sethoflagos

Might we expect those historically most significant threats to survival to leave some evidence in the genome? If so then conditions such as lactose tolerance and sickle cell anaemia point the finger of suspicion towards famine and malaria as persistent offenders.

A particular bugbear of mine is hydroquinone, particularly in the context of 'skin whitening' cosmetic products. I believe there are some controls on its use in Europe and the US. But not so in Nigeria, to the extent that when I buy soap for myself, I really have to scan the contents listing. I find its purpose saddening and definitely do not require its intended effects myself. I can certainly identify with this experience. After over 40 years of contact lens wear, I began to develop significant allergic reactions to the solutions (or possibly something else like protein residues) and had to give up and go back to wearing specs.

I'm surprised that olfaction and taste are routed so differently. A little research tells me that taste sensations are routed through the thalamus on their way to the gustatory complex. And yet taste and smell seem so closely coupled in our overall perception of eg bacon that they almost act as one. Very curious.

It doesn't generate a survival advantage to those populations who have to endure boreal winters.

Easy. Do a Magwitch. Decide what compensation would help ease your conscience and have a third party (eg a solicitor) deliver it to the wronged person anonymously.

I thought the vet's speciality was Pu... Cat.

Alas, red dwarves will evaporate before I'll stump up the Kobo to get beyond the Murdochian paywall blocking access to this link. So I'll take the science creds on trust. What's a Royal (Dick) School?

... = high sensitivity of system frequency to generation/load imbalance and thus larger maximum dips in frequency. Due in context to reduced tonnage of the rotating machinery that historically kept frequency stable via a large reserve of RKE. I think some people prefer the word 'damping' over the 'stiffness'. Especially in the context of Droop Control. (Old CEGB joke) Not sure what you mean by the inertia of a choke (or a transformer come to that). They're fairly static. Do you mean syncons? (= synchronous condensers as mentioned by @Ken Fabian )

You're not wrong in your understanding, and thank you for the reference - it was very illuminating. So VMM attempts to address AGC (Automatic Generation Control - ie basic electrical loading); RoCoF (Rate of Change of Frequency); and FCAS (Frequency Control Ancillary Services) all at the same time. Even ignoring Power Factor Control, it sounds like they have an almighty Degrees of Freedom challenge there! Nevertheless, I've learnt something new today, Thanks again. Timely intervention! Yes, some of the jargon does need an explanatory glossary. Thanks.

What do you mean by 'sweet'? Sweetness tends to lack any real meaning unless there is some bitterness to compare it with. Among novels written in the English language, Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) and Pride & Predudice (Jane Austen) both end sweetly enough, though the journeys are less so.

I wonder if the mewling of babes and domesticated adult cats is pretty much the same thing (over and above sharing a similar frequency band). AFAIK adult wild cats don't mewl, and adult domestic cats only seem to mewl to us; not to each other. Personal impressions: no scientific references to support this idea.

Now that's an interesting concept! I would have thought the most cost effective means of simulating the frequency stiffness of a bunch of large synchronised turboalternators would involve a bunch of large synchronised alternators mounted on flywheels. Difficult to see how the magnitude of rapid energy interchange involved in this process could be handled by static components. Do you have more information on this?

Thy kingdom come. It's a wish for a blessed future. Not applicable to past or present.

See what is happening here from a particular perspective: UV photolysis (and 'electrolysis') is creating a survival advantage to those molecular species that are less susceptible to their effects and/or less exposed to them due to their depth in the atmosphere; the remainder being more prone to being broken down back into simpler species: Gravitation is creating a survival advantage for larger, denser molecular species by drawing them deeper into the atmosphere where they are better shielded from UV radiation and/or being lost to space. Add to these the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics which creates by purely statistical means, a survival advantage for molecular species that are new to the mix or existing in very low concentrations due to the higher entropy of more diverse mixtures. The overall effect of UV on a 'primitive' atmosphere can hence be seen as the spontaneous generation of an ever-increasing diversity of increasingly complex UV-resistant molecular species. The origin of species by natural selection? It's so very similar isn't it. And for my money, was very much a significant part of life's earliest origins here on earth.

