Monday, December 25

Wired - December 1996

Whilst waiting for the Turkey to cook and for the family to arise, I was wondering what to do. Looking around the living room and the book cases and listening to an old radio show on Radio 4 Extra, I spotted my small collection of Wired magazines.

The first issue I have was publised in 1995, the last is 2000. The first December issue in my collection is for 1996, so here are some things that were 'cool' at Christmas in 1996:

1. Avocet Vertech Alpine wrist watch with that essential built in altimeter for mountain climbers.

2. The Tribal prototype snowboard/skateboard crossover, this had 3 wheels inline with spaces in-between to stand on.

3. Kodak Ektachrome film (advert) - cameras still used film. I think I bought my first digital camera a few years later.

4. Motorola Microtac 8700 mobile phone (advert) - Ah those were the days. Motorola were still a major digital electronics company.

5. Iomega Zip Drive (advert) - 100 megabytes on one floppy disc sized magnetic disc. Mind blowing!

6. Nintendo 64 to be launched in March 1997 - article suggesting it is the PC of the future. LOL.

7. Jargon Watch - COUA (Compulsive Use Of Acronyms) - Get it?
I might try using that one at work.

8 Swiss bank notes include counterfeit proof technology with microtext, watermarks and optical variable ink.

9. Swatch (advert) - Swiss anwser to the growing digital cultural. Cheap fashionable plastic watches.

10. Sega (advert) - Sega games now available on PC CD-ROM discs.

Thursday, December 21

Carbon Isotopes and Climate Change

A while ago I explained the basics of Carbon Isotopes and how they help in understanding what is happening to our climate:

Today Skeptical Science have posted a more detailed article about the subject:


Monday, December 11

A little Brexit Truth...

The UK send approximately 43% of its exports to other EU countries.
Those same EU countries send approximately 16% of their exports to the UK.

What does this tell us about MPs that say the EU need us more than we need them?

Basically the loss of exports to the EU would have a greater impact to the UK than the loss of exports to the UK would have on the EU. The EU would find it easier to absorb the loss of the UK as an export market, partly because of the distribution of those exports across EU nations, the UK on the other hand would have a greater loss focused on it's own single economy.

Friday, December 8

Rapanui Clothing and The Expanse Season 3

According to who plays one of the lead characters in The Expanse, filming of Season 3 has completed. Yippee, just got to wait many months now before it is available in the UK.

Whilst I was reading the December issue of The MagPi I spotted an article about Rapanui Clothing based on the Isle of Wight. They make eco friendly clothing and were started in 2008, I have been following them on and off for about the same time, being initially impressed by their Bamboo T-shirts that were as smooth as silk.

There is a link to their web site in my list of links down the right hand side of this blog.

So why did Rapanui feature in a magazine devoted to the best selling computer in the world (the Raspberry Pi)?

Turns out that they started on a budget of £200 in 2008 and since then have grown greatly. They now have a factory in an old Coop supermarket and have developed a lot of their own custom manufacturing hardware using Raspberry Pi's. They even have an Alexa that employees can ask questions about production runs and other factory stuff. The really cool thing is that they even encourage employees to learn programming!

So basically it is an eco company that is driving innovation and changing the rules.

Sunday, November 5

Hampshire County Council to close recycling centres

Hampshire County Council has approved £140 million of cuts that include the closing of half the counties recycling centres unless changes are made by Westminster.

The counties - antiwind turbine - council leader, a Mr Roy Perry, believes that recycling is not a fundemental part of economic prosperity. In other words if we don't recycle then by a miracle, in the future we will still have the same amount of resources to build an economy as we do today. Yep, steel and aluminium will magically appear in the earth, put their I assume by a god, and then we can all carry on as before.

One of the fundemental changes in economics over the last 10 years has been the realisation that the economy must include nature and the fact that we have limited resources when balancing the financial books. It is OUR duty to make sure future generations have access to the same resources as us.


These difficult times...

...are going to get harder unless the majority start shouting out and shut down the zenophobes, racists, extreme patriots and left wing ideologists.

