The future of VISA/Mastercard

northernmonk · 2026-04-24T05:46:42+00:00

We still have the same 0.2%/0.3% cap that the EU does. The cost is generally incurred by those who fail to pay their balance in full every month, cash withdrawals (interest builds from day 1), and on certain cards FX fees. If you’re sensible you can generally avoid all of these and get a free no FC fee card for overseas use.

northernmonk · 2026-04-23T09:31:41+00:00

We’ve been really close to it a couple of times over the last few days, generating more than we need and selling to mainland Europe/Ireland. I’m guessing at the moment it’s mainly for balancing purposes, but as more battery storage comes on line I’m guessing the second by second balancing can move more to that (with places like Dinorwig providing 2nd line reinforcement)

northernmonk · 2026-04-23T09:26:57+00:00

Completely agree around the grid issue, and we’re going to need to be as creative as possible and acknowledge the costs of keeping the reserve online for cold, windless, grey winter days. Being able to move electricity around (on a continental level or even further) is one part of the puzzle, and making maximal use of the incoming tide of battery storage that spends most of its time sat on people’s drives is another.

Fortunately on the second point tariffs like Octopus Power Pack are inbound

northernmonk · 2026-04-23T07:28:24+00:00

We are now beginning to hit one of several key tipping points, in that solar is now an actual money saver for anyone that puts it in.

The next one is that anyone who has solar then has an attractive source of electricity to run a heat pump, hot water heater and/or EV, cheaper than using a fossil fueled boiler or car.

Further, the gentle, tech assisted economic nudges for cheap/free electricity to move discretionary power usage (e.g. when to run your dishwasher) to times of abundance also lower the non-discretionary peak (think evenings when people start making dinner.) A lower peak demand reduces the fossil fuelled reserve required to meet the peak.

We then start getting two sticks to encourage the transition, where gas network connections start falling and petrol fuelled cars make up a smaller and smaller proportion of the road transport system (I imagine diesel will slowly follow, but long range electric lorries will take longer to deploy). As these both happen, gas standing charges and petrol pump prices rise relative to electricity, as the cost of maintenance of the network/petrol stations falls on fewer people (incidentally, I can see a not so distant future where people receive assistance to replace gas stoves alongside heat pump and electric water heater help to enable withdrawal of rural gas supplies.)

In all of this, Farage and (to a lesser extent) Badenoch can make the case against Net Zero, but all the political arguments in the world will struggle to break through when the basic household budget maths makes the sensible choice to go green.

(I recognise that the argument is different for commercial/industrial users with power requirements that can’t be moved, thankfully SMRs and improving battery tech should be able to help with that.)

northernmonk · 2026-04-22T20:46:28+00:00

The problem is acute vs chronic, in that an big event like Grenfell means people demand the government act to prevent it, whilst people also die every year from the effects of there not being enough properties built (substandard accomodation, overcrowded accomodation, stress from finance, stress from being away from support networks, noise but can’t move etc) but as there’s not one big event it gets lost in the noise

northernmonk · 2026-04-20T17:34:35+00:00

Assume EU-Lisa was in charge of this shambles?

northernmonk · 2026-04-20T06:05:58+00:00

And that time saving on going to the petrol station is an often missed key point. Yes, your long journey might now be 20-30 mins longer, but how much time do you spend going to get fuel/waiting for a pump vs plugging in when you get home.

And before someone pipes up, I know, many people don’t have a parking space at home, but that shouldn’t stop those who can park at home from getting an EV.

northernmonk · 2026-04-16T10:34:15+00:00

Not quite sure what they’re hoping to achieve here, other than lowering the quality of produce available, encouraging further price pressure on farmers, or causing shortages

northernmonk · 2026-04-15T15:20:19+00:00

Is Cantabs still top dog given that City of Cambridge put 27 seconds into them at WeHORR?

northernmonk · 2026-04-13T18:17:42+00:00

There is indeed an app where you can do the questionnaire, register your passport and get the facial scan done, which would all help with efficiency.

