Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Tom MacDonald @tscmacdonald.bsky.social · 1d

Weird scheme here - tempting to view this as money shoveled into the fire, but since the hydrogen support will be as production tax credits there's a decent chance the money is simply never spent (as the H2 won't be produced). Overall, hard to say if the scheme is naive or cynical

Renew Economy @reneweconomy.com.au · 1d

ARENA is launching the second $2 billion Hydrogen Headstart round with a focus on hard-to-abate sectors and cost.

reneweconomy.com.au

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Reposted by Tom MacDonald

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 2d

people become terrorists when they get engineering degrees, offering us a simple solution.

Cai @annenotation.bsky.social · 2d

It's taken for granted that when people are in bad enough circumstances, they become terrorists because they have nothing else to live for, but actually that doesn't seem to be the pattern at all.

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Tom MacDonald @tscmacdonald.bsky.social · 6d

New round of CIS winners announced today, showing a continuing shift away from wind and toward solar+BESS hybrid generation: reneweconomy.com.au/solar-batter...
This really isn't the energy transition we expected a few years back but it seems to be the one we're getting. Onwards!

reneweconomy.com.au

Tom MacDonald @tscmacdonald.bsky.social · 7d

Coordination polymers! Congrats to the team, and great to see Robson recognised - I'm sure the Australian inorganic community will be enjoying a few beers this week

Nature @nature.com · 7d

BREAKING: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi “for the development of metal-organic frameworks”

Stay tuned for more.
#NobelPrize

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Tom MacDonald @tscmacdonald.bsky.social · 9d

not quite there personally but I'm really starting to feel this one looming

Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 9d

Milestone on the path to middle age: I have decided to get into the Napoleonic Wars

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Alanah Pearce @charalanahzard.bsky.social · 13d

I realized I’ve been sort of mourning the internet lately. It’s odd. This ‘place’ that used to contain a wealth of actually valuable information, and introduced me to many people I now call friends, and which paved the way for my career, has almost completely rotted away. It’s not coming back.

Trekkie Bill 🖖🏻 @trekkiebill.bsky.social · 13d

Do you ever think about the fact that Wikipedia is the last good major website on the internet? You aren't bombarded with ads. It doesn't try to push video on you, and it doesn't redirect you to a scam site.

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Tom MacDonald @tscmacdonald.bsky.social · 12d

Feels unproductive to overthink this until we get the new Qld plan, but the ESOO update seems to say that Gladstone PTI solves this if delivered on time. So I think that's where we stand: see if Powerlink can commit and deliver the PTI, then course correct as needed if it faces delays.

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Tom MacDonald @tscmacdonald.bsky.social · 13d

Origin made no visible efforts to replace Eraring's output, while Rio have multiple GWs of PPAs in place plus support from Powerlink to enable a '29 closure (Gladstone PTI).
Not to say that someone won't find another reason to delay retirement, but they're quite different situations.

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Reposted by Tom MacDonald

Old White Nepo Hat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 13d

Every few months now I re-read this "Who Goes Nazi?" piece from 1941 and am blown away by how it captures the people we are dealing with 80 years later.

harpers.org/archive/1941...

Who Goes Nazi?, by Dorothy Thompson

harpers.org

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Tom MacDonald @tscmacdonald.bsky.social · 16d

Do you know of previous cases of the PRC intentionally stranding assets and shrinking an industry for policy reasons? Any comparable cases to the coal industry that we can learn from historically?

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Lauri Myllyvirta @laurimyllyvirta.bsky.social · 20d

The basic dilemma for China's leaders is: you have to cut either the clean energy industry or the coal industry down to size; both can't continue to grow like they have. These targets just show they still haven't made up their minds, balking at the economic fallout from either.

Lauri Myllyvirta @laurimyllyvirta.bsky.social · 20d

Xi Jinping announced China's new climate targets personally, a positive gesture, but the targets brought little clarity on China’s future emission pathway. Targeting a 7-10% emission reduction by 2035 from an undefined "peak level" undersells China's current clean energy boom.

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Lauri Myllyvirta @laurimyllyvirta.bsky.social · 16d

Now that China's new climate targets are out, here's a comparison to IPCC scenarios. The 2030 and 2035 targets are weak even compared to the median of 3-degree scenarios, which would entail devastating climate impacts, but the long-term 2060 target is in line with 2 degrees.

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Tom MacDonald @tscmacdonald.bsky.social · 16d

Good angle here which i hadn't actually considered before: nature based offsets lock in increased opex while offering no long term value. Seems fundamentally short sighted to prioritise this over capex to increase operational efficiency, regardless of how you view offset integrity.

