Only rebellion will prevent an ecological apocalypse George Monbiot George Monbiot. UK Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/15/rebellion-prevent-ecological-apocalypse-civil-disobedience?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=fb_us&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1555326352

Ignite Soul log April 14th. Nice shirt, God bless you, the woman said.

Several times a week one person or another, they seem to be local, I've never met them, will stop and say something like, thank you for what you are trying to do here., thank you for all your good work here,.... today it was a little different, the white-haired lady apparently had been sitting behind me oh, I hadn't noticed her, in the all-you-can-eat salad bar that I frequent several times a week. I take good care of the staff, as best I can, and the amount of vegetables and fruit, tuna fish, potato salad, that I consume wood cost way more than I could afford in a grocery store. It is a godsend on many levels.

As she was walking from behind me toward the exit door she didn't turn but she said, nice shirt, God bless you. It is not a fundamentalist shirt. For Joy serve those poor souls in solidarity. At all times I mind my own business, I have way more everyday to do than I have time for, so minding my own business is easy and a necessity, I keep my eyes down, I don't look for eye contact or recognition. But when I am in town I do sit in a conspicuous spot and of course there's the signage on the vehicle but there's the signage on me. Front and back. And when I can I will choose a chair without arms to sit in so that I can turn it sideways and sit with my back exposed to the room so that anyone that cares to read the message can do so. She chose to do so. She liked what she saw.

Tonight James is feeling really satisfied. That's not important. But he is.

The last several days have been a lot of technical work as discussed yesterday, attempting to establish that the vehicle can, sustainably, reasonably, do the climb that we did tonight in preparation for doing three times more once the final three miles up to the Mount Whitney portal are cleared of the rocks and debris from the slides this winter. It is rated as one of the 12 most difficult climbs for cyclists in the country and indeed it is. The road is very very good. Just three years old. But it is very very steep. Very steep. Did I mention steep? Between 9 + 13% grade for just under five miles as I recall. Tonight we did the first mile and a half of that as we have done several times recently but on the prior trips overheating of the engines was extremely problematic.

And much time has been spent in recent days trying to figure out a combination of speed and which controller running which motor that did not require us to stop every two tenths of a mile, literally, to let the motors cool down.

Well I was aware  that speed was a major issue and I know from years past that having a fan blowing on the motor can help a lot to keep it cool. Well, not cool, but to lengthen the time between stops by a factor of two or three or four.

Well, the hard work paid off much better than I anticipated tonight. The outside air temperature was cool but not cold, and the combination of the right speed, the motors are more efficient when I let them travel faster than I normally travel so that they allow for all my exercise. The one fan I had on the motor helped a lot and a second one is coming for the second motor. Well, it was really gratifying and as mentioned in the cycling log the body performed really really really really really well tonight. It started out kind of rough but boy it went to a higher level than in a long time towards the end.

So the Big Technical Preparatory physical projects I think they're behind us but there's still some small ones that tonight's Journey indicated really need to be done, the availability to switch between temperature sensors is 1 whereas now the switching require stopping the vehicle and changing some cables. The new seat situation seems to be a substantial Improvement, not a game-changer, but a much more sensible posture, more pronounced recumbent, and the work that was done needs to be tightened up a bit. There's a lot of force coming out of this old body. And a few other items. The very painful delay of the new graphics for the vehicle may continue for another day or so but almost certainly it will be executed by mid-week.

Solar RV cycling log April 14th. Embarrassed, pleased, or not sure yet?

The next several paragraphs were written during the voyage.

Earth to James, land every stroke.

By the final 20% of each long Voyage this seems to happen by itself. To accomplish it in the first 20% of the voyage so far is pretty much impossible for me.

Difficult first 20%. Very difficult. Then here is what really helped.

Dig! James, that means, the last 30 percent of the stroke is where you need to focus. A really bad, hon recognized habit, is trying to find the power in the first third of the stroke. Why? I don't know. Body thinks it's a good idea. It is not.

Land the stroke James. Land it.

Aim the torso and keep it stable James. Aim to the landing point as best you can. James, keep it solid, something for the thighs to work against. Have a heart.

Left leg really wants to go rogue today. Part of that seems to be not digging but rather starting the stroke too early. The other part, and this seems huge, the foot ankle and shins were not completely limp. The lower muscles were disempowering the thighs. And forcing a very difficult rotation to manage. make the foot ankle and Shin Limp.

Stationary attempted to be sure that the knees were in equal relationship to the crank full extension. Seems to have quieted the rogue left leg down.

There is a support beam running right down the middle of this vehicle. Sitting as I always sit but looking down maybe for the first time the cross bar is distinct Lee to the left. Who knew? Have just shimmmed supporting the right buttocks against the slope of the shoulder, and centering the body. Feeling less lopdided for these initial seconds.

But these paragraphs are written at the end after a 1650 calorie night, very good performance, and really startling stuff the last mile and a half which is an extremely difficult climb of between 8 and 13%. About a mile and a half of that.

In The crucial very difficult last mile and a half, a new part of the routine, an old friend returned unexpectedly. Probably was a friend about 3 months ago on lesser climbs in this area but was not found to be sustainable.

That old friend is the notion of the knees turning the gear that moves the chain. And on top of, enabled by, a month-and-a-half now of ever-improving and more rational sustaining Dynamics, this emerged and was quite helpful. It improves the ability of the body to do everything that's been discussed in the last month and a half worth of logs in an even more rational and coherent and focused way.

But then something really really really surprising happened. Knees, James, the knees! This has been emphasized over and over and over for many months now because when musculature in the calves ankles and feet get involved things get very tense and a lot of energy is lost in that.

