Puts hands up. There are counter examples where it has been utilised well at this very world cup, and handled quicker. The problems are related to operation, not the principle. For instance, the VAR officials are overly harsh on situations where someone heads a ball into someone else's arm which they couldn'tt possibly avoid, and when they call over the ref to review it the expectation is they should overturn.
Wait until England go out to a crazy VAR decision before deciding!
I am very pro-VAR. EVERY SINGLE other sport uses the technology available to try to make the best decisions. Football tends to be twenty years behind and to be wilfully stupid when it does catch up - 'we can't get every decision right, so we won't even try'.
And while it's possible England will go out to a crazy VAR decision, it would be more likely, without VAR, that England will go out to a crazy non-VAR decision. Overall, more right decisions are made.
Today's Tesco Strawberry score is a disappointing six:
Aberdeenshire Angus Staffordshire Herefordshire Surrey Kent
There seems to be a pattern of low scores at the start of the working week slowly increasing to a weekend peak.
In Aldi today they had wonky British strawberries for sale (the label was wonky strawberries) . So not only are there enough workers to pick class 1 strawbs they have enough staff to pick the duff ones as well. What is this fakes news stuff that I keep hearing about.
Put me in the camp of those pissed off about the Swansea Tidal Lagoon project.
I thought it was an extremely exciting new technology, with potential big wins for UK plc and pure energy security.
Yes, it’s unproven and a bit pricey upfront (what new tech isn’t?) but i think it was worthy of further work, and would help regenerate some of our more deprived/isolated regions as well.
CR they wanted a strike price agreed for 90 years. 90 years! New nuclear only wants 35
Hinckley will cost more long term than than the lagoon project would have. Where will the nuclear waste go, and the decommissioning costs. Also the strike price decreased over the life of the lagoon, to £45 in 90 years which is cheap enough
Put me in the camp of those pissed off about the Swansea Tidal Lagoon project.
I thought it was an extremely exciting new technology, with potential big wins for UK plc and pure energy security.
Yes, it’s unproven and a bit pricey upfront (what new tech isn’t?) but i think it was worthy of further work, and would help regenerate some of our more deprived/isolated regions as well.
It has infuriated me and will cause serious problems for all the Welsh conservative mp's and to announce it on the day of the Heathrow vote was crass and shows this government has lost it's political antenna. As well as hitting Swansea it hits North Wales where a further lagoon was planned. It was also in the 2015 conservative manifesto. It also follows the cancellation of electrification to Swansea by the government.
As well as Boris's cowardice and Williamson's over promotion the party are doing their best to lose my membership.
At least Theresa is attending the huge Arm Forces Day in Llandudno on Saturday with the red arrows, battle of britain memorial flight, and a typhoon air display. At least we can enjoy the air displays from our balcony without going into Llandudno but enthusiasts should walk up the Little Orme and watch the display unfold with the red arrows flying below you
We will not always have coal. We will not always have gas. We won't always have uranium and we have to import it from places we can't be sure will stay friendly. We don't always have wind, or sunlight.
But as long as we have a moon we have tides.
As dumbarse decisions go, this is an impressive one.
(And @Hyufd - I lived in Aberystwyth for far longer than a year. Believe me, they'll be pissed off.)
We will not always have coal. We will not always have gas. We won't always have uranium and we have to import it from places we can't be sure will stay friendly. We don't always have wind, or sunlight.
But as long as we have a moon we have tides.
As dumbarse decisions go, this is an impressive one.
(And @Hyufd - I lived in Aberystwyth for far longer than a year. Believe me, they'll be pissed off.)
Puts hands up. There are counter examples where it has been utilised well at this very world cup, and handled quicker. The problems are related to operation, not the principle. For instance, the VAR officials are overly harsh on situations where someone heads a ball into someone else's arm which they couldn'tt possibly avoid, and when they call over the ref to review it the expectation is they should overturn.
Wait until England go out to a crazy VAR decision before deciding!
I am very pro-VAR. EVERY SINGLE other sport uses the technology available to try to make the best decisions. Football tends to be twenty years behind and to be wilfully stupid when it does catch up - 'we can't get every decision right, so we won't even try'.
And while it's possible England will go out to a crazy VAR decision, it would be more likely, without VAR, that England will go out to a crazy non-VAR decision. Overall, more right decisions are made.
The main problem with VAR is that when a decision is referred the referee is too likely to change his mind as the fact of the referral means he then has some doubt. This was really exemplified this evening, the ref should have just stuck to his original decision in all 3 cases I think. Stronger refs will stick to their original decision more I think, this match ought to be this refs last he of the tourbament. Also cards need to be dished out for haranguing the ref and rolling around as if you've been shot to try and buy fouls and penalties. That isnt happening
We will not always have coal. We will not always have gas. We won't always have uranium and we have to import it from places we can't be sure will stay friendly. We don't always have wind, or sunlight.
But as long as we have a moon we have tides.
As dumbarse decisions go, this is an impressive one.
(And @Hyufd - I lived in Aberystwyth for far longer than a year. Believe me, they'll be pissed off.)
We all are
In addition, as has just been pointed out, it's illbloodylogical.
We will not always have coal. We will not always have gas. We won't always have uranium and we have to import it from places we can't be sure will stay friendly. We don't always have wind, or sunlight.
But as long as we have a moon we have tides.
As dumbarse decisions go, this is an impressive one.
(And @Hyufd - I lived in Aberystwyth for far longer than a year. Believe me, they'll be pissed off.)
But Aberystwyth has a statue of Edward VIII, what more do you want?
We will not always have coal. We will not always have gas. We won't always have uranium and we have to import it from places we can't be sure will stay friendly. We don't always have wind, or sunlight.
But as long as we have a moon we have tides.
As dumbarse decisions go, this is an impressive one.
(And @Hyufd - I lived in Aberystwyth for far longer than a year. Believe me, they'll be pissed off.)
We all are
In addition, as has just been pointed out, it's illbloodylogical.
