tribactam

@hkrn I want to complain to someone about this but I don't know how to. Is it possible to remind the EU commissioners who the EU project is for in some way?

@angiebaby @QasimRashid I was going to ask why he would do that, but this explains everything. Contemptible.

@gerdesj @fesshole I'm showing my age! I remember at the time Hislop was often in the news for this David-Goliath telling the truth to power journalism and above all, making the rich powerful look like idiots.

@fesshole oh it is. Hislop can be excrutiatingly funny and extremely cutting. When he's not in court fighting off libel suits.

@VE2UWY @georgetakei noo... get him to go to the UK to hobnob with Farage.

@dasgrueneblatt @CAFCA47 @ketan I am not sure about point 1. While chemically possible, it isn't so easy to make the hydrocarbons which have many uses beyond combustion. As far as point 2: taking out drivers of plastic production that you mention, while the volumes used may be insignificant, the products made such as modern pharmaceuticals are not.
I don't think apathy is the argument, I think it's about getting people to realise where their energy and stuff comes from. Most people have no clue.

@CAFCA47 @ketan The figure is about 13% of fossil fuels are used as feedstocks.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-52434-y

This is far too precious to burn!

@ketan I need to add a slight correction.

Fossil fuels were not compressed in the 19th Century - they are the products of a multi-million year process involving compression under layers of accumulated sediment as it turns to rock. That energy was sunlight that bathed the dinosaurs/megafauna as they frolicked in the swamps.

Their large scale exploitation was given a huge boost in the late 19th Century by the development of the internal combustion engine. Add in the contributions of Rockefeller (Standard Oil - standardizing the supply chain from extraction to customer) and Ford (mass cars) essentially locked us into our dependency.

Around the same time, Edison, Tesla and others were playing with electricity which was seen as the future.
Funnily enough the first Porsche was electric. https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/products/taycan/history-18563.html

However, the problem of storage raised its head - the battery technologies of the time were just not enough. In contrast, you can put hydrocarbons in cans and carry the energy source around.

Today, we have NO excuse to burn carbon based fuels. There are plenty of alternatives and the storage technologies are getting better all the time.

@scalzi absolutely

@Ericthebeeover2 @hiisikoloart
and they are burning carbon to make this...

@bodil root cause analysis = yes it was her.

@reloadedhead @richlv @fj
this article has an in depth analysis. these things are deadly. More mass = more momentum = more energy transfer in collision. Also, there is the fact that lower cars break legs, these things smash thoracic cages.
https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2025/being-hit-suv-increases-likelihood-death-or-serious-injury

@peterbrown thanks for such an interesting read. In the end, as Scottie said: "you cannae break the laws of fusics" and their scientific approach to problem solving is truly remarkable (bit concerned about their wooden spoon approach to the chemistry though!)