John Stepek @John_Stepek You know if we're going to build a few more runways, maybe it would be intellectually consistent and growth-oriented to drill for a bit of oil and gas too
It's interesting the contrast with Norway. New oil and gas drilling... But also 90% of new cars are electric.
Because they have lots of oil and gas to provide consistent electricity for them.
Nope
Interesting info, but within the small percentage of energy needs not supplied by (totally dependable) hydro, it's pretty clear that it is gas doing the heavy lifting.
Heavy lifting within a small percentage is still a small percentage.
Fantastic opportunity for the Tories to all line up behind her in favour, while splitting Labour down the middle.
She's had a few in the last few days focussed on growth to be fair to her.
The almighty row that’s surely about to happen, with Rachel and the Growth agenda on one side, and Ed Miliband, Sadiq Khan and the environmental agenda on the other, is going to be fun to watch from a long way away.
As is usual when you have a large majority, now which way will those 200 new backbenchers fall on such issues?
I’d guess whichever side they think would keep their seats.
But it will be fun to watch and a real test of the growth agenda.
John Stepek @John_Stepek You know if we're going to build a few more runways, maybe it would be intellectually consistent and growth-oriented to drill for a bit of oil and gas too
It's interesting the contrast with Norway. New oil and gas drilling... But also 90% of new cars are electric.
Because they have lots of oil and gas to provide consistent electricity for them.
Nope
Interesting info, but within the small percentage of energy needs not supplied by (totally dependable) hydro, it's pretty clear that it is gas doing the heavy lifting.
That chart is from 2011. In 2023, gas had fallen to about 1% of total generation.
Since that chart, they've (a) spent heavily on becoming an electricity exporter, and (b) built a lot of wind capacity.
John Stepek @John_Stepek You know if we're going to build a few more runways, maybe it would be intellectually consistent and growth-oriented to drill for a bit of oil and gas too
It's interesting the contrast with Norway. New oil and gas drilling... But also 90% of new cars are electric.
Because they have lots of oil and gas to provide consistent electricity for them.
Norway's electricity is almost entirely renewable: 88% of power is provided by hydroelectricity.
It's interesting that Germany's decision to end nuclear power is forcing Norway to reconsider selling electricity to them because the spikes in demand push up prices for Norwegians even though they are self-sufficient.
How does that make sense? If Norway is self-sufficient and exporting to Germany, then spikes in price can only be good for Norway - they get more money for the same number of electrons.
It's not good for Norwegian consumers whose bills go up.
Why would Norwegian consumer bills go up? It would be the opposite. High prices are great if you're a country that exports electricity. The Norwegian power companies would get more money from exports, so they wouldn't need to charge domestic consumers so much.
Where did you actually see it reported that Norway is to reconsider selling electricity to Germany?
Because the market price depends on supply and demand. Being exposed to external demand spikes due to other countries' overdependence on wind pushes up prices for Norwegians.
Norway’s two governing parties want to scrap an electricity interconnector to Denmark, with the junior coalition partner also calling for a renegotiation of power links to the UK and Germany, as sky-high prices trigger panic in the rich Nordic country.
A lack of wind in Germany and the North Sea will push electricity prices in southern Norway to NKr13.16 ($1.18) per kilowatt hour on Thursday afternoon, their highest level since 2009 and almost 20 times their level just last week.
“It’s an absolutely shit situation,” said Norway’s energy minister Terje Aasland.
What could possibly go wrong, some people asked? The way this is being handled should set off all sorts of alarm bells.
Rajiv Shah @RajivShah90 The Terminally Ill Adults Bill Committee has just voted 14 to 8 against calling oral evidence from the Royal College of Psychiatrists
Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon here. Still waiting for the fall out from Hawk Tuah girls meme coin and the massive "rug pull" that allegedly happend with that one. Anyone mug enough to throw money at a MEME coin deservest to be fleeced AFAIC.
That may be so, but presumably you do not approve of President-Elect operating what is essentially a pyramid scheme to make a tidy several billion.
He can't turn that into cash very easily, though. Which makes it a usefully deniable route for bribing him. A large overseas buyer, for example, could provide the opportunity to cash out.
It actually provides an ongoing facility to bribe Trump simply by buying coin on the market. Doing so maintains or inflates the underlying value of the coin.
About ten years ago I wrote a report on the dangers of cryptocurrencies and NFTs and how they were a Ponzi-cum-bribery-cum-money laundering scheme.
I never thought I would have to update that report because POTUS is pimping cryptos and NFTs from the Oval Office.
I thought the NFT craze had died with the Bored Ape.
People spending an inordinate amount on a JPEG.
He was pimping that trash before getting back into the Oval Office too.
NFTs were the most comedy thing ever. The store of value depended entirely on who is/was holding the NFT. So as soon as said celeb sold their monkey doodle it instantly became worthless. At least the value of crypto doesn't depend on WHO is holding it at any time.
Don’t forget that 99% of the ‘celebrities’ involved had been ‘gifted’ invited to buy for $5 their monkey doodles, so the whole ‘market’ for them was actually worth almost nothing except to the ‘celebrities’ and the company behind the scam.
IIRC almost all the celebrities involved were clients of the same PR firm, who not entirely un-coincidentally had a large stake in the entire thing.
Good news. But read somewhere that Theresa May actually gave approval for a third runway at Heathrow, yet here we still are…
Another piece of fuck wittery from Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith we are still dealing with today.
Johnson should have overruled Cummings during the Brexit campaign and made the slogan: "We send £350m a week to the EU. Let's spend it on our infrastructure instead."
Infrastructure = definitely not London, oh no, certainly not.
The Americans have a plan to go to Mars. We'd be lucky to reach Birmingham.
They don't have a 'plan' to go to Mars.
Some of them have an aspiration, and none of the tools required to go there are anywhere near ready. (Albeit one tool is in development).
Calling it a 'plan' is a bit like saying I have a plan to do an Ironman. It could conceivably happen, but not without a lot of planning, work and effort of a fair few years...
The plan for Starship/SuperHeavy to launch into Earth orbit, refuel the Starship (second stage), Mars departure, aerobrake into the atmosphere and land is available at a fair level of detail.
Tom Mueller spent a fair amount of time working on a Sabatier plant to convert Martian atmosphere to methane, to refuel the landed vehicle for return journey.
It’s certainly planned to a greater level of detail than NASA has ever done for a Mars landing. And a fair bit of actual metal has welded in the implementation phase.
The first tests of aerobraking Starship in the Martian atmosphere will be conducted in the next 3-5 years, I think.
Good news. But read somewhere that Theresa May actually gave approval for a third runway at Heathrow, yet here we still are…
Another piece of fuck wittery from Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith we are still dealing with today.
Johnson should have overruled Cummings during the Brexit campaign and made the slogan: "We send £350m a week to the EU. Let's spend it on our infrastructure instead."
Infrastructure = definitely not London, oh no, certainly not.
The Americans have a plan to go to Mars. We'd be lucky to reach Birmingham.
They don't have a 'plan' to go to Mars.
Some of them have an aspiration, and none of the tools required to go there are anywhere near ready. (Albeit one tool is in development).
Calling it a 'plan' is a bit like saying I have a plan to do an Ironman. It could conceivably happen, but not without a lot of planning, work and effort of a fair few years...
Mars is a 3 year return journey isn't it?
Having seen some of the health issues in spacepeople from much shorter flights, I wouldn't fancy that at all. Come back an irradiated cripple? No thanks.
John Stepek @John_Stepek You know if we're going to build a few more runways, maybe it would be intellectually consistent and growth-oriented to drill for a bit of oil and gas too
It's interesting the contrast with Norway. New oil and gas drilling... But also 90% of new cars are electric.
Because they have lots of oil and gas to provide consistent electricity for them.
Norway's electricity is almost entirely renewable: 88% of power is provided by hydroelectricity.
It's interesting that Germany's decision to end nuclear power is forcing Norway to reconsider selling electricity to them because the spikes in demand push up prices for Norwegians even though they are self-sufficient.
How does that make sense? If Norway is self-sufficient and exporting to Germany, then spikes in price can only be good for Norway - they get more money for the same number of electrons.
It's not good for Norwegian consumers whose bills go up.
Why would Norwegian consumer bills go up? It would be the opposite. High prices are great if you're a country that exports electricity. The Norwegian power companies would get more money from exports, so they wouldn't need to charge domestic consumers so much.
Where did you actually see it reported that Norway is to reconsider selling electricity to Germany?
Because the market price depends on supply and demand. Being exposed to external demand spikes due to their overdependence on wind pushes up prices for Norwegians.
Norway’s two governing parties want to scrap an electricity interconnector to Denmark, with the junior coalition partner also calling for a renegotiation of power links to the UK and Germany, as sky-high prices trigger panic in the rich Nordic country.
A lack of wind in Germany and the North Sea will push electricity prices in southern Norway to NKr13.16 ($1.18) per kilowatt hour on Thursday afternoon, their highest level since 2009 and almost 20 times their level just last week.
“It’s an absolutely shit situation,” said Norway’s energy minister Terje Aasland.
That's economic lunacy. It makes no sense at all to stop selling electricity to your neighbours because prices spike high. They'd do better to agree some sort of windfall tax on their electricity companies and use the proceeds to reduce domestic electricity prices.
Good news. But read somewhere that Theresa May actually gave approval for a third runway at Heathrow, yet here we still are…
Another piece of fuck wittery from Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith we are still dealing with today.
Johnson should have overruled Cummings during the Brexit campaign and made the slogan: "We send £350m a week to the EU. Let's spend it on our infrastructure instead."
Infrastructure = definitely not London, oh no, certainly not.
The Americans have a plan to go to Mars. We'd be lucky to reach Birmingham.
They don't have a 'plan' to go to Mars.
Some of them have an aspiration, and none of the tools required to go there are anywhere near ready. (Albeit one tool is in development).
Calling it a 'plan' is a bit like saying I have a plan to do an Ironman. It could conceivably happen, but not without a lot of planning, work and effort of a fair few years...
Mars is a 3 year return journey isn't it?
Having seen some of the health issues in spacepeople from much shorter flights, I wouldn't fancy that at all. Come back an irradiated cripple? No thanks.
Depends on the transit speed, which depends on the DeltaV expended.
3 years would be a minimum energy orbit. NASA used to use that because of a political instruction never to use orbital refuelling in anything - even concepts.
I remember Christopher Hitchens remarking that whenever one of these hyper-ventilating grifting pastor-types came to prominence he would quietly make a note in his dairy, and calmly wait until the inevitable fall (usually prostitutes, drugs, or both) was gleefully reported in the tabloids with said pastor, hand-in-hand with stony-faced spouse, tearfully seeking understanding from the betrayed flock.
Usually male prostitutes, to be fair. So it's not like they're beta cucks who sleep with women.
The first (potential - it's only a possibility) red flag on this one is that he is "non-denominational", ie independent. So there are weak surrounding checks, balances and support systems - which makes it fail-dangerous not fail-safe is he goes off the rails.
"Whenever I hear some bigmouth in Washington or the Christian heartland banging on about the evils of sodomy or whatever, I mentally enter his name in my notebook and contentedly set my watch.Sooner, rather than later, he will be discovered down on his weary and well-worn knees in some dreary motel or latrine, with an expired Visa card, having tried to pay well over the odds to be peed on by some Apache transvestite”.
Good news. But read somewhere that Theresa May actually gave approval for a third runway at Heathrow, yet here we still are…
Another piece of fuck wittery from Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith we are still dealing with today.
