Alec Cawley

Retired to a Hampshire garden. @[email protected], for alternatives.

[Alec Cawley @randombler]

@TerriblyHQ What about genetic diversity? Other strands of science say that you need a population of hundreds of individuals to avoid inbreeding problems.

[Alec Cawley @randombler]

@HavokSocial @breeallegretti Unlike the US, where Rubio was stridently anti-Trump, then came back to be Sec of State. Or Vance. And others.

[Alec Cawley @randombler]

@HavokSocial @breeallegretti Like all politicians, they are adept at giving audiences an answer that makes it look as if they are saying what the audience wants to hear while not actually committing themselves.

Challenging Starmer is something you cannot equivocate about.

[SFX magazine @SFXmagazine]

28 April is Terry Pratchett Day, marking the birthday of Sir Terry Pratchett and the extraordinary worlds, characters and ideas he gifted to us. To mark the occasion we have an 8-book set of the City Watch series to give away. Retweet this to enter. We'll pick a winner on 5 May.

[Alec Cawley @randombler]

@TerriblyHQ I think that is overstating it. He had the first glimmering of an idea twenty years before. But he needed time to work it up. But I agree that he prevaricated for at least ten years.

[Alec Cawley @randombler]

@thinking_dave @Microinteracti1 The choices made in screen and print rendering make all images to some extent false colour. In my opinion.

[Alec Cawley @randombler]

@bigio_m @Microinteracti1 Yes, the dialogue is stiff. But that isn't what the story is about. And much of it is expressing in film terms what the book presents as inner worldview - abstract science and engineering.

[Alec Cawley @randombler]

@bigio_m @Microinteracti1 It shows the difference between books and films. On the one hand, it is as faithful a transfer of the book as reasonably possible. On the other hand, the limitations of a visual presentation stripped out most of the hard engineering that made the book great.

[Alec Cawley @randombler]

@Jordan_W_Taylor When I was young, in the Sixties and Seventies, the fear (amongst others) was of the next Ice Age and that we were all going to freeze. That has reversed to Global Warming.

[Alec Cawley @randombler]

@Jordan_W_Taylor Docklands Light Railway?

Ambitious.

[Alec Cawley @randombler]

@Jordan_W_Taylor I knew, perhaps 50 years ago, a man who implemented your suggestion about batteries - lead acid car batteries in his case. He had a whole stack of them, and a windmill to charge them. He wore electrically heated underwear, with sockets at his waist and jacks where he sat.

[Larry the Cat @Number10cat]

Worrying that Trump has misspelled "bored"

[Alec Cawley @randombler]

@theepicmap The UK figure seems to be a pretty relaxed interpretation of Christian. I think that counts must include people who really have no religion but put down Christian because that is the safest thing to do. The number who make even an attempt at Christian observance is many fewer.

[JH @CRUDEOIL231]

Ppl r hallucinating on Greenland’s mineral wealth.
Exploring and mining in the Arctic is a literal hellscape. The constraints r insane and the costs to overcome 'em r mooning way past imagination.

Geologically, permafrost is a nightmare. Ground’s frozen solid—normal drilling hits a wall. Building stable foundations for gear is a massive money pit.

Ops r cooked too. Constant darkness for months in winter. Working 24/7 under floodlights craters efficiency and spikes accident risk.

At -40°C to -50°C, metal gets brittle and just snaps. U need custom alloy gear, and keeping fuel/lube from freezing is a constant battle. The diesel/power burn just to keep lights on and engines warm is eye-watering. Immediate Opex blow-up.

Logistics? Absolute disaster. It’s not about digging it out; it’s about moving it.

Zero roads or rails. Everything moves by heli, light plane, or ship. Moving ore to a port costs multiples of what normal mines pay. Plus, zero local smelters. U gotta ship it across oceans, burning time and cash.

Shipping windows r tiny. Some coasts r only accessible a few months a year. U either pay for icebreakers or pray the 1-year supply/export window doesn’t get wrecked by bad weather. If the ship misses the slot, the whole year is a wash.

Look at the Citronen Fjord Zn project at 83°N. It’s one of the world's biggest undeveloped Zn-Pb deposits, but it's 2,100km north of Nuuk. Total isolation.

They get a 3-month window to move a year’s worth of cargo. One bad storm and the project is bricked for the season. Ironbark Zinc tried for ages, but it just got flipped to Dubai-based Almeera Ventures. That’s a clear signal on how brutal the Capex and funding hurdles r.

The core issue: does the margin even justify the risk? Building a mine w/ zero infra is a Capex black hole.
Think global warming helps? Think again.

Thawing permafrost is actually trashing existing infra and roads. Extreme weather just jacks up Opex even more.

We’re talking 10-15 yrs from discovery to first ore. If commodity prices crater in between, u’re left holding a stranded asset.

This is the reality of mining. Arctic dev is 10x harder than u think. Plz, stop living in a dream world. There’s a reason Denmark wasn't aggressive on dev.

U really think they held back just to protect the Inuit? Give me a break. Money always trumps ESG in the end, no matter the optics.

U can spam 'self-sufficiency' and 'strategy' all u want, but u can't meme ur way past physics and economics. Wake up.

#Greenland

[Alec Cawley @randombler]

@amazingmap Running away from the expanding Rift Valley.

[Alec Cawley @randombler]

@gtconway3d @njc99 As in Brave New World, cut the tops off all the crosses to convert them into Ts. New religion of Trump ready to roll.

[Barbara Rogan @RoganBarbara]

The onset of fascism brings out the creativity in people. The harder the squash us, the more juice spurts out. #DemsUnited

[Alec Cawley @randombler]

@theepicmap Jerusalem. Ancient centre of the world, and at the centre of the conflict whose ramifications and hatreds are driving much of the nastiness in the world. Put the UN blatherers right in the middle so that fixing it becomes their problem.

[Alec Cawley @randombler]

@Steven_Swinford @TrevorPTweets How can we show support for the right of an organisation to exist without showing support for that organisation's members or goals?

[Liam Nissan™ @theliamnissan]

Elon absolutely hates being called Sissy SpaceX™ so double check if you're still following me, and retweet for visibility