Fall In Covid Infection Rates A Pleasant Surprise, Says Adviser
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Times.
The adviser who is pleasantly surprised is Mike Tildesley of the University of Warwick.
I am not surprised that Mike Tildesley is pleasantly surprised.
I have successfully built mathematical models on computers for over fifty years, and since the pandemic started I have been pursuing my own mining of UK, WHO and Wikipedia data and peer-reviewed scientific papers from sources all over the world.
Several scientists have said, that an individual’s immune system is important, when it comes to fighting the covids.
I am coeliac on a long-term gluten-free diet and we as a group have a strong immune system. This probably explains, why we are 25 % less likely to suffer from cancer, than the general population. This fact is not from the Gwyneth Paltrow School of Quack Science, but from JVT’s alma mata; Nottingham University.
It has also been shown by the University of Padua, who followed a group of coeliacs on a long-term gluten-free diet, that they did very well during the first wave of the virus in Padua, with no serious cases reported.
Look at the figures for Cambodia, which has very low figures. They have had just 22 deaths and they have a fatality rate of 0.78% according to Wikipedia. Our rate on a similar basis is 2.94 %.
Can their gluten-free diet be the reason?
I’ve also heard verified stories of groups of immigrants doing well, as they have not been seduced by Western junk food and are sticking to traditional diets.
I think there are a large number of people out there like coeliacs on a long-term gluten-free diet, who because of their diet or lifestyle are not going to get the virus and act like moderators do in a nuclear power station to slow the reaction. So they are slowing the transmission of the virus. We have already seen how some religious groups and types of behaviour have accelerated the spread of the virus, so why can’t groups exist that slow the rate of spread?
Hence Mike Tildesley’s pleasant surprise!
I have not found any UK-based scientific research on how coeliacs are faring in the pandemic and the charity Coeliac-UK has said nothing except Keep Calm And Carry On!
Let’s hope the good scientists of Padua are continuing to follow their coeliacs through successive waves of the pandemic!
We need more research now!
UK Medicines Watchdog ‘Considers Limiting Use Of Oxford-AstraZeneca Coronavirus Vaccine In Young’
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article in The Times.
This is the first two paragraphs.
The medicines watchdog is considering restricting use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine in younger people, it was reported last night.
Channel 4 News said sources had told it that the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) could decide as soon as today after concerns about very rare cases of blood clots potentially linked to the vaccine.
I’m, no medic, but I do find, I got a different reaction to the AstraZeneca vaccine to that of my friends.
But I am coeliac on a long-term gluten-free diet and have therefore got a strong immune system.
I believe my immune system gave the vaccine and its carrier a bit of a kicking.
But then it did that four months ago, with a pneumococcal vaccine.
There is a peer-reviewed Danish study, which I wrote about in A Danish Study On Links Between Coeliac Disease And Blood Clots.
I just wonder if there is a link in there somewhere.
All those, who have suffered blood clots after having the AstraZeneca vaccine should at least be tested for coeliac disease.
Tesla And PG&E Are Working On A Massive ‘Up To 1.1 GWh’ Powerpack Battery System
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on electrek.
This is the first two paragraphs.
For the past few months, Tesla and CEO Elon Musk have been teasing a giant battery project that would dwarf even the company’s 129 MWh Powerpack project in Australia.
Today, we learn that Tesla is working with PG&E on a massive battery system with a capacity of “up to 1.1 GWh” in California.
It certainly, is a big lithium-ion battery.
- It will be able to provide 182.5 MW for four hours.
- It looks like it could be the largest lithium-ion battery in the world.
It is worth comparing with the Castaic Power Plant, which is also in California.
- This is a pumped storage plant.
- It can produce 1566 MW and has a capacity of 12470 MWh.
This Google Map shows the plant.
Note.
- The power plant is also part of the California State Water Project, which transfer water from North to South.
- The low-lake is Elderberry Forebay to the East.
- The high-lake is Pyramid Lake to the North.
It is a complicated system that includes the Angeles Tunnel, which takes water between Pyramid Lake and the Castaic power plant.
It cost a lot more than the 1.1 GWh battery, but it can generate a lot more power.
Piney Point: Emergency Crews Try To Plug Florida Toxic Wastewater Leak
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Emergency crews in Florida have been working to prevent a “catastrophic” flood after a leak was found in a large reservoir of toxic wastewater.
This Google Map shows the location.
