Bullshit, South African here. Yes solar has helped, mostly the affluent who can afford to install their own private home/business solar power.

But The huge problem what caused it was the ANC, which in May lost its majority in the elections for the first time since 1994.

The state run power company, Eskom, had been run into the ground by the ANC due to corruption and incompetence. In 1997 a white paper showed there would not be enough power by 2007. The only two power stations they build, the two largest in the world if I am not incorrect has been the subject of the state capture commission due to corruption.

In 2024 when it became clear they might lose majority, they exempted themselves from a government policy, which affects all medium to large businesses, which mandated they had to procure anything like maintenance or supplies through a BEE (black economic empowerment) partner. The idea is good but has been abused as rent seeking by the politically connected. So now they are exempt and the OEMs can directly work to fix and maintain the power stations.

Funny due to the loadshedding, or rolling blackouts, we did not have enough power stations working, and as far as I know we were one, if not the only country reaching our Paris accords targets.

But solar power is here to stay, heck even I want it on my own place, due to the cost of electricity becoming unaffordable, if you take a 10 year loan on a solar system, the cost savings will pay of the system itself. This has led to the affluent that can afford high tariffs prices from Eskom switch to Solar, saving them money, but they were used to subsidise electricity prices for the poor. So now the poor must pay more for electricity.

The government did finally approve the independent power producers bill, finally allowing people other than government to produce electricity, and solar looks like a solid option, since we have lots of Sun and the falling prices. So government is loosing grip on the generation market, allowing the free market to make changes.

But I will say it has been so nice to have had uninterrupted power when I come home, not needing to throw out my freezer food, having a hot shower, being able to prepare food on a hot stove under lights instead of a braai/BBQ.

Icarus was insane. From an amateur cyclist trying to up his game that leads him on a journey of discovery into the world of performance enhancing drugs and escalates to literally the highest echelons of the sporting world leading to global ramifications, maybe a war.

Also Ai is your friend in interpreting and summarising the paper, but be careful it isn’t perfect

I would add to this libmaps, great resource to put the title of your document and it maps the paper, from where it is cited to whom cites the paper that has more up to date research. Then if the paper isn’t available use my friend above’s method to access the papers

The flower in the picture reminds me of a Erythrina lysistemon, whose name in Afrikaans, in my opinion, is very racist, translated would be like n*****tree. Luckily I am hearing from a lot more people, compared to when I grew up, starting to name this beautiful tree a different name, kanniedood, which translates to cannot-die.

I love that we look at language and ask are there hurtful words, even if it was not meant, and trying to improve on it. Sounds similar in the IT industry awhile ago where they tried replacing terms like master and slave with alternatives like primary and secondary.

It is insane what Elon has achieved and what potential he has for the good or bad of humanity. I wonder how the pages of history will be written

Even if he, hypothetically, was the sickest fuck to ever step foot on Epstein’s island, he is an American oligarch that will most likely never see any repercussions, since he has the money, like real money to actually make a difference, and influence politically and celebrity wise. So even the best funded Justice department has an annual budget that this guy can donate at a whim to ensure his freedom. His Starlink is being used by Ukraine during this war, so he even has leverage on an American ally. No he is safe as Rain

Exactly, we see eye to eye in the general sense. I just differ in regards to how we move forward, I believe there still is time to change and overcome and hope to win, but that window is closing quickly. Where I also see your point in that the race has gone too far, we have to back our current horse and hope to win.

The thing I am basing my judgement on is the poll projections. Trump has nothing to lose and everything to win. Democrats will have everything to lose. There is time to change course or study in the future why we did not listen to the Canary in the mine

Your argument is basically Trump bad, vote other person. Yes the other person alternative might be better than Trump, but is that really how you would inspire someone to go vote, through fear of the other rather than having an inspiration leader you are willing to support.

Jeez Biden now has a choice in my opinion, fighting a two-way battle against a united Republican party and the other half of the dissenting Democrats or swallow his pride and pass on the baton to someone that could be more convincing to voters than Trump. Biden was the right choice against Trump in 2020, because he won by convincing voters he was way more capable than Trump. Now in 2024 is he still as convincing.

Usually a smart person changes course if they see their current trajectory will lead to failure, a proud person will continue their trajectory even if it will lead to failure, and try and try again until they succeed. The proud person might succeed some of the time, the smart person will succeed most of the time

Populism is a feature of democracy. It’s just like in life, easy answers, like fast food for example, are always easy to suggest, but in the long term might not be the best. But if you can show your voter base, eating these disgusting vegetables in the long term is going to do everyone good, slight inconvenience, major benefit. So there will always be the power hungry populist that will give easy and popular answers to hard questions, it is the voters duty to determine who has their long term interests at heart and who is able to bribe you with your shortsighted desires to get into power.

I am not going to say which war this was but I have heard veterans tell stories of strapping the enemy soldier to their vehicle and driving slowly across a suspected mined area, usually the poor soul will quickly identify all the hidden explosive zones. Not saying this is what’s happening, just reminded me of the story. Fucking wars

This is like the best advertisement ever for the brand. Like they get the infamy without killing someone, basically became certified cool like the warning sticker on music albums in the 90s

Wow thanks for elaborating further, now I know how I was the problem, you gave such a compelling argument and left no doubt in my mind I was the problem, and why other people like myself are sick trash and should get, as you stated, fucked. I apologise and clearly I should rethink my entire way of thinking and how I engage, by not following other people’s opinions and trying to have a discussion was my error. So sorry.

How so, he said the shit like on camera, now if he denies it does that not mean he does not give a shit and is actively trying to gaslight us. Get fucked and informed poser

Say what you want but his clear doesn’t give a fuck attitude that what he says in public and denying what he says in public is strong. Never knew someone’s gaslighting game is this strong

The thing is, have you ever been to a coal mine. I am in the mining industry and have done multiple visits to coal mines, the magnitude of carbon they dig up, through underground or the cheaper dragline is jaw dropping if you realise that is going into the atmosphere. Like we have an exclusive club called a millionaires club for supervisors who in their section of the coal mine can extract more than a million tonnes in a year, they are greatly rewarded. This is excluding oil or petroleum products.

To counter this you need to put the same or more carbon back into the ground, what technology do we have that can do it economically or even scalable, carbon capture is a gimmick in my opinion to give stupid people hope that there is an easy answer that is just around the corner. Maybe I have lost hope but my belief is that the carbon put into the atmosphere will not be extracted by humans, but will after 100s of years be absorbed into the ocean only if we stop our current emissions. Should we in the mean time lose our ice poles, glaciers and ocean currents, have heat destroy the fauna and flora while we do nothing. We have engineered this hot climate, can engineer it to be colder while we get our shit together.

My country is the only developing country to be on target of meeting our Paris climate accord targets, how thanks to government corruption that led to the unavailability of our power stations where we have for years have rolling blackouts, or loadshedding as we call it. Fucks up our economy not having enough electricity, but great for the environment. I know there are green solutions to help alleviate our problems but our government has vested coal interests. So the best we can do is put solar power systems in our own homes

Why I feel Stratospheric Aerosol Injection will be the route to go, yes stop pollution now is better long term, but no one wants to pay the price if there is a chance someone else will. So we might as well put on a bandage to the festering wound and continue using our carbon based energy like a still addicted junkie.

Up until a profitable solution starts making an appearance why would powerful selfish people make sacrifices

Easy, tell him then the shares they want to give him cannot be sold immediately then, like 5 years of holding. But also include a section that says his current holdings must then also be tied to the new shares holding period, since he said he was first in and will be last out, should not be a problem and will be a great motivator.

Take my upvote for a similar thought