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A Guessing Game
  • It's easy. W is a vowel in Welsh. It sounds similar to ö in German and it can be modified as ŵ to elongate the sound such as in the word dŵr which means water.

    Wrwgwai or Wcrain (for example) are the natural way to spell those countries using the Welsh alphabet. Its a highly phonetic language believe it or not.

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    Too many tourists?
  • There are parts of London which are hell to visit because they are overly popular with tourists. An example being borough market at lunch time, it's all tourists and you can't move. I don't begrudge anyone and I can happily just avoid it but it really makes me realise how hard it must be in the much smaller cities with higher ratios.

    My wife went to Venice recently with her mum and said that the service staff were predominantly South Asian, so I wonder how much of that 250k is immigrant population there to service the huge tourism industry.

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    Mommy, why is the Apple Pie so spicy?
  • My dad went for cumin instead of cinnamon for his apple crumble. Then he finished his whole bowl telling us it's fine. Everyone obviously left theirs.

    We've never let him live it down.

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    Renewables covered 95% of Portugal’s power needs last month
  • All true. A few problems facing increasing renewable penetration:

    Lack of grid capacity. The national grid operator (REN) has stated there is not enough capacity currently, or in the planned grid expansions, to meet the countries renewable targets.

    Rising opposition to projects. Many projects are facing strong local opposition, for example the the 1gw project in Santiago do Cacém which has seen strong resistance from local organisations set up to oppose it.

    Environmental protections. They are important and needed, but Portugal has very strong laws here and it is a big obstacle to renewable development.

    Cork trees. Cork trees are worshipped, its even difficult to clear sapplings that are of no value or importance. It makes large swathes of land uneconomical for renewable development.

    Despite the above, which (except for cork trees) aren't unique to portugal, the country is doing well. It will be interesting to see the stats in the coming dryer years, as you say.

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