Interesting Links for 18-12-2025

[andrewducker]

1. Why Do Commercial Spaces Sit Vacant?

(tags:business property finance economics banking )

2. What Happens When Netflix Buys Warner Bros. (nothing good)

(tags:netflix movies history WarnerBrothers video doom )

3. UK energy costs likely to halve by 2050, says system operator

(tags:UK renewables electricity thefuture )

4. Teachers to be trained to spot early signs of misogyny in boys

(tags:misogyny UK children boys )

5. One month to go: Edinburgh-Fife rail upgrades begin soon (closing the line for a week)

(tags:Scotland transport trains )

6. Pumped Hydro Energy Storage Is Having a Renaissance

(tags:hydroelectric electricity storage )

Comments

pumped hydro

[fanf]

The first image in that article reminds me of this Practical Engineering video about the time that reservoir’s dam failed https://youtu.be/zRM2AnwNY20

I wonder what RheEnergise’s R-19 fluid is made of. Surely not rhenium salts, because although rhenium is very dense, it’s also rare and expensive.

Re: pumped hydro

[andrewducker]

From their FAQ:

• The mineral in our fluid is chosen in part for its softness (2.5-3.5 Mohs), reducing the detrimental effects of abrasion
• The feedstock mineral for the fluid is abundantly available globally, and in almost every country we have looked including the UK. RheEnergise is developing a supply chain strategy to ensure that there is alternative supply for each key component.
• Our high-density fluid (R19) in non-corrosive, non-reactive. It has been certified by an independent laboratory as non-toxic

Does that help narrow it down?

Re: pumped hydro

[armiphlage]

The petroleum industry uses Cesium formate or ZnBr₂/CaCl₂ solutions, with densities up to 2.4. Since it's brownish, I'd suspect something with bromine.

Re: pumped hydro

[affreca]

I'm close enough (the width of Missouri) to Taum Sauk that it's always what I think about when I hear about hydro power storage. The scar is impressive even twenty years later. The story that still amazes me is the park ranger's baby being found in a tree afterwards (alive). So like everything, I hope they're planning for failures.

Why Do Commercial Spaces Sit Vacant?

[jack]

This example is really interesting, but I think it completely hides the main point. It explains things as if they're difficult to understand, but I think most people would get it fairly intuitively if you explained it like:

Company borrowed some money from the bank to build a building expecting to get $1million per year in rent. But after a few years, the rent turns out to only be worth $700k. That means that the bank and company will probably both lose out on the loan.

Someone (don't know if it's a government regulation or a tradition in the financial industry) decided that the estimated value of a building is based on the rent actually agreed, as if empty lots would only be empty briefly. That was probably true under some circumstances, but not these ones.

That means that if the company can rent *half* the building for $500k, they can point to the standard valuation which says the revenue *would* be $million if they could rent the other half, even though they apparently can't. That means they're still both losing money but don't have to admit it to their investors or government auditors.

I assume they'd *rather* get as much rent as they can get, but they can't admit the truth without getting in financial trouble.

I think most people understand "I took out a loan to start a business, but the business didn't really work out, but as long as I can keep pretending, I won't have to try to pay it back".

Misogyny

[agoodwinsmith]

Erm. I was going to make my remarks without reading the article, then I felt guilty, so I read it, but my remarks are not changed:

Our whole "western" culture teaches all members the shared values of the culture. Young male members can be seduced into acting out the shared values, but young female members are taught to be silent recipients. Young female members are taught to believe that young male members have special rights that are non-negotiable.

Any young female behaviour that echoes our shared-culture beliefs about how "real men" behave is equally dangerous and needs modification.

So. I'm not trying to make this just a "girl problem". I believe we are all complicit in ways we are completely unaware of and since we don't recognize our imbedded beliefs we can't modify them. Making aggressive misogyny a "boy problem" will change nothing.

That some of the impetus behind this move is influenced by racist "those people" opinions is a huge added obstruction to change.

This reminds me of my hot button "FAIR". We spend all of kindergarten and elementary school and junior high school bludgeoning children about behaving FAIRLY and then treat them like gullible fools for not knowing about the baked-in unfairness of real life when they reach adolescence. ARGH!

Re: Misogyny

[andrewducker]

Oh yes, we should definitely deal with this in girls as well. But I'm glad that any steps at all are being taken.

Re: Misogyny

[agoodwinsmith]

Yeahbut nobut - this will just entrench prevailing cultural norms because, like FAIRness, we are not admitting that all members of the culture are accomplices in the status quo. Making change a "boy problem" will just cement the attitudes/behaviour being expressed by newly minted members of our culture.

We need to be reviewing classroom culture and making efforts to identify how the current structure(s) actually support(s) extreme expressions of misogyny by subconsciously supporting pervasive expressions of low-grade low-stakes misogyny.

We, as a culture, are not interested in doing that hard work. Honestly? I don't think we, as a culture, are interested in change - but we sure do like a scapegoat.

Teachers to be trained to spot early signs of misogyny in boys

[anef]

Not sure that a course on how not to be misogynist will have much effect. How about a course for all pupils on how to treat each other as human beings? Including specifically exercises on how to put yourself in another person's shoes. Might be better as part of a drama course.

Re: Teachers to be trained to spot early signs of misogyny in boys

[andrewducker]

I would hope that "not being misogynist" consists of those things. I shall have to wait and see.