Interesting Links for 10-06-2021

[andrewducker]

Albania's first floating solar plant starts commercial operations

(tags:solarpower water Europe viaDanielDWilliam )

Which came first, bread or beer?

(tags:bread beer alcohol prehistory )

The UK is proud of its disregard for the rule of law

(tags:trade law Europe uk Doom )

Miraculous mosquito hack cuts dengue by 77%

(tags:disease mosquito GoodNews viaKirsty )

Annular Solar Eclipse on 10 June 2021 - will it be visible for you, and if so when?

(tags:eclipse )

A mystery cube, a secret identity, and a puzzle solved after 15 years

(tags:puzzle history )

US hits UK with formal diplomatic reprimand

(tags:UK USA NorthernIreland Europe )

No Worries if Not!

(tags:comic funny society email )

The Dead Sea is disappearing, leaving behind a landscape shattered by sinkholes

(tags:Israel water Doom )

The Sandman - Behind The Scenes Sneak Peek

(tags:tv sandman neilgaiman )

DNA Jumps Between Animal Species. No One Knows How Often.

(tags:viaNancyLebov genes animals fish )

Comments

[cmcmck]

My guess would be beer as it's less complex and with wild yeast (lambic) varieties can happen almost by accident.

River Jordan

[danieldwilliam]

A bunch of solar powered desalination plants would help with the Dead Sea Water levels.

Or slightly dafter, a pipe carrying seawater from the Med to the Dead Sea

I wonder if we could persuade a bunch of USian Evangelicals to pay for that in order to Save the River Jordan.

Re: River Jordan

[andrewducker]

Where would the desalination plants get their salt water from?

Or do you mean if Israel used desalination plants rather than the River Jordan?

Re: River Jordan

[danieldwilliam]

Exactly that.

If you replaced the water used in Israel's cities with water from desal plants on the Med coast that would, I presume, reduce the overall draw of water from the River Jordan and Sea of Galilie.

I think a similar thing about Sydney in Australia.

Re: River Jordan

[dewline]

Such things would indeed be helpful in many places.

Re: River Jordan

[calimac]

Desalination used to be dismissed as too expensive.

Has it become less costly due to technical advances, or has the need increased enough to make it necessary despite the cost?

Re: River Jordan

[danieldwilliam]

In that part of the world you can currently build a solar PV plant for about $10 a megawatthour and the price is falling by about 5% a year.

More pertinently probably the cheapest way of having lots of intermittent renewables on the grid is to build more than you need so that even on the worst performing weeks you have enough and find something, anything, to do with the surplus power for the rest of the time. Avoiding the cost of the storage is likely cheaper overall.

A useful thing to do with electricity you would otherwise throw away is pump and desalinate water.

Bread/beer/bread/beer

[agoodwinsmith]

I really think we have to embrace the power of "and".