"The war in Iran has sent oil-starved countries scrambling for fuel," CNN reported this week. And many of those countries now want renewable fuels, the article points out, "leaving them turning to the renewables king of the planet: China."

Chinese exports of solar technology, batteries and electric vehicles all reached record highs in March, according to energy think tank Ember, a sign that the historic oil supply shock is accelerating the adoption of clean energy around the world... A Thursday report from Ember said China exported 68 gigawatts of solar technology in March, surpassing the previous record set in August by 50%. Fifty countries set new records for Chinese solar imports, with the most significant growth coming from emerging markets in Asia and Africa hit hardest by the energy crisis, according to the think tank. "Fossil shocks are boosting the solar surge," said Euan Graham, senior analyst at Ember, in the report. "Solar has already become the engine of the global economy, and now the current fossil fuel price shocks are taking it up a gear."

Ember said exports of solar, batteries and EVs in total rose 70% in March year over year, according to Chinese customs data... China's battery exports reached $10 billion in March, with particularly high growth rates in the European Union, Australia and India, Ember said. Uncertainty over when the Strait of Hormuz will reopen has spurred deeper regional anxieties about energy securi"ty, helping to hasten the transition to clean energy, analysts said.
The article notes how different countries are reacting to fuel


Asian nations that depend on the Middle East for energy imports "are trying to mitigate fuel shortages by encouraging energy conservation and shortening work hours."
The UK's Energy Secretary said this week that the country needed to reduce its reliance on gas for electricity. "As we face the second fossil fuel shock in less than 5 years, the lesson for our country is clear: The era of fossil fuel security is over, and the era of clean energy security must come of age."
Pakistan "has been spared some of the impact from the war, since it began drastically importing cheap Chinese solar panels a few years ago. Using solar energy rather than costly oil imports is estimated to save the country billions of dollars each year."
"According to the China Passenger Car Association, Chinese exports of electric vehicles and hybrids hit a record high in March, increasing 140% compared with the same period a year ago."


Thanks to Slashdot reader AleRunner for sharing the article.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"Scientists have created a miraculous new way to stop fires from spreading through neighborhoods using nothing but sound," reports the New York Post:

Former NASA engineers with California-based Sonic Fire Tech found that using sound waves can snuff out blazes and potentially be used to stop another Pacific Palisades inferno... The technology works by targeting oxygen molecules using low-frequency sound waves that vibrate them, stopping the fire from growing. "Sound waves vibrate the oxygen faster than the fuel can use it, and break the chemical reaction of the flame," Remington Hotchkis, Chief Commercialization Officer at Sonic Fire Tech told The Post.

The San Bernardino County Fire Department recently tested out the equipment using a backpack version and the results were incredible. Video shows firefighters fighting small blazes on a shrub and a stove top fire with the technology putting it out... In the home application, the system would be alerted/activated if there was a fire, sending the sound waves through a home duct system, essentially snuffing out the blaze. The sound waves can reach as far as 30ft from a home, the report noted. The sound is also harmless to pets and humans.
The article includes this quote that an executive at the company gave local news station KMPH. "Our former NASA engineers are rocket scientists, and they say it seems like magic, but it's just physics."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

niggyl :) has added a photo to the pool:

Looking eastward over the two northern companion lakelets of Lake Tyndall in the Tyndall Range. Tasmania.

Getting close to dark with rain brewing behind the camera. Starting to spit.

Ricoh GRiii, 18.3mm f/2.8 GR lens, 1/1000th sec at f/5.6, ISO 640

Na een steekpartij zaterdagavond in Rotterdam-Delfshaven zijn twee verdachten aangehouden. Dat meldt de politie zondag. Het gaat om mannen van 18 en 22 jaar. Ze komen uit Rotterdam.

Fremantle Prison gains unique documents about Catalpa captain. Captain George Anthony's family share historic documents detailing the life of the principled Quaker who was branded a pirate for his role in the Catalpa rescue.

The Catalpa rescue was the escape, on 17–19 April 1876, of six Irish Fenian[1] prisoners from the Convict Establishment (now Fremantle Prison), a British penal colony in Western Australia. They were taken on the convict ship Hougoumont to Fremantle, Western Australia, arriving 9 January 1868. In 1869, pardons had been issued to many of the imprisoned Fenians. Another round of pardons was issued in 1871, after which only a small group of "military" Fenians remained in Western Australia's penal system. In 1874, prisoner James Wilson secretly sent a letter to New York City journalist John Devoy, who worked to organize a rescue. Using donations collected by Devoy from Irish-Americans, Fremantle escapee John Boyle O'Reilly, then living in Boston, purchased a merchant ship, Catalpa, and sailed her to international waters off Rockingham, Western Australia. On 17 April 1876 at 8:30 am, Wilson and five other Fenians working outside the prison walls, Thomas Darragh, Martin Hogan, Michael Harrington, Thomas Hassett, and Robert Cranston, boarded a whaleboat O'Reilly had dispatched, were taken aboard Catalpa, and escaped to New York. [1] Irish republican revolutionaries that sought to achieve the independence of Ireland from the British Empire in the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century.

