Cable Thefts on the Railways
New figures suggest that cable thefts on the railways are increasing dramatically, as they were up 52% between 2010-2011 and the previous year.
It would appear that the two main problems are the high price of scrap copper and the fact that many scrap yards give cash back on a no-questions-asked basis!
I always remember some work I did with British Rail about twenty years ago, where we were analysing signal faults on one particular main line. There the copper cables had een exchanged for fibre-optic ones and we found that most breakages occurred because of over-zealous track gangs over-tamping the ballast between the track. My software, Daisy, showed that in one area they didn’t occur at the same rate and the better performance was due to some members of the track gang knowing about signalling. So that problem was solved by better training of the gangs.
However, in one area we found that there were a large number of incidents of deliberately-cut fibre optic cables. This area had been a particularly bad area for the theft of cables and it turned out the thieves were cutting the cables in the vain hope that they would be replaced with stealable copper.
America Doesn’t Learn
America’s fight against crime and terrorism inside the country never seems to learn from its mistakes or build on things that have been proven in countries like the UK, Israel, Sweden, Germany and many others.
The worst home-grown example of terrorism in the United States was the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma. It could be argued that if proper security precautions had been taken at the building, that things might have been different. In its piece on the bombing, Wikipedia contains this.
As a result of the bombing, the U.S. government passed legislation designed to increase the protection around federal buildings to deter future terrorist attacks. From 1995 to 2005, over 60 domestic terrorism plots were foiled due to preventive measures taken in response to the bombing.
So after various incidents in the years preceding the bombing, won’t these precautions taken.
Simple precautions, such as we’ve had on UK flights for years might have prevented some if not all of the perpetrators of the September 11th, 2001 attacks of even getting on the planes.
In the late twentieth century, I was always amazed at the lack of airline security in the United States. In the end the good people of New York and Washington paid the awful price.
And then there are guns! The United States has the highest rate of gun crime and murder of any f the so-called civilised countries. There are now reports that those with guns are so irresponsible that many of America’s mammals are disappearing.
So what does the United States do?
It discloses that Osama bin Laden was planning an attack on a train to mark the 10th anniversary of september 11th, 2001.
Surely this small fact is a challenge to all of those idiots out there, looking for their five minutes of fame.
Be vigilant of course, but don’t give them ideas!
Drugs in Prisons
A prison officer has been sentenced to two years in jail for conspiring to smuggle mobile phones and possibly drugs into Feltham Prison.
Read about it all here.
The report quotes a Prison Service report which says.
The unpalatable but inevitable conclusion is that corrupt staff constitutes a significant supply route for drugs into prisons.
As many people end up in prison because of a drug problem, surely we should have a major rethink about crime and punishment. Prison should rehabilitate and not be a place, where drugs are freely available.
Clarke Says Prison is a Waste of Money
On Saturday this was the lead story on the front page of The Times. It was also in the Guardian.
He is so right!
I first met a prison governor at University in the 1960s and he said the same thing.
So why if this has been generally known for many years, do we still lock up so many people for long periods of time?
Is it just that politicians are so frightened of the tabloids and the vengeance tendency who read them?
Perhaps we should have a referendum on capital punishment, corporal punishment and a three-crimes-and-its-life law? All those who voted in favour would have a 90% rate of Income Tax to pay for the policies.
This Thief Almost Won a Darwin Award
This stupid thief almost won a Darwin Award. I suppose he’ll do something similar in the next few months to finish the job.
Who Nicked A Mobile Phone Network?
Apparently thieves have stolen some crucial hardware from Vodafone, causing thousands to lose their service.
I suspect that many will think this is something more sinister than just simple theft, but I wouldn’t think it’s linked to anything like the company’s shutting down of their Egyptian network.
Could it be just for the copper? Or the other expensive metals in the equipment? If it is, we’ll probably be seeing other attempts at this type of theft.
The Telegraph are musing over the questions in this article.
Are These Idiots After a Darwin Award?
The Central Line today was disrupted by cable thefts today.
This follows a pattern and eventually, it will lead to someone winning a Darwin Award.
The Darwin Awards commerate those who yield to natural selection and “remove” themselves from the gene pool…thereby ensuring that the next generation is smarter by one.
Of necessity, the award is usually bestowed posthumously.
Here’s typical behaviour that can win an award or in this case two.
Who would park the car on a busy freeway in heavy fog, for a quickie?
That’s the whole picture: A young couple, driving along Via Dutra, the largest freeway in Brazil with tons of heavy traffic, at 6AM under heavy fog. The couple decided that this was the time to park (for “dating” according to the charming Google translation) and, yes, they parked on the freeway in the right-hand lane, not on the shoulder, the median, or at a gas station. Naturally, given time a cargo truck encountered a “speed bump,” instantly killing both — during the act of procreation — double-double Darwin Award! (2) people making (2) obviously bad decisions, and natural selection acts at the very moment the two are reproducing. Textbook!
Stealing live high-voltage cables is probably equally stupid. But would our legal system pay out damages to the family of idiots killed in this way?
Surely being nominated for a Darwin Award disqualifies you from receiving compensation!
Street 20 Cricket
They’re just talking about Street-20 cricket on the radio. Basically, it’s a shortened form of the game for kids and the Lords Taverners are taking it all over the country to places like run-down crime-ridden housing estates to give the kids focus. One guy who runs it, has just been named young coach of the year. They aim to find the next generation of England cricketers too.
Up With the Morning Star
Venus has very bright these last few days, as I hope this picture shows.
Venus, The Morning Star
The planet is just above the tree in the middle.
I’ve pointed Venus out to several people lately and they haven’t realised what they are seeing. Knowledge of the stars and planets is something that should be properly taught. At my school, Minchenden, there was an observatory that contained a beautiful telescope in both artistic and scientific terms, that had once belonged to Prince Albert. One night, someone broke in, smashed it all and stole the lens. It was no act of wanton vandalism, but a cold calculated crime. I at least hope that the thief dropped the lens, so got no pleasure from his act.
I always look up when I’m in unfamiliar lattitudes. I remember when C and myself were in a hotel in Alice Springs, a kid of about sixteen had set up his telescope and was showing the guests the night sky from an Australian perspective. We had perhaps an hour of his charming and informed company. I hope that somewhere in the world, he is still following his hobby. Perhaps as a career!
Sadly, we were the only people, who that night took advantage of his company. But how many read their horoscopes every day and act on them?
No wonder the world is in the state it is today, if that is the general view of science.
So what am I doing up at this hour?
I slept well as I usually do, but last night, I spent several hours clearing my loffice loft of my past life. So most of it was old magazines, books and software I no longer need, but the only way to clear it, was to drop everything into a wheelie bin and then transfer it to boxes, which I then threw in the skip.
Clearing the Office Loft
It may have been a long-wnded process, but my shoulders aren’t strong enough to carry the boxes down the rather rickety loft ladder.
So perhaps the adrenaline is flowing through my body. I certainly feel pretty well today, although my left arm is tired.
The Anonymous Widower 