It will be seen as the English elite disregarding Wales and will give a boost to Plaid
Today's Tesco Strawberry score is a disappointing six:
Aberdeenshire Angus Staffordshire Herefordshire Surrey Kent
There seems to be a pattern of low scores at the start of the working week slowly increasing to a weekend peak.
In Aldi today they had wonky British strawberries for sale (the label was wonky strawberries) . So not only are there enough workers to pick class 1 strawbs they have enough staff to pick the duff ones as well. What is this fakes news stuff that I keep hearing about.
Same workers, just that the wonky ones are rejected at the packing stage.
My own soft fruit is looking good, redcurrants ripened already, blackcurrants a week or so yet, raspberries and Tayberries ready. Apples, pears and plums look good too. These will all be picked by a British worker, yours truly!
The hot weather has been good for soft fruit. Global warming? should have got started years ago!
Does not add up, why go to the amateur part of the leave campaign when the professionals are available.
The professionals are toxic and have egos that would get in the way. By going for the young hired help with unimpeachable leave credentials he can wrap hope to wrap up the Brexiteer vote without compromising his own room for manoeuvre.
Sorry, just wrong. Leave.EU was the dreggs of the leave campaign. Basically Banks and Farage with the support of Cash, Jenkin, Bone or the old dinosaurs. Vote Leave were the professionals and also stuffed full of Tory Spads, afterwards a few were appointed to the T May team. So they are much better connected to the Tory Party than anybody who worked for Leave.EU. Cummings is still involved with Boris and Gove.
I'm reading "All Out War" at the moment (I weakened: I was saving it for Xmas but I had a long train journey). IIRC Cash, Jenkin, and Bone were on Vote Leave, not Leave.EU.
Here's a question for those of an engineering bent:
If we were starting from nothing, right here, right now, what would be the preferred form of power generation and how would it be decided?
I would use the criteria:
1) Clean - that's fossil fuel and arguably nuclear gone on the fly.
2) Reliable - that lets out wind and solar, which while useful are not trustworthy in a country with weather as variable as ours is.
3) Sufficiently powerful to meet demand, including peaks.
4) Domestic - that lets out quite a lot of other options, e.g. building an undersea cable to Iceland.
5) Cheap, or at least, with a realistic prospect of becoming cheaper than the alternatives (which certainly lets out nuclear - I find it hard to escape the suspicion hat prices are fixed for 35 years as a major hike is then anticipated).
6) Not use up valuable space needed for other things - that lets out large scale hydropower at any rate in the major population centres.
Now I would have said, speaking purely personally, looked at from that point of view tidal power - which is not really new or experimental technology if we're honest, the French have been using it (admittedly on a small scale) for 52 years - is a no-brainer for us. We have a huge tidal range, a vast coastline close to all major population and economic centres, and we don't want to build on land due to the concentration of population.
Of course question marks remain over 3 and 6 and it would be foolish to ignore the potential ecosystem changes this could lead to (which ultimately doomed the Severn barrage scheme). But certainly I think it should be hot favourite unless conclusively proven otherwise and I don't see this has been.
What do those who know about these things think? Am I completely wrong or have I got it right and the government got it wrong?
We will not always have coal. We will not always have gas. We won't always have uranium and we have to import it from places we can't be sure will stay friendly. We don't always have wind, or sunlight.
But as long as we have a moon we have tides.
As dumbarse decisions go, this is an impressive one.
(And @Hyufd - I lived in Aberystwyth for far longer than a year. Believe me, they'll be pissed off.)
But Aberystwyth has a statue of Edward VIII, what more do you want?
We will not always have coal. We will not always have gas. We won't always have uranium and we have to import it from places we can't be sure will stay friendly. We don't always have wind, or sunlight.
But as long as we have a moon we have tides.
As dumbarse decisions go, this is an impressive one.
(And @Hyufd - I lived in Aberystwyth for far longer than a year. Believe me, they'll be pissed off.)
But Aberystwyth has a statue of Edward VIII, what more do you want?
Does not add up, why go to the amateur part of the leave campaign when the professionals are available.
The professionals are toxic and have egos that would get in the way. By going for the young hired help with unimpeachable leave credentials he can wrap hope to wrap up the Brexiteer vote without compromising his own room for manoeuvre.
Sorry, just wrong. Leave.EU was the dreggs of the leave campaign. Basically Banks and Farage with the support of Cash, Jenkin, Bone or the old dinosaurs. Vote Leave were the professionals and also stuffed full of Tory Spads, afterwards a few were appointed to the T May team. So they are much better connected to the Tory Party than anybody who worked for Leave.EU. Cummings is still involved with Boris and Gove.
I'm reading "All Out War" at the moment (I weakened: I was saving it for Xmas but I had a long train journey). IIRC Cash, Jenkin, and Bone were on Vote Leave, not Leave.EU.
Do you want me to spoil your future reading or post what happened?
We will not always have coal. We will not always have gas. We won't always have uranium and we have to import it from places we can't be sure will stay friendly. We don't always have wind, or sunlight.
But as long as we have a moon we have tides.
As dumbarse decisions go, this is an impressive one.
(And @Hyufd - I lived in Aberystwyth for far longer than a year. Believe me, they'll be pissed off.)
But Aberystwyth has a statue of Edward VIII, what more do you want?
It has a broken neck, of course.
Serves the Nazi sympathiser right.
I often wondered if it was the Queen Mother after she'd over indulged herself in the Pier.
We will not always have coal. We will not always have gas. We won't always have uranium and we have to import it from places we can't be sure will stay friendly. We don't always have wind, or sunlight.
But as long as we have a moon we have tides.
As dumbarse decisions go, this is an impressive one.
(And @Hyufd - I lived in Aberystwyth for far longer than a year. Believe me, they'll be pissed off.)
But Aberystwyth has a statue of Edward VIII, what more do you want?
Don't forget the Cliff Lift (which I have done!). And the Rheidol Railway (which I haven't).
