…well…it’s a shame we can’t do it with the less literal sort…but…& @farscythe might be able to tell us more than the guardian…it seems the netherlands has figured out that when there’s rivers of shit getting piped about anyway…you might as well make use of that shit?

Lieven de Key, a housing corporation in Amsterdam, is planning what is believed to be the first sewer warmth project that will tap into a main district sewage pipe to warm 1,600 existing social and student homes. After the Dutch words for sewer, riool, and warmth, this sustainable, 24/7, year round heat source is dubbed riothermie.
[…]
“The warmth comes from showers, the toilet, wastewater from washing, from the dishwasher, from the washing machine,” says Postuma. “Together it all gives, throughout the year, a temperature between 15 and 18 degrees. And we are going to make a bypass around the main sewer, put a heat exchanger around it and bring it to the houses in insulated pipes. We place it in an electric heat pump, and the water is heated up to 60 or 70C – medium temperature.”

The heat exchanger transfers that source heat from the drain to a working fluid that can be transported to the buildings without needing to circulate the actual sewage waste. Then the blocks’ heat pumps, fired by solar energy, can amplify that heat in the opposite way to the workings of a refrigerator. For individual homes, each one would have to have their own heat pump connected to this “source net”.

The company is also upgrading the double glazing and has already put in new roof insulation and solar panels, which means they can ditch the existing gas-fired heating system altogether. The project is intended to warm a four-storey 1970s social housing complex and a multi-storey block of student rooms opposite: residents have agreed, and a student vote is planned within weeks. Sitting in one of the typical 90 sq metre flats, which has been kitted out to show residents the €14m (£12.2m) project (which will get a €1.3m government subsidy), longtime resident Ad Jongen, 85, explains why he cannot wait to get started. “Maybe Amsterdam will go entirely gas-free in six or seven years,” he says. “You have to be prepared.”

…it’s…pretty cunning, really…so long as you don’t try to be too clever about it

That said, you don’t want to take too much heat from sewage pipes. “You can’t reduce the temperature there too much because purification works with bacteria,” he adds. “It’s a biological process and if the bacteria get cold, they won’t work as hard and our water will be less well purified. But at the back end, where we release the purified water into surface water, we are happy for it to be colder. The most warmth potential is at the end of the sewage system.”
[…]
[Lisanne Havinga, assistant professor in building performance at Eindhoven University of Technology] is working on the “Renovation Explorer”, an open source project where homeowners will be able to get tailored recommendations. A sewer-based project – such as one that will soon heat her own home in another project fed by a sewage treatment plant – has advantages over air-based heat pumps, she says, because it won’t need as much boosting from an overloaded electricity net. The work is all part of the Dutch drive to leave fossil fuels behind – “van de gas af” as they put it – which will both make energy sources more sustainable and reduce carbon emissions. In 2019 the Dutch supreme court ruled that the Dutch government was doing too little to prevent climate change, and ordered it urgently to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
[…]
Can other places do it too? Yes. Dutch sewers are pumped, because it is flat; the technique can be cheaper in gravity-driven systems and it’s easier with new-build.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/08/how-the-dutch-went-down-the-toilet-looking-for-heat-sewage

…at least it’s good news…what with everything else that’s bugging out…or…out-of-bugs-ing, I suppose

While scientists have long documented the decline of species of plants and vertebrates, there has always been significant uncertainty over insects, with the UN making a “tentative estimate” of 10% threatened with extinction in 2019.

Since then, more data has been collected on insects, showing the proportion at risk of extinction is much higher than previously estimated. Because there are so many insect species, this doubles the global number of species at risk, according to the paper, published in Plos One on Wednesday.

Lead researcher, Axel Hochkirch, from the Musée National d’Histoire Naturelle in Luxembourg, said: “What our study does is really highlight that insects are as threatened as other taxa. And because they are the most species-rich group of animals on our planet, this is really something which should be addressed.”

Understanding what is happening to global insect populations has been challenging because of the lack of data – but 97% of all animals are invertebrates. Of that group, about 90% are classified as insects. They provide vital ecosystem services: pollinating crops, recycling nutrients into soils, and decomposing waste. “Without insects, our planet will not be able to survive,” Hochkirch said.

