notaviking @ notaviking @lemmy.world

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Joined

2 yr. ago

I do not really use journals for my daily work. But usually I have a quarterly project I tackle and then search if someone in the industry has researched the issue or something similar. So you usually get to read the abstract or executive summary and then have the option to get access.

My employer/company usually after I send motivational letter does pay. I also have a reoccurring yearly subscription to two professional bodies and their journals, even the one I specialise makes their research available for free and the other one usually has a month or so delay before it is free and available, usually to edit it and make it look nice.

But professional organisations and journals also need to be funded, and like my industry (mining) really invests in them because the knowledge from them benefits them. The journals do not fully guarantee quality papers, sometimes a malicious actor slips through and is usually redacted, but usually journals live on their brand of producing quality papers that can be used by the industry to improve it overall. And for this they do need a bit of resources.

But I also sympathize with OP because certain journals can make their barrier to entry prohibitive. If Nature Journal in this instance chooses to become a for profit entity I can see how this might stifle future progress especially for smaller players in the industry where cost margins are extremely tight and basically gives unfettered access to the giants to gain an edge.

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

Well America and the EU are probably Ukraine's biggest backers, economically and military aid wise. Thus we have a proxy war again and it is East vs West.

I have seen one, and it was on a school trip in 2004 in Durban where they brought one of the caught great White Sharks and dissected it in front of us kids for "educational" purposes, basically showing us what it has in its stomach, how it has infinite teeth. They use these "educational" dissections as justification for draglines and nets unfortunately.

I actually wrote an email to the new Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment: Dr Dion George, giving my two cents like how draglines and nets are outdated and dangerous to the shark population, how much better methods now exist. I only received an email saying they noted my concern. At least there are organisations really trying to save not only the great White shark but many other marine animals

Sadly through studies, like the one that ended in 2019, we have lost about 90% of our population then. The issue still is the use of draglines along the coast and nets which kill a large number of Sharks like in KZN, and the orcas also chase away some of our white Sharks.

Go look up yourself to see how our population has been decimated

It's sad that we don't have great White Sharks anymore

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

I understand that Epic funded their project to be an Epic exclusive, but was that a financially sound decision excluding the major market place. Could they not have worked in like a two year or three year exclusive period

Yeah I feel there is a weird history between steam and remedy media. Like I remember when you could one day buy Alan Wake like really cheap since it was being taken off steam. Then the Epic deal making Alan Wake 2 exclusive basically meant they excluded a lot of customers immediately on steam.

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.

Oh I have seen many photos of faces. Best one still is an MTV show just the tattoo of us where friends can choose what and where to tattoo on each other, there was a guy that got the full Trump portrait on his ass, and he loved it

Joke had its up an down

Yeah, I feel that it is fake, but also I know how stupid and irrational a human can be, so I know there is a chance this is real

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

As a South African, I was unaware of this marvelous train. I really hope change happens so that such a train is not necessary in the future.

But for now and the foreseeable future may this amazing initiative have a wonderful future

You are right actually, reform is better, and as a society we should be able to use prison time to make offenders better members of society.

But as an individual, for personal reasons, I despise any sexual acts of violence, so my previous message was written in anger. Even though I know the right answer is compassion and reason, I still wish them harm, unfortunately.

But I know I have hate I have to work on, but this is less about me and what I wish. It is about this poor lady getting justice however the French courts decides

Hope all of them get ousted as the guys gang raping an unconscious 70 year old lady. I really feel the other prisoners would really like to share their feelings on the matter