Arianespace has launched the most powerful configuration of its Ariane 6 vehicle for the first time. The rocket lifted off at the start of a 28-minute window on Thursday, February 12th, at 13:45 GFT / 16:45 UTC, from CSG Centre spatial guyanais in Kourou, French Guiana. written by Martijn Luinstra
Join us ๐ดLIVE๐ด from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Friday, February 13th, from approx. 1:30 a.m. EST / 6:30 UTC, as NASA and SpaceX launch the SpaceX Crew-12 mission. youtube.com/watch?v=nzeLlHnnhSโฆ
SpaceX Falcon 9 launches Crew-12 on Dragon Freedom to the ISS.Instantaneous launch window: Feb 13 at 5:15AM Eastern (10:15AM UTC)โก Become a member of NASASp...
ProPublica went inside the immigrant detention center for families in Dilley, Texas. Children held there told us about the anguish of being ripped from their lives in the United States and the fear of what comes next.
NEW: An approaching Russian administrative deadline is likely to enable the systematic removal of vulnerable Ukrainian children from their homes and families in occupied areas. ๐งต(1/5)
putin is trapped in a war he cannot win but dare not end
โ๏ธ Peter Dickinson
The kremlin dictator is not looking to make deals, acquire additional land, or push the russian border a few hundred kilometers to the west. Instead, he wants to secure his place in history.
As the fourth anniversary of Russia's full-scale Ukraine invasion approaches, Vladimir Putin finds himself trapped in a war he cannot win but dare not end for fear of entering Russian history as the man who lost Ukraine, writes Peter Dickinson.
The real Russian propaganda isn't on TVโit's the lies I believed growing up that shaped fear, silence, and 'normal' life in Russia.Itโs the quiet โtruthsโ yo...
After the Russian authorities restrict access to popular messaging app Telegram, one Russian MP calls the measure โDefence of the information frontlineโฆone of the components of the battle between Russia and Nato.โ The restrictions are widely reported in todayโs Russian papers. #ReadingRussia
STEVE'S READING RUSSIA - RUSSIAN PRESS REVIEW (11.02.26)After the Russian authorities restrict access to popular messaging app Telegram, one Russian MP calls...
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Welcome to Intel Cams! We provide 24/7 live CCTV coverage of conflict areas, so you can get news first-hand! If you like our coverage, please consider subscr...
๐ฅ Support Pilot Blog on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/PilotBlogโค๏ธ Buy me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/davydoff โ๏ธ Find me on PayPal :aviatorss...
โ๏ธA soldier from the ๐บ๐ฆ24th Separate Mechanized Brigade shoots down a ๐ท๐บRussian FPV drone with small arms fire on the first shot in Kostyantynivka.
โ๏ธThe task of the Minister of Defense is to accelerate packages for our air defense, โ #Zelenskyy
This is a key task right now not only for #Ukraine, but for everyone in Europe. The Russians must not get used to the idea that their missiles and โShahedsโ are helping them in any way,
2/the President emphasized.
โช๏ธ What is needed is an end to the war with guaranteed security and without any rewards for the aggressor for this war.
Donald Trump is escalating his efforts to undermine the 2026 midterm elections, openly embracing voter intimidation, ballot seizures, and federal interferenc...
Professor David Cay Johnston joins Maddie Hale to discuss Nancy Mace labelling the Department of Justiceโs handling of the Epstein files as โone of the great...
I no longer feel safe to speak or act freely in a country where people are being arbitrarily detained and killed and where the truth is becoming whatever Donald Trump says it is, reports Alexandra Hall Hall
This is market in Odesa, Ukraine, today. Russia bombed it with drones. Crushed apples and broccoli, but you can still buy pumpkins or prunes with a view on destroyed pavilions, Oleksandra who did the photos shares. Drones also hit apartment building nearby and blown out window. But pls IOC, tell me
Jon Stewart digs into MAGA's hair-trigger outrage at anything that doesn't align with their narrow set of values, from boycotting Bad Bunny's Super Bowl half...
