I knew about August Mouchout years ago, but wasn't aware (or didn't remember) reading about Cole. This is an interesting thought experiment, though I don't think the idea that solar would only have reached price parity in 1997 seems realistic. Given the similarities to modern solar panels so long ago, I can't believe other technologies would not have developed much faster if given priority over fossil fuels.

https://theconversation.com/if-the-first-solar-entrepreneur-hadnt-been-kidnapped-would-fossil-fuels-have-dominated-the-20th-century-the-way-they-did-215300

#solar #sustainability #OffGrid

I just calculated roughly how many km I travelled in the last 2 weeks, and it's around 1300km. That's to and from my home to Traralgon, to and from Healesville, to and from Paradise, VIC (returned last night). No wonder I'm tired. When you add in fast charging stops (Chademo 20kw) + 4 overnight charges) logistically, with a vehicle with about 180km highway speed range (I go slower where safe to increase range a bit depending on other variables eg temperature and hill climbing) I can see why many people find #EV 's daunting still, even with a range of at least 300km. For the Healesville trip, I chose to charge in Belgrave, which was delightful, so I did the same for the Paradise trip. But so many days driving has depleted my long term energy and attention tank, especially yesterday where rain was heavy the entire trip, and I really hate heavy rain on the motorway.

#ElectricVehicles #travel #driving

OMG I have to laugh. I've been worried about my daughter's expressive speech. She's got very persistent final consonant deletion,
despite her comprehension being very advanced, so I was thinking she would just catch up in time, but it's bothering me enough that I've done more research and am putting together tools to more explicitly tackle this at home and if I don't see progress by her 2nd birthday I am expecting I'll probably look for a referral to a speechie. Image of cards attached: I repurposed some free Disney cards from Woolies for the backs, heh.

After her nap she sees the cards and is curious about them, and I start explaining them. She suddenly says "poopoo!" and I ask if she needs to do a poopoo and she says "ya!" so I whip off her nappy and onto the potty she goes, and for the first time (on the 3rd day of toilet training!) she perfectly executes both a poo and a wee, no misses! She gets to play with the sparkly 💩plushie (also attached) and flush the pretend toilet - I guess these "carrots" have been successful and good rewards for success (plus the book "Once Upon A Potty" which she was obsessed with for the past week, which was what prompted the official start 😊) Very proud. Then 10 minutes later, same thing, another successful poop in the potty! A hour later, I'm temporarily in another room when she calls out "poopoo" so we were slightly late and she was frustrated at the miss, but then peed in the potty, and quite happy after that. I'm sure there will be more misses in the future,
but I'm pretty happy with today.

In other parenting news, on our walking yesterday we found a plush toy kangaroo. Today from an op shop I bought a plush sparkly cat, because I know she is a sucker for cute sparkly things (so am I if I'm honest). The cat fell out of her pram somewhere walking home today 😂 I'd like to think another child has found it just like she found the kangaroo yesterday, though I think they will have got the better deal.

#parenting #PottyTraining #PottyTrainingTips #PoopEmoji #SpeechTherapy #upcycling