Comments by "Tim Trewyn" (@timtrewyn453) on "RealLifeLore" channel.

  1. As an electrical engineer, I would point out that it would be a sensible strategy to conserve electricity for heating, charging, and communications rather than use it on night lighting. Light at night attracts targeting sensors. Best to keep the lights off and force the opponent to maintain infrared surveillance, which is a bit more difficult than optical surveillance. However, I don't think this kind of conservation is what is going on in North Korea.
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  2. See Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend. Show me a Russian or Chinese equivalent.
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  3. The empires will divide it or one will try to take it. If Russia achieves its vision of reaching the European Atlantic Coast, Denmark's jurisdiction over Greenland will be moot. Ergo, Trump is essentially saying "we can do this the easy way or the hard way." I didn't vote for the guy, and I don't think his tactics are the best, but he is not wrong to pay attention to Greenland.
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  4. People's work to build a home, a vocation, and a family should be respected. But the idea that Greenlanders should be the only stewards of that vast land is rather grandiose. The mining interests that eventually show up are only there to make friends as much as they need to, and when buffered by icy water and vast stretches of ice covered land, they don't need friends much. Mining towns will have their own sense of autonomy and ethnocentrism, whatever nation they come from. See the last 500 years of the development of North America.
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  5.  @vladrazym9955  You miss my point. A damaged electrical system can be repaired, and repaired in very innovative ways in a war when efficiency is not the primary consideration. Lighting is a simple indication that damage has been repaired. Infrared can also be used to discern that damage has been repaired. But like lights being shut off intentionally, false infrared signatures can mislead interpretation of infrared imagery. Resolution of course plays a role, but it is in Ukraine's interest to mask not only the repair of its fixed or known electrical infrastructure, but to mask its increasingly mobile distributed electric generation. GPS coordinates that might have been valid a week ago may need to be updated because a mobile prime power generating unit has been relocated to another connection point. Distributed generation is not the normal form of efficient power generation, but it is very suited to a war zone. With time and a steady influx of mobile units and an increasing number of distribution system connection points, the generating system becomes more like a missile on a truck, i.e., not so easy to find. There also becomes too many targets to hit, especially when 50% or more of incoming missiles are intercepted in a manner that the target, even if located correctly, survives. And Russia does well not to strike power plants outside of Ukraine that are connected to the Ukrainian grid. These connections need not always be high voltage transmission in a war, as high voltage transmission stations are fewer in number and an obvious target. While less efficient, again, more numerous sub-transmission and even distribution substations can be used or modified to transmit useful amounts of power. And so in the futile effort to take down the Ukrainian electric system, Russia fails to use some of its best weaponry on military targets.
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  6.  @vladrazym9955  If Ukraine comes gradually to do distributed generation correctly, it will not matter if some of it gets hit by a strike. There are just too many targets to take out and too much AD to thin the attack. Smaller units just get replaced. Look at HIMARS. With all its eyes, the Russian's have not taken out half of it. And if they do, HIMARS is based on trucks that can be replaced. The Russians like people to think they see everything. They do not, or they cannot do anything about much of what they do see. I am glad it is a warm winter, and I hope Ukraine and its utility workers and allies keep working on the system to make it more reliable under war time conditions.
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  7. Imagine somebody shows up at your local government meeting and says they want to start a mine 100kM from town in a place where no one from town has been for years much less built a summer cabin there. They offer the town something like the Alaskan Permanent Fund which will send each town resident a check every year. Why would people who get checks from Denmark turn down more checks?
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  8. That logic says Russia is bad.
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  9. What nation doesn't have some corruption?
