customer support to restart chargers and watch Linux boot messages scroll by, and complain until blue in the face about specific chargers that stop working for some specific cars in cold weather.

In short, it’s pretty close to a mess. :o

My take: a reasonably universal method of payment beats barter, because in a barter economy you can get stuck trying to exchange beans for oars, while the oar maker wants wood or carrots, and the wood cutter needs pumpkins or saw blades instead of peas. :)

However, a universal method of payment will create a finacial sector, and to avoid adverse outcomes, activity in the financial sector needs to match certain criteria. Typically there’s a state regulating things. In an anarchist economy, regulation would decentralized, but there would have to be regulation.

E.g. if there’s a currency, there has to be a mechanism protecting against issuing forged currency. It doesn’t have to be goons with guns (recent takes have involved cryptography instead of them), but a mechanism has to exist.

According to the latest that I’ve read, these “Gerbera” type drones (“Shahed imitators” but dangerous enough to do damage) carried an extra fuel tank that isn’t found in Gerberas that fly in Ukraine.

Seems like a deliberate test of response.

I think the response of shooting them down was correct. I hope that a minimum of information about operating procedures leaked during work. I hope the shootdown was cheap (e.g. planes or helicopters using autocannon instead of missiles) because Gerberas are cheap, dirt cheap.

Some additional message needs to be figured out by NATO countries and communicated (more likely via practical action, since talk is cheap) from which a conclusion of “let’s not do it again” would be read out in Moscow. Preventing a few oil tankers from reaching St. Petersburg to load Russian oil might be one option.

Also, the question of “what’s on our menu for countering dirt cheap weapons” needs to be asked in many countries, and likely has been being asked for a while now. My bet: air-dropped unpowered glide vehicles that intercept a drone. No motor, just enough velocity and altitude from the fighter (or farmer) which brought them.

A side note: by banning social media apps, the government also cut off communication with emigrees earning money in foreign countries.

So, power tried entrenching itself, and power also tried f*cking with a critical part of the Nepalese economy, and then cops used violence.

Currently the military is trying to enforce a curfew. As much as I’ve been told, they aren’t shooting violators at the moment, but telling them to go home.

As far as I know, the central offices of all 3 branches of government + a whole lot of other stuff got burnt down.

As much as I would like to agree, states have historically been far better at fighting wars than most kinds of anarchist organization. Yes, there have been bumbling fools here and there, states can be miserable at innovation - but their organizational model usually prevails if given some time. :(

The methods of state warfare and non-state insurgency differ a lot. A war is financed by the tax office, an insurgency is mostly financed by donation, theft and loot. A tax office will get a great deal further in raising money than even the most talented partisan, because they are pretty uncontestable and systematically squeeze everyone.

State-like methods will have industries leveraging scaling laws and division of labour to produce faster and cheaper (a trivial example: I can be much more productive and make less mistakes if I produce ailerons for 20 drones in a row, or parachutes for 20 drones in a row). A partisan organization will have difficulty doing that and evading detection.

In war, territory matters - you want to control territory that is safe for your side, and locate production where it cannot be obstructed, so you can make stuff by the ton.

This could somewhat change in the near future, but not massively. The destabilizing factor which might change things is likely low-cost drones in all environments. Attacking a big sitting duck might become, at least for a while, somewhat easier than defending a big sitting duck. Maybe it already has (referring to some incidents of a drone swarm flying out of a truck).

However, I am not convinced if this changes the playing field enough.

This somewhat saddens me. To prevail in military conflict, even an anarchist organization would have to adopt methods considerably resembling a state, and revert to its old shape later - if it can. I guess the old saying “war is healthy for a state” (and almost nobody else) isn’t so wrong. :(

Personal perspective: when Ukraine got invaded by Russia, I tried to influence the situation via anarchist organizations first, because that’s where I had contacts. At first, they achieved meaningful things. Ukrainian folks equipped their comrades for war, Russian folks torched and derailed various stuff… but as things continue, what counts more and more is ability to mass produce cheap technology. Anarchist methods have a vital place in research and innovation, but if something even remotely seems to get results, state financing and methods from big industry are better employed to quickly replicate a successful tool. So I foresee that if I come up with a successful tool and want it replicated, I would have to cooperate with an organization capable of mass production - and my anarchist comrades currently don’t have these. In a different world, maybe they would - as a result of experiences and opinions that point out the value of organizing things on big scale. It’s not impossible, anarchists have sometimes organized big stuff.

