Interesting Links for 23-02-2026

[andrewducker]

1. How far back in time can you understand English?

(tags:language English history )

2. I hadn't realised that 7 of the biggest 8 offshore wind farms in the world were British

(tags:UK windpower )

3. Judge forced to slash SF jury pool over hate for Elon Musk

(tags:ElonMusk law usa )

4. Building a Beauty and the Beast rose petal timer using shape metal and an Arduino. Incredibly impressive stuff.

(tags:cosplay impressive viaSwampers technology )

5. What If We've Been Wrong About How ADHD Drugs Work?

(tags:adhd drugs sleep )

6. Europe's first industrial-scale mycelium packaging producer (replacing styrofoam with mushroom-based packaging)

(tags:materials fungus packaging )

Comments

On the Evolution of English:

[dewline]

The way the Vulgarian's been writing his "tweets" over the years comes to mind when I read this. His "style" is a bit of a throwback to earlier times.

[bens_dad]

2. I hadn't either, but I was aware that we are a world class location for offshore wind.
Sad thing is that many of our turbines are imported.

[andrewducker]

It is a shame we haven't taken advantage of our existing construction facilities to build turbines. I wonder if the high cost of electricity feeds into that.

(Just did a bit more reading - a complete lack of government investment has not helped at all)

[bens_dad]

Our high electricity prices probably contribute to our large wind generated capacity ... and being paid not to generate is a perverse incentive to build capacity too.

As we know, that capacity won't reduce electricity prices until we have a new pricing regime.

---
Mad thought. When there is excess generation in the system, can wind turbines use that electricity to blow wind and relieve the overload on the system ?

[andrewducker]

I'm sure that if we wanted to effectively "vent" electricity then we could. It's just a bloody stupid thing to have to do, and if we set up the system so that we didn't need to, we'd all be better off!

[cmcmck]

1. Speaking for myself Old English and Old Norse then up via Middle English as they are what I studied as an undergrad before I caught history.

[hilarita]

I also studied Old English and Old Norse, so could read all the way back to 1000.

[cmcmck]

I can even manage middle French and Middle Italian although I struggle with Occitan! :o)

[redbird]

Item 3 makes sense given that the trial is specifically about Musk's purchase of Twitter, and a Bay Area jury. The questions are likely to include things like "did you or anyone in your family lose your job after Musk bought Twitter?"

[melchar]

To be honest, I'm shocked that only 30% of the prospective jurors were released due to despising Elon.

[redbird]

That’s 30% who said so up front. Now the lawyers on both sides are going to try to rule out both prospective jurors who hate Musk and want to be on the jury so they can vote against him, and Elon fanboys who have already decided to vote in his favor.

[juan_gandhi]

Such a great collection today.

#1 is such a beautiful reading. I've already, in 1700, got familiar with the letter 'ſ' in "firſt"; reading further. The 1600, that's the Shakespeare language, "a heauie svmmons lyes like lead vpon me" (once, back in Russia, I was interviewing a guy and one of the questions was to translate the phrase; the guy started correcting Shakespeare... that's when I decided not to hire him.) And I have stopped in 1200. Thank you!!!

[andrewducker]

I...would not correct Shakespeare!

And yes, I can piece together sense from 1300, but 1200 is too much!

[juan_gandhi]

That was my point, to check whether the guy's eyes are open to the world, or he always knows better. (Actually, later he became a CEO of that company, and stayed there for about 30 years.)

5.

[channelpenguin]

That's WILD! gosh, it makes a lot of sense, really does.

I always thought that weed was the drug that made boring things interesting :-). By observation.

But sleep deprivation is a very good thing to chase up, because all of the folks I know with ADHD are insomniac to some degree. I thought it was effect, but it could be cause, that's so interesting.