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This is interesting on two levels from Trump’s Middle East envoy – politicalbetting.com

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  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 32,926

    AnneJGP said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Nigelb said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course.
    BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.

    Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.

    Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing.
    All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here.

    https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653

    After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.

    China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
    Developing the Greenland rare earths just got more urgent.
    Yep, we all need to be doing deals with friendly nations.

    China is not a friendly nation, anything but. The West needs to come up with a response the Chinese will understand, whether it be high tariffs or even banning Chinese cars and other key exports, especially anything with their new battery tech.
    The UK might be better off encouraging them to build battery manufacturing here.
    One of the most laughable things the Reform clowns do is cite China as the reason to ditch "Net Stupid Zero" - because they have a lot of coal power. Making out China is backwards and using fossil fuels so lets ditch renewables.

    Meanwhile, China continues to grow its dominant leadership position in solar and battery...
    Its not quite that simple. China is also using vast amount of coal power. We should be developing our own independent renewables plus batteries and all that is needed, but we don't also have to tie our hands behind our backs with net zero.
    They're vast - of course they are using a lot of the thing they already had. But coal will ramp down and solar will ramp up. When people use Chinese coal as the excuse to tie our hands behind our backs with LNG imports, it makes no sense.
    China is all about producing as much power as possible, it doesn't particularly care whether or not it's green or coal or whatever.
    It's entirely non ideological, unlike BOTH Miliband & Farage when it comes to power.
    They do care. They have a plan to reduce fossil fuel use. They know their agriculture is vulnerable to global warming, in a way that the US and Russia, for example, are not.

    In Britain we've been distracted by arguing over whether to do it, rather than working out how best to do it. And we're still having that false argument while China is simply doing it.
    As I understand it, in China they don't have to worry about people with other opinions on issues.
    In a democracy it requires skillful political leadership to convince the population of the need for action, but then the greater freedom in society and the economy should make that action more effective.

    Democracies have not been blessed by good leadership in recent years. They have chosen to follow the voters instead of lead them, while right-wing plutocrats have shaped public opinion to benefit their narrow interests.
    Yes, look at that benighted democracy that has followed its voters most slavishly of all -Switzerland. Foolishly refusing to join the EU, foolishly holding referenda all the time, foolishly chucking out their leaders on a rotating basis. One can only look at their sad state with a mixture of pity and horror.
    A country where you can't run your washing machine before 8am or after 9pm, which doesn't sound like the sort of place you'd like to live, @Luckyguy1983
    That's the population's choice. They also dob you in if you don't pay your car tax or jay walk. There's things about their society I would not want to borrow, but one can hardly call them a failed state.
  • CumberlandGapCumberlandGap Posts: 15
    MaxPB said:

    What's most surprising is that no official word has gone out from a Vodafone exec on a non-Vodafone platform like Twatter/X or Facebook. That implies they're in very big trouble.

    I had my phone weirdly drop to Edge from 5G (EE) earlier today a few times... Clearly the end of days..
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 61,906

    Nigelb said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course.
    BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.

    Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.

    Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing.
    All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here.

    https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653

    After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.

    China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
    Developing the Greenland rare earths just got more urgent.
    Yep, we all need to be doing deals with friendly nations.

    China is not a friendly nation, anything but. The West needs to come up with a response the Chinese will understand, whether it be high tariffs or even banning Chinese cars and other key exports, especially anything with their new battery tech.
    The UK might be better off encouraging them to build battery manufacturing here.
    One of the most laughable things the Reform clowns do is cite China as the reason to ditch "Net Stupid Zero" - because they have a lot of coal power. Making out China is backwards and using fossil fuels so lets ditch renewables.

    Meanwhile, China continues to grow its dominant leadership position in solar and battery...
    There's a Chinese firm that has built a single solar farm high the Himalayas that is 6x the size of Manhattan. Getting the panels higher means less chance of cloud cover, and means less of the solar energy has been absorbed by the air on the way down. It also means that the panels stay cool, because it's cold up there: and the colder a panel is, the more efficient it is.

    You would think the cost of interconnection would make this uneconomic, but because solar panels are now so cheap, and because land is basically free up there, the RoCE looks incredible.
  • CumberlandGapCumberlandGap Posts: 15
    edited 2:58PM

    Andy_JS said:

    Renewables are providing only c.10% of energy today.

    https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

    Whilst the tide comes in, the tide goes out...
    So where are you?

    You may not be a paid lobbyist for Tidal any more, but you could still talk to future power brokers if you wished. The Tidal lagoons, if they're what you crack them up to be, are ideal Kemi ground - sensible but green. A new way of doing things. And even if she doesn't become PM, her better policies stand a very good chance of being implemented as part of a coalition. But as I understand it you don't want to talk to her because her flavour of Torydom offends your refined palette.
    "as I understand it you don't want to talk to her because her flavour of Torydom offends your refined palette."

    Eh????

    I'll talk to anyone. But the Tories could have owned tidal power nearly a decade ago. We could have it making a real contribution to the national grid by, with much more on the way. But look who was behind hydrogen and carbon capture to see why tidal got hobbled.
    If it first you don't succeed? Get thee to the next Tory conference. You could have a mini meet up with Tim.
    Conservatives are business people. Show us the return, show us why you cant get banks to back you on the return, show us why regulation is making it more difficult, not the thing itself.
    Tories arent against wind/solar etc, but they are (or should be) against ponzi schemes that are funded by a system of less than clear mechanisms that all hide one thing, nothing is as cheap and reliable as gas (though solar is getting there on the cheap bit).
  • BartholomewRobertsBartholomewRoberts Posts: 26,165
    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course.
    BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.

    Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.

    Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing.
    All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here.

    https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653

    After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.

    China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
    Developing the Greenland rare earths just got more urgent.
    Yep, we all need to be doing deals with friendly nations.

