Categories
Powered Up – politicalbetting.com
Powered Up – politicalbetting.com
Or why elections in 2024 were good ones to win
0
This discussion has been closed.
Powered Up – politicalbetting.com
Or why elections in 2024 were good ones to win
Comments
Signed,
Everyone with a mortgage.
..In October 2009, McAfee promoted him to chief technology officer and executive vice president. Six months later, McAfee accidentally disrupted its customers' operations around the world when it pushed out a software update that deleted critical Windows XP system files and caused affected systems to bluescreen and enter a boot loop. "I'm not sure any virus writer has ever developed a piece of malware that shut down as many machines as quickly as McAfee did today," Ed Bott wrote at ZDNet...
It's not necessarily terrible news for Saudi.
Thye'll continue generating vast amounts of cash for quite some time. And they will have the cheapest (and least interrupted) solar on the planet, probably.
Also they own quite large slugs of western assets now, so they'll benefit from a general global economic uplift.
Not great for Iran, agreed.
“The anti-tourism revolt continues.
https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/portuguese-protesters-battling-tourist-hell-call-for-guerrilla-action-327vp3x7c
"Portuguese town beloved by Byron turning into ‘amusement park’
People living in Sintra — once hailed as the most delightful town in Europe — say mass tourism has turned it into a ‘tourist hell’ amid calls for ‘guerrilla action’"”
This is only going to get worse. Partly for the reasons mentioned in the threader. Wealthier consumers - worldwide - all wanting to travel
It’s why, professionally, I get excited by a place like Aveyron which is gorgeous and sunny and charming and yet barely touristed. And then I go and ruin it
Interesting header - given your experience it would be interested to know your view on the effect the lower energy prices will have on the stock markets, both here and in the States.
The locals might tar and feather you when you turn up in the next one.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jul/25/starmer-will-take-on-labour-councils-that-block-pylons-delivering-clean-electricity
If it makes sense to do it up here...
If solar panels are really cheap, then the cost of transferring energy from Saudi to Europe (or wherever) totally outweighs their increased insolation.
And panels are going to be effectively free. I would expect installed solar capacity in most European markets to be 3x daily peak demand.
There’s a couple of families here. French. No foreigners
It’s 28C and cloudless and surrounded by endless green countryside that looks like the best of Dorset on a perfect day - not parched like Provence
(I’ve just come from Provence - dropping off my daughter at an airport - it was 35C and notably more uncomfortable)
Our front doesn't get much direct sunlight, but if it's the cheapest building material, then I mean... why not?
Tesla’s install rate (mostly big projects) is now ~40kwh per year and plant capacity under construction should double to triple that very soon.
Drop in the ocean from a global perspective but it’s high income countries most reliant on renewables that will do the big projects first. The uk would do well to build loads of it to improve the grid usefulness of all the new wind power coming online. But also as above, to re-export imported power from the European grid. If Labour are going to subsidise it, then do a scheme for the 500k households most impacted by grid outages combined with grid level.
Super Power is one of the greatest opportunities of our time."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zgwiQ6BoLA&t=981s
24 of them don't get much sunlight due to an overshadowing tree. But they will still make more on the electricity than they cost to install within about two years.
But it will be a great place to locate energy intensive industries. Much more consistent cheap power than most of Europe.
https://www.amazon.com/Commander-Cheat-Golf-Explains-Trump/dp/0316528080
"Based on Reilly's own experiences with Trump as well as interviews with over 100 golf pros, amateurs, developers, and caddies, Commander in Cheat is a startling and at times hilarious indictment of Trump and his golf game. You'll learn how Trump cheats (sometimes with the help of his caddies and Secret Service agents), lies about his scores (the "Trump Bump"), tells whoppers about the rank of his courses and their worth (declaring that every one of them is worth $50 million), and tramples the etiquette of the game (driving on greens doesn't help). Trump doesn't brag so much, though, about the golf contractors he stiffs, the course neighbors he intimidates, or the way his golf decisions wind up infecting his political ones."
For Africa it's incredibly exciting. Cheap energy when and where it's needed most.
More importantly, what would the late David MacKay have made of it? His solar energy calculations were based on putting panels on all south-facing roofs... If the panels are expensive, you save them for optimal locations. If they become too cheap to meter, you have more of them and collect a lot more energy. Anyone know how much more?
