Katrina Pierson
Katrina Pierson is Trump’s spokeswoman.
This article on The Intercept, which is entitled Donald Trump’s Spokeswman says a lot of things that are not true, gives more idea about her competence and how she does her job.
The article starts with these two paragraphs.
Let this news, and the fact that it is news, sink in: Katrina Pierson, the former Tea Party activist who is now Donald Trump’s national spokeswoman, admitted on Wednesday that Barack Obama was not the president of the United States in 2004.
The reason it was considered necessary to extract this concession to reality from Pierson is that she had insisted, during an interview with CNN the night before, that President Obama was responsible for the death of Capt. Humayun Khan, an American soldier who was killed in Iraq five years before he became commander-in-chief.
She obviously didn’t get the job with Trump because of her brains and scientific correctness.
Perhaps, as she came from The Tea Party, she should go back to what she does best and serve tea in the Texan equivalent of Betty’s.
My Favourite Gadgets
The pictures show some of my favourite gadgets, many of which can be classed as engineering pornography.
They may seem a rather odd collection, but I like to think the design is good, even if some of the gadgets are just a few pounds.
Meridian Water Gets Its First Planning Permission
This article in the Enfield Independent is entitled Planning permission given to first batch of Meridian Water homes. This is the start of the article.
Work will soon start on the first homes in a £3.5billion development after getting the planning green light.
Enfield Council’s planning committee has given permission for the first phase of Meridian Water, agreeing to the construction of 725 homes, as well as retail space, play areas, a community centre and a new train station which will have the facilities to include the planned Crossrail 2.
The decision follows the announcement last month of Barratt and SEGRO as developers for the scheme, which the council hope will provide 10,000 homes and 6,700 jobs in Edmonton.
London certainly needs this development with all its houses and a replacement for Angel Road station and I doubt that few will mourn the passing of the industrial wasteland that the area is now.
I Was Always Told It Was Rude To Point
My mother told me it was rude to point, but it seems Donald Trump does it all the time, as this page from Time points out.
This image is typical.
CLEVELAND, OH – JULY 18: Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump gestures to his wife Melania after she delivered a speech on the first day of the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. An estimated 50,000 people are expected in Cleveland, including hundreds of protesters and members of the media. The four-day Republican National Convention kicks off on July 18. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
I can see it on the cover of Private Eye with a very funny caption.
Could More Pedestrianisation And Better Public Transport Be A Weapon Against Terrorism?
Protecting against the sort of attack like the one in Nice last night , must be every policeman’s nightmare.
The City of London put a ring of steel around the Square Mile and there hasn’t been a serious attack since. But it caused lots of other problems.
I actually think, that we now have so many areas where large crowds congregate for work, shopping and sporting events, that we need more and more traffic restrictions like those proposed for Oxford Street.
Intriguingly, the City of London is going the same way and wants to remove a lot of traffic from the area around Bank.
So is this pedestrianisation, perhaps linked with better public transport, one of our best weapons against terrorism?
The Mind Of A Terrorist
I don’t know, as I’m at best, a poor amateur psychologist, but it strikes me there are two types of terrorist wanting to create mayhem and kill lots of people.
The first group, are those who want to leave a bomb or device and get safely away.The Bishopsgate and Baltic Exchange bombings which in today’s money together caused over a billion pounds of damage, are examples of this type, where no-one was ever prosecuted, or even publicly named.
The second group are the much-more suicide bombers, who generally strike without warning
Incidentally, I only think one Irish bomber was killed by his own bomb and we can all be thankful for that, as if suicide tactics had been employed, we would have seen many more deaths.
The City Of London’s Ring Of Steel
The City of London is protected by a so-called Ring of Steel, which is a network of barriers, check-points and 649 CCTV cameras.
It certainly seems to have protected the City from further bombings and made terrorists seek out alternative targets outside the Square Mile.
It has had one very positive effect, although at times that doesn’t seem to be as effective as it was. The City inside the ring, is now a very pleasant place to walk about and explore, as traffic is much-reduced.
Also, at weekends, the City is now a very quiet place for much of the year.
When I was still driving and needed perhaps to park a car for the evening or overnight, I would also park it prominently on a meter or legal parking space inside the ring, as I knew it would still be there in the morning.
The Future Of The City Of London
The City of London is pushing ahead with a policy of pedestrianisation, improved walking routes and better access to the Underground and rail network.
They have one great advantage compared to most other local authorities. Land is so expensive in the City and therefore fortunes are spent to create buildings that will earn billions, that if the City says to a developer, can you put an Underground entrance in your building, the answer is usually yes.
