Early Risers.

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It is another grey morning - with light rain - but at least we are not seeing anything like the sort of weather that the South West of England is seeing.

 

On the subject of wind farms, they have their place.  The technology is advancing all the time - but the energy policy needs to be balanced and not driven purely by money.  After all, nuclear isn't the answer either.  I am not meaning to start an argument in ERs, but not only are we storing up loads of problems for future generations, but Uranium is a finite resource - and that is before we get onto the subject of whether or not an accident like Fukushima could happen in Europe.  The media have primarily lost interest in Fukushima, but the news which does come out of Japan is far from encouraging.

 

What we really need, is a good, cheap, new source of power - maybe that is Thorium, maybe that is some form of LENR, or maybe something even more revolutionary.  I don't really know, but this should be the most important issue that we are facing.  Generation of electricity is everything.  With electricity, you can provide heat, light, and transport.

 

My personal belief is that the future of energy generation lies with smaller, self contained units which can be used to power a house, factory or estate (for example).  This will reduce the cost of maintaining a huge network and eliminate the sort of problems that we have in Germany at the moment.  Most of the wind (and hence the wind farms) are in the North, whereas the industry (the biggest consumers) are in the South.  This necessitates a network infrastructure that the country currently doesn't have - and at times of peak generation (windy days) we end up using our Eastern neighbours (primarily the Czech Republic) as an energy sink.  (Which it has to be said, they are generally not too unhappy about!)

 

There isn't a golden bullet that will solve all our energy problems (yet) but we should be doing everything we can to find it!

 

Have a good day everyone...

Edited February 6, 2014 by Robert

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Dry and not even breezy here.

Matthew sent me his dissertation yesterday. His tutor said he should get someone ignorant but intelligent to read it. I'm glad he thinks I can be of use! I shall read it today as my main task,

 

Tony

[BoD]

Rant mode on

 

I'm just watching breakfast news and there's an article on about an 'installation' about gardening and fashion. It seems to consist mostly of someone hanging flowers upside down.

News?

I bet I'm paying for it too!

 

Morning all

[Barry O]

Good morning all.

Still dark here in Leeds.

Whatever happens we won't be quick to forget this winter.

 

And wind power wouldn't have helped with our energy supply as its too windy (major flaw is the design of the gearboxes in wind turbines)

 

Having done my bit to get the Joint European Torus to provide a bit of nuclear fusion all I can say is fusion power is a bit of a way off.

 

Have as good a day as possible.. Stay dry and safe..

 

Barry O

[Tony_S]

Rant mode on

 

I'm just watching breakfast news and there's an article on about an 'installation' about gardening and fashion. It seems to consist mostly of someone hanging flowers upside down.

News?

I bet I'm paying for it too!

 

Morning all

During our trip to France last year and we visited the International Garden Exhibition. I wasn't that impressed with the arty gardens (the planting was often poor) but the traditional château planting and kitchen gardens were rather nice.

[Barry O]

Light enough to see that the sky has lots of "Simpson's" clouds... Lovely!

[skipepsi]

Morning all, not quite light enough to see the keyboard clearly but nearly and the white clouds are tinged with pink suggesting a rising sun. Sounds almost poetic for me. Not enough exercise this week and I can visualise the pounds rushing back on, so more effort required. I am having some restraint training next week and having got the dress code I will have to buy trainers and some kind of t shirt shock horror..

[DDolfelin]

I have nothing useful to add to the energy discussion and, therefore, I won't add it.

 

I had a thought that all new builds should have solar panels installed but reading on here doesn't seem to favour them.

Until the advent of the magic new source, maybe some existing technologies could be combined to make a contribution?

As a consumer with only Electricity available (plus various inconvenient and expensive add-ons for emergencies), I am aware of the problems of breakdown in supply.

On the other side of our mountain there is a wind farm - planned to become much larger.

The windmills have been there for years.

Only now are they considering connecting them to anything.

[Coombe Barton]

Blue tinge to sky, less damp (really!)

 

Dog to vet for small operation to remove a lump later - so no breakfast for either of them. They're both looking at me askance wondering what's happened to room service.

 

Would have been my maternal grandmother's 123rd birthday today. She's made mention of in the 1891 census which was later that year.

 

And now back to Excel.

