#forced labor

Green energy is in its heyday. 

Renewable energy sources now account for 22% of the nation’s electricity, and solar has skyrocketed eight times over in the last decade. This spring in California, wind, water, and solar power energy sources exceeded expectations, accounting for an average of 61.5 percent of the state's electricity demand across 52 days. 

But green energy has a lithium problem. Lithium batteries control more than 90% of the global grid battery storage market. 

That’s not just cell phones, laptops, electric toothbrushes, and tools. Scooters, e-bikes, hybrids, and electric vehicles all rely on rechargeable lithium batteries to get going. 

Fortunately, this past week, Natron Energy launched its first-ever commercial-scale production of sodium-ion batteries in the U.S. 

“Sodium-ion batteries offer a unique alternative to lithium-ion, with higher power, faster recharge, longer lifecycle and a completely safe and stable chemistry,” said Colin Wessells — Natron Founder and Co-CEO — at the kick-off event in Michigan. 

The new sodium-ion batteries charge and discharge at rates 10 times faster than lithium-ion, with an estimated lifespan of 50,000 cycles.

Wessells said that using sodium as a primary mineral alternative eliminates industry-wide issues of worker negligence, geopolitical disruption, and the “questionable environmental impacts” inextricably linked to lithium mining. 

“The electrification of our economy is dependent on the development and production of new, innovative energy storage solutions,” Wessells said. 

Why are sodium batteries a better alternative to lithium?

The birth and death cycle of lithium is shadowed in environmental destruction. The process of extracting lithium pollutes the water, air, and soil, and when it’s eventually discarded, the flammable batteries are prone to bursting into flames and burning out in landfills. 

There’s also a human cost. Lithium-ion materials like cobalt and nickel are not only harder to source and procure, but their supply chains are also overwhelmingly attributed to hazardous working conditions and child labor law violations. 

Sodium, on the other hand, is estimated to be 1,000 times more abundant in the earth’s crust than lithium. 

“Unlike lithium, sodium can be produced from an abundant material: salt,” engineer Casey Crownhart wrote ​​in the MIT Technology Review. “Because the raw ingredients are cheap and widely available, there’s potential for sodium-ion batteries to be significantly less expensive than their lithium-ion counterparts if more companies start making more of them.”

What will these batteries be used for?

Right now, Natron has its focus set on AI models and data storage centers, which consume hefty amounts of energy. In 2023, the MIT Technology Review reported that one AI model can emit more than 626,00 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent. 

“We expect our battery solutions will be used to power the explosive growth in data centers used for Artificial Intelligence,” said Wendell Brooks, co-CEO of Natron. 

“With the start of commercial-scale production here in Michigan, we are well-positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for efficient, safe, and reliable battery energy storage.”

The fast-charging energy alternative also has limitless potential on a consumer level, and Natron is eying telecommunications and EV fast-charging once it begins servicing AI data storage centers in June. 

On a larger scale, sodium-ion batteries could radically change the manufacturing and production sectors — from housing energy to lower electricity costs in warehouses, to charging backup stations and powering electric vehicles, trucks, forklifts, and so on. 

“I founded Natron because we saw climate change as the defining problem of our time,” Wessells said. “We believe batteries have a role to play.”

-via GoodGoodGood, May 3, 2024

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(Specifically talking about the bond between victims of the same abuse)

Content: real-life scenarios, ptsd, trauma bond, forced labor, doublethink, emotional repression

Feels like they are the only ones that could ever understand you

Having similar conditioned responses

Having similar extreme responses--things that should be just funny become choking-hazard hilarious, things that should get a chuckle get a synchronous shrug

On that note, often saying the exact same thing in the exact same tone

Specific things like whumper's tone of voice when they say a certain thing, would be a joke when they weren't there

Singing to cope with many hours of forced hard labor, immediately going silent when whumper entered

Talking about the trauma was OFF LIMITS, only code-speak that whumper couldn't understand could be used to warn each other

Only certain feelings were allowed to be shown because we had been conditioned that some feelings were "not safe"

Openly admitting to each other that it wasn't safe inside the house with whumper and then telling outsiders that we were totally safe and thinking we were telling the truth both times

All saying exactly the same lines to strangers (example "we are all wretches" *shrug*)

Married-couple-level nonverbal communication.

"do you want this extra food? I'll sneak it to you under the table." "Give it to [other victim]." "Watch out, whumper's looking." All happened nonverbally with eye and head movements right in front of whumper.

Working together seamlessly (or else!)

As soon as you leave the cult, the pressure that forced the bond in the first place, the trauma-bond relationship can fall apart

Thanks to comics and old movies it has become iconic: the socalled ball-and-chain: a heavy device to restrict the movement of convicts when doing forced labor in public. A huge heavy iron ball, with a diameter of up to 25 centimeters and weighting up to 16 kilos in case of full ball-and-chain assemblies used for severe  punishments, was connected by a thick chain - typically under one meter in length - to a sturdy shackle. This fetter was locked - or even riveted shut to prevent removal without specialized tools - around an ankle of the prisoner (usually the right one), making escape nearly impossible.