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  10. The population of Greenland, and even of Denmark, does not have the capacity to exercise jurisdiction over the entire island in the emerging future. Their towns and the economic zones of activity those towns have are the effective jurisdiction. By themselves, Greenland would have little to no capacity to repel the establishment of Russian and Chinese mining towns in Greenland, which would have their own interest in being independent from Danish and/or Greenland's jurisdiction. Greenland's security against this kind of development has been its tie to Denmark and thus to NATO and the United States. From this perspective, instead of any independence movement in Greenland seeming to be absurd, it looks more likely to be a program of Russian or even BRICS influence. Given the small population, and its familiarity with foreign subsidies, it would seem quite easy to buy politicians and votes. It's quite possible, without NATO, for Greenland's small towns to be left to themselves while capable nations divide the rest of the island. Trump's interest in the island, if for no other reason, is to signal to all competitors that the United States is on the island and at its table. While the islanders deserve to have their homes and commerce and reasonable prospects for autonomous development respected, the islanders claim to all its land is a bit of geographic hubris.
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  11.  @WangAiHua  Like I said, I am an electrical engineer, and in the USAF, I was a sensor systems specialist. Lights out does not mean there is no electricity, as was being suggested by the image of a darkened Ukraine. Of course, Ukraine has less electric power than it used to, but that does not mean it has no power. Russia has to use IR sensors to determine if a substation has been restored to any degree. And restoring power is not limited to repairing known facilities. Temporary generation can be established along distribution lines. Eventually there are just too many targets in a distributed generation system. False IR signals can also be created to make those temporary sources even harder to pick out. Infrared imagery would tell a more accurate tale, but also has its drawbacks. Russia is wasting its guided missiles on non-military targets. The whole idea that attacking the Ukrainian power grid would lead to victory is proving false so far. The West is very experienced in the restoration of electric power after disasters.
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  12.  @susclik  No they are not. Modern small generators work totally in the dark. They can be checked on and refueled during the day. You are thinking of large scale plants. Not all generation facilities are large scale, especially when they need to be distributed and multiplied in a war zone.
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  13.  @Czoken  Not using electricity to create visible light conserves electricity for other purposes, the most important being power for communications and battery recharging. I mentioned IR sensing in my original comment. It can be saturated with false targets using non-electric heat sources, like wood.
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  14.  @newwonderer  You make a good point.
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  15.  @susclik  My brain's work gets diagnosed by electricians every day. They will let me know when it is time to quit being an engineer. :)
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  16.  @WangAiHua  And Russia's attempt to achieve a total Ukrainian blackout is futile, because: 1) Ukraine can quickly repair and use existing and new interconnecting lines with adjacent nations; 2) Ukraine can import small prime power generation units that do not need a substation for interconnection to distribution feeders; 3) Ukraine can use less customary and more repairable methods to distribute power from repaired existing power plants. These measures increase the number of targets Russia has to strike to obtain a total Ukrainian blackout beyond its inventory of guided munitions. A small prime power generation unit can be promptly replaced. Every water well and every wastewater lift station and small treatment plant can be readily equipped with a small electric generating unit. This is not normally done because it is less efficient than centralized power plants, but this distributed system does work and greatly complicates any effort to totally take it out. Perhaps such reliability measures are not available to you to go and see for yourself. In my profession, I have frequent access to such facilities.
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  17.  @andrii.romaniuk  Thank you for this bit of news, although I am surprised to hear about Odessa. I have friends from there and I will ask them about it. Could it be a little warmer in Odessa so they are not as high on the priority list for power restoration? My regards to you.
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  18.  @RM-el3gw  Russia is in Venezuela. They do not want Venezuela going back to 3 million BBL production per day. Just enough for domestic use and a little bit of export sales to meet regime payroll. Helps keep the price up. Cuba gets a piece of the action for security services rendered.
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  19.  @etienne8110  Why don't Russia and China help Venezuela get back up to 3 million BBL per day? Especially with prices where they are.
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  20.  @raghudurina2354  Florida Power and Light puts solar farms on former citrus groves that failed due to citrus greening. They also put solar farms on closed landfills that really are not suitable for any other purpose. Some parts of the world might have a space problem for solar farms. The US is not one of them. Florida Power and Light rates are among the lowest in the United States.