    China is not a friendly nation, anything but. The West needs to come up with a response the Chinese will understand, whether it be high tariffs or even banning Chinese cars and other key exports, especially anything with their new battery tech.
    The UK might be better off encouraging them to build battery manufacturing here.
    One of the most laughable things the Reform clowns do is cite China as the reason to ditch "Net Stupid Zero" - because they have a lot of coal power. Making out China is backwards and using fossil fuels so lets ditch renewables.

    Meanwhile, China continues to grow its dominant leadership position in solar and battery...
    There's a Chinese firm that has built a single solar farm high the Himalayas that is 6x the size of Manhattan. Getting the panels higher means less chance of cloud cover, and means less of the solar energy has been absorbed by the air on the way down. It also means that the panels stay cool, because it's cold up there: and the colder a panel is, the more efficient it is.

    You would think the cost of interconnection would make this uneconomic, but because solar panels are now so cheap, and because land is basically free up there, the RoCE looks incredible.
    Try getting planning permission to do that in this country.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 61,906

    rkrkrk said:

    It certainly looks like quite a triumph for Trump.

    If he can actually get a Palestinian state established in spite of Netanyahu opposition and keep the warring sides apart somehow he will actually deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. I would never have predicted that.

    It also kind of makes you wonder what Obama/Biden were doing... if all that was needed was just to play hardball with Israel... why didn't they think of that?

    Probably for fear of alienating the Jewish vote in the US, which was already suspicious of the Democrats. When Trump did it, they didn't really have any choice but to go along with it.

    Paradoxically, it sometimes seems easier for right-wing goverments to enact policies that might be viewed as left wing than it would be for left-wing governments to do so (and vice versa, of course). That's because those who would object have nowhere else to go.
    Oh, and vice versa: hence Labour implemented university tuition fees.
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 31,192
    Mate of mine just rang, testing his mobile. Data and home broadband are both down.

    Yep, he's on Vodafone.

    Meanwhile here on their sister network 3, we are still up and running, so my thanks to Horse for that...
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 31,192

    Pulpstar said:

    Nigelb said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course.
    BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.

    Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.

    Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing.
    All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here.

    https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653

    After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.

    China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
    Developing the Greenland rare earths just got more urgent.
    Yep, we all need to be doing deals with friendly nations.

    China is not a friendly nation, anything but. The West needs to come up with a response the Chinese will understand, whether it be high tariffs or even banning Chinese cars and other key exports, especially anything with their new battery tech.
    The UK might be better off encouraging them to build battery manufacturing here.
    One of the most laughable things the Reform clowns do is cite China as the reason to ditch "Net Stupid Zero" - because they have a lot of coal power. Making out China is backwards and using fossil fuels so lets ditch renewables.

    Meanwhile, China continues to grow its dominant leadership position in solar and battery...
    Its not quite that simple. China is also using vast amount of coal power. We should be developing our own independent renewables plus batteries and all that is needed, but we don't also have to tie our hands behind our backs with net zero.
    They're vast - of course they are using a lot of the thing they already had. But coal will ramp down and solar will ramp up. When people use Chinese coal as the excuse to tie our hands behind our backs with LNG imports, it makes no sense.
    China is all about producing as much power as possible, it doesn't particularly care whether or not it's green or coal or whatever.
    It's entirely non ideological, unlike BOTH Miliband & Farage when it comes to power.
    They do care. They have a plan to reduce fossil fuel use. They know their agriculture is vulnerable to global warming, in a way that the US and Russia, for example, are not.

    In Britain we've been distracted by arguing over whether to do it, rather than working out how best to do it. And we're still having that false argument while China is simply doing it.
    How actually f-ing dare you flagrantly lie like this?

    If China's Net Zero policy is so great, presumably you want a Chinese Net Zero policy implemented here in the UK?

    So completely repudiating Net Zero by 2050, no carbon taxes (China has only just started asking plants to even record their emissions), and opening a string of coal mines for a start.

    Or does your admiration for 'simply doing it' stop at the Chinese border for some reason.
    Daaarling, which lie did he tell? Specifically.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 61,906
    carnforth said:

    All sorts of landline internet down in parts of the UK, including mine. Downdetector says almost every network:

    https://downdetector.co.uk/

    Grok also suffering a major outage.
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 31,192

    AnneJGP said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Nigelb said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course.
    BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.

    Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.

    Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing.
    All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here.

    https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653

    After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.

    China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
    Developing the Greenland rare earths just got more urgent.
    Yep, we all need to be doing deals with friendly nations.

    China is not a friendly nation, anything but. The West needs to come up with a response the Chinese will understand, whether it be high tariffs or even banning Chinese cars and other key exports, especially anything with their new battery tech.
    The UK might be better off encouraging them to build battery manufacturing here.
    One of the most laughable things the Reform clowns do is cite China as the reason to ditch "Net Stupid Zero" - because they have a lot of coal power. Making out China is backwards and using fossil fuels so lets ditch renewables.

    Meanwhile, China continues to grow its dominant leadership position in solar and battery...
    Its not quite that simple. China is also using vast amount of coal power. We should be developing our own independent renewables plus batteries and all that is needed, but we don't also have to tie our hands behind our backs with net zero.
    They're vast - of course they are using a lot of the thing they already had. But coal will ramp down and solar will ramp up. When people use Chinese coal as the excuse to tie our hands behind our backs with LNG imports, it makes no sense.
    China is all about producing as much power as possible, it doesn't particularly care whether or not it's green or coal or whatever.
    It's entirely non ideological, unlike BOTH Miliband & Farage when it comes to power.
    They do care. They have a plan to reduce fossil fuel use. They know their agriculture is vulnerable to global warming, in a way that the US and Russia, for example, are not.

