Saturday, October 23, 2010

Parking Spaces

I have just returned from a shopping trip to our local shopping centre (ok, it was The Galleries in Washington) and have just realised that the shopping centre management have a problem looming on the horizon, namely the size of parking spaces.

In my youth a large motor car was considered to be something like a Ford Granada.  A car of equivalent size nowadays is something like a Ford Mondeo which is not considered particularly large.  A consequence of this is that car parks built and laid out in the late 1960's and 70's are far too small, for instance parking my Ford Mondeo today resulted in a tight squeeze to get out of my car even though I was parked perfectly within the lines and evenly spaced with regard to the cars either side.  This means that as cars continue to get larger and larger, then the car parking spaces will also have to become larger.  The upshot is that unless extra car parking is provided then shopping centre revenues will fall as car drivers will either stay away due to lack of parking or will park across two bays thus depriving space for another car with the same result i.e. falling revenues.
So what is the solution?  I don't think you will ever stop people from using their cars but you can encourage them to leave the car at home if for instance, they won't need the car to haul massive amounts of groceries, by the implementation of an affordable, efficient and joined up transport infrastructure.  Whether this will happen in my lifetime is debatable, but one can hope!
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Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Education for All

Well this will be brief, I'm afraid I'm having a moan again. Our government seems intent on self destruction, I have long believed that the wealth of a country is measured by the quality of it's education system .  Now lifting the cap on tuition fees may well put more money into the coffers of the universities but how many people from poorer backgrounds can afford to send their children off for further education?  How many potential laureats will be lost to the world because this government is too short sighted to see that wealth is built on education?  I'm afraid this country will be all the poorer for the decisions been made today!

Monday, July 05, 2010

Education for the masses (Tories kick the working classes where it hurts)

Well it has finally happened, the Tories (with Lib Dem backing) are calling a halt to the Labour party's school building program. Some of the education establishments that our working class children are having to learn in are shocking, many of them are Victorian or Edwardian buildings and a significant amount are 1960's buildings poorly constructed and now not fit for purpose.
Call me cynical but I somehow feel that this won't unduly affect your average Tory toff one little bit. Yes, cuts have to be made but it has long been recognised that a country's wealth is built upon a base of good quality mass education. I'm sure money could be found by reducing the amount of quango's and bureaucracy within our system of governance. See here

Friday, March 19, 2010

BA Strike-Latest update

This is an email I received today from my union 'Unite' regarding the dispute with British Airways:-

BA dispute - we’ve gone the extra mile
On the eve of the strike by BA cabin crew, we can put our hand on our hearts and honestly say we have done all we possibly could to find a peaceful solution to this dispute. This week Unite offered to suspend the strike and all we asked for in return was for BA to put its original deal back on the table to let our members decide.
Remember, this dispute is not about gain. Crew are not seeking more money or better conditions. They are fighting because BA stopped negotiating and imposed changes that cut 1,000 crew members from flights – cuts that crew believe are a disaster for BA’s reputation as a premier airline.
Crew do live in the real world, they know BA is suffering – they like other workers all over the country during this recession, have been prepared to make big sacrifices to save jobs.
As this dispute has dragged on it has become increasingly clear to Unite that BA wants more than cost savings. Crew offered BA savings to match those made by BA’s crew cuts. Unite believes that Willie Walsh’s end game is to destroy the crew’s union.
Cabin crew have received amazing messages of solidarity from aviation unions from around the world. BA cabin crew now need your support. Attached is a leaflet explaining what this strike is about - please send this to your colleagues and help our members win their fight for a say in their future.
Tony Woodley Derek Simpson
Joint General Secretaries

Pass this on to anyone you know, thanks!

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Newcastle Science Festival

Yesterday I spent at Newcastle Science Festival making an electronic device for switching off any tv with my eldest daughter Alice (my other two kids were busying themselves at other parts of the maker faire).
This was at the maker faire in the Centre for Life. There was loads of other stuff going on for those of us with geeky tendencies, a robot that can solve Rubiks cube, Tesla coil music and much more.
There is a certain satisfaction in making something yourself that works when you've completed it and for this I must also thank the genial Mitch Altman for helping and encouraging us during the construction process.  Later we had much fun putting this device to good use at the Metro Centre.

If you get the chance I urge you to go to the Science Festival, you'll certainly have a great time!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Electrical power chargers go BANG!!!

I have just read a very interesting article via my professional institution the IET.  It concerns the safety of electrical power chargers bought over the internet and in particular via auction websites like ebay.  I would urge you to read the article here and there is also a very good guide to buying electrical equipment over the internet here.

