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Hydroelectricity

 

Hydro-electricity is presently the largest contributor to renewable energy worldwide; in Australia and particularly in NSW.

 

Hydro-electricity also is more desirable than wind generation because of a higher capacity factor and ability to produce power on demand.

 

But hydro-electricity is resource constrained as it is difficult to build new dams in the developed countries that are presently heavy fossil fuel consumers.

Dams flood private property and/or National parks and have many self-interested and environmentally concerned opponents.  Hydro-electric schemes interfere with natural river flows and related wildlife, particularly when they involve extensive inundation.  It has become politically very difficult to construct new dams in Australia, even when the potential energy resource is significant. 

Nevertheless in developing countries like China, India and Vietnam there are large hydro-electricity resources that remain unexploited.

 

 

 

 

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Travel

South Korea & China

March 2016

 

 

South Korea

 

 

I hadn't written up our trip to South Korea (in March 2016) but Google Pictures gratuitously put an album together from my Cloud library so I was motivated to add a few words and put it up on my Website.  Normally I would use selected images to illustrate observations about a place visited.  This is the other way about, with a lot of images that I may not have otherwise chosen.  It requires you to go to the link below if you want to see pictures. You may find some of the images interesting and want to by-pass others quickly. Your choice. In addition to the album, Google generated a short movie in an 8mm style - complete with dust flecks. You can see this by clicking the last frame, at the bottom of the album.

A few days in Seoul were followed by travels around the country, helpfully illustrated in the album by Google generated maps: a picture is worth a thousand words; ending back in Seoul before spending a few days in China on the way home to OZ. 

Read more: South Korea & China

Fiction, Recollections & News

Dan Brown's 'Origin'

 

 

 

 

 

The other day I found myself killing time in Chatswood waiting for my car to be serviced. A long stay in a coffee shop seemed a good option but I would need something to read - not too heavy. In a bookshop I found the latest Dan Brown: Origin. Dan might not be le Carré but like Lee Child and Clive Cussler he's a fast and easy read.

Read more: Dan Brown's 'Origin'

Opinions and Philosophy

More nuclear medicine

 

 

 

As a follow-up to my radiation treatment for prostate cancer, that I reported here as: Medical fun and games, I recently underwent a PET scan, to check that all is well. 

When I first heard of them I imagined that a PET scan was a more generic all-encompassing version of a CAT scan - perhaps one involving dogs and rabbits; or even goldfish?

Read more: More nuclear medicine

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