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.

Long lasting fast charging electric car battery (6 min charge time, 600 km range)

Many people think that battery technology has not advanced much. Indeed, when one thinks of battery electric cars, their batteries are considered slow to charge, and do not last long.

On the 31st October 2010, the website Taranfx (new Geeknizer), along with other websites, reported about an important breakthrough which a Berlin company called DBM Energy has made. DBM Energy already manufacture batteries which allow forklift trucks to operate in warehouses for 28 hours between charges. Working with Berlin energy supplier Lekker Energie, DBM Energy has invented a Lithium Metal Polymer battery, the KOLIBRI, which has had brilliant results when test driven in a car, with just a 6 min charge meant the car was able to travel 600 km, a new world record for an electric vehicle.

Signage improvements: Traffic calming, warning of pedestrians

In this article, we look at signage improvements for traffic calming, including give way to oncoming traffic, priority over oncoming traffic, and humps . Also shown in this article are improvements to signs warning of pedestrians, including making the graphic for zebra crosssing actually look like a zebra crossing among other things.

In general, the improvements shown here (as in our other signage improvement articles) are to metricate, and either remove wordy supplementary plates, or to replace wordy supplementary plates with symbolic supplementary plates.

Signage improvements: Give Way and Stop signs

This article focuses on improvements to Give Way and Stop signs, specifically to approach signs.  The Stop sign itself does not need to change, and the approach to stop only needs metrication which alone will make it easier to understand.  The Give Way sign will benefit from not only metrication but being made wholly symbolic (by removing the words Give Way), after all an inverted red triangle always means Give Way and does not need to be translated (for example in Wales).  Example signs to illustrate are shown in this article.

GM soya increases poverty, threatens health in South America

Further to our previous articles about organic food, and about Monsanto and GM, this post is about an article in GM Watch, which in turn showed an English translation of the original Svenska Dagbladet (or SvD for short) news article about the disastrous effects of GM soya cultivation in South America. Indeed, the conversion of South American agriculture to large-scale, industrial farming of genetically modified soya harms the environment, increases poverty, and threatening human health, two leading advocates for small farmers' rights have said to SvD during a visit to Sweden.

Spray-on film to turn windows into solar panels

Using a spray-on solar film, windows can become solar energy sources.  Back in August this year, it was reported that Norwegian company EnSol has patented such a thin film solar technology which can be sprayed onto any glass surface, such as house windows.  EnSol also plan on developing a solar film solution to coat exterior walls or to be used as part of roof tiles.  This can generate solar power for buildings, and a lot more efficiently than existing large solar panels, and this way every house can have solar energy generation.  Working in collaboration with the University of Leicester in the UK, EnSol are aiming to commercialise the solar film solutions from 2016 onwards.

Science funding in the UK frozen over four years

On Wednesday 20th October, it was reported that the scientific research budget in the UK was frozen at £3.5 billion rather than cut.  Despite this welcome announcement, this still means that in real terms (after taking into account inflation) the budget is still reduced, but by less than 10% instead of the estimated 20% cut which was feared.  There is also a petition against the funding cuts (as mentioned in our previous article).  The UK is still way behind when it comes to scientific research funding, when compared to other leading nations.

Source: The Independent

Signage improvements: Cycle, bus, tram, and car sharing lanes

In this article, signage improvements are suggested for cycle lanes, bus lanes, and car sharing lanes which are also known as carpool lanes and officially known as High Occupancy Vehicle lanes (HOVs).  As well as metricating the signs and making times 24 hour (which are the most important), improvements which make the signs clearer are also shown, and some new signs are suggested.

Example signs are shown in this article.

Signage improvements: Motorway and service signs

Further to our previous article showing the metrication of distance signage (including motorway and services signs). The most important thing is to metricate all applicable signs. This article will show how motorway signs can be improved further, by replacing wholly worded signs with their symbolic equivalents, and improvements to services signs (including space efficiency and removal of unnecessary wording).

Example images are shown in this article.

Petition against science funding cuts

In the UK, the coalition government is planning on cutting science funding.  If you live in the UK and wish to sign the petition against the planned cuts, you can do so at http://scienceisvital.org.uk/sign-the-petition/.  You can also find more information in the same URL, and in the Science is Vital home page itself.

Ban factory farming now

Factory farming, otherwise known as intensive farming, is an integral part of industrial food production.  The first factory farms were started in 1920s USA, and started in the UK during the late 1940s.  In order to get really cheap (and I would say unnaturally cheap) food, animals in factory farms are kept in really terrible conditions.  Factory farming is cruel to animals, damages animal health, damages our health through factory farmed produce, and damages our environment with pollution.  Lots of hidden costs, which are not reflected in the price of the factory farmed goods.  This type of farming is also heavily subsidised too which is also reflected in the cheap price.

I would recommend seeing the Food Inc. video, if you have not already done so, because it illustrates perfectly the disturbing truth about intensively farmed food and food in general, among other issues.

Metrication and improvement of road works signs

In this article, we look at road works signs. The most important thing is to make the road signs metric, as part of a general road signs metrication programme. As well as this, there are many improvements that can be made to the road works signs, including getting rid of superfluous words and supplementary plates, and in making the signs clearer in general, and examples to illustrate these improvements are shown in this article.

Signage improvements: Pedestrian Zones, Home Zones, and Quiet Lanes

In this article, we look at more ways of reducing road sign clutter, in this case eliminating unnecessary wording on signs for pedestrian zones, home zones, and quiet lanes.