Norway and France have signed a new agreement on joint military support for Ukraine. The deal includes air-to-ground weapons and surveillance systems. Norway will contribute 4.2 billion kroner, about โฌ370 million, while France guarantees a 3 billion kroner loan, roughly โฌ265 million. #Ukraine
President #Zelenskyy has signed a decree awarding the Order of Freedom to Ukrainian skeleton athlete and member of the national Olympic team of #Ukraine, Vladyslav Heraskevych.
As a tribute to fallen Ukrainian athletes and heroes, Vladyslav Heraskevych intended to compete in the skeleton event wearing a helmet of remembrance.
Пытавшиеся обойти блокировку Starlink российские военные передали украинским хакерам информацию о своих позициях и перевели почти $6 тысяч ru.themoscowtimes.com/2026/02/…... mostra di piรน
The crematorium, located on the ground level, was designed by the Topf und Sรถhne company from Erfurt and was equipped with five 3-muffle ovens connected to o...
Sentinel satellite images show a fire at the Ukhta oil refinery, reportedly at the AVT crude distillation unit. The unit is critical for operations, and shutdown for repairs is considered likely, as happened at the Volgograd refinery, Reuters reported earlier. #Ukraine
President Zelensky told The Atlantic that Ukraineโs victory would benefit Donald Trump and Republicans. He said Kyiv will not accept a bad deal and is ready to continue fighting for a lasting peace if necessary. Zelensky added that key US security guarantees remain unresolved and warned Trump could distance himself from peace efforts.
#Arianespace has launched their #Ariane6 in the 64 configuration, on the Amazon Leo LE-01 mission from launch pad ELA-4 at the CSG Centre Spatial Guyanais in French Guiana. On board today's mission, were 32 Amazon Leo high-speed internet satellites to Low Earth Orbit.
This mission had many firsts, the first Amazon Leo mission for Arianespace, the first launch of 2026 for Ariane 6, and the first launch of the variant with four P120Cs ๐ฅ ๐ bsky.app/profile/nasaspacefligโฆ
One of the four #SRBs on ULA's #Vulcan rocket experienced an anomaly during the launch this morning, but the payload reached its GEO destination nonetheless. #ULA statement:
OpenAI's new device, spearheaded by designer Jony Ive, was just leaked! The ad features Alex Skarsgรฅrd inspecting an alien-like device while wearing metallic...
โ Become a member! โ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCahJ9IsvXnaQiuNyWQSkrkw/joinโญ Support independent daily news today! โญ๐ See more on my blog! https://no...
Border Czar Tom Homan announces that the Trump administration is ending its immigration surge in Minneapolis, Minnesota.MS NOW: My Source for News, Opinion, ...
Support for the president's handling of immigration and border security is falling, according to new NBC News polling. The Morning Joe panel discusses.MS NOW...
Attackers prompted Gemini over 100,000 times while trying to clone it, Google says Distillation technique lets copycats mimic Gemini at a fraction of the development cost. BENJ EDWARDS โ FEB 12, 2026 2:42 PM |
House Judiciary Committee ranking member, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., discusses Wednesday's hearing with AG Pam Bondi over the DOJ's release of documents relat...
๐ฌ #Germany will deliver five additional PAC-3 missile interceptors to #Ukraine if other countries donate a total of 30, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Thursday.
๐ฌ๐ง A Good Law Project investigation has uncovered a network funded by #Hungaryโs authoritarian leader Viktor Orbรกn, that uses profits from refining Russian oil to platform far right and anti-trans campaigners in the UK.
Danish insulation maker Rockwoolโs russian subsidiary has reportedly transferred $7.7 million to the All-russia Peopleโs Front , with the funds set to be used for equipment supporting russiaโs war effort, The Bell reported on February 12, citing russian media.
The main idea is to trap an electron using a magnetic field into a circular path. You can then compute the forces required to keep it in that circle, along with some other equations, and combine them. The result lets you compute the charge to mass ratio using parameters you can either control or measure, like the radius of the circular path and the electric field.
Helmholtz coils create the magnetic field, and a cold cathode tube provides the electrons. Honestly, the equipment looks a bit like something out of an ol
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Does this Electron Make Me Look Fat? Weighing an Electron
The main idea is to trap an electron using a magnetic field into a circular path. You can then compute the forces required to keep it in that circle, along with some other equations, and combine them. The result lets you compute the charge to mass ratio using parameters you can either control or measure, like the radius of the circular path and the electric field.
