There’s OneWeb, but it’s not for personal use unfortunately.

This is true; Bezos’s scheme is doing that. Better than doing nothing while they come up with a high frequency rocket of their own.

Unfortunately Europe has no competitior at present but more importantly they’re a long way from having a suitable (reusable, rapid cadence) launch vehicle. Ariane 6 is still not ready for prime time, the launch cadence can’t touch SpaceX, and the costs are higher. https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/07/europes-first-ariane-6-flight-achieved-most-of-its-goals-but-ended-prematurely/

I’d leave Starlink in an instant if there was a reasonable alternative.

Putin is personally immensely wealthy and, additionally he effectively controls the economy of Russia. Trump is neither - his personal assets are dwarfed by half a dozen Americans alone. Plus as @aseriesoftubes@lemmy.world says, he likes the attention and it doesn’t take much to stroke his ego.

If it’s part of a system, I suppose that’s fine. A better alternative could be expanding the sidewalk and providing patio space for restaurants etc. But if the plan is “we paint white lines and put up parking meters and it will slow people down”, then f that. It’ll just cause accidents and reinforces the area as a driving destination.

A permanent, predictable bike lane doesn’t impact traffic nearly as much as random cars parked on the street (everyone in the lane has to move over), but these people never complain about too much street parking.

The RO system is dependent on the membrane. Theres a level of standardization for membranes and pre-filters. This is an example: https://www.freshwatersystems.com/products/axeon-5-stage-ro-system-50-75-gpd Conversely, there’s a lot of branded systems that require special format filters and membranes (https://www.premierh2o.com/ro-pure-plus-voc-system), which can naturally only be sourced from the manufacturer. A good 4-stage system can be sourced for about $200 give or take.

RO was developed to desalinate water. Therefore, if you use a salt-based ion exchange water softener (the standard water softener) and then run that through an RO, it’ll be a pretty straightforward process. The more pressure you can provide up front (within the specs of the system), the more efficient the system will be. (Actually, it’s the pressure differential that really makes a difference, so if you’re pulling out one cup at a time, it’s less efficient than pulling out a litre). If your water is very hard, there will be more brine produced. There are ways to minimize that waste (effectively by injecting it into the hot water supply), if that’s important to you.

A distiller will have the same problems any boiler will have.

I’ve got a softener and a RO. It comes in between 450 and 550ppm and leaves around 30-70ppm. You typically want to see a >90% reduction; less than that and the membrane needs replacing or you may have pressure issues.

And it’s getting harder to find powder. Try finding powder dishwasher detergent… locally, nothing.

This is great, because it shows the possibilities. Water source heat pumps make air source look like a toy, and those in turn make conventional heat sources look prehistoric.

However, it is not uncommon in more seasonal climates for the average solar production to exceed the average energy consumption across the year, while the reality is that summer is characterized by overproduction and winter requires consistent top-ups from the grid. Adding a small wind turbine is a challenge from a charge controller perspective (you can’t just plug into an EG4) but it can really address those short, cloudy days with high consumption.

Don’t need to advance when the battle is being fought in the White House.

I fear for the future of western democracy.

What brand are those power strips? Last time I went shopping for power strips, they were all the rage and I could hardly find one WITHOUT that feature. Today, several years later, I can’t find any. Except, perhaps, some Chinese ones without safety approvals. I need one for my tv.