From legitimate scrutiny to lurid scare stories, the Green party’s rise has brought a sudden spike in attention

It is the lot of smaller parties that grow rapidly that they tend to endure something of a trial by the media in the UK. The attention from some of the newspapers and broadcasters to the Green party before this week’s elections has occasionally borne an unlikely resemblance to the height of Clegg-mania in the spring of 2010, when the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, was rewarded for his positive polling with the unlikely Daily Mail headline “Clegg in Nazi slur on Britain”.

All manner of colourful tales have emerged about Green policies and personnel as the party has risen up the national opinion polls, making them something of a target for news editors and reporters. That attention has ranged from legitimate questions over the views of members to more eccentric warnings of a dire future for everyone in Britain from exotic animals to members of the clergy.

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For five years, our column has attempted to settle rows about the important little things … but what happens after the verdicts are in?

Since 2021, I’ve had one of the most brilliantly nosy jobs in journalism. Writing Saturday magazine’s You be the judge column has let me into the interior lives of others, lifting the lid on the everyday irritations that grind people’s gears in their closest relationships. It’s the pettiness that gets people going. I’ve interviewed couples at war over alarms and dishcloths, girlfriends disagreeing about dog care, and sisters who cohabit and argue about their sex lives.

With interviews conducted online and in person, I’ve accumulated domestic disputes from every corner of the globe which have also sparked heated debates online. Part small-claims court, part sociological experiment, You be the judge turns low-stakes grievances into battles that somehow feel life-or-death, and it’s fascinating to see which minor injustices ignite the fiercest debates.

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Her actions may be numbing pain she feels in other areas of her life, so you must approach the issue thoughtfully

My mother is in her 70s and addicted to playing video games such as Tetris, many different versions of solitaire and slot machine gambling games.

In the 1990s my parents bought a desktop computer and my mum started to play mostly card games on it for hours. As technology has progressed, she moved to a laptop and now a smartphone. When my sisters and I were younger, we used to joke about her gaming, but we’ve come to realise it has affected our relationships as she has never been emotionally available. When I’m with Mum now, she always has her phone in her hand and will be playing a game even when I’m talking to her. I never feel I have her full attention. She is like this with other family members too and it’s become a bit of a family joke.

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This cute and jovial eatery is reason enough to make a break for the coast

As summer looms, and with it the urge to stampede towards the edges of Britain in search of paddling opportunities, I proffer another coastal dining idea: Willy’s in Margate – and, yes, that name does have about it something of the naughty seaside postcard. Tucked away in the back of Margate House hotel on Dalby Square, a few minutes’ walk from the seafront, Willy’s is a blur of frilly red-and-pink seaside adorableness. It’s cool, cute and jovial, with pork scratchings and apple chutney on the menu, as well as black pudding scotch eggs, sticky toffee pudding and Sunday lunches of beef rump and baked cauliflower cheese. This menu is short, intentional and hearty, rather than airy-fairy, and it chortles in the face of small plates.

But, for the foodie/sippy crowd, the signifiers are all here: there’s a paper plane and a penicillin on the cocktail menu, throwbacks to New York’s iconic Milk and Honey bar. There are three Olivier Pithon natural wines from Roussillon on the short list, which as a whole leans towards natural and low-intervention bottles from France, Spain and Italy. Most tellingly, the chef is Mark O’Brien, who worked with Robin Gill at the Dairy in London and at Samphire in nearby Whitstable before making this little nook his home, and who earlier this year reached the final three of MasterChef: The Professionals. Willy’s is clearly run by a team that knows about nice things.

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When Vadym Lietunov spotted a fortified position after his own had been blown up, he didn’t realise it belonged to the enemy

The bombing began the morning after Vadym Lietunov arrived on the frontline. It went on for six or seven hours each day. The Russians hit the dugout where he was sheltering with kamikaze drones and mortars. After every strike, Lietunov and another Ukrainian soldier, Sasha, repaired the damage, extinguishing fires with bottles of urine and shoving clay-filled sacks back into position. “The enemy knew we were there. It was trying to kill us,” he said.

In late February Russian drone operators tried a new tactic. They sent in a Molniya drone carrying an anti-tank mine. It exploded next to the entrance, leaving the two soldiers concussed and shaking. There were several similar attacks before Lietunov heard an ominous buzz. This time, a mine fell on top of their foxhole. “I look up and we’ve got no roof. It blew everything up,” he recalled.

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Exclusive: Two ‘intimate conversations’ held with writers, directors and producers, with a third due in June

Nato is holding closed-door meetings with film and TV screenwriters, directors and producers across Europe and the US, the Guardian can reveal, prompting accusations the alliance is seeking to use the arts to generate “propaganda” for the bloc.

The alliance has held three meetings with film and TV professionals in Los Angeles, Brussels and Paris and is due to continue its “series of intimate conservations” next month in London, meeting with screenwriter members of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB), which represents professional writers in the UK.

