EU blackmail: “Lord” Lipsey has lost it: The Polytron Phone: You only live once in China (unless you have permission): Low-energy nuclear reactor water heater: and Bombing with poison mice.

The merest hint of white fluffy stuff, much more lack of warm, minimal atmospheric movement and not even a glimpse of Dawn’s crack at the Castle this morn, late again, I seem to be going into hibernation mode-going to bed earlier-getting up later, I blame the Government.

 

According to U-Turn Cam

Dahn at Eastleigh in ‘Ampshire he told an audience of by-election voters at the event: "To get an EU referendum you need to vote for a Tory-only government."

Which is of course yet another 180 from the Prime Monster after he pledged at the end of last month's Bloomberg event that a referendum would take place  "if I am prime minister" – whether in coalition or not.

 

And so the lying, gutless, inept, inbred, arrogant, brain dead, shirt lifting tosser multi millionaire once again takes the piss out of us.

 

And according to Labour “Lord” Lipsey

Who is allegedly a member of the House of Lords economic affairs committee Britain's lack of growth is more bearable while unemployment is low in comparison with other recessions.

Writing in The Times, he said the relatively high level of people with jobs is the reason why people are not rising up and rioting.

"The employment figures mean that, whether or not the recession is working, it is not really hurting — at least not really hurting the people who still have jobs and don’t claim benefits," he said. "An unemployment-lite recession has nothing like the social impact of a job-crushing one."

He said it is much better to be poor with a job than without one.

 

Fuck orf...

If you can be arsed you can read about the not very poor “Lord” who doesn’t have a clue about real life HERE.

 

East to the land of Taiwanese

 

 

A firm based in Taiwan is hoping to crack the mobile market by launching a transparent phone with functions “similar to a Smartphone”.

• Handset will be able to display images on front and back.

• Touch screen device will be cheaper than iPhone 5.

The lightweight device, which is completely see-through, is made of a toughened glass and can display images on both sides.

The company, which is the Taiwanese division of US-based Polytron Technologies, will put the handset into production this year after six years at the development stage.

The prototype currently shows some items, such as the battery and sim card, as being visible through the glass, though it is thought that part of the handset will be covered up to hide these elements.

Polytron has yet to reveal the price tag for the device but it is reportedly cheaper than the iPhone 5, while the screen is 0.3 inches bigger.

The company are even reportedly looking at ways to make the batteries transparent in the future, and it is hoped the phone will be available later this year.

 

Oh great; an invisible phone that’ll be a plus.....

 

Over a bit to where copies are even more rife

Allegedly China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is "an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation."

By barring any Buddhist monk living outside China from seeking reincarnation, the law effectively gives Chinese authorities the power to choose the next Dalai Lama, whose soul, by tradition, is reborn as a new human to continue the work of relieving suffering.

At 72, the Dalai Lama, who has lived in India since 1959, is beginning to plan his succession, saying that he refuses to be reborn in Tibet so long as it's under Chinese control.

 

 I’d like to see them enforce that.....

 

West to the home of ex space shuttles and very-very cheap energy

NASA scientist Joseph Zawodny has come up with a device used to test low-energy nuclear reactors .

This reactor does not use fission, the process of splitting atoms into smaller elements employed by every commercial power reactor currently operating on earth.

And it does not use hot fusion, the union of hydrogen atoms into larger elements that powers the sun and stars.

Instead, a low-energy nuclear reactor (LENR) uses common, stable elements like nickel, carbon, and hydrogen to produce stable products like copper or nitrogen, along with heat and electricity.

“It has the demonstrated ability to produce excess amounts of energy, cleanly, without hazardous ionizing radiation, without producing nasty waste,” said Joseph Zawodny, a senior research scientist with NASA’s Langley Research Centre.

“The easiest implementation of this would be for the home,” he said. “You would have a unit that would replace your water heater. And you would have some sort of cycle to derive electrical energy from that.”

The LENR offers a slow-moving neutron to an element – NASA researchers are working with nickel. The nickel absorbs the extra neutron, rendering the nickel unstable. To regain stability, the acquired neutron splits into an electron and a proton.

“So where it once had an extra neutron, making it an unstable isotope of whatever element it was, it now has an extra proton instead, which makes it a more stable isotope of a different element,” Bob Silberg of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory wrote last week on the agency’s Global Climate Change blog.

“This process releases energy which, hypothetically, can be used to generate electricity.”

With its new proton, the nickel has gained stability as another element: copper.

LENR reactors use common, stable elements like nickel, carbon, and hydrogen and produce stable elements like copper or nitrogen. NASA researchers are leaning on the Widom-Larsen Theory published in 2006 by Boston physicist Allan Widom and Chicago physicist Lewis Larson, who speculates that low energy nuclear reactions are already happening on earth – in lightning, for example. And according to Larson, LENR reactions may be responsible for occasional fires in lithium-ion batteries.

