Free Republic

Farmers not sufficiently 'woke' can have accounts shut down without notice.. Farmers are under attack in multiple food-producing nations now... empty stores in France, where a climate agenda threatened the production processes for farmers, and they more or less staged a strike. ... And just recently, in Germany, farmers blocked highways in protest over costly and unnecessary agriculture policies. Now, however, there's a new campaign against farmers, in which the United Nations works with banks to debank the food producers, closing their accounts and not allowing them to operate their businesses. ... officials from 12 U.S. states have sounded an...

For months, a withering drought has created major traffic jams at the Panama Canal. The drought, which may have been exacerbated by climate change, has left the canal’s water levels lower than ever, forcing Panama to let fewer ships through. The restrictions have led to delays, increased shipping costs, and uncertainty over the future of one of the world’s critical trade chokepoints. “This has fundamentally changed how shipping through the canal works,” said Soren Stokkebaek Andersen, a regional commercial manager at Leth Agencies, a shipping agency.

I am modestly(!) familiar with 4 types of DC voltage output power supplies that offer some degree of regulation to a load. Those are: Zener regulated supply: This has a resistor in series with the incoming / source unregulated DC voltage rail, and a zener diode to ground that fixes the output voltage at the zener voltage. Usually a capacitor to ground at the output is added to help stabilize the voltage, esp. if the load tends to vary a bit. Zener-pnp transistor regulated supply: This adds a transistor and a couple more resistors for more current capability and better...

I've built power supplies using full wave rectifiers in the past, and a couple circuits with single diode half wave rectification for non-critical supplies, but in all cases the power requirements were low and the diodes I had on hand several times overrated for the current and voltage / power involved.This time though, I want to add a half power function to a 1500 watt 120 volt quartz heater. (Over-simplification - see below comments. But ~half of the 1500 watts is the design target.)*So... I know a diode in series with the quartz element and no power supply capacitor** will...

Supply chain snags are driving up the prices for fish and chips. As many as half of the U.K.’s “chippies” could shut down. HASTINGS, England — Ever since she was old enough to walk, Terrilea Coglan was climbing aboard fishing boats that set sail each morning from the rocky beachfront of Hastings to harvest the key ingredient in Britain’s most iconic dish: fish and chips. The day’s catch travels just a short way from the boats up to the seaside fish and chips shops, or “chippies,” that pride themselves as much in the freshness of the fish as in the...

Joe Biden, amidst his mental confusion, must think he is John Mccain reincarnated. I bet he’s humming, “Bomb, Bomb, Bomb; Bomb Bomb Iran.” You know how it is, Iranians, Yemenis, they all look alike. While the bombs are causing some damage in Yemen, Yemen has seen it before and is unfazed. In fact, the bombing appears to be strengthening the resolve of Yemen to continue its blockade of the Red Sea.The United States does not have enough bombs to force Yemen to surrender. Why? Yemen’s rocket and missile force is mobile. They can move dozens of missiles at the same...

WILMERDING, Pennsylvania — By July of this year, the last man on the job here at the Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation will, in all likelihood, turn around as he reaches the threshold of the same front door hundreds of thousands of workers have passed through since the 1890s. For the last time, he will look out over the 300,000-square-foot plant that has provided this country with so much technology and innovation for nearly 140 years, and he will think about the men and women who went before, and then turn out the lights for the last time. This is...

The ongoing scarcity of critical medications has trapped Americans between a rock and a hard place.Active national drug shortages hit a 10-year high this year, leaving many health care providers, pharmacies, and hospitals without enough life-saving and supportive medications, according to data collected by the University of Utah Drug Information Service.A survey by the same university in July found that 99 percent of the 1,123 pharmacists who responded—many of whom work in hospitals—reported shortages. One-third of the pharmacists listed the shortages as "critically impactful," which is defined as being forced to ration medication or delay or even cancel medical treatments.The...

The early 1970s were the real heyday of beef in the US. It was the era of stroganoff, stews, and casseroles, steak lunches and 60-cent hamburgers. It was also the beginning of a long decline for the all-American meat. In 1975, Americans on average ate close to 90 pounds of beef each year. That has now dipped to around 57 pounds, and chicken has assumed beef’s place as the most-consumed meat in the US.

