Phil Stevens

craig howard wrote:
I don't think I've ever been ripped off on alliex.

I have. A vendor shipped me the wrong product and I asked for a refund. I provided mountains of photographic evidence. The vendor denied everything, so I escalated the problem to AliExpress. They initially sided with the vendor but after reviewing all of my documentation agreed that I was due a refund. The problem? I had to return the item. I thought long and hard about this, but being a trusting sort by nature, I went ahead.

That was my mistake. I shipped the unit back to the supplier, and it ended up stuck in customs in Wenzhou. AliExpress said this amounted to nondelivery and denied my refund. An appeal was also shot down. $500 later, all I have to show for the experience is a stack of receipts. I might be able to get my bank to do a chargeback, but I'm not holding my breath.

Never again.

Java:



Turkiye:



Andalusia:




These last two examples probably aren't derived from Muslim influence, but different types of the instrument show up all over Asia.

Hunza (xhigini):



Mongolia:

Not familiar with this instrument, but it looks like another member of the big extended family of two-string "spike fiddles" that you tend to find in all the lands that Persian and Arabic culture influenced over the years. The video reminded me of learning to play the rebab, which is the Javanese version...my first attempts were almost enough to make me want earplugs for myself, not to mention everyone else in the room.

If you need portability and low power consumption, a Raspberry Pi or similar running Linux with e-ink display might do what you want and be very DIY friendly.

Rémy LaCabaneFieutée wrote:
To extend battery life, it’s very practical to cut one or two sections of the trunk, then switch to splitting and stacking the wood. This break between cuts allows the machine to cool down and helps save battery power.

This is a really useful piece of advice...keeping your battery cool will prolong its life considerably, too.

I've still got the old-school mountain bike I got 40 years ago and ride it almost every day. No shocks, broken gearshift, lots of visual wear and tear, and still as trusty a steed as you could ever desire. It's definitely not a theft magnet...no bling whatsoever.

If and when (probably when) I do splash out on some sort of e-bike, it will need to be utilitarian and rely on a minimum of software. Ideally anything it has would be open source, because I'm already seeing a handful of stories about people whose bikes are bricked when the company that made it goes belly up or gets bought by vulture capital.

"Oh, you wanted power assist to get back home before dark in a headwind? That's a premium subscription feature! Enter your credit card details here."

"We're sorry, your battery capacity has been limited to 50% because our stock price went down this past week."

Andre Wiederkehr wrote:

How did you do that? Weld it in? How thick is the plate? I haven't built a RMH (yet!), but as I consider it I've wondered about whether the top would wear through from the intense heat, and also how to make it an effective cookstove, so this is of great interest to me.

Yes, the top will deteriorate from the heat. The middle of mine developed a few transparent spots by the time I replaced it.

I had a circular piece of 6 mm mild steel plate cut by someone with a CNC plasma rig. When I removed the remnants of the original drum top, I left about 2 cm around the outer edge and put a piece of fire rope in the indentation to seal it. The plate just sits on top and its weight seals things nicely. The photos should give you an idea how it fits together.

I've had good results just coating the exterior of a plain steel drum with linseed oil. I do it once a year on average and that keeps the rust down to a very minor feature, mostly cropping up because the RMH is in a glasshouse and sits next to a bathtub with a recirculating pump and slow sand filter, so the odd splash can happen. Nine years of service so far, and I replaced the top with a piece of heavy steel plate so I'd have a better cooking surface and because that part of the drum was spalling after a few years of use.

There are proven ways to make bad biochar, though...like using materials that have toxic gick in them, and by using methods that fail to drive off all the volatile products and leave you with charcoal that may be good for barbecues but pretty much worthless for the soil.

But as Douglas rightly points out, prior art is all around us and if we mimic natural processes we're more likely to get it right.

M Ljin wrote:Another way biochar could be incorporated into soils is worm tillage—eventually, in worm-inhabited regions, anything atop the soil surface will be incorporated by the throwing-upward of soil and disintegration of worm tunnels which happens with regularity.

Nevertheless, I am digging my biochar in this spring.

Worms will even ingest biochar if the particles are small enough. They love the stuff. I've seen photos of a kiwifruit orchard where they topdressed with biochar, then took some spade samples a year later. There were burrows lined with black extending 30 cm  down. Looking for that picture now....