Which underscores that even low-energy nuclear reactors can produce dangerous amounts of energy.

According to Bushnell “Several labs have blown up studying LENR and windows have melted,” “indicating when the conditions are right prodigious amounts of energy can be produced and released.”

 

Think I’ll wait for the mark 2, or 3 or maybe 4...

 

And finally:

 

Almost Dahn Unda but up a fairway

The US is to bomb the tiny territory of Guam with dead mice laced with painkiller in an attempt to kill off the brown tree snakes that have taken over the island.

The reptiles, which can grow to be more than 10ft (3m), have caused misery on the territory for 60 years, since they were unwittingly introduced by US military ships after World War Two.

Now there are serious fears they could slither on to planes at the US military base and hitch a lift to Hawaii, where they would decimate the island's wildlife.

As a result, US government scientists are to drop the poison mice near Guam's sprawling Andersen Air Force Base, which is surrounded by heavy foliage and could offer the snakes a potential ticket off the island.

Scientists calculate there may be two million of the reptiles on Guam, killing wildlife, biting residents and even knocking out electricity by slithering on to power lines.

The mice carcasses are being laced with acetaminophen, the active ingredient in painkillers such as Tylenol.

Unlike most snakes, brown tree snakes are happy to eat prey they did not kill themselves, and they are highly vulnerable to acetaminophen, which is harmless to humans.

To keep the mice bait from dropping all the way to the ground, where it could be eaten by other animals or attract insects as they rot, researchers have developed a flotation device with streamers designed to catch in the branches of the forest foliage, where the snakes live and feed.

Mr Vice said the goal was not to eradicate the snakes, but to control and contain them.

 

Spiffing-must cross Guam orf the bucket list....

 

That’s it: I’m orf to decipher the Mysterious Math of the Solar Wind (if I can stay awake long enough)

 

And today’s thought:

Managed to get out of that one for a while...

 

Angus

Another ConDem balls up: GP surgery dragons: Niagara Numpty: Banned brats: Coober Pedy: and how to catch a rainbow.

Colder than the Coalition’s core, not even a whisper of atmospheric movement, even less skywater and bugger all solar stuff at the Castle this morn, it’s been an “interesting” week, the interweb router thingy went tits up on Monday and I spent a fair portion of the day talking to several different inhabitants of the Sub continent in order to obtain a new one.

So I chilled out on Monday, did a bit more chilling on Tuesday and Wednesday, did a bit of shopping and went to see the toof doctor Thursday and then some cleaning of the Castle, played chase with his Maj and when the new interweb router thingy arrived spent a while setting it up.

I really can’t stand the excitement.

 

No surprise really but:

Apparently the three to five billion squids welfare-to-work “scheme” isn’t doing too well, according to Auntie and the Public Accounts Committee only 3.6% of people on the scheme managed to get orf benefits and into secure employment in its first 14 months.

And according to Labour MP Margaret Hodge of the 9,500 former incapacity benefit claimants referred to providers, only 20 people have been placed in a job that has lasted three months, while the poorest-performing provider did not manage to place a single person in the under-25 category into a job lasting six months."

Allegedly not one of the 18 providers has met its contractual targets and their performance ''varies wildly'', the committee said.

"The best-performing provider only moved 5% of people off benefit and into work, while the worst managed just 2%," said Ms Hodge.

A spokesman for the Dept of Witless Pillocks said: "This report paints a skewed picture. More than 200,000 people have moved off benefits and into a job thanks to the Work Programme.

"It is making a real difference to tens of thousands of the hardest-to-help jobseekers. Long-term unemployment fell by 15,000 in the latest quarter.

"The Work Programme gives support to claimants for two years and it hasn't even been running that long yet, so it's still early days. We know the performance of our providers is improving."

 

So who is telling porkies then?

 

All over blighted Blighty’s GP surgeries

 

It seems that the sick are to blame for the dragons behind the reception desk.

Scientists observed 45 receptionists at work for 200 hours and found they are often trying to protect the most vulnerable patients while acting as gatekeepers for doctors.

In a research paper, entitled 'Slaying the dragon myth, the team from Manchester University, argue that receptionists were faced with the difficult task of prioritising patients, despite having little time, information, and training.

They felt responsible for protecting those patients who were most vulnerable, however this was sometimes made difficult by people trying to ‘play’ the system, they said.

Receptionists often had to negotiate with patients over the urgency of their condition to establish if they needed an emergency appointment or could wait for a routine one, despite having little information or training to do so, it was found.

 

Interesting that, at my General Medics surgery there is a touch screen log in system (when it works) which negates the need to talk to the dragons, but if you need to make a follow up appointment I have discovered that “they” would rather talk to someone on the phone than interact with half dead people.

