perestroika

Sadly, the video refuses to play continuously for me (likely due to an interaction between ads and ad blocker).

In case this also annoys others, here's some information as text. :) It's about protecting unmanned aerial vehicles, not people, however.

• microwave frequencies can be picked up by cable runs in the range 3 mm to 20 cm
• microwaves cause noise in a drone's internal systems and lead to malfunction
• the most vulnerable component is an operational amplifier
• communication equipment is severely affected
• as expected, optical and fiber optical communications are immune
• shielding: provides a continuous layer of conductive material
• some conductive materials are better than others
• shielding materials: aluminum, copper, nickel (note: magnetic) and their alloys, foil or mesh, graphene and graphene oxide as paint

Below, you can find a nice enough study written by a major in the USAF for his master's thesis, about hardening UAV systems against microwave weapons. It's only partly outdated.

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/AD1042082.pdf

I picked out some information:

Units of measurement: volts per meter (electrical field strength), watts per square centimeter.

Factors specific to the weapon include power level, microwave frequency, pulse duration, and pulse repetition interval.[18] This pulse creates an electromagnetic (EM) field surrounding the target, typically measured in volts per meter, kilovolts per meter, or watts per square centimeter (V/m, kV/m, W/cm2 ). The field produces excess energy, energy potential, or power within the target, measured in joules (J), volts (V), or amps (A). The aim is to induce a strong enough flow of electrons in the target material to cause adverse effects. [19] Field strength decreases proportional to the inverse square of target range (r), or 1/r2 , assuming a directional antenna as the source of the pulse.

Paths of effect: "front door" through antennas, "back door" through the entire system.

The energy that reaches the target induces effects by coupling to the component in one of two ways. “Front door” coupling occurs when energy enters the system directly through a normally utilized input device, such as an antenna. This type of coupling typically only occurs within the narrow band of the EMS that the input device was designed to receive. “Back door” coupling is the entrance of energy into the system by the field of electric potential that surrounds it. Back door coupling is more difficult to protect against, as the weapon does not need to be designed to match input device characteristics, allowing a much wider frequency band.[20]

Most vulnerable parts: op-amps, MESFETs (note: not MOSFETs).

Operational amplifiers, widely used in integrated circuits, as a common component vulnerable to upset, with a threshold of 9x10 -10 J. Among common components most susceptible to damage are Gallium arsenide metal- semiconductor field-effect transistors (GaAs MESFET), used in radar and sensor systems, with a damage threshold as low as 10 -7 J.22 While upset and damage effects to common electronic components from back door coupling are typically associated with field strengths of 8 kV/m [14] (upset) and 15 to 20 kV/m (damage), AFRL considers a field of electrical potential of 200 V/m or stronger as a threat to sensitive electronics in general.[23] This field strength is readily attainable with current HPM systems at combat-relevant ranges.

Enclosure materials: plastic is most vulnerable.

Pulse entry is the ability of unwanted EMS energy to penetrate the target and reach vulnerable electronics. Contributing factors include outer mold line construction material and vehicle shape. In general, materials specifically designed to shield against EMI are most effective against HPM entry, followed by metallic surfaces (which conduct and attenuate the pulse), with plastics and related materials most vulnerable to penetration.

Effect of shielding: measured in decibels attenuation (note: logarithmic unit).

For example, shielding that provides 20 dB of attenuation reduces EMI field strength to 0.1 times its original value, or a reduction of 90 percent. Assuming an initial field strength at the target of 15 kV/m, the widely accepted low-end damage threshold for electronics, a vehicle would need 38 dB of shielding to attenuate the field to an acceptable level of 200 V/m. At 25 kV/m, the point at which many robust electronics are damaged, the shielding requirement becomes 42 dB of attenuation.

Shielding levels that protect:

Most information on military aircraft shielding is close-hold in the US, partner nations, and adversaries alike. However, an interpolated value of 40-50 dB may be assumed to be a general standard across such systems, due to many militaries requiring manned airborne systems be hardened against EMP resulting from nuclear detonations. Such pulses are capable of generating field strengths in excess of 50 kV/m, which would drive a minimum attenuation requirement of 48 dB.[41] Incidentally, a 2004 study by Swedish scientists Bäckström and Lövstrand demonstrated that the 4th generation JAS-39 Gripen fighter aircraft is shielded to provide approximately 40 dB of attenuation.[42]

Protection levels given by shielding fabric:

US-based Conductive Composites has created a nickel-embedded non-woven material that provides from 41 to 72 dB of attenuation, depending on pulse characteristics. The material ranges from .0018 to .003 inches thick, weighs from .75 to 5.76 grams per square foot, with costs at or under $10 per square foot.[43] Another company, Glenair, has developed composite braided shielding for internal system component wrapping that is up to 80 percent lighter than traditional nickel/copper braids.[44]

Personal opinion:

• if a drone is expected to come across a microwave weapon, it better be optically or fiber optically controlled
• for entry level protection, its flight controller and motor controller ought be packaged in an enclosure that can be wrapped in conductive material
• if an aluminum radiator for the motor controller exits the shielding, it should be in firm contact (part of the shielding)
• it should not rely on GPS, and should not have an exposed GPS antenna
• its motor wires should also be wrapped in continuous conductive material
• all shielding elements should be grounded together

It would be a method of representing trust or distrust in a structured way that's automatically accessible to the end user.

The user could right-click an image, pick "check trust" from a menu, and be presented with a list of metainfo to see who has originally signed it, and what various parties have concluded about it.

Negative proof: the AI company signs it with their watermark.

Positive proof: the photographer signs it with their personal key, providing a way to contact them. Sure, it could be a fake identity, but you can attempt to verify and conclude that.

Cumulative positive and negative proof: on top of the photographer, news organizations add their signatures and remarks (e.g. BBC: "we know and trust this person", Guardian: "we verified the scene", Reuters: "we tried to verify this photo, but the person could not be contacted").

The photo, in the end, would not be just a bitmap, but a container file containing the bitmap (possibly with a steganographically embedded watermark) and various signatures granting or withdrawing trust.

Your post makes it look like a binary choice between cop-filled reality and cop-free fantasy. But there are marked differences between how many cops (many = often more stupid, untrained, poorly selected, corrupt) a society needs and what activity is expected of them.

Existing societies also demonstrate a vastly different need for imprisoning people.

Myself, I think that prisoners per capita is a better indicator than cops per capita. The latter gives weird results heavily tilted towards microstates (lead by Vatican, Pitcairn Islands and Motserrat).

• Maximum of prisoners per capita: North Korea (undisclosed but estimated), El Salvador (1600 per 100K), Cuba (794), Rwanda (637), Turkmenistan (576), United States (541).
• Minimum of prisoners per capita: go and have a look, it's interesting. The leading 5 have a trend towards microstates and very poor developing countries, but if one filters them out and chooses sizable countries with functioning economies, the first that comes across is Japan - with an incarceration rate of 33 per 100K. That's 48 times less than El Salvador and 16 times less than the United States. The first European country on the list is Finland with 52 per 100K, indicating approximately what a "western style" society can achieve. The EU average seems to be around 100 per 100K. The highest rated EU country seems to be Poland with 194 per 100K.

Notably, the first somewhat sizable European country and western-type society on both lists is Finland. It has the lowest prisoners per capita in Europe (at 52 per 100K) and the lowest cops per capita in Europe at 132 per 100K. It is not a known haven of rampant crime - it has really low crime rates too. Apparently in some conditions, you can have few cops, few prisoners and limited crime.

My guess - I could be wrong - is that the quality and coverage of social security, education and health care are what actually make the difference. Most people don't start criminal activity for fun. Contributing factors include desperate poverty, poor parenting, lacking education, mental illness and exposure to trauma, damage from disease and substance abuse, etc, etc. Lots of full prisons are probably a factor that contributes to criminality, by making a "higher education in crime" accessible to more people.

Note: another really common combination is 9600 baud, 8 data, 1 stop. Antiquated, but a washing machine probably doesn't need anything fast.

You don't need to connect the 5V pins. An ordinary serial connection has no power pins.

The rest of your description seems sound.

As a minimum, how about frequent rotation and a sortition + selection system to staff the squads?

Imaginary example:

Two "cops" are needed for a term of 90 days (side note: in this hypothetical society, it could be that a cop is not a first responder but an investigator - first responders may be selected by proximity to the event and called up using some automated emergency messaging system). An investigator is allowed to request expert assistance from outside their department and often does.

At first, 10 candidates are sortitioned at random. Out of them, 3 refuse the job for various reasons, 7 go through instruction and pass evaluation. Out of them, 3 either step out during training or fail exams, 4 complete exams. Among them, another round of sortition occurs: 2 are selected at random, while 2 are paid compensation for study and assigned to reserve. If lottery chooses them again, they won't need to pass exams.