Thursday, March 04, 2010

Sunbeds and local authorities

I see Sunderland is being targeted in a high profile campaign by Cancer Research UK http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wear/8544460.stm. This is a worthy campaign and if successful I expect other cities will also be targeted in a similar way.  More worrying is the promotion of sunbed use in local authority facilities such as leisure centres (see Cancer Research Uk policy statement here).  On this note, I found that my own local leisure centre in Washington is promoting sunbeds on their website as a facility available to use  (see here).  This in my mind is sending a mixed message to the general public, on the one hand, leisure centres promote fitness and wellbeing, on the other there is good evidence showing the dangers of sunbeds and the increase of skin cancer as a result of their use.  I wrote to my local MP (Sharon Hodgson) highlighting this paradox and received a heartening reply in which she is

"pleased to support the current Cancer Research UK campaign."
She has also agreed to contact Sunderland City Council to ask for clarification about their policy on sunbed use.
More to follow, I'm sure!.

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Energy waste

I have to wonder sometimes as to the ineptitude of some of our leaders.  For instance, a report today is suggesting that we do not have enough energy capacity to fulfill demands in 2020 see here .  Meanwhile, we are constantly bombarded with adverts on tv to switch off unnecessary electrical appliances to save energy and also reduce our carbon emmissions.  Fair enough, but I would like to point out the vast waste of energy on our very doorstep.  Tonight I picked up my eldest daughter from scouts and drove her home, a journey of around 1 mile, on the way I counted how many street lights I passed.  Care to hazard a guess?  40?  70?  Try 130, yes, I'm not kidding you, I passed 130 street lights on my way home.  Now I estimate that each lamp must be in the region of 400W consumption.  You do the maths!

It seems to me that we could massively reduce our energy consumtion by turning off every other street light, this would in my opinion still provide enough light to carry on as normal and would also have the secondary benefit of reducing light pollution, thus enabling us to see the night sky again.

Sure, there are issues to consider and it may not be appropriate to switch off lights in some areas, but I think where possible this could be a great way to cut down on our energy consumption.
Other areas which urgently need looking at are the illumination of public buildings and structures.  Very often these are illuminated all night when few people will even notice them, ok, I conceed that some buildings and art works look great illuminated, but surely the lights could be turned off after midnight.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

More amazing maths

Ok, so you might not be convinced by my post where I try and convince you that $1 = 0.9...$
Let's try another tack.

Using long division we find that $\frac{1}{3}= 0.3...$

Multiplying both sides by 3

$\frac{3}{3}=0.9...$

Simplifying

$1=0.9...$

QED

Monday, January 11, 2010

Myleene Klass and the Law

Myleene Klass was warned by Hertfordshire police against brandishing a knife to intruders on her property in order to scare them away http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/10/myleene-klass-knife-intruders  . She was in her own home with her daughter upstairs (her fiance was away on business at the time). Does anyone see anything wrong with this?
To me, this just demonstrates how out of touch the law is with real life. I defy anyone not to do their utmost to protect family and property using whatever means possible, yet by doing so exposes you to the very real risk of being arrested. Whatever happened to an Englishmans home is his castle? In my opinion, the law has been grossly distorted in favour of criminals, many of whom know how to play the system in their favour. Now is the time for change, whilst I'm not advocating vigilantism in anyway shape or form, I do think we should be better protected by the law from counter actions by criminals who have had their just desserts after unlawfully entering our property.
What do you think?

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Mind blowing maths

Ok, I'm going to attempt to blow your mind with some fairly simple mathematics.

You know that $0.9$ means not quite $1$, and $0.99$ means a bit closer but still not $1$, and that $0.999$ means even closer still, but again not quite there. You following so far?

Good!
Ok, what about $$0.9...$$? What do you think the three extra dots mean? They're technically called ellipsis!
Well they generally mean 'and so forth', in essence I'm implying that those 9's go on ad infinitum.
Keeping up ok? Well this is the mindblowing bit.
Consider a number $$s = 0.9... $$(remember $$0.9...$$ means the 9's go on for ever).
I'm going to prove to you that $$s = 1$$, not nearly $$1$$, but exactly $$1$$. Does that seem counter-intuitive to you? How can a number that appears to be not quite $$1$$ be exactly $$1$$ at the same time. Here goes (don't worry the maths is fairly straightforward).

$$s = 0.9...$$

Multiply both sides of the equation by $$10$$

$$10s = 9.9...$$

Subtract one '$$s$$' from both sides

$$9s = 9$$

Divide both sides by $$9$$

$$\frac{9s}{9} =\frac{9}{9}$$

Simpify

$$s = 1$$ QED

Does that blow your mind? It should, it certainly blew mine!

Monday, January 04, 2010

Terrestrial tv over Christmas in the UK

Is it just me or is tv becoming lame, boring and uninformative, especially over the Christmas period. It seems to be just re-run after re-run or bloody soaps and to rub salt into the wounds, Channel 4 has just started Big Brother (thank god it's the last one).
Whatever happened to the mandate of BBC2 to inform and to a lesser extent Channel 4? Seems to me there is very little informing going on.

For something a little more interesting why not follow the excellent Jack of Kent blog, currently involved with BCA v Simon Singh libel case and deconstruction of the legal system in the UK for ininformed laymen like myself (highly recommended).