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    Originally posted by Raoul Duke III View Post

    They're extremely retro physical tickets. Just call in and collect, then enjoy the 60 second walk to the entrance.
    Lol. You'll have to tell me where you live then!
    Gone full 'Glinner' since June 2022.

    Comment


      Originally posted by ComradeCollie View Post

      Lol. You'll have to tell me where you live then!
      You have to work it out from all the clues over the last few years. Start with the small wine space next to the downstairs toilet and go back from there.

      Comment


        The suburb, it will be leafy.
        ﴾͡๏̯͡๏﴿

        Comment


          There may or may not be a large horses head on the gate post.

          Comment








            Turning millions into thousands

            Comment


              Originally posted by Hectorjelly View Post

              What are the fees involved in those funds? Do you have to choose actively managed funds over passive trackers?
              Can't actually see the annual management charges anywhere on the website. That seems dodgy, no? Have a vague memory of looking it up at the beginning and have a figure of around 1.5% in my head, might be wrong. The ETF passive mantra makes sense for developed markets, I think active management makes sense for markets with more opaque information - like some developing markets. Active management is essentially paying for information gathering, and hoping the amount paid is less than the benefit of the information. There's no point paying for information gathering in developed markets where the available information is already fully incorporated in stock markets. But that's not the case in all markets.
              "We're not f*cking Burundi" - Big Phil

              Comment


                No need to visit his house . He'll be standing at the door of the Pink Flamingo crying in the rain.

                Comment


                  If one wanted to install a front garden driveway would one just rock up to the local planning office and seek their advice? There's precedence on the street for people converting from side entrances to front entrances, but I'm not sure how recently. We're in a bit of a hurry as there's about to be a cycle route installed, so it would need to be done before that. Mainly need it to ease permission for planning on the house being eventually built on the side-plot. Its not taking away any on-street parking spots.
                  "We're not f*cking Burundi" - Big Phil

                  Comment


                    I see now nursing homes see more $$$ in housing refugees than doing what they got planning for, like the hotels before them...lay off most of the staff...let the good times roll baby !

                    Give it 2 years and as well as a housing shitshow, we will have a nursing home availability shitshow.

                    Why the government cant do 2 things at once is beyond me, use temporary accommodation WHILE you build the bollix out of it.
                    This too shall pass.

                    Comment


                      Originally posted by oleras View Post
                      I see now nursing homes see more $$$ in housing refugees than doing what they got planning for, like the hotels before them...lay off most of the staff...let the good times roll baby !

                      Give it 2 years and as well as a housing shitshow, we will have a nursing home availability shitshow.

                      Why the government cant do 2 things at once is beyond me, use temporary accommodation WHILE you build the bollix out of it.
                      For right or for wrong, the government is just implementing what people want - people want the right to spuriously object to, and slow down, new builds, and they elect people who they feel confident will follow through on that.
                      "We're not f*cking Burundi" - Big Phil

                      Comment


                        Originally posted by Raoul Duke III View Post
                        Do you remember that this is exactly the opposite of what you said 6 months ago?
                        This is what I was thinking too

                        Originally posted by Raoul Duke III View Post

                        you should be on the highest risk plan up to retirement - and after it too
                        Yeah you might have another 30+ years to go. Plus presumably you're taking a lump sum of cash out on retirement so can stay invested for the long-term with the rest.

                        Comment


                          Forgot the wife and eldest kid were out tomorrow and booked Bloom for everyone. Given just myself and the son are going, I have a spare adult + one child under 16 ticket, if anyone wants one or both. Free obv.
                          "We're not f*cking Burundi" - Big Phil

                          Comment


                            Originally posted by ComradeCollie View Post
                            How long before they reveal that Biden's legs were provided by Boston Dynamics?

                            This is why I was skeptical of Raoul's assessment of Biden's strategic brilliance around the state of the union. Maybe he's team is on fire but I doubt Biden has much input.

                            Comment


                              Originally posted by Denny Crane View Post

                              This is why I was skeptical of Raoul's assessment of Biden's strategic brilliance around the state of the union. Maybe he's team is on fire but I doubt Biden has much input.
                              Just got the debt limit resolved without too much kerfuffle (and added bonus of continued GOP infighting over same).
                              Weapons, including imminently NATO fighters, continue to flow to Ukraine ahead of their big push.
                              Inflation sharply down.

                              He's doing ok.
                              "We are not Europeans. Those people on the continent are freaks."

                              Comment


                                Originally posted by Denny Crane View Post

                                This is why I was skeptical of Raoul's assessment of Biden's strategic brilliance around the state of the union. Maybe he's team is on fire but I doubt Biden has much input.
                                Because he fell ? Why is anyone over 70 a president then . Isnt 65 the retirement age for folk ?

