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#infrastructure

22 posts16 participants0 posts today
Julian Oliver

Heads up for Wellington locals. In a couple of days I will give a talk framing server self-hosting as a radical practice of infrastructural reclamation in an era of digital imperialism.

The chat will walk audience through the journey to becoming a system administrator in service to a community, from skills, to mindset, to strategies for salvaging and appropriating powerful server hardware from e-waste.

No prior technical knowledge req.

criticalsignals.nz/programme/s

Critical Signals · Server GardeningCritical Signals explores practical and visionary responses to an era of collapses.
#infrastructure#selfhosting
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Mark Dominus

We were driving past this thing, and thanks to the Wonders of the Internet I was able to find out about it. It's the PSE&G generating station in Kearny, NJ. It still operates.

Looking it up in Wikipedia, I discovered this is one of the few surviving “mercury vapor” type generators. The fuel (originally coal, then oil, now mostly gas) is used to heat mercury, and the mercury drives the first round of turbines. Then the cooled mercury vapor is used to boil water for steam, which spins a second set of turbines.

“Holy cow,” I said. “What a terrible idea. What if the mercury gets out?”

Sure enough, Wikipedia says “This example of combined cycle generation was not widely adopted because of high capital cost and the toxic hazard of the mercury potentially leaking into the environment.” They stopped building them in the 1950s. This one dates to 1933.

UPDATE: I misunderstood the Wikipedia article. The _current_ plant is a “simple cycle gas-fired plant”, which means that the hot burning gas itself drives the turbines. There's no mercury vapor involved, not even any steam. (A plant that uses a gas cycle and then uses the still-hot gas to heat water for steam turbines is called “combined cycle”.)

According to Wikipedia, the original combined mercury vapor and steam process was eliminated, maybe as long ago as the 1960s. It also generated only about 50MW. The current plant's capacity is around ten times that.

#infrastructure #environmentalDisaster

maps.app.goo.gl/zMGhnmabp8P2dK

Windspeaker.com

Canada and the provinces need to align and treat #forests like the nation-building #infrastructure they are. Forests are #economic engines, #climate stabilizers, and a cornerstone of national resilience. Let’s start managing them that way so we can build #Canada strong.

#Indigenous #FirstNations #forestry #Sweden #wildfires #carbon #cdnpoli #economy

windspeaker.com/news/opinion/c

Windspeaker.comIn Canada, forestry is a nation-building opportunity: We can learn from SwedenWe have not been managing our forests as a strategic national asset. That needs to change. This is a moment for federal leadership. It’s also a moment for provinces to step up. The models exist, the tools are available. What we lack is coordination, and the cost of inaction is rising fast.Canada and the provinces need to align and treat forests like the nation-building infrastructure they are. Forests are economic engines, climate stabilizers, and a cornerstone of national resilience. Let’s start managing them that way so we can build Canada strong. 
May First Movement Technology

Discovering community through environmental justice and digital autonomy: New report on sustainable digital infrastructure apc.org/en/news/discovering-co

thanks @APC for this great article on the Actions for Environmental Justice from Autonomous and Community Technological Infrastructures report. Available here: mayfirst.coop/en/post/2025/jus

Association for Progressive CommunicationsDiscovering community through environmental justice and digital autonomy: New report on sustainable digital infrastructureA newly released report carried out by APC members Sursiendo and May First Movement Technology is offering a crucial and urgently needed collection of “Actions for environmental justice from autonomous and community-based technological infrastructures.”
#Infrastructure#Sustainability#Community
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