Seen in the News

[Wendyf]

I'm not an RF engineer (as you know) but there is loads os confusing info out there...
Currently I am experimenting with this:

Here is Roger's effort that works:

There is an interesting article here:
SMETS2: Is there anybody there?
My efforts are still on-going, usually thwarted by the weather and not being allowed to get on the roof

[Stanley]

Fascinating and completely outside my pay scale.....
Meanwhile, in another part of the forest.... see THIS ongoing BBC report on the bridge collapse in Baltimore.
A major bridge in the US city of Baltimore has collapsed into the Patapsco River after a container ship crashed into it. The bridge snapped and plunged into the water at around 01:30 ET (05:30 GMT) along with vehicles and people. A huge search operation is under way for at least seven people, authorities say, while two people have been pulled from the water. The ship is now wedged into debris from the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which is 3km (1.6 miles) long and part of a major highway. Some construction workers were on the bridge at the time it collapsed, the city's mayor says, adding that the incident is "an unspeakable tragedy". Sonar has detected multiple vehicles underwater, where the temperature is around 8C (47F). There is no indication the crash was intentional but it is too early to determine what caused it, officials say. The port of Baltimore near the bridge is the largest in the US for specialised cargo
My only comment is "That's going to be expensive".

[Gloria]

Not only is it going to halt traffic over the river, but also the river traffic into the container port. It happened early morning their time, so that has to be a good thing, the bridge will not have been full of traffic.

[PanBiker]

I'm not an RF engineer (as you know) but there is loads os confusing info out there...
Currently I am experimenting with this:

Here is Roger's effort that works:

There is an interesting article here:
SMETS2: Is there anybody there?
My efforts are still on-going, usually thwarted by the weather and not being allowed to get on the roof

Excellent Colin and thanks for the link. My extra problem is that my meters are even dumber than yours as they are SMET1's. Octopus tell me that both my meters are working smart but they still estimate my gas!

[Tripps]

I didn't realise that some "smart" meters did not communuicate by mobile phone. I thought they all did.

The Google news fed to me daily, this morning contained an item about the "energy price cap" and the fact that the regulator was considering changing it. It was said one option was to move to a system where the amount charged could be varied by the time of day. I have always thought (and remain convinced) that this was the real aim of "smart" meters - not to look at your consumption and save the planet.

The whole system seems to me to be designed to deceive, or at very least confuse. My gas meter does not measure in the units I pay for it in - kWh - and has to be adjusted for calorific value then have a conversion factor applied to it.

I can now find no reference to that bit of news. I do however note in The Guardian Faulty Smart Meters which is very encouraging (to me at least). That means that differential pricing will not be able to be rolled out.

[Stanley]

I hope you are right David about not moving to differential charging although I suppose I'd be OK. I could use my leccy early in the morning!
This morning we get THIS piece of news which will not surprise anyone.
Public satisfaction with the NHS has dropped again, setting a new low recorded by the long-running British Social Attitudes survey. Just 24% said they were satisfied with the NHS in 2023, with waiting times and staff shortages the biggest concerns. That is five percentage points down on last year and a drop from the 2010 high of 70% satisfaction. The poll - the gold-standard measure of the public's view of the health service - has been running since 1983.
Remember 'Safe In Our Hands!'

[Stanley]

I can remember many years ago Arthur Mee (Publisher of the 'Children's Newspaper') tried to publish a 'good news' paper and it failed miserably.
See THIS for the news that grabs the attention these days.
Nearly one in five teachers in England has been hit by a pupil this year, a survey commissioned by the BBC says. One teacher told BBC News behaviour was a "never-ending battle". Another said spitting, swearing and chair-throwing were among the things happening often. A union says its members are reporting worsening violence and abuse from pupils since the Covid pandemic. The Department for Education (DfE) says it has invested £10m in behaviour hubs to support schools. Using the survey tool Teacher Tapp, BBC News asked up to 9,000 teachers in England in February and March a series of questions about their experiences with behaviour in the classroom. A greater proportion of primary and secondary teachers reported pupils fighting, pushing and shoving compared with two years ago.
Is this the root of behaviour like THIS?
A man is in a life-threatening condition after being stabbed on a moving train in front of horrified passengers in south-east London. Police say they are aware of social media footage showing a man being attacked near the carriage doors of a train travelling between Shortlands and Beckenham, towards London Victoria. There have been no arrests. Two men were seen fighting while entering a train at Shortlands station, just before 16:00 GMT, police added.
Or am I simply a hopelessly out of touch old fart?