                                Comment


                                  Denny obv interpreted Logan's Run as a valuable perspective on how to handle the elderly. Its why strew always makes sure he is accompanied whenever he is around the man.
                                  "We're not f*cking Burundi" - Big Phil

                                  Comment


                                    Most 80 year olds i know wouldn’t have been able to get up again after that type of fall.

                                    Maybe that should be the story rather than he’s past it cause he tripped.

                                    Comment


                                      Originally posted by Solksjaer! View Post

                                      Because he fell ? Why is anyone over 70 a president then . Isnt 65 the retirement age for folk ?
                                      There's a video of him nearly every week where he looks infirm. And the campaign hasn't even started.

                                      Comment


                                        Originally posted by Denny Crane View Post

                                        There's a video of him nearly every week where he looks infirm. And the campaign hasn't even started.
                                        FDR was infirm for his entire presidency.
                                        "We are not Europeans. Those people on the continent are freaks."

                                        Comment


                                          Originally posted by Raoul Duke III View Post

                                          FDR was infirm for his entire presidency.
                                          FDR was crippled, not infirmed.
                                          No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity, but I know none, therefore am no beast.

                                          Comment


                                            Originally posted by Hitchhiker's Guide To... View Post

                                            Can't actually see the annual management charges anywhere on the website. That seems dodgy, no? The ETF mantra makes sense for developed markets, I think active management makes sense for markets with more opaque information - like some developing markets. Active management is essentially paying for information gathering, and hoping the amount paid is less than the benefit of the information. There's no point paying for information gathering in developed markets where the available information is already fully incorporated in stock markets. But that's not the case in all markets.
                                            That is dodgy, I also think you are paying fees twice, once to JPM and once to some Dublin based Investment bankers, who are "managing" the investment. Seems like a pretty cushy job!

                                            ​​​​​​​Also the top holding are just the largest companies by market cap, TSCM etc, i doubt there is much difference between that and something like the IShares developing markets ETF, except you are paying huge fees.

                                            It's possible that developing markets have less perfect markets, but it's very unlikely that the benefits of active management are going to be available to you through a gigantic managed fund offered to anyone. I doubt you have JPMs best and brightest out working on deals not available to anyone else, they are just roughly tracking the index, and will underperform roughly by the amount of their fees.

                                            ​​​​​​​

                                            Comment


                                              Apparently Gerald Ford (possibly the most athletically gifted President) used to trip all the time too.

                                              And he lost the next election. So maybe there is presidential power-tripping precedent.
                                              (Let's see AI come up with a sentence like that )
                                              "We are not Europeans. Those people on the continent are freaks."

                                              Comment


                                                Backed Frankie to double up in the Group 1s today, the game is afoot.
                                                "We are not Europeans. Those people on the continent are freaks."

                                                Comment


                                                  Originally posted by limpwhacker View Post
                                                  There may or may not be a large horses head on the gate post.
                                                  Don't know if this was posted here recently or not but this post reminded me of it - https://www.myhome.ie/residential/br...o-cork/4707197

                                                  Comment


                                                    I'd be too lazy to live in a house that big, I don't want a workout popping into the kitchen.

                                                    Comment


                                                      Originally posted by Raoul Duke III View Post
                                                      Backed Frankie to double up in the Group 1s today, the game is afoot.
                                                      As seen in the multi sports comp I've been on Arrest over the winter. No 2 prospective son in law knows people closely involved in the breeding of it and was told to lump on for the derby last Autumn. I followed in on the basis that if it turned out to be Frankie's ride it would go off ridic short and that I could guarantee a nice profit. Now that we are here I'm mostly sick about how little I had on it so will leave it run.
                                                      Turning millions into thousands

                                                      Comment


                                                        Originally posted by Raoul Duke III View Post
                                                        Backed Frankie to double up in the Group 1s today, the game is afoot.
                                                        That'll do, that'll do.
                                                        "We are not Europeans. Those people on the continent are freaks."

                                                        Comment


                                                          Originally posted by Raoul Duke III View Post

                                                          That'll do, that'll do.
                                                          Frankie factor will see Arrest go off silly short tomorrow, will probably go fav on the back of that.
                                                          Turning millions into thousands

                                                          Comment


                                                            Originally posted by Strewelpeter View Post
                                                            Frankie factor will see Arrest go off silly short tomorrow, will probably go fav on the back of that.
                                                            Yeah, I was thinking of doing the treble but held back as I think it's a ridic open Derby this year.
                                                            "We are not Europeans. Those people on the continent are freaks."

