Future energy sources

This article looks at future energy sources. This mainly includes sustainable energy sources which do not harm the environment, which we can use today and in the immediate future. In order to safeguard our environment and planet, the non-renewable and highly polluting fossil fuels will need to be phased out as soon as possible, they will run out one day, and nuclear fission will also need to be phased out as soon as possible as it produces radioactive waste which typically takes a very long time to decay, millions if not billions of years.

Most Imperial units are not British

One of the myths about Imperial units is that Imperial units are made in Britain. The truth is very different, although Imperial units were defined in the 1824 Weights and Measures Act which made several other traditional units obsolete, the origins of Imperial units, which came from medieval English units of measurement, are not British. 

Imperial units were mostly brought to Britain by the Romans almost 2000 years ago, other units were introduced by the Angles and Saxons from Northern Germany who brought their own measures, the Normans reintroduced Roman style measures, and others were later adopted and modified from medieval French variations of Roman units, known as avoirdupois and troy measures.

When will the UK be prepared for snow?

So far, the winter of 2010 is looking like the worst winter in living memory in the UK, with arctic weather throughout the country, which is predicted to be the coldest winter in the UK since 1963, if not colder. November this year saw the earliest snowfall in winter for 17 years. Temperatures have been very low, as low as −21.2 °C in Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands, and snowfall has been 30-40 cm in Sussex, and 20 cm in Greater London.  In most of the rest of Europe, it is a similar story, with heavy snowfall in Northern France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Ireland for example, where there has also been a lot of disruption.  It is not only the places which normally get snow, for example Sweden, Norway, and Russia, that have had snow this winter, although Norway has had its coldest November on record, one place in Norway, Karasjok, had a temperature of −35 °C on the 27th November 2010. 

There has been snow every January/February in the UK for the last three years now, including the South East of England, and there has also been snow in December for the last two years.  The snow this year is predicted to last until at least 26th December.  It seems that every time there is snow in the UK, everything grinds to a halt.  Transport is disrupted severely, and so are sports fixtures among other things. When will this change? And what can be done for the UK to be better prepared, and prevent scenes of chaos such as those at Heathrow Airport and throughout the country?

The UK farming crisis

Back in 2004, the watchdog Corporate Watch UK published a report "A Rough Guide to the UK Farming Crisis" which shows the crisis facing UK farmers, in particular small and family farmers, and the role that multinational corporations including big supermarkets and big agribusiness, government policy, and globalisation have all played in this crisis.  Corporate Watch also suggests possible solutions.

UK government reveals broadband strategy, no commitment to FTTH

Today, Jeremy Hunt, the UK Secretary of State for Culture, the Olympics, Media, and Sport, has announced the coalition government's national broadband strategy, outlined in "Britain's Superfast Broadband Future", in which "super-fast broadband" is promised, and also mentions bringing a "Digital Hub" to every community, specifically aimed at rural communities. The UK government pledges £830 million (€980 million) towards rural communities, and two-thirds and 70% of work for the rest of the country is to be carried out by the private sector.

What was omitted from the strategy was what "super-fast" means, and although FTTH has been mentioned in the strategy document, and there is also no explicit commitment to support increasing FTTH deployments and eventually having FTTH to every building. There are no targets either in the NGA (next generation access) strategy plan to reach, all that has been pleged is that the UK is to "have the best broadband network in Europe by 2015".

Signage improvements for mandatory direction and turn signs

This article suggests improvements to mandatory direction signs, for example mandatory left or right turn, mandatory straight ahead, keep left, keep right.

One of the improvements suggested, which should be done, is to remove all supplementary plates e.g. "One way" or "Dual carriageway". They really are unnecessary and just add clutter, they look unnecessary and add clutter.

The other improvement suggested is to suggest new signs to prescribe: Mandatory left or right turn (you cannot go straight ahead), mandatory straight or left turn (i.e. no right turn), mandatory straight or right turn (i.e. no left turn). These would not replace existing no left turn or no right turn signs. Similar filter arrows for traffic lights could also be considered in future.

Examples to illustrate are shown in this article.

Suggested new signs for the UK: Mandatory minimum following distance

This is one of many quick articles to show some suggested new signs. The minimum following distance for vehicles are shown in this article. Typically whenever mandatory following distances would be shown, they would always have to be much longer than the typical stopping distance at a certain speed.

For instance, in the Fréjus Road Tunnel, the minimum following distance is 150m and the speed limit is 70km/h. By contrast, in dry conditions, the typical stopping distance in dry conditions is approximately 57m when a vehicle is travelling at 70km/h.

The two suggested new signs are shown in this article: Mandatory minimum following distance, and mandatory minimum following distance for LGVs over 3.5t.