I had been spending the last few days living here in Avatime district while visiting Ghanaian friends nearby. Away from internet, TV and any other distraction, it has given me a chance to ponder what next to do with my life.
This has been a real problem. Have submitted Sikunder Burnes to the publishers, and while there is still editing and proofs, a huge amount of time is now free. My determination to dedicate myself to working for Scottish independence led to my comprehensive rejection by the SNP. This left me confused as to what I might usefully do with my life. I suppose the question I have been pondering is, what good am I?
I have come up with a potential answer, and will out it later this week.
Climate change deniers should come to Ghana. Not only have changing rainfall patterns devastated the hydro-electric system, life has become extremely hard for farmers. The last decade has seen the highly predictable wet and dry seasons become wildly unpredictable. It has been unseasonally raining heavily on me all over Ghana. The situation is extremely difficult for farmers. Mango farmers are now praying for relief from the rain for the next six weeks or the mangoes won’t flower. The continuing rains may already have adversely affected next year’s harvest. Meeting cocoa farmers today. Am now in Kumasi.
the other ‘buried’ news stories that you couldn’t make up are:
Police Commissioner responsible for the M1 motorway in Bedfordshire is trying to give Jeremy Clarkson a heart-attack!
the tradition that £100 speeding fines are not issued to motorists who slightly exceed 70 m.p.h. is due to the uncertainty in most car odo/speedo/meters; these are typically only accurate within 5%. The police commissioner is suggesting that his force is so broke that even a single instance of travelling at 71 m.p.h. will generate a hundred quid fine. This hardline requirement that drivers don’t look at the road ahead of them, but only focus on their instrument display, will cause deaths on the motorways.
The reason why police seek to criminalise car owning British people is that by owning a car, you demonstrably have an item of value, you are even able to make repeated MOT & insurance payments, therefore you have an ongoing disposable income. Your car is registered to a specific postal address – so you are trivial to find & fine, then comrade your bounteous wealth might be shared with the police, for the greater good. [criminals/terrorists meanwhile, don’t advertise where they live, and sometimes don’t have any money to offer – so going after & criminalising car-owners is much more lucrative]
the other highly technical story is that between 5pm – 6pm yesterday the UK National Grid implemented ‘has anybody got 50p for the meter?’ plan with a Notification of Inadequate System Margin (NISM) and a “demand side balancing reserve” (DSBR) situation caused by multiple power plant problems. . .
look there’s a squirrel – sorry , terrorist
are you sure Craig that you don’t wish to stay in Ghana?
But no barking from the Russian dogs, just a deafening silence.
Egypt really doesn’t want it to be a bomb as its economy is a basket case and tourism is critical. Russia really doesn’t want it to be an IS bomb as it has quite enough on its plate with the US/Saudi-backed elements in Syria, and there’s Russian public opinion to consider, peripherally. Also, it’s still looking for pieces. There’s a certain amount of denial going on here. Iran would like it to have been a high-flying US drone and Trowbridge H Ford favours Obama hacking the rudder servos remotely.
So many theories. So little evidence. Mystic Ba’al is currently backing an AMFO bomb with a barostatic detonator. We shall see. IS may even tell us.
That £90 per Mwh guaranteed to the Chinese isn’t looking too unrealistic today. You can’t rely on wind when the wind isn’t blowing.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f4f64c7c-8318-11e5-8095-ed1a37d1e096.html#axzz3qbtCQtpf
But you can rely on sea currents and waves and tides, Fred.
What is important is that unlike the rest of the EU,were local communities have clubbed together and bought a generator of sorts, bringing their energy bills down, here communities are dead from the neck down and collaborative efforts are stifled by Tory /unionist rigmarole and red tape, whilst the Russians gas, Chinese/French nuclear power is destined to cheer up our children’s future and keep them in dependency so they can profit.
a backward of the wolds country unable to do what it once did, in the hands of multinational tax evaders and TTIP merchants.
Have you got shares in the nuclear industry Fred?
If Russian public opinion is a problem of graph isomorphism in quasipolynomial time it may be that a Russian/world majority will be willing to support the elimination of whoever murdered their fellow citizens. If it was an UK/US/IS (ISIS) bomb then more than half of world opinion will favor a 10 fold increase in operations to debilitate this abstract fighting objective wherever it operates.