                                                            Comment


                                                              Anyone use the AI Dj on Spotify ?

                                                              Comment


                                                                Did I mention th....Oh, never mind.

                                                                Photo on 02-06-2023 at 18.21 #2.jpg

                                                                Comment


                                                                  Originally posted by Strewelpeter View Post
                                                                  Frankie factor will see Arrest go off silly short tomorrow, will probably go fav on the back of that.
                                                                  Hope he wins, on him @ 16 for SPOTY

                                                                  Comment


                                                                    Thats Springsteen fckd for the presidency.

                                                                    You do not have permission to view this gallery.
                                                                    This gallery has 1 photos.

                                                                    Comment


                                                                      Originally posted by Gimmeabreak
                                                                      I think it is very unlikely that the Derby will go ahead tomorrow because of this Animal Rising crew. The talk of what they have planned to disrupt it will bring the entire day to a standstill I'd expect.
                                                                      Why is it being run at 1.30, related to the above?
                                                                      "We are not Europeans. Those people on the continent are freaks."

                                                                      Comment


                                                                        You should probably check your pension to see how exposed it is to insurance companies in the US - really well written article.president weekend at Bernie’s better pray for a quiet hurricane/wildfire season

                                                                        There is a huge financial incentive to have the most clear-eyed possible understanding of reality. Wishful thinking or misguided ideology will do nothing except lose an insurance company money.

                                                                        Because of this, insurance can tell you things about reality. It resembles global investment firms in this: The people running them may be greedy, and the clients may be evil, but the business is all about understanding the true and unvarnished state of the world in order to manage risk in order to protect wealth, and therefore these firms do their very best to operate according to what is true, whereas politicians, for example, often do their very best to lie. This is why every leftist and revolutionary should read the Wall Street Journal. There are far fewer lies when money is involved.

                                                                        The insurance industry is going to serve a very useful role in the climate apocalypse. It is going to be the tip of the spear that punches through all of the bullshit of climate denialism once and for all. Indeed, the process is very much underway already. Politicians and oil lobbyists can lie all they want, but their homeowners insurance rates are going up.
                                                                        Watching this process unfold is going to expose the hidden bedrock of many people’s belief systems in a rather violent way. That bedrock, in most cases, will not be “socialism” or “capitalism” but rather “whatever is good for me, personally, I don’t care what it costs, please god save me.” We are well on the road to the inevitable political crisis that will be sparked by insurance. State Farm just stopped selling home insurance in California, due to wildfire and other climate-driven risks. Coastal states in the path of hurricanes have seen tons of insurers pull out altogether in recent years, and the ones left are handing down eye-watering premium increases to homeowners. Florida property insurance rates are rising 40% in a single year(!). In Louisiana, it was even worse—the state insurance of last resort bumped its rates 63% this year.
                                                                        Will you ever fuck off with that shite... you are easily one of the worst posters on here for this-Pokerhand

                                                                        Comment


                                                                          Originally posted by zuutroy View Post
                                                                          Did I mention th....Oh, never mind.

                                                                          Photo on 02-06-2023 at 18.21 #2.jpg
                                                                          Oh... is this the one where Joel Robuchon makes an appearance. Do let us know how it was please?

                                                                          Enjoy!

                                                                          Comment


                                                                            Originally posted by BennyHiFi

                                                                            MyHome.ie eh? I haven't really heard about them for many's the year. Even when I was looking to buy a new gaff a few years ago I don't think we ever really looked on there.

                                                                            I remember 25-odd years ago when they started I wrote some copy for the website and some pre-SEO explainer stuff about what to look out for when buying property cos a guy I had worked with previously was helping build the website and recommended me.

                                                                            They were on Aungier St., and I lived round the corner at the time. Handy auld number. Owned by the Irish times IIRC, or maybe bought by them a year or two later, maybe early 00s?

                                                                            Anyone bought a gaff off of MyHome.ie?

                                                                            When I was at the Indo about 10 years ago I recall we were working on a property portal project (I know ) and remember being in the pub with Daft.ie employee telling me how they were petrified about a new entrant into the market. I had to keep my powder dry - in the end the project came to naught but Daft seems to have gotten a pretty easy ride of it since then mind you.
                                                                            Irish Times own it so I saw my house on the their website and then on My Home.
                                                                            People tend to just stick the ads up on every site so the competition hasn't seemed to matter much.

                                                                            Comment


                                                                              I always wondered if there's an inefficiency there. Less savvy people might only list a house on myhome or their local agent's site, and fewer people would see it versus a house on daft.