Nationalism and hatred appear to be uncontrolled and no one seems to want to remember the past which is full of dictators and basic hell.
This is highlighted by the fictional story about a Christian girl that allegedly complained that her Muslim foster parents made her speak Arabic, took away her cross and banned her from eating bakon. The list of lies basically made up by some people in so called British media was very long and the nature of the story is very similar to the lies published in 1930s Germany about Jews. Because the story tries to attack a section of British society it is also undermining the stability of this nation and hence could be seen as an attempt to commit treason.
The source of the story should be investigated and those responsible should be prosecuted.

Meanwhile Trump seems to keep going despite everyone with a brain on this planet agreeing that he is a problem. That includes 'conservatives'.

Spain yet again seems to be splitting into pieces with selfish regionalism negating the greater good.

Here in the UK, Labour support withdrawing from the EU because Labour believe the EU do not want state owned industries or nationalised companies (an ideological POV), whilst Conservatives don't like the EU because they believe the UK should have it's own laws based on past historical perceptions (another ideological POV). Yes the 'extreme' left want out of the EU because their ideology dictates perfection.

Is Westminster better than Brussels? Where is the factual evidence that London has, is or will do a better job for us than Brussels?

Once Brexit has happened, all those that were criticising Brussels will just turn their attention to Westminster, whining that domestic democracy isn't providing for their personal interests. Democracy never has and never will, that is the whole point of democracy, because the alternative is that a few have what they want and others either have little of what they want or are exterminated by a dictator or monarch patronised by those that have what they want.

I have to appologise that this blog is focusing less on local issues. But the fact is what Trump does or what May does has an impact on all that live in Waterlooville. If these idiots left things alone we could all get on with our local lives and build a future that ourselves and all those across the world could be proud of.

Saturday, September 9

Berewood Estate is still a lie 4 years later

Just read an old post of mine from 2013 about the Berewood housing estate.

It is still true today, even more so with shops and pubs closing:

I'm sure some of those flats being built have only now come close to being finished 4 years after they were started. Aren't British builders fast!!? (not).

The thing is they manage to be incredibly slow, PLUS despite taking so, so, so long they can't do a good job. Our developer industry needs foreign competition from Europe to revolutionise new home builds, to both increase speed of construction on site and to improve quality.

Berewood should have been finished by now.

Friday, September 1

UKIP and Tories keen to create Bodge Britain

Looks like the Tories are determined to ruin our economic prospects by deliberately sabotaging the Brexit negotiations. Liam Fox ( who has experience of being forced to pay large amounts of expenses back to the UK parliament ) is joining David Davis in blaming the EU for Tory negotiating incompetence.

Lies, lies and more lies regarding the Tory position on the EU and Brexit. They appear to have no intention of making any deal and are quite happy to rip apart this nation for their own ideological purposes.

Meanwhile it appears Roger Helmer of UKIP has no clue at all about modern engineering and science. In a comment in a BBC article (see below) he equates power consumption of a vacuum cleaner to it's efficiency at do the job of vacuuming dirt.
If that were true we wouldn't need engineers or more than one company making the things, because a few designs of a specific wattage would be enough for all our needs. Dyson a great British success story would not need to exist.

Meanwhile in the real world of physics and engineering companies strive to make their products efficient, getting as much out of as little as possible. It's the cowboys and bodgers of this nation that satisify their greed and allow foreign competitors to exploit our skill shortage (Helmer being one of those lacking essential skills).

The truth is that the some of the greatest steps forward in communication, travel and product development in the last 50 years or so have been as a result of EU standards. We can thank the EU for reduced costs in products that we buy today. Without the EU,  low production runs due to differing national standards would make many products today impractical to produce. Some companies and individuals may complain about EU rules, but it is actually those rules that allow them to produce one product for the whole of the EU.

Wednesday, August 16

HMS Queen Elizabeth arrives

Got up very early and took the bus down to Gun Wharf and witnessed the arrival of the QE. Pity the US couldn't lone an F35B for the occasion!

Here's some photos:

Friday, August 11

Latest Electric Vehicle News

Robert Llewellyn and his new co-host Jonny discuss the latest news in
renewable energy and electric vehicles, months ahead of the BBC and The Sun:

Saturday, July 29

Nokia 3310

Managed to get my hands on a Nokia 3310 this week via Argos.

These things are like gold dust, I had to check in on Argos every week for about two months before I found that they had a few that could be reserved.

First problem I had was that my old SIM card didn't work because it was to big. Then I had to get a 2G SIM card which basically excludes Three.