The chain consists of interconnected forged iron links, providing flexibility while limiting stride length. Historical examples show chain lengths ranging from approximately 66 cm to 90 cm, with links typically oval or figure-eight shaped for durability and resistance to breakage. In some cases not just one, but two chains were connected to the ball, thus offering a shackle for each of both ankles.

The limited length of the chain, combined with the heavy weight of the ball forced the wearer to take short shuffling steps, making full-paced walking, running, or jumping infeasible.  Dragging or swinging the ball demanded continuous muscular effort against gravity and friction, inducing rapid fatigue and disrupting balance during motion. n operation, the device's inertia resists acceleration, causing the ball to lag and potentially trip the wearer during hurried attempts to flee, while permitting slow, supervised ambulation. Historical accounts confirm this configuration rendered escape virtually impossible and movement extremely difficult, tailored for control during penal tasks rather than total immobilization.

EARLY HISTORY (A summary from the lemma in the Grokipedia)

Historically employed in penal systems from the 17th to the mid 20th centuries, particularly in the British Empire and its (former) colonies like the United Sates, the device therefore was especially applied to troublesome convicts laboring outside prison walls, rendering flight arduous while at the same time still permitting limited locomotion during supervised manual labor or transport under guard. Unlike earlier medieval shackles or stocks, which often immobilized detainees entirely or fixed them in place, the ball-and-chain introduced a weighted, portable element that balanced restraint with utilitarian functionality for penal authorities.

The invention of the ball-and-chain likely arose from practical needs in expanding early modern penal systems, where overcrowded jails and the logistics of labor extraction favored devices that hindered running without requiring constant wall attachment. By the late 17th century, this form had become standard in British gaols for high-security detainees, predating its proliferation in colonial settings. The pic underneath shows a copy found in the Thames 2009.

19th-CENTURY EXPANSION

In the early 19th century, the ball-and-chain integrated into emerging state prison systems in the United States, particularly under the Auburn model of congregate labor and enforced silence, where it served as a restraint for disciplinary infractions and escape prevention, as at Sing Sing Prison in  New York, operational from 1826. This practice reflected the era's emphasis on physical deterrence in penitentiaries designed for thousands, with Sing-Sing itself housing up to 1,000 inmates by 1830 through state-funded expansion.

British penal colonies, especially in Australia, at the same time broadened the device's application for recidivist convicts via "iron gangs" tasked with public works like road-building. Governor Ralph Darkling formalized this in New South Wales from 1824, assigning ball-and-chain restraints to over 700 reoffenders by 1830 to enforce labor on infrastructure projects spanning 1,200 miles of roads, reducing escape risks in remote areas. Such gangs, drawn from Hyde Park Barracks holdings, targeted "incorrigibles" awaiting secondary punishment, with chains limiting gait to 12-18 inches per step during chained marches.

By mid-century, Southern U.S. states adapted the restraint for emerging chain gangs post-emancipation, initially in Mississippi from 1866, where short-chain ball attachments to leg irons enabled supervised fieldwork on levees and railroads, accommodating labor shortages after the Civil War. This expansion tied into  convict leasing systems, with Alabama reporting over 1,000 chained workers by 1880, though records note higher injury rates from uneven terrain compared to institutional use.

20th-CENTURY APPLICATIONS

In the early 20th-century, ball and chain restraints persisted in American  penal systems, primarily for punishing escape risks and controlling prisoners during extramural labor, such as road building or municipal maintenance. A notable application occurred in Seattle, where chain gangs employed ball-and-chain fittings on vagrants, drunks, and petty offenders unable to pay fines, compelling them to perform city tasks like street cleaning into the 1900s.

Similar restraints appeared in California facilities, with artifacts from San Quentin State Prison demonstrating use for high-security inmates into the 20th century, as evidenced by preserved examples in museum collections. In Southern states, chain gangs incorporating ball-and-chain elements for individual restraint supplemented linked-ankle systems, enforcing labor on infrastructure projects until reforms curbed such practices. The pic underneath shows two original, very heavy samples, now in the Texas Prison Museum.

Historical accounts from early 20th-century prisons indicate its use for convicts dispatched beyond facility walls, as in Washington state facilities around 1910, where it slowed movement enough to prevent flight while allowing basic tasks like gravel hauling or tree felling. In group settings, prisoners might wear individual ball and chains or be linked serially with leg irons, forming lines that moved as a unit; for instance, Georgia's chain gangs in the 1900s chained squads of 20 to 50 men for highway maintenance, with the added weight of balls increasing fatigue and compliance.