                                                                              Comment


                                                                                Originally posted by Raoul Duke III View Post

                                                                                Why is it being run at 1.30, related to the above?
                                                                                Might be because of the rail strikes planned for the day

                                                                                Comment


                                                                                  Originally posted by Raoul Duke III View Post

                                                                                  FDR was infirm for his entire presidency.
                                                                                  Are you suggesting we start crippling Presidents Mr Burns style?

                                                                                  Comment


                                                                                    The last of about ten different end-of-school events this evening. Good god they're exhausting. So far we've watched all manner of hapless performances across all manner of sporting and personal endeavours. Tonight was a bizarre hour spent listening to a play by Moliere, which really left many many things to be desired. The winning event was probably the judo - surprisingly entertaining watching little kids chuck each other around. But jesus the drama events have been brutal - there's a lot gained from the RADA fellowship that your average kid just doesn't have a proper grasp of.
                                                                                    "We're not f*cking Burundi" - Big Phil

                                                                                    Comment


                                                                                      Originally posted by Raoul Duke III View Post

                                                                                      you should be on the highest risk plan up to retirement - and after it too
                                                                                      Our company plan's advisor said the same thing. His take was you want it to keep growing or at least matching inflation. After retirement he said you're essentially cashing out and sticking it in the mattress on a super low risk strategy.

                                                                                      He also had some other points on it. We're living too long in retirement now. So you need your pot to go along for the ride. On that basis he was recommending a fund that was high risk. I believe it's passive and tracks the s&p top 100 or something like that.

                                                                                      Historically it's the only one with consistently positive return in my options. My old pot from a previous job had a noticeable dip last year on a moderate risk fund. Otherwise it was modest positive returns for the few years I had built up.

                                                                                      Comment


                                                                                        Originally posted by Denny Crane View Post

                                                                                        Are you suggesting we start crippling Presidents Mr Burns style?
                                                                                        Might stop them chasing interns.
                                                                                        "We are not Europeans. Those people on the continent are freaks."

                                                                                        Comment


                                                                                          Didn't stop JFK

                                                                                          Comment


                                                                                            Originally posted by Hitchhiker's Guide To... View Post
                                                                                            The last of about ten different end-of-school events this evening. Good god they're exhausting. So far we've watched all manner of hapless performances across all manner of sporting and personal endeavours. Tonight was a bizarre hour spent listening to a play by Moliere, which really left many many things to be desired. The winning event was probably the judo - surprisingly entertaining watching little kids chuck each other around. But jesus the drama events have been brutal - there's a lot gained from the RADA fellowship that your average kid just doesn't have a proper grasp of.
                                                                                            I see you know your judo well.

                                                                                            Comment


                                                                                              Originally posted by Denny Crane View Post
                                                                                              Didn't stop JFK
                                                                                              Or FDR come to think of it.

                                                                                              An upper age limit? After all, they have a lower one.
                                                                                              "We are not Europeans. Those people on the continent are freaks."

                                                                                              Comment


                                                                                                Interesting article on the E-car revolution..well to me anyway, admittedly as somebody who doesn't drive and has lived in households which have been car-less for over 75% of my life that doesn't mean much.

                                                                                                Written by none other than Rowan Atkinson who I was mostly surprised to read is actually a bit of a boffin when it comes to these things.
                                                                                                SPOILER

                                                                                                Electric motoring is, in theory, a subject about which I should know something. My first university degree was in electrical and electronic engineering, with a subsequent master’s in control systems. Combine this, perhaps surprising, academic pathway with a lifelong passion for the motorcar, and you can see why I was drawn into an early adoption of electric vehicles. I bought my first electric hybrid 18 years ago and my first pure electric car nine years ago and (notwithstanding our poor electric charging infrastructure) have enjoyed my time with both very much. Electric vehicles may be a bit soulless, but they’re wonderful mechanisms: fast, quiet and, until recently, very cheap to run. But increasingly, I feel a little duped. When you start to drill into the facts, electric motoring doesn’t seem to be quite the environmental panacea it is claimed to be.

                                                                                                As you may know, the government has proposed a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030. The problem with the initiative is that it seems to be based on conclusions drawn from only one part of a car’s operating life: what comes out of the exhaust pipe. Electric cars, of course, have zero exhaust emissions, which is a welcome development, particularly in respect of the air quality in city centres. But if you zoom out a bit and look at a bigger picture that includes the car’s manufacture, the situation is very different. In advance of the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow in 2021, Volvo released figures claiming that greenhouse gas emissions during production of an electric car are 70% higher than when manufacturing a petrol one. How so? The problem lies with the lithium-ion batteries fitted currently to nearly all electric vehicles: they’re absurdly heavy, many rare earth metals and huge amounts of energy are required to make them, and they only last about 10 years. It seems a perverse choice of hardware with which to lead the automobile’s fight against the climate crisis.