At the present time, Bloomberg are creating a new headquarters building called Walbrook Square, that will incorporate a second entrance to the Waterloo and City Line.
Other cities across the UK and the wider world are not so lucky!
Crossrail and the upgraded Thameslink will have their effects on the City, because of the positions of their stations and other factors.
- , Crossrail will have a massive double-ended station stretching from Liverpool Street in the East to Moorgate in the West.
- Thameslink will have a line of stations; Fasrringdon, City Thameslink and Blackfriars, down the West of the City.
- Crossrail and Thameslink will have their important interchange at Frarringdon.
- Crossrail will have a major interchange at Whitechapel serving the East of the City.
- Thameslink will also have a major interchange at London Bridge, just across the River from the City.
- Crossrail and Thameslink will be running two hundred metre long trains at a frequency of twenty-four trains per hour in both directions.
Add to that the existing services of the Central, Circle, District, Metropolitan and Waterloo and City Lines of the Underground and National Rail services out of Cannon Street, Fenchurch Street, Liverpool Street and Moorgate, all of which will be upgraded and I believe that at some point in the future, the City of London, will take the bold and very green step of making the whole area a pedestrian-only one, with the only vehicles allowed in the day, being approved electrical ones.
It would be a bold move, but it have several positive effects.
- Air quality would improve.
- The City would be the place to work!
- The City would become one of London’s major tourist attractions, with visitors able to walk all across from St. Pauls to the Tower and the River.
- Innovation would work to provide the services a city needed despite the restrictions.
Would terrorists realise that the sort of spectaculars they love, would be more difficult and go elsewhere?
We could see a return to suicide bombers on the Underground!
Conclusions
The City of London will reinvent itself, as it does periodically with great success.
Given that Oxford Street has said that it will pedestrianise by 2020, are we seeing a green transport revolution?
I can think of a few other cities and towns, that could follow London’s example.
The Attack On La Promenade Des Anglais
I know the area of the despicable, cowardly and ultimately tragic attack well, as over the last thirty years or so, I’ve been to Nice several times and stayed just off that road and even walked down the road, which runs parallel to the beach. There are even pictures of the area in Wandering Around Nice.
Years ago, when we had the house in Antibes, I seem to remember one Bastille Day going to see the fireworks. It was chaotic, as they still allow traffic to go through the area. Which I think they did last night!
Protecting against this sort of attack, must be every policeman’s nightmare.
Losing The Plot?
David Aaronovitch in The Times today has a piece about the Labour Party and its leadership election.
He says this.
On the very day that Theresa May was, in effect, transfigured into prime minister, Corbyn was at a meeting of the Cuba Solidarity Committee, recommitting to the dynastic dictatorship of the Castros, just as he has been doing these 40 years.
Was Corbyn getting advice?
I am virtually Corbyn’s age and I can remember the ardent, often heavy smoking, left-wingers we had when I was at Liverpool University, in the 1960s. Prominent amongst them was that pillar of the left; Robert Kilroy Silk, who incidentally was C’s tutor and persisted in smoking Capstan |Full Strength all through tutorials, despite C being pregnant at the time.
I have checked the Internet for all the left-wingers, that I remember from that time and all seem to have vanished without trace. I wonder how many are living in semis in Pinner, Mossley Hill and Edgbaston, with a Mondeo outside and 2.4 children?
What Do You Call This?
I bought this rack for hot dishes just out of the oven from IKEA.
What do you call it?
IKEA call it a trivet, which is defined thus.
A metal stand with short feet, used under a hot dish on a table.
IKEA either can’t count as it has four legs, or they have done a great job in a redesign.
What Can We Expect From Theresa May?
I remember Margaret Thatcher well and from things I heard at the time, a lot of people felt they’d get the country they wanted, where criminals were hung and flogged and big business could run roughshod over the small man.
What we got from Mrs. Thatcher was not what everybody expected, because mainly she was an intelligent woman, who analysed what was needed in a crisis and then did it.
I always remember my Labour-supporting accountant at the time, saying that Thatcher and her Chancellors may have reduced the tax paid by high-earners, but they had certainly closed a large number of massive tax loopholes. My accountant certainly would have known.
Mrs. Thatcher certainly stood up to the problems, but then other Prime Ministers would. But I think, she did it in a unique way, which probably meant she could carry the country with her more easily.
I’m certain, that all important female leaders because they think differently to men and generally don’t have the massive ego, that many men do, tend to do different things or the same things in different ways.
For a start Angela Merkel always gives me the impression, she’s the wise aunt, that all families need and many have and Golda Meir made out she was tougher than any man.
