Free Wi-Fi In Gdansk
I was very surprised to find that Gdansk city centre had a totally open and free Wi-fi network.
Free Wi-Fi In Gdansk
I sat in a cafe in the main square and checked all my regular web sites like the BBC on my phone.
There is a list of places listed here on Wikipedia under Municipal Wireless Network. Blackpool, Bristol, Liverpool and Norwich are listed for the UK.
How long will it be before we’ll just list the cities which don’t have it?
One of the reasons, I use Carluccio’s so often is that they have free wi-fi and after connecting once, you get all of their restaurants.
Victoria Asks The Question
Victoria Derbyshire asked this morning how George Osborne’s pension changes will affect you.
They won’t effect me, but they will effect those companies that provide the dreaded annuities, as I won’t be buying one!
I will be putting money into a peer-to-peer lender like Zopa, to provide me with a flexible income.
Suppose you had £50,000 invested in Zopa and it was generally lent out at 5% for five years. This money would be safeguarded by Zopa.
Once it was fully lent out, you would get an interest payment of £2,500 each year and capital repayments of £10,000 a year.
So in other words, you could withdraw £12,500 a year with no trouble. But if you didn’t and left it to accumulate in Zopa you would be earning more money.
Obviously, you would have to pay tax on your earnings, but the idea of using Zopa or one of their ilk, as an annuity could turn out to be a good one.
There is a rumour doing the rounds, that peer-to-peer lenders will be starting to productise their offerings, by creating specialist ISAs and flexible on-demand deposit accounts.
The Pollution Didn’t Seem To Be Too Bad!
To check on the forecast pollution, I took some pictures this morning and early afternoon.
I started by taking a 56 bus, which is one of the Dalston omnibuses, to St. Paul’s, where I mounted on One New Change.
I then took the DLR from Bank to Royal Victoria, from where I took the cable car to North Greenwich.
I finished the journey by taking the Underground to Chalk Farm from where I walked to the top of Primrose Hill.
I also found this page on the DEFRA web site, which gives a pollution forecast.
Sense On Farage Versus Clegg
I didn’t watch the debate last night, as I was watching the football and trying to make sense of my tiger photos.
This morning, I’ve read the report in The Times and especially the comments from readers. The latter are probably summed up by this one.
Good strategy of Tories and Labour to keep out of this playground spat.
Farage looks like (is) a man offering simple solutions to complex problems, which is appealing in a protest vote like the Euro elections, but he has nothing to say about actually running the country as potential PM, so will not get far in a GE when people really are paying attention and are worried about jobs, health, education, etc.
Clegg used it as an attempt (failed) to look statesman-like, but few have his appetite for more Europe, and even he didn’t seem convinced by his own arguments. He is a man whose time in the limelight has been and gone. Not many people will remember his name in a decade.
So it might well be that most people actually saw Farage versus Clegg as entertainment or perhaps a dangerous freak show.
Melati And Her Cubs
This is a library of all the pictures that I took today, that are worth uploading.
If you think these are bad, then you ought to see the ones I discarded.
Like Mother Like Cub
London Zoo’s tiger cubs were a bit reluctant to show themselves. But I did get this picture of their mother, who is called Melati.
Sumatran Tiger Melati
Then one of the cubs decided to imitate his or her mother.
Like Mother Like Cub
I have published some more pictures.
Tiger Shooting In North London
I went tiger hunting in North London yesterday and only got this picture of a magnificent male, who looks like he’s eaten all the cream.
Tiger Shooting In North London
I was actually looking for a mother and three cubs, but despite the good weather, they decided to stay in their den. According to London Zoo, they are free to emerge as they choose into the enclosure.
Accurately Measuring Rice
I had half a chilli con carne last night for supper last night and I needed to cook some rice. My rice method needs 65 ml. of long grain rice for each person, together with 130 ml. of water
I have a standard Pyrex measure, but I generally measure things by weight using a letter balance. It is easy to convert water from ml. to grams, by just changing the units as the specific gravity of of water is unity. So I searched the Internet to find out what is the value of the specific gravity of long grain rice. I couldn’t find anything, so in the end I measured it using my letter balance. Surprisingly the specific gravity is nearly unity.
So I then weighed 65 grams of rice on the scale, after zeroing it to account for the tumbler and then carefully added 130 grams of water.
Accurately Measuring Rice
The rice certainly tasted as good as packet rice in the microwave.
Some Transport Related April Fools
This year was particularly good for April Fools in the papers and around the Internet. The Times today even has a discussion on the Letters Page today, about which of their stories yesterday were real.
There were three transport-related stories, that I found.
1. Wombles fan plays April Fool’s Day joke in Kensal Green
2. Councils at loggerheads over Croxley Rail Link viaduct colour scheme
3. Like A Bat Out Of Crossrail
It is good to see that gentle humour isn’t dead yet!
Enthusiasm For Class 68 And Class 88
I found this article from Rail Engineer about the new Class 68 and Class 88 locomotives that will soon be pulling freight and passenger trains on the UK rail network.
The article is enthusiastic about the two classes, but notes that the Class 68 will not meet the toughest EU pollution regulations. This is particularly appropriate given that the UK and some European countries are suffering high levels of air pollution. The Rail Engineer article says this about compliance to the new regulations.
The CAT engines meet European Stage IIIA emission standards, and can be modified to meet 2012 IIIB emission standards by replacing the exhaust silencer with a diesel particulate filter. However, because of the UK’s restricted loading gauge, this would involve considerable re-design work if it were to be applied to the Class 68.
It is important that rail locomotives are improved, as the current mainstay, the Class 66 is not liked by those who live on busy freight routes, due to its noise. I’ve also talked to drivers, who feel they have other problems too.
As an engineer, I feel that the best solution is the next generation of locomotives like the Class 88, which will be a 200 kph electric locomotive with an on-board diesel for running on non-electrified track. I wrote about the Class 88 here.
The Anonymous Widower 