So I went with O2, pay as you go.

Having got it working, I am very pleased.
I don't have a smart phone, and the 3310 has 'near' smartphone features without actually being a smartphone.

Ignore the negative comments in the media, this 'basic' phone does much more than most basic phones. You can download games and Facebook or Twitter apps. You can also do basic browsing of the internet.

The sound quality for the radio and MP3 playback is very good and is easy to pair up Bluetooth headphones. Basically I love it, its the non-smartphone I have wanted for years but no one produced it.

Thumbs up here!

Thursday, July 6

Plastic clothes causing pollution

Plastic fibres and particles from polyester and acrylic clothes are washed into our water resources:

Yet another reason for not buying clothes made from artificial fibres. I have avoided plastic clothes where possible (and not always successfully) for many years now (before this blog was started).

Plastic is designed to last for hundreds of years, unfortunately clothes and the plastic fibres that they are made of are only designed to last for a relatively tiny amount of time. OK you might wear a pair of  polyester trousers for a few years, but that is nothing compared to how long the material will last.

So if you have clothes that generally only last a few years, it makes sense that the materials used to make them should also bio-degrade not long after. Even if you don't think that does make sense, this new finding is just an additional or alternative reason for avoiding plastic as much as possible.

Monday, July 3

Pro-Brexit zenophobe harrasses British pensioners

I witnessed the ongoing racism and zenophobia unleashed by UKIP and the Tory party today with their campaign
for Brexit.

Four British pensioners were being harrassed on the No 7 bus by a racist Brexit fan for speaking Chinese and not English. The crazy and possibly drunk racist was confronted by another passenger regarding the their own language and credibility. The racist then began to harass the defending passenger, threatening violence and intimidating them.

The pensioners eventually got off the bus and the racist continued harrassing the defending passenger.
The whole episode was un-nerving and a number of passengers probably got off the bus before their final destination.

On a more logical note. Brexit will not stop people talking whatever language they want. That includes Klingon!

Or will it?
The fact is the pensioners stopped talking in Chinese because of the harassment. In other words 'nationalist' intimidation stopped their freedom. I think it is likely we will see more primitive behaviours like this unless something is done to stop it.

Sunday, June 25

Building cladding in the Portsmouth area

Southdown View block of flats at Hilsea. For some time now the ground floor intended for retail businesses has been boarded up. The boarding has been removed and it appears that glass windows are being installed. This is of course a modern build so should be to a higher standard than older blocks.

Update 01/07/17
The News reports that Southdown View cladding has been tested:

Portsmouth University has a big portfolio of clad buildings, the most recent being student accomodation blocks.
It does seem though that the latest conversion appears to use fiberous insulation that is seperate from the external weather proofing panels.
This photo shows a panel removed from the new student block near Portsmouth and Southsea Station (maybe for inspection?).

Update 01/07/17.

Work appears to continue on the panels of these refurbished tower blocks. I was in town yesterday and there were a lot of workmen apparently putting new panels on the lower floors of the larger block.

In the photo you can see that on the 25/06/17 the panels on the lower floors were in place so I think they must have been removed in the last few days.
Was this work a result of the Grenfell disaster??

Friday, June 23

Murray Energy (Coal) sue John Oliver (British comedian)

The dying American coal industry (avid funder of Donald Trump) has decided that one man, John Oliver, and HBO are responsible for their woes, as a result Murray Energy and others are suing John Oliver for defamation.

Amusingly the legal document which Murray Energy is submitting has a lot of ranting in it appealing for the sympathy vote rather than any substantial legal claim.

The sad fact is many wealthy business folk think they are important beyond any reality just because they have wealth. Anyone who has watched John Oliver knows that he has a go at people, nations and businesses in a satirical manor which is very amusing and democratic.

The  reality is that renewable energy employs many times more people in America than the coal industry, it could employ many more including ex-coal workers!

This video posted by a lawyer deconstructs the Murray Energy lawsuit:

 Added 24/06/17...

It should also be noted John Oliver actually defames himself in the same broadcasted show! So maybe he should sue himself as well. Oh, wait a minute John Oliver has a sense of humour.

Note this video may not work for long:

Oh dear. Youtube removed the video. Told you so!


