Link for anyone interested:

https://friendi.ca/

Based on the post, I was expected the website to look far worse.

1. I agree the onboarding isn’t great and could use an overhaul.
2. Had to specifically look search for the mascot (didn’t see it on the website) and yeah, that’s rough (starting from scratch may not be a bad idea). Flaxy O’Hare
3. The screenshot also showed a pretty basic UX that could look far better.

I guess in conclusion, I think all your points are valid.

Edit: numbered items and added missing link.

This is a really cool project.

My only thought that could be of use is that boat epoxy is a thing (don’t know the temperature limits but I expect it would be fine).

Good luck and thanks for sharing :)

That’s unfortunate.

Do you know when that is supposed to happen (currently works for me)?

Have you tried Spotube?

Not sure what Revanced changes/add/subtracts, but Spotify is basically Spotify without ads and you can pick different sources (ex. YouTube) for the music.

To add on to what NegativeInf said and linked, “0.25” is a weird way to say a quarter of a day. It makes more sense, to me, that the zero at the front was left off and it should read “0.25-6 hr per day”.

I think this information was already posted a week or so ago, but if you haven’t seen it yet the relevant text is:

Chinese battery giant CATL, supplier to some of Australia’s biggest grid-scale project developers, has unveiled a new containerised battery energy storage system promising a one-third increase in energy density, a 20% reduction in overall footprint and a longer service life.

Stored in a 20-foot TEU container, the mass producible Tener has a 6.25 MWh capacity which CATL says represents a 30% increase in energy density per unit area and a 20% reduction in the overall project footprint.

The new battery also claims to provide zero degradation of capacity over the first five years of use, “a significant advancement”, which CATL says increase the lifespan of batteries.

“Tener is equipped with long service life and zero-degradation cells tailored for energy storage applications, achieving an energy density of 430 Wh/L, an impressive milestone for LFP batteries used in energy storage,” the company says.

A bit disappointing, was hoping for a bigger milestone but this is still a positive.

Relevant Text:

California has set a benchmark for renewable energy, with wind, solar, and hydro providing 100% of the state’s energy demand for 25 out of the last 32 days (and counting).

Added context is that it isn’t for the full day, only needs to be part of the day (ex. 15 minutes), where renewables provided all of the electricity needs for the state.

The text is a bit vague about if this is an 80% cut from the total or 80% cut from the remaining, previously cut fees. Good news regardless though.

Article Text:

The [Biden] administration on Thursday finalized a rule that cuts costs for developing solar and wind energy on public lands.

The rule was expected to cut by 80 percent fees that are based on how much energy is produced through the year 2035.

A partial reduction is already in place based on [2022 guidance], but the administration said that the new rule contains further cuts and codifies them into the federal register.

The fee cuts become less dramatic after 2035 and will ratchet down in the following years to be just a 20 percent cut in 2038 and beyond.

The rule also seeks to expand energy production in designated “priority areas” by simplifying the process for issuing new rights to build wind and solar projects.

The administration announced additional milestones alongside the rule, saying that the Interior Department has now given the OK to enough renewable projects on public lands to power 12 million homes.

Interior Secretary [Deb Haaland] told reporters on a press call that the Biden administration has approved more than double the number of renewable energy projects than the Trump administration did during its four years.

“The previous administration did everything they could to hobble our department’s clean energy program, but we’re making up for lost time,” she said.

In addition to the cost cut and milestone, the administration announced that two major solar projects in California were now fully operational.

That’s a good point about disease and I think it could be a potential cause of the low genetic prevalence.

I don’t know about your roaming free option. I think if that were true, there would still be wild packs today or there would have been roving dog packs mentioned in historical text (possible but I don’t recall any mention of them). Alternatively, they would have inter-breed with European varieties and had a more significant impact on genetics, but that’s not seen.

While I agree that Europeans liked to remove/exterminate “uncivilized” things, that mostly applies to people. I suspect if the American dogs were significantly useful they would have made use of them.