                                                                                                Unsurprisingly, a lot of effort is going into finding something better. New, so-called solid-state batteries are being developed that should charge more quickly and could be about a third of the weight of the current ones – but they are years away from being on sale, by which time, of course, we will have made millions of overweightelectric cars with rapidly obsolescing batteries. Hydrogen is emerging as an interesting alternative fuel, even though we are slow in developing a truly “green” way of manufacturing it. It can be used in one of two ways. It can power a hydrogen fuel cell (essentially, a kind of battery); the car manufacturer Toyota has poured a lot of money into the development of these. Such a system weighs half of an equivalent lithium-ion battery and a car can be refuelled with hydrogen at a filling station as fast as with petrol.

                                                                                                If the lithium-ion battery is an imperfect device for electric cars, it’s a complete non-starter for trucks because of its weight; for such vehicles hydrogen can be injected directly into a new kind of piston engine. JCB, the company that makes yellow diggers, has made huge strides with hydrogen engines and hopes to put them into production in the next couple of years. If hydrogen wins the race to power trucks – and as a result every filling station stocks it – it could be a popular and accessible choice for cars.

                                                                                                But let’s zoom out even further and consider the whole life cycle of an automobile. The biggest problem we need to address in society’s relationship with the car is the “fast fashion” sales culture that has been the commercial template of the car industry for decades. Currently, on average we keep our new cars for only three years before selling them on, driven mainly by the ubiquitous three-year leasing model. This seems an outrageously profligate use of the world’s natural resources when you consider what great condition a three-year-old car is in. When I was a child, any car that was five years old was a bucket of rust and halfway through the gate of the scrapyard. Not any longer. You can now make a car for £15,000 that, with tender loving care, will last for 30 years. It’s sobering to think that if the first owners of new cars just kept them for five years, on average, instead of the current three, then car production and the CO2 emissions associated with it, would be vastly reduced. Yet we’d be enjoying the same mobility, just driving slightly older cars.

                                                                                                We need also to acknowledge what a great asset we have in the cars that currently exist (there are nearly 1.5bn of them worldwide). In terms of manufacture, these cars have paid their environmental dues and, although it is sensible to reduce our reliance on them, it would seem right to look carefully at ways of retaining them while lowering their polluting effect. Fairly obviously, we could use them less. As an environmentalist once said to me, if you really need a car, buy an old one and use it as little as possible. A sensible thing to do would be to speed up the development of synthetic fuel, which is already being used in motor racing; it’s a product based on two simple notions: one, the environmental problem with a petrol engine is the petrol, not the engine and, two, there’s nothing in a barrel of oil that can’t be replicated by other means. Formula One is going to use synthetic fuel from 2026. There are many interpretations of the idea but the German car company Porsche is developing a fuel in Chile using wind to power a process whose main ingredients are water and carbon dioxide. With more development, it should be usable in all petrol-engine cars, rendering their use virtually CO2-neutral.

                                                                                                Increasingly, I’m feeling that our honeymoon with electric cars is coming to an end, and that’s no bad thing: we’re realising that a wider range of options need to be explored if we’re going to properly address the very serious environmental problems that our use of the motor car has created. We should keep developing hydrogen, as well as synthetic fuels to save the scrapping of older cars which still have so much to give, while simultaneously promoting a quite different business model for the car industry, in which we keep our new vehicles for longer, acknowledging their amazing but overlooked longevity.

                                                                                                Friends with an environmental conscience often ask me, as a car person, whether they should buy an electric car. I tend to say that if their car is an old diesel and they do a lot of city centre motoring, they should consider a change. But otherwise, hold fire for now. Electric propulsion will be of real, global environmental benefit one day, but that day has yet to dawn.
                                                                                                Join the IPB Fantasy Football League 19/20

                                                                                                http://www.irishpokerboards.com/foru...88#post1104188

                                                                                                Comment


                                                                                                  Originally posted by Iago View Post
                                                                                                  Interesting article on the E-car revolution..well to me anyway, admittedly as somebody who doesn't drive and has lived in households which have been car-less for over 75% of my life that doesn't mean much.

