Peter Todd @pete@petertodd.org

@ajtowns @kalle @harding @jb55 OP_RETURN is exempt from dust.

@Salastil Flu season in Israel typically peaks between December and February, so the top-level stats are consistent with the vaccines making no difference: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/amid-covid-outbreak-no-flu-infections-recorded-in-israel-this-season-654095

Flu season in Canada lasts much longer. But looks like the peak is around the same time as in Israel.

IMO most likely is the vaccines have some benefit, but less than the 95% advertised, and even in Israel they just took too long to be distributed. Also, maybe making things worse in younger w/ active immune systems.

@waxwing With serialization, you can always get the benefits of variable-length by having a fixed-size format and compressing the zeros with a compression layer.

It's no wonder Israel is trying to effectively make getting vaccinated mandatory... Anyone with a clue looking at the actual top-level stats would be skeptical.

@waxwing Good argument for fixed length serializations...

This is like saying you were "seconds away" your house being without electricity for months because a fuse blew.

Yes, if the fuses failed, permanent damage could be done. But literally every single piece of equipment on a competently designed distribution grid is protected by fuses.

The grid has got to deal with lightning storms and all kinds of shorts after all.

@mir_btc ...but do you want Sicily to be in your Italy?

Re: pumped storage basins, double layout is ideal. But it's hard to find places suitable to actually building that at relatively low cost. So you compromise and use existing water bodies, which of course has environmental impacts.

IMO not a big deal; we should be building a lot more pumped storage capacity. But hardcore environmentalists don't like it.

@dflate@bitcoinhackers.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_vapor#In_Earth%27s_atmosphere

So there's about 1.3*10^16 litres of water vapour in the atmosphere. That works out to 13,000km^3

Since water vapour doesn't stay in the atmosphere permanently - it turns into rain and snow after all - to make a difference we'd have to be releasing a significant fraction of the that 13,000km^3 *continuously*.

Total consumption of oil per year is just 5km^3. That's not even close.

@dflate Yes, pumped storage is one of the reasons why we need hydro. Pumped storage is hard though, as good sites without much environmental impact are rare (most places it impacts water levels and flow, which causes local environmental harms).

Re: water vapor, that's just wrong. Water vapor is a self-limiting problem, as the increased humidity reduces uptake. Not to mention, the scale humans can add water vapor is *tiny*.

*decarbonized 😂

@verretor @alex "Butane's a bastard gas." 😂

@alex Gonna be a lot more wood piles and propane tanks in the future...

While the Texas blackouts aren't solely to blame on wind power - natural gas production has been affected too - I don't think people realize how much *worse* the situation would be if we had a grid run on renewables only.

There's no way to reliably generate power from wind and solar alone in regions that can get snow. And as we're finding out, pretty much anywhere can get cold. Backup batteries are far too expensive.

A carbonized civilization needs nuclear and hydro.

@vladcostea Hmm.... whatever everyone else isn't. :D

CC: @mir_btc

@vladcostea @djbooth007 @jackeveritt @XBT @BTCparadigm @ciprian @SanakTony @jeremy@bitcoinhackers.org @criptobastardo @javier @kristapsk @bitcoinization @alyssa

Well, I think these excellent parents are playing some soothing music to calm down their baby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re2HnTMd2lw

...so maybe I should leave it up to you. :D