Sunday, June 18

Upgraded street lamps become EV charging points

A German company has developed street lighting technology that allows Electric Vehicles to be charged at adapted street lamps. When street lighting is upgraded to low energy LED technology, the cables that supply the lamps with power are effectively under used. This is where the EV charging technology comes in. Ubitricity can install the EV charging technology in any style of lamp post, retro or modern.

Once a street lamp is installed all an EV owner has to do is to sign up with Ubitricity, the owner then receives a special cable from Ubitricity which monitors electricity usage of the owner. The user is then debted the cost of the electricity. The cable has an inline small box with buttons and a display, so I presume that it is password protected to prevent possible mis-use. However I assume that if the cable were stolen, it could be reported and the account suspended until a new cable were supplied.

No additional load is put on the local electricity cables because they were originally designed to take a bigger load than the LED lighting puts on the system.

Robert L explains in this video how it works and interviews the local council that has installed the lamps as well as a representative of Ubitricity.

Friday, June 16

Designer 'Edison' light bulbs

Not sure what the legality is regarding the sale of high wattage designer filament bulbs.

But the fact is you can get low power LED versions I bought this one for £12 in IKEA.
1.8 watts as opposed to 40 or 60 watts for an incandescent filament lamp.

Now I am not sure where to put it!

Grenfell Tower fire and Daily Mail Green Target misinformation

The despicable Daily Mail today were pointing the finger at green energy targets for fueling the Grenfell Tower fire in London.

This of course is a political tactic from a political activist media company, it is designed to divert attention from real financial issues relating to the buildings upgrade.

Setting a green target does not imply that cheap flammable materials should be used as a cladding/insulation material in order to achieve that target. The alternative to insulation is cold damp rooms and high energy bills for the poor people living in the building.

Other newspapers (including the Express) have highlighted the fact that fire proof cladding would have only cost £5000 more for the WHOLE building. Yes the WHOLE building could have been made safer for an additional £5000.

For the cost of the Daily Mail editor (Paul Dacre) installing trendy bi-fold doors in his expensive privately owned home or installing a new bath room etc. the Grenfell building could have been made safer.

So the FACT is - 60 peoples lives were taken away so that the contractor and council could save £5000. Green targets were not responsible for that.

Please someone take the Daily Mail down in court, even social media can do better news reporting than that despicable company. It isn't amusing and we can no longer make excuses about the 'Daily Mail'.

Sunday, June 4

June 2017 Election Manifesto Analysis

Lets have a look at the main issue that the manifestos cover:

Liberal Democrats 

The Liberal Democratic manifesto commits to 60% renewable energy by 2030. Similar to Labours commitment (see below). Unlike the Conservatives and Labour, they explicitly commit to restoring onshore wind energy and solar energy to our supported energy mix.


The Tories manifesto states that the party does not believe that more onshore wind energy is right for England and oppose large scale onshore wind projects, but supports continued investment in offshore wind energy.
But Hampshire does not have any wind farms, even small ones! Hampshire has land and wind resources, but no wind farms harnessing those resources. Not only that but Hampshires nearest offshore wind energy project was cancelled. So the Conservatives are applying ideological reasons for not pursuing onshore wind as well as putting their wealthy rural supporters before the nation and the planet.
They also commit to low cost energy, which economically and technically must mean more onshore wind and solar energy, so they have contradicting statements in their manifesto


Labours manifesto is even less detailed than the Conservatives but commits to 60% zero carbon or renewable energy by 2030.
What is zero carbon energy??
All energy has at least a small carbon footprint.
They don't however say what technologies will make up this new commitment, they don't mention onshore wind or solar energy.

Green Party

Like the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party are commited to removing the Conservatives effective ban on onshore wind energy projects. They also want to scale up offshore wind and marine energy projects.


The party has a record of denying mainstream climate science so it is not surprising that they wish to remove 'subsidies' from wind and solar energy projects. To be honest in a few years time they won't need such a policy because even in the UK government encouragement won't be needed. Solar and wind are becoming cheaper than the old school fossil fuel sources that we became to dependent on.

Well that's the analysis of the main policies of the locally relevant political parties. Energy and the environment are the key issues.