The team looked at all European species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list of threatened species. This is considered the most comprehensive source of information on species at risk. They found a fifth of European species were at risk of extinction, with 24% of invertebrates at risk, as well as 27% of all plants and 18% of vertebrates.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/08/species-at-risk-extinction-doubles-to-2-million-aoe

…so…you’ll have to excuse me…but I’ve been imagining how many homes you could heat if you harness the shite flowing from…you know…*gestures wildly in all directions*

Former ministers and Tory insiders claim that the home secretary is deliberately making unauthorised statements on homelessness, demonstrations and multiculturalism to woo the party’s hard-right base.

…you might be asking yourself who that might be & what the hell it’s all about…& the answer to the first part would be a loathsome lady by the name of suella braverman

The prime minister has refused to endorse Braverman’s claims that rough sleeping is sometimes a “lifestyle choice” and the flagship criminal justice bill has been delayed amid resistance from some cabinet ministers over her measures to stop tents being given to homeless people. Ministers have also refused to repeat Braverman’s description of pro-Palestinian demonstrations as “hate marches”.

…now…you can probably guess how the hate march thing goes…too mean to your right wing types but not mean enough to pro-palestinian or black lives matter type deals…same shit, different day…but the rough sleeping thing…she big mad that thanks to the sort of cheap ass stock that’s led to loads of thoughtless assholes buying tents so cut-price they pitch them once at a festival & then just leave that shit behind with their empty beer cans & fag ends…which would be cigarette butts in a british context…not the other kind…your actual homeless people have the outright gall to be able to afford something to pitch somewhere…which is the sort of thing that makes them considerably harder to ignore than if they’d just shiver their way through the long winter nights in doorways & gutters like she thinks they deserve to…since that would learn them not to be homeless in the first place or whatever circular bullshit she tells herself makes that a principled position to be proud of

One former minister told the Guardian: “It is as if she wants to be fired so she can get on with a leadership bid … If she is tied to the government for too long, she will have to carry some of the blame for Rishi’s failure – and few people think he will win a general election outright.”

Another former Tory frontbencher said Braverman’s decision to make statements that have not been signed off by No 10 shows that Sunak is weak. “She is employing a self-preservation strategy which is not going down well inside the parliamentary party outside of the 40 or so MPs who might support her.”

On Monday, Colin Bloom, the former director of the Conservative Christian Fellowship, said Braverman was “goading” Sunak into sacking her. “It is not just that it is the comments about people sleeping in tents. I think she is goading No 10 into getting rid of her because she wants to launch her leadership campaign,” he told Newsnight.

Sunak last month refused to repeat Braverman’s claims that a “hurricane” of migrants was coming to the UK and that the country faced an “invasion”, and previously refused to repeat her statement that multiculturalism was a “misguided dogma” that had allowed people to “live parallel lives”.

However, Braverman is closely tied to Sunak through his promise to “stop the boats” and the court battle, expected to conclude in mid December, which will decide whether the government can deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.

If the government loses, there will be pressure from Braverman’s backers in two hard-right Tory factions – the Common Sense Group and the New Conservatives – to leave the European convention on human rights (ECHR). At this point, it is possible Braverman could call on Sunak to make it a pre-election promise and quit if the idea is ruled out.

Braverman’s supporters say she is not undermining Sunak, but is instead speaking her mind, and is not pursuing a high-risk strategy that could easily backfire.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/nov/08/tory-insiders-suggest-suella-braverman-trying-to-get-sacked

…keep your friends close…& your enemies closer, I guess…& when they spew that much shit I guess it’s got to keep things nice & heated, too…something, something…inmates…something…asylum

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/nov/06/homelessness-could-be-the-perfect-lifestyle-choice-for-suella-braverman

…I swear if it weren’t for john crace I’m pretty sure the news out of the UK alone would have broken my tiny little mind by now…but after that little flight of fancy I actually feel like I could take on a little more…so…what have we got?

If things had gone the other way, the whispering campaign for 80-year-old Biden to step aside would have become a roar. Instead, in the cold light of day, white hair and an unsteady gait look like small offences compared with a messianic mission to end American democracy and reproductive autonomy.

