Well, yes. But an opinion on what is, indeed, a fact and not hype, is still an opinion.

Even flat-earthers can state that "facts are facts".

The fact that this ban seems to fit the specific blend of a particular company, however, casts some doubts on how this process was conducted. Specially in a time when demand is projected to increase considerably.

https://www.bondalti.com/en/multimedia/news/bondalti-fosters...

I have to say this article was published in December 2019, and since then some projects for new green ammonia plants have been planned (although I must update this information).

Synthetic fertilizers are not just about ammonia: urea is needed too, and the existing infrastructure accounts for both, produced in close proximity. And using natural gas, the big problem.

Also, another thing: urea production needs carbon, currently provided by methane. If the source is the atmosphere, then producing green fertilizer would not only be carbon neutral, it could become negative. But again, if, if, if...

Where renewable energy is cheap and not easily exportable (e.g. Greenland, that recycles energy-intensive aluminum), this could be a way of exporting it indirectly and of diversifying the economy. Either that or hydrogen exports.

There is also the geopolitical perspective, since the world trade of fertilizers depend too much on states that tend to regard international law as optional: Russia, Belarus and Morocco (for urea and potassium, potassium, and phosphorus, respectively).

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33480391

Points: 4

# Comments: 1

It's really nice that our olive oil is reaching small cities in Japan! And it shows that Spanish and Portuguese producers are making an effort to build brands abroad and to get known.

I have made some remarks about olive oil production on HN in the past, but here are some remarks about olive oil quality, grading, and production:

Olive oils do degrade with time, which means triglycerols break into free fatty acids and glycerol (E → F + _ ). Of course aroma also changes with time, but this is more subjective, and decided by actually tasting samples.

So olive oil freshness comes in three gradings, defined by free fatty acid content: extra virgin (<0,5%), virgin (<2%), and lampante (>2%). These grades will generally decide the market value, but differentiation can change this (special varieties and a good aroma allow for a better price). Extra-virgin can, in principle, be sold as virgin (e.g. if aroma is not good enough for some reason) but not the other way around.

All my production is extra virgin. That is 100.00% extra virgin. I have never, nor my family has ever, produced anything but extra virgin olive oil. The worst I have seen around me was a producer getting 0,4% free acidity, which is still extra virgin.

Today, olive oil is industrially extracted by crushing the olives and separating water and fatty phases in a centrifuge, at cold temperatures.

Olives have around 20% w/w directly extractable oil, but the fatty content of the pomace contains around 40% fat. This oil can be further extracted in centrifuges, up to a point were some temperature will be needed. This fat won't be completely extracted, and that is up to the plant processing it, that usually keeps the pomace for itself. Heating does lower the quality of olive oil, and as such its price, but some data is good to put things into perspective.

Around 95% of Portugal's production was virgin/extra virgin, followed by the US (~90%), Greece (~75%), and Italy and Spain (both ~65%) the latter being the largest producer (~35% of world total). Portugal now ranks 7th in production volume, and is the first to put olive oil in the market, although the market is controlled by Spain. Future markets usually keep prices down for the starting weeks, and I hope this will change in the following years as Portuguese production increases.

Having this objective measure in mind, and without disregard for other characteristics that can improve olive oil general quality, one can say that Portuguese olive oil is the best, modesty aside.

But it does seem the US know what they're doing, although in smaller quantities!

Italy is one of the largest importers of Portuguese olive oil. I have no idea what they do with it.

This tool works really well. The text prompt helps, too. The suggested colors leak to surrounding objects (I forced a red skirt on a traditional costume I knew was probably red), but it looks really good.

Did you decolorize pictures originally in color in order to train the model?

- Abdominal obesity - High blood pressure - High blood sugar - High serum triglycerides - Low serum HLDL

Some people confabulate, memory is not perfect, people with severe brain injuries visibly confabulate, so all explanatory power is meaningless and we should never trust it.

Never mind that some specific lesions to the brain actually provide explanations for how we create narratives and confabulate. Those explanations are equally illusory...

The search I printed was trying to omit some addresses (and I now realize quotes are not necessary and do not help for this specific case), but it did find a result with the term I was trying to avoid as a string.