Here's a question for those of an engineering bent:
If we were starting from nothing, right here, right now, what would be the preferred form of power generation and how would it be decided?
I would use the criteria:
1) Clean - that's fossil fuel and arguably nuclear gone on the fly.
2) Reliable - that lets out wind and solar, which while useful are not trustworthy in a country with weather as variable as ours is.
3) Sufficiently powerful to meet demand, including peaks.
4) Domestic - that lets out quite a lot of other options, e.g. building an undersea cable to Iceland.
5) Cheap, or at least, with a realistic prospect of becoming cheaper than the alternatives (which certainly lets out nuclear - I find it hard to escape the suspicion hat prices are fixed for 35 years as a major hike is then anticipated).
6) Not use up valuable space needed for other things - that lets out large scale hydropower at any rate in the major population centres.
Now I would have said, speaking purely personally, looked at from that point of view tidal power - which is not really new or experimental technology if we're honest, the French have been using it (admittedly on a small scale) for 52 years - is a no-brainer for us. We have a huge tidal range, a vast coastline close to all major population and economic centres, and we don't want to build on land due to the concentration of population.
Of course question marks remain over 3 and 6 and it would be foolish to ignore the potential ecosystem changes this could lead to (which ultimately doomed the Severn barrage scheme). But certainly I think it should be hot favourite unless conclusively proven otherwise and I don't see this has been.
What do those who know about these things think? Am I completely wrong or have I got it right and the government got it wrong?
I'd say a mix rather than one solution. Don't put all our eggs in one basket. Renenwables + storage for most of the energy, plus more traditional baseload. At the same time make the entire power system (e.g. transmission) more fault- and load- tolerant.
Does not add up, why go to the amateur part of the leave campaign when the professionals are available.
The professionals are toxic and have egos that would get in the way. By going for the young hired help with unimpeachable leave credentials he can wrap hope to wrap up the Brexiteer vote without compromising his own room for manoeuvre.
Sorry, just wrong. Leave.EU was the dreggs of the leave campaign. Basically Banks and Farage with the support of Cash, Jenkin, Bone or the old dinosaurs. Vote Leave were the professionals and also stuffed full of Tory Spads, afterwards a few were appointed to the T May team. So they are much better connected to the Tory Party than anybody who worked for Leave.EU. Cummings is still involved with Boris and Gove.
I'm reading "All Out War" at the moment (I weakened: I was saving it for Xmas but I had a long train journey). IIRC Cash, Jenkin, and Bone were on Vote Leave, not Leave.EU.
Do you want me to spoil your future reading or post what happened?
I've gotten as far as the abortive coup and Tusk's leaking of the watered-down renegotiation: page 134 in the revised 2017 paperback, about a third of the way thru Chapter 8, about 20% of the whole book. So oddly, no spoilers please. Although I do note that Shipman gives away the referendum result at the very beginning...
Here's a question for those of an engineering bent:
If we were starting from nothing, right here, right now, what would be the preferred form of power generation and how would it be decided?
I would use the criteria:
1) Clean - that's fossil fuel and arguably nuclear gone on the fly.
2) Reliable - that lets out wind and solar, which while useful are not trustworthy in a country with weather as variable as ours is.
3) Sufficiently powerful to meet demand, including peaks.
4) Domestic - that lets out quite a lot of other options, e.g. building an undersea cable to Iceland.
5) Cheap, or at least, with a realistic prospect of becoming cheaper than the alternatives (which certainly lets out nuclear - I find it hard to escape the suspicion hat prices are fixed for 35 years as a major hike is then anticipated).
6) Not use up valuable space needed for other things - that lets out large scale hydropower at any rate in the major population centres.
Now I would have said, speaking purely personally, looked at from that point of view tidal power - which is not really new or experimental technology if we're honest, the French have been using it (admittedly on a small scale) for 52 years - is a no-brainer for us. We have a huge tidal range, a vast coastline close to all major population and economic centres, and we don't want to build on land due to the concentration of population.
Of course question marks remain over 3 and 6 and it would be foolish to ignore the potential ecosystem changes this could lead to (which ultimately doomed the Severn barrage scheme). But certainly I think it should be hot favourite unless conclusively proven otherwise and I don't see this has been.
What do those who know about these things think? Am I completely wrong or have I got it right and the government got it wrong?
Tide mills, which work on the same principle, were rather common on Atlantic shores, and there are some still functioning.
Here's a question for those of an engineering bent:
If we were starting from nothing, right here, right now, what would be the preferred form of power generation and how would it be decided?
I would use the criteria:
1) Clean - that's fossil fuel and arguably nuclear gone on the fly.
2) Reliable - that lets out wind and solar, which while useful are not trustworthy in a country with weather as variable as ours is.
3) Sufficiently powerful to meet demand, including peaks.
4) Domestic - that lets out quite a lot of other options, e.g. building an undersea cable to Iceland.
5) Cheap, or at least, with a realistic prospect of becoming cheaper than the alternatives (which certainly lets out nuclear - I find it hard to escape the suspicion hat prices are fixed for 35 years as a major hike is then anticipated).
6) Not use up valuable space needed for other things - that lets out large scale hydropower at any rate in the major population centres.
Now I would have said, speaking purely personally, looked at from that point of view tidal power - which is not really new or experimental technology if we're honest, the French have been using it (admittedly on a small scale) for 52 years - is a no-brainer for us. We have a huge tidal range, a vast coastline close to all major population and economic centres, and we don't want to build on land due to the concentration of population.
Of course question marks remain over 3 and 6 and it would be foolish to ignore the potential ecosystem changes this could lead to (which ultimately doomed the Severn barrage scheme). But certainly I think it should be hot favourite unless conclusively proven otherwise and I don't see this has been.
What do those who know about these things think? Am I completely wrong or have I got it right and the government got it wrong?
We will not always have coal. We will not always have gas. We won't always have uranium and we have to import it from places we can't be sure will stay friendly. We don't always have wind, or sunlight.
But as long as we have a moon we have tides.
As dumbarse decisions go, this is an impressive one.
