sdunwoody

6 ms·

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by sdunwoody 5y ago
Using a custom library over Bootstrap would potentially offer them the following benefits: * Full control over browser support (Government Agencies are likely to have to support older browser than Bootstrap for example would support). * Ful
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by sdunwoody 5y ago
I think we're very fortunate in the UK to have a great mix of wind/solar/tidal to utilise for power generation (although I don't think solar is as appropriate for our situation as wind or tidal). TBH I really wish our po
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by sdunwoody 5y ago
No offence taken, I'm happy to learn! It seems like I need to go and do more reading about this. I suppose efficiency aside, the next big problem(s) would be of a political nature? Having no control over your power supply (which is hos
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by sdunwoody 5y ago
Let's take the UK as an example. Densely populated, so there's not lots of "dark barren" land. Energy consumption rises considerably in the winter, just as sunlight hours reduce, and the weather gets cloudier. Even assum
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by sdunwoody 5y ago
Some countries yes, but what about others? The UK, Ireland, the Baltics (I was thinking of the Netherlands and Belgium too, although they don't strictly fit in the definition apparently) - not all of these countries have oil reserves o
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by sdunwoody 5y ago
I'm not an expert at all when it comes to this sort of stuff, but don't you lose quite a high percentage of the electricity generated when you move it over the vast distances needed for that to work?
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by sdunwoody 5y ago
Solar doesn't work that well the further you get from the equator. Nortern Europe? Freezing in the winter (so lots of heating necessitating more electricity), and generally poor weather, plus the daylight hours can be incredibly short.
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by sdunwoody 5y ago
Not a scientific achievement, but doesn't the Sagrada Família count? "On 19 March 1882, construction of the Sagrada Família began ... It was anticipated that the building would be completed by 2026, the centenary of Gaudí's
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by sdunwoody 5y ago
There's obviously room for improvement here too yes. Although I really really doubt anyone here would be arrested for having a doze on the pavement.
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by sdunwoody 5y ago
So I think the problem there is that the root causes of homelessness need addressing. Moving all these people to a different city/town/location is not "solving" the issue.
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by sdunwoody 5y ago
I find it really nasty. I visited Los Angeles a couple of years back, one of the first places we went was a McDonalds. Some guy was dozing sat at a table (with a coffee in front of him). A cop came up to him and told him he'd be reprim
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by sdunwoody 5y ago
This whole thing is pretty depressing (and would make me pretty angry if I lived in the USA). But I was even a bit shocked in the first paragraph: >He woke up to a police officer arresting him for violating the city’s ban on lying down i
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by sdunwoody 6y ago
You could hold a similar debate on every service the government currently provides, and you would essentially end up with toll roads everywhere and parents having to pay exorbitant amounts to educate their children properly. The BBC is simi
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by sdunwoody 6y ago
The BBC would face significant cuts if that was the case. It would likely end up at a point where the quantity and quality of content was reduced due to less revenue, which then would cause additional people to cancel subscriptions. This wo
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by sdunwoody 6y ago
Not read the article, but as a political aside, the licence fee is a big subject of debate here at the moment. It was designed so that the BBC essentially had independence from the government, and as such, they could more easily be politica
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by sdunwoody 6y ago
I'm not a military expert, but from what I've read (and watched) my understanding is that the "Seoul sea of fire" scenario is slightly over-egged for the following reasons: - NK has a LOT of artillery, but the majority o
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by sdunwoody 6y ago
I think you're right that most people are talking about different levels. What frustrates me often is that when a UBI is discussed, very rarely do amounts seem to be discussed; whether in terms of montly payments, or overall cost of im
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by sdunwoody 6y ago
Just in terms of the UK budget (as in my example above), the welfare and pensions budget accounts for about £220 billion a year: https://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/year_spending_2018UKbt_17... Let's be generous and rou
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by sdunwoody 6y ago
I really don't think enough thought goes into the affordability of a UBI when it comes up in discussions. Just a quick estimate, assuming that we're talking about the UK here The UBI pays out to 53,000,000 people (very roughly the
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by sdunwoody 6y ago
I think by saying "you can't afford to build infrastructure where it's not crowded", he actually means that it's not affordable because the ridership will be too low, so it's not really viable in that sense.
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by sdunwoody 6y ago
I think a lot of people are incorrectly identifying this as a good thing. Really, this is an unprecedented phenomenon in recorded human history. The entire social structure of basically every country on the planet is completely unprepared f
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by sdunwoody 8y ago
I'm not sure about France, but it's rare to have air con in the UK because the summers aren't hot enough :) I think a lot of Europe is similar in this regard (with the exception being the south). Even if France does have a re
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by sdunwoody 8y ago
Please forgive me if this is a stupid question - but is heavily investing in solar electricity a good idea in Europe considering the variation in climate throughout the year? Energy demand is highest in the Winter, when mean monthly sunshin