Note.
- At the top of the map is an area called Tampa Bay Estuarine Ecosystem Rock Ponds.
- The reservoir appears to be in the South East corner of the map.
- There appear to be several chemical works to the West of the highway.
This second Google Map shows the reservoir at a larger scale.
Note.
- The picture in the BBC article was taken from the North West.
- The problem reservoir is right and above of centre.
- To its right is Lake Price, which appears to be the sort of lake to sail a boat and perhaps do a bit of fishing and swimming.
- Moore Lake to the South appears similar to Lake Price.
It looks to me that it is not the place to have an environmental incident.
This article in The Times says this.
Engineers are furiously pumping the phosphate-rich water into the sea to avoid an uncontrolled spill at Piney Point, whose failure could unleash a 20ft-high wall of toxic effluent.
Pumping it into the sea? Surely not?
I suspect there could have been a mixture of sloppy management and loose regulation, with minimal enforcement and I’ll be interested to see what recommendations are put forward by the inevitable investigation.
In my varied past, I was once indirectly involved, in the toxic waste that comes out of chemical plants. At the time, I was working for ICI in Runcorn and my main job was building designing and building instruments for the various chemical plants in and around Runcorn.
As they had hired me because of my programming skills, they asked me if I could do a few small jobs on their Ferranti Argus 500, which could be plugged in to both their Varian NMR machine and their AEI mass spectrometer.
With the former, to get better accuracy in analysis of chemicals, I would take successive scans of a sample and aggregate them together. The accuracy of the results would be proportion to the square root of the number of scans.
The second to my mind was more difficult and much more interesting.
This explanation of mass spectroscopy is from Wikipedia.
Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. The results are typically presented as a mass spectrum, a plot of intensity as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. Mass spectrometry is used in many different fields and is applied to pure samples as well as complex mixtures.
ICI at Runcorn had a lot of complex mixtures and the aim of my project, was to take a mass spectrum and automatically decide what chemicals were present in the mixture.
The mass spectra were presented as a long graph on a roll of thermal paper. I noticed that operators would pick out distinctive patterns on the graph, which they told me were distinctive patterns of chlorine ions.
Chlorine has an unusual atomic weight of 35.5 because it is a mixture of two stable isotypes Chlorine-35 and Chlorine-37, which produced these distinctive patterns on the spectra.
I was able to identify these patterns to determine the number of chlorine atoms in a compound. By giving the algorithm a clue in stating how many carbon, oxygen and hydrogen atoms could be involved, it was able to successfully identify what was in a complex mixture.
All this was programmed on computer with just 64K words of memory and a half-megabyte hard disc.
ICI must have been pleased, as I got a bonus.
One of the jobs the software was used for was to identify what chemicals were present in the lagoons alongside the River Weaver, which are shown today in this Google Map.
Note.
- The chemical works, which were part of ICI in the 1960s, to the North of the Weaver Navigation Canal.
- The two former lagoons between the canal and the River Weaver, which seem to have been cleaned out and partially restored.
- Was that a third large lagoon to the South of the River Weaver?
- There also appears to be a fourth smaller triangular lagoon between the canal and the river.
There certainly seems to have been a better clear-up in Runcorn, than in Florida.
I moved on from Runcorn soon after, I’d finished that software and have no idea how or if it developed and was used.
But the techniques I used stayed in my brain and were used at least four times in the future.
- In the design of a Space Allocation Program for ICI Plastics Division.
- In the design of two Project Management systems for Time Sharing Ltd.
And of course, they were also used in designing the scheduler in Artemis for Metier.
I
Increase In Hate Crime Against Disabled Rail Users
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Rail Technology Magazine.
This is the introductory paragraph.
New figures published by the Department for Transport have shown that hate crimes toward disabled people traveling on the rail network have risen by 24% in the last three years.
I don’t think the abuse has just been on trains either.
I rarely see any friction over the use of the wheelchair bay on buses in London, but my feeling is that I see it more often than I used too!
- Perhaps six months ago, a mother was not very pleased at having to get off the bus so that a disabled guy in a wheelchair could use the space.
- Some people think possession of the space is all important.
- I’ve also heard arguments over who takes precedent.
I wonder, if it is worse in other parts of the UK, where wheelchair access to buses is not as easy,as in London and there are fewer buses.
Are Some Passengers Annoyed At Being Delayed?
