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bill38

505 karma · joined August 18, 2017

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bill38··on The Netherlands Will Never Be Rid of Louisiana Crawfish
Louisiana crayfish are also a problem in France, replacing local species.
bill38··on Details of the Daring Airdrop at Tristan Da Cunha
Lobsters. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250915-tristan-da-cunha...
bill38··on Brazil's Pix payment system faces pressure from Visa and Mastercard
In India there is 'UPI' system that is similar.
bill38··on Danish postal service to stop delivering letters
In Denmark the physical post offices have been closed since a few years (cost reduction). Even stamps aren't printed anymore (you have to pay online to get a code that you print or write on the letter or parcel).
bill38··on How did Renaissance fairs begin?
Does China have something equivalent to "renaissance fairs" ? = re-enactment of things that happened 5 or 6 centuries ago ?
bill38··on How did Renaissance fairs begin?
It seems that history.com is geo-blocked. You can see it if you are in USA, not if you are in Europe or other countries.
bill38··on Japan has opened its first osmotic power plant
This french startup has a pilot osmotic plant near Marseille : https://www.sweetch.energy/
bill38··on Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic
There's still a lot of cars driving in Paris. And motor scooters.
bill38··on Amazon Fined $35M in France over 'Overly Intrusive' Surveillance
There is something similar in France : "jours amende". The key point is that if you don't pay the fine, you go to prison the number of days indicated in the "jours amende". It's for criminal court, not for traffic infractions.
bill38··on Heat pumps, more than you wanted to know (2023)
A few years ago, Google had an advanced research project for ground source heat pumps. They spinned it off in Dandelion energy.
bill38··on Heat pumps, more than you wanted to know (2023)
They fill the core of their heat pump with helium at 30+ bars and seal it. That's all. It's not used continuously. So not a big quantity used.
bill38··on Stoßlüften: Shock Ventilation
See also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38819249
bill38··on The curse of the goitre in Switzerland
Goitre and cretinism was present in French Alps too.
bill38··on Thermoelectric heating stands at the brink of commercialization
10k per unit
bill38··on Sodium batteries offer an alternative to tricky lithium
Sodium is tricky too. It reacts violently to water. Even humidity in the air can make it explode.
bill38··on Researchers identify largest ever solar storm in 14k-year-old tree rings
What would be the impact of solar storm on nuclear power plants ? Would we have several Fukushimas ?
bill38··on Fervo Energy hits milestone in using oil drilling technology to tap geothermal
Looks like Eavor company from Canada.
bill38··on Heat Pumps – The Well-Tempered Future of A/Cs
Don't you think that if you give a really high quote, the customer will never ask you again too ?
bill38··on French publisher arrested in London for refusal to tell police his passcodes
I'm wondering if there are similars laws in Germany ? Can you be required to provide password for your mobile phone or computer by German police ? I had the impression that they were more protective of personal informations in Germany but maybe I'm wrong.
bill38··on China Could Dominate Sodium Batteries, the Next Big Advance in Power
Another way to produce sodium is by electrolysis of sea salt brine. You need lots of power. A by-product is hydrogen chloride which is a bit dangerous to handle. Pure sodium itself is also tricky: it reacts violently with water. Even humidity in air is enough to start a fire with pure sodium. There's a company in France that uses electrolysis to produce metal sodium: Metaux Speciaux SA.
bill38··on French and German tourists turn their back on Brexit Britain
Also in France it has become very complicated to get a passport. It takes months to get an appointment, and it's available only in few cities. So if you can travel to other EU countries with just an ID card the choice is simple.
bill38··on James Niehues Ski Map Artist
Most of the ski maps in France were drawn by Pierre Novat. He died in 2007. His daughter Frederique continues his work.

http://www.atelier-novat.com/

bill38··on Europe's postal services: France reduces deliveries, UK and Germany now outliers
The article begins with "France is to move to three-days-a-week letter deliveries". That is false. It's still 6 days a week. The default service will take 3 days to deliver letters. But they will be delivered 6 days a week.
bill38··on Bars in Antarctica
Indeed, it can happen during ski holiday: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2009/dec/09/ski-holiday-d...
bill38··on Worldwide Rail Network Map
Corsica railway is missing :( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemins_de_fer_de_la_Corse
bill38··on Emmaüs: Thrift Store Shopping in France
It's for correct pronunciation. If there's no two dots on the u letter, french people may pronouce it 'emmo' because an 'a' followed by 'u' is pronounced 'o'. But there's no need because Emmaüs is so well known in France that everybody knows how to say it. You can find other examples in words like 'aigü' (acute) where you have to say the u like german ü.
bill38··on VanMoof’s team of ‘bike hunters’ appears to succeed where the city doesn’t
A VIN number ? For a bicycle ? Or maybe you are talking of motorbikes ?
bill38··on Largest hydrogen-powered mining vehicle starts work
Also at Ars technica: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2022/05/the-worlds-biggest-hydr...
bill38··on The ‘world’s most powerful tidal turbine’ starts to export power to the grid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rance_Tidal_Power_Station
bill38··on France's 18-year-olds given €300 culture pass
The french government openly recognize they got the idea from Italy.
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