    In Britain we've been distracted by arguing over whether to do it, rather than working out how best to do it. And we're still having that false argument while China is simply doing it.
    As I understand it, in China they don't have to worry about people with other opinions on issues.
    In a democracy it requires skillful political leadership to convince the population of the need for action, but then the greater freedom in society and the economy should make that action more effective.

    Democracies have not been blessed by good leadership in recent years. They have chosen to follow the voters instead of lead them, while right-wing plutocrats have shaped public opinion to benefit their narrow interests.
    Yes, look at that benighted democracy that has followed its voters most slavishly of all -Switzerland. Foolishly refusing to join the EU, foolishly holding referenda all the time, foolishly chucking out their leaders on a rotating basis. One can only look at their sad state with a mixture of pity and horror.
    You are not discussing this with me in good faith, and I am not going to waste my time explaining how you've willfully misunderstood my opinion with the aim of winning an internet debate.
    Pah. There is zero chance of him doing that.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 33,308
    A friend who worked in the City once apologised for calling on his 9yo daughter's spare phone while the company boffins repaired his own. He worked for one of the biggest banks in the world, earning high six figures, and yet they'd not planned any sort of broken phone contingency.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 124,261
    MaxPB said:

    What's most surprising is that no official word has gone out from a Vodafone exec on a non-Vodafone platform like Twatter/X or Facebook. That implies they're in very big trouble.

    Three is working fine so it’s not an integration issue.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 40,484

    MaxPB said:

    What's most surprising is that no official word has gone out from a Vodafone exec on a non-Vodafone platform like Twatter/X or Facebook. That implies they're in very big trouble.

    Three is working fine so it’s not an integration issue.
    I wonder if it is in fact the legacy C&W backbone that got hit
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 33,308
    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course.
    BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.

    Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.

    Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing.
    All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here.

    https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653

    After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.

    China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
    Developing the Greenland rare earths just got more urgent.
    Yep, we all need to be doing deals with friendly nations.

    China is not a friendly nation, anything but. The West needs to come up with a response the Chinese will understand, whether it be high tariffs or even banning Chinese cars and other key exports, especially anything with their new battery tech.
    The UK might be better off encouraging them to build battery manufacturing here.
    One of the most laughable things the Reform clowns do is cite China as the reason to ditch "Net Stupid Zero" - because they have a lot of coal power. Making out China is backwards and using fossil fuels so lets ditch renewables.

    Meanwhile, China continues to grow its dominant leadership position in solar and battery...
    There's a Chinese firm that has built a single solar farm high the Himalayas that is 6x the size of Manhattan. Getting the panels higher means less chance of cloud cover, and means less of the solar energy has been absorbed by the air on the way down. It also means that the panels stay cool, because it's cold up there: and the colder a panel is, the more efficient it is.

    You would think the cost of interconnection would make this uneconomic, but because solar panels are now so cheap, and because land is basically free up there, the RoCE looks incredible.
    Sounds like Scotland. People get hung up on Spain and Africa having more sunshine than dear old Blighty, which is correct, but now they are giving away solar panels in cornflake packets, the extra cost is irrelevant.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 32,926

    AnneJGP said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Nigelb said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course.
    BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.

    Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.

    Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing.
    All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here.

    https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653

    After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.

    China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
    Developing the Greenland rare earths just got more urgent.
    Yep, we all need to be doing deals with friendly nations.

    China is not a friendly nation, anything but. The West needs to come up with a response the Chinese will understand, whether it be high tariffs or even banning Chinese cars and other key exports, especially anything with their new battery tech.
    The UK might be better off encouraging them to build battery manufacturing here.
    One of the most laughable things the Reform clowns do is cite China as the reason to ditch "Net Stupid Zero" - because they have a lot of coal power. Making out China is backwards and using fossil fuels so lets ditch renewables.

    Meanwhile, China continues to grow its dominant leadership position in solar and battery...
    Its not quite that simple. China is also using vast amount of coal power. We should be developing our own independent renewables plus batteries and all that is needed, but we don't also have to tie our hands behind our backs with net zero.
    They're vast - of course they are using a lot of the thing they already had. But coal will ramp down and solar will ramp up. When people use Chinese coal as the excuse to tie our hands behind our backs with LNG imports, it makes no sense.
    China is all about producing as much power as possible, it doesn't particularly care whether or not it's green or coal or whatever.
    It's entirely non ideological, unlike BOTH Miliband & Farage when it comes to power.
    They do care. They have a plan to reduce fossil fuel use. They know their agriculture is vulnerable to global warming, in a way that the US and Russia, for example, are not.

    In Britain we've been distracted by arguing over whether to do it, rather than working out how best to do it. And we're still having that false argument while China is simply doing it.
    As I understand it, in China they don't have to worry about people with other opinions on issues.
    In a democracy it requires skillful political leadership to convince the population of the need for action, but then the greater freedom in society and the economy should make that action more effective.

    Democracies have not been blessed by good leadership in recent years. They have chosen to follow the voters instead of lead them, while right-wing plutocrats have shaped public opinion to benefit their narrow interests.
    Yes, look at that benighted democracy that has followed its voters most slavishly of all -Switzerland. Foolishly refusing to join the EU, foolishly holding referenda all the time, foolishly chucking out their leaders on a rotating basis. One can only look at their sad state with a mixture of pity and horror.
    You are not discussing this with me in good faith, and I am not going to waste my time explaining how you've willfully misunderstood my opinion with the aim of winning an internet debate.
    I have used sarcasm - that does not mean that my point is not a valid one in response to yours. Your point clearly implied that the 'b' word (never far from some peoples' thoughts) shouldn't have happened and that it showed the folly of 'being led by voters'. I responded by reminding you that Europes most successful state by the indicators that matter is led by its voters to a far greater extent than any other. And as an aside, has resisted the calls of its political class to join the EU.