Wednesday, May 31

Trump can't stop progress

It is now inevitable that electric road vehicles, boats and even aircraft will replace our fossil fuel transport. I really don't think anything can stop it now, certainly not the ignorant Trump.
Bloomberg this week reported on research about battery technology reducing in price in the next 4 years to the point that Electric Vehicles will likely be cheaper than diesel or petrol engined cars.
Cheaper maintanance as well, with so few moving parts in EVs.
Robert in this video says a company is installing super fast chargers in the UK that have the capacity to charge the batteries of a suitable EV in 5 or 10 minutes. An Israeli company has developed batteries that might take that charge.

Anyway here is Roberts latest video:

Saturday, May 20

Empty Shops of Waterlooville in May 2017

Council approve demolition of The Wellington pub

The state of Waterlooville. The Wellington pub boarded up. The pubs name reflects the relationship Waterlooville has with the Battle of Waterloo. It was originally built in 1867.

The pub has been approved for demolition by our Tory led council, yet another example of the long standing destructive attitude Havant Borough Council has had regarding Waterloovilles heritage and history.

Thursday, May 18

Tories out, Tories out, Tories out, out, out

Those of a certain age will recognise the chant in the title of this post.

I am no great fan of the Tories, largely because of many supporters and MPs that have shown little understanding of renewable energy and climate change/science.
The trouble is they are going to far with their ideology and are lying their heads off about the miracle change they are going through, suggesting that they are going 'mainstream'.

The fact is their manifesto is full of the same ideological attacks on British life and everything that we know as being British.

The NHS is falling apart under their watch. Lack of funding has resulted in the IT meltdown this past week. Although I do not work in the NHS or have anything to do with it, but the incident has directly impacted on my work.

Our retirement prospects are gradually deteriorating as the Tories gradually bring in more 'liberal capitalist' policies (cutting state costs) sneaking them by us in a sugar coating and claiming that they are 'mainstream'. When you wake up you will realise that nothing that we built since 1945 still exists, the sum total of all Tory policies will be a Britain with a 1930s (or earlier) feel, including all the injustices and inequalities of those times, supported by intrusive modern technology.

Their Social Care policy outlined in the manifesto will mean many of us will pay for the care of a parent in one way or another and the economics are false. The government will probably end up paying for care even if they do not do so directly.

Take time off work to care for someone and you have less money to spend and you pay less tax, you are also investing less for your own retirement and that in turn means you may need government support or will have less to spend in your retirement. If you don't take time off work and you get government help to pay for care for a parent, that will cost you during the care period or later when the government claim assets from your parents estate.

If you live with your parents, then you may be forced to sell your inherited property to pay for the care, that in turn will reduce your prospects and may result in you needing government support including social housing or council housing. In many cases the government will probably end up paying down the line anyway, if not the all a families wealth could be stripped away over a number of decades.

Many people do the best they can, work and earn money, do what they can to improve their lives with little dependency on government help. But the Tories still go out and try and penalise our efforts, with reduced pension guarentees, higher taxes, reduced health care support, poor financing of our defence forces, reduced social care support and scrapping free school lunches.

Sunday, May 14

Isentropic lives!

I have blogged about this company a number of times. They got into trouble a while ago and went into insolvency, however their energy storage technology was world class and cutting edge, so they have risen like a phoenix and live again.

Based in Fareham, they are now supported by Newcastle University and the grid level energy storage demonstrator project is now being commissioned and will start being tested at a sub station this summer. This is an important project as the technology is both cheap and efficient.

To read more about this great project visit the Isentropic (now the National Facility for Pumped Heat Energy Storage) web site:

Ugly block of flats proposed for Waterlooville

Havant Borough Council appears to be determined to allow the ugliest buildings to be built in Waterlooville. The proposal for Wellington Way probably beats them all, some 8 storeys high and the design looks like a typical 1960s block.

When will we ever learn in the UK?
We know cheap well designed energy efficient buildings are possible, yet councils allow appalling crap to be built. British bodging dominated by cowboy developers and builders.

If you would like a say in this proposal, the council consultation will be on 24th May starting at 6pm at Havant Borough Council offices (The Plaza as they now call it).

Progress tackling climate change?

So many good things have been achieved over the period since I started blogging. The fact is humanity is brilliant at finding technological solutions to problems that climate science throws our way, including solar energy, wind energy, energy storage, electric road vehicles, electric aircraft and electric everything!  However politicians and vested interests do what they can to slow down the inevitable technological change. We are going through such a period now. Political Luddites try to reverse policies that achieved great things all in order to support an unsustainable economy and gratify voters that have been lied to by political ideologists and propagandists.