President Biden spoke Thursday with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, with the two men discussing efforts to reopen ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border. The conversation focused on migration issues as lawmakers in the United States are working to clinch a deal on border policy. Biden and López Obrador “agreed that additional enforcement actions are urgently needed so that key ports of entry can be reopened across our shared border,” according to a White House readout of the call.

Railroad companies and business groups are pressing the U.S. government to reopen trade routes on the Texas-Mexico border, after authorities closed two crossings in response to a rise in migrant crossings in recent days. U.S. Border Patrol apprehended about 10,800 migrants at the southwest border Monday, according to an internal agency report reviewed by Reuters. About 40% were families or unaccompanied children

Joe Biden's economy is a disaster, but that doesn't mean it can't get worse. A couple of little publicized commerce/transport events make new problems, specifically, shortages of consumer goods, all but certain. Start with what's going on around the Saudi Arabian peninsula, where Houthi rebel rocket and drone attacks on ten commercial ships has reached crisis levels, and major shipping lines, such as Maersk, have opted to go around the horn of Africa the way Magellan had to do, in order to deliver their cargo loads to Europe and beyond.According to the trade publication Insurance Journal:Shipping in the Red Sea...

The Biden-Harris regime has announced a new “White House Council on Supply Chain Resilience.” This new council is charged with preventing such problems as we experienced in the famous “supply chain crisis” of 2021 and early 2022 that preceded, and contributed to creating the current economic downturn. Granted, the Biden-Harris regime had already created a “Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force” in the first months of 2021, virtually as soon as they changed the names and dress sizes on the White House letterhead, and that didn’t seem to help. Maybe they’re hoping we forgot about that one. But then again, maybe...

'Congress alone has the authority' to breach federal dams, lawmakers write in letter to White House.. The Biden administration is quietly discussing a potentially far-reaching settlement with environmental groups that advocate for tearing down four hydroelectric dams in Washington... ... In the filings, jointly submitted by the federal government and eco groups... However, the filing failed to detail exactly what conditions were included in the secretive package .... We find it necessary to remind you Congress alone has the authority not only to order the breach of the Lower Snake River Dams, but also exclusive authority to direct the study...

"On this, the 82nd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Sal Mercogliano - maritime historian at Campbell University (@campbelledu) and former merchant mariner - joins the US Naval History Podcast to discuss the Third Wave at Pearl Harbor, Fuel Logistics in World War Two, and the issues surrounding the closing of Red Hill today in a potential war against China."

Dec 4, 2023 1 in 10 New Yorkers struggle with hunger, and due to recent budget cuts, food pantries and other city funded nutrition programs may experience shortages. It is going to get very scary in NYC soon.

As part of his Bidenomics agenda to lower costs for American families, President Biden is announcing nearly 30 new actions to strengthen supply chains critical to America’s economic and national security. These actions will help Americans get the products they need when they need them, enable reliable deliveries for businesses, strengthen our agriculture and food systems, and support good-paying, union jobs here at home. President Biden will announce these actions alongside members of his Cabinet and other senior Administration officials at the inaugural meeting of the new White House Council on Supply Chain Resilience. The Council, which President Biden is...

Beef burgers are back on the menu as demand for vegan food plunges.Veganism is being edged out and meat is back on the menu with the latest craze among foodies being ‘smashed burgers’, new data suggests.Plant-based brand Beyond Meat last week revealed its revenue had dropped by 9 per cent as demand for its animal alternatives stalled.

Food is the palate’s poetry, the body’s fuel, and a shared language transcending cultures... when people can afford it.As Visual Capitalist's Pallavi Rao details below, the World Health Organization found that the COVID-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine pushed 122 million more people into food insecurity between 2019 and 2022. Higher food prices, combined with increasing poverty, have resulted in rising food unaffordability, especially in certain regions of the world.ℹ️ A person is food insecure when they lack regular access to enough safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active and healthy life.Our World in Data...