ABOLISHMENT BY THE MID-20th CENTURY

By the mid-20th century, mounting judicial and humanitarian critiques of physical brutality prompted widespread phase-out in U.S. prisons, with chain gangs with ball-and-chain elements fully banned out amid civil rights scrutiny and labor reforms across the Southern states by the 1950s, with Alabama holding out until 1955 after Supreme Court challenges highlighted Eighth Amendment violations from cruel conditions. They were supplanted by lighter irons or institutional confinement. Isolated vestiges lingered for escape prevention in select maximum-security settings, but empirical concerns over injury and inefficacy accelerated adoption of modern restraints.

The ball and chain has lived on ever since in Halloween fancy dress and in popular comics, such as on the ankles of the four Dalton brothers in Lucky Luke.

AND NOW FOR THE FUTURE?

We can talk a lot about history, but there was a good reason, that the ball-and-chains was so widely used in the USA: it made the escape of convicts during labor assignment on building roads or railways unthinkable, labelled the prisoners in combination with coarse striped cotton uniforms and forced headshaves as what they were, and thus functioned as a deterrent to the general public, passing nearby while they toiled for up to ten hours daily, often from dawn to dusk, in the dust.

So, yes, let's reintroduce in all prison labor camps the ball-and-chain!

Villain strains to hear any sound from Hero across the line. Instead, he only hears the slow breaths of Supervillain vaping. "I thought you quit that shit." "Why do you think I knew to look on the roof? Bad habits save lives, Doctor." Villain detects that stiff cheer in Supervillain's voice, the kind that always preludes something not good. "Fuck, just--don't hurt her, okay? It's my fault the straps were no good. I know you got rawdogged by her folks, too, but--" "She's enjoying the view," Supervillain interrupts, "And soon we'll have operating lights in the loading bay. Well, either that or an electrical fire if she screws this up." Across the line, Villain can hear the sudden him of electric currents. "And that's not going to tell the whole damn city where we are?" "Doctor, we both know our operations here need to be scrubbed at some--ah, Brute is calling. Carry on. We'll be inside soon..." Supervillain switches line, "Mmmm, yes, Brute? Did the lights come back on?...the *bay* lights, Brute, not yours...good. Thank you. Call back if they blow out again." Supervillain closes the phone, folding their arms as they watch Hero work. "Finally you're not useless." Hero winces, a learned reaction. She's knelt by the ancient electrical box on the roof. The wiring looks as if it was dated back when it was installed. She has no idea how to connect the wires or if anything she does will trigger a blackout. "If they're fixed...then we're done, right?" Supervillain pushes down the power lever, then flips it back on. "Do it again." Fuck. Of course they'd say that. How had she done it the first time? Her mind blanks and every wire becomes both the right and wrong answer. The phone in Supervillain's pocket buzzes. WIthout looking away from her, they answer. "Yes, Brute, I know--" A voice rages from the phone, "What the actual fuck, I was minutes away from finalizing her data!" The doctor's voice! Hero pauses to listen. Something jolts through her arm and she yanks back. It hurts, feels wrong. Like when air is forced back into your lungs. Her fingers spastically flex as she fails to get them under control. "Do it again," Supervillain says. The way their hollow eyes look at Hero, though, it sounds more like they're talking to her and not the angry Doctor on the other end of the phone. Hero forces her shaky hands back to the grid. She can still hear his voice, however muffled. Somehow, focusing on that instead of the wires themselves gives her the clarity she needs. The wire placement begins to look familiar. The currents in her fingers flow in time with the needed wattage. At length it clicks again. Still chatting, Supervillain shuts down and powers on the grid again. Hero detects a defeated and manic laugh from the phone. Supervillain leans over her now, watching closely. But that brings the doctor's voice closer. He drowns out her hammering heartbeats. She resets the power in seven minutes. The next time she does it under five. "She'll meet you in the bay," Supervillain says over the phone, then hangs up. But they don't move from their position over Hero. Then she feels a heavy hand on her head. "Good girl. Go to the loading bay." Then, as if nothing happened, Supervillain leans on the crumbling unit, vaping silently. Not daring to admit she doesn't know where that is, Hero slowly gets up from her knelt position. Don't run, don't run, don't-- Fists balling her hospital gown, Hero sprints across the roof. She senses more than hears Supervillain laughing after her. She all but leaps down the concrete steps, barefeet screaming at her enough for her speed. The interior is more lit up than she remembers--bar that pesky bulb over the access door--and now she can finally see the doors in the hall. On the one farthest from her, she can barely make out the scratched out words, "Loading Bay." The thought of escape torments her but she pushes aside. Supervillain will see her if she tries. She already got busted tonight. Hero pushes open the door... ~*~*~*~*~*~*~ previous: part 6 MASTERLIST next: part 8