[Big Kev]

Kex Gill to remain closed until the end of June, oh joy...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjq8pw507d8o

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report of the demand for police investigation of why the PO spent millions of taxpayer money on prosecutions when they knew that Horizon could be accessed by Fujitsu.
Former sub-postmasters and politicians have called for the Post Office to face a police investigation after BBC News revealed the company knew of flaws in its Horizon IT system. A document shows bosses and lawyers knew of issues in 2017, but kept arguing sub-postmasters were to blame. MP Kevan Jones said "the police need to start looking at this" specific point raised in the BBC investigation. The Post Office earlier said it would be "inappropriate to comment". An internal draft report obtained by the BBC reveals the Post Office knew in 2017 that the Horizon programme could be flawed. The draft report refers to findings being discussed with "Post Office management" and investigators at the time. Despite that, the Post Office continued to defend the costly case with £100m of public money.
There is much more in the report that is worth reading and I agree with all of it. The executives were totally wrong and as well as that were taking bonuses on their pay. In any other field of life this would be criminal behaviour.

[Stanley]

See THIS for the latest report on the Baltimore Bridge collapse.
The largest crane on the eastern US seaboard has arrived in Baltimore as part of a massive clean-up effort after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse. Shipments in and out of one of the country's busiest ports are suspended while the wreckage hangs over the cargo ship that crashed into it. The search for the bodies of four workers remains on hold because of the dangers of diving amongst the wreckage. Some $60m (£48m) in federal emergency funds will go towards recovery efforts. President Joe Biden said he is headed to Baltimore next week to view the crash's fallout and speak to federal efforts. The port is a main economic generator for the state of Maryland and a vital artery for imports and exports of US and global trade.

[Tripps]

Follow up to the Baltimore bridge incident. I thnk there is a just the slightest possibility that it was done deliberately - to disrupt world trade. Add it to sinking a tanker in the Gulf by Houthis, and the Panama Canal being restricted by a lack of water due to drought. Every little helps. I'm sure the FBI will be looking into the credentials of the company and the crew. I was most impressed with the American marine safety enquiry lady at the press conference. Totally open and confident with her replies - no trace of spin. She admitted and explained that the bridge had no built in redundancy, and any collision would have collapsed it.

Interesting that the ship was heading to the Panama Canal then across the Pacific to Sri Lanka. In addition to the obvious containers, it was carryig coal destined for India. So whilst we agonise about reopening a tiny mine in Cumbria for high quality coking coal, India is using a billion tons a year.

The collapse of a major Baltimore bridge Tuesday is likely to shut down the port’s coal exports for as many as six weeks and block the transport of up to 2.5 million tons of coal, said Ernie Thrasher, chief executive officer of Xcoal Energy & Resources LLC.The US exported about 74 million tons of coal last year, with Baltimore the second-largest terminal for the commodity. Plugging up a major coal hub threatens to disrupt global energy supply chains that have finally begun to work out the kinks left over from pandemic slowdowns.

“You’ll see some diversion to other ports but the other ports are pretty busy,” said Thrasher at Xcoal, a Pennsylvania coal trading firm that works with several suppliers. “There’s a limit on how much you can divert.”
Bloomberg’s Brendan Murray reports on how other ports will have to handle cargo traffic meant for Baltimore.
Baltimore ships less than 2% of global seaborne coal so the bridge collapse will have little effect on global prices, Thrasher said. He added that the coal that moves out of Baltimore includes a lot of India-bound thermal coal, which is used for electricity generation.

“It will cause some disruption or chaos from a supply-chain standpoint,” Thrasher said. “But the big question is the impact on India more than any global impact.”

India’s annual coal demand totals more than 1 billion tons and the nation imported roughly 238 million tons of the fuel in the most recent fiscal year, of which about 6% was shipped from the US. Baltimore accounted for around 12 million tons of the imports, according to a research note from analytics firm Energy Aspects. The Energy Aspects note also predicted marine traffic in Baltimore would be disrupted for two or three weeks at most. Some coal shipments may be temporarily rerouted to other ports including Norfolk, Virginia, the note added.

The supply disruption will affect Asian coal markets more than European markets because much of the coal exported from the port has high sulfur content and isn’t suitable for European power stations, according to a note from commodity analytics firm DBX. Shares of companies that mine and move US coal fell Tuesday. Consol Energy Inc. saw its shares drop 6.8% and CSX Corp. shares fell 1.9%. Consol’s Marine Terminal in the area of the bridge is used to loading coal into large ocean-going ships and the terminal is served by CSX.

CSX said in a statement Tuesday that it had capacity to send more trains to the Baltimore coal terminals it serves before reaching space limits and that CSX customers should expect shipment delays. CSX is also working to identify alternatives to moving cargo through Baltimore, the statement said.

The European coal price traded slightly higher on Tuesday, up less than 1%.