But tonight at least tonight, maybe not sustainable, maybe very sustainable, the thought was, James, the knees are not really turning the gear at your knees, there is not one, but they are moving your feet which is turning a gear.

Well, whether it was adrenalinn because the overall Voyage was going well, whether it was somewhat the new seat orientation, whether it was just a body is stronger and better trained from all these recent months, time will probably give some evidence.

But this last Discovery really is mechanically what's happening, and at least for that arduous last hundred human Watt blast at very high output, about 200 watts per hour sustained Which is higher than James has seen all winter, and it felt quite good, quite fluid, maybe it's sustainable and a new Plateau for James? Maybe with this thought and all the preparation psychological and physical all winter, maybe he'll be able to continue to deliver all of the Power with the thighs using the study torso as a  PowerBass, and the knees but with this improved focus of what it's actually doing, it is moving the feet which are moving that gear driven by the crank.

Ignite soul log April 13th. The tedious foundational work may be coming to an end.

As the weather gets extremely hot down in Lone Pine and az hikers begin to frequent the portal an additional 2000 feet of climbing, much time has been going into readying the vehicle for that challenge. Very expensive in terms of time, money, not so much. This is an experimental vehicle going where no one has gone before. A tremendous challenge has been trying to find the combination of controllers in the proper location to reduce the tremendous time lost to allow the electric motors to cool down. Limited success at best was achieved. But what could be learned has been learned and will be applied.

Time will tell but this should be a fairly High return investment. Hopefully so.

Solar RV cycling April 12th. The purpose is to press compress the spine each stroke. New organizing principal.

Dangerous and exciting time. Physical seat radically oriented to backwards. Body finding new optimum.

New findings.

Purpose of these forward stroke is to compress the spine.

Body is to be checked in with periodically as to the mechanics. Is it happy?

Body must be shifted far enough that the knees terminate at the rotation point of the pedals. If not very frustrating and frustrating over rotation occurs. Worrisome because the knees clear the cross bar by about only an eighth of an inch.

Radical seat rotation makes sense. Does not seem to be a magic bullet of any sort. Yet this is only day one.

Inconclusive but remembering the up stroke as a deliberate feature of timing and aiming is a good idea it seems. Get also helps Lathan the stroke. And it set up this thrust importantly it seemed.

Pressing against the aligned lower spine seems to be now bringing back elements of upright cycling. Head forward curling backflow tight into the seat. Trusting against that aligned spine.

Finding, making, the target point on the ground in front of the vehicle is really really really difficult and really really really crucial.

Everything is in two elements, properly positioning the body so that the outward thrust of the thighs compressors the spine, a entirely stable platform, and hitting the target consistently based on the needs established by the Cadence and the force. Very difficult. Absolutely crucial.

The young autistic boy politely, intellectually took over the adults Observatory meeting.

My friend has two autistic Sons, 11 and 9 or so I believe. The 11-year-old went to an evening adult Observatory conference recently. Politely, taking his turn, he wound up taking over the meeting, appropriately, with his discussion of advanced Theory regarding black holes and white holes.

Some with autism have an enormous advantage over the rest of us. They lack shallow empathy, the empathy that makes us sheep, the empathy that makes us be quiet unless we fit in. The shallow empathy that prevents us from following our dreams and capacities. Thank God Greta, leader of the youth environmental movement, is autistic. Yes, she does not fit in, she is not a sheep, and she identifies the Sheep around her.

Maybe the same for this young man at the adult Observatory meeting. And of course we pathologized these. Because they don't fit in with the norm of being f****** sheep.

The medicine is this, be the change you wish to see in the world. No one wants to be that medicine, no one wants to take that medicine. The

The medicine is this, be the change you wish to see in the world. No one wants to be that medicine, no one wants to take that medicine. The rest is history. And the funny thing is, making the attempt is the only path to Joy. The only life of joy.

James, the only citizen of nature, you are, that I have met. My friend Mike said this, I think, paraphrase.

Mike, Mary, and their extraordinary little dog Miko, have been friends to me in the last couple of weeks. It has been such a delightful encounter.
Two days ago Mike handed me a book and obviously thought it would be a good idea if I read it. This after I had mentioned that my reading list is 200 years long, and that losing weight was what I was trying to do with the vehicle. LOL. In the last few days the beginning pages and some of the last have been read to me during the journey.
Breathtakingly useful analysis of the disease of capitalism, materialism, colonialism, tribal Christianity.... This being my very inadequate initial synthesis.

Our Collective software is a software operating system problem, not Hardware. Damn the children, we will not change our software!

Damn, that program won't run! What's wrong with the computer? There were devices and maybe still are that could run dual operating systems but just one or the other at any point in time oh, and there was always a considerable effort to switch from one system to another. One application would run but only if the correct operating system were in charge. Easy fix. Switch operating systems. Our insane mania this culture for dozens, hundreds, thousands of years, we keep looking for the hardware fix for the  programs of Justice, fairness, equality, peace... Better crop methods, better irrigation methods, faster internet, more money, safer housing codes, different laws, capitalism, socialism, democracy, whatever, and that has never been the fix and will never be the fix. Changing the operating system so that the soul, the limbic system, the mammalian brain, is in charge, has only ever been the possible fix.  Confucius, Buddha, Jesus,  Hillel ,  dozens have given their lives  so we would change operating systems.  No.  We instantly distort their message into some Hardware solution. And we will destroy our children, we are destroying our children, because we will not confront that, we will not do that. Fuc the children.