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Cake day: May 11th, 2026

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  • If you haven’t seen It the largest steam train in the world was restored by union pacific, #4014 big boy. It’s basically two heavy freight locos welded together into one machine over a hundred feet long. Lots of great videos of it online including a great video where it helps out a stalled mainline freight train running actual customer UP freight.








  • There are a lot of plants we consider weeds that used to be cultivated as staple crops. Industrialization meant only the most productive species got attention for mechanization. Less productive species fell out of favour and now are kind of lost knowledge.

    Lamb’s quarters: also called goosefoot or wild spinach. It’s related to quinoa and both the seeds and the leaves were eaten.

    Purslane: grows in poor soils and is hardy. Still used in Mediterranean cooking but is considered a garden weed in a lot of the world

    Dandelions and amaranth: both were cultivated, and most amaranth varieties are considered weeds now

    Sorrel: tough leafy green with a tangy flavour used prior to citrus in Europe.

    Ground elder: hated by gardeners and farmers. A nice spring leafy green planted around monestaries

    Mallow: used to thicken soups and stews. Still used in the middle east and Mediterranean but is considered a weed elsewhere.

    Nettles: you’ve probably heard of this one? Not farmed anymore to my knowledge.





  • I guess this is countered by Ukraine repeatedly hitting their refineries

    Here’s an infographic dated May 8th. The oil barrel in the bottom left shows the theoretical maximum impact of strikes if they somehow took all refineries they hit offline completely.

    Ukraine is pretty good at targeting the right units when they hit a refinery, but it’s not perfect. Either way looking at economic output sources Russia made half as much money from oil last year as 2022, and the refinery strikes are picking up speed. Tuapse was a giant hit to them. Ukraine hit it 5 times in a row… Most of Russia’s biggest oil refineries feeding Europe have been hit repeatedly by long range drones.

    Edit: clarity and structure.