The strength of the CN triple bond in nitriles (the main ones of interest are acetonitrile and amino acetonitrile) are considerable more resistant to UV photolysis than their corresponding carboxylic acid whatever the UV intensity happens to be. In cold dense molecular clouds where UV input is extremely low, their half lives are of the order 10^8 years whereas that for acetic acid is perhaps a tenth of that. Since they are precursors of amino acids such as glycine, they are significant in the production of a number of biologically important compounds within galaxies.

You're not going to the right clubs

The UK Environmental Red List comprises: Aldrin, atrazine, azinphos-methyl, all cadmium compounds, DDT and metabolites, 1-2 dichloroethane, dichlorvos, dieldrin, endosulfan, endrin, fenitrothion, hexachlorobenzene, hexachlorobutadiene, gamma-hexachlorobutadiene, Malathion, all mercury compounds, polychlorinated biphenyls, pentachlorophenol, simazine, trichlorobenzene, trifluralin, tributyltin compounds, triphenyltin compounds There was a time when the water authorities tested for all these on at least a weekly basis. That all went out of the window after privatisation of course.

Predominantly expatriate male workers - a demographic (and I speak from personal experience) that often struggles to find a healthy lifestyle. When we were in UAE in the early noughties, I picked up a copy of The Great Curries of India by Camellia Panjabi. It opened my eyes to the huge range of regional variation in Indian cuisine and can heartily recommend it. It goes into some detail of the Ayurvedic philosophical basis, and above all emphasises BALANCE. I wouldn't touch chicken makhani with a barge pole. But a couple of days a week I'll get by on tarka dal, a couple of freshly made roti and a dish of mixed pickles. There's a smidgeon of ghee in it, but a 500 ml jar will last me about six months. Probably get more saturated fat from my occasional treat of canned spam. For heart health, my understanding is that liberal use of garlic and ginger with ghee/jaggery not so much is a reasonable approach..

What makes you think that the many regional cuisines of India are unhealthy? I ask, since my own diet is heavily weighted towards a mish-mash of Eastern Mediterranean and Indian recipes. Do you recommend I switch to Big Macs and Pizza Express?

An albeit slight restoration of my faith in humanity. The still ARE good people everywhere. Just sometimes hard to find.

Now that the tone of the discussion has calmed a little, I recommend reading this paper: The future of frequency response in Great Britain It's quite short and not too technical, and deals with the critical consideration of grid stability. The meat of the analysis is in this paragraph: To be clear, R here represents staged interventions by the grid to maintain frequency within statutary limits in response to imbalances, I, between generation and demand. In my day, 20% of UK average load was met by three stations (Ferrybridge, Eggborough, and Drax) strung out along just 15 miles of the Aire Valley at the heart of the grid. 14 turboalternators churning out 8 GW This centre was bolstered by a similar capacity generated by a string of somewhat smaller stations (Rugeley, Drakelow, Castle Donington, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, High Marnham, Cottam, and West Burton) on the Trent Valley. Between them, their huge combined angular momentum provided the cental 'flywheel' of the system, to which all more remote generation units were forced (by physics) to follow in both frequency and phase. The resulting high value of Dn resulted in exceptionally low fluctuations of grid frequency, and consequently very rare need for direct intervention by the grid. Hence, the historically excellent stability and reliability of the UK grid. As the paper referenced suggests, the transfer from coal to renewables will greatly reduce the rotational kinetic energy of grid supply. Essentially, it will become dominated by the considerably smaller nuclear component. And hence, if grid stability is to be maintained, there is going to be a far greater reliance on grid intervention, R. And key stages of this must activate within one second of notice. This is the real challenge to be faced by the transistion to renewables. Everything else is simple in comparison.

Considered a threat by whom and on what basis? Your post maybe factually correct, but hey, do you consider the response reasonable? It's par fror the course in Nigeria (on occasion) but you guys are supposed to be setting the standard for civilised behaviour are you not?

Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactor?! Perhaps you meant CCGT station? I know. Sutton Bridge was one of mine. A little before ENRON hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Just level it and construct a 15 GW nuclear station on the site. God would smile.

Did you take my point about hot standby requirement? Yes or no.