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  21.  @raghudurina2354  Texas did not prepare its wind turbines for cold weather. It had multiple gas-fired generating plants down for maintenance. It had insufficient links to bordering grids because it insists on having its own grid. I drove through Indiana while temperatures were -10 degrees Fahrenheit. The huge wind farms there were operating because they were prepared for the weather. It's a myth that wind and solar let Texas down. At that time of year the grid operator knew that the solar contribution would be minimal. The wind turbines would have helped if they had been properly maintained. Gas plants would have operated if the pipeline stations serving them had been winterized. The DOE told them years ago what their problems were. The Texas failure was a flaw of Texas electric policy and failure to maintain adequate capacity for a winter contingency. It's the state Enron came from.
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  22.  @raghudurina2354  I used to sign off on payments for Palo Verde NGS for the Cities of Banning and Colton, California. It was by far the most expensive power in our portfolio. I am all for keeping existing plants in safe operation. They are reliable base load plants. But I'll take the wholesale pricing available from renewable and stored renewable energy any day.
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  23.  @franug  ESSs are in the National Electrical Code because it is happening. Tesla, ABB and Eaton are doing fairly large storage. Has its hazards. But yeah, keep the nukes and hydro and have some gas or liquid fuel jets handy for weather extremes. Coal plants need to depreciate and be retired. No new ones.
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  24. Some say there's a bug deep in the Gulf of Mexico eating that big oil spill. Somebody might sell it. Might be a scam.
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  25.  @bunsdad4530  psi or bbl?
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  26.  @thor_86  Oil companies have large amounts of money. Media needs money. It's about not biting the hand that feeds you.
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  27.  @Valhura77  Koch family.
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  28.  @uclhighlights9287  Good point. What a display of American regard for Russian sensitivity. Didn't get much mileage out of that did we?
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  29. Russian innocence. American guilt. Self-defeating narrative.
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  30.  @crhu319  Any arbitrage via flag of convenience?
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  31. It is in the interest of any industry to deflect negatives toward some other cause. I recall the US invasion of Iraq as only having oil "overtones", not oil as the underlying motive. If there had been no oil in Iraq, it is unlikely there would have been any US invasion.
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  32.  @Psychx_  Yeah. Globalization turned into something of a house of cards.
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  33.  @Matt-yg8ub  Why leave the energy companies that discovered Ukrainian oil and gas reserves off the hook? There was a blissful ignorance in Ukraine while it bought gas from Russia. It's like John Steinbeck's "The Pearl". When great wealth is found the knives come out. Yanukovich invited Exxon, Shell, and Chevron into the country for exploration. He teed this up, probably with Putin's consent, and left the Ukrainian military unprepared to guard the discovered treasure chest. So taking Crimea was like . . . taking candy from a baby. I don't believe in American innocence. I don't believe in Russian innocence either.
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  34.  @watchm4ker  If anything is left of Ukraine and its military, it may be better prepared than ever for a fight. And how much can Russia really reform its ways?
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  35.  @Matt-yg8ub  What would those terms be? Surely not Ukraine getting any serious share of revenue from its resources. I am sheltering a Ukrainian family. By their account, it's like Al Capone's Chicago over there. The Russian gangs and Ukrainian gangs were demanding tribute from all kinds of Ukrainian enterprises . . . or else. Territorial sovereignty was already something of a mirage.
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  36.  @PBNIP  Take a drive through Illinois and Indiana farm country. Hard working, wholesome folk for the most part. Wind turbines generating power. Great soil like Ukraine.
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  37.  @Matt-yg8ub  Yeah. Reagan was an actor. It helped him. Same with Zelensky. I do give Zelenskyy credit for not packing up and heading to safety. He is not safe in Ukraine.