E-numbers: which ones to avoid

In this article, we look at E-numbers, and give a guide on which ones to avoid for various reasons, most importantly health reasons and keeping healthy, but also to avoid non-vegetarian, non-vegan, allergens, or forbidden foods for example.  And some highly recommended resources for further reading is given here. 

Of course, the best policy still remains to eat organic, fresh, and where possible local, and remember that too much of anything is bad (even food hitherto good for our health) - indeed one should only eat the amount required (whether that's the food, the drink, or individual additives within the food or drink). 

Additives with an E-number are not always artificial (for example curcumin and lycopene have their own E-numbers and are derived from natural sources), although many are (including aspartame, tartrazine, and many more).

Poll Result: How do you rate the World Cup 2010?

poll by twiigs.com

Signage improvements: No stopping and no waiting

Following on from the previous article regarding decluttering parking signs, this article suggests improvements to no stopping and no waiting (also known as no parking) signs. There are many no stopping and no waiting signs which have unnecessary wording, and more importantly use 12-hour time and non-metric measures which have to be converted.

Signage Improvements: Decluttering parking signs

This article is another signage improvement suggestions article, in which we focus on parking signs.  Parking signs are good in the UK in that they are mostly symbolic, and generally conform to international norms.  However, there are some problems including that non-metric measurements and 12 hour time are used, there are lots of wordy signs, and some of the parking signs can be very cluttered as a result, especially in urban areas.

Videos: Monsanto and GM

This article shows two videos about Monsanto and genetic modification (GM). The first film is a trailer: The world according to Monsanto, an award winning investigative documentary.  The second video clip is by Greenpeace explaining why biodiversity needs to be protected and why GM as practised by Monsanto (and others, but Monsanto has a 90% share in the market) threatens biodiversity, food security, and sustainable agriculture.

Amazon deforestation slows but concerns remain

One of our previous articles was about the need to save our rainforests. There was some good news yesterday, the Guardian has reported that large scale deforestation in the Amazon rainforest has fallen dramatically last year according to official figures.

On the other hand there are concerns remaining. One of these concerns is about the vested interests lobbying to water down environmental protection laws in Brazil, reported in the Guardian back on the 3rd July. Unfortunately this amendment was approved by a special committee of the Brazilian Parliament (or to be precise, National Congress of Brazil) on the 6th July, as reported by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

In praise of organic food

We have all heard of organic food, food produced with either no or minimal toxic chemicals, food "the way nature intended it to be". Organic food is in fact exactly how humans have eaten for millenia, it is only since the 20th Century that "conventional" food as we know it, involving toxic and polluting synthetic chemicals in the form of pesticides, insecticides, and fertilisers, and ghastly factory farming, all collectively known as intensive farming, have existed. This article explains not only why organic is best, but also suggests where to get organic.

24 hour time on road signs is also needed

We have mentioned the need to go metric in previous articles. What also needs to be done is to use 24 hour time only where time does and should appear on road signs (e.g. No parking between 09:00 and 18:00).  Examples of 24 hour road signs, and other related improvements (such as getting rid of wordy signs) are also shown in this article.

Sorry for the lack of posts

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past three months, I have been very busy with moving. My previous post was the only post I had time to do since moving to France back in March.

I am writing some more articles, and you will see more posts very soon, and more regularly too.

Video: Waste = Food (documentary)

Shown in this article is the documentary video, Waste = Food. Released in 2006 by the Dutch public broadcaster VPRO (English version in 2007), this documentary explains the Cradle to Cradle design concept created by chemist Michael Braungart, and designer-architect William McDonough. The principle of the Cradle to Cradle design concept is that instead of creating more and more landfills filled with waste and unwanted products, products can be designed and manufactured so that the waste would instead become "food" for the biosphere (our Earth) or the technosphere (the products we make).

Billed as the next industrial revolution, this design concept is not only a form of recycling, it is a really interesting design concept which could be a major change in the way products are made and built, and this concept is environmentally friendly and sustainable. This ecologically sound design concept is explained in more detail in the video itself.

Restriction signs and depth indicators

Following on from the previous article "Supplementary plates for warning and restriction signs", this article looks at restriction signs and depth indicators, which needs to be converted to metric-only.  This article gives examples of metric-only signs for height restrictions, width restrictions, and length restrictions signs, signs warning of restrictions ahead, and correcting the symbol on the already metric weight restriction signs.  In addition to this, an example of a metric-only depth indicator is shown.

OLED wallpapers could make light bulbs obsolete by 2012

Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) wallpapers require very little power to produce light, and uses 2.5 times less power compared even to energy saving light bulbs. At the same time OLED wallpapers can emit almost as much light as a flourescent lamp, if not more, whilst lasting longer than a fluorescent lamp. The OLED surfaces can be printed on walls in homes and businesses, and can even be printed onto road signs (and the lighting for the road signs can be solar powered).  OLED wallpapers can as a result make light bulbs obsolete and benefit the environment in terms of reduced energy needs and lower carbon dioxide emissions.

Supplementary plates for warning and restriction signs

Supplementary plates exist below warning and restriction signs to tell you how far a hazard / restriction is. In the UK, the measurements on these plates are either in yards, fractions of a mile, or miles, and need to be converted to either metres or kilometres as appropriate. Conversion of these measurements will be very straightforward. Examples of what converted signs might look like are also shown in this article.