This might be possible to enhance with other tricks. If feedback shows that cops cannot be impartial near their home, then they don't work near their home. If however, feedback shows that they perform best near their home, then the opposite way.

The main goals this would aim to achieve:

• ensure that corruption will not start
• ensure that investigation is not biased (or that chances exist of bias being quickly exposed)
• ensure that offices cannot be given by people in power to whom they prefer
• ensure that competence is valued and unqualified bozos won't be appointed

I would think the drag is considerable.

I would also worry about stability in a strong side wind.

As a result, I would not like to ride the 2-wheeled version in strong side wind. The 3-wheeled version looks OK, but also suffers from drag.

Besides, to generate power from wind while parking, you would have to choose your parking direction. But you can't always choose the parking direction - location dictates it often. Toppling over while parked would be a definite thing to expect with this setup.

That kind of kit on two-wheeled vehicle looks severely half-assed. They should have thought more steps ahead.

Wow, that's a video worth watching. :) Thanks for the link. :)

Diclaimer: I studied biology but failed biochemistry with a crash.

It is hard. Often, medically used molecules are complex, manufacturing typically has many steps (higher chance that something goes wrong), typically one wants high purity (have to get high purity raw material) some especially annoying substances have right- and left-handed forms and other isomers - the atom count matches, but the arrangement doesn't and in biological systems, arrangement matters.

Some things are doable. If the molecule in question is produced by a microbe that's easy to cultivate, even complex molecules can be produced with DIY methods.

So if there's a nuclear war and you need antibiotics after the dust settles, you can probably set up penicillin production in a few weeks. It all starts with leaving some bread in a dark and damp place to invite fungi, picking the right-looking colony, replicating it, testing it against a dish of bacteria, if it passes the check for having antibiotic effect, then replicating it more and more, harvesting, purifying, stabilizing, storing... (Reality check: you'd be producing really small amounts of an outdated antibiotic to which there's widespread resistance.)

[Disclaimer: unless you know what you're doing, don't do this at home.]

The only time I've done DIY medicine was to help a dachshound with a skin tumour. Since my mother has no other dachshound, there was no control group. The dachshound is old and was not fit enough for a removal operation. Knowing that tumour immunotherapy for dogs was unavailable where I live (and ridiculously expensive where it might be available), I did the crude thing. Visiting every evening, I powdered some siberian chaga (tree fungus) and nutritional yeast (deactivated yeast) and mixed a small quantity of them in wound cleaning alcohol (to ensure all microbes would be dead in the mixture). Cleaned up the tumour with a peroxide solution (it initially bled every day) and put some droplets of the fungus/alcohol mixture on it - to provoke the immune system with quite clear message "look, I'm a hostile fungus and there's two of us, if you don't act now, we'll mess up everything". The reasoning was that the tumour microenvironment had likely locally deactivated immune response and "trolling" it with fungal antigens would activate it (licensed medics do it with far more potent bacterial antigens, to which I had no reliable access). Result: tumour went into remission and dachshound still lives, but it's not a very happy life because he was already ill at the beginning in multiple other ways - ways that I would be hard pressed to influence at all, no matter how hard I tried to synthesize anything - so I don't. Some of the medications cost 100 € per month, but it still makes sense to buy them.

P.S.

If you're prescribed antibiotics (many now come in two components, main ingredient and resistance preventing secondary ingredient), you can always add garlic to your menu to make it extra hard for bacteria to develop resistance. You won't find out if it did you any good, but chances are it might.

Your intake of solar is quite low

I have other solar arrays besides the fence. Two diagonal arrays and one shed roof (which covers with snow in winter). All together they can currently give 4.5 kW. But this never happens in winter, of course.

If you cool something considerably below room temperature (specifically, the "dew point" at the air moisture level that you have), condensation will happen for sure.

I use my heat pump for cooling in summer. The indoor unit keeps dripping condensation water through a small hose into the big water tank.

This one looks neat, but I think I can propose a better one. :) It could be a tower, externally black in color, with the south-facing side transparent or windowed. The interior under the window should also be painted black. Instead of one rack, multiple racks of food could be installed.

Why?

• a tower develops ascending airflow, while a horizontal box does not, this helps ensure that moisture does not re-condense but leaves

• with a tower system, you can also dry foods that would degrade from sunlight (gather energy at the bottom and deliver it to a closed top part)

I even built one and used it to dry kale chips, but it was too tall - wind kept pushing it over.