I’ve certainly seen moderate annoyance on buses and trains, when there is a delay caused by a disabled passenger getting on or off a bus or train, with sometimes some very offensive words being said.
So What Should Be Done About It?
Obviously, we need to do all the usual personal things to make sure that things run smoothly and serious abusers should be prosecuted.
But I also think, that we should aim for the following.
Every train must have a level platform and train interface.
The picture was taken from literature about the South Wales Metro and shows a visualisation of one of the Flirts, that will run on the routes in South Wales.
We should ban the ordering of trains, that don’t meet this criteria.
All routes between street and platform should be step-free.
It would be an expensive program, but there would be a lot who’d benefit.
- People in wheelchairs
- Babies and toddlers in buggies and their pushers.
- People dragging large cases.
- Cyclists with bicycles
- Older people with mobility issues.
There will be collateral benefits.
- Trains would be speeded up, as they would not have to wait so long in stations.
- More people will use the trains and not just the disabled.
- If the program were properly managed, it could create work for local construction firms all over the UK.
It might even encourage inward and stay-at-home tourism from those with mobility issues.
Have I Got Thrombophilia?
I was chatting on-line on The Times last night with a guy or even a girl, as their nick didn’t indicate gender.
I had said that a Danish study had shown that there were links between coeliac disease and blood clots. I wrote about this study in A Danish Study On Links Between Coeliac Disease And Blood Clots. Two of my on-line friends have since responded to that post with stories of coeliacs and blood-clots.
I got this reply from the person, I was chatting with.
There are some studies linking coeliac condition and the Factor V Leiden thrombophilia mutation. Several members of my family have (or had, since some have passed away) both conditions. I have the Factor V Leiden, as have both of my children. I do a lot of family history and have traced the Leiden mutation through triangulation of DNA matches and shared chromosome matches (via Family Tree DNA which goes into such detail) and I believe this is pointing to my Swedish ancestry.
I replied and asked if the person had coeliac disease.
This was the reply.
I had some tests and a biopsy about 30 years ago to see if I had inherited the coeliac condition which had cut a swathe through my mother’s side of the family. It was negative, but I do suspect that I may have passed it on to my son. He’s not keen on getting tested although he did get a Leiden Factor V test and he is heterozygous for that. My mother, aunt, grandmother and cousins have coeliac and Leiden. Some have both and some have one or the other.
My mother was young enough to get proper advice, but my grandmother had a terrible time. She just literally faded away. Her treatment was eating raw liver and having injections of liver which left lumps under her skin. Awful.
I then looked up thrombophilia on Wikipedia. The picture of a red leg in the entry could have been of me, except that with me, It’s the other leg.
The NHS web site also gives useful information.
I need to see an expert urgently!
But at least, I’m already on the likely medication – Warfarin.
So it’s hopefully just a case of keep taking the tablets.
I must admit, I’m slightly annoyed with the medics. I have never been told, that there is a link between coeliac disease and blood clots, when evidence from the Danish peer-reviewed study and people I’ve met on-line clearly shows there is a link!
Given, all the arguments about the AstraZeneca vaccine and blood clots, more research needs to be done.
Approaching Kings Cross – 2nd April 2021
I took these pictures approaching Kings Cross.
Comparing these pictures to those in Approaching Kings Cross – 19th February 2021, show that work is progressing.
It should be finished by the Summer.
Battersea Power Station’s Glass Elevator To Open Next Year
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Ian Visits.
It sounds like it will give a reason for some tourists to visit the area and it will be a balance to the cable-car in the London Docks.
Ian gives more details about what could be a new experience for Londoners and tourists.
Finsbury Circus Appears Fully Open
I bought my breakfast yesterday in Leon on Moorgate and ate it in the nearby Finsbury Circus Gardens.
It is now fully open.
This picture shows the gardens during the construction of Crossrail.
Note.
- The bandstand can be picked out amongst the trees.
- The shaft towards the bottom is forty metres deep and was used to get men and materials to the tunnels.
Comparing the pictures shows that the gardens are now able to used for their original purpose.
Orsted In Gigawatt-Scale Offshore Wind To Green Hydrogen Plan With Steel Giant ArcelorMittal
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Recharge.
The title says a lot and at the heart of the plan is a 1 GW electrolyser.
Now that is enormous.
Will it be made in Rotherham by ITM Power?
The article is a must read.
The Anonymous Widower 