The fact is the science remains the same, the planet that we live on is warming at a faster rate because of human produced greenhouse gases. The Arctic is warming at the fastest rate which is exactly as predicted by mainstream climate science. There are literally thousands of other signs and facts that support mainstream science, yet there are people that choose to find alternative theories or more often than not they do not even know (or want to know) that the world around them is changing.

So what has been achieved?

Electric Vehicles

This is a growing success story. The revolution probably started around 2000 when Toyota started getting serious about hybrid cars (Prius), then around 2008/2009 Tesla started producing the Roadster. Since then the pace has picked up, with huge improvements in last few years in battery development and vehicle design. This development is also linked to automation features in new vehicles, such as self driving cars.

One unexpected path has been the growing field of electric car racing, including drag racing, Tesla car racing and the more formal yearly Formula E season. There is a long way to go, but the fact is 'range anxiety' is gradually fading and the incredible performance of electric vehicles along with low maintenance costs means the future is bright for electric road transport. Worldwide there are about 50 electric models on sale in 2017 and Tesla are launching their first electric truck later in the year.

Solar Energy

Another success story, largely driven by common sense and foreign uptake of the technology. The success of solar photovoltaics is largely due to automated mass production capabilities, enabling economies of scale. The more installations there are across the world, the cheaper the technology gets.

This is why solar energy is predicted to be cheaper than coal and other fossil fuels, these old (Victorian) technologies can not compete with the reliability, low maintenance costs and low life cycle/energy costs of solar energy.  

Wind Energy

Wind energy has been more controversial as a result of lies and myths (many discussed on this blog) regarding wind farms. There have been campaigns to discredit wind energy for purely political purposes and to prop up ailing fossil fuel energy businesses. Nearly all of the British countryside is industrialised by agriculture, so the idea that a wind turbine is going to industrialise natural habitats is largely a result of a poor understanding of the British landscape.

Energy Storage

This is a growing area for investment and it is sad that Fareham based company Isentropic went into administration. However the good news is that the development of their Pumped Heat Energy Storage (PHES) system continues with the support of Newcastle University at the Sir Joseph Swan Centre and work continues at the Fareham site. According to the new web site the grid scale demonstrator is being commisioned and will be going through performance testing this summer.

Apart from Insentropic the current popular technology is the battery and the improvements in this area as a result of electric vehicle development is spilling over into grid and domestic energy storage.
Tesla is again a leader in this field although there have been many other companies less well known that have been developing battery technology for a number of years. Energy storage will help to remove power stations from the grid, allowing renewable energy to be stored when there is excess and to be distributed when there is shortage.

I think Elon Musk the founder of Tesla, Space X and Solar City deserves a mention. Musk is a modern day Thomas Edison which is ironic considering he named his company after Nikola Tesla a rival of Edison (Teslas AC electricity distribution system was superior to Edisons DC system, but Tesla ended gained little for his efforts). Musk is a visionary engineer and business man, he cofounded Pay Pal, sold his share and used the money to revolutionise road vehicles and the space transport industry. He knows that climate change is a serious problem caused by our carbon emissions.

Friday, May 12

St Georges Font vandalised

Photo of font at Easter, before vandalism,
I have been made aware that the font at St Georges Church was vandalised at the end of April. Basically it was pushed over and as a consequence was smashed to pieces.

If you would like to help with donations for the font repairs/replacement and to improve security at the church, visit the church web site:

Monday, April 10

Brantanos goes into administration

Having ripped apart Waterlooville shopping centre a number of years ago, Brantanos has itself gone into failure mode.

Waterlooville once had about half a dozen or so shoe shops, in fact Subways is now in the location of one of them. When Brantanos appeared in the retail park all but two of the shops closed down. A combination of Havant Borough Councils mismanagment and the greed of retail park developers allowed Brantanos to plonk itself outside the shopping centre.

Consumer choice and hence competition was reduced locally.

Sunday, April 9

Tories continue to push anti-environment agenda

Latest news which is supported by local Hampshire Conservative thinking regarding the economy and the environment shows that the Tories are brushing aside environmental issues when negotiating trade deals following the UK leaving the EU.