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Gemma Correll has suffered from anxiety and depression disorders since childhood, and at 16 she discovered a magical elixir that promised to make her feel better. In this extract from her new book, she shows how that promise was broken

In 2018, I was in my 30s and living in Oakland, California, having moved there from the UK in 2015. I had always struggled with anxiety and panic attacks, but I was doing fairly well – until suddenly I wasn’t. I started having back-to-back panic attacks, wandering the streets of Oakland and nearby Berkeley in a desperate attempt to shake them, without success.

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Iran says the ‘ball is in the United States’ court’ as Trump says he is likely to reject new proposal from Tehran

Donald Trump said on Saturday he was going to review a new peace proposal from Tehran but cast doubt over its prospects, saying Iran had not yet “paid a big enough price”.

Two semiofficial Iranian news outlets, Tasnim and Fars, believed to be close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, said Iran had sent the US a new 14-point proposal via Pakistan.

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ajpscs posted a photo:

the SQUARE
TOKYO SHADOWS
TOKYO DAY WALK
© ajpscs

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Gabrielle Rifkind (72) heeft een opmerkelijk cv. Als oprichter van de onafhankelijke bemiddelingsorganisatie Oxford Process voert ze al decennia geheime gesprekken met strijdende partijen in Oekraïne en het Midden-Oosten. Maar de conflictspecialist en psychotherapeut gelooft dat haar methodes net zo goed werken in de huiskamer als aan de onderhandelingstafel. In haar nieuwe boek 'How to Agree to Disagree' legt ze uit hoe koppels en gezinnen dezelfde principes kunnen toepassen.

Waardigheid als kern van elk conflict

Achter internationale conflicten schuilen niet alleen macht en territorium, maar ook diepgewortelde gevoelens van vernedering, respect en autonomie, stelt Rifkind. "Dat geldt voor ons allemaal", zegt ze. Ook in dagelijkse ruzies draait het vaak om waardigheid: wie zich genegeerd of minderwaardig behandeld voelt, kan een "verschrikkelijke woede" ervaren. Haar eerste advies: identificeer je eigen conflictstijl – ben je een people-pleaser, een vingerwijzer, een stille mokker of een debatgorilla ?

"Achter veel conflicten zit de behoefte aan waardigheid die diep in ons zit. Als we genegeerd of kleinerend behandeld worden, kan dat een verschrikkelijke woede opwekken."

Timing en toon bepalen het resultaat

Lastige gesprekken kunnen beter gevoerd worden als iedereen kalm is, aldus Rifkind. Begin met een openingszin die luistert uitnodigt in plaats van defensief gedrag: "Dit is geen makkelijk gesprek, maar ik wil graag bespreken waar ik mee zit". Vermijd beschuldigingen, want mensen stoppen met luisteren zodra ze zich aangevallen voelen. In plaats van "je hebt nooit tijd voor me" werkt het beter om te zeggen: "Ik ben niet helder over wat je van me verwacht bij dit project".

Verandering begint bij jezelf

Rifkind heeft herhaaldelijk gezien dat wanneer één partij haar gedrag verandert, de ander volgt. Ze beschrijft een cliënte die ruzie had met haar tienerdochter over eetgewoonten en medische afspraken voor colitis. Door haar aanpak te wijzigen en te zeggen: "Ik begrijp waarom je niet wilt gaan, maar wil je dat ik meega?", herstelde de moeder het gevoel van autonomie bij haar dochter en verdween het conflict.

Nieuwsgierigheid en empathie zijn sleutelwoorden, benadrukt de onderhandelaar. Of je nu naast een politiek opponent zit of ruzie maakt over opvoeding: probeer je nieuwsgierigheidsreflex te activeren en open vragen te stellen. Rifkinds advies klinkt simpel – luisteren, nieuwsgierig zijn, vriendelijk blijven – maar juist de uitvoering maakt het lastig. "Het leven wordt rijker als je begrijpt wat dingen voor anderen betekenen", zegt ze

Het is vervelend om te zeggen, maar de kans is groot dat je handdoek vol zit met beestjes en smerigheid. Zodra je een handdoek een keer gebruikt, of zelfs maar in de badkamer legt, wordt hij een broedplaats van van alles.

Huidschilfers, sporen van urine en poep, bacteriën. Misschien zelfs urinesporen en poepresten van bezoekers van je huis, als je handdoek op de grond ligt in de buurt van de wc.

En vervolgens is je handdoek na gebruik een fantastische broedplaats voor leven: vochtig en warm. Veel van dat leven kan niet veel kwaad, omdat het van je eigen lichaam afkomstig is, maar toch. Hoe vaak kun je een handdoek gebruiken?

Maximaal 3 keer, zegt P hilip Tierno, microbioloog en patholoog van de New York University School of Medicine. En dat dan onder de voorwaarde dat je je handdoek zo ophangt dat hij helemaal droogt. En onder de voorwaarde dat je de enige bent die de handdoek gebruikt: anders ben je de urineresten van je gezinsleden naar jezelf aan het overplaatsen.

Matt Youson takes a look at the different pit stop and tyre options that are available to the teams on race day in Florida.