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That one's been around for a while. Doesn't make it any less true.

I'm a little surprised at 1820's spike in the "unprecedented" graph. Whenever I've read or heard the use in a historical context it has been "without precedent", not "unprecedented".

You may of heard of the use of the word 'precedent', meaning "thing or person that goes before another". Specifically in law, "a judicial decision which serves as a rule for future determinations in similar or analogous cases". Another example would be in the description of the Wright Brothers' 1903 flight. When that flight took place there was no precedent they could rely on to suggest that the combination of factors that lead to the success of that flight would be successful. Therefore the succes of that flight was unprecedented. To figure out what 'unprecedented' means you have to have a look at its etymology. early 15c., preceden, "lead the way; occur or exist before, go before in order of time," from Old French preceder and directly from Latin praecedere "to go before," from prae "before" (see pre-) + cedere "to go". From an examination of the frequency of use of the terms 'precedent' and 'unprecedented' you can agree that it has become a buzzword. Buzzword: also buzz word, 1946, from buzz (n.) + word (n.). Noted as Harvard student slang for the key words in a lecture or reading. Note its level of useage:

Sensible but Netanyahu is Ignoring Trumps orders.It's all or nothing with him. Nev

I worked on that project in the 1990s. It takes a while to get mines going.

The Supreme court of the USA blocked Trump's efforts to overturn the automatic citizenship rights to people born in the USA, so he has signed an executive order banning pregnant women entering the USA and therefore giving birth there.

Iran has stated that it will not discuss the Strait of Hormuz while Trump is in office.

Unique is a word like that. But I'm not sure about unprecedented. Killed can be almost Killed where you are almost dead. with Camouflage you can be almost invisible. . Nev

Maybe not the correct thread for this, but it's regarding the word 'unprecedented' which has become a very overused buzzword these days. I always thought the word was fairly straight forward, eg: something is either unprecedented or it's not unprecedented (in another term - precedented). But not so, the BBC has taken to using the term 'almost unprecedented'. The way I interpret it, 'almost unprecedented' is precedented, same thing.

Just checked on Kogan Creek water consumption. Remember, it is air cooled. Its website reports 0.08 megalitres per GWh of generation. It is a single turbine 700Mw generator. 0.08 x .7 x 24 = 1.344 Megalitres per DAY. I seem to recall Tarong PS (Kingaroy) was using around 85 megalitres per day. Water is a real problem for all steam generators.

Back to climate change. Whilst refreshing my memory about water cooling in power stations, I came across this little gem.... "water temperature is directly correlated with air temperature, with recent studies such as a 2024 research paper by Jiang Sun et al. showing a clear warming trend, as demonstrated for central Europe’s Oder (Odra) river basin. The warming rate differs per location, varying from 0.229°C to 0.720°C per decade," It seems that although climate change is only happening in little numbers of degrees, it matters. The above quote is in relation to power stations having to throttle their outputs during hot days, due to cooling water temperatures rising. Rounding their numbers to 0.5 degrees per decade, that is an alarming rate of temperature rise. It's not much of a problem for wind turbines.

One problem with coal/gas/nuclear power stations is the fact that steam is not an efficient medium. Newer methods are avoiding steam. Yes, we really do need to build large scale energy storage. My constant complaint is that modern grubmints are afraid to invest in infrastructure such as that.

Back when folks were worried about pollution and water shortages, US coal and nuclear power companies toyed with air cooling instead of water cooling. The use of air reduced the power station outputs. Especially during heat waves. The idea was largely ditched due to that loss of efficiency. Same here in Australia. Although, more recently, Kogan Creek thermal power station uses air cooling. Water is not plentiful out west.

'twas not a formal statistical analysis.. I didn#' have the baggage capacity for that and I would be heartbroken with every one I would hand to people that I did not know.. But, it was a side by side taste test. As the chocolate is shaped differently here, it was hardly a blind taste test - and yes, I could have flaked the chocolate to make it a blind taste test, but I thought given the statistical population deficiencies, it was not worth the effort. In fairness, SWMBO has insisted for the most part that our kids wouldn't eat junk.. they are partial to dark chocolate as a result, but yes, the one who went for the UK version was a younger member of my family, and has a penchant - like me - for junk food. And I do mean junk when I say it. He liked the first taste of the Aussie one better, the but the after taste left it a little worse in the end. I think the one that did not like either could not bring themself to admit the Aussie one was better.. although in fairness that person prefers another brand of consumer cheap chocolate, so I may be being unfair to that tester. Newsflash: After hauling two packets of BBQ shapes across the world, I found that in my first sojourn into Waitrose since being back, they now stock them.. and cheaper than Aus normal retail price. I am going to launch a campaign to have Chokitos stocked in every supermarket now.

Give working examples please. the Wars happening now affect Australia. They don't have to be IN Australia You are sounding sillier with each reply. .Nev

Clutching at straws? The issue is with Nuclear,in Europe needing water to cool. So does Coal but not as much.The Failure of Fukashima set japan back years in Lost Production and model updates. Nev.

Build by the ocean, develop dry cooling!

Maybe solar and battery's aren't as good as all they hype??

They are talking dry cooling thermal plants now if they are away from the sea. Little bit less efficient but who cares in a nuclear plant as the fuel is so cheap/MWh. Fossil fuels are unreliable because they have been demonised and maintenance is deferred. (maybe fairly) Not many wars happening in Australia.

France was one is the first to go nuclear and did a good Job of it. That was then. This is NOW. Water is in short supply in most parts of the world.. Anyone who thinks the world climate ISN'T changing is a smaller and smaller minority by the day. Fossil fuels are now unreliable and cause Wars Predictably. Nev

What do you grease Palms with? Nev

Looks like the water supply they want to use could be from the Lachlan River. Not a lot of water there.

Didn't mean to criticise. Just made my analysis of the data. I'm betting that Jerry used his family as his evaluation team.