Local Tories have regularly expressed that the economy comes before environmental concerns when discussing environmental issues. This is highlighted by MP Alan Maks campaign to only ever discuss business and the economy, even when there is a terrorist attack!

This attitude (ignorance or arrogance?) is also reflected in national policy according the
national press. The Times report that both Climate Change and Illegal Wildlife trade are to be ignored during trade negotiations.

Why are we winding back time?

Monday, April 3

The Expanse scientific realism and politics

Yes us 'green' folk understand science. This blog post is again not the normal thing I write about, but The Expanse is an exception.

Some articles about The Expanse (Netflix in the UK) science:


A detailed description of the launch of the Nauvoo, a giant interstellar ship paid for by the Mormons:

The Coriolis effect and other things:

The best SciFi TV show (ever?) that you are not watching:

It's a great pity that The Expanse isn't more widely available. Hopefully it will eventually.
Google Play appear to have place holders for the episodes broadcast by SyFy, but they aren't available on Google Play to purchase yet. One can only assume that they have rights to 'rent' and sell episodes at a later date.The Expanse is available on DVD and Blu-Ray discs in the US, but not anywhere else. I don't really understand why they limit access? These days it is normal to get a product out to as many outlets as soon possible.
Meanwhile if you have access to Netflix, it is a must see.

Season 2 sneak peek:

Solar energy cuts demand to the National Grid

As I have pointed out in past blogs, solar panels placed on home and business roofs remove the electricity demand that those properties have on the National Grid. It turns out that is also what the National Grid think and it is reflected in their supply and demand calculations.
Robert talks about solar energy and various other renewable energy topics. Apparently Trump used a spoof information poster about wind turbines to support fake science and personal views about wind energy.

Saturday, March 25

Exploring Berewood and Wellington Park

A few photos I took during my recent exploration of the new housing developments.
Some mature trees have been left alone. The new school is in the background.


Looking towards Waterlooville through the Berewood Estate. St Georges church clock tower can be seen in the distance.

More homes on the Berewood estate. The drainage systems are found throughout the estate. Yep, the joys of moronic British 'political' boundaries means that these Waterlooville homes are in the boundaries of Winchester City Council 21 miles away, as opposed to Havant Borough Council 5.4 miles away.

Paths and roads have been created joining different parts of the developing areas. Many of the roads are currently blocked off until the development work is completed.

Another drainage system, new homes in the distance.

There is a bridge that connects Berewood with Wellington Park. Like many of the roads it is blocked off, although it is open to cyclists and pedestrians. The wood crash barrier is a nice feature and gets thumbs up here! Why can't all crash barriers look like this!

The stream as seen from the bridge.

Not all the Wellington Park homes look ugly brick boxes. These are boxes, but they have wood cladding. Why can't the whole estate look like this?

Sunday, March 19

The Expanse vs Battlestar Galactica

This isn't the normal sort of subject I blog about, but The Expanse is probably the hottest Science Fiction series out now (available in the UK on Netflix) and I like science fiction.

Battlestar Galactica (the remake) has been praised as being a cutting edge expensive modern Sci-Fi series, but the fact is much of it is a low cost 'soap' with very few CGI sequences. Plus of course the science portrayed is largely garbage. I picked up season 2 to 4 of Battlestar on DVD for £2.75, so it looks like it hasn't stood the test of time. That's a huge number of episodes for next to nothing.

The same can not be said for The Expanse which has just started it's second series in the US on the SyFy channel. The first season was very addictive with the storyline progressing throughout the season (unlike Star Trek where episodes are self contained).

The Expanse is set about 200 years into the future, Mars and the Asteroid Belt are both colonised with Earth governed by the UN (probably the least convincing part of the scenario!). Mars and the Belt have their own governments or political factions and none of the three factions seem to trust each other.
This leads to many undeclared battle scenarios where space stations and ships are destroyed with much loss of life. There are many acts of genocide, but remember this is space and it is vast, so you can get away with murder. It can take hours to send a message for help across the solar system, then it can take hours for help to arrive, by which time the crooks have left the scene (or not!). It turns out the writers love these delays because it reintroduces old style problems of communication, eliminated by modern smart phone technology.
Flushing someone out of an airlock is an instant answer to any personal or political disagreement.

