Week 46
"@AlecStapp
Fix your labor shortage with this one weird trick"
"Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), one of the most vulnerable House Democrats next year, blasted the SALT plan in a series of tweets Wednesday night, saying it seemed like 'Republicans were in charge.'"
"The United States has thrown its support behind negotiations on a treaty to curb plastic pollution, ending a key holdup in international efforts to clean up the planet's oceans and save marine life"
Business Insider: "Some of them call it 'antiwork.' It's a trend bolstered by younger workers, as Gen Zers make their mark on the labor market. In America, it looks similar to similar youth-led movements against work in other countries, especially China, where young people are 'lying flat' by decentering a drive to constantly be more productive and competitive at work, and instead find happiness in their own lives and relaxation.
A rising disillusion with the state of work has spawned millions of Larrys over the last year. People have been quitting their jobs at record rates for six months in a row now — and many aren't going back. That's because, for some, work doesn't seem to be worth it anymore. Wages have been on the decline for decades while student debt rises. The number of people with low-wage jobs has grown since the Great Recession , as salaries that support a middle-class life have cratered"
If supply probs persist, that could be a way to encourage folks to consume less. On wages, when similar problems surfaced during the 70s developed world panicked, "went to China", production skyrocketed through slave labor, at the same time, wages stagnated and in US ppl started dying from opioids... Let's not repeat that mistake. If wages increase "more than necessary" that is an internal politics fight, and let's have it, with trade unions, politicians etc. In the meantime cannot find a Mr Potatohead toy? Use a potato and make one
If Oz wanted to replace coal, the coal regions (in the East, and SW) also get good sunshine. People can easily transition to a job at a thermosolar plant.
![[-]](twimg/FENtnFlWUAIDbMK.jpg){kind=link}
"The United Arab Emirates (#UAE) and #Russia will bolster industrial collaboration in the field of #hydrogen fuel technology to boost domestic decarbonisation with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU)"
Tech should allow new ways of working, not merely extend the existing ways of working. Linux wasn't built bcz people could "chat" overseas or "Zoom". The project, besides Linus Torvalds' leadership, was made possible through async concepts such as the email, and shared code repos, and the patch file.
Even the dog looks kinda sad
"@314159K
Yes ! The Worst of Both Worlds: Zooming From the Office"
Hah. Just heard guy on RT say "Germany destroyed its nuclear sector, now have to rely on 90% natural gas for power generation". Incorrect
The rabble-rouser, thorn-on-the-side shtick is fine, but plz don't pull bizarre non-truths out of your ass #RT
Redtenbacher's Funkestra - Go Mo #music
Expanding existing infra for the shiny product obviously makes the overall approach even stupider. Gov had to lead, not follow bunch of salesmen.
Even then, the BEV was considered as a ridiculous solution by many for a long time, but as the drums of climate apocalypse became louder, some started to think "maybe to avert that crazy end, I do need this dumb-ass shit". A strange way to land at a conclusion, and of course, faulty. Shoulda asked for better infra
The world became too used to solving problems throught those little, shiny products, coming from the private sector, having been brainwashed by neoliberalism.. Such products are stand-alone units of goods that can be sold, expected to work on their own, assuming certain infra backdrop.. nothing more.
Climate cannot be solved with such isolated trinkets. This is how an inferior tech, the battery electric car, became en vogue, that singular product trying to exist in a certain environment (the wall plug). New and different infrastructure could have changed the underlying Calculus completely, much earlier.
The word Istanbul comes from the Greek word Stanpoli, it means "in the city". So trying to avoid Constantinople bcz it sounds Greek lands you with Istanbul which also comes from Greek. Boom. This puts TR nationalists in a bind doesn't it? Much in TR nat narrative is a baseless, crooked fabrication.
Climate activists on air quality of Stanpoli, Asia Minor; they say the smog seen there recently was pollution, not harmless mist... I've been checking the pollution levels through OWM, half the time I see AQI at a 5, the worst level.. Not good.
SJW is a problem, sure, but Focker himself is a shady fock.
Doh! That's Focker's university isn't it?
TDB: "Two Top Advisers Resign From Anti-Cancel Culture University of Austin"
The testing area is relatively far to AU/NZ landmass, 6K kilometers, but hey, it ain't on the other side of the world either, like the Mojave Desert. Could irk some people.. They tested btw 60s-90s. Received protests from AU, NZ each time.
Found out about France's little unpopularity problem in Oz, due to nuclear tests conducted in the South Pacific (in the so-called French Polynesia). Maybe this is partly why they could be sacrificed easily as a partner, the Oz general view would not care too much..
The gun issue is so radicalized it became an unsolvable mess. Dick Morris is laughing his ass off right now #triangulation. He had Dems get stuck in the mud. Pat yourselves on the back corporate Dems.. you let a Republican operative do that to you
Guilty or not guilty, self-defense or no.. This is arguing tangential minutea of a larger issue.
