#stewardship · Cascadity

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SThe Squawk #Hacker-News #politics #squawk #stewardship #trail

A viral X post says updated Google Maps imagery shows Rafah’s destruction

This one attracted a massive amount of views

We could not find unbiased reporting on this

On September 26, Ali Abunimah posted a Google Maps view of part of Rafah in southern Gaza, saying Google Maps had been updated to show the destruction. The post drew about 4.1 million views. We have not independently checked the imagery or when Google updated it.

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X (@AliAbunimah)Google Maps has been updated to show … Rafah ↗ Hacker NewsDiscussion: Updated Google Maps shows destruction of the city of Rafah ↗

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Rafah

After exploring Google Maps has been updated to show … Rafah, for background from a less partisan source, read Rafah.

Background on the city in the southern Gaza Strip: home to about 172,000 people in 2017, now described as largely destroyed and depopulated.

Wikipedia · Wade · 5 min

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"Does Georgism work? Five years later": Lars Doucet revisits the case for a land value tax

An advocate’s update, including what he now thinks he got wrong.

Lars Doucet, whose review of Henry George’s Progress and Poverty won the first ACX book review contest, revisits his case for land value taxes, noting LVT-enabling laws passed this year in two U.S. states.

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Astral Codex TenDoes Georgism Work? Five Years Later ↗ Hacker NewsDiscussion: Does Georgism work? ↗

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Land value tax

After exploring Does Georgism Work? Five Years Later, for the basics, read Land value tax.

The basics of taxing land without regard to buildings on it, and why economists since Adam Smith have argued it doesn’t hurt economic activity.

Wikipedia · Wade · 5 min

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A Search-Theoretic Critique of Georgism

After exploring Does Georgism Work? Five Years Later, for the strongest critique, read A Search-Theoretic Critique of Georgism.

The opposing case: Caplan argues a near-100% land tax would kill the incentive to search for new land and better uses of existing land.

Econlib (Bryan Caplan) · Swim · 30 min

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Vermont’s home-battery network has become the state’s largest power source

A working model other utilities are studying, with real household numbers.

Green Mountain Power leases two home batteries to customers for $55 a month over 10 years and pools them into a virtual power plant; more than 5,500 Vermonters now have them, and the BBC reports the network is the state’s largest power source, keeping participants powered through storms.

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BBC FutureThe US state replacing power plants with home batteries Independent ↗ Hacker NewsDiscussion: Vermont replacing power plants with home batteries ↗

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Virtual power plant

After exploring The US state replacing power plants with home batteries, the concept behind it is Virtual power plant.

How operators aggregate distributed resources like home batteries to act as one power plant, balancing supply and demand and providing grid services.

Wikipedia · Swim · 30 min

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GSGlobal Stewardship #climate #politics #stewardship #table #weather #wild

The U.S. had its warmest, most humid September on record, the Washington Post reports

The Post has the national picture; the NWS summary shows what the heat looked like on the ground.

The Washington Post reports that the United States had its warmest and most humid September on record. We couldn’t open the Post’s article to check its national figures. The National Weather Service office in Paducah, Ky., reports temperatures 7–8°F above normal across its region, the warmest September on record at Cape Girardeau and Poplar Bluff, Mo., and humidity "more on par with … July".

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The Washington PostThe U.S. just experienced its warmest, most humid September on record ↗ National Weather Service (Paducah, Ky.)September 2026 Climate Summary Independent ↗

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Heat index

After exploring The U.S. just experienced its warmest, most humid September on record, to see why humidity matters, read Heat index.

How air temperature and humidity combine into how hot it feels, why a humid September feels worse than the thermometer says.

Wikipedia · Wade · 5 min

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StreetComplete, the OpenStreetMap survey app, opens an iOS beta on TestFlight

The tracking thread has the TestFlight link and the known caveats.

StreetComplete, which lets people improve OpenStreetMap by answering simple questions on walks, posted its first iOS build to TestFlight on September 30 after a Kotlin Multiplatform port; the maintainers list known bugs.

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GitHub (StreetComplete)iOS – Testing! (tracking issue) ↗ Hacker NewsDiscussion: StreetComplete on iOS is now in public beta ↗

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StreetComplete

After exploring iOS – Testing! (tracking issue), if you’re new to it, start with StreetComplete.

What the app does: it asks walkers simple questions like "What are the opening hours here?" and turns the answers into OpenStreetMap edits.

Wikipedia · Wade · 5 min

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The Drawn World: 37,500 border drawings show the map as people remember it

The Drawn World overlays every border and coastline drawn from memory by players of a geography game onto the real map, country by country.

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Habibi CodeThe Drawn World ↗ Hacker NewsDiscussion: 37,500 border drawings ↗

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Mental mapping

After exploring The Drawn World, the idea behind the project is Mental mapping.

In behavioral geography, a mental map is a person’s own perception of the world around them, which is what these drawings capture.

Wikipedia · Wade · 5 min

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California grape growers can’t sell their harvest as wine sales fall

KQED talks to growers in the vineyards; the numbers show how fast drinking habits are reshaping farmland.