Johnson should have overruled Cummings during the Brexit campaign and made the slogan: "We send £350m a week to the EU. Let's spend it on our infrastructure instead."
Infrastructure = definitely not London, oh no, certainly not.
The Americans have a plan to go to Mars. We'd be lucky to reach Birmingham.
They don't have a 'plan' to go to Mars.
Some of them have an aspiration, and none of the tools required to go there are anywhere near ready. (Albeit one tool is in development).
Calling it a 'plan' is a bit like saying I have a plan to do an Ironman. It could conceivably happen, but not without a lot of planning, work and effort of a fair few years...
Mars is a 3 year return journey isn't it?
Having seen some of the health issues in spacepeople from much shorter flights, I wouldn't fancy that at all. Come back an irradiated cripple? No thanks.
There’s a window every two years, and the journey is expected to be six months each way. So it’s more likely to be five years, the plan is for the first landers to remain there for at least one Earth/Mars cycle.
The Home Secretary is appalled that Axel Rudakubana was easily able to order a knife on Amazon.
"That's a total disgrace and it must change. So, we will bring in stronger measures to tackle knife sales online in the Crime and Policing Bill this spring." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c9q7r4wpep0t
Cooper ignores that Rudakubana murdered the girls using an ordinary kitchen knife, freely available from any kitchen, as the name suggests.
We are being played for fools.
While the knife used was not the one ordered online - the fact some firms are not age verifying mail order knife purchases does need to be fixed.
It is even worse than that. Yvette Cooper is appalled that Amazon sold Rudakubana a knife despite his having a prior conviction. Does the government expect Amazon to carry out a DBS check? Will there be a new database where retailers can look up their customers?
Does anyone still think the government's online identity database will be kept secure?
Age Verification Required: This product is not for sale to people under the age of 18 and will require an online age verification check. To confirm the recipient is over 18, valid photographic ID with a date of birth may also be required upon delivery. The driver will input your year of birth into their device and may then require an ID check to complete the age verification process. The driver will not be able to access your information once the delivery is complete. See Details
Yes but the Home Secretary specified Rudakubana's previous conviction as well as his age. How would Amazon have known? Is the government proposing to make available to retailers some database containing details of everyone's criminal record and Prevent status? If so, how will its contents be kept secure? If not, then what is Yvette Cooper complaining about?
Good news. But read somewhere that Theresa May actually gave approval for a third runway at Heathrow, yet here we still are…
Another piece of fuck wittery from Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith we are still dealing with today.
Johnson should have overruled Cummings during the Brexit campaign and made the slogan: "We send £350m a week to the EU. Let's spend it on our infrastructure instead."
Infrastructure = definitely not London, oh no, certainly not.
The Americans have a plan to go to Mars. We'd be lucky to reach Birmingham.
They don't have a 'plan' to go to Mars.
Some of them have an aspiration, and none of the tools required to go there are anywhere near ready. (Albeit one tool is in development).
Calling it a 'plan' is a bit like saying I have a plan to do an Ironman. It could conceivably happen, but not without a lot of planning, work and effort of a fair few years...
Mars is a 3 year return journey isn't it?
Having seen some of the health issues in spacepeople from much shorter flights, I wouldn't fancy that at all. Come back an irradiated cripple? No thanks.
Depends on the transit speed, which depends on the DeltaV expended.
3 years would be a minimum energy orbit. NASA used to use that because of a political instruction never to use orbital refuelling in anything - even concepts.
6 months is the current suggested average
6 months or thereabouts is the one-way trip length. A round trip (there, loiter and back) can never take much less that 2 years or so because of the time between conjunctions of Earth and Mars.
On thread: TSE said "I am not sure Nigel Farage blokeish approach will narrow this gender divide, nor will having an MP who has been previously jailed for assaulting his then girlfriend help."
- I'd note that electorally, he no more has to narrow the gender gap than do the Women's Equality Party; or do the various sectarian parties narrow the religion gap. All he has to do is marshall enough votes in a seat to win it. Male/Female is perhaps the most evenly spread of characteristics. Of course, it helps him if he can get more voters of any characteristic. But he's no better off if he narrows the gap unless in doing so he drives up his total number of votes.
I remember Christopher Hitchens remarking that whenever one of these hyper-ventilating grifting pastor-types came to prominence he would quietly make a note in his dairy, and calmly wait until the inevitable fall (usually prostitutes, drugs, or both) was gleefully reported in the tabloids with said pastor, hand-in-hand with stony-faced spouse, tearfully seeking understanding from the betrayed flock.
Usually male prostitutes, to be fair. So it's not like they're beta cucks who sleep with women.
The first (potential - it's only a possibility) red flag on this one is that he is "non-denominational", ie independent. So there are weak surrounding checks, balances and support systems - which makes it fail-dangerous not fail-safe is he goes off the rails.
"Whenever I hear some bigmouth in Washington or the Christian heartland banging on about the evils of sodomy or whatever, I mentally enter his name in my notebook and contentedly set my watch.Sooner, rather than later, he will be discovered down on his weary and well-worn knees in some dreary motel or latrine, with an expired Visa card, having tried to pay well over the odds to be peed on by some Apache transvestite”.
Is the quote.
It's a great quote, and also one that applies more widely.
The "Softboy", will loudly proclaim his hostility towards all forms of sexism, and insist upon the need to "believe all women". He is an "ally" to feminist causes .... and just as keen to get inside womens' knickers as the more overt chauvinist. In fact, he thinks he is owed sex, because he is so "nice" towards women. That's Neil Gaiman to a T.
The Home Secretary is appalled that Axel Rudakubana was easily able to order a knife on Amazon.
"That's a total disgrace and it must change. So, we will bring in stronger measures to tackle knife sales online in the Crime and Policing Bill this spring." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c9q7r4wpep0t
Cooper ignores that Rudakubana murdered the girls using an ordinary kitchen knife, freely available from any kitchen, as the name suggests.
We are being played for fools.
Another disappointment from Labour for those who voted Labour for slightly more grown up political leadership.
Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon here. Still waiting for the fall out from Hawk Tuah girls meme coin and the massive "rug pull" that allegedly happend with that one. Anyone mug enough to throw money at a MEME coin deservest to be fleeced AFAIC.
That may be so, but presumably you do not approve of President-Elect operating what is essentially a pyramid scheme to make a tidy several billion.
He can't turn that into cash very easily, though. Which makes it a usefully deniable route for bribing him. A large overseas buyer, for example, could provide the opportunity to cash out.
It actually provides an ongoing facility to bribe Trump simply by buying coin on the market. Doing so maintains or inflates the underlying value of the coin.
About ten years ago I wrote a report on the dangers of cryptocurrencies and NFTs and how they were a Ponzi-cum-bribery-cum-money laundering scheme.
I never thought I would have to update that report because POTUS is pimping cryptos and NFTs from the Oval Office.
I thought the NFT craze had died with the Bored Ape.
People spending an inordinate amount on a JPEG.
He was pimping that trash before getting back into the Oval Office too.
NFTs were the most comedy thing ever. The store of value depended entirely on who is/was holding the NFT. So as soon as said celeb sold their monkey doodle it instantly became worthless. At least the value of crypto doesn't depend on WHO is holding it at any time.
Don’t forget that 99% of the ‘celebrities’ involved had been ‘gifted’ invited to buy for $5 their monkey doodles, so the whole ‘market’ for them was actually worth almost nothing except to the ‘celebrities’ and the company behind the scam.
IIRC almost all the celebrities involved were clients of the same PR firm, who not entirely un-coincidentally had a large stake in the entire thing.
Also they appeared to think that they didn’t need to mention the arrangement.
This sort of promotion in the UK would almost certainly result in a serious fine from OFCOM. I suspect that the whole thing was so new that the production didn’t know what the Hell was actually going on.
The Home Secretary is appalled that Axel Rudakubana was easily able to order a knife on Amazon.
"That's a total disgrace and it must change. So, we will bring in stronger measures to tackle knife sales online in the Crime and Policing Bill this spring." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c9q7r4wpep0t
Cooper ignores that Rudakubana murdered the girls using an ordinary kitchen knife, freely available from any kitchen, as the name suggests.
We are being played for fools.
While the knife used was not the one ordered online - the fact some firms are not age verifying mail order knife purchases does need to be fixed.
It is even worse than that. Yvette Cooper is appalled that Amazon sold Rudakubana a knife despite his having a prior conviction. Does the government expect Amazon to carry out a DBS check? Will there be a new database where retailers can look up their customers?
Does anyone still think the government's online identity database will be kept secure?
With alcohol (for example) the Amazon delivery guy has to check for “over 18”.
Yes but the Amazon alcohol guy does not need to check you are not an alcoholic. Cooper specified Rudakubana's conviction as well as his age.
The Home Secretary is appalled that Axel Rudakubana was easily able to order a knife on Amazon.
"That's a total disgrace and it must change. So, we will bring in stronger measures to tackle knife sales online in the Crime and Policing Bill this spring." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c9q7r4wpep0t
Cooper ignores that Rudakubana murdered the girls using an ordinary kitchen knife, freely available from any kitchen, as the name suggests.
We are being played for fools.
While the knife used was not the one ordered online - the fact some firms are not age verifying mail order knife purchases does need to be fixed.
It is even worse than that. Yvette Cooper is appalled that Amazon sold Rudakubana a knife despite his having a prior conviction. Does the government expect Amazon to carry out a DBS check? Will there be a new database where retailers can look up their customers?
Does anyone still think the government's online identity database will be kept secure?
With alcohol (for example) the Amazon delivery guy has to check for “over 18”.
Yes but the Amazon alcohol guy does not need to check you are not an alcoholic. Cooper specified Rudakubana's conviction as well as his age.
Good news. But read somewhere that Theresa May actually gave approval for a third runway at Heathrow, yet here we still are…
Another piece of fuck wittery from Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith we are still dealing with today.
Johnson should have overruled Cummings during the Brexit campaign and made the slogan: "We send £350m a week to the EU. Let's spend it on our infrastructure instead."
Infrastructure = definitely not London, oh no, certainly not.
The Americans have a plan to go to Mars. We'd be lucky to reach Birmingham.
They don't have a 'plan' to go to Mars.
Some of them have an aspiration, and none of the tools required to go there are anywhere near ready. (Albeit one tool is in development).
Calling it a 'plan' is a bit like saying I have a plan to do an Ironman. It could conceivably happen, but not without a lot of planning, work and effort of a fair few years...
The plan for Starship/SuperHeavy to launch into Earth orbit, refuel the Starship (second stage), Mars departure, aerobrake into the atmosphere and land is available at a fair level of detail.
Tom Mueller spent a fair amount of time working on a Sabatier plant to convert Martian atmosphere to methane, to refuel the landed vehicle for return journey.
It’s certainly planned to a greater level of detail than NASA has ever done for a Mars landing. And a fair bit of actual metal has welded in the implementation phase.
The first tests of aerobraking Starship in the Martian atmosphere will be conducted in the next 3-5 years, I think.
Mars is actually fiendishly difficult to land on, due to having an atmosphere, but only a very thin one. It's enough of an atmosphere to have to deal with it, but not enough to provide much in the way of braking. The ratio of successes to failures is not good for Mars probe landings.
Good news. But read somewhere that Theresa May actually gave approval for a third runway at Heathrow, yet here we still are…
Another piece of fuck wittery from Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith we are still dealing with today.
Johnson should have overruled Cummings during the Brexit campaign and made the slogan: "We send £350m a week to the EU. Let's spend it on our infrastructure instead."