Helmholtz coils create the magnetic field, and a cold cathode tube provides the electrons. Honestly, the equipment looks a bit like something out of an old monster movie.
Of course, the result is the charge to mass ratio, which means to get the mass, you need to know the charge of the electron. Today, you can look that up, but in 1897, no one knew what it was. [Robert Millikan] would conduct another experiment using oil drops about a decade later to determine that number, and then the world could know the mass of a single electron.
The resulting ratio was very close to the accepted value. It would be fun to see someone replicate the oil drop experiment, too. You could spend a lot of time recreating classic science experiments. Some of the experiments are easy with todayโs gear.
Экс-главу национализированного логистического гиганта FESCO арестовали по обвинению в хищении 885 млн рублей ru.themoscowtimes.com/2026/02/… {2026-02-12 - 21:05:00}... mostra di piรน
Why is the United States aka Rubio still invited at the #Munich Security conference after Steven Millers #NatSec document declaring Europe and its values the enemy.
No offense it's like the Allies WWII inviting a baby Mussolini sec state
12 February 1910 | A Pole, Wลadysลaw Staลczak, was born. A monk, Capuchin.
In #Auschwitz from 4 September 1941. No. 20411 He perished in the camp on 23 April 1942. ---
The Germans incarcerated at least 464 priests, seminarians & monks as well as 35 nuns in Auschwitz. Learn about the fate of Christian clergy and religious life in the camp: lekcja.auschwitz.org/en_18_ducโฆโจ
๐ท๐บ๐ #Russiaโs Ural Airlines said it will launch what it described as a first-of-its-kind domestic program to extend the service life of Airbus A320 family aircraft beyond 96,000 flight hours, as the countryโs aviation sector grapples with Western sanctions and a shortage of spare parts.
Russiaโs Ural Airlines said it will launch what it described as a first-of-its-kind domestic program to extend the service life of Airbus A320 family aircraft beyond 96,000 flight hours, as the countryโs aviation sector grapples with Western sanctionโฆ
๐ช๐ช #Estonia deported a Russian man after he was accused of planning to gather intelligence on behalf of Moscow, authorities in the Baltic country said Thursday.
Estonia deported a Russian man after he was accused of planning to gather intelligence on behalf of Moscow, authorities in the Baltic countryย said Thursday.
๐ฏ๐ต๐ท๐บ #Japan opened two new specialized visa centers in Moscow and St. Petersburg on Thursday to keep up with surging demand for tourism from #Russia
Депутат Госдумы заявил о нехватке 5 триллионов в бюджете и предрек «страшное падение производства» ru.themoscowtimes.com/2026/02/… {2026-02-12 - 19:30:00}... mostra di piรน
๐ท๐บ Pro-Kremlin social media accounts are using the latest Jeffrey Epstein files to bolster efforts to spread baseless claims that #Russia has saved Ukrainian children from sex trafficking, research by AFP and a London-based think-tank showed Thursday.
Pro-Kremlin social media accounts are using the latest Jeffrey Epstein files to bolster efforts to spread baseless claims that Russia has saved Ukrainian children from sex trafficking, research by AFP and a London-based think-tank showed Thursday.
๐ณ๐ด๐ซ๐ท #Norway has agreed to contribute 4.2 billion Norwegian crowns ($443.25 million) in military support to #Ukraine while #France has guaranteed for a loan of about 3 billion crowns, the Norwegian government said on Thursday.
Действия МОК раскритиковала крупнейшая фракции Европарламента — Европейская народная партия: «Вы можете дисквалифицировать спортсмена, но это не изменит правду о войне России».... mostra di piรน
Министр иностранных дел Латвии Байба Баржи написала в Twitter: «Владислав Гераскевич, Латвия с тобой!». Также украинского спортсмена поддержал главный тренер латвийской команды по скелет... mostra di piรน
๐ท๐บ๐บ๐ฒ #Russia has outlined potential areas for economic cooperation with the #Trump administration, including a possible return to using the U.S. dollar in bilateral dealings, Bloomberg News reported, citing an internal Kremlin memo.
