Vicinus

Some good responses so far. I want to add an addition component.

My recollection is that the Romans knew lead was poisonous and worked to manage direct exposure. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to them, all the lead smithing put lead into the air, which they couldn’t detect, and that was the cause of their lead poisoning.

I think the article’s focus on biodiversity loss with regard to solar power plants is a valid topic and concern.

However, without a comparison to other energy sources, the article comes off, to me, as anti-renewable energy.

To me, this seems to me to be an area worth exploring further, protecting biodiversity around solar sites, but, again, I don’t think it should be used for fear mongering about renewables.

China is the world leader in solar power, but the country’s massive boom in this clean energy source could have unintended consequences for the country’s birds.

Using birdwatching and policy data from more than 2,300 counties across China, a new analysis found that areas with stricter policies enforcing solar energy development have seen decreases in bird diversity over the last 10 years. The study adds to a body of evidence showing the negative impact of industrial development and habitat loss on birds.

“Our results situate solar expansion within the broader, already well-established set of anthropogenic pressures on birds, including habitat loss, agricultural intensification, climate change and land use conversion,” says Huiming Zhang, an associate professor at Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology in China and lead author on the study.

Constructing solar power plants can affect the vegetation and landscape around them—including the creatures that live there. Curiously, the researchers found that even in areas where planners had attempted to plant new vegetation in the wake of a solar farm being built, it didn’t mitigate bird diversity loss—a result of what the researchers call “inferior greening.”

The analysis, which published today in Science, will hopefully help to “reconcile energy and conservation goals” in China and elsewhere in the world, Zhang says.

“The lesson is not to slow the energy transition. It is to steer large solar projects toward locations with lower ecological conflict, subject to assessment of each site, and to build biodiversity safeguards into projects from the start.”

The study has its limitations. Ken Rosenberg, a conservation scientist at Cornell University who was not involved in the research, says bird diversity measures can be misleading, as they can obscure how well a specific local bird population is actually doing. Future research might look at bird population numbers instead, he says.

That said, the analysis is the first he has seen that has looked at the relationship between solar policy and biodiversity on a national level. “You don’t want to trade one crisis for another,” Rosenberg says.

“If you’re only looking at energy policy and renewable energy, you could set up these policies and make these decisions without realizing that you’re doing more harm than good in other aspects of the environment. Biodiversity often takes a backseat.”

Fair point about aosp, although given Samsung’s recent change to lock the bootloader (oneUI 8.0) and Google’s moves against side loading, I’m not optimistic about other manufactures not following suit and locking the bootloader.

I think most people are not going to jump through the hoops of installing a custom ROM and the increase of interest in custom roms is and will be too negligible to most large manufacturers. To this point, supposedly, Samsung sold more locked bootloader phones than the previous unlocked phones (Galaxy S26 v S25).

I can see the lockdown as beneficial to the companies, if they are getting something out of it (like telemetry) that they can make more money off of.

To your Windows/Linux point, I believe that Windows activates a option (fast-boot?) that screws up Linux instillations. So, while they may not have locked it down, they do hinder it. Plus Windows would probably receive major backlash from the server folks/companies, if they tried to lock the motherboard previously (as, to my knowledge, the vast majority of servers are running Linux).

Yeah, I could definitely see a small manufacturer provide a limited stock, ready for custom roms.

I’m not very familiar with the space, but locked bootloaders seem to be very location and service specific (I read somewhere all of Canada is locked down).

I think we mostly agree too. I think I’m definitely the more pessimistic of the two of us. My thinking is there are still millions of people still on twitter, even after it became infested by Nazis. In my view, most people are tired and have limited time for their own pursuits. I don’t think they will spend their time jumping through additional hoops, unless they absolutely have to.

Apologizes, I should have been clearer. I think you are totally right in that there with be a jump/boost at and right after the lockdown.

I think at this moment, there is the highest number of eligible devices (unlocked bootloader) and it will essentially only go down from there in the short to mid term.

After the lockdown boost to custom roms, I think the custom android ROM user numbers will drop. My thinking is based on new phones being locked from now on. I don’t think it’ll be all new phones after the new year, but I’d guess the majority and it’ll be pretty rare to have an unlocked bootloader out of the box after the lockdown (with exceptions like Motorola and graphene, or Fairphone/similar).

I think you are definitely right about Linux being further behind in development and being able to be a daily driver. And accordingly most new switches from android in the near-term will go to custom android ROMs.

However, from my view, developers can choose between continuing to develop a custom ROM that’s dependent on google and proprietary blobs that, to my understanding, they will always be dependent on and beholden to (who knows the next trick they’ll pull to cripple custom ROMs). Or, they can work on development that doesn’t have those dependences (Linux).

Due to the proprietary blobs and google, I think, Linux is more viable mid- and long-term.

My personal opinion is that custom android Roms are going to die slowly after google locks down android.

If you’re open to it, you might want to look into Linux phones. Specifically Fairphone 6 with PostMarketOS. It’s not quite there, but it’s close and they are actively working on the last couple hardware issues. Sounds like it should be ready within a month or so.

This thread talks more about it:

https://threadiverse.link/piefed.zip/comment/6553012

Wikipedia doesn’t explain what the disagreements were, but I grabbed some highlights:

August Willich (November 19, 1810 – January 22, 1878), born Johann August Ernst von Willich, was a military officer in the Prussian Army, later enlisting and receiving a commission in the United States Army. Born into Prussian nobility, he formally discarded his title in 1847 and actively participated in the Revolutions of 1848. Willich’s militant attitudes towards revolution made him a leading early proponent of communism.[1][2][3] Although these revolutions were unsuccessful, he remained an ardent communist. Disagreements with Karl Marx, as Willich saw Marx as unacceptably conservative,[4] swayed his decision to emigrate to the United States alongside many German radicals. His political beliefs greatly influenced his decision to serve in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Willich saw combat in several high-profile battles including the Battle of Shiloh and Chickamauga. After the war’s conclusion and Lincoln’s assassination, Willich left the Union Army and offered his expertise to the Prussian military during the Franco-Prussian War but was refused on account of his political beliefs. Willich returned to the United States and lived the remainder of his life quietly in Ohio until his death in 1878. Following his death he was eulogized by his rival Marx and the First International.

According to Wilhelm Liebknecht, Willich and Barthélemy plotted to kill Karl Marx for being too conservative. Willich publicly insulted Marx and challenged him to a duel, which Marx refused to fight.[8] Instead Willich was challenged by a young associate of Marx, Konrad Schramm. The pistol duel was fought in Belgium with Barthélemy acting as Willich’s second;[9][note 1] Schramm was wounded but survived the encounter.[8]

I think you misread. June 9th 2026, at least 2 days old. So, you should be all good.

Some takeaways I had playing with it quickly:

I think “Time of Day” numeric value display in the simulator is using “Day of Year” as the refresh requirement (remains static through changing time, but with update if manual change time or date).

The physical space display at the top of the simulator is cool, but difficult to see everything on mobile.

I like the power line diagram in the builder. Makes it very easy to understand how things would hook together.

Sounds interesting, but you’re missing a link.