Wine sales have fallen more than 20% over five years, and growers have taken roughly a quarter of California’s vineyards out of production. KQED reports Lodi-area growers leaving grapes unpicked and tearing out vines for almonds, pistachios and olives.

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KQEDCalifornia Farmers Are Struggling to Sell Grapes as Demand for Wine Drops Independent ↗ Hacker NewsDiscussion: California farmers are struggling to sell grapes ↗

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California wine

After exploring California Farmers Are Struggling to Sell Grapes as Demand for Wine Drops, for how the industry got this big, read California wine.

The history of California winemaking since Spanish missionaries planted vines in the late 1700s.

Wikipedia · Wade · 5 min

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WThe Wild #Hacker-News #stewardship #wild

Two studies make Saturn’s moon Enceladus look more hospitable to life

The university release explains both papers plainly.

Two Science Advances studies with Freie Universität Berlin scientists find the ocean under Enceladus’s ice easier to sample from orbit than assumed, and that some microorganisms tolerate its conditions better than thought.

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Freie Universität BerlinGreat News from Saturn’s Moon Enceladus ↗ Hacker NewsDiscussion: Promising discoveries about the potential for life ↗

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Enceladus

After exploring Great News from Saturn’s Moon Enceladus, for the moon itself, read Enceladus.

Saturn’s sixth-largest moon, about 500 km across and one of the most reflective bodies in the solar system.

Wikipedia · Wade · 5 min

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WThe Wild #Hacker-News #stewardship #wild

Biologists working from an $80 motel room find two new species of Paulinella

The Times tells the story of the improvised lab and why Paulinella matters for how photosynthesis evolved.

Researchers led by evolutionary biologist Julia Van Etten turned a motel room in Nags Head, N.C., into a lab and identified two new photosynthetic Paulinella species, published in the Journal of Phycology. Paulinella is the only known organism besides plants and algae to acquire photosynthesis by engulfing a bacterium.

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The New York TimesIn an $80 Motel Room, a Discovery to Shed Light on the Origins of Life Independent ↗ Hacker NewsDiscussion: In an $80 motel room ↗

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Paulinella

After exploring In an $80 Motel Room, a Discovery to Shed Light on the Origins of Life, for the organism, read Paulinella.

Background on the genus: amoeboid protists covered in rows of silica scales, best known for their handful of photosynthetic species.

Wikipedia · Swim · 30 min

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GSGlobal Stewardship #Hacker-News #sports #stewardship

Julia Evans revives ten-year-old bike lights by replacing their batteries

A beginner-friendly repair write-up.

Julia Evans describes opening a pair of ten-year-old rechargeable bike lights at a community makerspace and soldering in new batteries instead of throwing them away.

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Julia EvansReplacing the old battery on rechargeable bike lights ↗ Hacker NewsDiscussion: Replacing the old battery on rechargeable bike lights ↗

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Right to repair

After exploring Replacing the old battery on rechargeable bike lights, the policy fight around projects like this is Right to repair.

The legal right for owners to maintain, repair or modify what they own, from cars to electronics and farm equipment.

Wikipedia · Wade · 5 min

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NRC issues first U.S. construction permit for a BWRX-300 small modular reactor

Source is the reactor vendor’s press release.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued the Tennessee Valley Authority a construction permit for a GE Vernova Hitachi BWRX-300 small modular reactor at its Clinch River site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee—the first U.S. permit for that design.

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GE VernovaNRC issues first U.S. construction permit for a BWRX-300 ↗ Hacker NewsDiscussion: NRC issues first U.S. construction permit ↗

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BWRX-300

After exploring NRC issues first U.S. construction permit for a BWRX-300, for the design, read BWRX-300.

The reactor design itself: a GE Vernova Hitachi small modular reactor of up to 300 MW with passive safety.

Wikipedia · Wade · 5 min

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Small modular reactors are still too expensive, too slow, and too risky

After exploring NRC issues first U.S. construction permit for a BWRX-300, for the opposing view, read Small modular reactors are still too expensive, too slow, and too risky.

The skeptics’ case (2024): IEEFA argues SMRs keep running over budget and behind schedule, and that renewables are the near-term answer.

IEEFA · Swim · 30 min

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How Delhi cut electricity losses from 50 percent to 5 percent

A first-person account of a grid turnaround.

A power-systems professor at Jamia Millia Islamia describes how Delhi went from near-daily outages and 50% losses in the early 2000s to about 5%.

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IEEE SpectrumHow Delhi Cut Electricity Loss from 50 to 5 Percent Independent ↗ Hacker NewsDiscussion: How Delhi cut electricity loss ↗

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Electricity theft

After exploring How Delhi Cut Electricity Loss from 50 to 5 Percent, for what most of those losses were, read Electricity theft.

How power gets stolen, from hooking onto lines to tampering with meters, and why these "non-technical losses" are biggest where grids are unreliable.

Wikipedia · Wade · 5 min

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