[Stanley]

My attention was caught by a different sort of pollution. See THIS BBC report after the Boat Race yesterday.
University of Oxford rowers have criticised sewage levels in the Thames after losing the Boat Race to Cambridge. High levels of E. coli have been found in the river where universities race every year. Leonard Jenkins of the Oxford men's team told BBC Sport he had been vomiting before the race. Thames Water has said improving river health was a "key focus" for the company. On Wednesday Environment Agency figures revealed raw sewage spills doubled last year in England to 3.6 million of hours spills compared to 1.75 million hours in 2022. Within the spills are are human waste, wet wipes and sanitary products which can pose a serious risk to swimmers.
I spent much of my life contaminated by cow muck and was not fussy about it but even I would baulk at contact with water of this low quality.
What a commentary on our country, that our hygiene levels are medieval when it comes to water quality in our rivers.

[Tizer]

I wish that all those people who keep pressing modern organisations to make reparations for their alleged use of slavery in the past would instead turn their attention and energy to where it's happening now, in the 21st Century...
`The Brazilian farm workers exploited to harvest an everyday ingredient' LINK

[Stanley]

Judging by that article the Brazilian authorities are to be commended, they are doing something about it.
THIS is what grabbed me this morning.
The minimum wage set by the government, known as the national living wage, is increasing by more than a pound for the first time, providing a welcome boost for 2.7 million low-paid workers. The main wage rate is rising from £10.42 to £11.44 an hour and will apply to workers over 21 rather than over 23. Younger workers will also see a rise in the rates that apply to them. However some businesses say the higher labour costs will make it harder for them to keep prices down.
Of course it will make it difficult to keep prices down. I have always thought that as a nation we look at prices the wrong way. Wages should be high enough to pay the market price. Any other policy like not paying producers enough for their product only leads eventually to shortages.

[Wendyf]

The Hate Crime Act coming into force in Scotland. Interesting to someone like me who, loving Scotland and the Scots, moved up to Scotland in 1979 and was shocked by the religious hatred we found and the overwhelming hatred of the English which instigated our move back south 20 years later. I wonder if things have changed.

[Gloria]

Wendy, we’ve holidayed quite a few times in Scotland in the past few years and found no sign of that.

[Stanley]

It must have been a localised thing We3ndy. I never found it in the farming community but the Orange Me3n were very active in the towns I travelled through up the West side of Scotland.
I suppose this really belongs in medical matters but I saw it in the news this morning.
See THIS for good news for those with Type 1 Diabetes....
Tens of thousands of people with type 1 diabetes in England are to be offered a new technology, dubbed an artificial pancreas, to help manage the condition. The system uses a glucose sensor under the skin to automatically calculate how much insulin is delivered via a pump. Later this month, the NHS will start contacting adults and children who could benefit from the system. But NHS bosses warned it could take five years before everyone eligible had the opportunity to have one. This is because of challenges sourcing enough of the devices, plus the need to train more staff in how to use them. In trials, the technology - known as a hybrid closed loop system - improved quality of life and reduced the risk of long-term health complications. And at the end of last year, the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (Nice) said the NHS should start using it.

[Wendyf]

It must have been a localised thing We3ndy. I never found it in the farming community but the Orange Me3n were very active in the towns I travelled through up the West side of Scotland.
[/i]

The sectarianism is largely confined to the central belt Stanley, I found the Orange marches particularly unnerving. We could hear the sound of the beating drums 2 miles away from the marching route. Segregated schooling for the children didn't help and, of course, the football! I had a chap working for me for a short while who refused to use the computerised stock control system because the background screen was green. When Craig first went to school I naively sent him to school in a green jumper and he came home in tears, never to be seen in green again at that school! It was totally outside my previous experience.
Thinking about it reminded me of a TV play set in Glasgow about the Orange marches, when I googled it I found it was from 1975 and called Just Another Saturday.

[Stanley]

I must have been lucky Wendy. I'm glad it didn't spoil my experience of Scotland.
Craig's experience with wearing green is particularly upsetting. I can understand how that got to you.

[Wendyf]

We were there for 20 years Stanley. The question is, will the singing of anti English songs be considered a hate crime?

[Stanley]

I doubt it Wendy. Like the old IRA songs they will be classed as 'Folk Music' and ignored.

I saw THIS in the UK news.
Scotland could become the first part of the UK to ban egg companies from keeping chickens in cages. The Scottish government has announced a new consultation on outlawing the use of cages to house hens involved in egg production. Agriculture minister Jim Fairlie said if it was implemented Scotland would be "leading the way in improving the welfare of animals". The use of battery cages for birds was banned in the UK in 2012. But there are still more than 1.1m chickens in Scotland kept in "enriched cages", which provide birds with more room to nest, roost and scratch than the smaller battery cages.
As in so many things, Scotland is once more the first to propose a sensible measure.