“There is an incredible amount of whiplash over the course of the last 72 hours,” said Ezra Levin, co-founder and co-executive director of the progressive grassroots movement Indivisible. “As of Sunday night, Democrats were destined to lose badly both on Tuesday and also a year from Tuesday. It was written in the stars, foregone conclusion that Biden was going to lead his party to defeat and he would deserve it. Just look at the terrible series of polls that came out.

“I don’t think polls are meaningless but I do think they are given more power than they deserve. What the poll says is right now here is what a group of voters think they will do a year from now. We can take that at face value and believe that is the case and also we should pay attention to the other data that we have coming in, namely the election results that tell us when the choice is given to voters about whether they are going to push the button for the Republicans, for the Maga [Make America great again] supporters, for the anti-abortion zealots or a Democrat or a Democratic proposal like protecting abortion rights, it’s very clear what they choose.”

…would you credit it? …well…yeah, actually…I assume you would since there’s been some fairly widespread agreement about that sort of thing in these parts that leads me to believe a number of people would have found that almost entirely unsurprising…but it’s apparently thrown a whole bunch of media types for the proverbial loop…which is different to circular thinking…because…I dunno…I stopped paying attention before they got that far

…at the end of the day…I continue to struggle to understand what is so complicated about a situation where maybe you don’t think the incumbent is the best option in the sense of there being someone else you’d maybe vote to take the ticket…but remain quite clear that one ticket is a thing you might not love the idea of voting for…but the other is a thing you ought to consider an outright necessity to vote against just to scrape by as doing the bare minimum to hold up your end of any kind of social contract worth the paper it isn’t printed on…& what with the column inches devoted on the regular to drilling all & sundry on just how stark that choice is…I guess I can only conclude that the people writing this stuff up mostly don’t read each other’s stuff…how else to explain how these things keep arriving as a shock to their systems?

Cenk Uygur⁦‪, a political commentator and media host who has launched a long-shot primary campaign against Biden, wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter: “Last night showed that Democratic policies are strong everywhere, from Ohio to Kentucky. Yet the leading Democratic nominee for president is trailing the most unpopular politician of all time by five points. Biden never makes the Democratic case. Extraordinarily weak candidate.”

Others, however, contend that Tuesday was a blue wave and now is not the time to change the captain of a winning team. Jim Messina, a Democratic strategist, tweeted: “What if – and just hear me out for a second – the Democratic brand and Joe Biden have policies people actually like? And the way people voted last night is a reflection of both those things?”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/08/democrat-biden-poll-election-virginia-kentucky-ohio

…what if the average voter is better at differentiating between politicians & policy goals than the people picking how to grandstand their differences of opinion…what if the guy in the song did, in fact, know much about history…have a science book or two…maybe even remembered the french they took…wouldn’t that be something…maybe…& hear me out on this over-extended metaphor…they’d even have a spare book or two they could throw at some deserving candidates?

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves was reelected on Tuesday, a Republican win that comes after a close race and reports of ballots running out at least nine precincts in a majority-Black county.

Newsweek reported widespread accounts of polling stations running out of ballots in Hinds County, Mississippi’s most populous county, resulting in some residents waiting several hours to cast their votes. The lack of ballots prompted Hinds County Chancery Judge Dewayne Thomas to order polls to remain open for an extra hour after the state Democratic Party filed a lawsuit.

…because…this doesn’t sound subtle to me

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that Hinds County is 73.5 percent Black and traditionally votes Democratic.

“A number of precincts in Hinds County ran out of ballots during election day and are continuing to run out of ballots and others may run out going forward,” wrote Thomas. “It takes time to deliver more ballots to the precincts. Because of the disruption this has caused, the Court grants the motion of the Plaintiff to extend the closing hours in Hinds County from 7 PM to 8 PM.”

…didn’t stop presley from conceding to reeves already…but…well…the whole thing stinks enough I got to assume you could heat the better part of the county off the back of it…although…I’d imagine most of those folks are feeling plenty heated already

Despite Presley’s best efforts and enormous support, Reeves reportedly received 52 percent of the vote against Presley’s 46.6 percent, with 86 percent of the votes calculated. Presley ultimately conceded, extending well wishes to his opponent via X.

https://thegrio.com/2023/11/08/at-least-9-precincts-in-majority-black-mississippi-county-ran-out-of-ballots-per-reports

…more than likely in danger of overheating, even

DBS and Citibank, the banks involved, experienced outages in the mid-afternoon of October 14, 2023 that resulted in full or partial unavailability of online banking apps for around two days – leaving customers and vendors without a way to make payments in a city-state that is increasingly reliant on digital financial systems.