    That demonstrates to me that we should have more democracy rather than less.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 30,278
    edited 3:07PM
    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course.
    BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.

    Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.

    Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing.
    All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here.

    https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653

    After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.

    China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
    Developing the Greenland rare earths just got more urgent.
    Yep, we all need to be doing deals with friendly nations.

    China is not a friendly nation, anything but. The West needs to come up with a response the Chinese will understand, whether it be high tariffs or even banning Chinese cars and other key exports, especially anything with their new battery tech.
    The UK might be better off encouraging them to build battery manufacturing here.
    One of the most laughable things the Reform clowns do is cite China as the reason to ditch "Net Stupid Zero" - because they have a lot of coal power. Making out China is backwards and using fossil fuels so lets ditch renewables.

    Meanwhile, China continues to grow its dominant leadership position in solar and battery...
    Yes, by fuelling their cheap manufacturing of those things and therefore their market leadership in them with dirty energy!

    We on the other hand, who used to make solar panels in the 1990s, have priced our manufacturing out of business, and now we import them and marvel at China's 'dominant leadership'.

    I refuse to believe that you're not sensible enough to understand all this.
    Are Reform proposing to make solar panels here? Wind turbines? To rebuild our lost manufacturing capacity in this area?

    Are they fuck.

    And as the rest of civilisation keeps going with renewables and Reform lose the 2034 election we find that we can do nothing else other than import.
    I don't know, but what they are doing is proposing to end what is effectively a hostile environment for manufacturing. Industries destroyed by successsive Governments (including this one) thoughtlessly increasing their cost base, cannot just 'come back' in a trice - apart from anything else, their mills and other heavy equipment have often been sold to factories in China and India. However we can at least get our foot off their neck.

    Mr Clarkson might have an idea…

    https://x.com/jeremyclarkson/status/1977424715666149817
    That would be genuinely interesting. We could see (maybe !) if all the Councillor shenanigans * has an impact on the Election of an MP.

    But I see Clarkson more as a "mascot" type Mayor than a working Mayor, or a working MP. I think he'd get bored.

    * RefUK Doncaster have lost 4 out of 55 by various routes, though the net is one down afaics, plus they have one still there who was involved in the airport conflict of interest.

    (There also seem to be a few ex-insiders, who suddenly find themselves as outsiders, coming out with commentary on how the party is fragile internally especially around centralisation and discipline, but it's still bits and pieces.)
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 56,101

    AnneJGP said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Nigelb said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course.
    BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.

    Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.

    Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing.
    All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here.

    https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653

    After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.

    China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
    Developing the Greenland rare earths just got more urgent.
    Yep, we all need to be doing deals with friendly nations.

    China is not a friendly nation, anything but. The West needs to come up with a response the Chinese will understand, whether it be high tariffs or even banning Chinese cars and other key exports, especially anything with their new battery tech.
    The UK might be better off encouraging them to build battery manufacturing here.
    One of the most laughable things the Reform clowns do is cite China as the reason to ditch "Net Stupid Zero" - because they have a lot of coal power. Making out China is backwards and using fossil fuels so lets ditch renewables.

    Meanwhile, China continues to grow its dominant leadership position in solar and battery...
    Its not quite that simple. China is also using vast amount of coal power. We should be developing our own independent renewables plus batteries and all that is needed, but we don't also have to tie our hands behind our backs with net zero.
    They're vast - of course they are using a lot of the thing they already had. But coal will ramp down and solar will ramp up. When people use Chinese coal as the excuse to tie our hands behind our backs with LNG imports, it makes no sense.
    China is all about producing as much power as possible, it doesn't particularly care whether or not it's green or coal or whatever.
    It's entirely non ideological, unlike BOTH Miliband & Farage when it comes to power.
    They do care. They have a plan to reduce fossil fuel use. They know their agriculture is vulnerable to global warming, in a way that the US and Russia, for example, are not.

    In Britain we've been distracted by arguing over whether to do it, rather than working out how best to do it. And we're still having that false argument while China is simply doing it.
    As I understand it, in China they don't have to worry about people with other opinions on issues.
    In a democracy it requires skillful political leadership to convince the population of the need for action, but then the greater freedom in society and the economy should make that action more effective.

    Democracies have not been blessed by good leadership in recent years. They have chosen to follow the voters instead of lead them, while right-wing plutocrats have shaped public opinion to benefit their narrow interests.
    Yes, look at that benighted democracy that has followed its voters most slavishly of all -Switzerland. Foolishly refusing to join the EU, foolishly holding referenda all the time, foolishly chucking out their leaders on a rotating basis. One can only look at their sad state with a mixture of pity and horror.
    Of course, it helps if your morals can turn a blind eye to your banking system being underpinned by Nazi gold that was not going to be reclaimed by its rightful owners...
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 124,261
    MaxPB said:

    Looks like there’s a major outage with both Vodafone mobile phone and home broadband services.

    One usually goes down but not both at the same time.

    Most government departments use Vodafone, I fear this is a major DNS attack by a foreign actor.

    Cyberattack is my bet, it does mean the end of my workday though as our VPN is blocked from hotspot connections.
    Am at an event where half the attendees are on Vodafone.
  • boulayboulay Posts: 7,598

    AnneJGP said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Nigelb said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course.
    BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.

    Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.

    Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing.
    All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here.

    https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653

    After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.

    China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
    Developing the Greenland rare earths just got more urgent.
    Yep, we all need to be doing deals with friendly nations.

    China is not a friendly nation, anything but. The West needs to come up with a response the Chinese will understand, whether it be high tariffs or even banning Chinese cars and other key exports, especially anything with their new battery tech.
    The UK might be better off encouraging them to build battery manufacturing here.
    One of the most laughable things the Reform clowns do is cite China as the reason to ditch "Net Stupid Zero" - because they have a lot of coal power. Making out China is backwards and using fossil fuels so lets ditch renewables.

