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Comment Re:It is not just China we are behind (Score 1) 112

It's hilarious that the UK is ranked number 4.

We have two new nuclear plants in the works, Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C. Hinkley was due to open around 2030, but has been delayed, so will be over 20 years from start of work to it generating power from the grid. Nobody wanted to build and operate it, they went around the world offering incredible subsidies. In the end EDF agreed, with Chinese investment (yes China owns a stake in our new nuclear plants), and a deal that guarantees extremely high prices for every watt generated.

The 20+ year build time is AFTER all the legal issues were resolved. As the name suggests, this is the third plant at the site, so a lot of the infrastructure is already there, much of the work done to check suitability, seismic stability etc. is already done.

Total cost is north of £35 billion, and increasing. Total cost to the bill payer will be much, much more, because of that sweet subsidy deal. Naturally they also get the usual free unlimited liability insurance from the government too, site security and so on.

So if the UK is supposed to be the 4th best in the world, I wouldn't bet on nuclear.

Comment Re:This is called "Hedging your bets". (Score 2) 27

While true, there is a decent chance this could work. There is a lot of promising new tech in this area, ironically some of it coming from the fracking industry. Geothermal works well, the issue has always been the limited number of places you can install it. A lot like extracting gas, it wasn't practical to access some of it until people figured out how to frack relatively cheaply.

Comment Re:Reading the article (Score 1) 88

You say they need to address men's issues, but most of the issues you list are for women.

Gender based issues are a part of it, but the root cause is that boomers feathered their nest based on the assumption that the population and economy would continue to grow forever, and emitted a lot of CO2.

The boomer generation was a very large cohort, which kept their costs (pensions for the previous generations) low on a per-capita basis. They also enjoyed massive wealth increases, not least due to property prices rising, which has locked a lot of younger people out of the housing market. They are living longer, and there are lots of expensive new medical treatments too. On top of that there is climate change and all the costs that brings.

It's very hard to fix because individually every boomer thinks they did the right thing, saved and invested wisely, worked hard, didn't know about climate change, earned all their wealth. They also vote more than any other generation, and there are more of them, so any policy that tries to fix things and inevitably hurts their interests won't get much traction.

My guess is that they will eventually age out of the population (die) and then things will start to be fixed, far far too late for it to be effective and not extremely painful.

Comment Re:There is no future for this planet unless (Score 2, Informative) 26

The height of anti-semitism is conflating Israel with the Jewish identity. In fact Israeli police regularly violently attack ultra orthodox Jews who oppose what the government is doing. It really is a blood libel.

The ICJ ruled that what Israel is doing is prima facie genocide. In due course I'm sure they will issue an expanded ruling. Benjamin Netanyahu is wanted for war crimes against the Palestinian people. Courts have looked at these issues, the evidence is compelling.

Comment Re: The end is nigh (Score 1) 88

In the UK the living space available to millennials and gen Z has been steadily decreasing over the years, and quite dramatically in the past 15.

A lot of new homes are too small for a couple, let alone to raise a family in. They should never have been built, and we are going to be stuck with them for the foreseeable future.

Comment Re:Beware the economists (Score 1) 23

In this case people are complaining that immigrants take "their" jobs and cause economic problems, so refuting that is a direct response to their argument.

It will be interesting to see how farms get on after ICE remove their source of labour. We had food rotting in the fields after Brexit due to lack of migrant workers and the unwillingness of British people to do those seasonal, very hard jobs.

Comment Re:Recall form is bogus (Score 1) 40

Don't consumer laws help? In the UK if Anker won't help you can just return it to where you bought it from. Defects in design or from the factory are grounds for a return/replacement, regardless of age. You would have to prove that the fault was always there, but fortunately Anker did that for you by issuing a recall.

Comment Re: Maybe because (Score 1) 71

That didn't happen with the COVID protests though, did it? No mass disappearances, and the images were shared widely on social media and abroad. There was some reaction and police intervention, but for the most part they were peaceful and allowed to happen, and in the end the government relented and lifted lockdown restrictions.

China isn't North Korea. It isn't the China of 40 years ago. These days the kind of stuff you are talking about, the kind of stuff happening in LA right now, isn't how things are.

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