Infrastructure = definitely not London, oh no, certainly not.
The Americans have a plan to go to Mars. We'd be lucky to reach Birmingham.
They don't have a 'plan' to go to Mars.
Some of them have an aspiration, and none of the tools required to go there are anywhere near ready. (Albeit one tool is in development).
Calling it a 'plan' is a bit like saying I have a plan to do an Ironman. It could conceivably happen, but not without a lot of planning, work and effort of a fair few years...
The plan for Starship/SuperHeavy to launch into Earth orbit, refuel the Starship (second stage), Mars departure, aerobrake into the atmosphere and land is available at a fair level of detail.
Tom Mueller spent a fair amount of time working on a Sabatier plant to convert Martian atmosphere to methane, to refuel the landed vehicle for return journey.
It’s certainly planned to a greater level of detail than NASA has ever done for a Mars landing. And a fair bit of actual metal has welded in the implementation phase.
The first tests of aerobraking Starship in the Martian atmosphere will be conducted in the next 3-5 years, I think.
Mars is actually fiendishly difficult to land on, due to having an atmosphere, but only a very thin one. It's enough of an atmosphere to have to deal with it, but not enough to provide much in the way of braking. The ratio of successes to failures is not good for Mars probe landings.
Fantastic opportunity for the Tories to all line up behind her in favour, while splitting Labour down the middle.
She's had a few in the last few days focussed on growth to be fair to her.
The almighty row that’s surely about to happen, with Rachel and the Growth agenda on one side, and Ed Miliband, Sadiq Khan and the environmental agenda on the other, is going to be fun to watch from a long way away.
As is usual when you have a large majority, now which way will those 200 new backbenchers fall on such issues?
I’d guess whichever side they think would keep their seats.
But it will be fun to watch and a real test of the growth agenda.
I'd guess Gatwick at least will go ahead. Not too many Labour constituencies in mid Sussex. Not sure about London City and Heathrow... I suspect it might be yes to Heathrow and no to London City (which I believe is more about short term tourism and so perhaps less beneficial).
The Home Secretary is appalled that Axel Rudakubana was easily able to order a knife on Amazon.
"That's a total disgrace and it must change. So, we will bring in stronger measures to tackle knife sales online in the Crime and Policing Bill this spring." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c9q7r4wpep0t
Cooper ignores that Rudakubana murdered the girls using an ordinary kitchen knife, freely available from any kitchen, as the name suggests.
We are being played for fools.
While the knife used was not the one ordered online - the fact some firms are not age verifying mail order knife purchases does need to be fixed.
It is even worse than that. Yvette Cooper is appalled that Amazon sold Rudakubana a knife despite his having a prior conviction. Does the government expect Amazon to carry out a DBS check? Will there be a new database where retailers can look up their customers?
Does anyone still think the government's online identity database will be kept secure?
With alcohol (for example) the Amazon delivery guy has to check for “over 18”.
Yes but the Amazon alcohol guy does not need to check you are not an alcoholic. Cooper specified Rudakubana's conviction as well as his age.
The Home Secretary is appalled that Axel Rudakubana was easily able to order a knife on Amazon.
"That's a total disgrace and it must change. So, we will bring in stronger measures to tackle knife sales online in the Crime and Policing Bill this spring." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c9q7r4wpep0t
Cooper ignores that Rudakubana murdered the girls using an ordinary kitchen knife, freely available from any kitchen, as the name suggests.
We are being played for fools.
While the knife used was not the one ordered online - the fact some firms are not age verifying mail order knife purchases does need to be fixed.
It is even worse than that. Yvette Cooper is appalled that Amazon sold Rudakubana a knife despite his having a prior conviction. Does the government expect Amazon to carry out a DBS check? Will there be a new database where retailers can look up their customers?
Does anyone still think the government's online identity database will be kept secure?
With alcohol (for example) the Amazon delivery guy has to check for “over 18”.
Yes but the Amazon alcohol guy does not need to check you are not an alcoholic. Cooper specified Rudakubana's conviction as well as his age.
Good news. But read somewhere that Theresa May actually gave approval for a third runway at Heathrow, yet here we still are…
Another piece of fuck wittery from Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith we are still dealing with today.
Johnson should have overruled Cummings during the Brexit campaign and made the slogan: "We send £350m a week to the EU. Let's spend it on our infrastructure instead."
Infrastructure = definitely not London, oh no, certainly not.
The Americans have a plan to go to Mars. We'd be lucky to reach Birmingham.
We'd get as far as Venus and then Sunak would cancel it at conference.
John Stepek @John_Stepek You know if we're going to build a few more runways, maybe it would be intellectually consistent and growth-oriented to drill for a bit of oil and gas too
It's interesting the contrast with Norway. New oil and gas drilling... But also 90% of new cars are electric.
Because they have lots of oil and gas to provide consistent electricity for them.
Norway's electricity is almost entirely renewable: 88% of power is provided by hydroelectricity.
It's interesting that Germany's decision to end nuclear power is forcing Norway to reconsider selling electricity to them because the spikes in demand push up prices for Norwegians even though they are self-sufficient.
How does that make sense? If Norway is self-sufficient and exporting to Germany, then spikes in price can only be good for Norway - they get more money for the same number of electrons.
It's not good for Norwegian consumers whose bills go up.
Why would Norwegian consumer bills go up? It would be the opposite. High prices are great if you're a country that exports electricity. The Norwegian power companies would get more money from exports, so they wouldn't need to charge domestic consumers so much.
Where did you actually see it reported that Norway is to reconsider selling electricity to Germany?
Because the market price depends on supply and demand. Being exposed to external demand spikes due to other countries' overdependence on wind pushes up prices for Norwegians.
Norway’s two governing parties want to scrap an electricity interconnector to Denmark, with the junior coalition partner also calling for a renegotiation of power links to the UK and Germany, as sky-high prices trigger panic in the rich Nordic country.
A lack of wind in Germany and the North Sea will push electricity prices in southern Norway to NKr13.16 ($1.18) per kilowatt hour on Thursday afternoon, their highest level since 2009 and almost 20 times their level just last week.
“It’s an absolutely shit situation,” said Norway’s energy minister Terje Aasland.
This is the issue everyone with renewable energy generation has to contend with - the price is still being set by the cost of generation elsewhere, whether gas or otherwise. This is where the UK's CfD system is helpful, because it guarantees the price to consumers, but these long term contracts only account for 60%* of generation.
Good news. But read somewhere that Theresa May actually gave approval for a third runway at Heathrow, yet here we still are…
Another piece of fuck wittery from Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith we are still dealing with today.
Johnson should have overruled Cummings during the Brexit campaign and made the slogan: "We send £350m a week to the EU. Let's spend it on our infrastructure instead."
Infrastructure = definitely not London, oh no, certainly not.
The Americans have a plan to go to Mars. We'd be lucky to reach Birmingham.
They don't have a 'plan' to go to Mars.
Some of them have an aspiration, and none of the tools required to go there are anywhere near ready. (Albeit one tool is in development).
Calling it a 'plan' is a bit like saying I have a plan to do an Ironman. It could conceivably happen, but not without a lot of planning, work and effort of a fair few years...
The plan for Starship/SuperHeavy to launch into Earth orbit, refuel the Starship (second stage), Mars departure, aerobrake into the atmosphere and land is available at a fair level of detail.
Tom Mueller spent a fair amount of time working on a Sabatier plant to convert Martian atmosphere to methane, to refuel the landed vehicle for return journey.
It’s certainly planned to a greater level of detail than NASA has ever done for a Mars landing. And a fair bit of actual metal has welded in the implementation phase.
The first tests of aerobraking Starship in the Martian atmosphere will be conducted in the next 3-5 years, I think.
Yes, and all of that is incredibly vague, low-TRL stuff.
To get a SS to Mars in the next 3-5 years, SpaceX will need to: *) Get a SS into orbit (they have done most of this...) *) Land a SS. *) Get SS and SH reliably reusable at a rapid turnover rate. *) Develop an orbital refuelling process. *) Launch enough tankers (perhaps a dozen or more) to fill the Mars-bound ship. And if you want to send a crewed ship, there are a massive amount of other things that require doing as well.
And all in time for the Q4 2026 or Q428Q129 launch windows.
That's a big ask, even if much of it is required for the Artemis program.
Also, you diss NASA a bit. Some of their manned Mars plans were fairly detailed, especially as they were bound never to go ahead. What SpaceX has - and NASA had - is an architecture, rather than a 'plan'.
Good news. But read somewhere that Theresa May actually gave approval for a third runway at Heathrow, yet here we still are…
Another piece of fuck wittery from Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith we are still dealing with today.
Johnson should have overruled Cummings during the Brexit campaign and made the slogan: "We send £350m a week to the EU. Let's spend it on our infrastructure instead."
Infrastructure = definitely not London, oh no, certainly not.
The Americans have a plan to go to Mars. We'd be lucky to reach Birmingham.
They don't have a 'plan' to go to Mars.
Some of them have an aspiration, and none of the tools required to go there are anywhere near ready. (Albeit one tool is in development).
Calling it a 'plan' is a bit like saying I have a plan to do an Ironman. It could conceivably happen, but not without a lot of planning, work and effort of a fair few years...
The plan for Starship/SuperHeavy to launch into Earth orbit, refuel the Starship (second stage), Mars departure, aerobrake into the atmosphere and land is available at a fair level of detail.
Tom Mueller spent a fair amount of time working on a Sabatier plant to convert Martian atmosphere to methane, to refuel the landed vehicle for return journey.
It’s certainly planned to a greater level of detail than NASA has ever done for a Mars landing. And a fair bit of actual metal has welded in the implementation phase.
The first tests of aerobraking Starship in the Martian atmosphere will be conducted in the next 3-5 years, I think.
Yes, and all of that is incredibly vague, low-TRL stuff.
To get a SS to Mars in the next 3-5 years, SpaceX will need to: *) Get a SS into orbit (they have done most of this...) *) Land a SS. *) Get SS and SH reliably reusable at a rapid turnover rate. *) Develop an orbital refuelling process. *) Launch enough tankers (perhaps a dozen or more) to fill the Mars-bound ship. And if you want to send a crewed ship, there are a massive amount of other things that require doing as well.
And all in time for the Q4 2026 or Q428Q129 launch windows.
That's a big ask, even if much of it is required for the Artemis program.
Also, you diss NASA a bit. Some of their manned Mars plans were fairly detailed, especially as they were bound never to go ahead. What SpaceX has - and NASA had - is an architecture, rather than a 'plan'.
I applaud the plan to go to Mars, as long as Elon is one of the astronauts.
Good news. But read somewhere that Theresa May actually gave approval for a third runway at Heathrow, yet here we still are…
Another piece of fuck wittery from Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith we are still dealing with today.
Johnson should have overruled Cummings during the Brexit campaign and made the slogan: "We send £350m a week to the EU. Let's spend it on our infrastructure instead."
Infrastructure = definitely not London, oh no, certainly not.
The Americans have a plan to go to Mars. We'd be lucky to reach Birmingham.
We'd get as far as Venus and then Sunak would cancel it at conference.
If you got to Venus, you’re going in the wrong direction!
Good news. But read somewhere that Theresa May actually gave approval for a third runway at Heathrow, yet here we still are…
Another piece of fuck wittery from Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith we are still dealing with today.
Johnson should have overruled Cummings during the Brexit campaign and made the slogan: "We send £350m a week to the EU. Let's spend it on our infrastructure instead."
Infrastructure = definitely not London, oh no, certainly not.