    Meanwhile, China continues to grow its dominant leadership position in solar and battery...
    Its not quite that simple. China is also using vast amount of coal power. We should be developing our own independent renewables plus batteries and all that is needed, but we don't also have to tie our hands behind our backs with net zero.
    They're vast - of course they are using a lot of the thing they already had. But coal will ramp down and solar will ramp up. When people use Chinese coal as the excuse to tie our hands behind our backs with LNG imports, it makes no sense.
    China is all about producing as much power as possible, it doesn't particularly care whether or not it's green or coal or whatever.
    It's entirely non ideological, unlike BOTH Miliband & Farage when it comes to power.
    They do care. They have a plan to reduce fossil fuel use. They know their agriculture is vulnerable to global warming, in a way that the US and Russia, for example, are not.

    In Britain we've been distracted by arguing over whether to do it, rather than working out how best to do it. And we're still having that false argument while China is simply doing it.
    As I understand it, in China they don't have to worry about people with other opinions on issues.
    In a democracy it requires skillful political leadership to convince the population of the need for action, but then the greater freedom in society and the economy should make that action more effective.

    Democracies have not been blessed by good leadership in recent years. They have chosen to follow the voters instead of lead them, while right-wing plutocrats have shaped public opinion to benefit their narrow interests.
    Yes, look at that benighted democracy that has followed its voters most slavishly of all -Switzerland. Foolishly refusing to join the EU, foolishly holding referenda all the time, foolishly chucking out their leaders on a rotating basis. One can only look at their sad state with a mixture of pity and horror.
    A country where you can't run your washing machine before 8am or after 9pm, which doesn't sound like the sort of place you'd like to live, @Luckyguy1983
    That’s not really true and is a misunderstanding spread on the internet. There are apartment blocks where the resident rules prohibit it and there maybe the odd commune that doesn’t allow it. There are rules about using noisy gardening equipment too - my old commune was no machinery after 12 on a Saturday until Monday morning.

    The fact is that the Swiss make these rules on various scales from Country to Canton, to commune or apartment block because they can. Rules are set to suit the people who live in places by the people who live in places and u deer stand what works for them better than downward dictat from people with an agenda or completely different lifestyle etc.

    I think Luckyguy would very much appreciate the granular democracy there, they do cherish it, I remember referendum vote Sundays were big things with little village fetes around it, food stands and drinks and community spirit.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 57,531

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course.
    BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.

    Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.

    Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing.
    All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here.

    https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653

    After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.

    China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
    Developing the Greenland rare earths just got more urgent.
    Yep, we all need to be doing deals with friendly nations.

    China is not a friendly nation, anything but. The West needs to come up with a response the Chinese will understand, whether it be high tariffs or even banning Chinese cars and other key exports, especially anything with their new battery tech.
    The UK might be better off encouraging them to build battery manufacturing here.
    One of the most laughable things the Reform clowns do is cite China as the reason to ditch "Net Stupid Zero" - because they have a lot of coal power. Making out China is backwards and using fossil fuels so lets ditch renewables.

    Meanwhile, China continues to grow its dominant leadership position in solar and battery...
    There's a Chinese firm that has built a single solar farm high the Himalayas that is 6x the size of Manhattan. Getting the panels higher means less chance of cloud cover, and means less of the solar energy has been absorbed by the air on the way down. It also means that the panels stay cool, because it's cold up there: and the colder a panel is, the more efficient it is.

    You would think the cost of interconnection would make this uneconomic, but because solar panels are now so cheap, and because land is basically free up there, the RoCE looks incredible.
    Sounds like Scotland. People get hung up on Spain and Africa having more sunshine than dear old Blighty, which is correct, but now they are giving away solar panels in cornflake packets, the extra cost is irrelevant.
    We are nearly at the point that raw panels are the cheap option vs some plywood.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 33,308
    edited 3:08PM

    carnforth said:

    All sorts of landline internet down in parts of the UK, including mine. Downdetector says almost every network:

    https://downdetector.co.uk/

    I can't see anything about it. Maybe downdetector is down.

    ETA top interwebs journal The Sun blames Vodafone.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/36989720/vodafone-broadband-down-thousands-internet-access/
    Down detector has been really useful for me on the couple of ocassions that Sky Glass has totally messed itself up (including one where the TV's bricked themselves, and last week where 'live' TV channels vanished. Its kinda reassuring that you are not alone...
    Same at work. I had all the vendor and infrastructure status pages to hand and it often saved a lot of troubleshooting if I could tell people, it's not our fault, XXX is down.

    Same on pb come to think of it, if you think back to Vanilla's rolling upgrades (aka outages) over the summer.
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 20,666
    MaxPB said:

    What's most surprising is that no official word has gone out from a Vodafone exec on a non-Vodafone platform like Twatter/X or Facebook. That implies they're in very big trouble.

    I'm not surprised. Sky usually say nothing when Sky Glass or streaming is down.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 32,926
    ...
    boulay said:

    AnneJGP said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Nigelb said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course.
    BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.

    Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.

    Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing.
    All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here.

    https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653

    After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.

    China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
    Developing the Greenland rare earths just got more urgent.
    Yep, we all need to be doing deals with friendly nations.

    China is not a friendly nation, anything but. The West needs to come up with a response the Chinese will understand, whether it be high tariffs or even banning Chinese cars and other key exports, especially anything with their new battery tech.
    The UK might be better off encouraging them to build battery manufacturing here.
    One of the most laughable things the Reform clowns do is cite China as the reason to ditch "Net Stupid Zero" - because they have a lot of coal power. Making out China is backwards and using fossil fuels so lets ditch renewables.