(And @Hyufd - I lived in Aberystwyth for far longer than a year. Believe me, they'll be pissed off.)
But Aberystwyth has a statue of Edward VIII, what more do you want?
Don't forget the Cliff Lift (which I have done!). And the Rheidol Railway (which I haven't).
Now that's a ride that's worth doing. If you're lucky you get a day when the RAF are training and you get to see an aircraft in flight from above while you are being pulled by a steam train. Also you can sit at the back and look over the tracks.
(Edited to make it clear the jet isn't being pulled by the steam train!)
Does not add up, why go to the amateur part of the leave campaign when the professionals are available.
The professionals are toxic and have egos that would get in the way. By going for the young hired help with unimpeachable leave credentials he can wrap hope to wrap up the Brexiteer vote without compromising his own room for manoeuvre.
Sorry, just wrong. Leave.EU was the dreggs of the leave campaign. Basically Banks and Farage with the support of Cash, Jenkin, Bone or the old dinosaurs. Vote Leave were the professionals and also stuffed full of Tory Spads, afterwards a few were appointed to the T May team. So they are much better connected to the Tory Party than anybody who worked for Leave.EU. Cummings is still involved with Boris and Gove.
I'm reading "All Out War" at the moment (I weakened: I was saving it for Xmas but I had a long train journey). IIRC Cash, Jenkin, and Bone were on Vote Leave, not Leave.EU.
Do you want me to spoil your future reading or post what happened?
I've gotten as far as the abortive coup and Tusk's leaking of the watered-down renegotiation: page 134 in the revised 2017 paperback, about a third of the way thru Chapter 8, about 20% of the whole book. So oddly, no spoilers please. Although I do note that Shipman gives away the referendum result at the very beginning...
...although having said that, it's ludicrous to demand "no spoilers" for an event two years old. So feel free to post details as required
Does not add up, why go to the amateur part of the leave campaign when the professionals are available.
The professionals are toxic and have egos that would get in the way. By going for the young hired help with unimpeachable leave credentials he can wrap hope to wrap up the Brexiteer vote without compromising his own room for manoeuvre.
Sorry, just wrong. Leave.EU was the dreggs of the leave campaign. Basically Banks and Farage with the support of Cash, Jenkin, Bone or the old dinosaurs. Vote Leave were the professionals and also stuffed full of Tory Spads, afterwards a few were appointed to the T May team. So they are much better connected to the Tory Party than anybody who worked for Leave.EU. Cummings is still involved with Boris and Gove.
I'm reading "All Out War" at the moment (I weakened: I was saving it for Xmas but I had a long train journey). IIRC Cash, Jenkin, and Bone were on Vote Leave, not Leave.EU.
Do you want me to spoil your future reading or post what happened?
I've gotten as far as the abortive coup and Tusk's leaking of the watered-down renegotiation: page 134 in the revised 2017 paperback, about a third of the way thru Chapter 8, about 20% of the whole book. So oddly, no spoilers please. Although I do note that Shipman gives away the referendum result at the very beginning...
Here's a question for those of an engineering bent:
If we were starting from nothing, right here, right now, what would be the preferred form of power generation and how would it be decided?
I would use the criteria:
1) Clean - that's fossil fuel and arguably nuclear gone on the fly.
2) Reliable - that lets out wind and solar, which while useful are not trustworthy in a country with weather as variable as ours is.
3) Sufficiently powerful to meet demand, including peaks.
4) Domestic - that lets out quite a lot of other options, e.g. building an undersea cable to Iceland.
5) Cheap, or at least, with a realistic prospect of becoming cheaper than the alternatives (which certainly lets out nuclear - I find it hard to escape the suspicion hat prices are fixed for 35 years as a major hike is then anticipated).
6) Not use up valuable space needed for other things - that lets out large scale hydropower at any rate in the major population centres.
Now I would have said, speaking purely personally, looked at from that point of view tidal power - which is not really new or experimental technology if we're honest, the French have been using it (admittedly on a small scale) for 52 years - is a no-brainer for us. We have a huge tidal range, a vast coastline close to all major population and economic centres, and we don't want to build on land due to the concentration of population.
Of course question marks remain over 3 and 6 and it would be foolish to ignore the potential ecosystem changes this could lead to (which ultimately doomed the Severn barrage scheme). But certainly I think it should be hot favourite unless conclusively proven otherwise and I don't see this has been.
What do those who know about these things think? Am I completely wrong or have I got it right and the government got it wrong?
Tide mills, which work on the same principle, were rather common on Atlantic shores, and there are some still functioning.
I have been to the Eling one in the New Forest, but there is also a disused one at St Helens on the Isle of Wight.
That's a seriously clever idea if it works.
I have often wondered though - as a separate point - why off-shore wind turbines don't have underwater blades on them as well to harness wave or tide power. Seems an easy way of doubling or indeed more than doubling capacity. Is it just because it might make it difficult to approach them?
We will not always have coal. We will not always have gas. We won't always have uranium and we have to import it from places we can't be sure will stay friendly. We don't always have wind, or sunlight.
But as long as we have a moon we have tides.
As dumbarse decisions go, this is an impressive one.
(And @Hyufd - I lived in Aberystwyth for far longer than a year. Believe me, they'll be pissed off.)
We always have wind, and sunlight, unless you are going to sample over silly periods - and if you are going to do that, we don't always have tides either, we have slack water about 25% of the time. And we have batteries. The undisputed fact that tidal lagoons are a lovely, hoopy and froody idea is trumped by the fact that they are prohibitively expensive, if they are. If they aren't, let's see the figures establishing that they aren't.
Today's Tesco Strawberry score is a disappointing six:
Aberdeenshire Angus Staffordshire Herefordshire Surrey Kent
There seems to be a pattern of low scores at the start of the working week slowly increasing to a weekend peak.
In Aldi today they had wonky British strawberries for sale (the label was wonky strawberries) . So not only are there enough workers to pick class 1 strawbs they have enough staff to pick the duff ones as well. What is this fakes news stuff that I keep hearing about.
