Smoking In Claridges
Apparently if you’re a billionaire and want to stay in one of the expensive suites at Claridges, they change the furniture for a set for smokers and back again afterwards.
That has a certain style, but as the story came in an article about an autocratic Chinese businessman in the Business section of The Sunday Times, I doubt I’ll be using, the stores talked about in the article. Smokers should not be indulged.
Trump Recruits A Mad Dog
The title of this article on the BBC is Trump names Gen James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis as defence secretary.
It needs no comment!
Wattway
I was pointed to this French innovation by the Sunday Times.
Effectively, Wattway, is a system of solar panels that you can put in a road and drive on.
Click here for the Wattway web site.
I have a feeling that it will lead to all sorts of applications, especially where power is needed at a remote location.
I suspect too, that it doesn’t need planning permission as such, whereas even a small wind-turbine might!
Is Wi-Fi Becoming A Curse?
I usually only switch wi-fi on when I need it, on my Samsung phone. And when I don’t, I switch it off immediately.
Yesterday, I forgot to switch it off and this morning as the bus went through the Angel, the phone had switched itself to an O2 advert and it was trying to get me to install fourteen copies of updated apps.
I immediately, switched wi-fi off and didn’t install any updated apps, as in fact, I only use one app and that never seems to update itself.
How many people just update all the apps, they’re asked to do and inadvertently load a piece of malware, that empties their bank account?
Remember, it is in your phone service provider’s interest that you keep updating, as this generally increases your bill.
I also have no financial details on my mobile phone. Anybody who does, deserves to lose all their money!
A Newspaper So Hot, It Has To Be Kept In A Fridge With Lots Of Water
I took this picture, in W H Smith’s at Kings Cross station.
A Newspaper So Hot, It Has To Be ~Kept In A Fridge With Lots Of Water
I prefer my newspaper to have the latest hot stories. Especially with lots of accessible Vitamin D.
BT Gets Tough With Flying Rats
Flying rats or pigeons to the RSPB, are a problem in Liverpool Street station.
So BT has got tough!
BT Gets Tough With Flying Rats
It would probably help, if everybody dropping littler got sentence to sit on top of the phone-box for an hour.
Crossrail Lined Up For A Skyscraper
This article from Building Design On Line, is entitled Shedkm’s Crossrail tower in for planning.
This is the first paragraph.
Shedkm-designed plans for a 29-storey residential tower block next to Abbey Wood Station in south-east London have been lodged for approval with the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
So Crossrail will go up and down, as well as East and West.
This scheme will comprise 208 homes and a ninety-bed hotel.
I think we’ll see more of schemes like this, especially to build much needed housing.
Would I Go Back To Las Palmas?
It’s over a week now, since I returned from Las Palmas and I ask myself the inevitable question.
Yes! I certainly would, at this time of year, as the sun has done me good.
Although, I probably wouldn’t go back for a year or so, as there are lots of other islands out there in the Atlantic with sun.
Brits Keen To Go Green But Don’t Want To Pay For It
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Energy Live News.
It is an interesting article.
- People in London and Northern Ireland are more likely to pay a green premium.
- People in the South-East and Wales are most unlikely.
- More than one in 10 of those willing to pay more would be happy to pay an extra 31-50% for greener energy.
I think it is better value to make sure you don’t use the energy in the first place.
I also feel, that much of our housing stock can never be made energy efficient and should be knocked down and replaced with better quality housing.
It’s Time To Look On The Bright Side Of Trump
This was the title of a comment by Matt Ridley in The Times yesterday.
He may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I have read a couple of his books; Genome and Nature via Nurture and found they added to my knowledge.
This is a precis of his comment.
He starts like this.
So here, after a few days of talking to people in America’s two biggest economies, California and Texas, are ten reasons why I think a Trump residency may not be as awful as many think, even if, like me, you heard of the news of his victory with a sinking feeling.
The article has ten main sections.
- Just as after Brexit, the markets went up, not down. Despite the predictions of analysts.
- He is already watering down his more outlandish threats.
- The Presidency is nothing like as powerful a job as it seems.
- The Democratic Party will soon be back and hounding Mr. Trump, if only in the Courts.
- Mr. Trump is already surrounding himself with reasonably sensible people.
- Some of his policies are not so bad.
- His adviser on climate and energy, Myron Ebell, is right that climate change policy has become a gravy train for the rich that hurts the poor.
- The promised “swamp draining” – in the unlikely event Mr. Trump pulls it off – will be cathartic.
- His reprehensible attitude to women, minorities and the disabled, though setting a terrible example, is fortunately unlikely to result in actual persecution by the government.
- The idea that this is the end of democracy or the start of fascism, as some hyperventilating luvvies are saying, is nonsense.
Ridley finishes with.
If he really does kill the North American Free Trade Agreement, as well as the transpacific and transatlantic trade treaties, he will assuredly cause a recession that hurts blue-collar workers in the rust belt more than free trade ever did. And he might craqsh the world economy.
I can see few silver linings there.
Here are some quotes from the article I can agree with.
- Mr. Pence is a creationist and religious conservative, which is not my cup of tea.
- The House Speaker, Paul Ryan, is a formidable figure who will effectively decide how much of Trump’s programme will happen.
- Steven Mnuchin, the likely Treasury Secretary, is from Goldman Sachs, for goodness sake.
- If Mr. Trump unleashes more gas production, that will cut emissions and drive out coal faster than renewable energy ever could.
- Compared with many Republicans, Mr. Trump is positively liberal on matters such as abortion and religion.
- If Mr. Trump makes a mess of things, he will be gone in four years – or sooner.
If you get a chance to read the whole article, you should.
The Anonymous Widower 