I think it is the crash of Tesla, its evaluation is based on being a silicon tech startup, not as an automobile company. So when the shares finally fall in line with other car manufacturers valuation, shit is going to hit the fan. And I think he knows he needs a government bailout and sanctions on foreign EVs specifically to price the competition out of the market. His entire empire is basically being propped up by the Tesla share price. He needs to go all in, it is survival mode for him right now

South Africa, you can read up on us if you want to learn about a country that really fucked up its energy supply, but that is a different story.

You do need a baseload, this is not something an argument of saying we do not really need a baseload can wish away, industries that run 24/7 like a smelting operation where if you cannot shutdown, or hospitals or traffic lights, there is a certain percentage of baseload that has to be generated.

Solar and wind are amazing and I really wish to see these systems play a major role in power generation, but you say the nuclear and coal plants are very inflexible. I do not know who this guy is but Nuclear and coal can very easily ramp up their power generation, both these are basically steam engines, both nuclear and coal can very quickly heat up and generate a lot more steam that powers generators, like an car engine but more accurately a steam train that you give more power to go faster. Solar and wind cannot ramp up on their own, cannot ask the wind to blow harder or the sun to shine brighter suddenly when the system requires it, they need costly backup systems like methane peaker plants or energy storage, be it batteries, pumped hydro, hydrogen electrolysis the list goes on. These things added to solar and wind plants are usually not allocated to the cost of generation, a total cost of generation including these additional backup systems are a better indicator of solar and wind systems cost.

Now what about waste. I agree coal is messy and is causing global warming and needs to be phased out. But nuclear waste is a solved problem, it has been for decades, the spent fuel is usually stored deep underground where it will never interact with the world again. Solar on the other hand, if it costs about $20-$30 to recycle a panel but like $1-$3 to send it to a waste dumps, what do you think will happen to the solar panels. https://hbr.org/2021/06/the-dark-side-of-solar-power Harvard business did an article about how solar recycling has really been a point of weakness, where nuclear we have set guidelines on how to environmentally and safely dispose of nuclear waste currently. I am willing to bet you the environmental impact from pollution from nuclear, including all the disasters will be negligible compared to the waste impact from solar panels and batteries currently.

So my point is not to dismiss solar or wind, really where wind and sunshine are naturally plentiful it will be a waste not to harvest these resources, just like where geothermal resources are available it will be wasteful not to utilise it.

But nuclear, even with its high initial capital cost and long build time, still does provide energy cheaply and will last for a lot longer than solar panels and wind turbines, nuclear can be easily and quickly ramped up or down depending on the load required.

Well one easy one, in my country it is that nuclear plants need to emit zero radiation from their core, like nothing. This is incredibly expensive to achieve, a more sensible value would have been similar or less than normal background radiation.

Nuclear has a lot of advantages that are really low hanging fruit of producing safe clean energy that is perfect for a grids baseload.

It’s worse than that, everything oil is set up like a domino mexican standoff. If the oil terminal from Iran gets destroyed, basically they destroy the other’s oil infrastructure that is very vulnerable, and basically then there is not nearly enough oil globally and then the gears running the world infrastructure starts breaking down. Will be a climate activist’s wet dream since up to 20% of global oil stops trading

I love Mint 22 so far, it really has matured where my home computer is running Mint is more stable than my work computer running Windows 11, luckily my company uses CrowdStrike so nothing to worry there.

But really I now recommend Mint to my non tech savvy friends and family, as a person who uses Linux should! But joking aside took my sister’s old laptop running Windows 7, slapped a SSD and upped the ram to 8 GB into it with Mint and she has been happy

If you want to look at a country that solved their power problem with solar, I heard that is exactly what Vietnam did by incentivising the private generation of power, basically buying extra power from people’s solar. But do your own research, not entirely sure of the whole story

Bullshit, South African here. Yes solar has helped, mostly the affluent who can afford to install their own private home/business solar power.

But The huge problem what caused it was the ANC, which in May lost its majority in the elections for the first time since 1994.

The state run power company, Eskom, had been run into the ground by the ANC due to corruption and incompetence. In 1997 a white paper showed there would not be enough power by 2007. The only two power stations they build, the two largest in the world if I am not incorrect has been the subject of the state capture commission due to corruption.