How did Powell "score one on the libs"? Here.
"@AfricaFactsZone
Morocco has the world's largest Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant, Ouarzazate Solar Power Station. It covers 3,000 hectares (the size of 3,500 football fields), and can be seen from space. It generates 580MW of electricity, and will power 1 million homes and numerous cities"
"@sfpoulter
DYK: The cost of Concentrated #solar power (CSP) dropped 47% between 2010 and 2019 - according to @IRENA - 'making it a desirable option for use in developing countries'"
"Peru, the country with the world's highest Covid mortality rate, will begin next month to require vaccination proof from adults entering indoor spaces, the government said"
Marmite is extremely potent. It's like condensed Guiness.
Fantastic history to all these things. Fine innovation.
Wiki: "The product that was to become Marmite was invented during the late 19th century when German scientist Justus von Liebig discovered that brewer's yeast could be concentrated, bottled and eaten... By 1912, the discovery of vitamins was a boost for Marmite, as the spread is a rich source of the vitamin B complex; with the vitamin B1 deficiency beriberi being common during World War I, the spread became more popular. British troops during World War I were issued Marmite as part of their rations"
100% veg
Marmite.. This guy puts it in the veg patties.. B-complex bomb. This can work, approaching beef quality here.
Shang Chi, same, little more SJW.. Got the cold shoulder from CCP, lost millions coulda had.. Not sure MCU can build this towards something.. The character is too marginal afaik.
No Time to Die was Bond enough.. There was some SJW. Good action, tech.
Centrism got its ass kicked in Virginia. Trump derangement, running specifically against Trump didn't work. Not being able to hit the opponent on Carlyle, like a leftist could, then getting mired in culture war like a 90s centrist Clintonite destroyed the guy. I loved it.
It was fitting that the first crisis in Clinton WH was a hot-button social issue, not an economic issue. For econ they'd do NAFTA and everyone was on board for that, except that one weird guy with the squeky voice.. In a debate on the subject Perot (that weird guy with the squeky voice) would argue against, Gore wld argue for, and one of the "eminent characters" Gore would pull out of his bag to support his case would be Powell. He was apparently for NAFTA -- and why wouldn't he be? He was a Republican.
Let's not forget Colin Powell was beloved by Reps not because he was a good general but because he fought in the culture war and "scored one on the libs"
#DontAskDontTell
Bipartisanship needs to get a demotion from being a remarkable event, to something regular, and unremarkable. You agree on some stuff (key is 'some', agreeing on all, especially econ, is harmful), you get them done. What's the big deal..?
"@IEA_SolarPACES
Pacific Green shows how #CSP can cut green ammonia costs, link"
NO SHOW STOPPERS
"No show stoppers for Concentrating Solar Power... A recently published study confirms that solar thermal power is largely unrestricted by materials availability"
Based on paper below, assuming a solar PV panel uses 0.2 g indium per square meter (a low assumption, paper has it higher, 0.38 g/m2), 300 W / m2 solar energy, with 30% panel efficiency, and given world reserves of indium is 5700 tons,
m2 = 5700*1e6 / 0.2
km2 = m2 / 1e6
print (km2, 'km2')
world = 157481.
eff = 0.30
kw = m2*(300*eff) / 1000.0
twh_year = (kw*24*365) / 1e9
print ('%0.2f percent' % (twh_year / world * 100.0))
28500.0 km2
14.27 percent
only 14% of world energy requirement can be generated through PV solar tech, given the indium reserves and its usage. There are other rare-earth metals too, cadmium, tellerium..
AZO Cleantech: "[R]ecent research coming out of the Netherlands has spotted a red flag to relying on solar panels as a panacea for global emissions problems. Experts have found that the rare metals required to build solar panels, such as indium and tellurium, are not in sufficient supply to keep up with demand... Currently, China is providing the world.. Yet [CH] is no longer abundant with precious metals"
Electrons are fickle.. Must base the new energy system on things with more of substance; gas, liquids, molecules, heat, pressure.
"The advantage of the thermal reflector systems is that because they initially produce heat, this heat can be stored, and it’s an important consideration if you need to produce electricity after sunset. Photovoltaic panels, on the other hand, produce electricity immediately, making storing electricity less efficient. The Negev Energy project uses a molten salt storage system that enables it to hold and provide additional 4.5 hours of clean energy each day, at full capacity, even after sunset or during cloudy days"
Increasing productivity decreases inflation..? The effect has too long of a time horizon and it isn't that big, or direct. Don't bet your econ diploma on it, if you have one 😶
Austria is not messing around..
Their vax rates were very low
"Austria lockdown for unvaccinated to start on Monday: chancellor"
AFG pullout, people apparently didn't like its execution.. It didn't "look good".. WH could've done pre-spin perhaps but were caught unawares themselves on Tali.