[Stanley]

See THIS for the latest on the story about the Hull funeral directors.
A grieving son has been told his mother's ashes were found in a "brown paper bag" by police investigating a Hull funeral directors. Gary Dean's family used Legacy Independent Funeral Directors for his mother Joan's funeral in December 2022. They were later given urns containing what they thought were her ashes. In March, 35 bodies and a quantity of ashes were removed from the firm by police following "concern for care of the deceased". Described by her children as an "amazing mum", Mrs Dean died from lung cancer on 19 November 2022, aged 82. Her funeral, arranged through Legacy Independent Funeral Directors, was held at Haltemprice Crematorium in Willerby, East Yorkshire. Mr Dean said the family bought four urns - one for each of Mrs Dean's children - online before passing them to Legacy to fill with the ashes.On 30 June last year, the family collected the urns from the firm's branch in Hessle Road, Hull. "I had our mum's urn on the floor next to the sofa," said Mr Dean. "We didn't received a cremation certificate, but at the time we didn't think anything of it." After concerns were first raised over the funeral firm, Mr Dean contacted a helpline set up by Humberside Police. On Sunday, the family were given the news they dreaded. Mr Dean said: "Police rang me to say, 'We have your mum's ashes, still in a sealed brown paper bag.' It had our mum's name on it."
My mind goes back to the funeral directors I have known, all of them would have had my complete confidence. Would I have as much confidence now? My heart goes out to the people caught up in this shocking story.
Later....
See THIS re3port on bad news for Trump.
Washington — The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump's criminal case in New York rejected his last-minute bid to delay the start of the trial until after the U.S. Supreme Court rules on Trump's presidential immunity claim. Trump had asked to push back the start date for his trial, which is related to a "hush money" payment made by an attorney for Trump to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election, until after the Supreme Court rules on whether he is shielded from criminal prosecution by "presidential immunity" in another one of his criminal cases. The trial is slated to begin April 15.
Early days but this could be very important in what many of us see as the threat of Trump as US President again.

[Stanley]

See THIS for another example of the repercussions of the Israeli actions in Gaza.
A Manchester gallery has reinstated a Palestinian arts event after a fierce backlash over its decision to cancel the performance. HOME arts venue had said it was axing the event due to publicity generated by a letter from the local Jewish Representative Council. On Wednesday 100 artists began removing their work from the gallery in protest at the decision. HOME apologised for any distress or upset caused. The row developed after the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester (JRCGM) demanded the cancellation of the Voices of Resilience event, slated for 22 April at the city centre venue. The JRCGM raised concerns about the event featuring the work of Gazan writer Atef Abu Saif, who is also minister of culture at the Palestinian Authority. It highlighted reported comments made by Mr Abu Saif in 2014 when he was alleged to have said "Israel surpassed Hitler's massacres".
There is much more in the article about the reaction by artists and the U-turn by the venue.
Later.....
See THIS report about mercury levels in the Amazon basin.
BRASILIA – Many Yanomami, the Amazon's largest Indigenous tribe in relative isolation, have been contaminated with mercury coming from widespread illegal gold mining, according to a report released on Thursday by Brazil’s top public health institute. The research was conducted in nine villages along the Mucajai River, a remote region where illegal mining is widespread. Mercury, a poison, is commonly used in illegal mining to process gold. The researchers collected hair samples from nearly 300 Yanomami of all ages. They were then examined by doctors, neurologists, psychologists and nurses. The vast majority, 84% of Yanomami tested, had contamination equal to or above 2 micrograms per gram, a level of exposure that can lead to several health problems, according to standards by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organization. Even more worrying, a smaller part of this group, 10%, surpassed the 6 micrograms per gram threshold, a contamination level often associated with more severe medical conditions.
When I saw this I thought of Minamata. (LINK)
Some things never change......

[Tizer]

For a decade or more I've been boring people by telling them that we shouldn't be spending billions of pounds on searching for and mining more lithium whilst destroying the environment in the process. Instead we should spend the money on research to find ways of using readily available metals such as iron to do the same jobs. So I'm very pleased to see this in a news story today...

US firm Niron Magnetics says it has managed to make good quality magnets without rare earths. Instead, they use iron and nitrogen to make iron nitride magnets. This relies on getting the iron nitride to take on a specific crystalline structure, which generates magnetic fields.

[Stanley]

That's good news Peter. The search for these rare metals is putting pressure on manufacturers to support harmful exploitation of ocean floor mining. We won't be satisfied until we have destroyed the whole of our world.
As I have said many times before, another example of why we are not fit to have control of a planet.
(And now we are looking to do the same to the Moon and Mars.)