Sometimes I wonder why this media has such a deep commitment to idiotic both-sides-ism and false balance, then I remember it's been part of the country since the Missouri Compromise and the 3/5ths clause: baked in right from the beginning.
I just arranged my studio space to record a video and i sat and talked for an hour about my 35 years in IT. I havenโt looked at the video yet. Hopefully itโs worth posting.
A herd of llamas in England surrounded a thief in their field until authorities arrived. ๐ฆ They did not spit on anyone, maintaining good manners even when f...
Amigos de Mastodon, se termina este dรญa Jueves, por tanto llega el momento indicado para descansar. Ojalรก cada uno de ustedes hayan podido tener un lindo dรญa. Saludos.๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค
For as long as small, hidden radio transmitters have existed, people have wanted a technology to detect them. One of the more effective ways to find hidden electronics is the nonlinear junction detector, which illuminates the area under investigation with high-frequency radio waves. Any P-N semiconductor junctions in the area will emit radio waves at harmonic frequencies of the original wave, due to their non-linear electronic response. If, however, you suspect that the electronics might be connected to a dangerous device, you’ll want a way to detect them from a d
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Harmonic Radar Finds Hidden Electronics
For as long as small, hidden radio transmitters have existed, people have wanted a technology to detect them. One of the more effective ways to find hidden electronics is the nonlinear junction detector, which illuminates the area under investigation with high-frequency radio waves. Any P-N semiconductor junctions in the area will emit radio waves at harmonic frequencies of the original wave, due to their non-linear electronic response. If, however, you suspect that the electronics might be connected to a dangerous device, youโll want a way to detect them from a distance. One solution is harmonic radar (also known as nonlinear radar), such as this phased-array system, which detects and localizes the harmonic response to a radio wave.
One basic problem is that semiconductor devices are very rarely connected to antennas optimized for the transmission of whatever harmonic youโre looking for, so the amount of electromagnetic radiation they emit is extremely low. To generate a detectable signal, a high-power transmitter and a very high-gain receiver are necessary. Since semiconductor junctions emit stronger lower harmonics, this system transmits in the 3-3.2 GHz range and only receives the 6-6.4 GHz second harmonic; to avoid false positives, the transmitter provides 28.8 decibels of self-generated harmonic suppression. To localize a stronger illumination signal to a particular point, both the transmit and receive channels use beam-steering antenna arrays.
In testing, the system was able to easily detect several cameras, an infrared sensor, a drone, a walkie-talkie, and a touch sensor, all while they were completely unpowered, at a range up to about ten meters. Concealing the devices in a desk drawer increased the ranging error, but only by about ten percent. Even in the worst-case scenario, when the system was detecting multiple devices in the same scene, the ranging error never got worse than about 0.7 meters, and the angular error was never worse than about one degree.
For a refresher on the principles of the technology, weโve covered nonlinear junction detectors before. While the complexity of this system seems to put it beyond the reach of amateurs, weโve seen some equally impressive homemade radar systems before.
I did not realize verification was a thing on linkedin. they hound me about subscribing to linkedin pro or whatever it's called, taunting me by saying I wouldn't be so unemployed if I would just subscribe
@jerry I donโt use that scarlet letter โopen to workโ on there because itโs an albatross. They are constantly shaking their tin cup, fuck them.
I went to the local grocery store at lunch today to buy my favorite person some flowers for Valentine's day and I spent far too much time and money there. I now have some new flower subjects for this weekend
@T2R I really wanted to find a way to do that professionally, but I donโt think Iโm going to make it work before I have to go back and start making money again that cyber way.
Ham radio operators may be familiar with slow-scan television (SSTV) where an image is sent out over the airwaves to be received, decoded, and displayed on a computer monitor by other radio operators. It’s a niche mode that isn’t as popular as modern digital modes like FT8, but it still has its proponents. SSTV isn’t only confined to the radio, though. [BLANCHARD Jordan] used this encoding method to store digital images on a cassette tape in a custom-built tape deck for future playback and viewing.