The Americans have a plan to go to Mars. We'd be lucky to reach Birmingham.
They don't have a 'plan' to go to Mars.
Some of them have an aspiration, and none of the tools required to go there are anywhere near ready. (Albeit one tool is in development).
Calling it a 'plan' is a bit like saying I have a plan to do an Ironman. It could conceivably happen, but not without a lot of planning, work and effort of a fair few years...
The plan for Starship/SuperHeavy to launch into Earth orbit, refuel the Starship (second stage), Mars departure, aerobrake into the atmosphere and land is available at a fair level of detail.
Tom Mueller spent a fair amount of time working on a Sabatier plant to convert Martian atmosphere to methane, to refuel the landed vehicle for return journey.
It’s certainly planned to a greater level of detail than NASA has ever done for a Mars landing. And a fair bit of actual metal has welded in the implementation phase.
The first tests of aerobraking Starship in the Martian atmosphere will be conducted in the next 3-5 years, I think.
Yes, and all of that is incredibly vague, low-TRL stuff.
To get a SS to Mars in the next 3-5 years, SpaceX will need to: *) Get a SS into orbit (they have done most of this...) *) Land a SS. *) Get SS and SH reliably reusable at a rapid turnover rate. *) Develop an orbital refuelling process. *) Launch enough tankers (perhaps a dozen or more) to fill the Mars-bound ship. And if you want to send a crewed ship, there are a massive amount of other things that require doing as well.
And all in time for the Q4 2026 or Q428Q129 launch windows.
That's a big ask, even if much of it is required for the Artemis program.
Also, you diss NASA a bit. Some of their manned Mars plans were fairly detailed, especially as they were bound never to go ahead. What SpaceX has - and NASA had - is an architecture, rather than a 'plan'.
I applaud the plan to go to Mars, as long as Elon is one of the astronauts.
But imagine if he got there AND returned. There'd only be room for all inhabitamts of planet Earth - or his ego...
I wonder how many times a new runway at Heathrow has been proposed over the years.
The fact that it keeps failing to get built despite heavy government and business backing reminds me of Einstein's definition of insanity. Building a ruinously expensive new runway in an area surrounded by suburbs that airlines don't even want (because it would double or treble their airport charges) perhaps follows a more conventional definition.
Expansion at Gatwick and Stansted has always seemed more logical to me, though not without their drawbacks. Much cheaper and the flightpaths are mostly over empty country.
Good news. But read somewhere that Theresa May actually gave approval for a third runway at Heathrow, yet here we still are…
Another piece of fuck wittery from Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith we are still dealing with today.
Johnson should have overruled Cummings during the Brexit campaign and made the slogan: "We send £350m a week to the EU. Let's spend it on our infrastructure instead."
Infrastructure = definitely not London, oh no, certainly not.
The Americans have a plan to go to Mars. We'd be lucky to reach Birmingham.
We'd get as far as Venus and then Sunak would cancel it at conference.
If you got to Venus, you’re going in the wrong direction!
A night with Venus, a lifetime with Mercury.
Oh, I think you’re talking about a different type of Venus.
Good news. But read somewhere that Theresa May actually gave approval for a third runway at Heathrow, yet here we still are…
Another piece of fuck wittery from Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith we are still dealing with today.
Johnson should have overruled Cummings during the Brexit campaign and made the slogan: "We send £350m a week to the EU. Let's spend it on our infrastructure instead."
Infrastructure = definitely not London, oh no, certainly not.
The Americans have a plan to go to Mars. We'd be lucky to reach Birmingham.
They don't have a 'plan' to go to Mars.
Some of them have an aspiration, and none of the tools required to go there are anywhere near ready. (Albeit one tool is in development).
Calling it a 'plan' is a bit like saying I have a plan to do an Ironman. It could conceivably happen, but not without a lot of planning, work and effort of a fair few years...
Mars is a 3 year return journey isn't it?
Having seen some of the health issues in spacepeople from much shorter flights, I wouldn't fancy that at all. Come back an irradiated cripple? No thanks.
If Elon Musk and his friends are planning a trip to colonise Mars I don't think it is up to us to discourage him with fanciful doubts about the scheme. While not planning to go myself, Musk and all his friends have my full and wholehearted support, and should bring it forward to as soon as possible.
Good news. But read somewhere that Theresa May actually gave approval for a third runway at Heathrow, yet here we still are…
Another piece of fuck wittery from Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith we are still dealing with today.
Johnson should have overruled Cummings during the Brexit campaign and made the slogan: "We send £350m a week to the EU. Let's spend it on our infrastructure instead."
Infrastructure = definitely not London, oh no, certainly not.
The Americans have a plan to go to Mars. We'd be lucky to reach Birmingham.
They don't have a 'plan' to go to Mars.
Some of them have an aspiration, and none of the tools required to go there are anywhere near ready. (Albeit one tool is in development).
Calling it a 'plan' is a bit like saying I have a plan to do an Ironman. It could conceivably happen, but not without a lot of planning, work and effort of a fair few years...
The plan for Starship/SuperHeavy to launch into Earth orbit, refuel the Starship (second stage), Mars departure, aerobrake into the atmosphere and land is available at a fair level of detail.
Tom Mueller spent a fair amount of time working on a Sabatier plant to convert Martian atmosphere to methane, to refuel the landed vehicle for return journey.
It’s certainly planned to a greater level of detail than NASA has ever done for a Mars landing. And a fair bit of actual metal has welded in the implementation phase.
The first tests of aerobraking Starship in the Martian atmosphere will be conducted in the next 3-5 years, I think.
God love you, but I can't see Musk putting more than one Starship into orbit, collating the fuel in orbit, sending a fully-fueled Starship to Mars one way (presumably unmanned), then aerobreaking it in the thin Martian atmosphere automatically, is i) going to work and ii) doable in 3-5 years. So far he's sent Starships and the first stages up for a few minutes then watching them come down again. That's not really enough. Plus even a Hohmann transfer orbit takes about 8 months, and can he really do that delta-vee in a Starship?
(I love the fact that that paragraph actually makes sense... )
Good news. But read somewhere that Theresa May actually gave approval for a third runway at Heathrow, yet here we still are…
Another piece of fuck wittery from Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith we are still dealing with today.
Johnson should have overruled Cummings during the Brexit campaign and made the slogan: "We send £350m a week to the EU. Let's spend it on our infrastructure instead."
Infrastructure = definitely not London, oh no, certainly not.
The Americans have a plan to go to Mars. We'd be lucky to reach Birmingham.
They don't have a 'plan' to go to Mars.
Some of them have an aspiration, and none of the tools required to go there are anywhere near ready. (Albeit one tool is in development).
Calling it a 'plan' is a bit like saying I have a plan to do an Ironman. It could conceivably happen, but not without a lot of planning, work and effort of a fair few years...
The plan for Starship/SuperHeavy to launch into Earth orbit, refuel the Starship (second stage), Mars departure, aerobrake into the atmosphere and land is available at a fair level of detail.
Tom Mueller spent a fair amount of time working on a Sabatier plant to convert Martian atmosphere to methane, to refuel the landed vehicle for return journey.
It’s certainly planned to a greater level of detail than NASA has ever done for a Mars landing. And a fair bit of actual metal has welded in the implementation phase.
The first tests of aerobraking Starship in the Martian atmosphere will be conducted in the next 3-5 years, I think.
God love you, but I can't see Musk putting more than one Starship into orbit, collating the fuel in orbit, sending a fully-fueled Starship to Mars one way (presumably unmanned), then aerobreaking it in the thin Martian atmosphere automatically, is i) going to work and ii) doable in 3-5 years. So far he's sent Starships and the first stages up for a few minutes then watching them come down again. That's not really enough. Plus even a Hohmann transfer orbit takes about 8 months, and can he really do that delta-vee in a Starship?
(I love the fact that that paragraph actually makes sense... )
The human element I also wonder about. It's a two way trip. Isn't it?
(I recall a certain Arthur C. Clarke short story which addressed that.)
What could possibly go wrong, some people asked? The way this is being handled should set off all sorts of alarm bells.
Rajiv Shah @RajivShah90 The Terminally Ill Adults Bill Committee has just voted 14 to 8 against calling oral evidence from the Royal College of Psychiatrists
I have no words 4:16 pm · 21 Jan 2025
Getting the law changed on assisted dying seems to be a hobby horse of Keir Starmer personally.
The Crown Prosecution Service yesterday effectively ruled out the prosecution of relatives who assist the terminally ill to commit suicide after announcing it would take no action against the family of rugby player Daniel James, despite having sufficient evidence to do so.
In his first decision as director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC stated he would not prosecute the parents and a family friend of the 23-year-old, who was paralysed in a training ground accident, for assisting his death.
"I have concluded that a prosecution is not needed in the public interest," Starmer wrote, taking the unprecedented step of publishing the reasons for his decision.
Ministers have forced out the chair of the UK Competition and Markets Authority, as the government seeks to dial back regulation as part of Labour’s growth agenda.
The government will announce the departure of Marcus Bokkerink as chair of the regulator on Tuesday evening after an intervention by business secretary Jonathan Reynolds, according to people familiar with the matter.
Bokkerink, a former managing director at Boston Consulting Group, was appointed in 2022. CMA chairs can serve up to a five-year term.
Good news. But read somewhere that Theresa May actually gave approval for a third runway at Heathrow, yet here we still are…
Another piece of fuck wittery from Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith we are still dealing with today.
Johnson should have overruled Cummings during the Brexit campaign and made the slogan: "We send £350m a week to the EU. Let's spend it on our infrastructure instead."
Infrastructure = definitely not London, oh no, certainly not.
The Americans have a plan to go to Mars. We'd be lucky to reach Birmingham.
We'd get as far as Venus and then Sunak would cancel it at conference.
If you got to Venus, you’re going in the wrong direction!
A night with Venus, a lifetime with Mercury.
Oh, I think you’re talking about a different type of Venus.
PLus it depends on the orbital mechanics. Going via Venus might well be quickest - relative orbital positions, slingshot effect, etc.
I wonder how the planets look in the next decade or so? And I'm not talking about astrology.
Ministers have forced out the chair of the UK Competition and Markets Authority, as the government seeks to dial back regulation as part of Labour’s growth agenda.
What could possibly go wrong, some people asked? The way this is being handled should set off all sorts of alarm bells.
Rajiv Shah @RajivShah90 The Terminally Ill Adults Bill Committee has just voted 14 to 8 against calling oral evidence from the Royal College of Psychiatrists
I have no words 4:16 pm · 21 Jan 2025
Getting the law changed on assisted dying seems to be a hobby horse of Keir Starmer personally.
The Crown Prosecution Service yesterday effectively ruled out the prosecution of relatives who assist the terminally ill to commit suicide after announcing it would take no action against the family of rugby player Daniel James, despite having sufficient evidence to do so.
In his first decision as director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC stated he would not prosecute the parents and a family friend of the 23-year-old, who was paralysed in a training ground accident, for assisting his death.
"I have concluded that a prosecution is not needed in the public interest," Starmer wrote, taking the unprecedented step of publishing the reasons for his decision.
What could possibly go wrong, some people asked? The way this is being handled should set off all sorts of alarm bells.
Rajiv Shah @RajivShah90 The Terminally Ill Adults Bill Committee has just voted 14 to 8 against calling oral evidence from the Royal College of Psychiatrists
I have no words 4:16 pm · 21 Jan 2025
Getting the law changed on assisted dying seems to be a hobby horse of Keir Starmer personally.