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, a reasonable one here weather wise, breezy but dry and bright periods.

 

As for work - effluent has hit the fan.  Collateral damage now occurring between partner agencies and we're in the middle. 

[DonBradley]

I posted earlier but somehow it got lost.

Referring to Gordon's smoke alarm problems, we have smoke alarms in every room. Since my arrival there have been many false alarms Late last year smoke alarms were fitted to all flats in the adjacent associated block of retirement flats connected to the same system. However there were thereafter even more false alarms caused by cooking "accidents" and these were then fitted with heat sensors instead. False alarms continue to be a problem. On the sounding of a fire alarm we are supposed to evacuate the building immediately! There has been one genuine fire, in one of the flats late on a rainy  night when we made our way out into the cold and rain.

Every alarm has been followed within some minutes by a pa announcement that it is false, genuine or a drill. Although there is much rushing around of bodies pursuance to an alarm sounding I remain happily in my room until I hear the announcement. or smell smoke!

 

Happy Thursday all.

[Oldddudders]

Morning all

 

A grey start, which may lift a little later. 13 degrees has been mentioned online - but there is a breeze that lowers that by a few, sadly. But - hey - we could be in snow, with all that implies in terms of difficulty and heating costs.

 

The Dawlish saga just gets worse. Feel very sorry for all those who reside close by - or engineers and others who have to now put the toothpaste back in the tube, somehow, and will feel the eyes of the world focussed on their efforts. Meanwhile the weather is determined not to go away it seems. Very sad.

 

Cleaner Alison here this afternoon, so that adds a bit of fun.

 

Hope you all have a good day as far as possible.

Edited February 6, 2014 by Oldddudders

[AndyB]

One of the problems with highly localised systems is that the power generation infrastructure doesn't seem to scale down very well. By that, I mean to supply a few houses you still need a fairly substantial sized wind turbine, solar panel farm...

 

Not so long ago I was working at an army Forward Operating Base where we were trying to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels. We just about got an 80-man camp running on wind turbines and solar. But transferred over to a civil setting would mean the footprint of infrastructure taking up a lot of land. There is also a significant issue with changing peoples' / organisational behaviour. For example, among other things fuel at remote main  army camps (not FOBs, Patrol Bases) is used for a variety of things including bringing the quality of life up to a decent standard and people die getting the fuel to the camp. So ask the question. What will you give up? Are you prepared to give up ice cream? No. So, your ice cream is more valuable than your comrade's life?  Don't even go near the question of reducing their costs by use of renewables, life is too short.  

 

Here in the UK the plan is already being formulated for handling the 2016 power cuts as generating capacity falls short of demand. I understand the figure of 3-hour power outages per houeshold/business per day is being talked about. Time to invest in companies selling small domestic diesel/petrol generators? 

 

Andy

[Barry O]

The Navy get round it by having their own little power station - a pre fueled nuclear reactor (25 years between fuelling)...as these are quite small and would manage plenty of power perhaps we could have one of these for smaller villages as well as multiples thereof for bigger dwelling areas....oops sorry we wouldn't have to borrow funding from the rest of the world to do that ...and we already build them here in the UK... silly me(!)

[skipepsi]

rant

Time to dig some more coal out of the ground and fire up written off generating stations or run Drax/ Ferrybridge with 600MWatts IIRC full bore we have so little steel making capacity left that the base load generators should be able to get us out of the sh1t. Reopen Didcot before it is destroyed/ demolished. Forget EU targets keeping people alive matters more. 

 

rant over

[Tony_S]

 

 

Would have been my maternal grandmother's 123rd birthday today. She's made mention of in the 1891 census which was later that year.

 

And now back to Excel.

Does Excel still have a "start date" of Jan 1st 1900 or does the latest version cope with dates like your Gran's birthdate for things like sorting?

[Robert]

I know this has been posted here before, but it still makes interesting reading:

 

http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

[Purley Oaks]

Morning all

As a postscript to previous posts, Arrow Films notified me today of a complete refund for Nordicana (Nordic Noir festival) tickets for last weekend. They've acted in a very 'John Lewis' way by not quibbling and have gained a lot of customer goodwill in the process. 

All's well that ends well as someone once said, probably in iambic pentameter

Mal

[Coombe Barton]

Just taken one of the dogs round to the vet's for a small op. Other dog is searching for her.

