what could possibly go wrong?

Members of congress have a library? Don't they know libraries are full of liberals? "There's only one book worth reading!" I was pretty sure they stayed far away from libraries, and radical interwebs and such.

where they don't build grocery stores within walking distance.

That is soooo.... 1950s/60s/70s.

It's scientific knowledge.

It should be accessible to everyone, period, with the small exception, arguably, of extremely dangerous techniques such as methods of creating artificial super-viruses etc.

Science thrives by the collective discovery, review and improvement of knowledge. The more the disseminationof the knowledge is, the more valuable the knowledge becomes, and the more likely the knowledge is to improve faster.

Throughout history, some peoples' contribution has been to insert themselves as a toll troll on the bridge, even if the bridge was built by others. This is a despicable friction on the function of society.

Scientific paywalls (preventing access to science that was funded entirely or partially by the public purse) are a crime.

We need every available quality mind, rich or poor, on some of our scientific and engineering challenges today.

Why aren't there companies offering to put solar PV on your roof (e.g. even if you're poor), and you can pay them basically the standard utility rate for your electricity.
The company can make the difference in profit, after fixed costs. Such companies are operating in the US.

Meanwhile, solar infrastructure is built up, as it needs to be to reduce GHG emissions.

If you have one large lake located up high somewhere and can pump water uphill to it, problem solved.

Does Hawaii have any high ground? Thought so.

Or if you're concerned about ecosystem alteration due to changing water flows, then

if you have one very large hydrogen tank facility somewhere with an electrolysis system (new efficient designs are here or almost here) and fuel cells, problem solved.

Or if you have an ocean floor where you can store a whole bunch of large balloon bags full of air, problem solved.

It's true that these storage methods have a low round-trip energy efficiency, but that energy is coming from the fricking sun - photosynthetic life is about 2% efficient at using solar energy). PV with inefficient storage of its peak generation is still a way better idea than continuing to burn coal and gas to make electricity.

ummm.

Any batch of electrons with the same average voltage is fully substitutable for any other batch of the same number with the same average voltage, from an electrical power use perspective.

I'm not in favour of selling drinking water, but the situation is the same as if a water distribution network had N companies each pumping in water to the pipe network from their lake at a metered rate, and the water coming out the output pipes of the network was sold to a whole bunch of people. Not sure what you don't understand about how that should work as a market system, and how you would divide the revenues. Pretty damn simple really.

A good ale should be consumed at room temperature. That is, 10-14C : typical room temperature in the early evening in a medieval roadside inn.

Put on your tinfoil hat and turn on your microwave oven.

CAUTION: do not stick your head in the microwave.

Translator:
Mediate with reality as a guide between stakeholders and software/IT people.
Don't ever ask for an estimate then say something to the effect of let's try to get it done in half that time.
Live with the triangle and manage it. Something has to give. You decide what.

Waiter:
A really good waiter doesn't break my flow when I'm in the middle of a good conversation, and yet is there with useful solutions or suggestions when needed, and anticipates next needs. A good waiter facilitates a great meal experience for all concerned, by artful interventions and artful absence.

General:
Wins by exploring for and prioritizing risks and opportunities, well in advance. Uses an 80-20 rule. Get's er done. Earns respect by good personal example of doing the job well and consistency in the decisions and commitments of leadership.

any more (or anyone for that matter).

What matters is how knowledgeable the cyborg comprised of me + net is.

There are two kinds of cases where it still does matter how well I can do on my own.
1. Where time is of the essence and I don't have time to hyper-learn.
2. When I have passed the "Warning: You are leaving the twitterverse" signs on the dirt track off the highway.

What's important in most cases today is how effective cyborg-me is at systematically formulating good questions then systematically acquiring, integrating, evaluating, and using knowledge.

Stop thinking what matters is how good a human individual is at doing something/knowing something. That doesn't matter that much anymore, and will matter less in the near future. I like maintaining my celestial navigation skills, but it's really just for nostalgic reasons.

Whether to go new or not should depend on how horrendous the old way of doing something was, AND how stable, well documented, and community supported the new thing is AND how many of the old way's fundamental problems/weaknesses the new thing solves.

It's not a simple decision, and needs to be made case by case.

What really matters is the quality of the technology and the community that is actively working with it, supporting it and improving it. Not the age.

that it's stopped.

Mm hmmm.

(google "disinformation")

Yeah. A language without functions/procedures/methods/named predicates/subroutines (same thing basically) is not a programming language, unless it's assembler, in which case, if you're not using standard conventions that essentially implement organized subroutines (i.e. functions...) you're not doing it right.