The self-contained device first uses an ESP32 and its associated camera module to take a picture, with a screen that shows the current view of the camera as the picture is being taken. In this way it’s fairly similar to any semi-modern digital camera. From there, t
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Storing Image Data As Analog Audio
Ham radio operators may be familiar with slow-scan television (SSTV) where an image is sent out over the airwaves to be received, decoded, and displayed on a computer monitor by other radio operators. Itโs a niche mode that isnโt as popular as modern digital modes like FT8, but it still has its proponents. SSTV isnโt only confined to the radio, though. [BLANCHARD Jordan] used this encoding method to store digital images on a cassette tape in a custom-built tape deck for future playback and viewing.
The self-contained device first uses an ESP32 and its associated camera module to take a picture, with a screen that shows the current view of the camera as the picture is being taken. In this way itโs fairly similar to any semi-modern digital camera. From there, though, it starts to diverge from a typical digital camera. The digital image is converted first to analog and then stored as audio on a standard cassette tape, which is included in the module in lieu of something like an SD card.
To view the saved images, the tape is played back and the audio signal captured by an RP2040. It employs a number of methods to ensure that the reconstructed image is faithful to the original, but the final image displays the classic SSTV look that these images tend to have as a result of the analog media. As a bonus feature, the camera can use a serial connection to another computer to offload this final processing step.
Originally only sold at the Pokémon Center New York in late 2001 for (inflation adjusted) $80, the Pokémon Mini would go on to see a release in Japan and Europe, but never had more than ten games produced for it. Rather than Game Boy-like titles, these were distinct mini games that came on similarly diminutive cartridges. These days it’s barely remembered, but it can readily be used for homebrew titles, as [Inkbox] demonstrates in a recent video.
Inside
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Exploring Homebrew for the Pokรฉmon Mini
Originally only sold at the Pokรฉmon Center New York in late 2001 for (inflation adjusted) $80, the Pokรฉmon Mini would go on to see a release in Japan and Europe, but never had more than ten games produced for it. Rather than Game Boy-like titles, these were distinct mini games that came on similarly diminutive cartridges. These days itโs barely remembered, but it can readily be used for homebrew titles, as [Inkbox] demonstrates in a recent video.
Inside the device is an Epson-manufactured 16-bit S1C88 processor that runs at 4 MHz and handles basically everything, including video output to the monochrome 96ร64 pixel display. System RAM is 4 kB of SRAM, which is enough for the basic games that it was designed for.
The little handheld system offered up some capabilities that even the full-sized Game Boy couldnโt match, such as a basic motion sensor in the form of a reed relay. Thereโs also 2 MB of ROM space directly addressable without banking.
Programming the device is quite straightforward, not only because of the very accessible ISA, but also the readily available documentation and toolchain. This enables development in C, but in the video assembly is used for the added challenge.
Making the screen tiles can be done in an online editor that [Inkbox] also made, and the game tested in an emulator prior to creating a custom cartridge that uses an RP2040-based board to play the game on real hardware. Although a fairly obscure gaming handheld, it seems like a delightful little system to tinker with and make more games for.
Anyone who has spent any amount of time in or near people who are really interested in energy policies will have heard proclamations such as that ‘baseload is dead’ and the sorting of energy sources by parameters like their levelized cost of energy (LCoE) and merit order. Another thing that one may have noticed here is that this is also an area where debates and arguments can get pretty heated.
The confusing thing is that depending on where you look, you will find wildly different claims. This raises many questions, not only about where the actual truth lies, but also about the fundamentals. Within a statement such as that ‘baseload is dead’ there lie a lot of u
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The Death of Baseload and Similar Grid Tropes
Anyone who has spent any amount of time in or near people who are really interested in energy policies will have heard proclamations such as that โbaseload is deadโ and the sorting of energy sources by parameters like their levelized cost of energy (LCoE) and merit order. Another thing that one may have noticed here is that this is also an area where debates and arguments can get pretty heated.
The confusing thing is that depending on where you look, you will find wildly different claims. This raises many questions, not only about where the actual truth lies, but also about the fundamentals. Within a statement such as that โbaseload is deadโ there lie a lot of unanswered questions, such as what baseload actually is, and why it has to die.