The Crown Prosecution Service yesterday effectively ruled out the prosecution of relatives who assist the terminally ill to commit suicide after announcing it would take no action against the family of rugby player Daniel James, despite having sufficient evidence to do so.
In his first decision as director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC stated he would not prosecute the parents and a family friend of the 23-year-old, who was paralysed in a training ground accident, for assisting his death.
"I have concluded that a prosecution is not needed in the public interest," Starmer wrote, taking the unprecedented step of publishing the reasons for his decision.
Good news. But read somewhere that Theresa May actually gave approval for a third runway at Heathrow, yet here we still are…
Another piece of fuck wittery from Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith we are still dealing with today.
Johnson should have overruled Cummings during the Brexit campaign and made the slogan: "We send £350m a week to the EU. Let's spend it on our infrastructure instead."
Infrastructure = definitely not London, oh no, certainly not.
The Americans have a plan to go to Mars. We'd be lucky to reach Birmingham.
We'd get as far as Venus and then Sunak would cancel it at conference.
If you got to Venus, you’re going in the wrong direction!
One of the least-fuel solutions for an Earth-Mars transfer orbits involves a slingshot around Venus. This is a plot point in the Stephen Baxter book "Voyage", a copy of which I have plus the Radio 4 dramatisation. Here is a YouTube simulation of a fictional mission profile to Mars using the Venus slingshot and Apollo hardware in 1985. It has exciting music so you may enjoy it.
Ministers have forced out the chair of the UK Competition and Markets Authority, as the government seeks to dial back regulation as part of Labour’s growth agenda.
The government will announce the departure of Marcus Bokkerink as chair of the regulator on Tuesday evening after an intervention by business secretary Jonathan Reynolds, according to people familiar with the matter.
Bokkerink, a former managing director at Boston Consulting Group, was appointed in 2022. CMA chairs can serve up to a five-year term.
What could possibly go wrong, some people asked? The way this is being handled should set off all sorts of alarm bells.
Rajiv Shah @RajivShah90 The Terminally Ill Adults Bill Committee has just voted 14 to 8 against calling oral evidence from the Royal College of Psychiatrists
I have no words 4:16 pm · 21 Jan 2025
Getting the law changed on assisted dying seems to be a hobby horse of Keir Starmer personally.
The Crown Prosecution Service yesterday effectively ruled out the prosecution of relatives who assist the terminally ill to commit suicide after announcing it would take no action against the family of rugby player Daniel James, despite having sufficient evidence to do so.
In his first decision as director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC stated he would not prosecute the parents and a family friend of the 23-year-old, who was paralysed in a training ground accident, for assisting his death.
"I have concluded that a prosecution is not needed in the public interest," Starmer wrote, taking the unprecedented step of publishing the reasons for his decision.
It must be a hobby horse for Starmer as he said he made a promise to a former TV presenter about it prior to the election
What could possibly go wrong, some people asked? The way this is being handled should set off all sorts of alarm bells.
Rajiv Shah @RajivShah90 The Terminally Ill Adults Bill Committee has just voted 14 to 8 against calling oral evidence from the Royal College of Psychiatrists
I have no words 4:16 pm · 21 Jan 2025
Getting the law changed on assisted dying seems to be a hobby horse of Keir Starmer personally.
The Crown Prosecution Service yesterday effectively ruled out the prosecution of relatives who assist the terminally ill to commit suicide after announcing it would take no action against the family of rugby player Daniel James, despite having sufficient evidence to do so.
In his first decision as director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC stated he would not prosecute the parents and a family friend of the 23-year-old, who was paralysed in a training ground accident, for assisting his death.
"I have concluded that a prosecution is not needed in the public interest," Starmer wrote, taking the unprecedented step of publishing the reasons for his decision.
It must be a hobby horse for Starmer as he said he made a promise to a former TV presenter about it prior to the election
He's not being honest about his own determination to make it happen.
What could possibly go wrong, some people asked? The way this is being handled should set off all sorts of alarm bells.
Rajiv Shah @RajivShah90 The Terminally Ill Adults Bill Committee has just voted 14 to 8 against calling oral evidence from the Royal College of Psychiatrists
I have no words 4:16 pm · 21 Jan 2025
Getting the law changed on assisted dying seems to be a hobby horse of Keir Starmer personally.
The Crown Prosecution Service yesterday effectively ruled out the prosecution of relatives who assist the terminally ill to commit suicide after announcing it would take no action against the family of rugby player Daniel James, despite having sufficient evidence to do so.
In his first decision as director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC stated he would not prosecute the parents and a family friend of the 23-year-old, who was paralysed in a training ground accident, for assisting his death.
"I have concluded that a prosecution is not needed in the public interest," Starmer wrote, taking the unprecedented step of publishing the reasons for his decision.
That looks to me like am eminently sensible, and transparent, decision by Starmer (back in 2008).
John Stepek @John_Stepek You know if we're going to build a few more runways, maybe it would be intellectually consistent and growth-oriented to drill for a bit of oil and gas too
It's interesting the contrast with Norway. New oil and gas drilling... But also 90% of new cars are electric.
Because they have lots of oil and gas to provide consistent electricity for them.
Norway's electricity is almost entirely renewable: 88% of power is provided by hydroelectricity.
It's interesting that Germany's decision to end nuclear power is forcing Norway to reconsider selling electricity to them because the spikes in demand push up prices for Norwegians even though they are self-sufficient.
How does that make sense? If Norway is self-sufficient and exporting to Germany, then spikes in price can only be good for Norway - they get more money for the same number of electrons.
It's not good for Norwegian consumers whose bills go up.
Why would Norwegian consumer bills go up? It would be the opposite. High prices are great if you're a country that exports electricity. The Norwegian power companies would get more money from exports, so they wouldn't need to charge domestic consumers so much.
Where did you actually see it reported that Norway is to reconsider selling electricity to Germany?
Electricity is a fungible good (ignoring transmission lists, etc).
So if you can sell for 100 to Germany or 10 to Norway you sell to Germany
Consumers always pay the marginal cost (unless they have hedged)
What could possibly go wrong, some people asked? The way this is being handled should set off all sorts of alarm bells.
Rajiv Shah @RajivShah90 The Terminally Ill Adults Bill Committee has just voted 14 to 8 against calling oral evidence from the Royal College of Psychiatrists
I have no words 4:16 pm · 21 Jan 2025
Getting the law changed on assisted dying seems to be a hobby horse of Keir Starmer personally.
The Crown Prosecution Service yesterday effectively ruled out the prosecution of relatives who assist the terminally ill to commit suicide after announcing it would take no action against the family of rugby player Daniel James, despite having sufficient evidence to do so.
In his first decision as director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC stated he would not prosecute the parents and a family friend of the 23-year-old, who was paralysed in a training ground accident, for assisting his death.
"I have concluded that a prosecution is not needed in the public interest," Starmer wrote, taking the unprecedented step of publishing the reasons for his decision.
Getting the law changed on assisted dying seems to be a hobby horse of Lord Alli, he of the many gifts over the summer.
Good news. But read somewhere that Theresa May actually gave approval for a third runway at Heathrow, yet here we still are…
Another piece of fuck wittery from Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith we are still dealing with today.
Johnson should have overruled Cummings during the Brexit campaign and made the slogan: "We send £350m a week to the EU. Let's spend it on our infrastructure instead."
Infrastructure = definitely not London, oh no, certainly not.
The Americans have a plan to go to Mars. We'd be lucky to reach Birmingham.
We'd get as far as Venus and then Sunak would cancel it at conference.
If you got to Venus, you’re going in the wrong direction!
A night with Venus, a lifetime with Mercury.
Oh, I think you’re talking about a different type of Venus.
Blimey. I've not heard that proverb (saying?) in decades.
Ministers have forced out the chair of the UK Competition and Markets Authority, as the government seeks to dial back regulation as part of Labour’s growth agenda.
The government will announce the departure of Marcus Bokkerink as chair of the regulator on Tuesday evening after an intervention by business secretary Jonathan Reynolds, according to people familiar with the matter.
Bokkerink, a former managing director at Boston Consulting Group, was appointed in 2022. CMA chairs can serve up to a five-year term.
Ministers have forced out the chair of the UK Competition and Markets Authority, as the government seeks to dial back regulation as part of Labour’s growth agenda.
The government will announce the departure of Marcus Bokkerink as chair of the regulator on Tuesday evening after an intervention by business secretary Jonathan Reynolds, according to people familiar with the matter.
Bokkerink, a former managing director at Boston Consulting Group, was appointed in 2022. CMA chairs can serve up to a five-year term.
As such I would like to make clear my expectation that you give due consideration to the priorities I set out in this letter whilst respecting your statutory duties.
That's right, ORR has it's duties in law. And a month earlier, the government was getting in on the act when First ( who run open access operators Lumo and Hull Trains) ordered some new trains from the factory in Sedgefield:
Ministers have forced out the chair of the UK Competition and Markets Authority, as the government seeks to dial back regulation as part of Labour’s growth agenda.
What could possibly go wrong, some people asked? The way this is being handled should set off all sorts of alarm bells.
Rajiv Shah @RajivShah90 The Terminally Ill Adults Bill Committee has just voted 14 to 8 against calling oral evidence from the Royal College of Psychiatrists
I have no words 4:16 pm · 21 Jan 2025
And I’m sure I remember someone arguing that we shouldn’t worry about the details in the first reading because it would all be worked out in committee
You'd hope that Scotland's Health Secretary, Neil Gray, would resign after being driven to football matches (with family) in government limos. Then claiming at Holyrood that government business took place and stating in parliament that he'd provide the summaries of all the government business he discussed at the games. Now he has confirmed that he misled parliament.
Being a Scottish Nationalist, he will of course try and cling on and ultimately this will be all be the fault of a Tory conspiracy. Shameless bunch of grifters.
What could possibly go wrong, some people asked? The way this is being handled should set off all sorts of alarm bells.
Rajiv Shah @RajivShah90 The Terminally Ill Adults Bill Committee has just voted 14 to 8 against calling oral evidence from the Royal College of Psychiatrists
I have no words 4:16 pm · 21 Jan 2025
And I’m sure I remember someone arguing that we shouldn’t worry about the details in the first reading because it would all be worked out in committee
Any proposed legislation, for which the proponents of it wish to have it discussed in secret, is never, ever, going to be a good thing.
You'd hope that Scotland's Health Secretary, Neil Gray, would resign after being driven to football matches (with family) in government limos. Then claiming at Holyrood that government business took place and stating in parliament that he'd provide the summaries of all the government business he discussed at the games. Now he has confirmed that he misled parliament.
Being a Scottish Nationalist, he will of course try and cling on and ultimately this will be all be the fault of a Tory conspiracy. Shameless bunch of grifters.
Can’t he afford taxis on his (checks notes) £126,452 salary?
John Stepek @John_Stepek You know if we're going to build a few more runways, maybe it would be intellectually consistent and growth-oriented to drill for a bit of oil and gas too
It's interesting the contrast with Norway. New oil and gas drilling... But also 90% of new cars are electric.
Because they have lots of oil and gas to provide consistent electricity for them.
Norway's electricity is almost entirely renewable: 88% of power is provided by hydroelectricity.
It's interesting that Germany's decision to end nuclear power is forcing Norway to reconsider selling electricity to them because the spikes in demand push up prices for Norwegians even though they are self-sufficient.
Ummm.. Norway's connector with the UK (North Sea Link) is bigger than the their connector with Germany.
So, surely Britain's dependence on spot gas contracts had at least as much impact on Norwegian domestic energy prices than Germany's giving up on nuclear?
