Using The Power Of Water
We’ve seen enough rain this winter and it has caused a lot of damage at places like Dawlish. This story from the BBC, shows how to make working safe at Dawlish, the Devon Fire Brigade is using water to bring down an unsafe landslip. Here’s the first bit.
Fire crews are pumping sea water on to the cliff at Dawlish to bring down 350,000 tonnes of potentially unstable rock and soil in a controlled landslip.
Network Rail called in firefighters to prevent a “catastrophic” collapse that could have posed a risk to workers repairing the main Devon railway line.
What I find interesting, is that lots of people are against hydraulic fracking or fracking, which on a grand and more open scale, Network Rail are doing at Dawlish.
More Peer-to-Peer Lending Speculation
Over the last few weeks various respected publications have speculated that peer-to-peer lending will soon be allowed to be wrapped up in an ISA. There have been articles in The Independent and the Daily Telegraph. Both papers are not noted for printing rumours and gossip.
Now the Herald joins in, with a long and thoughtful article, that says that social lenders savers could be rewarded with tax relief.
I think that if George Osborne do what is being rumoured, it would be good for savers and good for those in need of loans at affordable rates.
Cod, Potatoes And Onions
This was a simple recipe of Lindsey Bareham’s that I did last night.
Cod, Potatoes And Onions
It was cooked in one saucepan and although it looks a bit anaemic, it was tasty. Lindsey cooked her’s with peas and I think that would be better.
I’ll be doing it again. But with peas!
The Mobile Device Charger Scandal
I generally come back to my home base several times a day and usually I put my Samsung phone on its charger, to make sure it doesn’t drop me in it, when perhaps I need it urgently.
Not that I depend on my phone for anything important. Away from base, I use it to make phone calls, send and receive text messages and occasionally I’ll log in to the Internet using wi-fi on a train or in a cafe.
I never use it as a navigation device, except in an emergency and I don’t run any apps. I haven’t even used it as a calculator.
The BBC has an article about the lack of battery life in mobile devices today. The first paragraph is the only positive thing that it says.
The European Parliament is voting on whether to have a single charger for all phones. With shorter battery lives many are a prisoner to their chargers, notes Harry Low.
The rest of the article is mainly about everybody’s paranoia about not running out of power.
The industry wouldn’t like it, but in my view it would be a good idea. Especially, if as would probably happen, the United States would have a different standard charger than the European Union.
The real solutions are either technological or psychological.
My Nokia 6310i used to last a whole week on one charge and this should be the standard. It will be attained in the future by better battery technology and lower power chips. But then people will just do more on their devices.
The psychological route will be increasingly important. People will have to develop strategies that fit their device usage to their work and leisure lifestyle.
But simple changes will happen to the mobile device environment.
Having just lost my mobile phone at Gatwick to great inconvenience, I feel the networks could do better.
We change our clothes to the circumstances, so why don’t we change our phones? Sometimes, I go back to my Nokia 6310i, if all I’m going to do is make and receive calls and send and receive texts. But then I have the problem of swapping the sim card between the phones.
Why can’t I have two phones with the same number on the same account?
Obviously, there needs to be some on-phone technology to tell the network, which phone you are using. But a lot of my problems in Marrakesh, would have been solved if I’d had a second phone in my bag.
It seems silly, that we travel with something that is so important to our lives and no backup. You might travel with only one pair of shoes, but if they failed you, in most places you’d be able to get something to put on your feet.
The Anonymous Widower 