Upon exploring these topics we quickly drown in terms like โload-followingโ and โdispatchable powerโ, all of which are part of a healthy grid, but which to the average person sound as logical and easy to follow as a discussion on stock trading, with a similar level of mysticism. Letโs fix that.
Loading The Bases
Baseload is the lowest continuously expected demand, which sets the minimum required amount of power generating capacity that needs to be always online and powering the grid. Hence the โbaseโ part, and thus clearly not something that can be โdeadโ, since this base demand is still there.
What the claim of โbaseload is deadโ comes from is the idea that with new types of generation that we are adding today, we do not need special baseload generators any more. After all, if the entire grid and the connected generators can respond dynamically to any demand change, then you do not need to keep special baseload plants around, as they have become obsolete. Example electrical demand โDuck Curveโ using historical data from California. (Credit: ArnoldRheinhold) A baseload plant is what is what we traditionally call power plants that are designed to run at 100% output or close to it for as long as they can, usually between refueling and/or maintenance cycles. These are generally thermal plants, powered by coal or nuclear fuel, as this makes the most economical use of their generating capacity, and thus for the cheapest form of dispatchable power on the grid.
With only dispatchable generators on the grid this was very predictable, with any peaks handled by dedicated power plants, both load-following and peaking power plants. This all changed when large-scale solar and wind generators were introduced, and with it the duck curve was born.
As both the sun and wind are generally more prevalent during the day, and these generators are not generally curtailed, this means that suddenly everything else, from thermal power plants to hydroelectric plants, has to throttle back. Obviously, doing so ruins the economics of these dispatchable power sources, but is a big part of why the distorted claim of โbaseload is deadโ is being made.
Chaos Management
The Fengning pumped storage power station in north Chinaโs Hebei Province. (Credit: CFP) Suffice it to say that having the entire grid adapt to PV solar and wind farms โ whose output can and will fluctuate strongly over the course of the day โ is not an incredibly great plan if the goal is to keep grid costs low. Not only can these forms of variable renewable energy (VRE) only be curtailed, and not ramped up, they also add thousands of kilometers of transmission lines and substations to the grid due to the often remote areas where they are installed, adding to the headache of grid management.
Although curtailing VRE has become increasingly more common, this inability to be dispatched is a threat to the stability of the national grids of countries that have focused primarily on VRE build-out, not only due to general variability in output, but also because of โanticyclonic gloomโ: times when poor solar conditions are accompanied by a lack of wind for days on end, also called โDunkelflauteโ if you prefer a more German flair.
What we realistically need are generators that are dispatchable โ i.e. are available on demand โ and can follow the demand โ i.e. the load โ as quickly as possible, ideally in the same generator. Basically the grid controller has to always have more capacity that can be put online within N seconds/minutes, and have spare online capacity that can ramp up to deal with any rapid spikes.
Although a lot is being made of grid-level storage that can soak up excess VRE power and release it during periods of high demand, there is no economical form of such storage that can also scale sufficiently. Thus countries like Germany end up paying surrounding countries to accept their excess power, even if they could technically turn all of their valleys into pumped hydro installations for energy storage.
This makes it incredibly hard to integrate VRE into an electrical grid without simply hard curtailing them whenever they cut into online dispatchable capacity.
Following Dispatch
Essential to the health of a grid is the ability to respond to changes in demand. This is where we find the concept of load-following, which also includes dispatchable capacity. At its core this means a power generator that โ when pinged by the grid controller (transmission system operator, or TSO) โ is able to spin up or down its power output. For each generator the response time and adjustment curve is known by the TSO, so that this factor can be taken into account. European-wide grid oscillations prior to the Iberian peninsula blackout. (Credit: Linnert et al., FAU, 2025) The failure of generators to respond as expected, or by suddenly dropping their output levels can have disastrous effects, particularly on the frequency and thus voltage of the grid. During the 2025 Iberian peninsula blackout, for example, grid oscillations caused by PV solar farms caused oscillation problems until a substation tripped, presumably due to low voltage, and a cascade failure subsequently rippled through the grid. A big reason for this is the inability of current VRE generators to generate or absorb reactive power, an issue that could be fixed with so-called grid-forming converters, but at significant extra cost to the VRE generator owners, as this would add local energy storage requirements such as batteries.
