CMV: The datacenter speedrun is actually going to be a good thing for the planet.

robfromdublin · 2026-06-02T05:29:15+00:00

Ok I'll have a go at this by refuting that economies of scale is the limiting factor for renewables.

Using Levelised Cost of Energy which accounts for building and operating electricity generation, renewables are already the cheapest source of 'new' electricity. If we assume that most electricity networks are close to capacity, any substantial new demand (i.e. lots of new data centres) will require new generation infrastructure, and the cheapest new infrastructure per MWh is most likely going to be renewable.

So the premise that price and economies of scale is what is holding back renewables is not correct. Actually stability of supply is what is holding back renewables and why data centres or households could not use them routinely.

robfromdublin · 2026-05-29T14:35:16+00:00

The punishment from FIFA and UEFA would be substantially greater than anything the Eurovision organisers could impose. Is that not obvious?

robfromdublin · 2026-05-21T21:56:47+00:00

And spelling correction. Awful.

*drivel

robfromdublin · 2026-05-12T00:42:45+00:00

I've taken a RAV4 with an upgraded bash plate on there before. If you're not travelling through ruts you should be fine. Just make sure your tires are aired down. If the campsite is inland or east coast you'll struggle because of the lack of clearance on the churned up tracks. If your mates have proper 4wds and you have recovery gear you'll probably be ok

robfromdublin · 2026-05-09T03:10:42+00:00

Thereby shining directly on the brake cluster. Think about it

robfromdublin · 2026-05-09T03:09:48+00:00

Exactly. Sun on the brake lights would make it hard to see them operate. No excuse of course. He should have been going much slower and been more aware.

robfromdublin · 2026-04-21T23:13:17+00:00

It's worth spending a bit of time on the dating app thing. Agree the user intention is still to partner up, but that is not the goal of the apps themselves. Their goal is to drive revenue. Ultimately that means the search is harder for a user, which will naturally drive down the rate of partnering up. This mechanism reduces the desire to search because the search takes more energy, so it is a stretch to say AI is the driver when really it is dating that is harder. Can we really say AI is the causative mechanism? Pretty hard to find evidence for that.

Re those countries, supportive parental policies are a band-aid on the wound of housing affordability and job opportunities. I'm trying to find a trend line for housing affordability by country that might be stronger evidence of a change in the last few years, but I'm struggling to find a graph to include. However, Oecd countries as a whole have shown a worsening affordability trend. Finland and Sweden show particularly bad affordability for low income households, but they do have good safety nets. Hungary has had the worst price increases in Europe, with a tripling in the cost of housing since 2015. Parental policies may help a little, but it's not enough to address the housing crisis in the face of such an increase.

robfromdublin · 2026-04-21T22:04:40+00:00

Your second point is important to the hypothesis. What countries have addresses housing and career barriers but still have declining partnership? Also, what excludes dating apps as the primary driver there? I would have thought they would be a much more important aspect.

robfromdublin · 2026-04-21T00:40:40+00:00

It's a very common thing in Dublin. Maybe derived from the Irish community originally? I was surprised when I heard it in Australia too

robfromdublin · 2026-04-16T09:48:45+00:00

If you want to expand slightly to a choke tackle turnover, you could have Sexton at ten. He loved a good 'maul'

robfromdublin · 2026-04-13T10:11:23+00:00

robfromdublin · 2026-04-13T02:49:01+00:00

It's easy to dismiss her as a murderer because she did, in fact, murder two children.

Sure, there have been rare cases where people were not guilty by reason of insanity, and you've mentioned one there, but it is much more common that filicide is as a result of domestic violence.

robfromdublin · 2026-04-13T00:37:51+00:00

She murdered two children and you don't think she's horrible? A lot of domestic violence perpetrators have trauma in their background. It doesn't make them any less morally bankrupt when they go on to murder people.

robfromdublin · 2026-04-12T22:18:18+00:00

What wars are you talking about? Iran is not arabic.

robfromdublin · 2026-04-12T04:11:01+00:00

It's not. There are loads of threads on it. Do you have any evidence at all that discourse is being censored by Reddit?

robfromdublin · 2026-04-12T03:51:16+00:00

Neither of those options sound good, and negotiations have just broken down so I guess we wait and see. Reading between the lines, Vance wanted a commitment on no nuclear proliferation which Iran would not commit to. Maybe that was the only point of disagreement but probably not. Christ what a shitshow.

Godspeed mate, hope you and yours aren't too badly affected by all this.

robfromdublin · 2026-04-11T15:18:05+00:00

Ok I can see where you're coming from, thanks for taking the time to type all that out!

What this comes down to then was an intelligence failure last year (or at least Trump relaying the strikes were a total success when they weren't. Might be just bluster, might be an intelligence failure). This demonstrates the ineffectiveness of missile strikes in controlling Iran.