In fact, according to minister Alvin Tan in a parliamentary reply, the outages led to 810,000 failed attempts to access the two platforms while 2.5 million payment and ATM transactions could not be completed.

The root cause of the outages was issues in the cooling system that caused the temperature to rise above optimal operating range at the Equinix datacenter used by both institutions.

Equinix has reportedly blamed a contractor, alleging that person “incorrectly sent a signal to close the valves from the chilled water buffer tanks” during a planned system upgrade.

…which is of course precisely why some things come with disaster recovery plans baked in

“However,” according to Tan, “both banks encountered technical issues which prevented them from fully recovering their affected systems at their respective backup datacenters – DBS due to a network misconfiguration and Citibank due to connectivity issues.”

…I swear…there’s a metaphor in that somewhere

Tan concluded that the two banks had “fallen short” of MAS requirements to ensure critical IT systems are resilient. The authority requires that unscheduled downtime for critical systems affecting bank operations should not exceed four hours within any 12 month period – a limit easily exceeded in this case.

As a result, the MAS has slapped DBS with some hefty punishments – including barring it over the next six months from reducing the size of its branch and ATM network, making any non-essential IT changes, or acquiring new business ventures.

DBS is also required to apply a multiplier of 1.8 times to its risk-weighted assets for operational risk.
[…]
Overheating of a datacenter is an unfortunate event in a country that literally wrote the standard for datacenter operations in the tropics.

Such standards – as well as successful implementation of them – will only become more important as extreme weather takes hold globally.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/07/overheating_datacenter_singapore/

…speaking of standards…apparently the standard window of recollection isn’t enough to extend to the time when microsoft spent a lot of lawyers on trying to retain the right to bake their browser into their OS as people’s default internet explorer…so…this is apparently new information to more people than you’d perhaps suspect

This setting affects who gets to track your location and watch what you look up online. It affects the usefulness of the information you see and how much of your screen is taken up by ads.

I’m talking about your search engine — what pops up the answers when you type into the search bar. Google pays the makers of phones, laptops and browsers to be your default and to stop them from even presenting you other options during setup. It’s billions for a favor.
[…]
The reason we’re able to pull back the curtain on the big business of default settings is because of an antitrust trial against Google underway in Washington, one of the largest in decades. The U.S. has accused Google of illegally using payments to phone makers and others to deter people from trying alternatives like the privacy-focused DuckDuckGo and or Microsoft-made Bing. We expect a verdict early next year.

You might be wondering: So what? Google has a reputation for good results, in part because it has data from so many users. What’s so bad about making Google the default?

What we’re learning from the trial flips that question on its head. If Google’s so good, then why does it need to spend as much as all the Big Macs combined to make sure we never even consider the alternatives? What have we been missing while Google has been our default? And how would we know if something better came along?
[…]
We’re getting an inside view of how Google exploits this behavioral science, sometimes called the “power of defaults.” The idea is that defaults can nudge people’s choices one way or another, because most people are too distracted or confused to change them. Our apps and devices come filled with settings that benefit tech companies more than us — the “devil is in the defaults,” I wrote in 2018.

To get Google’s payout, we’ve learned in the trial, Google requires its partners to make Google the default and also (where allowed by law) not give us a choice during setup. In some cases, the companies also can’t actively encourage us to switch. This is called adding “friction” to our choices.

To get Google’s payout, we’ve learned in the trial, Google requires its partners to make Google the default and also (where allowed by law) not give us a choice during setup. In some cases, the companies also can’t actively encourage us to switch. This is called adding “friction” to our choices.
[…]
On an iPhone, it takes 4 taps and some scrolling, once you know where to look. In certain Android phones, changing a search engine takes more than 10 taps because you have to change a browser setting and also a search bar on the home screen.

None of the confusion is our fault — it’s literally what Google pays for. An internal Google document revealed in the trial showed a reason for Google’s concern: It found when people changed their browser homepage away from Google, their searches with Google shrunk by 27 percent.

