meaningmeaning-in-contextsentence-meaning
On the prairie, the wind blew. But in the mountains, there was rain. When we stopped at little timber claims along the way, the homesteaders said it had rained all summer. Crops among the blackened stumps were rotted and spoiled. There was no cheer anywhere, and little hospitality. The people we talked to were past worrying.They were scared and desperate.
Dose "timber claims" means: an area that is owned by someone?
This passage is from a short story named: Too Soon A Woman by Dorothy M.Johnson
Timber is wood in its aspect as a material for making things: building houses and crafting furniture. Ordinarily we want straight timber for such things; imagine trying to build, say, a set of bookshelves out of something like this:
(image from http://www.woodmagazine.com/woodworking-tips/techniques/skills/dealing-with-wood-defects1/)
So Kant is saying that humanity is so irregular that you cannot make anything perfectly straight from it.
Note, however, that this is a translation from a German original whose nuance is unusually difficult to express. There are interesting discussions here and here, which may help you understand not only the sentence itself but the great range of considerations which go into translating even so simple a sentence as this.
Here is my own translation, somewhat 'free', of the passage in question:
Every man will try to abuse his freedom if he doesn't have somebody over him who exercises power in accordance with the laws. But the highest authority should be just in himself, and still be human. This is the most difficult task of all; in fact, its complete realisation is impossible; such crooked wood as man is made of cannot be shaped into something entirely straight. All that nature demands is an approach to this idea.
The author really wants you to use either the Tails or the Whonix operating system to conduct whatever activities you wish to accomplish. And if you're using a different operating system, they are telling you it's OK to use Tor Browser on that operating system, but only to obtain Tails or Whonix.
They are saying you shouldn't use Tor Browser for any purpose on any other operating system except to obtain Tails or Whonix.
Best Answer
Merriam Webster:
Noun, claim
": something that is claimed especially : a tract of land staked out The prospector's claim was set at 90 yards to reduce the potential for conflict."
though claims were often for mining, there could be a claim for any type of land, such as farmland or timber land.
In American history, this is known as laying or staking a claim to land. It is a favorite "thing" in many Hollywood movies about the West.