                                                                                                  Written by none other than Rowan Atkinson who I was mostly surprised to read is actually a bit of a boffin when it comes to these things.
                                                                                                  SPOILER

                                                                                                  Electric motoring is, in theory, a subject about which I should know something. My first university degree was in electrical and electronic engineering, with a subsequent master’s in control systems. Combine this, perhaps surprising, academic pathway with a lifelong passion for the motorcar, and you can see why I was drawn into an early adoption of electric vehicles. I bought my first electric hybrid 18 years ago and my first pure electric car nine years ago and (notwithstanding our poor electric charging infrastructure) have enjoyed my time with both very much. Electric vehicles may be a bit soulless, but they’re wonderful mechanisms: fast, quiet and, until recently, very cheap to run. But increasingly, I feel a little duped. When you start to drill into the facts, electric motoring doesn’t seem to be quite the environmental panacea it is claimed to be.

                                                                                                  As you may know, the government has proposed a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030. The problem with the initiative is that it seems to be based on conclusions drawn from only one part of a car’s operating life: what comes out of the exhaust pipe. Electric cars, of course, have zero exhaust emissions, which is a welcome development, particularly in respect of the air quality in city centres. But if you zoom out a bit and look at a bigger picture that includes the car’s manufacture, the situation is very different. In advance of the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow in 2021, Volvo released figures claiming that greenhouse gas emissions during production of an electric car are 70% higher than when manufacturing a petrol one. How so? The problem lies with the lithium-ion batteries fitted currently to nearly all electric vehicles: they’re absurdly heavy, many rare earth metals and huge amounts of energy are required to make them, and they only last about 10 years. It seems a perverse choice of hardware with which to lead the automobile’s fight against the climate crisis.

                                                                                                  Unsurprisingly, a lot of effort is going into finding something better. New, so-called solid-state batteries are being developed that should charge more quickly and could be about a third of the weight of the current ones – but they are years away from being on sale, by which time, of course, we will have made millions of overweightelectric cars with rapidly obsolescing batteries. Hydrogen is emerging as an interesting alternative fuel, even though we are slow in developing a truly “green” way of manufacturing it. It can be used in one of two ways. It can power a hydrogen fuel cell (essentially, a kind of battery); the car manufacturer Toyota has poured a lot of money into the development of these. Such a system weighs half of an equivalent lithium-ion battery and a car can be refuelled with hydrogen at a filling station as fast as with petrol.

                                                                                                  If the lithium-ion battery is an imperfect device for electric cars, it’s a complete non-starter for trucks because of its weight; for such vehicles hydrogen can be injected directly into a new kind of piston engine. JCB, the company that makes yellow diggers, has made huge strides with hydrogen engines and hopes to put them into production in the next couple of years. If hydrogen wins the race to power trucks – and as a result every filling station stocks it – it could be a popular and accessible choice for cars.

                                                                                                  But let’s zoom out even further and consider the whole life cycle of an automobile. The biggest problem we need to address in society’s relationship with the car is the “fast fashion” sales culture that has been the commercial template of the car industry for decades. Currently, on average we keep our new cars for only three years before selling them on, driven mainly by the ubiquitous three-year leasing model. This seems an outrageously profligate use of the world’s natural resources when you consider what great condition a three-year-old car is in. When I was a child, any car that was five years old was a bucket of rust and halfway through the gate of the scrapyard. Not any longer. You can now make a car for £15,000 that, with tender loving care, will last for 30 years. It’s sobering to think that if the first owners of new cars just kept them for five years, on average, instead of the current three, then car production and the CO2 emissions associated with it, would be vastly reduced. Yet we’d be enjoying the same mobility, just driving slightly older cars.

                                                                                                  We need also to acknowledge what a great asset we have in the cars that currently exist (there are nearly 1.5bn of them worldwide). In terms of manufacture, these cars have paid their environmental dues and, although it is sensible to reduce our reliance on them, it would seem right to look carefully at ways of retaining them while lowering their polluting effect. Fairly obviously, we could use them less. As an environmentalist once said to me, if you really need a car, buy an old one and use it as little as possible. A sensible thing to do would be to speed up the development of synthetic fuel, which is already being used in motor racing; it’s a product based on two simple notions: one, the environmental problem with a petrol engine is the petrol, not the engine and, two, there’s nothing in a barrel of oil that can’t be replicated by other means. Formula One is going to use synthetic fuel from 2026. There are many interpretations of the idea but the German car company Porsche is developing a fuel in Chile using wind to power a process whose main ingredients are water and carbon dioxide. With more development, it should be usable in all petrol-engine cars, rendering their use virtually CO2-neutral.