In Europe, which declared Google a monopoly in 2018, Android phone makers are now required to include a search engine choice during setup. There, Google’s market share has largely stayed the same; competitors say that’s because the choice screen is shown only once and also because it doesn’t give sufficient information about alternatives. In Russia, which also requires a choice screen, most people have now chosen Google’s local rival Yandex.

…remember when their company slogan was “don’t be evil”?…nah…neither does google…sorry…alphabet…got to get your megacorps nomenclature correct or you’ll upset the SEO applecart…& then there’ll be no telling your apple macs from your horse apples…& before you know it the glue holding everything together will reek & even the knackers’ yards will be knackered…& then where’ll we be…& who’ll shovel all this shit for us?

But wait: I thought Apple made protecting its customers’ privacy a cornerstone of its value proposition? iPhones ask users to make lots of decisions about privacy, including whether they want to give apps the ability to track them. Google’s whole business model is tracking people, and using that data to target them with marketing.
[…]
Funny thing, though — Apple products don’t ask customers to make any privacy choices about their search engine, it’s just Google by default. Not asking us to choose a search engine is part of Google’s deal with Apple.

Samsung, too, actively makes design decisions that help Google rather than us. Lawyers for the DOJ flagged a 2018 document showing Samsung had made a change in its web browser that reduced the friction for people who wanted to change their search engine. But then Google sent a complaint saying that was a violation of Samsung’s search deal with Google. After that, Samsung deleted this change, increasing the friction.

…fair go…it might all seem like a bunch of overly-geeky gilding of a lily you don’t even look at & care about even less…but…it’s not nothing…& a lot of people still hoover with a hoover that isn’t a Hoover™

But there are reasons Google might not deserve your loyalty. At the top of my list: Google’s excess data collection is both creepy and a potential risk to your civil rights. (For a potential shock, check out everything it stores on your MyActivity page.) Earlier this year, I found that even after Google said it would delete some of its data to protect the privacy of people seeking abortion care, Google didn’t live up to its promise.

…or…given that even if you check the box that says don’t make the list of that stuff available to the user…you aren’t disabling the systems that it gets derived from…so…it’s not like that suddenly makes the data not available to google…or whoever…at which point maybe you figure it’s a distinction without a difference in a world where meta already has a shadow profile for the facebook account you don’t have which can triangulate your shopping habits well enough to write a more accurate grocery list than you did last time you popped to the shops…so…why waste time worrying about it?

A lack of competition is also leading Google’s search results pages to get worse, flooded with ads and information from its own services. To visualize the decline, I compared the exact same searches across the years.

Google spent $26 billion to hide this phone setting from you [WaPo]

…funny how that works…almost like you might be able to call it a matter of…wossnames…perverse incentives…or incentives to be perverse

[…] a reminder about what that could portend: a Washington Post exposé about how Trump and his allies plan to use a second term to wrest control of and politicize the Justice Department to target his political foes.

The Post’s big story was hardly the first evidence of the plans for a consolidation of power and a more authoritarian second term.
[…]
The Post reported Sunday that Trump and his allies have mapped out specific plans to use the federal government to target his enemies. They have signaled a desire to pursue not only President Biden but also high-profile former allies who have turned critical of Trump.

…do I think it is…quite frankly…fucking hysterical that one of those “enemies” is billy boy barr…without whose deflationary obfuscation about the findings of mueller’s book report derp orangenfuhrer would have been holed below the waterline early enough that maybe some of those grand old party faithful in the appropriate chamber would have popped the proverbial cap in his ass on one or other of the opportunities they had to formally indict him the way he indicts himself every time he opens his god-damn mouth…yes…yes I do…but I don’t consider getting those laughs out of the whole thing somehow miracles it into the window of looking like a good deal…let alone one that gets to invoke concepts like fairness or justice

Trump’s associates have drafted plans, according to The Post’s report, to “dispense with 50 years of policy and practice intended to shield criminal prosecutions from political considerations.” Political interference in Justice Department matters figured heavily in Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal. In the early 2000s, the George W. Bush administration’s removals of U.S. attorneys for allegedly political purposes resulted in a criminal investigation.