    Meanwhile, China continues to grow its dominant leadership position in solar and battery...
    Its not quite that simple. China is also using vast amount of coal power. We should be developing our own independent renewables plus batteries and all that is needed, but we don't also have to tie our hands behind our backs with net zero.
    They're vast - of course they are using a lot of the thing they already had. But coal will ramp down and solar will ramp up. When people use Chinese coal as the excuse to tie our hands behind our backs with LNG imports, it makes no sense.
    China is all about producing as much power as possible, it doesn't particularly care whether or not it's green or coal or whatever.
    It's entirely non ideological, unlike BOTH Miliband & Farage when it comes to power.
    They do care. They have a plan to reduce fossil fuel use. They know their agriculture is vulnerable to global warming, in a way that the US and Russia, for example, are not.

    In Britain we've been distracted by arguing over whether to do it, rather than working out how best to do it. And we're still having that false argument while China is simply doing it.
    As I understand it, in China they don't have to worry about people with other opinions on issues.
    In a democracy it requires skillful political leadership to convince the population of the need for action, but then the greater freedom in society and the economy should make that action more effective.

    Democracies have not been blessed by good leadership in recent years. They have chosen to follow the voters instead of lead them, while right-wing plutocrats have shaped public opinion to benefit their narrow interests.
    Yes, look at that benighted democracy that has followed its voters most slavishly of all -Switzerland. Foolishly refusing to join the EU, foolishly holding referenda all the time, foolishly chucking out their leaders on a rotating basis. One can only look at their sad state with a mixture of pity and horror.
    A country where you can't run your washing machine before 8am or after 9pm, which doesn't sound like the sort of place you'd like to live, @Luckyguy1983
    That’s not really true and is a misunderstanding spread on the internet. There are apartment blocks where the resident rules prohibit it and there maybe the odd commune that doesn’t allow it. There are rules about using noisy gardening equipment too - my old commune was no machinery after 12 on a Saturday until Monday morning.

    The fact is that the Swiss make these rules on various scales from Country to Canton, to commune or apartment block because they can. Rules are set to suit the people who live in places by the people who live in places and u deer stand what works for them better than downward dictat from people with an agenda or completely different lifestyle etc.

    I think Luckyguy would very much appreciate the granular democracy there, they do cherish it, I remember referendum vote Sundays were big things with little village fetes around it, food stands and drinks and community spirit.
    My parents lived there for a time, it was nice.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 57,531

    A friend who worked in the City once apologised for calling on his 9yo daughter's spare phone while the company boffins repaired his own. He worked for one of the biggest banks in the world, earning high six figures, and yet they'd not planned any sort of broken phone contingency.

    Proper Prior Preparation

    Worked with a guy who people laughed at as over prepared. Lived out in the sticks. One day, got a phone call from the wife on the "funny phone" (she called it - satellite phone). Everything was out in the neighbourhood - power lines down due to storm, took forever to restore. Phones, power etc was out for everyone. Except him.

    When the power went down, his UPS tripped onto the batteries and fired up the generator. Powered by heating oil from the tank - yes, special generator. This kept the house online without interruption. So he had the only working fridge/freezer for miles around. And the only working heating. Because most people forget that a fuel oil system relies on a pump. An electric pump.....

    That was years back. Haven't been in contact for a while. Bet he has a set of old EV batteries in a shed, now.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 40,916

    MaxPB said:

    What's most surprising is that no official word has gone out from a Vodafone exec on a non-Vodafone platform like Twatter/X or Facebook. That implies they're in very big trouble.

    I'm not surprised. Sky usually say nothing when Sky Glass or streaming is down.
    This is a different scale to Sky Glass being down. This is the whole of Vodafone broadband and the whole mobile data network being down for over an hour with no official word on when service will be resumed.
  • DopermeanDopermean Posts: 1,716
    boulay said:

    AnneJGP said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Nigelb said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course.
    BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.

    Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.

    Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing.
    All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here.

    https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653

    After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.

    China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
    Developing the Greenland rare earths just got more urgent.
    Yep, we all need to be doing deals with friendly nations.

    China is not a friendly nation, anything but. The West needs to come up with a response the Chinese will understand, whether it be high tariffs or even banning Chinese cars and other key exports, especially anything with their new battery tech.
    The UK might be better off encouraging them to build battery manufacturing here.
    One of the most laughable things the Reform clowns do is cite China as the reason to ditch "Net Stupid Zero" - because they have a lot of coal power. Making out China is backwards and using fossil fuels so lets ditch renewables.

    Meanwhile, China continues to grow its dominant leadership position in solar and battery...
    Its not quite that simple. China is also using vast amount of coal power. We should be developing our own independent renewables plus batteries and all that is needed, but we don't also have to tie our hands behind our backs with net zero.
    They're vast - of course they are using a lot of the thing they already had. But coal will ramp down and solar will ramp up. When people use Chinese coal as the excuse to tie our hands behind our backs with LNG imports, it makes no sense.
    China is all about producing as much power as possible, it doesn't particularly care whether or not it's green or coal or whatever.
    It's entirely non ideological, unlike BOTH Miliband & Farage when it comes to power.
    They do care. They have a plan to reduce fossil fuel use. They know their agriculture is vulnerable to global warming, in a way that the US and Russia, for example, are not.

    In Britain we've been distracted by arguing over whether to do it, rather than working out how best to do it. And we're still having that false argument while China is simply doing it.
    As I understand it, in China they don't have to worry about people with other opinions on issues.
    In a democracy it requires skillful political leadership to convince the population of the need for action, but then the greater freedom in society and the economy should make that action more effective.