                                                                                                  Increasingly, I’m feeling that our honeymoon with electric cars is coming to an end, and that’s no bad thing: we’re realising that a wider range of options need to be explored if we’re going to properly address the very serious environmental problems that our use of the motor car has created. We should keep developing hydrogen, as well as synthetic fuels to save the scrapping of older cars which still have so much to give, while simultaneously promoting a quite different business model for the car industry, in which we keep our new vehicles for longer, acknowledging their amazing but overlooked longevity.

                                                                                                  Friends with an environmental conscience often ask me, as a car person, whether they should buy an electric car. I tend to say that if their car is an old diesel and they do a lot of city centre motoring, they should consider a change. But otherwise, hold fire for now. Electric propulsion will be of real, global environmental benefit one day, but that day has yet to dawn.
                                                                                                  It seems like hydrogen will be the eventual solution, mainly due to the faster charging possibilities and the fact that it can be produced from the coming global excess of electrical power generation and easily transported, unlike electricity.

                                                                                                  Theres a fair few logical flaws in his arguments:
                                                                                                  - the idea that people only keep new cars for five years - but these electrical cars still keep on in circulation in the secondary market
                                                                                                  - he doesn't actually compare the excess of carbon on electrical car production with the excess of carbon on petrol cars using petrol - this is the critical flaw and surely was deliberate as its so obvious

                                                                                                  See this chart here which compares full carbon emissions across car life cycle: https://www.transportenvironment.org...electric-cars/. Electric cars do indeed require more carbon to produce - on average 8.6 tonnes for electric cars vs 5.4 tonnes to produce a petrol car. But at say 100km travelled the petrol car has emitted 13.2 tonnes of emissions total while the petrol car has emitted 27.7 tonnes. At 200km its over three times the emissions for a petrol car.

                                                                                                  The other issue - petrol car's emissions are largely fixed within the bounds of minor improvements, while electric car emissions are constantly falling, primarily due to a more renewable electric mix going into cars. So electric cars will get even better for the foreseeable future.

                                                                                                  None of the above changes the fundamental point that we need to get many cars off the road, and electric cars are only useful within the category of cars, but that the category of cars for transport needs to fall.
                                                                                                  "We're not f*cking Burundi" - Big Phil

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                                                                                                    Originally posted by coillcam View Post

                                                                                                    Our company plan's advisor said the same thing. His take was you want it to keep growing or at least matching inflation. After retirement he said you're essentially cashing out and sticking it in the mattress on a super low risk strategy.

                                                                                                    He also had some other points on it. We're living too long in retirement now. So you need your pot to go along for the ride. On that basis he was recommending a fund that was high risk. I believe it's passive and tracks the s&p top 100 or something like that.

                                                                                                    Historically it's the only one with consistently positive return in my options. My old pot from a previous job had a noticeable dip last year on a moderate risk fund. Otherwise it was modest positive returns for the few years I had built up.
                                                                                                    surely not? If you invest your pension in the S&P100 then 30% of your future is reliant on the fate of just four stocks - Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Nvidia. Thats a mad level of underdiversification.
                                                                                                    "We're not f*cking Burundi" - Big Phil

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                                                                                                      Can't edit that post for some reason - those are the weights for the S&P500 - its even worse for the S&P100 - 30% of your future is reliant on the fate of just four tech stocks - Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia. Its almost criminal financial advice to suggest your pension should be invested in that. You also have the big exposure to the US dollar on top of that.
                                                                                                      "We're not f*cking Burundi" - Big Phil

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                                                                                                        Nice to see CC in person yesterday when he picked up his Soft Cell tix, although he seemed rather discombobulated by the amount of licking he received.
                                                                                                        "We are not Europeans. Those people on the continent are freaks."

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                                                                                                          Originally posted by Raoul Duke III View Post
                                                                                                          Nice to see CC in person yesterday when he picked up his Soft Cell tix, although he seemed rather discombobulated by the amount of licking he received.
                                                                                                          with a bit of a tan, he does look like a solero, in fairness
                                                                                                          "We're not f*cking Burundi" - Big Phil

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                                                                                                            Late to this but on the ice pop thing, Magums are far too big.

                                                                                                            They should be half that size.

                                                                                                            Lidl's mini knock off ones are perfect.
                                                                                                            I hold silver in tit for tat, and I love you for that

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                                                                                                              Dominos may fail at pizza, but they have these icecream cookies that are phenomenal. Two slightly-firm cookies, with Hagen Daaz icecream sandwiched in the middle. #LifeProTip
                                                                                                              "We're not f*cking Burundi" - Big Phil

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                                                                                                                Originally posted by Hitchhiker's Guide To... View Post

                                                                                                                SPOILER
                                                                                                                It seems like hydrogen will be the eventual solution, mainly due to the faster charging possibilities and the fact that it can be produced from the coming global excess of electrical power generation and easily transported, unlike electricity.