They are also drafting preemptive plans to potentially invoke the Insurrection Act on Trump’s first day to quell any demonstrations. A key figure in that effort is indicted former Trump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, who Trump’s indictment says floated using the same law to put down protests if Trump refused to leave office in 2021.
[…]
Jonathan Swan reported for Axios last year that Trump allies were considering reclassifying as many as 50,000 federal employees so that they would lose employment protections and could more easily be replaced.

That’s a fraction of the federal workforce, but the effort could focus on career nonpartisan officials who have significant sway over policy. Presidents usually get to replace only about 4,000 political appointees.

Trump could theoretically use this to recast the ranks of those in charge of national security, intelligence, the State Department, law enforcement and the military. He has frequently singled out all of these areas as being rife with officials insufficiently aligned with him.
[…]
The question with Trump would be how many he removes and who replaces them. And a Times story last week provides clues.

The Times reported that there were plans to jettison conservative lawyers in the mold of the Federalist Society and instead install more aggressive and loyal ones committed to Trump’s agenda.

…dunno about you…but you might want to back up a sec…& maybe freshen up that coffee…because I know it took me a moment to process the part where the freaking federalist society is insufficiently aggressive & too establishment to be considered loyal to the project in question

It reported that Trump’s allies are seeking those “willing to endure the personal and professional risks of association with Mr. Trump” and “willing to use theories that more establishment lawyers would reject.”

…you know…because they come with bonuses like losing your bar license for engaging in illegal practices…like the other LINOs…remind me again who isn’t an idiot in this equation?

He could bring such independent agencies as the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission under his direct control.

He could issue an executive order making agencies submit actions to the White House for review.

He could refuse to spend money on programs Congress funds but he doesn’t favor.

There is even a question about whether Trump would try to wrangle control of the Federal Reserve, which sets interest rates. Trump as president repeatedly applied pressure on the Fed, one of many norms he flouted. He also recently suggested he might apply pressure on it to lower interest rates in a second term.
[…]
Another key figure in the second-term planning, former Trump budget director Russ Vought, put it bluntly in terms similar to those of Clark.

“What we’re trying to do is identify the pockets of independence and seize them,” Vought told the Times.

…who even needs a quiet part, anyway?

The unmistakable message — and one inextricably tied to his historically political first-term pardons — is that he will stand up for those who fought for him (often quite literally).

“I mean full pardons with an apology to many,” he said last year.

He added in a CNN town hall this year that he is inclined to pardon a “large portion” of the hundreds of defendants, while exempting “a couple of them” who perhaps “got out of control.”

He even recently left open the possibility of pardoning members of the Proud Boys, a far-right group with a history of violence, who have been convicted of seditious conspiracy.

…because apparently it wasn’t that he took things too far…no…he didn’t take them far (right) enough, apparently

He has proposed “ideological screening” to root out people who, among other things, “don’t like our religion.” (The United States has no official religion.)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/07/5-ways-trump-allies-plan-more-authoritarian-second-term

…no shortage of evangelical party faithful, though…which is a weird division of labor in a church & state kind of a never-the-twain set up like the US is keen to advertise…but…I imagine that’ll be something to do with market forces & capitalist exceptionalism or eminent domain or something similarly innocuous…so we needn’t concern ourselves…allegedly?

…besides…we’ve got plenty of material concerns to concern ourselves with

Researchers have made a breakthrough with a so-called miracle material to break the efficiency record for solar panel electricity generation.

A team from the Chinese solar technology firm Longi set a new world record of 33.9 per cent for a silicon-perovskite tandem solar cell, breaking the previous record set in May this year by King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia.

The new efficiency record also broke the theoretical limit of 33.7 per cent for the first time of standard single junction cells, which are found in commercial solar panels.

“This provides meaningful empirical data to demonstrate the advantage of crystalline silicon-perovskite tandem solar cells over crystalline silicon single junction solar cells in terms of efficiency,” the company noted in a statement.
[…]
The theoretical efficiency limit of silicon-perovskite tandem solar cells is 43 per cent, however this level is unlikely to ever be realised on a commercial scale.