Same workers, just that the wonky ones are rejected at the packing stage.
My own soft fruit is looking good, redcurrants ripened already, blackcurrants a week or so yet, raspberries and Tayberries ready. Apples, pears and plums look good too. These will all be picked by a British worker, yours truly!
The hot weather has been good for soft fruit. Global warming? should have got started years ago!
Ref is called by VAR on a possible red card incident. So how come he gets to give a yellow?
In cricket the fielding team can use a review to try and get a possible wicket only for them to be penalised by being given a no ball instead. Once you've started the review the ref will react to what he sees accordingly even if it wasn't what the review was intended for.
Plus if you remove the possibility of a yellow it forces the ref to either not punish an incident or give a red. Removing the middle option could force s red where it doesn't belong.
We will not always have coal. We will not always have gas. We won't always have uranium and we have to import it from places we can't be sure will stay friendly. We don't always have wind, or sunlight.
But as long as we have a moon we have tides.
As dumbarse decisions go, this is an impressive one.
(And @Hyufd - I lived in Aberystwyth for far longer than a year. Believe me, they'll be pissed off.)
We always have wind, and sunlight, unless you are going to sample over silly periods - and if you are going to do that, we don't always have tides either, we have slack water about 25% of the time. And we have batteries. The undisputed fact that tidal lagoons are a lovely, hoopy and froody idea is trumped by the fact that they are prohibitively expensive, if they are. If they aren't, let's see the figures establishing that they aren't.
We have sunlight at night? Or winds in flat calms? (Indeed, they have to shut the rotors down in gales as well.)
One of the issues with the Rance system is that it operates at 28% efficiency not 90% like nuclear. Against that the technology dates from before Dr Who - literally. I think there is a possibility of improving on that.
I love my solar panels. Can run the washing machine off them if I'm careful. But at this moment with just the lights on I'm using more mains electricity than I did to run the oven earlier. Doesn't that rather underline solar's chief shortcoming?
Today's Tesco Strawberry score is a disappointing six:
Aberdeenshire Angus Staffordshire Herefordshire Surrey Kent
There seems to be a pattern of low scores at the start of the working week slowly increasing to a weekend peak.
In Aldi today they had wonky British strawberries for sale (the label was wonky strawberries) . So not only are there enough workers to pick class 1 strawbs they have enough staff to pick the duff ones as well. What is this fakes news stuff that I keep hearing about.
Same workers, just that the wonky ones are rejected at the packing stage.
My own soft fruit is looking good, redcurrants ripened already, blackcurrants a week or so yet, raspberries and Tayberries ready. Apples, pears and plums look good too. These will all be picked by a British worker, yours truly!
The hot weather has been good for soft fruit. Global warming? should have got started years ago!
What's a Tayberry ?
My mum says I loved Oi-berries when I was a toddler
I have often wondered though - as a separate point - why off-shore wind turbines don't have underwater blades on them as well to harness wave or tide power. Seems an easy way of doubling or indeed more than doubling capacity. Is it just because it might make it difficult to approach them?
I bet there'd be problems with permits (you'd have to get planning for both), but I reckon the main problem is that such tidal and wave power systems are very immature and unreliable long-term. The good thing about wind turbines is that they've matured enough that you can leave them alone for long periods with minimal maintenance. Wind and wave is nowhere near that now, as saltwater is nasty stuff.
People have been talking about wave power for decades, but there's virtually no production systems in use. The systems are simple in theory, but the practicalities of them are nasty. Tidal is mainly estuarine barrages, and not at-sea tidal systems.
Parliament's Central Lobby was briefly sealed off by police ahead of the vote as the Vote No Heathrow group chanted and laid on the floor to block MPs moving about.
Does not add up, why go to the amateur part of the leave campaign when the professionals are available.
The professionals are toxic and have egos that would get in the way. By going for the young hired help with unimpeachable leave credentials he can wrap hope to wrap up the Brexiteer vote without compromising his own room for manoeuvre.
Sorry, just wrong. Leave.EU was the dreggs of the leave campaign. Basically Banks and Farage with the support of Cash, Jenkin, Bone or the old dinosaurs. Vote Leave were the professionals and also stuffed full of Tory Spads, afterwards a few were appointed to the T May team. So they are much better connected to the Tory Party than anybody who worked for Leave.EU. Cummings is still involved with Boris and Gove.
I'm reading "All Out War" at the moment (I weakened: I was saving it for Xmas but I had a long train journey). IIRC Cash, Jenkin, and Bone were on Vote Leave, not Leave.EU.
Bone was initially with Grassroots out (GO) which sought to bridge the gap between vote leave and leave.eu. It was cross party - Kate Hoey who disliked Cummings tactics and style and even Respect/George Galloway - initially signed up - and Tom Pursglove was a co founder of that. Farage also spoke at a few GO rallies.
Then vote leave got the official electoral commission leave campaign designation rather than GO - Farage went back to leave.eu and the others to vote leave - and the rest is history.
Today's Tesco Strawberry score is a disappointing six:
Aberdeenshire Angus Staffordshire Herefordshire Surrey Kent
There seems to be a pattern of low scores at the start of the working week slowly increasing to a weekend peak.
In Aldi today they had wonky British strawberries for sale (the label was wonky strawberries) . So not only are there enough workers to pick class 1 strawbs they have enough staff to pick the duff ones as well. What is this fakes news stuff that I keep hearing about.
Same workers, just that the wonky ones are rejected at the packing stage.
My own soft fruit is looking good, redcurrants ripened already, blackcurrants a week or so yet, raspberries and Tayberries ready. Apples, pears and plums look good too. These will all be picked by a British worker, yours truly!
The hot weather has been good for soft fruit. Global warming? should have got started years ago!
I bet there'd be problems with permits (you'd have to get planning for both), but I reckon the main problem is that such tidal and wave power systems are very immature and unreliable long-term. The good thing about wind turbines is that they've matured enough that you can leave them alone for long periods with minimal maintenance. Wind and wave is nowhere near that now, as saltwater is nasty stuff.