John Stepek @John_Stepek You know if we're going to build a few more runways, maybe it would be intellectually consistent and growth-oriented to drill for a bit of oil and gas too
It's interesting the contrast with Norway. New oil and gas drilling... But also 90% of new cars are electric.
Because they have lots of oil and gas to provide consistent electricity for them.
Norway's electricity is almost entirely renewable: 88% of power is provided by hydroelectricity.
It's interesting that Germany's decision to end nuclear power is forcing Norway to reconsider selling electricity to them because the spikes in demand push up prices for Norwegians even though they are self-sufficient.
How does that make sense? If Norway is self-sufficient and exporting to Germany, then spikes in price can only be good for Norway - they get more money for the same number of electrons.
It's not good for Norwegian consumers whose bills go up.
Why would Norwegian consumer bills go up? It would be the opposite. High prices are great if you're a country that exports electricity. The Norwegian power companies would get more money from exports, so they wouldn't need to charge domestic consumers so much.
Where did you actually see it reported that Norway is to reconsider selling electricity to Germany?
Electricity is a fungible good (ignoring transmission lists, etc).
So if you can sell for 100 to Germany or 10 to Norway you sell to Germany
Consumers always pay the marginal cost (unless they have hedged)
Yes, I get that, but for the country as a whole it makes no sense to stop selling electricity to Germany, or the UK or Denmark for that matter, because they are willing to pay higher prices. As I mentioned before, a better solution would be some sort of windfall tax on the electricity companies.
Fantastic opportunity for the Tories to all line up behind her in favour, while splitting Labour down the middle.
She's had a few in the last few days focussed on growth to be fair to her.
The almighty row that’s surely about to happen, with Rachel and the Growth agenda on one side, and Ed Miliband, Sadiq Khan and the environmental agenda on the other, is going to be fun to watch from a long way away.
As is usual when you have a large majority, now which way will those 200 new backbenchers fall on such issues?
I’d guess whichever side they think would keep their seats.
But it will be fun to watch and a real test of the growth agenda.
John Stepek @John_Stepek You know if we're going to build a few more runways, maybe it would be intellectually consistent and growth-oriented to drill for a bit of oil and gas too
It's interesting the contrast with Norway. New oil and gas drilling... But also 90% of new cars are electric.
Because they have lots of oil and gas to provide consistent electricity for them.
Norway's electricity is almost entirely renewable: 88% of power is provided by hydroelectricity.
It's interesting that Germany's decision to end nuclear power is forcing Norway to reconsider selling electricity to them because the spikes in demand push up prices for Norwegians even though they are self-sufficient.
How does that make sense? If Norway is self-sufficient and exporting to Germany, then spikes in price can only be good for Norway - they get more money for the same number of electrons.
It's not good for Norwegian consumers whose bills go up.
Why would Norwegian consumer bills go up? It would be the opposite. High prices are great if you're a country that exports electricity. The Norwegian power companies would get more money from exports, so they wouldn't need to charge domestic consumers so much.
Where did you actually see it reported that Norway is to reconsider selling electricity to Germany?
Electricity is a fungible good (ignoring transmission lists, etc).
So if you can sell for 100 to Germany or 10 to Norway you sell to Germany
Consumers always pay the marginal cost (unless they have hedged)
Yep:
And there is also the impact of some industries that are just proxies for energy: nitrogen fertilizers, aluminum smelting, and purifying silicon to name but three. If the price of energy moves in one place, then production in another jumps up to compensate.
Which is why it didn't matter how dependent or not you are on Russian gas, you got the same impact from their removal from the gas market.
Good news. But read somewhere that Theresa May actually gave approval for a third runway at Heathrow, yet here we still are…
Another piece of fuck wittery from Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith we are still dealing with today.
Johnson should have overruled Cummings during the Brexit campaign and made the slogan: "We send £350m a week to the EU. Let's spend it on our infrastructure instead."
Infrastructure = definitely not London, oh no, certainly not.
The Americans have a plan to go to Mars. We'd be lucky to reach Birmingham.
They don't have a 'plan' to go to Mars.
Some of them have an aspiration, and none of the tools required to go there are anywhere near ready. (Albeit one tool is in development).
Calling it a 'plan' is a bit like saying I have a plan to do an Ironman. It could conceivably happen, but not without a lot of planning, work and effort of a fair few years...
Mars is a 3 year return journey isn't it?
Having seen some of the health issues in spacepeople from much shorter flights, I wouldn't fancy that at all. Come back an irradiated cripple? No thanks.
Depends on the transit speed, which depends on the DeltaV expended.
3 years would be a minimum energy orbit. NASA used to use that because of a political instruction never to use orbital refuelling in anything - even concepts.
6 months is the current suggested average
6 months or thereabouts is the one-way trip length. A round trip (there, loiter and back) can never take much less that 2 years or so because of the time between conjunctions of Earth and Mars.
Good news. But read somewhere that Theresa May actually gave approval for a third runway at Heathrow, yet here we still are…
Another piece of fuck wittery from Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith we are still dealing with today.
Johnson should have overruled Cummings during the Brexit campaign and made the slogan: "We send £350m a week to the EU. Let's spend it on our infrastructure instead."
Infrastructure = definitely not London, oh no, certainly not.
The Americans have a plan to go to Mars. We'd be lucky to reach Birmingham.
They don't have a 'plan' to go to Mars.
Some of them have an aspiration, and none of the tools required to go there are anywhere near ready. (Albeit one tool is in development).
Calling it a 'plan' is a bit like saying I have a plan to do an Ironman. It could conceivably happen, but not without a lot of planning, work and effort of a fair few years...
The plan for Starship/SuperHeavy to launch into Earth orbit, refuel the Starship (second stage), Mars departure, aerobrake into the atmosphere and land is available at a fair level of detail.
Tom Mueller spent a fair amount of time working on a Sabatier plant to convert Martian atmosphere to methane, to refuel the landed vehicle for return journey.
It’s certainly planned to a greater level of detail than NASA has ever done for a Mars landing. And a fair bit of actual metal has welded in the implementation phase.
The first tests of aerobraking Starship in the Martian atmosphere will be conducted in the next 3-5 years, I think.
God love you, but I can't see Musk putting more than one Starship into orbit, collating the fuel in orbit, sending a fully-fueled Starship to Mars one way (presumably unmanned), then aerobreaking it in the thin Martian atmosphere automatically, is i) going to work and ii) doable in 3-5 years. So far he's sent Starships and the first stages up for a few minutes then watching them come down again. That's not really enough. Plus even a Hohmann transfer orbit takes about 8 months, and can he really do that delta-vee in a Starship?
(I love the fact that that paragraph actually makes sense... )
Fuelling tests are going to start this year. The production line for boosters, ship and engines are setup.
For comparison, SpaceX is already lifting most of the tonnage to orbit, using F9. They will launching F9 something like 150 times this year.
Once you have a fully fuelled Starship in orbit - why *not* send it to Mars? So by the next transfer window…
As to DeltaV, that will depend on which version of Starship & Raptor goes first.
You'd hope that Scotland's Health Secretary, Neil Gray, would resign after being driven to football matches (with family) in government limos. Then claiming at Holyrood that government business took place and stating in parliament that he'd provide the summaries of all the government business he discussed at the games. Now he has confirmed that he misled parliament.
Being a Scottish Nationalist, he will of course try and cling on and ultimately this will be all be the fault of a Tory conspiracy. Shameless bunch of grifters.
No-one who supported Boris Johnson and his cronies should describe any other group in such terms.
John Stepek @John_Stepek You know if we're going to build a few more runways, maybe it would be intellectually consistent and growth-oriented to drill for a bit of oil and gas too
It's interesting the contrast with Norway. New oil and gas drilling... But also 90% of new cars are electric.
Because they have lots of oil and gas to provide consistent electricity for them.
Norway's electricity is almost entirely renewable: 88% of power is provided by hydroelectricity.
It's interesting that Germany's decision to end nuclear power is forcing Norway to reconsider selling electricity to them because the spikes in demand push up prices for Norwegians even though they are self-sufficient.
How does that make sense? If Norway is self-sufficient and exporting to Germany, then spikes in price can only be good for Norway - they get more money for the same number of electrons.
It's not good for Norwegian consumers whose bills go up.
Why would Norwegian consumer bills go up? It would be the opposite. High prices are great if you're a country that exports electricity. The Norwegian power companies would get more money from exports, so they wouldn't need to charge domestic consumers so much.
Where did you actually see it reported that Norway is to reconsider selling electricity to Germany?
Electricity is a fungible good (ignoring transmission lists, etc).
So if you can sell for 100 to Germany or 10 to Norway you sell to Germany
Consumers always pay the marginal cost (unless they have hedged)
Yep:
And there is also the impact of some industries that are just proxies for energy: nitrogen fertilizers, aluminum smelting, and purifying silicon to name but three. If the price of energy moves in one place, then production in another jumps up to compensate.
Which is why it didn't matter how dependent or not you are on Russian gas, you got the same impact from their removal from the gas market.
Taking this to its logical conclusion, would you argue that there's no point having a national energy policy at all?
Gender differences in risk-aversion and radical politics.
Yes, but we are discounting the 'shy Tory' factor. Shy Reformers could be the new shy Tories, and these could be disproportionately female. Some clever supplementary questions could be revealing.
SCOOP: President Trump is set to announce billions of dollars in private sector investment to build artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States, @CBSNews has learned. OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle are planning a joint venture called Stargate, according to multiple people familiar with the deal.
Good news. But read somewhere that Theresa May actually gave approval for a third runway at Heathrow, yet here we still are…
Another piece of fuck wittery from Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith we are still dealing with today.
Johnson should have overruled Cummings during the Brexit campaign and made the slogan: "We send £350m a week to the EU. Let's spend it on our infrastructure instead."
Infrastructure = definitely not London, oh no, certainly not.
The Americans have a plan to go to Mars. We'd be lucky to reach Birmingham.
They don't have a 'plan' to go to Mars.
Some of them have an aspiration, and none of the tools required to go there are anywhere near ready. (Albeit one tool is in development).
Calling it a 'plan' is a bit like saying I have a plan to do an Ironman. It could conceivably happen, but not without a lot of planning, work and effort of a fair few years...
Mars is a 3 year return journey isn't it?
Having seen some of the health issues in spacepeople from much shorter flights, I wouldn't fancy that at all. Come back an irradiated cripple? No thanks.
Depends on the transit speed, which depends on the DeltaV expended.
3 years would be a minimum energy orbit. NASA used to use that because of a political instruction never to use orbital refuelling in anything - even concepts.
6 months is the current suggested average
6 months or thereabouts is the one-way trip length. A round trip (there, loiter and back) can never take much less that 2 years or so because of the time between conjunctions of Earth and Mars.
Good news. But read somewhere that Theresa May actually gave approval for a third runway at Heathrow, yet here we still are…
Another piece of fuck wittery from Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith we are still dealing with today.
Johnson should have overruled Cummings during the Brexit campaign and made the slogan: "We send £350m a week to the EU. Let's spend it on our infrastructure instead."
Infrastructure = definitely not London, oh no, certainly not.
The Americans have a plan to go to Mars. We'd be lucky to reach Birmingham.
They don't have a 'plan' to go to Mars.
Some of them have an aspiration, and none of the tools required to go there are anywhere near ready. (Albeit one tool is in development).
Calling it a 'plan' is a bit like saying I have a plan to do an Ironman. It could conceivably happen, but not without a lot of planning, work and effort of a fair few years...