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  38.  @Matt-yg8ub  Yes, it is cosmetic. But Kyiv to the nearest Russian friendly (Belarus) border is approximately 60 miles. Source: Google Earth ruler. Zelensky is in Russian weapons range. Have you seen the first few episodes of "Servant of the People"? It's like the Ukrainian oligarchs got together and agreed to let that happen. Even oligarchs know they have to pay attention to the morale of the public now and then.
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  39.  @pills-  Good point.
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  40. The higher the price of oil and gas, the faster the alternatives such as efficiency, storage, solar, wind, geothermal, tidal, and even nuclear energy will be developed. I drive by solar farms that were not there two years ago. It is happening, and more than ever, it is market driven. And when rising tides and other effects of climate change affect more and more people, the progress will accelerate as they come to believe what the scientists have been telling them.
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  41. As long as Russia can maintain a nuclear arsenal similar to what it already has, probably not.
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  42. Well said.
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  43.  @VictorLarsen-fy9ls  Good for Russia. Done yet?
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  44.  @tealc6218  I live in the United States. I see more electric cars on the road every year. I see more wind turbines and solar farms every year. I see that drilling very deep shafts to tap geothermal power also resulted in the discovery of lithium that can help sustain efficient battery storage of electrical energy. I have witnessed how the application of more efficient lighting and air conditioning has reduced peak energy demand in my city even with a growing population. American electric utilities frequently choose solar now for summer peak generation because solar power plants can be permitted and built in a short time at a low cost. The price of solar panels has been reduced even below what was projected 25 years ago, and few people believed that solar power below $5/kw would be achieved. Some panels go for less than $1/kw. I have seen a whole array of technologies combined to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. We are farther along with all this than I as an engineer concerned with the practical and achievable thought possible. Will Europe succeed in minimizing fossil fuel use by 2050? It is up to them. The United States and others have demonstrated that it can be done. The United States is ambitious and aggressive and has a history full of sin. It is also a place where democracy and human rights allow creative human beings to flourish and produce technologies that others constantly try to steal. With 25% of the population of China, the US matches the Chinese economy. How do we do that? Don't project Russian methods on us. A lot of quiet, honest hard work goes on here, and it happens because it is generally rewarded. Over and over again I encounter the proclamations of Russian innocence. Yet Russian Orthodoxy cannot escape the confession that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. How amazing that the Soviet Union dissolved, and the Church remained. But clearly, the KGB remained, too. So atheism has made its deal with Orthodoxy, the opiate of the masses. When I look at Russia, I see the KGB/FSB as its remorseless elite. People of conscience do well to just get out of there.
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  45.  @Thezftw  India does not have to literally take all the oil. They can arbitrage it on the global market.
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  46.  @justanotherdude2165  Business majors took over American health care. Ask the doctors.
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  47. I heard there was a cease fire in Yemen. Ukraine could use one, too.
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  48. Mining towns would need to be pretty autonomous themselves. If they have aircraft, are they better off flying healthcare emergencies to Iceland or to some town in Greenland? Greenlanders control their towns and local economic resources. They will have little luck repelling future development. They will not have the same capacity to sabotage mining that the Middle Eastern nations have. Russia would create some Potemkin facade and otherwise subjugate the population if not reduce them more than the Danes have. I did not vote for Trump, and I think he is mishandling this relationship, but he is not wrong to pay attention to it.
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  49.  @ВикторГрабко-и9ч  I am a United States citizen. You can look at my "About" info. I write with my real name. I take responsibility for what I say. I lost all belief in American innocence as a child learning about the treatment of natives during the American westward expansion and the enslavement of blacks and others. And all through school I learned about injustice in America, past and present. I lost all belief in Russian innocence when I read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago." Nations of people have their good moments, too. But human beings have a dark side that is with them wherever they live. I hope people see how important it is to have HONEST discussions.
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  50.  @arcasb  Mearsheimer almost ignores oil and gas as a factor. He takes Russian statements at face value too much.
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