- All Power Labs (APL) in Berkeley operates an open-source 30 kW biomass gasifier that converts wood chips into electricity and biochar; the flagship “Power Pallet” system consumes ~96 metric tons of wood per year running 9.5 h/day and is documented at http://www.allpowerlabs.com/carbon.  
- Participants calculated feedstock logistics: a 30-ft cube of mixed conifer slash at 400 kg/m³ and 50 % wood content yields ~153 t, enough to run the APL unit for ~1.6 years; obtaining this volume would require ~63 truckloads of the “free wood chips” offered by local utilities.  
- Practical concerns were raised about chip size—small slivers jam the gasifier—and the learning curve of “becoming a Jedi master of biochar,” highlighting the gap between open-source hardware and turnkey usability.  
- The discussion noted that municipal utilities generate more wood-chip waste than they can utilize, suggesting an under-exploited distributed energy resource.  
- A speculative tangent explored science-fiction scenarios in which nuclear weapons and reactors are trivial to build (e.g., using common lead instead of enriched uranium), asking what societal structures could prevent extinction when fissile material cannot be sequestered; the Outer Limits episode “Final Exam” was cited as a minimal treatment of the idea.