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)

[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.

[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?"

[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.)

[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!

[hilarita]

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

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.

[cmcmck]

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