Interesting Links for 26-02-2017

[andrewducker]

Why Ever Stop Playing Video Games (tags: games ) Check Out An Interactive Map Of Every Dinosaur Fossil Found On Earth (tags: dinosaurs map viaPatrickHadfield ) Why Millennials Are Lonely (tags: loneliness psychology viaSwampers ) The One Crucial Thing to Do When Your Partner Is Upset (tags: happiness psychology emotion relationships viaSwampers

Comments

[danieldwilliam]

The 21st Century equivalent of a U-boat is a bit of malware that takes down the wifi coms in your agricultural areas for two weeks.

[andrewducker]

Hah! The more I think about that the more I like it!

[andrewducker]

Of course, once we're all renewables, does that remove Russia's importance as a global power?

[danieldwilliam]

I think it probably adversely affects Russia's ability to be brute. Partly because renewables are probably relatively adverse for Russia and partly because they are adverse in one several of the ways that Russia seems to operate

[andrewducker]

Yeah, unless they build looooong connectors their wind power usage is going to be very limited. And if oil/gas become less important that will cut massively into their leverage over Europe.

So, fingers crossed, in ten years time things will get a lot calmer. Although, as you say, they'll still have some influence, particularly because of their mineral deposits, etc.

[danieldwilliam]

It's the difficulty with renewables writ very large. It's set me wondering how cheap wind power would have to be to offset the cost of building thousands of kilometers of cable from the middle of Siberia when you already have loads of natural gas and coal mines full of coal miners.

Probably lots cheaper.

I'm not sure if Russia having less influence necessarily makes them calmer. I think part of the reason why they are so antsy at the moment is that their economy is not working terribly well for ordinary folk. I think if the carbon bubble bursts before the Russians figure out what to do in the world apart from sell gas and rattle their sabres they might start throwing their weight around. (My suggestion for them would be that they were underpaid for Alaska and should repossess it.)

[danieldwilliam]

That said, they are still a very, very large country so they must retain some significant influence and power.