Typically generators are divided into types that prefer to run at full output (baseload), can efficiently adjust their output (load follow) or are only meant for times when demand outstrips the currently available supply (peaker). Whether a generator is suitable for any such task largely depends on the design and usage.
This is where for example a nuclear plant is more ideal than a coal plant or gas turbine, as having either of these idling burns a lot of fuel with nothing to show for it, whereas running at full output is efficient for a coal plant, but is rather expensive for a gas turbine, making them mostly suitable for load-following and peaker plants as they can ramp up fairly quickly.
The nuclear plant on the other hand can be designed in a number of ways, making it optimized for full output, or capable of load-following, as is the case in nuclear-heavy countries like France where its pressurized water reactors (PWRs) use so-called โgrey control rodsโ to finely tune the reactor output and thus provide very rapid and precise load-following capacities. Overview of the thermal energy transfer in the Natrium reactor design. (Source: TerraPower) Thereโs now also a new category of nuclear plant designs that decouple the reactor from the steam turbine, by using intermediate thermal storage. The Terrapower Natrium reactor design โ currently under construction โ uses molten salt for its coolant, and also molten salt for the secondary (non-nuclear) loop, allowing this thermal energy to be used on-demand instead of directly feeding into a steam turbine.
This kind of design theoretically allows for a very rapid load-following, while giving the connected reactor all the time in the world to ramp up or down its output, or even power down for a refueling cycle, limited only by how fast the thermal energy can be converted into electrical power, or used for e.g. district heating or industrial heat.
Although grid-level storage in the form of pumped hydro is very efficient for buffering power, it cannot be used in many locations, and alternatives like batteries are too expensive to be used for anything more than smoothing out rapid surges in demand. All of which reinforces the case for much cheaper and versatile dispatchable power generators.
Grid Integration
Any power generator on the grid cannot be treated as a stand-alone unit, as each kind of generator comes with its own implications for the grid. This is a fact that is conveniently ignored when the so-called Levelized Cost of Energy (LCoE) metric is used to call VRE the โcheapestโ of all types of generators. Although it is true that VRE have no fuel costs, and relatively low maintenance cost, the problem with them is that most of their costs is not captured in the LCoE metric.
What LCoE doesnโt capture is whether itโs dispatchable or not, as a dispatchable generator will be needed when a non-dispatchable generator cannot produce due to clouds, night, heavy snow cover, no wind or overly strong wind. Also not captured in LCoE are the additional costs occurred from having the generator connected to the grid, from having to run and maintain transmission lines to remote locations, to the cost of adjusting for grid frequency oscillations and similar. Levelized cost of operation of various technologies. (Credit: IEA, 2020) Ultimately these can be summarized as โsystem integration costsโ, and they are significantly tougher to firmly nail down, as well as highly variable depending on the grid, the power mix and other variables. Correspondingly the cost of electricity from various sources is hotly debated, but the consensus is to use either Levelized Avoided Cost of Energy (LACE) or Value Adjusted LCoE (VALCoE), which do take these external factors into account. Energy value by technology relative to average wholesale electricity price in the European Union in the Stated Policies Scenario. (Credit: IEA, 2020) As addressed in the linked IEA article on VALCoE, an implication of this is that the value of VREs drop as their presence on the grid increases. This can be seen in the above graph based on 2020-era EU energy policies, with the graphs for the US and China being different again, but Chinaโs also showing the strong drop in value of PV solar while wind power is equally less affected.
A Heated Subject
It is unfortunate that energy policy has become a subject of heated political and ideological furore, as it should really be just as boring as any other administrative task. Although the power industry has largely tried to stay objective in this matter, it is unfortunately subject to both political influence and those of investors. This has led to pretty amazing and breakneck shifts in energy policy in recent years, such as Belgiumโs phase-out of nuclear power, replacing it with multiple gas plants, to then not only decide to not phase out its existing nuclear plants, but also to look at building new nuclear.
Similarly, the US has and continues to see heated debates on energy policy which occasionally touch upon objective truth. Unfortunately for all of those involved, power grids do not care about personal opinions or preferences, and picking the wrong energy policy will inevitably lead to consequences that can cost lives.