Egypt will of course require compensation to offset the limited affect on tourism. I wonder how much agent Cameron is prepared to offer this poisonous lilli-putian today.
I agree with you Ba’al, a professional job by someone who knew what they are doing. It was an option I mooted three days ago that staff had been infiltrated and or a particularly daft specimen had been persuaded to store a bag or packet in the plane for them. If their CCTV worked, they will have some pictures.
Comparing this attack on a civilian airliner with that of the Shot down one over the Donetzk area, the media responses and lack of cooperation shown to the Russians, makes it appear as if we don’t give a figs poop for what happened.
correct me if I’m wrong, but did the French news agency Euractiv write Hungary here when they meant to write United Kingdom, and Pintér and Harangozó when they should’ve written May and Corbyn ? – after all – doesn’t the UK current threat alert system similarly stand at flashing ultra-violet with jingle-bells
more at http://bbj.hu/politics/intelligence-agents-could-be-stationed-in-newsrooms_106652
but I guess the UK already passed this law, secretly, in 1895 – without bothering to tell everyone who works in MI5
I suspect you may want to settle in Ghana and help out there, and if so, good luck! An alternative, if you want to stay in the UK, might be to rejoin the Labour Party and help Corbyn win the next general election. I expect you have some reservations about his programme (I myself have reservations about his absence of remarks on PR, the dangers of causing inflation, etc.), but you and Corbyn have a lot of ground in common: anti-war, social justice, end of Etonian government. After all, what is more important, independence for Scotland or social justice for all in the UK? If one or 2 of the Blairite MPs were to be ousted in a reselection process, you could stand a very good chance of becoming an MP.
on the power market – which can only be improved by TTIP as that is the remedy to *everything* – you might be interested to follow today the power market fluctuations, seeing as how near the UK came to needing a rather large USB recharger yesterday
The BSC Panel
The Balance and Settlement Code (BSC) Panel oversees the management, implementation and development of the BSC. It brings together stakeholders from across the electricity industry, including Ofgem, National Grid, BSC Parties and consumer representatives, focused on ensuring that the BSC is delivered efficiently, economically, effectively, fairly and transparently.
BMReports.com is the public Balancing Mechanism Reporting Service (BMRS) website maintained by the Balancing Mechanism Reporting Agent (BMRA), one of [the] BSC Agent service providers, in accordance with Section V of the BSC. It provides forecast, near real time and historic data about the Balancing Mechanism. It includes information on generation and demand, Bid and Offer data and the indicative System Buy Price (SBP) and System Sell Price (SSP) for each half hour of trading.
please check the public website here : http://www.bmreports.com/bwx_reporting.htm
(it’s not very well today! – not very real-time, is something not-happening, I wonder?)
I did get this gem:
From : Power System Manager – National Grid Electricity Control Centre NATIONAL GRID NOTIFICATION Nature of Notification National Grid has agreed a Cross Border Balancing (CBB) SO-SO transaction to buy 200MW from Eirgrid on EWIC Interconnector 15:55 to 18:30 at 390 Euros. National Grid has been unable as yet to notify these volumes[. . . but that’s probably normal}
More on the EirGrid
Technical features
The Eirgrid East–West Interconnector has a total length of 261 kilometres (162 mi), of which 186 kilometres (116 mi) is submarine cable and 75 kilometres (47 mi) is subsoil cable. The link connects converter stations at Rush North Beach, County Dublin, Ireland, and Barkby Beach in North Wales. The interconnection uses ±200 kV HVDC Light cables with a capacity of 500 MW. It is the first HVDC Light transmission system project, to use ±200 kV cables. The cables and converter stations were provided by ABB. The project was financed by a €300 million loan from the European Investment Bank, capital investments from commercial banks, EirGrid equity and a €110 million grant from the European Commission
Nice that a few European Institutions kept the surveillance computers running in the UK, remind me of GCHQ’s power usage again?
Peering in to the event horizon again we note former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas revealed in 2013 that he was secretly approached by British officials back in 2009 with a covert plan to overthrow the Assad government. That was at least two years before the foreign-backed insurgency erupted in the country under the cover of a «pro-democracy uprising» that the Western media has systematically lied about.