The plan for Starship/SuperHeavy to launch into Earth orbit, refuel the Starship (second stage), Mars departure, aerobrake into the atmosphere and land is available at a fair level of detail.
Tom Mueller spent a fair amount of time working on a Sabatier plant to convert Martian atmosphere to methane, to refuel the landed vehicle for return journey.
It’s certainly planned to a greater level of detail than NASA has ever done for a Mars landing. And a fair bit of actual metal has welded in the implementation phase.
The first tests of aerobraking Starship in the Martian atmosphere will be conducted in the next 3-5 years, I think.
God love you, but I can't see Musk putting more than one Starship into orbit, collating the fuel in orbit, sending a fully-fueled Starship to Mars one way (presumably unmanned), then aerobreaking it in the thin Martian atmosphere automatically, is i) going to work and ii) doable in 3-5 years. So far he's sent Starships and the first stages up for a few minutes then watching them come down again. That's not really enough. Plus even a Hohmann transfer orbit takes about 8 months, and can he really do that delta-vee in a Starship?
(I love the fact that that paragraph actually makes sense... )
Fuelling tests are going to start this year. The production line for boosters, ship and engines are setup.
For comparison, SpaceX is already lifting most of the tonnage to orbit, using F9. They will launching F9 something like 150 times this year.
Once you have a fully fuelled Starship in orbit - why *not* send it to Mars? So by the next transfer window…
As to DeltaV, that will depend on which version of Starship & Raptor goes first.
132 F9 (and two F9H) launches last year, their launch cadence is now totally nuts, and they have individual 1st stage rockets that have flown dozens of times.
What could possibly go wrong, some people asked? The way this is being handled should set off all sorts of alarm bells.
Rajiv Shah @RajivShah90 The Terminally Ill Adults Bill Committee has just voted 14 to 8 against calling oral evidence from the Royal College of Psychiatrists
I have no words 4:16 pm · 21 Jan 2025
And I’m sure I remember someone arguing that we shouldn’t worry about the details in the first reading because it would all be worked out in committee
Quite right, on here and in parliament. That was the argument some MPs used to vote for the bill, that there would be robust scrutiny. We've got the exact opposite. Published the bill only just before the vote. No public scrutiny. Only selecting witnesses in favour of bill.
Kim Leadbeater is coming out of this very badly. Clearly being pushed along by various people behind the scenes.
I could have agreed with it, but far too many concerns - especially ones raised by opponents that are already coming true.
John Stepek @John_Stepek You know if we're going to build a few more runways, maybe it would be intellectually consistent and growth-oriented to drill for a bit of oil and gas too
It's interesting the contrast with Norway. New oil and gas drilling... But also 90% of new cars are electric.
Because they have lots of oil and gas to provide consistent electricity for them.
Norway's electricity is almost entirely renewable: 88% of power is provided by hydroelectricity.
It's interesting that Germany's decision to end nuclear power is forcing Norway to reconsider selling electricity to them because the spikes in demand push up prices for Norwegians even though they are self-sufficient.
How does that make sense? If Norway is self-sufficient and exporting to Germany, then spikes in price can only be good for Norway - they get more money for the same number of electrons.
It's not good for Norwegian consumers whose bills go up.
Why would Norwegian consumer bills go up? It would be the opposite. High prices are great if you're a country that exports electricity. The Norwegian power companies would get more money from exports, so they wouldn't need to charge domestic consumers so much.
Where did you actually see it reported that Norway is to reconsider selling electricity to Germany?
Electricity is a fungible good (ignoring transmission lists, etc).
So if you can sell for 100 to Germany or 10 to Norway you sell to Germany
Consumers always pay the marginal cost (unless they have hedged)
Yep:
And there is also the impact of some industries that are just proxies for energy: nitrogen fertilizers, aluminum smelting, and purifying silicon to name but three. If the price of energy moves in one place, then production in another jumps up to compensate.
Which is why it didn't matter how dependent or not you are on Russian gas, you got the same impact from their removal from the gas market.
Taking this to its logical conclusion, would you argue that there's no point having a national energy policy at all?
I think there's a good case for taxing negative externalities, freeing up the planning process, and letting the market decide.
With that said, there are still a few projects where the government probably needs to play a role. I think the lack of has storage in the UK (a common good problem) meant that UK generators needed to pay whatever it took to secure LNG cargoes, while countries with significant storage facilities were able to take much more of a wait and see attitude.
What could possibly go wrong, some people asked? The way this is being handled should set off all sorts of alarm bells.
Rajiv Shah @RajivShah90 The Terminally Ill Adults Bill Committee has just voted 14 to 8 against calling oral evidence from the Royal College of Psychiatrists
I have no words 4:16 pm · 21 Jan 2025
And I’m sure I remember someone arguing that we shouldn’t worry about the details in the first reading because it would all be worked out in committee
Quite right, on here and in parliament. That was the argument some MPs used to vote for the bill, that there would be robust scrutiny. We've got the exact opposite. Published the bill only just before the vote. No public scrutiny. Only selecting witnesses in favour of bill.
Kim Leadbeater is coming out of this very badly. Clearly being pushed along by various people behind the scenes.
I could have agreed with it, but far too many concerns - especially ones raised by opponents that are already coming true.
Labout just thrashing about for any sort of legacy now.
John Stepek @John_Stepek You know if we're going to build a few more runways, maybe it would be intellectually consistent and growth-oriented to drill for a bit of oil and gas too
It's interesting the contrast with Norway. New oil and gas drilling... But also 90% of new cars are electric.
Because they have lots of oil and gas to provide consistent electricity for them.
Norway's electricity is almost entirely renewable: 88% of power is provided by hydroelectricity.
It's interesting that Germany's decision to end nuclear power is forcing Norway to reconsider selling electricity to them because the spikes in demand push up prices for Norwegians even though they are self-sufficient.
How does that make sense? If Norway is self-sufficient and exporting to Germany, then spikes in price can only be good for Norway - they get more money for the same number of electrons.
It's not good for Norwegian consumers whose bills go up.
Why would Norwegian consumer bills go up? It would be the opposite. High prices are great if you're a country that exports electricity. The Norwegian power companies would get more money from exports, so they wouldn't need to charge domestic consumers so much.
Where did you actually see it reported that Norway is to reconsider selling electricity to Germany?
Electricity is a fungible good (ignoring transmission lists, etc).
So if you can sell for 100 to Germany or 10 to Norway you sell to Germany
Consumers always pay the marginal cost (unless they have hedged)
Yep:
And there is also the impact of some industries that are just proxies for energy: nitrogen fertilizers, aluminum smelting, and purifying silicon to name but three. If the price of energy moves in one place, then production in another jumps up to compensate.
Which is why it didn't matter how dependent or not you are on Russian gas, you got the same impact from their removal from the gas market.
Taking this to its logical conclusion, would you argue that there's no point having a national energy policy at all?
I think there's a good case for taxing negative externalities, freeing up the planning process, and letting the market decide.
With that said, there are still a few projects where the government probably needs to play a role. I think the lack of has storage in the UK (a common good problem) meant that UK generators needed to pay whatever it took to secure LNG cargoes, while countries with significant storage facilities were able to take much more of a wait and see attitude.
LNG storage, and SMR Nuclear which has massive export potential.
SCOOP: President Trump is set to announce billions of dollars in private sector investment to build artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States, @CBSNews has learned. OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle are planning a joint venture called Stargate, according to multiple people familiar with the deal.
John Stepek @John_Stepek You know if we're going to build a few more runways, maybe it would be intellectually consistent and growth-oriented to drill for a bit of oil and gas too
It's interesting the contrast with Norway. New oil and gas drilling... But also 90% of new cars are electric.
One follows from the other, I think.
When you've got a sovereign wealth fund worth $330,000 a person as a nation everyone can afford a Tesla.
There are some very specific tax reasons why Norway started getting electric cars so early on
SCOOP: President Trump is set to announce billions of dollars in private sector investment to build artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States, @CBSNews has learned. OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle are planning a joint venture called Stargate, according to multiple people familiar with the deal.
There does appear to have been a fair amount of planning done by the new Trump administration, which was very much not done back in 2017.
As a former seller of knives, I regularly refused sale to young DofE candidates under 18, and many adults who didn't have ID with them.
There were also a few cases where someone would come in with a bundle of cash and attempt to buy one, in which case they'd be asked some fairly detailed questions about climbing or kayaking and subsequently be refused sale and escorted from the shop. We'd phone 999 if they were obviously drunk or high.
So it's not entirely mad what Cooper is saying. There are plenty of people like me providing a soft control on things.
My nephew is 18 later this week and we’ve always been marked down as the people marking it with the Leatherman knife he wanted. Which meant ordering it for delivery to his mum because obviously he can’t receive it just yet.
Delivery was charged for as it required DPD’s age verification service
John Stepek @John_Stepek You know if we're going to build a few more runways, maybe it would be intellectually consistent and growth-oriented to drill for a bit of oil and gas too
It's interesting the contrast with Norway. New oil and gas drilling... But also 90% of new cars are electric.
One follows from the other, I think.
When you've got a sovereign wealth fund worth $330,000 a person as a nation everyone can afford a Tesla.
There are some very specific tax reasons why Norway started getting electric cars so early on
When a top end EV costs less than the smallest hatchback, strangely, lots of people start buying EVs.
The Home Secretary is appalled that Axel Rudakubana was easily able to order a knife on Amazon.
"That's a total disgrace and it must change. So, we will bring in stronger measures to tackle knife sales online in the Crime and Policing Bill this spring." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c9q7r4wpep0t
Cooper ignores that Rudakubana murdered the girls using an ordinary kitchen knife, freely available from any kitchen, as the name suggests.
We are being played for fools.
While the knife used was not the one ordered online - the fact some firms are not age verifying mail order knife purchases does need to be fixed.
It is even worse than that. Yvette Cooper is appalled that Amazon sold Rudakubana a knife despite his having a prior conviction. Does the government expect Amazon to carry out a DBS check? Will there be a new database where retailers can look up their customers?
Does anyone still think the government's online identity database will be kept secure?
With alcohol (for example) the Amazon delivery guy has to check for “over 18”.
Yes but the Amazon alcohol guy does not need to check you are not an alcoholic. Cooper specified Rudakubana's conviction as well as his age.
Amazon delivers alcohol in the UK?
Yes.
And it’s often cheap - I picked up a £60 bottle of Johnnie Walker for £25 before Christmas
John Stepek @John_Stepek You know if we're going to build a few more runways, maybe it would be intellectually consistent and growth-oriented to drill for a bit of oil and gas too
It's interesting the contrast with Norway. New oil and gas drilling... But also 90% of new cars are electric.
One follows from the other, I think.
When you've got a sovereign wealth fund worth $330,000 a person as a nation everyone can afford a Tesla.
There are some very specific tax reasons why Norway started getting electric cars so early on
Back in 2010, they allowed electric cars to use the bus lanes in Oslo, which was also a big driver of demand.
John Stepek @John_Stepek You know if we're going to build a few more runways, maybe it would be intellectually consistent and growth-oriented to drill for a bit of oil and gas too
It's interesting the contrast with Norway. New oil and gas drilling... But also 90% of new cars are electric.
One follows from the other, I think.
When you've got a sovereign wealth fund worth $330,000 a person as a nation everyone can afford a Tesla.
There are some very specific tax reasons why Norway started getting electric cars so early on
Back in 2010, they allowed electric cars to use the bus lanes in Oslo, which was also a big driver of demand.