Mrs. T always came across as the power-dressed professional and I’ve met a few competent female judges, lawyers and accountants, who put forward the same aura.
Theresa May will develop her own style and aura, as all politicians and especially prime ministers do. She’ll need to as, she has been left with a very bad set of cards.
What do I think she’ll do?
- As I pointed out in Small Modular Nuclear Reactors. I think Hinckley Point C will be cancelled.
- HS2 will be cut back in terms of cost, but increased in scope to create a One Nation Railway. As the changes at Sheffield, that I wrote about in HS2 Does The Right Thing At Sheffield, showed, good design of the railway can save a lot of money ande add more stations to the network.
I will add to this list.
Small Modular Nuclear Reactors
My objections to nuclear power plants like Hinckley Point C, is very much like my objections to giant aircraft carriers like HMS Queen Elizabeth,enormous 4×4 Chelsea tractors and massive houses, where one billionaire lives with just his trophy wife.
It’s just that they satisfy the ego of a class of men (and it’s usually men!), who like to show off, that they have more money or power than others.
There are generally much more efficient and affordable ways of achieving the same aims.
As a small example, I remember having a chat with a General in the British Army, who had very low opinions of heavy tanks and felt that there were better ways of spending the money to achieve the same objectives.
I also remember some of the arguments about the aluminium frigates after the Falklands War. A lot of these were amplified, by a friend, who’d gone to the islands as an officer on a British Rail ferry.
This is said about Hinckley Point C in Wikipedia.
Hinkley Point C nuclear power station is a much-delayed proposal to construct a 3,200 MWe nuclear power station with two EPR reactors in Somerset, England. The proposed site is one of eight announced by the British government in 2010,[5] and on 26 November 2012 a nuclear site licence was granted. In October 2014, the European Commission adjusted the “gain-share mechanism” so that the project does not break state-aid rules.[7] Financing for the project will be provided “by the mainly [French] state-owned EDF [and Chinese] state-owned CGN will pay £6bn for one third of it”.[8] EDF may sell up to 15% of their stake. Financing of the project is still to be finalised.
I have a feeling that any sane woman, who’s lived with a man with bad shopping habits, would cancel it tomorrow.
After all, it’s supposed to cost £18billion and there is still no date yet for when it will produce a watt of electricity.
As a reaction to these enormous costs, the Small Modular Nuclear Reactor is being proposed. Wikipedia says this.
Small modular reactors (SMRs) are a type of nuclear fission reactor which are smaller than conventional reactors, and manufactured at a plant and brought to a site to be fully constructed.
Small reactors are defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency as those with an electricity output of less than 300 MWe, although general opinion is that anything with an output of less than 500 MWe counts as a small reactor.
Modular reactors allow for less on-site construction, increased containment efficiency, and heightened nuclear materials security.
I recommend reading the full Wikipedia article.
I feel that SMRs have a lot of advantages.
- Much more of the building can be in a factory, not on a bleak remote site.
- They are particularly suited to remote locations, where there is a shortage of construction workers.
- An SMR may be a much less risky project cost-wise than a conventional large plant.
- Containment is more efficient.
- Proliferation concerns are lessened.
- Say you are building a plant that needs a lot of electricity, like say an aluminium smelter. The SMR could be built alongside, so there would be no need for massive transmission lines, between the smelter and its power source.
- They could be built underground, lessening the visual impact.
- High energy use industries like steel-making could be paired with an SMR.
- Large office complexes like Canary Wharf could be linked to an SMR deep underneath for their massive energy use.
- Build time is much less.
I like the concept and think that this type of reactor, perhaps arranged in groups around a country or region, will kill off the traditional large nuclear reactor.
This section on safety features illustrates the innovative thinking behind the reactors.
Since there are several different ideas for SMRs, there are many different safety features that can be involved. Coolant systems can use natural circulation – convection – so there are no pumps, no moving parts that could break down, and they keep removing decay heat after the reactor shuts down, so that the core doesn’t overheat and melt. Negative temperature coefficients in the moderators and the fuels keep the fission reactions under control, causing the fission reactions to slow down as temperature increases.
I suspect we can now design a reliable reactor, that say it received a direct hit from a tsunami or three simultaneous crashes from Jumbo jets, would fail-safe.
There are certainly a lot of groups and companies trying to design the ultimate SMR.
There is even a concept being developed at the Universities of Manchester and Delft in the Netherlands called a u-Battery. That concept may not work, but something like it will produce electricity for a lot of people and industry around the world.
The dinosaurs like Hinckley Point C are hopefully a mistake of the past.
The Anonymous Widower 