People have been talking about wave power for decades, but there's virtually no production systems in use. The systems are simple in theory, but the practicalities of them are nasty. Tidal is mainly estuarine barrages, and not at-sea tidal systems.
Today's Tesco Strawberry score is a disappointing six:
Aberdeenshire Angus Staffordshire Herefordshire Surrey Kent
There seems to be a pattern of low scores at the start of the working week slowly increasing to a weekend peak.
In Aldi today they had wonky British strawberries for sale (the label was wonky strawberries) . So not only are there enough workers to pick class 1 strawbs they have enough staff to pick the duff ones as well. What is this fakes news stuff that I keep hearing about.
Same workers, just that the wonky ones are rejected at the packing stage.
My own soft fruit is looking good, redcurrants ripened already, blackcurrants a week or so yet, raspberries and Tayberries ready. Apples, pears and plums look good too. These will all be picked by a British worker, yours truly!
The hot weather has been good for soft fruit. Global warming? should have got started years ago!
What's a Tayberry ?
It is a raspberry/blackberry hybrid, a bit like a Loganberry, but darker and sweeter. It looks like a thornless blackberry* and crops in June/July.
*I have one of these too, and while they are easy to pick, they are rather tasteless.
I have often wondered though - as a separate point - why off-shore wind turbines don't have underwater blades on them as well to harness wave or tide power. Seems an easy way of doubling or indeed more than doubling capacity. Is it just because it might make it difficult to approach them?
I bet there'd be problems with permits (you'd have to get planning for both), but I reckon the main problem is that such tidal and wave power systems are very immature and unreliable long-term. The good thing about wind turbines is that they've matured enough that you can leave them alone for long periods with minimal maintenance. Wind and wave is nowhere near that now, as saltwater is nasty stuff.
People have been talking about wave power for decades, but there's virtually no production systems in use. The systems are simple in theory, but the practicalities of them are nasty. Tidal is mainly estuarine barrages, and not at-sea tidal systems.
(All AIUI, IANAE)
The advantage of Tide Mills is that the wall is stone, and the wheel is made of wood, as can be the gates, so relatively low maintenance. They must be away from strong waves, but do make for a good wetland for wading birds. I think they are low efficiency compared with turbines though. When on the Wight, I often used to walk my dog along this one.
I have a feeling he would be saying it should be Stansted if Gatwick had been chosen.
People in Sussex and Essex can't vote in the next Mayoral elections - so who cares if their peace is disturbed.
Like Brexit London may not like it but the rest of the country seems on board with Heathrow expansion. After all if you don't like planes flying overhead why did you move to south west London in the first place.
I have a feeling he would be saying it should be Stansted if Gatwick had been chosen.
People in Sussex and Essex can't vote in the next Mayoral elections - so who cares if their peace is disturbed.
Like Brexit London may not like it but the rest of the country seems on board with Heathrow expansion. After all if you don't like planes flying overhead why did you move to south west London in the first place.
I read some stats about the complaints to Heathrow about the noise in 2016. From memory, there were just over 100k complaints in the year, a little down on the previous year. In the quarter that was highlighted (no idea if it was representative) of the roughly 25k complaints more than half were made by the same 10 people. That's about 14 complaints a day each, every day, for over 90 days. Less than 800 people made only one complaint. I think a rather small anti-expansion group are being rather difficult.
We will not always have coal. We will not always have gas. We won't always have uranium and we have to import it from places we can't be sure will stay friendly. We don't always have wind, or sunlight.
But as long as we have a moon we have tides.
As dumbarse decisions go, this is an impressive one.
(And @Hyufd - I lived in Aberystwyth for far longer than a year. Believe me, they'll be pissed off.)
But Aberystwyth has a statue of Edward VIII, what more do you want?
Don't forget the Cliff Lift (which I have done!). And the Rheidol Railway (which I haven't).
And it has the second-best university in Ceredigion.
We will not always have coal. We will not always have gas. We won't always have uranium and we have to import it from places we can't be sure will stay friendly. We don't always have wind, or sunlight.
But as long as we have a moon we have tides.
As dumbarse decisions go, this is an impressive one.
(And @Hyufd - I lived in Aberystwyth for far longer than a year. Believe me, they'll be pissed off.)
Believe me they won't, Aberystwyth could not care less about South Wales and especially not Cardiff and Swansea and whether they get a tidal energy plant or not.
Plus the vast increase in energy costs for consumers if this unaffordable plant went ahead it seems would have cost far more votes for the Tories in Wales and elsewhere in the UK than a few lost votes in Swansea
We will not always have coal. We will not always have gas. We won't always have uranium and we have to import it from places we can't be sure will stay friendly. We don't always have wind, or sunlight.
But as long as we have a moon we have tides.
As dumbarse decisions go, this is an impressive one.
(And @Hyufd - I lived in Aberystwyth for far longer than a year. Believe me, they'll be pissed off.)
Believe me they won't, Aberystwyth could not care less about South Wales and especially not Cardiff and Swansea and whether they get a tidal energy plant or not.
Plus the vast increase in energy costs for consumers if this unaffordable plant went ahead it seems would have cost far more votes for the Tories in Wales and elsewhere in the UK than a few lost votes in Swansea
We will not always have coal. We will not always have gas. We won't always have uranium and we have to import it from places we can't be sure will stay friendly. We don't always have wind, or sunlight.
But as long as we have a moon we have tides.
As dumbarse decisions go, this is an impressive one.
(And @Hyufd - I lived in Aberystwyth for far longer than a year. Believe me, they'll be pissed off.)
Believe me they won't, Aberystwyth could not care less about South Wales and especially not Cardiff and Swansea and whether they get a tidal energy plant or not.