                                                                                                                Theres a fair few logical flaws in his arguments:
                                                                                                                - the idea that people only keep new cars for five years - but these electrical cars still keep on in circulation in the secondary market
                                                                                                                - he doesn't actually compare the excess of carbon on electrical car production with the excess of carbon on petrol cars using petrol - this is the critical flaw and surely was deliberate as its so obvious

                                                                                                                See this chart here which compares full carbon emissions across car life cycle: https://www.transportenvironment.org...electric-cars/. Electric cars do indeed require more carbon to produce - on average 8.6 tonnes for electric cars vs 5.4 tonnes to produce a petrol car. But at say 100km travelled the petrol car has emitted 13.2 tonnes of emissions total while the petrol car has emitted 27.7 tonnes. At 200km its over three times the emissions for a petrol car.

                                                                                                                The other issue - petrol car's emissions are largely fixed within the bounds of minor improvements, while electric car emissions are constantly falling, primarily due to a more renewable electric mix going into cars. So electric cars will get even better for the foreseeable future.

                                                                                                                None of the above changes the fundamental point that we need to get many cars off the road, and electric cars are only useful within the category of cars, but that the category of cars for transport needs to fall.
                                                                                                                The trouble with hydrogen is safety. It is highly, highly explosive, so any collision involving a hydrogen vehicle is potentially deadly. Absolutely nobody is going to want to drive around sitting on the equivalent of a pile of TNT. Hydrogen is however the best solution for airplanes, where any collision is already highly lethal so it doesn't matter if the plane explodes after it crashes.

                                                                                                                Also the 10 year battery life mentioned above is extremely questionable, probably driven by manufacturers who want their customers to upgrade earlier than they are. Most hybrid and electric early adopters are seeing much better than expected longevity from their batteries, at least the ones that were made ~15 years ago anyway. Also those batteries can be repurposed as domestic storage after they've been used for cars, because the main thing that diminishes is their ability to deliver fast acceleration. They are still perfectly serviceable as storage to supplement the grid for many years after that. So the carbon footprint of these batteries is probably much lower than many would like to suggest.

                                                                                                                There's a huge amount of unnecessary pessimism out there in regards to climate issues imo. It'll be grand.
                                                                                                                "I can’t find anyone who agrees with what I write or think these days, so I guess I must be getting closer to the truth." - Hunter S. Thompson

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                                                                                                                  It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day

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                                                                                                                    Disappointed not to see cup final 'its a knockout ' today . Think Utd would have taken City in the custard pie round

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                                                                                                                      Backed Artistic Star at 20s in the Derby with some of yesterday's ill-gotten gains. Although be very happy if either of John Murphy's or Jessie's wins too.

                                                                                                                      Running it at 1.30 feels all kinds of wrong.
                                                                                                                      "We are not Europeans. Those people on the continent are freaks."

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                                                                                                                        Ireland actually battling on well at Lords, even though defeat is guaranteed. Nice to see.
                                                                                                                        "We are not Europeans. Those people on the continent are freaks."

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                                                                                                                          Originally posted by Hitchhiker's Guide To... View Post
                                                                                                                          Can't edit that post for some reason - those are the weights for the S&P500 - its even worse for the S&P100 - 30% of your future is reliant on the fate of just four tech stocks - Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia. Its almost criminal financial advice to suggest your pension should be invested in that. You also have the big exposure to the US dollar on top of that.
                                                                                                                          36% of your pension fund that you posted yesterday, is in the top ten stocks, including the Chinese Bank Construction Corp, the Indian version of that, and two different Samsung entities! The biggest holding is TSMC, so combined with the huge Chinese exposure, you are exposed to Chineses further growth, and their not invading Taiwan. If they do decide to, you can write most of that down to 0.

                                                                                                                          https://markets.ft.com/data/funds/te...0431992006:USD

                                                                                                                          I'd imagine coillcam is misremembering, and it's, the S&P500, as it's quite hard to invest in the S&P 100, the 500 is much more likely.

                                                                                                                          The last ten years of the Chinese S&P 500 are almost flat - https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/in...-500/#overview

                                                                                                                          Take that in ten years of extraordinary Chinese GDP growth, and the stock market has returned about 3.83% Annualized

                                                                                                                          Compare that to the US S&P 500, which has returned around 14% (typically around 11%)


                                                                                                                          It's pretty misleading to say your fate relies on four tech stocks; that's not how indices work. It's famously hard to beat the S&P500; even Warren Buffet, the world's most famous investor, has now underperformed the index over the last 20 years.


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