Kyle Martelle @kylemartelle.bsky.social · Jun 2

Carbon neutral … or carbon offsets.
#australianinstitute

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Tom MacDonald @tscmacdonald.bsky.social · 16d

One of my crankier but genuine beliefs is that Australia should do literally the opposite of this and make PDO busting knockoffs at higher quality and lower price for the global export market. Not just feta but champagne, port, sherry, parmesan - let's do the lot!
www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

Canberra showdown to settle EU concerns over feta, meat, farming

Negotiators have been clearing obstacles behind the scenes in preparation for renewed talks over a deal that could supercharge commerce worth $156 billion a year.

www.smh.com.au

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Tom MacDonald @tscmacdonald.bsky.social · 18d

Utterly deranged writing here forced by Australia's ridiculous defo laws

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Tom MacDonald @tscmacdonald.bsky.social · 19d

if this was any sort of serious proposition you'd want to grow places like Newcastle, Ballarat & Bendigo, Hobart, the Gold Coast (if it can survive rising seas) up to maybe 1m each. Honestly not a bad idea, but might take some very heavy handed national industrial policy to get the leverage.

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Tom MacDonald @tscmacdonald.bsky.social · 19d

I'm sure this is where you're getting to, but it's hard enough to picture urbane amenities deployed into "real" small Australian cities of 100-500k - that's got to be the sweet spot, but still a huge challenge from where we are now

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Sexy CHOAM Nomsky costume @samthielman.com · 21d

CHOTINER: So your son is 14, is that right?

IKARI: It's complex, Isaac. If—

CHOTINER: And the “robot” he pilots, that’s actually the child of an alien you keep crucified in the basement, which is possessed by the spirit of his dead mother?

IKARI: Look, let me answer the question.

CHOTINER: Sure.

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$diffractiongrating.bsky.social$

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing @diffractiongrating.bsky.social · 26d

Making a playlist.

Screenshot showing "Damned for all time/Blood money" from Jesus Christ Superstar followed by "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money" by the Pet Shop Boys

Judas's Death (JCS)/It's a Sin (PSB)/Bad Idea Right? (Olivia Rodrigo)

Gethsemane (JCS)/Friday (Rebecca Black) (the 2021 remix not the original lol)

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Reposted by Tom MacDonald

The Sizzle - Australia's favourite tech newsletter @thesizzle.com.au · 26d

rss is the answer to the infinite scroll, blast of stuff (chosen by someone else to make you spend more time online, not because it informs you or makes you feel better) right at your face.

from earlier this week:

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Tom MacDonald @tscmacdonald.bsky.social · Sep 12

Teen social media ban: lame, impossible to scope correctly, bound to fail
Teen 128kbps bandwidth mandate: hell yeah now we're talking

The Ass is the father of the legs @internethippo.bsky.social · Nov 10

The problem with every post-Millennial generation is they got to go straight to high speed internet. Of course you'll get computer madness that way. Make them start with those old screeching modems and work their way up

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Reposted by Tom MacDonald

Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · Sep 11

I think this is one of the best things published in the last few years. I think about it almost daily. I revisited it today and saw it was published exactly 5 years ago yesterday www.noemamag.com/welcome-to-t...

Welcome To The ‘Turbulent Twenties’ | NOEMA

We predicted political upheaval in America in the 2020s. This is why it’s here and what we can do to temper it.

www.noemamag.com

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Zack Cooper @zackcooper.bsky.social · Sep 11

After 14 years, I think the time has come to acknowledge that the "Rebalance to Asia" has failed.

I've spent the last decade writing and thinking about how to make the rebalance successful, so this is a painful realization.

A thread on my new piece for RSIS...

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Reposted by Tom MacDonald

David Sligar @davidsligar.bsky.social · Sep 11

For decades Aus has cut marginal tax rates, largely on high earners, based on exaggerated claims about work disincentives.

Meanwhile, over the same period, we've set up *genuinely* punitive (at times > 100%) effective marginal tax rates on low-middle income earners.

www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

The Australians getting hit with up to 122 per cent tax

Some Australians who are eager to take on more work are being held back by the prospect of giving up most of their additional income – and in some cases, even paying to work.

www.smh.com.au

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Tom MacDonald @tscmacdonald.bsky.social · Sep 9

Top politics here from Tehan and the Coalition, promising to relitigate the argument they were smashed on back in May with a bonus of increased reliance on the *deeply* unpopular collapsing gerontocracy across the Pacific. How could it go wrong?
www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

Ley seeks to keep Coalition, and her leadership, intact with net zero deal

Before a critical fortnight in the energy debate, expectations are growing in the Liberal Party that Sussan Ley will find a way through the latest Coalition climate war.

www.smh.com.au

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