 Wonder why? well it's not as if they are being paid to do their jobs is it....

 

West to the big falling water thingy

 

A British inventor has made a “tsunami survival” capsule — and plans to test it by hurtling over Niagara Falls in it.

Aerospace engineer Julian Sharpe, 50, believes his lifesaving pod will protect people from tidal waves, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, super-storms and many other natural disasters.

He says he has no qualms about riding the aluminium ball over the world-famous 167ft falls.

The impact will be like being rear-ended by a car at around 20mph, he claims.

He said: “We can tell people how strong it is but until we have proved that it has saved a life they might not believe what we say.”

Julian, born in Carmarthen, south west Wales and now lives in Seattle.

He hopes the capsules, holding up to six people, will sell for between £650 and £3,250.

A prototype shown at the Yokohama Expo is to go into production soon.

 

Good luck with that-I do like an optimist, on the bright side if it fails at least there won’t be a mess to clear up...

 

Dahn Unda

 

 

The Dee Why Grand shopping complex north of Sydney has told customers screaming children "will not be tolerated".

After complaints about children becoming too loud near the centre’s play area, a notice has been put up saying, "Stop. Parents please be considerate of other customers using the food court. Screaming children will not be tolerated in the centre".

Centre manager Brenda Mulcahy said staff and customers complained about children "running amok" in the food court and said children were sometimes so loud she could hear their screams in her office, which was "miles away".

"People deserve the quiet enjoyment of their cup of tea," Ms Mulcahy told The Manly Daily newspaper.

"Mothers have to be more responsible. We have had so many complaints."

She said some staff avoided the food court because they found the noise "unbearable".

Child psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg said: "I do think we are becoming increasingly selfish and intolerant ... this shopping centre needs to watch itself because I’m not sure legally it has much of a leg to stand on. This could be a violation of the United Nations rights of the child.

 

Bollocks-here’s an idea, why not build a sound proof dome which you can shove the spoilt little gits in?

 

And still Dahn Unda and Dahn Unda even more

 

 

Located in South Australia, known for being the driest state on the driest continent on Earth, the town of Coober Pedy was established in 1915, when opal was first discovered in the region and miners started settling in. The temperature and weather conditions were so harsh that the miners began digging their homes into the hillsides. All they wanted was to find some respite from the scorching sun, but in the process they ended up creating a small town for themselves. To this day, the people of Coober Pedy prefer to build their houses under the ground. Summers are harsh around here, with temperatures easily rising over 40 degrees Celsius. Air conditioning is a necessity, not a luxury, if you choose to live above ground. But the scenario is completely different in the underground homes of Coober Pedy. The temperature remains at a cool, constant 24 degrees and the humidity doesn’t go beyond 20%. Winters can be rather cold, but people are willing to make that kind of compromise.

To the outside world, all that’s visible of Coober Pedy is a vast expanse of land, interrupted by chimneys and shafts that seem to be sticking up out of nowhere. The town’s entire population of about 3,000 people lives underground, in a series of intricate tunnels. The name Coober Pedy is said to have originated from the Aboriginal phrase ‘kupa piti’, meaning ‘white man’s hole in the ground’.

 

Don’t tell the LibDems, there will be a stampede to enter the white man’s hole in the ground....

 

And finally:

 

Back over to the home of the desert snow and the land of the Electromagnetic absorber

A University of Buffalo engineering team, led by Qiaoqiang Gan, PhD, has come up with an efficient way to absorb different frequencies of light, an improvement that could lead to advances in solar energy, stealth technology, and other fields.

The “hyperbolic metamaterial waveguide” developed by Gan and his team functions like a microchip made of alternate ultra-thin films of metal, semiconductors, and insulators. The waveguide stops and absorbs each frequency of light at slightly different places in a vertical direction, allowing it to catch a “rainbow” of wavelengths.

“Electromagnetic absorbers have been studied for many years, especially for military radar systems,” Gan said. “However, it is still challenging to realize the perfect absorber in ultra-thin films with tuneable absorption band.

We are developing ultra-thin films that will slow the light and therefore allow much more efficient absorption, which will address the long existing challenge.”

Because light photons move so quickly, they’re very difficult to tame without the use of freezing materials, like cryogenic gases, that can only be used inside a laboratory. But this new metamaterial waveguide provides a more practical way for engineers to slow down light, one that can be put to use in the real world.

And the material’s ability to absorb many different wavelengths, including some commonly used for location and detection, also means it might be used as a coating material on objects like the stealth bomber or may be useful in developing new military technology.

Oh good, can’t wait for that...

 

That’s it: I’m orf to check out the moat for glowing sharks

 

And today’s thought:

My heart bleeds

 

 Angus