Posts by Doctor Syntax 40413 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Jun 2014
Back in the dim, distant and happy days when SWMBO & I were both palaeoecologists fieldwork involved taking multiple samples from peat faces. (Just checking I typed that OK). To avoid cross-contamination the spatula had to be wiped clean between samples. So the field kit included a bog roll.
"If Zurich's approach is successful, it could also lead to a loss of confidence in cyber insurance as an investment – ironically devaluing Zurich's product."
Even more ironically it might mean ransomware doing less damage as businesses realise they have to protect themselves instead of just relying on insurance.
All this small mammal stuff...
A ewe and one or two lambs in the garden happens a few times a year. Cow visits are rarer since the farmer stopped dairying and walking the herd past the gate every day but we've also had a significant fraction of the cattle herd complete with bull when they escaped. We've even had a half-grown calf leap the back wall - which I didn't think possible - and smash a few plant pots where it landed.
But sheep: I'm quite sure that, like children and what you see on Sean the Sheep, they know when they're up to mischief and keep quiet - until one of them can't control themselves any longer. So one Sunday afternoon some years ago we heard one solitary bleat and looked out of the window to find the garden packed with what looked like the entire year's crop of lambs. Being a Sunday I've no doubt some townie walker had left a gate open and our drive is the first they meet coming down the road towards the farm.
"Anyone still using those awful low-energy flourescent bulbs ?"
No but they fitted the same holders as the incandescents (and those that haven't yet died are still in use) and the LEDs also fit into the same holders. And isn't it a pity some of the LEDs are equally awful as regards colour balance and that their PSUs don't have lifetimes to match the LEDs themselves?
"Supplying the fuel for horses wasn't a problem"
It depends. If you lived in the country and had land, fine. I know some of my ancestors would have had horses and depended on them for their livelihood; one of them was killed falling from his horse coming back from market.
If you lived in an urban area and had sufficient space in your range of outbuildings for not only a horse or two, a carriage and a hayloft a provender merchant would be able to supply you. For everyone else, no chance.
One thing I've never quite understood, not being horsey myself, is this notion of putting horses to grass for the summer which seems to mean not using them.
"And to get updates on how many were in use/available.
Oh - wait, we already have all of that information available."
And oh bugger, all the ones within the range you've got left are already in use and there's a two hour queue. What now? Call the RAC and ask if they can bring a can of electrons?
It's not enough that there are some points you can locate. It's not enough that you can tell which are in use. You need to be able to rely on getting to a vacant charging point. A transport system needs to be reliable
"Historically it has meant walking, or, more recently cycling. It's only very very recently that the car has been an option - and it has completely screwed the country."
What has screwed the country is gathering all the work into areas separate from the housing. As more work gets concentrated in cities those cities are drawing commuters from over athousand square miles. This situation did not arise because of the car. It arose because since the war the entire aim of planners has been to separate work and housing. The motive might have been to get away from the situation of slum dwellings clustered round heavily polluting factories. But not enough thought was given as to how people would get between the two. With such large commuting ranges TPTB aren't prepared to invest sufficient in transport. They'll reluctantly spend on roads but leave th public to invest in vehicles, then complain when they're used. Now they're expecting them to invest in charging points whether it's feasible or not.
It makes not a jot of difference that plenty of other people have lock-up garages if you don't and where I live the old industries were staffed by people who lived in houses built before the motor vehicle, let alone private drives and lock-up garages. Those industrial sites have been closed and reused as housing so we now have more people living here than ever and far, far less work. Those in the houses that replaced mills may have garages (as too many were built on flood plains they have to have garages to lift the living accommodation high enough to avoid flooding!) but the older housing is still there. Some of it is stacked housing so some houses only have a path outside their front door, not even a road on which to park a car. The bus service is a quarter or less of what it was in the '50s and journey times longer. The train service was never closer than 2 miles and anyway that went in the '60s. But never mind, carry on, keep blaming the victims. The planners have been doing that for decades so why should you be different?
When the idea of a car to replace your horse was first put forward, I bet people were aghast at the thought of having to make a specific journey to fill the car up with petrol, rather than tying the horse at a post next to a trough or in a stable at night where it would "charge" itself.