And how cheap that can drive the sort of engineering that sucks CO2 out of the atmosphere? (It exists, but is still more expensive than reducing CO2 production by not doing shoddy work. I think that's how I would use excess electricity from generation peaks. It doesn't matter exactly when it happens, but it will probably need to happen.)
This is BTC's clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guoILFhA-Po
It's going to be a very interesting couple of years.
https://www.withouthotair.com/
Yep - a bakery business. There was a series of mills on the River Maun with 'royal connections'; the area is known as the Dukeries as there are a lorra-lorra dukes. The King's Mill there is in the Domesday Book.
If you ask me I'll tell you that the "Kingsmill" bread brand is named after it, but I may be exaggerating a little; Allied Bakeries are in the general area, and being ABF there may well be former bakeries here, but I'm not sure how much history they have with the brand locally. And there are perhaps a few other "King's Mill"s.
They have a solar powerstation in the reservoir, which doe 1/3 of their heating and all their cooling. I'm not sure whether that is enough to chill the balls off the wild swimmers. As T1D I don't do wild swimming (coughs and sneezes, and risks to feet).
The hospital started as a WW2 facility for wounded Usonians.
There will be hiccups along the way - quite a few of the Chinese manufacturers will fold if there's a drop in demand and/or they can't afford to upgrade their production to the latest standards. And the concentration of world production in one country presents something of a risk.
But the trend is inexorable, even without any unpredictable technical breakthroughs.
One of the next big things will be when production transitions from using fossil fuelled energy for manufacturing, to solar renewables. Energy costs are quite a big element of the total.
Once a solar panel is installed, it's producing energy... well... indefinitely. So, the makers of panels can "cut off" additional solar production capacity, but every day that becomes less of an issue because more panels are already installed.
Solar panels have become cheap due to several factors
Improvements in the efficiency of converting sunlight to electricity.
Cheaper manufacturing processes.
China's solar panel industrial boom.
Swanson's law, which states that as production and shipment of solar panels double, panel prices drop by 20 percent.
I think that were going through a similar process with electric car batteries
Gross domestic product for the quarter ending in June was double the 1.4 percent reading in the previous quarter, but reflects a general cool-down from last year’s brisk pace, according to Commerce Department data released Thursday morning."
source$: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/07/25/gdp-q2-economy/
Unemployment edged up slightly.
(Those interested in details may want to look at the Commerce Department report.)
Wegovy costs around $150 out where I live. At those sort of prices, it makes every sense for half the population to be on it, given the amount of future disease that could be prevented by people losing weight.
Perhaps the best subject for bipartisan legislation in the US, would be to allow Medicare and Medicaid to negotiate with the pharma companies, with regulation of marketing and advertising practices on the other side so there’s both stick and carrot.
Expect the media companies, who get more than half their advertising income from the sector, to be quite vociferously against the idea.
https://golfweek.usatoday.com/lists/u-s-presidents-play-golf-donald-trump-joe-biden/
SSI - Note that the ONLY golfing President that this article expressly accuses of cheating is . . . wait for it . . . old #45.
Though do note what it says about LBJ:
"According to his biographies, Lyndon B. Johnson was no stickler for the rules. One historian said that Johnson would take up to 400 swings during an 18-hole round – if he didn’t like a shot, he’d hit another until he was satisfied.
It’s also been said that Johnson used golf rounds to sway senators into voting for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Johnson knew by playing golf with political friends and foes, he’d get four hours (or more) of uninterrupted time with them to strengthen, or sway, their opinions."
SSI - Seriously doubt that DJT had similar mitigating circumstances, for displaying habitual golfing dishonesty exceeding that of even the notoriously ludicrous (and visa versa) Judge Smails:
Caddy Shack - Judge Smails's winter rules
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCvgMNnM3OA
If their state version of Islam wasn't so regressive, if would be a very promising place to invest.
And dealing with a lack of fresh water, and temperatures which sometimes aren't conducive to living, becomes a LOT easier if you have unlimited, almost free energy.
It looks as though they did not test the update *at all* in a real system; instead, relying on a validator to check the update. A validator that did not work properly...
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/07/crowdstrike-blames-testing-bugs-for-security-update-that-took-down-8-5m-windows-pcs/
Note that this was not an update to patch an urgent zero-day bug; it was an update designed to collect telemetry. It could have waited a few hours, or days, for a thorough test.