What does stand out by far is the attention to engineering and science detail. Unusually for science fiction The Expanse (with the exception of the space ships main rocket engines and unusually normal gravity on small astroids!) does take real science into account.

The ships are armed with kinetic weapons, not lasers. There are few or no explosions when these kinetic projectiles hit their target, they smash up their targets or produce holes in the hulls.
This means that if you are on the receiving end of one of these space projectiles you need to be suited up because the big holes in your ship will vent atmosphere (Whipple shields don't offer much protection).

The weapons used are the space equivalent of the modern Phalanx CIWS and instead of laser flashes, you see tracers fly across space to their target. The big Mars and Earth battleships have rail guns (electric guns). Missiles are also used and they can carrying nuclear warheads.

Gravity is another thing that is taken seriously in The Expanse. The ships do not fly unrealistically in space like aircraft (as in Star Wars and Star Trek), they have to manoeuvre using thrusters and rocket engines. To make a 180 degree turn, a ship first has to use manoeuvring thrusters to make the turn and then the main engines to de-accelerate to a stop and accelerate in the new direction.

Gravity onboard these huge ships does not exist unless there is acceleration or de-acceleration (or there is a centrugal force system). The ships are built like skyscrappers with the engine at the equivalent of 'ground level'. When they accelerate, all the decks (skycrapper floors) experience artificial gravity, sometimes to much!

When there is no gravity onboard ship, crew engage their magnetic boots to walk around, these can be turned on and off instantly with a click of the heel.

Is all this science bad for the narrative and story?

Hell no. The story includes an element of fantasy and an engaging plot. If you like politics, mystery, intrigue, 'alien' culture, who dunnit etc. then they all exist in The Expanse.
Some unofficial space war science at Atomic Rockets web site:

Saturday, February 25

Froggy is back

Mr or Mrs Frog is back in the garden, keeping guard on a lot of frogs spawn again.

Sunday, February 19

Trump has all the hallmarks of a - potential - totalitarian leader

But will he succeed?

Why do I suggest Trump has the character of a totalitarian leader?

Well, the final clue is his 'rally' this weekend. In a working democracy an elected leader accepts the rules of the process that defines the democratic system. If the leader wishes to change things, they do so using the government processes and the rules that define democracy.
Elected leaders once in office are required to work within the process. This includes public meetings and events, they accept that process and address the nation as a whole that elected the leader.

Trump this weekend is doing what all dictators do (or presidents in deep trouble??), they define the rules and bring in their own supporters to a rally, they then claim that those supporters represent the nation and implicitly suggest that anyone else can't exist or is not worthy to be a citizen of the nation.

Another indicator of a dictator is the attack on the media. Trumps claims of Fake News and lying media is straight out of the Dummys Guide to becoming a Dictator. Trump claims everyone who attacks his ideas and position are liars. This process in itself is not important, it is the fact that Trump does it and believes it makes sense to continue down that path that indicates that dictatorship is a trait he has.

Let us not forget that Hitler basically whined and complained his way into power and he pulled thousands of others into power by suggesting their problems were basically the same as his.

I'm not a great fan of Thatcher, but the fact is she didn't complain about Spitting Image or the numerous other attacks on her politics and personality made by the media. She new it was a part of the democratic system and free speech.

Trump and his buddies do not appear to tolerate democracy or satire. This is either a ruse, or the they are incompetent or they genuinely have totalitarian tendencies.

This blogger BTW has become a real fan of Saturday Night Live, it is the key to prevent the likes of Trump destroying his nation and taking the world with it!

Sunday, January 15

DAB reception improved in the area?

I purchased a Pure DAB/FM radio-alarm clock many years ago. The old radio alarm clock was getting annoying after many years of good service because it was manually tuned.
So some 6 years ago (I think) I bought the Pure clock radio for £25. It turned out to be a bargain because of all the automated features, including keeping track of the yearly time changes. However I struggled to get good DAB reception, so after a few years I gave up bothering and stuck to FM radio.

That changed recently when I decided to try DAB again and was surprised to hear perfect glitch free audio. Plus it has been consistently perfect ever since, this is particularly useful for listening to Radio 4 Extra which is a digital only channel. So finally my little £25 radio has become a real bargain.