This conversation allowed me to recall that the plains tribes utilized dogs as pack animals. Then once horses made their way onto the scene those tribes switched from dogs to horses for that role. I’m not sure what other “jobs” American dogs performed but I suspect if they were significantly utilized as pack animals they were probably breed for such and with that niche gone they may not have performed well in other “dog” tasks, compared to European varieties.

To conclude, for American dogs to be such a small percent of the current dog genome, I think, the European varieties had to significantly outlive their American counterparts. Whether because they were replaced by better performing European varieties/horses, because they died from European diseases, or a combination of those options.

After the arrival of Europeans, native American dogs almost completely disappeared, leaving a minimal genetic legacy in modern dog populations.

Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7116273/

I did not do a very deep dive but it looks like there were “domesticated” dogs in the Americans prior to Europeans, but they were almost completely replaced by their European counterparts. This leads me to believe the European versions were far superior for the intended usage. If the American version was indeed significantly inferior for their intended purposes, they may have been at or below the effectiveness/usefulness levels of semi-domesticated animals, like foxes.

Edit: The_Sasswagon brings up a good point about the effects of potential European diseases on American dogs.

From the article:

What alternatives to plastic are coming?

Here are a few new ideas headed to the produce aisle:

Bags from trees. An Austrian company is using beechwood trees to make biodegradable cellulose net bags to hold produce. Other companies offer similar netting that decomposes within a few weeks.

Film from peels. Orange peels, shrimp shells and other natural waste is being turned into film that can be used like cellophane, or made into bags. An edible coating made from plant-based fatty acids is sprayed on cucumbers, avocados and other produce sold at many major grocery stores. They work in a way similar to the wax coating commonly used on citrus and apples.

Clamshells from cardboard. Plastic clamshells are a $9.1 billion business in the United States, and the number of growers who use them is vast. Replacing them will be an enormous challenge, particularly for more fragile fruits and vegetables. Plenty of designers are trying. Driscoll’s has been working to develop paper containers for use in the United States and Canada. In the meantime, the company is using more recycled plastic in its clamshells in the United States.

Ice that feels like gelatin. Luxin Wang and other scientists at the University of California, Davis, have invented reusable jelly ice. It is lighter than ice and doesn’t melt. It could eliminate the need for plastic ice packs, which can’t be recycled. After about a dozen uses, the jelly ice can be tossed into a garden or the garbage, where it dissolves.

Boxes with atmosphere. Broccoli is usually shipped in wax-coated boxes packed with ice. The soggy cartons can’t be recycled. Iceless broccoli shipping containers use a mix of gases that help preserve the vegetable instead of chilling it with ice, which is heavy to ship and can transmit pathogens when it melts. Other sustainable, lighter shipping cartons are being designed to remove ethylene, a plant hormone that encourages ripening.

Containers from plants. Rice-paddy straw left over after harvests, grasses, sugar cane stalks and even food waste are all being turned into trays and boxes that are either biodegradable or can be composted.

From the article:

The last coal producers in New England will shutter their doors permanently under an agreement reached with environmental groups and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday.

Two plants in New Hampshire, Schiller and Merrimack, will voluntarily cease operations in 2025 and 2028, respectively, said Jim Andrews, president and CEO of Granite Shore Power.

By closing the plants, Granite Shore Power — the company that operates them — resolved litigation brought by the Conservation Law Foundation and the Sierra Club, which alleged they violated the Clean Water Act.

The region’s coal-free status comes as part of a larger pledge by the U.S. to phase out coal power plants through the Powering Past Coal Alliance. The U.S. joins 56 other nations in committing to no new coal plants and the closing of existing operations.

The U.S. has not named a target date for completing the transition, but the Biden administration, through other works, has indicated a plan aimed at no coal by 2035.

New Hampshire will become the 16th coal-free state in the nation, according to a statement by the Sierra Club.

Facilities like Merrimack have fallen short of emissions requirements in the past, exceeding one emissions limit by 70 percent in 2023, according to reporting from New Hampshire Public Radio. Previous failures to meet requirements did not inform the company’s decision, Andrews said.

He has said that new “renewable energy parks” of solar arrays and storage facilities will be developed.