I'm a greybeard; probably always have been. As an engineer, I liked following processes and redesigning processes to incorporate lessons from experienced and envisaged failures. There's *no way* we would have released anything with that sort of process; the risks are just too large.
It seems they did very frequent updates; but that is no reason not to have a thorough process. You just design the process to be as fast as possible.
I do wonder if Crowdstrike and other companies have engineers/management more interested in the stock price than doing things the correct way; in other words, Boeing circa 2010-20.
I don't expect these tech companies to learn any lessons from this.
See these a lot in the med on flat roofs.
And like Lithium batteries, there are years of these improvements working their way from lab to production. The improvements don’t go instantly from lab to factory. There is a winding snake of a process to get there. So you have a pipeline of improvements on the way - they exist now, just not on the panels you can buy. Maybe 3-5 years from now…
Have you done the Trou de Bozouls - that's a Tourist Hole, not a Tourist Hell?
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Les+parenthèses+occitanes/@44.4705613,2.7164596,450m/
Having read the first bit, it's perhaps the stuff the Express wouldn't pay her for.
By total co-incidence, I received a marketing email from Trend Micro this morning, offering some very good discounts for new customers…
And is assuming, as I am, that Gray is now going to replace the egregious Dr Case?
I remarked on its sudden growth spurt a few days ago.
Trump's "drill baby drill" schtick - particularly when the US is already the world's largest fossil fuel producer, and has been self sufficient for a while - is utterly redundant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perovskite_solar_cell
As of Wednesday, there were 79 large active wildfires across the country being managed that have burned 1,431,460 acres (579,292 hectares), according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Evacuation orders are in effect for 15 fires in the Northwest, where fires continue to show active to extreme behavior. Communities near several fires in California, the Northern Rockies and the Great Basin are also under evacuation orders. . . .
SSI - So far western WA State, on the (relatively) west side of the Cascade Mountains, has mostly been spared from wildfire smoke and it's impacts. Because so far this wildfire season the prevailing winds have been from west and north NOT east and south.
However, we are bracing ourselves, because sure as God made little green apples, at some point in the next several months, western WA is gonna get it. It being choking smoke and unhealthy to dangerous air quality. Even the most anti-mask PBer would definitely consider wearing one - a GOOD one capable of filtering out mircoparticles - during such episodes.
Worse thing for me personally, is lack of air conditioning in my humble abode, situation common in the Seattle & vicinity due to our traditionally temperate climate. Which has changed pretty significantly - and noticeably - during the decades since I moved to the Emerald City.
The only way I have to cool my apartment is by opening the windows and turning on the fans - NOT recommended during wildfire smoke emergencies. SO if the air is murky AND the temperature is high . . . ugh.
The impression I get is that grid connections are a little trickier these days in the UK once you go above 3.68kWp, so there's a but of a trend to make part of it not-grid-connected.
How is your cousin's set up?
My very nice new neighbours are about to tackle the enormous lime and horse chestnut trees hanging over part of my roof that the previous one never did, which will help some more.
RIchard needs to make sure they don't look pastiche.
I know there will be a lot of talk about being reliant on Chinese imports to deliver solar. But does it really matter?
We are already importing energy from unstable countries. And that requires new gas and oil to come from them each year. Replacing that with a 'one-off' import of solar panels from much more politically stable China sounds a better trade-off. And each year we increase the proportion of our energy consumption from renewables. In the long-run you become self-sufficient in energy production.
Southern Europe and Northern Africa should be absolutely covered in solar panels with interconnectors to the UK, Germany etc.
We should do the same for onshore wind in the UK.
All this excited talk of solar panels while fibre and 5g is still infuriatingly inconsistent, even in a big city .
Trading Places - Orange Crop Report
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4piJqApTgM
*Sadly, "copper" coins are now made of steel.
37s. 40s. 50s. Deltics.
Too right!
Due you have any figures for the current UK/world % of energy from solar/renewables and future projections for the same with timescales?
Also what will it mean for the future of petrol vehicles? Cheaper petrol and less oil dependence means petrol vehicles become cheaper to run and less likely to become redundant? Or Electric vehicles become so cheap to run that petrol vehicles are too expensive a choice comparatively? (Vested interest here. We are thinking of buying a
diesel campervan soon.)