Plus the vast increase in energy costs for consumers if this unaffordable plant went ahead it seems would have cost far more votes for the Tories in Wales and elsewhere in the UK than a few lost votes in Swansea
There wouldn't be a vast increase in costs for consumers as this is a pretty small plant - around a fiftieth of the size of the new Hinckley nuclear plant. Given what the grid would (theoretically) pay for the electricity is broadly the same, it can have no more than 2% of the impact that Hinckley does on retail electricity prices.
We will not always have coal. We will not always have gas. We won't always have uranium and we have to import it from places we can't be sure will stay friendly. We don't always have wind, or sunlight.
But as long as we have a moon we have tides.
As dumbarse decisions go, this is an impressive one.
(And @Hyufd - I lived in Aberystwyth for far longer than a year. Believe me, they'll be pissed off.)
We always have wind, and sunlight, unless you are going to sample over silly periods - and if you are going to do that, we don't always have tides either, we have slack water about 25% of the time. And we have batteries. The undisputed fact that tidal lagoons are a lovely, hoopy and froody idea is trumped by the fact that they are prohibitively expensive, if they are. If they aren't, let's see the figures establishing that they aren't.
We have sunlight at night? Or winds in flat calms? (Indeed, they have to shut the rotors down in gales as well.)
One of the issues with the Rance system is that it operates at 28% efficiency not 90% like nuclear. Against that the technology dates from before Dr Who - literally. I think there is a possibility of improving on that.
I love my solar panels. Can run the washing machine off them if I'm careful. But at this moment with just the lights on I'm using more mains electricity than I did to run the oven earlier. Doesn't that rather underline solar's chief shortcoming?
Nuclear, which works by boiling water to generate steam, also only has a 30% thermal efficiency
We will not always have coal. We will not always have gas. We won't always have uranium and we have to import it from places we can't be sure will stay friendly. We don't always have wind, or sunlight.
But as long as we have a moon we have tides.
As dumbarse decisions go, this is an impressive one.
(And @Hyufd - I lived in Aberystwyth for far longer than a year. Believe me, they'll be pissed off.)
We always have wind, and sunlight, unless you are going to sample over silly periods - and if you are going to do that, we don't always have tides either, we have slack water about 25% of the time. And we have batteries. The undisputed fact that tidal lagoons are a lovely, hoopy and froody idea is trumped by the fact that they are prohibitively expensive, if they are. If they aren't, let's see the figures establishing that they aren't.
We have sunlight at night? Or winds in flat calms? (Indeed, they have to shut the rotors down in gales as well.)
One of the issues with the Rance system is that it operates at 28% efficiency not 90% like nuclear. Against that the technology dates from before Dr Who - literally. I think there is a possibility of improving on that.
I love my solar panels. Can run the washing machine off them if I'm careful. But at this moment with just the lights on I'm using more mains electricity than I did to run the oven earlier. Doesn't that rather underline solar's chief shortcoming?
Nuclear, which works by boiling water to generate steam, also only has a 30% thermal efficiency
We will not always have coal. We will not always have gas. We won't always have uranium and we have to import it from places we can't be sure will stay friendly. We don't always have wind, or sunlight.
But as long as we have a moon we have tides.
As dumbarse decisions go, this is an impressive one.
(And @Hyufd - I lived in Aberystwyth for far longer than a year. Believe me, they'll be pissed off.)
We always have wind, and sunlight, unless you are going to sample over silly periods - and if you are going to do that, we don't always have tides either, we have slack water about 25% of the time. And we have batteries. The undisputed fact that tidal lagoons are a lovely, hoopy and froody idea is trumped by the fact that they are prohibitively expensive, if they are. If they aren't, let's see the figures establishing that they aren't.
We have sunlight at night? Or winds in flat calms? (Indeed, they have to shut the rotors down in gales as well.)
One of the issues with the Rance system is that it operates at 28% efficiency not 90% like nuclear. Against that the technology dates from before Dr Who - literally. I think there is a possibility of improving on that.
I love my solar panels. Can run the washing machine off them if I'm careful. But at this moment with just the lights on I'm using more mains electricity than I did to run the oven earlier. Doesn't that rather underline solar's chief shortcoming?
Nuclear, which works by boiling water to generate steam, also only has a 30% thermal efficiency
...and also produces deadly toxic waste.
Late to the party, but it produces a *small* amount of very concentrated deadly toxic waste. Burning coal produces more radioactive waste (IIRC uranium and thorium), which is concentrated in the ash. And as someone who grew up near a power stations (Willington), it was well known that if the wind was a certain direction you didn't hang the washing out due to ash in the air.
"In fact, the fly ash emitted by a power plant—a by-product from burning coal for electricity—carries into the surrounding environment 100 times more radiation than a nuclear power plant producing the same amount of energy."
Here's a question for those of an engineering bent:
If we were starting from nothing, right here, right now, what would be the preferred form of power generation and how would it be decided?
I would use the criteria:
1) Clean - that's fossil fuel and arguably nuclear gone on the fly.
2) Reliable - that lets out wind and solar, which while useful are not trustworthy in a country with weather as variable as ours is.
3) Sufficiently powerful to meet demand, including peaks.
4) Domestic - that lets out quite a lot of other options, e.g. building an undersea cable to Iceland.
5) Cheap, or at least, with a realistic prospect of becoming cheaper than the alternatives (which certainly lets out nuclear - I find it hard to escape the suspicion hat prices are fixed for 35 years as a major hike is then anticipated).
6) Not use up valuable space needed for other things - that lets out large scale hydropower at any rate in the major population centres.
Now I would have said, speaking purely personally, looked at from that point of view tidal power - which is not really new or experimental technology if we're honest, the French have been using it (admittedly on a small scale) for 52 years - is a no-brainer for us. We have a huge tidal range, a vast coastline close to all major population and economic centres, and we don't want to build on land due to the concentration of population.
Of course question marks remain over 3 and 6 and it would be foolish to ignore the potential ecosystem changes this could lead to (which ultimately doomed the Severn barrage scheme). But certainly I think it should be hot favourite unless conclusively proven otherwise and I don't see this has been.
What do those who know about these things think? Am I completely wrong or have I got it right and the government got it wrong?