That fact has consequences sustained by the awful truth EU countries are building fences to keep out frenzied, starving and dying men, women and child refugees. Is the EU mirroring the Berlin wall or cloning the separation barrier in Israel?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz-s2AAh06I
Mr X (aka Why be ordinary)
“This is the moment for Habbakuk to get out his pron”
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Thanks for the mention. Missing me?
As Sisi visits London, and thousands protest, here’s a penetrating little piece on where the UK actually stands on human rights vs profits –
http://www.icfr.info/en/?p=3838
Must-read.
“The U.S. Navy is now feeling the effects of how the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan is undeployable after its radioactive contamination off Fukushima.” (present tense, presumably referring to the present)
“There was a similar four-month gap earlier this year in the Asia Pacific, when the USS George Washington left Japan in mid-May and its replacement, the USS Ronald Reagan did not arrive until the fall.” (past tense, consistent with “earlier this year)
(big shout out for Tony, incidentally; conclusions from the above for those who don’t click)
There is no commitment to human rights by the UK unless it suits British interests to raise them and they certainly are unlikely to trump business considerations. More nefarious still is the suggestion that the promotion of business interests in Egypt, which have grown by nearly a quarter to £1.6bn since last year, are part of a wider commitment to maintaining dialogue over human rights and promoting democracy. Tony Blair, an adviser to Sisi as part of a programme funded by the United Arab Emirates committed to delivering huge “business opportunities,” is the promoter of an Orwellian newspeak discourse on Sisi, which presents the tyrant as a misunderstood vanguard for democracy. You couldn’t make it up.
In an illustration of just how massive economic projects flaunted as progress have had little effect on average Egyptians, an Egyptian graphic designer ridiculed a state-sanctioned hashtag used to celebrate the opening of the much touted “new” Suez Canal, by creating mock-up posters showing the high-levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment under Sisi. One particular poster pointed to Egypt’s 25.2-percent poverty rate, 13.4-percent unemployment rate, 26.1-percent illiteracy rate and 6.2 trillion Egyptian pounds ($772 billion) of debt, using the ironic hashtag #EgyptRejoices.
Sisi’s visit to the UK is a travesty to universally cherished values of freedom, accountability and fairness – but his visit also reveals the much more sinister face of the British government, which while paring itself with the mantle of hard-fought human rights to legitimise its actions, undermines those principles wherever global citizens don’t have the power to hold it to account.
Literally hundreds of hospitals have been destroyed in Syria by suicide bombers driving huge vans full with explosives into them, and they recorded their ‘achievements’ and published their videos on YouTube and Aljazeera-like channels with pride.
No one talked about the doctors, nurses, and patients who had been buried alive under the wreckage of these hospitals. Maybe once or couple of times, Ban Ki Mon was worried or condemned such acts, but that’s it, nothing more than few words on UN that everyone forget the next day, and go back to blame the ‘regime of killing its people’.
The terrorists’ excuses in bombing these hospitals are ridiculous. They would say that this hospital is full of ‘shabbeeha’ (armed groups that are pro-Syrian government and army); full of ‘Alawites; full of ‘Infidels’; full of Assad gangs…….Therefore, it’s ok to bomb them and purify the land from their “dirt and filth”!
http://off-guardian.org/2015/11/04/on-targeting-hospitals-in-syria/
YouKnowMyName
I see the maximum National Grid system buy price yesterday was £420 per MWh or 42p per KWh – makes Chinese nuclear power stations sound cheap!
The must have been paying people to ride bikes attached to generators at that price.
Curiously real time Rolling System Demands and Rolling System Frequency currently says “No Data to Display” for me currently.
CanSpeccy
“Can’t believe I bothered arguing with someone as nutty as RobG”
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As I’ve said before, he’s just on here for laughs, Poitou-Charentes* pinard his inspiration.
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* Lysias to check the spelling, please 🙂
Time to get my old Raleigh chopper bicycle with the tyre rim dynamo out of my dad’s shed I think. I can keep fit, earn money and keep the UK’s lights on all at the same time.