Wikipedia tries to trace it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_2025_Indonesian_protests

On 25 August 2025, protests began in Indonesia as part of a larger civil unrest that began in early 2025 over economic frustrations and a proposed hike in housing subsidies for members of parliament. The protests, which were largely concentrated around the capital Jakarta,[42][43][44] grew in intensity and spread nationwide following the killing of Affan Kurniawan, a motorcycle taxi driver who was run over by a Brimob police tactical vehicle on 28 August during a larger violent and excessive crackdown on civil dissent.[42]

Protesters initially demanded the House of Representatives reverse its subsidy schemes and penalize its members who made insensitive statements, as well as pass the Confiscation of Assets Act for lawmakers convicted of corruption.[45] Following the death of Kurniawan, student-led protesters expanded their demands to include a complete and thorough reform of the Indonesian National Police and either the resignation or termination of the chief of police, Listyo Sigit Prabowo.[46]

Thank you for the advise, I acted upon it too.

For those who don’t know: the Hind Rajab Foundation is the Palestinian equivalent of the Simon Wiesenthal Center - and just as necessary in our time. They take legal action to bring likely war criminals to trial.

• step 1: target a hospital
• step 2: kill journalists as by-catch
• step 3: kill rescue workers in a double-tap strike

I don’t know what will be done about it, but I would like something to be done that stops Israel from proceeding and eventually forces them to give up Netanyahu for trial.

A reality check:

Fuel Shortages Hit Russia’s Far East as Ukrainian Strikes Take Refineries Offline

My assessement: economically, Russia is very exhausted. Living conditions over there have objectively worsened. Inflation is so high that countries with a normal-sized police force would experience rioting (Russia has about 4 times more cops per citizens than a normal country, so it doesn’t).

Meanwhile, the weapons industry is of course booming and has gained lots of new knowledge. I’m not sure if the leading country in drone technology is Ukraine or Russia, but others are quite clearly bogged down in bureaucracy or lazy due to no perceived threat. Financing that industry is however close to falling apart.

Considering inflation (the same money is worth less) and the exhaustion of its sovereign wealth fund (saved up oil revenues) and considering that Ukraine is apparently enforcing a ban on oil refining in Russia (13% of refineries down in one month), Russia might have to reduce its military budget next year, despite not wanting to. (It has already reduced most other budget lines.)

Population has been reduced by emigration (those who could bailed out when it started), war deaths (about 1M men considered expendable are now dead or injured) and lack of births (people lack optimism about future). In fact, population data likely haven’t looked so miserable since the 1990-ties, for which reason publicaton of data was reduced.

Ukraine is, of course, experinecing the same kind of misery, but other European countries have enough resources to keep it functioning.

This could drag on for long, but would end if something broke. It would be far better if the agressor broke.

I cut aluminum with mine (and professional aluminum sellers cut theirs with their saw, but it likely costs thousands), but I will second the “be careful” part.

Aluminum can snag your saw blade (especially if you use a blade meant for wood, which I don’t recommend because it also produces messy output). Snagging can have dangerous results (saw jumping upward and losing teeth or more in the process).

Ensure the work piece is clamped down very well. Ensure that the saw is either on a large level surface or better yet - bolted or clamped down. Ensure that the saw jumping cannot hurt you in any way.

When cutting aluminum, push very gently. And when the raw material gets too small, don’t try cutting the last little piece. Small working material will increase the chance of accidents. I set my limit around 20 cm.

Most of it, currently, yes.

But there is no requirement to do it that way.

(Also, the people who run fuel cells typically don’t buy fossil hydrogen.)

Anything that brings operating temperatures down by a half while maintaining efficiency is good news. :)

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It seems that someone noticed that absorbing CO2 leads to ocean acidity rising (the carbonate ion, CO3, is a negatively charged ion with a nominal charge of -2).

Neutralizing CO3 by providing it something permanent to bind with - for example by forming NaHCO3 - will likely have the desired effect (nobody goes testing with a ship without first testing in a lab)…

…but the scale of the task makes me doubt if this is a feasible / reasonable approach. All that sodium to make soda would have to be produced somehow, without emitting almost any CO2. This, I have doubts about feasibility.

Wright told CNN that he hand-picked the four researchers and one economist who authored the Trump administration report: John Christy and Roy Spencer, both research scientists at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, Steven E. Koonin of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, Georgia Tech professor emeritus Judith Curry and Canadian economist Ross McKitrick.

Straight out of joke country. :o

Just don’t let him become a president-for-life. If someone becomes president-for-life, the way to end their presidency unfortunately involves ending their life.

Glad to see it reversed. It was shortsighted.

Sad, but informative reading. The article explains why it wasn’t by accident.

There is nothing to do with the goods that are supposed to be bought, definitely at the price they sell - and the investments are supposed to be made voluntarily by the private sector.

Nobody’s going to do it. There’s no incentive mechanism and no enforcement mechanism except warm vapour out of politicians’ mouths.

Realistically about 30% of this is maybe going to happen.

Also, what “all times in history” are you referring to? I doubt you have an overview of all trade disputes between the US and EU, and their outcomes.