The US/Allies were fine with the March 1917 revolution--the Karenski government kept shooting American/Allied bullets with American/Allied guns against the Germans on the eastern front. The Allies weren't happy with the Bolsheviks making peace with the Germans and then taking those guns and bullets and fighting other Russians with them.
Edit: In fact, the American president was more than pleased that in his request for the US to declare war that, with the "democratic" Karenski government, the war had become Democracy vs Autocratic and it was ok to enter at that point on the side of Democracy.
The coke that is mixed with the iron ore is the coke that heats the furnace. As the coke (carbon) reacts with oxygen, some of the carbon monoxide then strips oxygen from the iron oxide in the iron ore.
Blast furnaces need fuel to raise the temperature of the blast furnace input to speed up stripping what becomes slag and the oxygen from the iron oxide in the iron ore. Carbon monoxide is what is able to penetrate the iron ore at the high temperatures.
My previous comment is criticizing the author for suggesting that yet another fuel produces the heat for the blast furnace.
"In the main approach to steelmaking today, iron oxide is placed into a blast furnace with coke, a hard, porous substance derived from coal...
This and other steps in the process pump around 1.7 gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually, ... And that’s before taking into account the fuels required to fire the furnaces."
The author dedicates a full section to a possible attempt at suicide. However, he doesn't even try to correlate that with the physical examinations.
How does one go braindead in a suicide attempt while locked up, without leaving physical evidence of other injuries?
Certainly, none of the other suicide attempts the author listed would qualify.
Later in the article:
"Upon learning that this article did not support claims that Otto was beaten, and included the theory that he may have attempted suicide—a possibility that the family, through their lawyer, dismissed categorically—the Warmbiers withdrew a statement that they had previously provided."
The "theory" that he attempted suicide is definitely on shakier ground than the "theories" his injuries were intentionally inflicted on him by the North Koreans.
Nearing the summation, the author uncritically quotes a "senior-level American official." --"The North Koreans have never tortured a white guy physically. Never.” Earlier in the article, "The 82 American sailors captured on the Pueblo were beaten and starved for 11 months before finally being released."
Conclusion: either none of the 82 American sailors were white guys, or "beaten and starved for 11 months" doesn't constitute torture.
There is a more pressing reason that has pushed farmers to continually buy new equipment. Farm credit services pressures farmers into this practice.
When giving out a loan for operations, a farmer's ability to pay is heavily weighted on farmers having newer equipment. The excuse that I have heard for the bank to do this, is that the bank can't easily tell which farmers take better care of their equipment, thus favoring the newer equipment across the board.
The agents working directly with the farmers advocate for this, as there are internal incentives for making larger loans.