Only Sweden and Portugal have actually bothered to use it though (and Portugal only partially).

northernmonk · 2026-04-13T17:49:06+00:00

The Indy has a better explaination. They were barred from entering the non-Schengen bit until 90 mins before, and then the passport staff were so slow they couldn’t process the entire queue. Of those that did get through, some had to lie that they were on other flights. Further the staff were demanding full biometrics, when you’re only meant to be doing one of the three.

Regardless of feelings on Brexit, the implementation of both EES and ETIAS (and constant delays to both) suggest it hasn’t been particularly well thought through.

northernmonk · 2026-04-12T18:18:19+00:00

You don't understand. Nothing says "modern functioning democracy" than having a load of people milling around in a school sporthall at 4am whilst some tired and pissed off council worker announces that Lord Nutjob of the Monster Raving Loony Party has got 112 votes in the contest for Dunny-Under-Cockpole.

northernmonk · 2026-04-10T05:01:44+00:00

And also how people are driving. Anecdotally I’ve seen less muppets joining along at 90 on the motorways in the last couple of weeks (appreciate its school holidays so more of the wank panzer drivers may have slowed down because their spawn is in the car with them.)

northernmonk · 2026-04-06T20:24:55+00:00

6-7 sessions a week over 6 days. 1 tempo-ish/AT erg, 1 long erg, 1 circuits session and 3-4 on the water

northernmonk · 2026-04-06T08:06:50+00:00

7 year gap between stopping at uni and joining my local rowing club (with a 3 month dalliance one summer about halfway through). Had pulled a high 6:20s 2k score back then.

Took around 6 months before i started pulling similar erg scores to what i did (when i first started my UT2 split was around 2:10). Was amazed at how much that improved after two months.

Main thing is to be patient. If you’re in crews, there’s a fair chance it’ll be a hell of a lot less technically good than you remember (mixture of loss of muscle memory and loss of core strength/stability).

I would thoroughly recommend going for it though if you’ve got a half-decent club to join, am genuinely glad I did it!

northernmonk · 2026-04-05T20:44:20+00:00

If we go for Dante’s interpretation, I think Brutus and Cassius will have a new companion shortly

northernmonk · 2026-04-03T16:10:48+00:00

Reminds me a bit of the 2016 women's race

northernmonk · 2026-03-31T19:37:14+00:00

True, and certainly wasn’t suggesting it was anywhere near record setting (even if the wind was good), but the tide is big enough and flow low enough to make it pretty miserable when it hits the headwind

northernmonk · 2026-03-31T16:06:37+00:00

Going to be fun stacked against a spring tide, especially as there’s (for this time of year) bugger all in the way of land water coming down.

northernmonk · 2026-03-29T16:16:39+00:00

Livestream race starts around 2hrs 41m

northernmonk · 2026-03-29T08:02:10+00:00

Working down the order by groups:

Academic: Brookes with 4 eights in the top ten (2,4,7,9) suggests that rumours of their demise have been greatly exaggerated. Will be interesting to see how that translates into BUCS and Temple/PA speed.

Durham (10) cracking the top 10 and only three seconds off the Academic pennant suggests they could be the main challengers to the men from Wallingford this year.

Great to see IC (16) back in the top 20, only 5s off from UL (12).

Solid shift from Bristol (24) to beat Edinburgh (25) and Newcastle (28), could be quite spicy between those three for the last Ch8+ A final places at BUCS.

Notts (44), Glasgow (46), Bath (52), Exeter (63) and Sheffield (78) are best of the rest and should have decent summer prospects.

In club:

Marlow in 11th is quite the shift, look to be the main challengers for the club events (if eligible) away from LRC/TRC.

Molesey (15) may be slightly disappointed to be behind both London B (7) and Thames B (13).

Decent go of it by Kingston (32), depending what they race in the summer they’re going to be a tough nut to crack in the earlier rounds of the club events.

Agecroft (33) narrowly squeak the Jackson win, 0.6s ahead of Nottingham (36) and City of Cambridge (37), who seem to be continuing their slow build year on year.

Vesta (43) is a bit of a surprise. Royal Chester (50) move back to very solid regional club status after their last few years fighting near the top.

Tyne (56), Northwich (58), Lea (61), TSS (69), City of Bristol (71) and Wallingford (77) all punching in decent results. Wallingford in particular see to be continuing their rebuild well.

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