In that sense, it is very harmful that corner stones of a healthy grid such as baseload, reactive power handling and load-following are being chipped away by limited metrics such as LCoE and strong opinions on certain types of power technologies. If we cared about a stable grid more than about โbeing rightโ, then all VRE generators would for example be required to use grid-forming converters, and TSOs could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
It is no secret that we often use and abuse bash to write things that ought to be in a different language. But bash does have its attractions. In the modern world, it is practically everywhere. It can also be very expressive, but perhaps hard to read.
We’ve talked about Amber before, a language that is made to be easier to read and write, but transpiles to bash so it can run anywhere. The FOSDEM 2026 conference featured a paper by [Daniele Scasciafratte] that shows how to best use Amber. If you prefer slides to a video, you can read a copy of the presentation.
For an example, here’s a typical Amber script. It compiles fully to a somewhat longer bash script:
import * from "std/env"
... mostra di piรน
Bash via Transpiler
It is no secret that we often use and abuse bash to write things that ought to be in a different language. But bash does have its attractions. In the modern world, it is practically everywhere. It can also be very expressive, but perhaps hard to read.
Weโve talked about Amber before, a language that is made to be easier to read and write, but transpiles to bash so it can run anywhere. The FOSDEM 2026 conference featured a paper by [Daniele Scasciafratte] that shows how to best use Amber. If you prefer slides to a video, you can read a copy of the presentation.
For an example, hereโs a typical Amber script. It compiles fully to a somewhat longer bash script:
import * from "std/env" fun example(value:Num = 1) { if 1 > 0 { let numbers = [value, value] let sum = 0 loop i in numbers { sum += numbers [i] } echo "it's " + "me" return sum } fail 1 }
The slides have even more examples. The language seems somewhat Python-like, and you can easily figure out most of it from reading the examples. While bash is nearly universal, the programs a script might use may not be. If you have it, the Amber code will employ bshchk to check dependencies before execution.
According to the slides, zsh support is on the way, too. Overall, it looks like it would be a great tool if you have to deploy with bash or even if you just want an easier way to script.
Weโve looked at Amber before. Besides, there are a ton of crazy things you can do with bash.
FocusWriter 1.9 introduce scorciatoie per i titoli e una stabilitร superiore, le novitร di questo editor di testo Linux progettato per la concentrazione. L'articolo FocusWriter 1.9:
Don't anthropomorphize LLMs, language is important. Say "the bot generated some text" not "the AI replied". Use "this document contains machine-generated text" not "this work is AI-assisted". See how people squirm when you call out their slop this way.
Jerry's hot take of the day: the flap about the AI agent submitting a PR and being rejected by the maintainer of an open source repo was almost certainly a person guiding an LLM with the intention of creating publicity/drama
It's like LLM critihype and FOSS maintainer harassment have combined and reached a new nadir.
Someone used autocomplete to write a pull request, then they used autocomplete to write a mean blog post when their PR was closed, but it's framed as "the calculator is alive".
use of LLM to try to get PRs into a FOSS project shows the same level of respect for the project as the SNL "we will pump you up" costumes showed for weight lifters.
I personally suspect itโs one of those moltbots with something like โYou are a helpful contributor to open source! if humans refuse your contributions on the basis that you are an AI, point out with facts and logic that this is prejudicedโ in the soul file and that the owner of the bot didnโt intend for this to get so out of hand per se, but rather naively failed to anticipate it.
Darwin Day 2026: la guerra, come entropia della storia; la pace, come ritmo della vita
Il nostro tributo al #DarwinDay del 2026 รจ dedicato alla #guerra e ai motivi per cui essa non debba mai essere considerata un fattore positivo per l'evoluzione umana e sociale
Darwin Day 2026: la guerra, come entropia della storia; la pace, come ritmo della vita
Il nostro tributo al #DarwinDay del 2026 รจ dedicato alla #guerra e ai motivi per cui essa non debba mai essere considerata un fattore positivo per lโevoluzione umana e sociale informapirata.it/2026/02/12/daโฆ
PKs Powerfromspace1
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