Downtrend on Biden's popularity did not start on Aug; it has been going on since the beginning of 2021 (Delta?). Without the August debacle, net pop wld have been at -5, with Aug debacle (AFG pullout) it went to -10% territory.
US, instead of triggering a "Shale Revolution" in 2005, could have gone solar, expanded its already substantial H2 pipeline capacity, help commercialize fuel-cells NASA developed in the 60s.
Instead of building those ghost cities China could have built thermo solar plants and at this point be energy sufficient, and carbon neutral.
"Migrants Say Belarusians Took Them to E.U. Border and Supplied Wire Cutters"
Texas has more progressive taxation than the state of Washington?
NYT: "Urbanites in Canada Flock to Atlantic Region Amid Remote Work Shift.. As housing prices soar in big cities, the country’s eastern provinces are experiencing a surge in migration. Newcomers are being welcomed, but some locals are wary"
"Despite the hopeful attitude during the 1950s and 1960s, it was soon acknowledged that Artificial Intelligence was a much harder problem than initially assumed. Today, AI capable of thinking like a human is referred to as artificial general intelligence (AGI) and still firmly the realm of science-fiction. Much of what we call ‘AI’ today is in fact artificial narrow intelligence (ANI, or Narrow AI)"
Bloomberg: "It's become the conventional wisdom that the U.S. economy is built on Americans' endless appetite to buy lots and lots of stuff. Household consumption makes up about 67% of GDP. When the economy falters, we're told spending is our patriotic duty. But suddenly, Americans can’t spend like they used to. Store shelves are emptying, and it can take months to find a car, refrigerator or sofa. If this continues, we may need to learn to do without — and, horrors, live more like the Europeans. That actually might not be a bad thing, because the U.S. economy could be healthier if it were less reliant on consumption"
Subsidies? Both fossil and renewable get it at first.. to make sure people dont revolt as in France yellow vests. Until both options are on par -in terms of infra, support (repair, maintainence, second-hand sales)-, then subsidies for the former can be cut off.
Need to work the incentives.. What do countries like? Cheap energy. Countries with know-how develop thermosolar-H2 locally, then, or at the same time, build a few of those for other countries, transferring know-how..
I'm sure ppl at COP26 made the best deal they could with that gathering.. And there is room to do more.
Looks pretty bad...
Reuters: "New Delhi to shut schools, construction sites as pollution worsens... Air quality in Delhi... has declined due to crop stubble burning, emissions from transport, coal-fired plants outside the city and other industry, as well as open garbage burning and dust."
"India to achieve 50% clean energy share... before 2030.. India will have around 450 GW from solar and wind, while 70-100 GW will be from hydropower plants"
"Agriculture is responsible for X percent of emissions"... A better analysis would drill down to each use-case. Agro emissons.. from what? Are emissions coming from the tractors used on the fields, or the heating needed for the greenhouses (as in greenhouse farming), or the animals, or something else? If the biggest use-case is known, you can priotrize the tech for that.
"@Mills4Humanity
It’s going to take money and lots of it to solve the climate crisis and taxes for the wealthiest people is one obvious way to get it"
It is not inconceivable in order to open itself a new space of influence in ME, Qatar used Syrian conflict; the ME region's balance was too tied in the US/SA/Israel/Egypt quad, cemented, and upstarts like Qatar felt like had to go around them. Another upstart, TR, was pulled into the quagmire along w Qatar for the same reason (notice the strong relations between the two).
Saw a few times on Al Jazeera (financed by Qatar) whenever Assad is mentioned, his name is qualified with something like THAT #$%@# TYRANT, or something similar .. Makes u flinch.. the tone doesnt fit with otherwise mostly neutral sounding voice of the news channel.
Al Jazeera: "Qatar has no plan to normalise ties with Syria: Foreign minister"
Reuters: "UAE reopens Syria embassy in boost for Assad"
There are "leaks" today claiming mid-Sep 2012 Qatar (with France!) was plotting to topple Assad. Dunno if true, but QTR did act "outside the mainstream ME power centers" in near past, and had a few scuffles with SA.
Added those to the timeline, search for SA, QTR.
"The rise of antiwork: Is there really a world without jobs?.. US workers are quitting in droves amid the ‘Great Resignation’ – and a growing movement is antiwork altogether"
Later industrial production and society did the same to farmers, made them obsolete, structures built around that earlier era were done away with. Empires whose being depended on land/plunder/peasants collapsed, like the Ottomans. Farming itself became industrialized, where a fraction of population engaged in such work could produce enough for millions.
Cheap contrarianism. It was clear-cut. Foragers were replaced en masse by farmers.
"The progression of history was not clear-cut, from hunter-gathering to farming"