The first production of ultra-efficient perovskite solar panels could begin in China, with researchers from Nanjing University saying earlier this year that a design breakthrough has made mass production possible.
[…]
UK startup Oxford PV, which is a spin-out from the University of Oxford, is already in the process of commercialising the technology, with hopes of beginning full-scale production at a German facility later this year.
[…]
Perovskite has been hailed as a “miracle material” for its potential to revolutionise everything from high-speed telecommunications to renewable energy technologies.
[…]
Recent breakthroughs include self-healing solar panels that can maintain their efficiency for tens to hundreds of years, as well as double-sided solar panels capable of generating electricity from the Sun’s energy on both sides.

Solar panel world record smashed with ‘miracle material’ [The Independent]

…all in all…given the option…I think I’d probably prefer relying on sunshine to trying to keep the supply in terms of rivers of shite up with the ever-increasing demands of an overweight population in times replete with burning issues that increasingly call for a leaner mix?

Oil and gas production in Texas is spewing out double the rate of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, than in the more regulated state of New Mexico, new satellite data shared with the Guardian shows, prompting calls for tougher curbs of “super-emitter” sites that risk tipping the world into climate breakdown.

…it’s not so much that it’s impossible to avoid some side-effects to some of this stuff we can’t avoid reliance on to some extent for the foreseeable…it’s that they aren’t even trying to avoid the ones that fucking could be

Methane is a potent planet-heating gas, around 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, and is routinely released via leaks or intentionally vented and burned, in a process called flaring, by fossil fuel companies when drilling for oil and gas. Scientists have warned of a “scary” surge in methane emissions in the past two decades, posing a major threat to efforts to contain dangerous global heating.
[…]
Rostand said the difference between visible leaks in Texas and New Mexico is “huge” and should spur governments in the US and other countries to crack down on this pollution. “It seems the regulation in New Mexico has had an impact without hurting business,” he said. “It’s a message of hope because it shows that if you have regulation it works. Governments need to take up their responsibilities with this.”

Methane is emitted from various activities, such as from the raising of livestock, but oil and gas production is the biggest source of the pollutant in the US and emissions have surged amid a frenzy of new drilling, some of it for fossil fuels to be exported overseas.

Texas, despite being at the epicenter of the oil industry, has scant measures to prevent companies from dumping their unwanted methane into the shared atmosphere. It is “really frustrating that Texas continues to allow oil and gas companies to pollute with impunity when we’ve got a great solution staring us in the eye”, said Luke Metzger, executive director of Environment Texas. “Unfortunately it’s clear that Texas is not going to stand up to big oil and adopt sensible standards to cut methane.”

Environmentalists have pinned their hopes, therefore, on the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is finalizing a new federal rule for new and existing drilling sites that it says will slash methane emissions from these sources by 87% by 2030, compared with 2005 levels. The regulation is expected to be unveiled later this month.

…you know…don’t get hung up on the details…like how that sounds like nearly 90% of some harmful emissions that were effectively optional extras these companies opted for FFS

The oil and gas industry, and its political allies, have complained that new regulations would be too onerous and risk pushing up fuel costs. “The current administration has made its intentions clear – it is determined to target our flourishing oil and gas sector, despite its substantial progress in reducing methane emissions, irrespective of how it might impact American energy security, reliability, and consumer cost,” Senator Joe Manchin, a centrist Democrat and coal company owner, wrote to the EPA leadership recently.

…you know…joe & his fucking gob shite can take a long walk off a short cliff as far as I’m concerned…nothing new about that…but…it’s not just the gall of these epic assholes…it’s the god damn scale

“Cutting methane would have the same benefit to the climate as removing all cars and trucks from the road.[…] This really should be the ‘Cop of methane’. If the US and Europe, which is the largest importer of natural gas, act, then it will just be the best possible news for the climate.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/08/texas-methane-oil-and-gas-study-climate

…anyway…I’d best get about my day…which requires some getting about…so I can’t spend the whole thing turning circles in the windmills of my mind…but…there are stranger things than are dreamed of in some philosophies, I’m told…so if you fancy a rabbit hole…how about this one?

Why is modern economics not philosophy when it makes (different) predictions about the same things as Marxist economics?
byu/JustTaxLandLol inaskphilosophy

…& after lunch you can get down to brass tacks with the basic tenets of anarcho-syndicalism for an encore

…maybe if we’re really lucky…dogmatix will save us?

…yeah…ok…this clearly got out of hand a while back so I’ll skip to the tunes & call it a day?