In 2024 when it became clear they might lose majority, they exempted themselves from a government policy, which affects all medium to large businesses, which mandated they had to procure anything like maintenance or supplies through a BEE (black economic empowerment) partner. The idea is good but has been abused as rent seeking by the politically connected. So now they are exempt and the OEMs can directly work to fix and maintain the power stations.

Funny due to the loadshedding, or rolling blackouts, we did not have enough power stations working, and as far as I know we were one, if not the only country reaching our Paris accords targets.

But solar power is here to stay, heck even I want it on my own place, due to the cost of electricity becoming unaffordable, if you take a 10 year loan on a solar system, the cost savings will pay of the system itself. This has led to the affluent that can afford high tariffs prices from Eskom switch to Solar, saving them money, but they were used to subsidise electricity prices for the poor. So now the poor must pay more for electricity.

The government did finally approve the independent power producers bill, finally allowing people other than government to produce electricity, and solar looks like a solid option, since we have lots of Sun and the falling prices. So government is loosing grip on the generation market, allowing the free market to make changes.

But I will say it has been so nice to have had uninterrupted power when I come home, not needing to throw out my freezer food, having a hot shower, being able to prepare food on a hot stove under lights instead of a braai/BBQ.

Microsoft launcher on my Nokia T20 3GB version and on that little memory the tablet had regular crashes. Went back to stock no fine

So only energy losses in theory

Yes, basically. Enegy is used on H2O gets split and turned into H2 and O2, the H2 then in the fuel cell gets to react again with O2 to produce energy, less than what was used to split it, why it is inefficient, and now stable H20

Of course not, hydrogen is pathetic compared to batteries and similar stored mass energy solutions, but hydrogen does have its place, the future should be a mixture of different solutions because many methods have their advantages and disadvantages, but having a mixture means we can apply the best solution to the viable problems. Let’s take transportation, you have a truck that earns money by travelling. If we want to transition away from fossil fuel, hydrogen makes sense over batteries that takes an hour to multiple hours to charge and the weight of the batteries reduce the overall payload of the truck.

Hydrogen reaction to oxygen in a fuel cell turns it back into water

This will hopefully lead to storage methods, maybe exportable ones like hydrogen

The flower in the picture reminds me of a Erythrina lysistemon, whose name in Afrikaans, in my opinion, is very racist, translated would be like n*****tree. Luckily I am hearing from a lot more people, compared to when I grew up, starting to name this beautiful tree a different name, kanniedood, which translates to cannot-die.

I love that we look at language and ask are there hurtful words, even if it was not meant, and trying to improve on it. Sounds similar in the IT industry awhile ago where they tried replacing terms like master and slave with alternatives like primary and secondary.

It is insane what Elon has achieved and what potential he has for the good or bad of humanity. I wonder how the pages of history will be written

Even if he, hypothetically, was the sickest fuck to ever step foot on Epstein’s island, he is an American oligarch that will most likely never see any repercussions, since he has the money, like real money to actually make a difference, and influence politically and celebrity wise. So even the best funded Justice department has an annual budget that this guy can donate at a whim to ensure his freedom. His Starlink is being used by Ukraine during this war, so he even has leverage on an American ally. No he is safe as Rain

Populism is a feature of democracy. It’s just like in life, easy answers, like fast food for example, are always easy to suggest, but in the long term might not be the best. But if you can show your voter base, eating these disgusting vegetables in the long term is going to do everyone good, slight inconvenience, major benefit. So there will always be the power hungry populist that will give easy and popular answers to hard questions, it is the voters duty to determine who has their long term interests at heart and who is able to bribe you with your shortsighted desires to get into power.

I am not going to say which war this was but I have heard veterans tell stories of strapping the enemy soldier to their vehicle and driving slowly across a suspected mined area, usually the poor soul will quickly identify all the hidden explosive zones. Not saying this is what’s happening, just reminded me of the story. Fucking wars

This is like the best advertisement ever for the brand. Like they get the infamy without killing someone, basically became certified cool like the warning sticker on music albums in the 90s

Wow thanks for elaborating further, now I know how I was the problem, you gave such a compelling argument and left no doubt in my mind I was the problem, and why other people like myself are sick trash and should get, as you stated, fucked. I apologise and clearly I should rethink my entire way of thinking and how I engage, by not following other people’s opinions and trying to have a discussion was my error. So sorry.