Author: DB

I listened to Elon Musk’s byographer talking about the various aspects of Musk’s personality and I kept thinking that maybe as a biographer he really wasn’t up to the job because when you’re talking about the richest man in the world it’s a bit rich to describe him as lacking in foresight and liable to go off a something without proper forethought.

He did mention that Musk is using Twitter conversations as data for his LLM that feeds his AI. So what Musk needs all the time is people on Twitter who are committed and vociferous.

And now Musk has gone to Kibbutz – and it makes me wonder whether Musk made that tweet in response to Eric, on purpose.

Maybe I shouldn’t underestimate his game plan.

In January 2022 I wrote that Indonesia had stopped exporting coal to China because of a fear of not having enough to fuel its own demands.

Now here is a current article from The Overspill (link at the end) on how China is investing in solar and wind – and the consequences for Australia’s coal exports.

Article begins:

China’s wind and solar surge threatens Australian coal exports • Australian Financial Review

Ben Potter: 

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Two new reports, from global energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie and Sydney-based Climate Energy Finance, show that China is building wind and solar at twice the rate of the US and Europe combined, and also leading the way with huge energy storage installations.

The startling acceleration comes as world leaders and officials prepare to descend on Dubai for the United Nations climate change conference (COP28) and wrangle over phasing out fossil fuels and supporting developing countries’ clean energy projects.

“China’s demand for Australian exports of thermal and coking coal is set to decline structurally over the longer term due to the greening of China’s power sector and economy,” said Climate Energy Finance director Tim Buckley. “The report recommends that to minimise economic risk, Australia urgently comprehends and responds at speed to align with China’s massive investment pivot.”

China’s accelerating clean energy shift challenges Australia, which has planned for continued exports of coal and gas while cautiously backing US-led efforts to wean the West off China’s clean energy goods and commodities and build up alternative sources of supply.

Wood Mackenzie expects China to continue to command 80% of the global supply chain for solar energy until at least 2026. It says in a new report, “How China became the global renewables leader”, that the giant economy is on track to build 230 gigawatts of wind and solar power this year at a cost of $US140bn ($210bn), compared with 75GW for Europe and 40GW for the US. A gigawatt is the size of a small coal-fired power station.

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Comment from The Overspill

So much implied judgement in this piece. “Startling acceleration” – not really; China loses out from runaway climate change too. And as for China getting ahead on making renewables: Australia could have grasped that opportunity decades ago (it has lots of empty space for wind and solar). It chose not to. Cry me a river.
unique link to this extract

My Comment

So who besides Australia exports coal to China? According to S&P Global in an article from June this year:

China is prioritizing short-term energy security to avoid a recurrence of the power shortages that occurred in 2021 and 2022. The country, which relies on coal to generate two-thirds of its power, lifted its unofficial ban on Australian coal and extended zero tariffs on coal imports until the end of 2023.

Thermal coal imports have spiked as a result, with shipments from Indonesia up 65.9% year over year to 89.9 MMt, Russian shipments increasing 88.7% to 18.3 MMt, and Australian supplies rising from zero to 11.2 MMt, according to S&P Global Commodities at Sea data.

So according to this report, Indonesia is back selling coal to China, and Australia’s exports to China are a new thing.

I looked up the etymology of nary and found that it is a combination of ’never a’ and that this combination is known as a Pleonasm.

But is it, because pleonism is described as

a redundancy in linguistic expression, such as “black darkness” or “burning fire”. It is a manifestation of tautology by traditional rhetorical criteria and might be considered a fault of style.

However, pleonasm may also be used for emphasis, or because the phrase has become established in a certain form. So by that definition nary is a pleonasm.

Nary has a description been bettered expressed.

Google is the defendant in an anttrust case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice

I have been following the case, and now it has been revealed that Apple gets 36% of the Revenue Google generates from the Safari browser.

That’s estimated at $18 billion a year that Google pays Apple for putting Google as its default search option.

If Google loses the antitrust case, then Apple could be pushed into allowing customers to choose a search engine option when setting up an Apple device rather than having Google set as the default.

Or maybe not, because the case isn’t against Apple and Apple says it chooses Google as the default search engine because it is the best around.

Meanwhile Apple is developing its own AI-powered search engine.

Bulgur is wheat that has been cleaned, boiled, dried, roughly ground, then sorted by size.. When bulgur is made of young, green wheat that has been smoked, we call it freekeh. It has a rich, smoky flavor that suits soups, stews, and salads.

Buddhist sand mandalas are made with sand of different colours trickled onto a backing to make a design. When they are finished they are poured away.

It’s a concept designed to teach the futility of trying to stop time. I heard of Buddhist sand mandalas many years ago. The idea of making something with impermanence designed into it from the get go appealed to me.

And I saw a sand mandala being made in a monastery in Nepal. Seven or eight young men were working on it.

They were learning two things. One was to devote effort to something that would be destroyed soon. The other was to learn how to work together. There was no room for big egos if they were to lie and sit close to one another making the mandala.