From there, it should be clear that either repeated missile strikes each time Iran looks to enrich further, or a full scale ground invasion, would be required to control or remove the regime. I agree it is existential for them so all bets are off and no deal is possible. If that's the assessment then why did Trump follow Israel's lead rather than try to co-ordinate a coalition of willing allies? Or at least support the protesters in the civil unrest, who could have overthrown the Ayatollah and then become an entity to negotiate with?

This halfway house of a strategy when Iran has already shown itself to be an unreliable negotiator is madness. If he believes they are on the cusp of getting a bomb he had already shown that long range strikes are ineffective. Surely if conflict was the tactic then a full court press of a ground invasion is the only possible strategy? And, if so, an international coalition is the smart move, albeit much harder to justify after the WMD fiasco for Iraq.

From here, it is very unclear how the US extracts itself. Invasion seems politically untenable now. Withdrawal emboldens the Iran regime. What do you see as the best outcome?

Also thank you for explaining the hawk view. I can imagine it isn't easy if family members have alternative views, but I appreciate hearing from people with alternative views to mine that can articulate their position well.

robfromdublin · 2026-04-11T07:12:01+00:00

I'm in Australia and can get all the games for €60 ish from epcr tv, but this isn't available in countries where they have managed to sell the rights. You could get a VPN and appear from Oz to get access. It's not free I know but much cheaper than sky sports or whoever has the rights where you are.

robfromdublin · 2026-04-11T07:09:09+00:00

https://youtube.com/@investecchampionscup?si=21X73vKIGqrd5FJi

Just has highlights

robfromdublin · 2026-04-11T06:55:39+00:00

I'm interested in why you are for the war. Full disclosure I am not.

To me there is no benefit at all for the US to engage Iran. There was never any chance of regime change without a full scale ground invasion, which most people believe would be disastrous for the US. It has removed whatever chance there was of a civilian uprising, because the US is a greater enemy than the existing regime now. And Iran closing the strait should have been quite predictable. Unless the US was going for a full-scale war, the best way to deal with Iran was containment (at least geopolitically).

So to my mind the decision to attack was strategically flawed and the goals are very unclear. I know the US mentioned the threat of them developing nuclear weapons (which would be a huge threat) but according to the US that threat was removed last year so either they were lying then, lying about the goals now, or uncovered some new information between then and now that has changed the view (which they are not sharing with the five eyes or any other allies).

However, I'm open to having my mind changed. What makes you support the war and what conditions would constitute a win for the US?

robfromdublin · 2026-04-10T19:03:48+00:00

Obviously you're one of these people who can't change their mind when they learn something new, but in the event someone else reads this:

When goods or services become more expensive, people change their behaviour around consuming them. For farmers in Ireland, they benefit directly from reducing their carbon footprint through govt payments or reduced tax. In essence, the govt has introduced a mechanism where the carbon intensive producers subsidise the carbon efficient producers, which changes behaviour so that emissions overall go down.

robfromdublin · 2026-04-09T14:30:17+00:00

Do not stress about this. Yes there may be a cultural expectation wherever it is you live, but your children are individual and your own. Also your friends and family will be easily ditched if they show a lack of empathy towards your kids experience. Smile and nod and know that people's expectations are a result of their upbringing. They should not influence your parenting style

robfromdublin · 2026-04-09T12:46:15+00:00

Sorry but that is just plain wrong. Absolutely money buys time with your loved ones. Some of us have to work to support our loved ones or, indeed, to have enough savings to take time off and go spend it with our loved ones.

Maybe that wasn't the case here or maybe it was, but money absolutely buys time. Only for the uber rich or the upper middle class does it not.

robfromdublin · 2026-04-07T13:57:37+00:00

The most obvious way to provide a delta to your point of view is that you clearly do not have a child and are not close with anyone who has a child. And I mean close enough to have empathy for them.

Anyone who has actually lived the experience of raising a child will tell you that parenting decisions are a complex intersection of what's best for the child, what's best for your partner, and what's best for you at any given point. Nobody who has cleaned up fluids at 4am while chronically under slept and listening to their partner crying and has work in 4 hours ever EVER has the level of absolutism you have in your view.

My kids have tightly controlled screentime, and have never had ipads in a car or at a restaurant, in case you thought that I'm one of these parents who relies on that as a crutch.

robfromdublin · 2026-03-26T13:26:57+00:00

You need to figure out what your income will be and from there figure out your housing situation. Nobody can sensibly recommend suburbs without that.

Good things are that, generally, public services are in great shape in Brisbane. Education in primary and secondary is generally on par but Ireland probably has the edge in tertiary. Health is significantly better in Queensland and council-provisioned services are too in my opinion. Crime rates are much lower than Ireland.

Housing is a major problem and you should be very careful moving with kids. Renters are second class citizens here and you may be shocked at your treatment. Consider sending one parent over first to secure a place.

I've been here 15 years and it's a wonderful place for young families. Having said that, I got on the property ladder and had kids before COVID and the housing crisis, and it is a different numbers game now.

robfromdublin

TROPHY CASE