 

Didn't stop her scoffing her (late) breakfast, though. And some of mine.

[Coombe Barton]

Does Excel still have a "start date" of Jan 1st 1900 or does the latest version cope with dates like your Gran's birthdate for things like sorting?

It doesn't recognise 6/2/1891 as a date - that's Excel 2013. It does recognise 1/1/1900, so assume that it's all as was.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Dry but dull & 7^oC - lots of rain is expected getting heavier as the day progresses.

Late start as I'm in lazy mode & went back to bed after taking Chris to work.

Kids here last night so the place was pretty lively for a while. Abbie had to go back to school for a parent's evening & they came back with glowing reports from all her teachers about her progress which bodes well for her GCSE's next? year.

Shopping trip later when I pick up Chris -  no beer required as I'm still not drinking. (well that is apart from a couple at the weekend  ) If I carry on like this Fuller's shares may start to fall!

No ballasting done yesterday as I seem to have developed a problem with two points since I painted the track so will have to try & remedy that first.

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

 

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Nice to hear that someone has got a Simpson's sky (a phrase we use in the house too) as ours is currently grey and precipitating.  And as far as Didcot A goes - forget it, it is already being stripped and at least two generating sets are enroute to South Africa, Didcot B runs on natural gas so no doubt like every other gas fired plant it is only started up when the price is right or the level of subsidy is right - EDF have built a new, large, gas fired plant at one of their stations and it is only run when the money makes it economic to do so, similarly generators only burn biomass when the numbers (=subsidies) are right; when you think about it our politicos have achieved some remarkable things in a very short time such as ruining most workplace pensions (except their own) and destroying a large chunk of our electricity generating industry while at the same time increasing the demands on it by artificially increasing the population.  The amazing thing is that they aren't all swinging from the nearest lamp post.

 

h well that's another rant discharged - do try to have a nice day and spare a thought to the other poor sacrificial victims of the political classes who are literally trying to keep their heads above rising waters.

[Tony_S]

My brain hurts! I've just read Matthew's dissertation. The academic framework and justification for his research was quite heavy going for a non-academic person (me) but the actual research and conclusions were very interesting and well written. I wonder if they get many dissertations that include "chthonic" and "innit" in the same chapter.

[Gruffalo]

In response to The Stationmaster's contribution - with which I am in total agreement - there are too many vested interests around Westminster and in the regions. In hindsight, most people studying our history in 100 year's time will wonder why the population failed to call these decision makers to account given the irreparable damage they are doing to this country.

 

And for Barry O's suggestion, I would love to see one of HM Navy's older H-K subs moored in the upper River Nene to supply power to this area that is devoid of any reliable generation yet is deemed suitable to grow its population by 100% in 25 years (without employment opportunities, of course).

 

Just heard that a self-important radio presenter with initials JV will be discussing the rail route between Exeter and Plymouth after midday. I for one will not listen to the tripe that he and his tame and cozy group of so-called experts spout with little knowledge of the real world, preferring to get my updates from the knowledgable crowd on RMWeb.

[Ohmisterporter]

I posted earlier but somehow it got lost.

Referring to Gordon's smoke alarm problems, we have smoke alarms in every room. Since my arrival there have been many false alarms Late last year smoke alarms were fitted to all flats in the adjacent associated block of retirement flats connected to the same system. However there were thereafter even more false alarms caused by cooking "accidents" and these were then fitted with heat sensors instead. False alarms continue to be a problem. On the sounding of a fire alarm we are supposed to evacuate the building immediately! There has been one genuine fire, in one of the flats late on a rainy  night when we made our way out into the cold and rain.

Every alarm has been followed within some minutes by a pa announcement that it is false, genuine or a drill. Although there is much rushing around of bodies pursuance to an alarm sounding I remain happily in my room until I hear the announcement. or smell smoke!

 

Happy Thursday all.

 

Sorry to put a disagree on this Don, but you should always leave the premises if there is a fire alarm. If you wait until you smell smoke it could be too late. I spent years trying to drum the same message into students until we found a bollocking from fire brigade officers did the trick. Be safe, you still have half your life in front of you.

 

Edit for spelling mistakes.

Edited February 6, 2014 by Ohmisterporter