John Stepek @John_Stepek You know if we're going to build a few more runways, maybe it would be intellectually consistent and growth-oriented to drill for a bit of oil and gas too
It's interesting the contrast with Norway. New oil and gas drilling... But also 90% of new cars are electric.
One follows from the other, I think.
When you've got a sovereign wealth fund worth $330,000 a person as a nation everyone can afford a Tesla.
There are some very specific tax reasons why Norway started getting electric cars so early on
John Stepek @John_Stepek You know if we're going to build a few more runways, maybe it would be intellectually consistent and growth-oriented to drill for a bit of oil and gas too
It's interesting the contrast with Norway. New oil and gas drilling... But also 90% of new cars are electric.
Because they have lots of oil and gas to provide consistent electricity for them.
Norway's electricity is almost entirely renewable: 88% of power is provided by hydroelectricity.
It's interesting that Germany's decision to end nuclear power is forcing Norway to reconsider selling electricity to them because the spikes in demand push up prices for Norwegians even though they are self-sufficient.
How does that make sense? If Norway is self-sufficient and exporting to Germany, then spikes in price can only be good for Norway - they get more money for the same number of electrons.
It's not good for Norwegian consumers whose bills go up.
Why would Norwegian consumer bills go up? It would be the opposite. High prices are great if you're a country that exports electricity. The Norwegian power companies would get more money from exports, so they wouldn't need to charge domestic consumers so much.
Where did you actually see it reported that Norway is to reconsider selling electricity to Germany?
Electricity is a fungible good (ignoring transmission lists, etc).
So if you can sell for 100 to Germany or 10 to Norway you sell to Germany
Consumers always pay the marginal cost (unless they have hedged)
Yep:
And there is also the impact of some industries that are just proxies for energy: nitrogen fertilizers, aluminum smelting, and purifying silicon to name but three. If the price of energy moves in one place, then production in another jumps up to compensate.
Which is why it didn't matter how dependent or not you are on Russian gas, you got the same impact from their removal from the gas market.
Taking this to its logical conclusion, would you argue that there's no point having a national energy policy at all?
I think there's a good case for taxing negative externalities, freeing up the planning process, and letting the market decide.
With that said, there are still a few projects where the government probably needs to play a role. I think the lack of has storage in the UK (a common good problem) meant that UK generators needed to pay whatever it took to secure LNG cargoes, while countries with significant storage facilities were able to take much more of a wait and see attitude.
LNG storage, and SMR Nuclear which has massive export potential.
I tend to be very sceptical of nuclear power, simply because it has never been delivered economically viably before. If Rolls Royce wants to spend their money on it, they are free to do so, but should UK taxpayers be footing the bill? (The government has a rotten record at picking winners.)
The Home Secretary is appalled that Axel Rudakubana was easily able to order a knife on Amazon.
"That's a total disgrace and it must change. So, we will bring in stronger measures to tackle knife sales online in the Crime and Policing Bill this spring." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c9q7r4wpep0t
Cooper ignores that Rudakubana murdered the girls using an ordinary kitchen knife, freely available from any kitchen, as the name suggests.
We are being played for fools.
While the knife used was not the one ordered online - the fact some firms are not age verifying mail order knife purchases does need to be fixed.
It is even worse than that. Yvette Cooper is appalled that Amazon sold Rudakubana a knife despite his having a prior conviction. Does the government expect Amazon to carry out a DBS check? Will there be a new database where retailers can look up their customers?
Does anyone still think the government's online identity database will be kept secure?
With alcohol (for example) the Amazon delivery guy has to check for “over 18”.
Yes but the Amazon alcohol guy does not need to check you are not an alcoholic. Cooper specified Rudakubana's conviction as well as his age.
Amazon delivers alcohol in the UK?
Yes.
And it’s often cheap - I picked up a £60 bottle of Johnnie Walker for £25 before Christmas
I had Green Label on repeat order. But couldn’t keep up.
Comments
But it will be fun to watch and a real test of the growth agenda.
Since that chart, they've (a) spent heavily on becoming an electricity exporter, and (b) built a lot of wind capacity.
https://www.ft.com/content/f0b621a1-54f2-49fc-acc1-a660e9131740
Norway’s two governing parties want to scrap an electricity interconnector to Denmark, with the junior coalition partner also calling for a renegotiation of power links to the UK and Germany, as sky-high prices trigger panic in the rich Nordic country.
A lack of wind in Germany and the North Sea will push electricity prices in southern Norway to NKr13.16 ($1.18) per kilowatt hour on Thursday afternoon, their highest level since 2009 and almost 20 times their level just last week.
“It’s an absolutely shit situation,” said Norway’s energy minister Terje Aasland.
Rajiv Shah
@RajivShah90
The Terminally Ill Adults Bill Committee has just voted 14 to 8 against calling oral evidence from the Royal College of Psychiatrists
I have no words
4:16 pm · 21 Jan 2025
Tom Mueller spent a fair amount of time working on a Sabatier plant to convert Martian atmosphere to methane, to refuel the landed vehicle for return journey.
It’s certainly planned to a greater level of detail than NASA has ever done for a Mars landing. And a fair bit of actual metal has welded in the implementation phase.
The first tests of aerobraking Starship in the Martian atmosphere will be conducted in the next 3-5 years, I think.
Having seen some of the health issues in spacepeople from much shorter flights, I wouldn't fancy that at all. Come back an irradiated cripple? No thanks.
3 years would be a minimum energy orbit. NASA used to use that because of a political instruction never to use orbital refuelling in anything - even concepts.
6 months is the current suggested average
Is the quote.
TSE said "I am not sure Nigel Farage blokeish approach will narrow this gender divide, nor will having an MP who has been previously jailed for assaulting his then girlfriend help."
- I'd note that electorally, he no more has to narrow the gender gap than do the Women's Equality Party; or do the various sectarian parties narrow the religion gap. All he has to do is marshall enough votes in a seat to win it. Male/Female is perhaps the most evenly spread of characteristics.
Of course, it helps him if he can get more voters of any characteristic. But he's no better off if he narrows the gap unless in doing so he drives up his total number of votes.
playdo Nazi salutes.The "Softboy", will loudly proclaim his hostility towards all forms of sexism, and insist upon the need to "believe all women". He is an "ally" to feminist causes .... and just as keen to get inside womens' knickers as the more overt chauvinist. In fact, he thinks he is owed sex, because he is so "nice" towards women. That's Neil Gaiman to a T.
This sort of promotion in the UK would almost certainly result in a serious fine from OFCOM. I suspect that the whole thing was so new that the production didn’t know what the Hell was actually going on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zi12wrh5So (Jimmy Fallon and Paris Hilton interview)
Edit: Hence the use of weird systems like the Sky crane (landing system)
It should have been opened at least two if not three decades ago.
*Not 100% sure on that.
To get a SS to Mars in the next 3-5 years, SpaceX will need to:
*) Get a SS into orbit (they have done most of this...)
*) Land a SS.
*) Get SS and SH reliably reusable at a rapid turnover rate.
*) Develop an orbital refuelling process.
*) Launch enough tankers (perhaps a dozen or more) to fill the Mars-bound ship.
And if you want to send a crewed ship, there are a massive amount of other things that require doing as well.
And all in time for the Q4 2026 or Q428Q129 launch windows.
That's a big ask, even if much of it is required for the Artemis program.
Also, you diss NASA a bit. Some of their manned Mars plans were fairly detailed, especially as they were bound never to go ahead. What SpaceX has - and NASA had - is an architecture, rather than a 'plan'.
Expansion at Gatwick and Stansted has always seemed more logical to me, though not without their drawbacks. Much cheaper and the flightpaths are mostly over empty country.
Oh, I think you’re talking about a different type of Venus.
(I love the fact that that paragraph actually makes sense...
(I recall a certain Arthur C. Clarke short story which addressed that.)
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2008/dec/10/assisted-suicide-daniel-james-cps
The Crown Prosecution Service yesterday effectively ruled out the prosecution of relatives who assist the terminally ill to commit suicide after announcing it would take no action against the family of rugby player Daniel James, despite having sufficient evidence to do so.
In his first decision as director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC stated he would not prosecute the parents and a family friend of the 23-year-old, who was paralysed in a training ground accident, for assisting his death.
"I have concluded that a prosecution is not needed in the public interest," Starmer wrote, taking the unprecedented step of publishing the reasons for his decision.
Ministers have forced out the chair of the UK Competition and Markets Authority, as the government seeks to dial back regulation as part of Labour’s growth agenda.
The government will announce the departure of Marcus Bokkerink as chair of the regulator on Tuesday evening after an intervention by business secretary Jonathan Reynolds, according to people familiar with the matter.
Bokkerink, a former managing director at Boston Consulting Group, was appointed in 2022. CMA chairs can serve up to a five-year term.
https://www.ft.com/content/7d1e04fb-3e11-4de5-9a04-6bb4b2070163?shareType=nongift
I wonder how the planets look in the next decade or so? And I'm not talking about astrology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrbvM5HuQRE
IIRC Runway 23 only closed a couple of decades ago.
https://www.pprune.org/atc-issues/375566-last-usage-runway-23-lhr.html
So if you can sell for 100 to Germany or 10 to Norway you sell to Germany
Consumers always pay the marginal cost (unless they have hedged)
If you think out waitresses are rude, you should see the manager
XXX The Dispensing Chemist; we dispense with accuracy
The monkeys were seen using binoculars
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/677bc388d119b345376654a4/dft-letter-sos-orr.pdf
As such I would like to make clear my expectation that you give due consideration to the priorities I set out in this letter whilst respecting your statutory duties.
That's right, ORR has it's duties in law. And a month earlier, the government was getting in on the act when First ( who run open access operators Lumo and Hull Trains) ordered some new trains from the factory in Sedgefield:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/500-million-deal-to-maintain-hundreds-of-jobs-in-the-northeast-for-years-to-come
Being a Scottish Nationalist, he will of course try and cling on and ultimately this will be all be the fault of a Tory conspiracy. Shameless bunch of grifters.
https://www.parliament.scot/msps/msp-salaries.aspx
So, surely Britain's dependence on spot gas contracts had at least as much impact on Norwegian domestic energy prices than Germany's giving up on nuclear?
And there is also the impact of some industries that are just proxies for energy: nitrogen fertilizers, aluminum
smelting, and purifying silicon to name but three. If the price of energy moves in one place, then production in another jumps up to compensate.
Which is why it didn't matter how dependent or not you are on Russian gas, you got the same impact from their removal from the gas market.
For comparison, SpaceX is already lifting most of the tonnage to orbit, using F9. They will launching F9 something like 150 times this year.
Once you have a fully fuelled Starship in orbit - why *not* send it to Mars? So by the next transfer window…
As to DeltaV, that will depend on which version of Starship & Raptor goes first.
SCOOP: President Trump is set to announce billions of dollars in private sector investment to build artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States, @CBSNews has learned.
OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle are planning a joint venture called Stargate, according to multiple people familiar with the deal.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_Heavy_launches
Kim Leadbeater is coming out of this very badly. Clearly being pushed along by various people behind the scenes.
I could have agreed with it, but far too many concerns - especially ones raised by opponents that are already coming true.
With that said, there are still a few projects where the government probably needs to play a role. I think the lack of has storage in the UK (a common good problem) meant that UK generators needed to pay whatever it took to secure LNG cargoes, while countries with significant storage facilities were able to take much more of a wait and see attitude.
Delivery was charged for as it required DPD’s age verification service
But couldn’t keep up.