We should have a mixture.
Different types of generation provide different styles of supply (eg baseline for nuclear vs ability to rapidly modulate for gas). Renewable should be a significant component
Comments
EVERY SINGLE other sport uses the technology available to try to make the best decisions. Football tends to be twenty years behind and to be wilfully stupid when it does catch up - 'we can't get every decision right, so we won't even try'.
And while it's possible England will go out to a crazy VAR decision, it would be more likely, without VAR, that England will go out to a crazy non-VAR decision. Overall, more right decisions are made.
What is this fakes news stuff that I keep hearing about.
As well as Boris's cowardice and Williamson's over promotion the party are doing their best to lose my membership.
At least Theresa is attending the huge Arm Forces Day in Llandudno on Saturday with the red arrows, battle of britain memorial flight, and a typhoon air display. At least we can enjoy the air displays from our balcony without going into Llandudno but enthusiasts should walk up the Little Orme and watch the display unfold with the red arrows flying below you
But as long as we have a moon we have tides.
As dumbarse decisions go, this is an impressive one.
(And @Hyufd - I lived in Aberystwyth for far longer than a year. Believe me, they'll be pissed off.)
Stronger refs will stick to their original decision more I think, this match ought to be this refs last he of the tourbament.
Also cards need to be dished out for haranguing the ref and rolling around as if you've been shot to try and buy fouls and penalties. That isnt happening
My own soft fruit is looking good, redcurrants ripened already, blackcurrants a week or so yet, raspberries and Tayberries ready. Apples, pears and plums look good too. These will all be picked by a British worker, yours truly!
The hot weather has been good for soft fruit. Global warming? should have got started years ago!
If we were starting from nothing, right here, right now, what would be the preferred form of power generation and how would it be decided?
I would use the criteria:
1) Clean - that's fossil fuel and arguably nuclear gone on the fly.
2) Reliable - that lets out wind and solar, which while useful are not trustworthy in a country with weather as variable as ours is.
3) Sufficiently powerful to meet demand, including peaks.
4) Domestic - that lets out quite a lot of other options, e.g. building an undersea cable to Iceland.
5) Cheap, or at least, with a realistic prospect of becoming cheaper than the alternatives (which certainly lets out nuclear - I find it hard to escape the suspicion hat prices are fixed for 35 years as a major hike is then anticipated).
6) Not use up valuable space needed for other things - that lets out large scale hydropower at any rate in the major population centres.
Now I would have said, speaking purely personally, looked at from that point of view tidal power - which is not really new or experimental technology if we're honest, the French have been using it (admittedly on a small scale) for 52 years - is a no-brainer for us. We have a huge tidal range, a vast coastline close to all major population and economic centres, and we don't want to build on land due to the concentration of population.
Of course question marks remain over 3 and 6 and it would be foolish to ignore the potential ecosystem changes this could lead to (which ultimately doomed the Severn barrage scheme). But certainly I think it should be hot favourite unless conclusively proven otherwise and I don't see this has been.
What do those who know about these things think? Am I completely wrong or have I got it right and the government got it wrong?
But IANAE.
As ever, the following contains useful information. It isn't an easy to power a country...
http://www.withouthotair.com/c14/page_81.shtml
Swansea lagoon 1/10th the price.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide_mill
I have been to the Eling one in the New Forest, but there is also a disused one at St Helens on the Isle of Wight.
Could make wind far more useful
(Edited to make it clear the jet isn't being pulled by the steam train!)
I have often wondered though - as a separate point - why off-shore wind turbines don't have underwater blades on them as well to harness wave or tide power. Seems an easy way of doubling or indeed more than doubling capacity. Is it just because it might make it difficult to approach them?
Plus if you remove the possibility of a yellow it forces the ref to either not punish an incident or give a red. Removing the middle option could force s red where it doesn't belong.
One of the issues with the Rance system is that it operates at 28% efficiency not 90% like nuclear. Against that the technology dates from before Dr Who - literally. I think there is a possibility of improving on that.
I love my solar panels. Can run the washing machine off them if I'm careful. But at this moment with just the lights on I'm using more mains electricity than I did to run the oven earlier. Doesn't that rather underline solar's chief shortcoming?
People have been talking about wave power for decades, but there's virtually no production systems in use. The systems are simple in theory, but the practicalities of them are nasty. Tidal is mainly estuarine barrages, and not at-sea tidal systems.
(All AIUI, IANAE)
Twats...
Then vote leave got the official electoral commission leave campaign designation rather than GO - Farage went back to leave.eu and the others to vote leave - and the rest is history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscillating_Water_Column
*I have one of these too, and while they are easy to pick, they are rather tasteless.
https://www.wightpedia.org.uk/detail2.php?id=125
Like Brexit London may not like it but the rest of the country seems on board with Heathrow expansion. After all if you don't like planes flying overhead why did you move to south west London in the first place.
https://twitter.com/rafaelbehr/status/1011365550210068480?s=21
Plus the vast increase in energy costs for consumers if this unaffordable plant went ahead it seems would have cost far more votes for the Tories in Wales and elsewhere in the UK than a few lost votes in Swansea
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1011360410648416258?s=19
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-44567824
They are there to report the news. Not attempt to generate this.
It is not investigative journalism. It is paying to have a report produced so that they can talk about it.
That is not a fit and proper use of our money.
That next World Cup isgonna be fun.
Https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2018/jun/25/delay-on-third-runway-served-heathrow-owners-well
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/06/25/ministers-demands-money-will-mean-higher-taxes-leave-tories/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/06/25/britain-must-start-up-state-chief-disruptor/
"In fact, the fly ash emitted by a power plant—a by-product from burning coal for electricity—carries into the surrounding environment 100 times more radiation than a nuclear power plant producing the same amount of energy."
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/coal-ash-is-more-radioactive-than-nuclear-waste/
Different types of generation provide different styles of supply (eg baseline for nuclear vs ability to rapidly modulate for gas). Renewable should be a significant component