Re hospitals being attacked, here’s the just released MSF report;
http://kunduz.msf.org/
Here’s yesterday’s “NOTIFICATION OF INADEQUATE SYSTEM MARGIN”
http://www.bmreports.com/bsp/additional/system_warnings_historic.php
From : Power System Manager – National Grid Electricity Control Centre NOTIFICATION OF INADEQUATE SYSTEM MARGIN A NISM has been issued by the System Operator to encourage market actions to restore System Margins to adequate levels. For the period: from 16:30 hrs to 18:30 hrs on Wednesday 04/11/2015 There is Inadequate System Margin. System margin shortfall 500 MW (excluding any available DSBR and SBR) Maximum Generation Service may be instructed. Trading Points, Control Points and Externally interconnected System Operators are requested to notify National Grid of any additional MW capacity. Suppliers please advise National Grid of any additional Demand Control available The situation will be reviewed again by National Grid at 18:00 hours and an update issued. This Notification of Issue of a GB Transmission System Warning – Inadequate System Margin Notification Issued at 13:30 hrs on 04/11/2015 Issued by Clive Coles National Grid Electricity Control Centre ************** Information Note:- As the System Operator, National Grid are responsible for balancing the electricity system in the final hours before real-time. We have a number of routine tools we can use to help us do this, this toolkit includes NISMs. A NISM is used to send a signal to the electricity market. It highlights that, in the short-term, we would like a greater safety cushion (margin) between power demand and available supply. It does not signal that blackouts are imminent or that there is not enough generation to meet current demand.
Brownouts are a small price to pay for the unhindered operation of the free market in the private sector, Squonk. Looking forward to the Christmas load on the grid, eh?
Chopper front wheels were available with a ‘Dynohub’, a dynamo not relying on friction against the tyre, but built into the hub.
You don’t like Sisi?
Would you prefer Mursi whose intelligence head Zawahiri is brother of CIA Zawahiri in Afghanistan? Mursi got him to phone his brother to offer Egypt’s undying support for regime change in Syria.
The owners of the industrial sector in Egypt, i.e. the army, have polluted the water supply and its toxicity will now give you liver / kidney failure.
I blame the neighbours. Don’t tell habbaclown. I thought he’d volunteered himself to blow up the Russian plane for Israyhell.
I don’t like Sisi. I didn’t much like Morsi, but he was at least more or less fairly elected.
Point being, how can the UK claim to have any morality at all when it gives guys like this a State welcome? Answer, of course, it can’t, especially as it does its level best to topple very similar dictators should its energy/commercial lobbyists demand it. And not, if they don’t. Just to remind you that another client of Blair’s, Nazarbayev, was in London a few days ago….
And oh, yes, Israel is very much part of this.
Glenn uk
So youre mocking Tony’s advice that Craig should do more exercise,drink less,improve his diet and spend more time with his family as unwise?
You sound rather confused Glenn.
Nazarbayev – yesterday, in fact. My bad –
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3304592/Rolling-red-carpet-Kazakh-despot-Duke-York-Queen-lay-ceremonial-welcome-complete-guard-honour-controversial-ruler-Nazarbayev.html
Whatever this treatment does for Tory donor Bamford’s JCB sales, it gives bastards like Nazarbayev some completely unearned international credibility. At least until the rest of the world catches on that the State reception crap is strictly from UK plc’s marketing department, and is utterly worthless.
How about this for a solution, Craig. get an abode in Ghana, spend six warm month in Ghana, followed by a great summer in Scotland, hiring out your abode there for short term use.
you could try trading in African art, just a thought, especially old African art. Or use your diplomatic skills to negotiate some beneficial contracts for Ghana/neighbouring countries.
This is for Tony M, just think about the energy such a race could produce from a dyno hub….;)
http://www.spiegel.de/video/downhill-mountainbike-rennen-in-medellin-video-1623495.html
Queen: “And what do you do?”
Nazarbayev: “I sell oil, bitch.”
For those who have trouble reading Cyrillic, Исламское Государство is Russian for “Islamic State”.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/11/04/egyptian-president-abdel-fattah-al-sisi-meets-david-cameron_n_8471254.html
a well written article, as believable as anything else out there