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ezzaf

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And where are those mining machines that allow this to occur manufactured? How about all the components of the mining machines? The locomotives that take all that iron ore to port? The port infrastructure? The ships that transport the ore to its overseas customers?

WA and its mining wealth and efficiency wouldn't exist without a global market for both its supply and demand.

Worse in one specific regard, yes. And they agree with you in their conclusion, saying dust during processing is likely a factor.

You can see the full study here:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/resp.14625

In conclusion, this study is the most comprehensive assessment of the physico-chemical characteristics of dusts generated from a wide range of resin-based engineered stones (of high- and reduced-silica contents) and the first to assess how these characteristics relate to the lung cell response, at a scale large enough to potentially identify components of these materials that could be linked to the severity of disease among ES workers. We showed that exposure to high levels of RCS dust during ES processing is likely contributing to disease severity in this occupational group, however, other inorganic components of ES dust, in particular Co and Al, may also be strong contributors. Furthermore, some of the highest inflammatory responses recorded were observed in non-engineered stones, further supporting the view that components other than crystalline silica may be contributing to the pathogenesis of severe silicosis. The outcomes of this study have important implications for future regulation of ES products as they challenge the common view that reducing the crystalline silica alone will eliminate disease risk.

The key take-away I get from that is that it's not silica specifically, but something else about engineered stone that is making it so unsafe to work with. And that's why they are banning the whole product class.

Studies looking into the issue have found non silica compounds cause issues too, and its the engineering process rather than the silica that causes the problem. This is why they haven't created an exemption for low-silica products.

"It's not just about the silica, it's something specific about the engineered stone products that's causing such a significant issue in workers fabricating these products."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-05/study-finds-safety-co...

This is actually completely reasonable and a positive for the energy grid. Large industrial energy users who can switch off when needed make the grid stronger, not weaker.

To illustrate, imagine a grid with 1000MW max demand and 2000MW of production. Let's say the generation is composed of equal parts solar, wind, gas, and nuclear.

You've got 500MW of always on (nuclear), 500MW dispatchable (gas), and 1000MW intermittent.

When the sun is shining and the wind is blowing, where do you put all your extra energy?

Well if you add on another 500MW of bitcoin mining, you can send it there. And if you hit peak demand when you've got no renewables (or the gas/nuclear is offline) you can switch off your extra demand.

The dispatchable industrial user is helping to pay to keep the extra capacity around you only need a few days a year.

Perhaps a more accurate headline would have been this buried deeper in the article

"The US worked through Third World countries and fake companies and finally was able to ship the ore to the US to build the SR-71."

And to complete the loop, Russia is now importing sanctioned American microchips for its missiles via third parties. I wonder if the order form states they will be used in smart pizzas ovens.

Wouldn't this apply to other continents too? Given for example Vancouver Island is part of North America, then North America (the island, not the continent) would qualify as it too is sub-continental. Europe and Asia would be the only continents excluded by virtue of being connected by land.

A quick scan of the Zeppelin list on wikipedia shows that significant proportion were lost after being hit by enemy fire. For example: LZ 20, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 32, 33, 34...

If you account for the electric generation and distribution losses, you should do the same for gas.

"It does cost more to run an appliance than to heat with gas."

That's highly dependent on the appliances involved and the price you pay for each fuel. For me, a heat pump is much cheaper to run. You really need to calculate it for each individual situation.

All other outstanding fees, such as tips, will be reviewed as part of the administration process.

Pretty low to withhold tips from their contractors.

I carry a couple of prussik loops primarily for abseil backup, but have also used it to recover from a fall off an overhang when seconding. The leader was far enough away they couldn't hear me asking to be lowered. I also couldn't reach the rock so had to ascend the rope. Prussik gets the job done.

but no one in anywhere near the ability to store energy for a whole country for weeks in cold countries, when days are very short and wind can just decide to stop blowing

Sure they do, the storage is just called hydroelectricity. There are parts of the world (eg Tasmania) with months of energy storage.

For the realised cost of nuclear and construction timeframe of nuclear, you could build a resilient supply with a distributed transmission grid and a mix of batteries and pumped hydro.

You've only quoted half of what you're replying to. You can get the solar, and the wind, and the storage, all for less than the cost of building nuclear once accounting for cost overruns.

It's also with noting that nuclear has a higher capacity factor, but it's not 100%.

I can just see the forecast now:

"Partly cloudy. Medium (40%) chance of burglary, most likely later in the evening. Light winds becoming south to southeasterly 15 to 20 km/h during the morning."

The whole point of a stablecoin however is that it is supposed to be... stable. From tether.to:

"Tether tokens are referred to as stablecoins because they offer price stability as they are pegged to a fiat currency. This offers traders, merchants and funds a low volatility solution when exiting positions in the market.

All Tether tokens are pegged at 1-to-1 with a matching fiat currency (e.g., 1 USD₮ = 1 USD)"

$0.95 is not $1.00 and a 5% drop is not low volatility.

ERCOT has a price cap similar to the NEM, but as far as I am aware no equivalent to the Cumulative Price Threshold which limits how long the price can sit at market cap for. In the NEM roughly speaking after 7.5 hours the price gets dropped to back to $300 for 7 days.

This measure does get triggered occasionally, generally after transmission or generation failures combined with hot weather.