Interesting Links for 23-01-2018

[andrewducker]

The Lightning Network Could Make Bitcoin Faster—and Cheaper

(tags: bitcoin )

Top architect insists Scotland - Ireland bridge is feasible

(tags: bridge scotland ireland )

Whatever happened to the Brexit talks?

(tags: uk europe )

'Terrifying': How a single line of computer code put thousands of innocent Turks in jail

(tags: turkey internet OhForFucksSake )

The (almost) complete history of 'fake news'

(tags: fake fraud reporting news media )

Once you start engineering Earth's climate you can't stop

(tags: engineering globalwarming Technology thefuture )

How to deal with Twitter trolls

(tags: troll advice harassment twitter )

New York *literally* has a "get out of jail" card. What The Fuck is going on over there?

(tags: police newyork WTF corruption )

In Colorado, a glimpse of renewable energy’s insanely cheap future

(tags: renewables GoodNews thefuture )

Why Churchill was a vicious racist villain

(tags: history UK Africa India racism afghanistan )

Seattle’s $15 Minimum Wage Experiment Is a Success

(tags: minimumwage usa )

More on “Get Out of Jail Free” Cards

(tags: police corruption usa )

One in three women miss cervical screening due to embarrassment

(tags: health women uk )

Driver behaviour transformed by A90 average speed cameras

(tags: speed driving safety Scotland cameras )

Nursing Home Recreates Communist East Germany for Dementia Patients

(tags: dementia age care germany memory history )

Trump puts 30% tariff on imported solar cells and modules

(tags: solarpower china usa trade )

Europe's central banks are starting to replace US dollar reserves with the Chinese yuan

(tags: china europe usa finance )

Want a healthier population? Spend less on health care and more on social services

(tags: health money society )

Can You Buy A License to Speed?

(tags: speed crime police )

English NHS accused of fiddling A&E figures to downplay extent of crisis 

(tags: NHS fail OhForFucksSake )

Comments

Want a healthier population? Spend less on health care and more on social services

[alithea]

Or, the alternative headline:

"Want a healthier population? Reduce poverty" which is what they actually mean.

[calimac]

Quibble: They're not literally "get out of jail free" cards, since nobody is claiming they'd work on anything you'd actually get arrested for. What they can get you out of is traffic tickets, which are technically a court summons for which you can forfeit bail by paying the fine. It's still as corrupt as fnck.

The "Churchill as racist" rant doesn't tell the half of it, or even a quarter of it.

Colorado Renewables

[danieldwilliam]

On the cost of renewables in Colorado.

Generally good news and (I think) part of a continuing and accelerating trend that will see more and quicker renewable uptake in more places.

I think a word of caution. I don't think the bids for "wind + storage" or "solar + storage" are for large amounts of storage. I don't think we're looking at replacing a CCGT. What I suspect is being offered is some renewable generation with a relatively small battery that does electricity condititioning, balancing services and provides enough back up storage that the generators have time to cover their position in the event of a fall off in production. They might be aiming to time shift some supply to match peak demand.

I think it's great that more batteries are being put in to operation because I think the driver of cost reductions are economies of scale and learning curve effects, both of which are in turn driven by volume. I wouldn't want anyone to get the impression that solar + storage could provide power 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year for about 10% more than the base cost of solar PV.

Tarriffs

[danieldwilliam]

Like a lot of things to do with China I'm not sure if they have accidentally over built manufacturing capacity because their statistical agencies are flawed, or are dumping as a deliberate act of policy using subsidies from the Chinese state or if they are just cheaper than the rest of world.

Bridge to Belfast

[danieldwilliam]

I quite like the idea of a bridge to Belfast. I'm in favour of interconnectivity.

But £15bn sounds like a lot of money. It is a lot of money - about half of the Scottish Government's entire annual budget.

I think the bridge would end up making Dumfries and Galloway a suburb of Belfast. Again, not bad. In fact probably a net benefit for southern Scotland and for Scotland as a whole. But something that would happen.

It does support post-Brexit Plan Number 6 - that Northern Ireland reunifies with the Republic and then Scotland joins the Confederacy of Ireland.

Seatlle at $15

[danieldwilliam]

The Seattle $15 minimum wage success is heartening but I think there is a caveat that Seattle is a bit of boomtown. How well a $15 minimum wage would work in Alabama is a slightly different question. I think what we've established is that $15 is not too high a minimum wage in a city with strong economic fundamentals.

[nancylebov]

It seems weird to me to say that Churchill was a mass murderer and therefore(?) he had no good reasons for opposing Hitler.

[heron61]

Once you start engineering Earth's climate you can't stop

I like adding iron to the oceans far more (assuming it works, which is less clear) than sulfur dioxide spraying, since it doesn't result in acid rain. However, given the options of massive global climate change and geoengineering, I know which I want. Yes, any form of geoengineering will cause problems, but not doing it looks to be far worse. The world is headed for sustainable carbon neutral fuels, but we're not going to get there in time to prevent a fairly large temperature rise, unless we use geoengineering.