Probably not. Horses were always high maintenance transport. The worry would have been having an adequate fuel distribution system. That's long since solved for petrol vehicles. It's nowhere near solved for electric vehicles and going round claiming it it's near enough solved isn't going to make it any better.
"And if you really need to do something which requires absurd range/longevity away from civilisation then you can always hire a liquid propelled vehicle."
How do you do that when manufacturers are being compelled to only build EVs? Or the demand for liquid fuel has run down to the point where the distribution system has become uneconomical?
"you're a fraction of one percent of the minority and EVs aren't designed for you. Get a hybrid, fill it with petrol, no worries."
If the intention is to get rid of all petrol vehicles then a better solution is needed. What's more, once a tipping point is reached the petrol distribution networks will start to get run down and at that point there really would need to be a system in place to make EVs an effective full replacement for all ICE applications.
And by the way that long mileage driver is probably quite a lot of drivers at least once or twice a year.
"I do more than a couple of hundred miles a day probably four times a year, and even that I could manage on one stop at a charger while I get a bite to eat"
That has a couple of requirements.
One is that where you stop has sufficient chargers that you can be sure of getting to park adjacent to one (and having to queue as might happen for petrol pumps isn't going to work; a queue for a facility that takes a half an hour or whatever to use isn't going to clear as fast as a queue for petrol). A limitation to the number of chargers that can be installed is the total available power at the site. For a motorway service area this is going to be considerable. Throttling the charge rate to match supply and demand isn't going to cut it, coming back to your car and finding you've only got another 20 miles of charge wouldn't leave you feeling very happy.
The other is that when you get to your destination you'll be able to rely on there being a charging point there for whatever you're going to do next day.
"but there is no reason that parking has to be within 6 feet of your front door"
It does if the charger is running off your own leccy connection. I doubt very much you'd be happy to let someone call at your door asking to plug their car into your house overnight because they can't find a space to park outside their own house.
So that takes us into the territory of needing public chargers for each overnight parking space.
It's one aspect of an issue that goes to the heart of public vs private provision in transport. If a country's economy depends on people travelling to work then either it needs to make adequate provision for everyone to travel to their work on public transport or it has to accept that those for whom provision isn't made to use such means as works for them. Historically this has meant private vehicles. It will also need to mean carbon-fuelled private vehicles until such time as there's an adequate public charging facility for those who can't make private provision.
"Net income was $2.6bn, a 49 per cent decrease on the quarter. This is largely due to a $2bn wedge Facebook coughed up, in addition to the $3bn already set aside, to foot the $5bn settlement fee"
On this basis the expected net income was $4.6bn per quarter. That means a $5bn fine wiped out more than a quarter's profits albeit spread over more than the single quarter.
Of course fines on any scale are a cost of doing business. What else could they be? They're not income, a loan or a capital investment. I'm not sure, however that fines wiping out a quarter's profits are just a cost of doing business. In any business with a sensible share structure the board would be being held to account by the shareholders. What you really need to look at is why this doesn't happen to FB.
Having written that it strikes me that the main difference between FB and most other corporations is that most other corporations are in thrall to a stock market that concentrates on quarterly results. Clearly Zuck is prepared to look long term. Perhaps there's a lesson there of sorts for other businesses.
The money they "squirrelled away" had to come from somewhere. It would be money that might otherwise have been paid as dividends or invested in some other nastiness aspect of the business.
Of course it's a cost of doing business. A business has only costs*, income and profits or losses which are the difference between the first two. Yes, a fine adds to the costs. It's intended to. What did you think it should have done?
* It has capital from investors and maybe borrowings but these exist to cover the costs until the income rolls in.
" the decision to shut facebook down would transform Zuckerberg form villain to world class hero, overnight."
Actually it wouldn't make him a hero, just an ex-villain and the defendant in a class action from the shareholders who'd want their money back.
"What's to stop the US from moling all the other stuff and making them useless as well."
Contrary to common US opinion they don't rule the world. The only effect would be to make the products of US-owned corporations unsaleable elsewhere. As I keep saying, if US politicians achieve what they keep aiming for their tech industry will relocate itself wherever there's a tech-friendly government* leaving local franchises to sell broken products to the US market.
*Yes, there would be such things. In fact there'd be strong competition in this field just as there is in tax at present. The rewards would be huge.
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