cr1895

That isn’t however the reason it is designated a Royal company.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koninklijk

If Shell fully exits then their massive wind/hydrogen project probably won’t happen: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-shell-gasunie-hydrogen-id...

You can continue to use Facebook with the mobile website…the point of the parent comment was to just not use the app itself.

You should note well that the study you point out made no assessment of whether mask wearing reduced the risk of spread from the mask wearer to others, which is a key point of the utility of mask-wearing during this pandemic.

It is very deceptive for you to claim that this is the only trial of “masks and COVID” when you omit that nuance.

Zeynep Tufecki described this phenomenon in the Atlantic, going into its overdispersed nature of spreading and how most infections don’t result in a spread to others, but some circumstances become super-spreading events with an outsize impact:

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/09/k-overloo...

Masks work by trapping particles exhaled or inhaled.

Here’s a nice interactive graphic showing how masks block particles:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/10/30/science/wear-...

Unfortunately it’s not helpful to your situation, but these issues are handled much better in many countries. For example, in Netherlands there are statutory holidays (20 or so?) then many companies give additional days on top of that. 28+ isn’t uncommon.

Being absent due to illness has no bearing on holidays either…even if you’re sick in one of your holidays it doesn’t count against your holiday time. There’s no concept of a fixed number of sick days.

Oh, that’s nothing! Look up Baarle-Hertog and Baarle-Nassau on the Belgian-Dutch border.

During the beginning of the pandemic, it brought about some truly bizarre situations: https://www.thebulletin.be/coronavirus-store-dutch-border-ha...

Major banks in the Netherlands do.

An estimate of 78,000 turbines is truly a thought experiment, not a realistic solution. There does not exist manufacturing capacity or installation capacity to achieve this (not even remotely close). The offshore wind pipeline, globally, is orders of magnitude fewer WTGs, and procurement & installation pressure is already expected to be very tight in the coming decade.

This is made more difficult in the US due to the complexities of offshore wind installation imposed by the Jones Act.

It’s a neat concept. But it will never be realized.

But then having a nominal capacity of 8000kW from the 20mt system, you’d need maybe 1200 tonnes of the 20mt systems.

I’m not sure how that’s better or simpler. Sounds vastly more complex and expensive.

Residential wind power? Wind energy is something that greatly benefits from scale: it’s why the current and next generation of turbines have rotor diameters exceeding hundreds of meters. You’d probably be much better served by using solar panels.

> offshore wind farms have been proposed to protect the US from hurricanes

No, certainly not seriously.

Well, you can always sail around.

Aside from the large “Opinion” text above the title and the clear delineation of sections?

For offshore wind farms, typically only very long export cables are HVDC, or long interconnector cables. Inter-array and export cables up to around 100km or so are AC.

What sort of heightened security measures? I think nothing of the sort would hamper an Elfstedentocht.

The Vierdaagse is also a mass volunteer-driven event and it happens regularly.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Four_Days_Marc...

Perhaps you are not implying so, but Netherlands is not Scandinavia and is located a fair bit further south.

The billions of euros many of these oil majors are throwing behind renewable forms like solar, offshore wind, hydrogen, etc. would suggest that the idea this is a strategy to kill EVs is nonsensical.

That is true, but I don't think it has much to do with the tax. Credit card transaction fees have a big impact as well...it's why you often see a lower cash price for fuel.

You may like to read up on Orsted (formerly DONG). Formerly a major oil & coal energy producer, now one of the largest global players in green energy. It continues to be a remarkably successful transition.

>The main concern seems to be whether they can make the cultural switch in management as there are quite a few "old hands" in middle management that are quite attached to the fossil fuel sector that they grew up with.

Shell has recently made some very significant restructuring and reorganizing moves so I wonder how true this still is.

You can trivially find the sort of investments and projects Shell is working towards...they are heavily involved in offshore wind for electricity and green hydrogen. That they would be buying up EV charging in order to dismantle it can be dismissed outright.

https://www.shell.com/energy-and-innovation/new-energies.htm...

https://www.shell.nl/media/persberichten/2020-media-releases...

The next-gen turbines that are _actually_ going to be built in the coming years are still hugely impressive:

https://www.siemensgamesa.com/products-and-services/offshore...

I'd recommend reading Michael Pollan's "How to Change Your Mind" which covers the topic well. In short, "set and setting" is critically important.

https://michaelpollan.com/books/how-to-change-your-mind/

>In Czech Republic we have the time off accrued based on worked hours.

There's no distinction, at least not with the statutory holidays. You earn them as you earn your wages and there is no adjustment for illness.

>In some jobs workers are given 20 PTO days to use as sick or vacation as they please. In other jobs workers are give 10 vacation days and 10 sick days.

That may indeed be the case in the US. In the scenario I'm describing, you only have vacation days. If you are sick, then this is altogether separate from your vacation days. There is no calculation or concept of using your vacation days if you are ill, or calling in sick as some form of vacation when not actually sick...at least not structurally. In some countries, if you are sick on your vacation day you even get your vacation days back!

In what way is it better for the employee to have a fixed pool of days that illness can cut into, compared to having a fixed pool of days that is truly and only yours for vacation (while not sick!)?

Maybe from the employer's perspective, costs are lower. But fortunately these are settled matters of employment regulation in Europe, and workers' well-being has been a focus.

>have to pay for a doctors visit

Indeed it's not a perfect world...no one has to pay for this in Europe.

From what I understand-and perhaps it varies by state-it's just left to the benevolence of your employer whether your accrued vacation days are actually paid out to you or if they just disappear in the US if you for example leave a company or don't use all of them within a certain time.

It's kind of insane to me that they can just be taken away like that.

>vacation is a luxury, sick days are a necessity.

In many places (Europe, generally?), vacation days are earned. At least in the Netherlands if you were absent for weeks due to illness (for which there is no fixed pool of days), and decided not to take any vacation days, you'd either have some of your vacation days rolled over to the next year or they'd be paid out to you with salary and taxed.

It's not a luxury in the slightest. You'd have earned them just as you earned your wages.