    Democracies have not been blessed by good leadership in recent years. They have chosen to follow the voters instead of lead them, while right-wing plutocrats have shaped public opinion to benefit their narrow interests.
    Yes, look at that benighted democracy that has followed its voters most slavishly of all -Switzerland. Foolishly refusing to join the EU, foolishly holding referenda all the time, foolishly chucking out their leaders on a rotating basis. One can only look at their sad state with a mixture of pity and horror.
    A country where you can't run your washing machine before 8am or after 9pm, which doesn't sound like the sort of place you'd like to live, @Luckyguy1983
    That’s not really true and is a misunderstanding spread on the internet. There are apartment blocks where the resident rules prohibit it and there maybe the odd commune that doesn’t allow it. There are rules about using noisy gardening equipment too - my old commune was no machinery after 12 on a Saturday until Monday morning.

    The fact is that the Swiss make these rules on various scales from Country to Canton, to commune or apartment block because they can. Rules are set to suit the people who live in places by the people who live in places and u deer stand what works for them better than downward dictat from people with an agenda or completely different lifestyle etc.

    I think Luckyguy would very much appreciate the granular democracy there, they do cherish it, I remember referendum vote Sundays were big things with little village fetes around it, food stands and drinks and community spirit.
    no garden machinery after 12 on a Saturday, does that include all DIY?
    Sounds like a win for the combined unions of gardeners, handymen and people with hobbies other than gardening and DIY.
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 67,900
    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    What's most surprising is that no official word has gone out from a Vodafone exec on a non-Vodafone platform like Twatter/X or Facebook. That implies they're in very big trouble.

    I'm not surprised. Sky usually say nothing when Sky Glass or streaming is down.
    This is a different scale to Sky Glass being down. This is the whole of Vodafone broadband and the whole mobile data network being down for over an hour with no official word on when service will be resumed.
    https://news.sky.com/story/vodafone-internet-services-down-for-thousands-of-users-13449569
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 20,666
    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    What's most surprising is that no official word has gone out from a Vodafone exec on a non-Vodafone platform like Twatter/X or Facebook. That implies they're in very big trouble.

    I'm not surprised. Sky usually say nothing when Sky Glass or streaming is down.
    This is a different scale to Sky Glass being down. This is the whole of Vodafone broadband and the whole mobile data network being down for over an hour with no official word on when service will be resumed.
    I appreciate that but right now they will be trying to fix it, not concentrating on comms.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 30,278
    edited 3:16PM
    "What have I learned from 3 years on Youtube?"

    By out Tesla correspondent. Quite interesting.

    (Waves hand in a circle.)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crFaYgR0aeI
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 124,261

    NEW THREAD

  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 47,646

    rkrkrk said:

    It certainly looks like quite a triumph for Trump.

    If he can actually get a Palestinian state established in spite of Netanyahu opposition and keep the warring sides apart somehow he will actually deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. I would never have predicted that.

    It also kind of makes you wonder what Obama/Biden were doing... if all that was needed was just to play hardball with Israel... why didn't they think of that?

    They did play hardball with Israel, so why the difference now? There might be many answers to that. The progress of the Gaza war has turned many against Bibi’s approach, internationally and domestically. So, the whole context was different now to what it was earlier in the war or before Hamas’s attack. It’s only an example, but the UK and other countries recognising a Palestinian state is part of that. Remember also that Netanyahu is now very unpopular at home, and the only thing that Bibi cares about is staying in power. Most of Israel wanted a way out of this war, and they wanted the hostages back.

    But it also matters that the hardball came from Trump. If Democrat Presidents played hardball with Israel, the government there always had the hope of a Republican coming into office and reversing anything that was done. If the Republicans are complaining, if Trump is, that’s different. It’s like being PM. If the opposition are calling for your resignation, that’s a normal Monday. If your Chancellor of Exchequer does, that’s another matter. Likewise, if his ally, his best pal, Donald Trump is saying something, Netanyahu had to listen.
    Good points. Although for me it's a questionable assertion that no president other than Donald Trump would by now and at long last have used the USA's leverage over Israel to force a ceasefire in Gaza.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 82,044

    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    What's most surprising is that no official word has gone out from a Vodafone exec on a non-Vodafone platform like Twatter/X or Facebook. That implies they're in very big trouble.

    I'm not surprised. Sky usually say nothing when Sky Glass or streaming is down.
    This is a different scale to Sky Glass being down. This is the whole of Vodafone broadband and the whole mobile data network being down for over an hour with no official word on when service will be resumed.
    I appreciate that but right now they will be trying to fix it, not concentrating on comms.
    National media have noticed.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-15187927/Vodafone-Network-crash-outage-UK.html
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 31,192
    .
    MattW said:

    "What have I learned from 3 years on Youtube?"

    By out Tesla correspondent. Quite interesting.

    (Waves hand in a circle.)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crFaYgR0aeI

    lol - I've just posted a link to that on Twix
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 57,531

    ...

    boulay said:

    AnneJGP said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Nigelb said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course.
    BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.

    Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.

    Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing.
    All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here.

    https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653

    After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.

    China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
    Developing the Greenland rare earths just got more urgent.
    Yep, we all need to be doing deals with friendly nations.

    China is not a friendly nation, anything but. The West needs to come up with a response the Chinese will understand, whether it be high tariffs or even banning Chinese cars and other key exports, especially anything with their new battery tech.
    The UK might be better off encouraging them to build battery manufacturing here.
    One of the most laughable things the Reform clowns do is cite China as the reason to ditch "Net Stupid Zero" - because they have a lot of coal power. Making out China is backwards and using fossil fuels so lets ditch renewables.

    Meanwhile, China continues to grow its dominant leadership position in solar and battery...
    Its not quite that simple. China is also using vast amount of coal power. We should be developing our own independent renewables plus batteries and all that is needed, but we don't also have to tie our hands behind our backs with net zero.
    They're vast - of course they are using a lot of the thing they already had. But coal will ramp down and solar will ramp up. When people use Chinese coal as the excuse to tie our hands behind our backs with LNG imports, it makes no sense.
    China is all about producing as much power as possible, it doesn't particularly care whether or not it's green or coal or whatever.
    It's entirely non ideological, unlike BOTH Miliband & Farage when it comes to power.
    They do care. They have a plan to reduce fossil fuel use. They know their agriculture is vulnerable to global warming, in a way that the US and Russia, for example, are not.

    In Britain we've been distracted by arguing over whether to do it, rather than working out how best to do it. And we're still having that false argument while China is simply doing it.
    As I understand it, in China they don't have to worry about people with other opinions on issues.
    In a democracy it requires skillful political leadership to convince the population of the need for action, but then the greater freedom in society and the economy should make that action more effective.

    Democracies have not been blessed by good leadership in recent years. They have chosen to follow the voters instead of lead them, while right-wing plutocrats have shaped public opinion to benefit their narrow interests.
    Yes, look at that benighted democracy that has followed its voters most slavishly of all -Switzerland. Foolishly refusing to join the EU, foolishly holding referenda all the time, foolishly chucking out their leaders on a rotating basis. One can only look at their sad state with a mixture of pity and horror.
    A country where you can't run your washing machine before 8am or after 9pm, which doesn't sound like the sort of place you'd like to live, @Luckyguy1983
    That’s not really true and is a misunderstanding spread on the internet. There are apartment blocks where the resident rules prohibit it and there maybe the odd commune that doesn’t allow it. There are rules about using noisy gardening equipment too - my old commune was no machinery after 12 on a Saturday until Monday morning.

    The fact is that the Swiss make these rules on various scales from Country to Canton, to commune or apartment block because they can. Rules are set to suit the people who live in places by the people who live in places and u deer stand what works for them better than downward dictat from people with an agenda or completely different lifestyle etc.

    I think Luckyguy would very much appreciate the granular democracy there, they do cherish it, I remember referendum vote Sundays were big things with little village fetes around it, food stands and drinks and community spirit.
    My parents lived there for a time, it was nice.
    Though @Luckyguy1983 might find a country where *not* possessing a fully automatic weapon is illegal, interesting.
  • AnneJGPAnneJGP Posts: 4,116
    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    What's most surprising is that no official word has gone out from a Vodafone exec on a non-Vodafone platform like Twatter/X or Facebook. That implies they're in very big trouble.

    I'm not surprised. Sky usually say nothing when Sky Glass or streaming is down.
    This is a different scale to Sky Glass being down. This is the whole of Vodafone broadband and the whole mobile data network being down for over an hour with no official word on when service will be resumed.
    Tradition suggests 15 minutes (a rolling 15 minutes from the time of the latest call).
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 32,926

    MaxPB said:

    Looks like there’s a major outage with both Vodafone mobile phone and home broadband services.

    One usually goes down but not both at the same time.

    Most government departments use Vodafone, I fear this is a major DNS attack by a foreign actor.

    Cyberattack is my bet, it does mean the end of my workday though as our VPN is blocked from hotspot connections.
    When I worked in the game...
    I, um, had no idea your career was so varied.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 57,444

    A friend who worked in the City once apologised for calling on his 9yo daughter's spare phone while the company boffins repaired his own. He worked for one of the biggest banks in the world, earning high six figures, and yet they'd not planned any sort of broken phone contingency.

    Proper Prior Preparation

    Worked with a guy who people laughed at as over prepared. Lived out in the sticks. One day, got a phone call from the wife on the "funny phone" (she called it - satellite phone). Everything was out in the neighbourhood - power lines down due to storm, took forever to restore. Phones, power etc was out for everyone. Except him.

    When the power went down, his UPS tripped onto the batteries and fired up the generator. Powered by heating oil from the tank - yes, special generator. This kept the house online without interruption. So he had the only working fridge/freezer for miles around. And the only working heating. Because most people forget that a fuel oil system relies on a pump. An electric pump.....

    That was years back. Haven't been in contact for a while. Bet he has a set of old EV batteries in a shed, now.
    A set of old EV batteries, wired up to a pair of Starlink receivers.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 33,308

    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    What's most surprising is that no official word has gone out from a Vodafone exec on a non-Vodafone platform like Twatter/X or Facebook. That implies they're in very big trouble.

    I'm not surprised. Sky usually say nothing when Sky Glass or streaming is down.
    This is a different scale to Sky Glass being down. This is the whole of Vodafone broadband and the whole mobile data network being down for over an hour with no official word on when service will be resumed.
    I appreciate that but right now they will be trying to fix it, not concentrating on comms.
    SOP in these sorts of incidents is to have someone designated to updating comms every half hour or so. It is probably part of ITIL.
  • BattlebusBattlebus Posts: 1,732
    edited 5:01PM
    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course.
    BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.

    Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.

    Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing.
    All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here.

    https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653

    After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.

    China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
    Developing the Greenland rare earths just got more urgent.
    Yep, we all need to be doing deals with friendly nations.

    China is not a friendly nation, anything but. The West needs to come up with a response the Chinese will understand, whether it be high tariffs or even banning Chinese cars and other key exports, especially anything with their new battery tech.
    The UK might be better off encouraging them to build battery manufacturing here.
    One of the most laughable things the Reform clowns do is cite China as the reason to ditch "Net Stupid Zero" - because they have a lot of coal power. Making out China is backwards and using fossil fuels so lets ditch renewables.

    Meanwhile, China continues to grow its dominant leadership position in solar and battery...
    There's a Chinese firm that has built a single solar farm high the Himalayas that is 6x the size of Manhattan. Getting the panels higher means less chance of cloud cover, and means less of the solar energy has been absorbed by the air on the way down. It also means that the panels stay cool, because it's cold up there: and the colder a panel is, the more efficient it is.

    You would think the cost of interconnection would make this uneconomic, but because solar panels are now so cheap, and because land is basically free up there, the RoCE looks incredible.
    They have these in the Swiss alps too but only 2000m. Floats on a lake there.
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