Submitted by Captain Black on
"Our task is to help create a shared vision that we can all agree on, because that’s the best way to pass the National Park on to future generations in an even better state. What do we want farming, housing, tourism, transport, business, heritage and nature conservation to look like? What sort of place do we want to grow up in or grow old in? What’s the correct balance that works best for everyone?
Over the course of the next year we’ll enshrine this shared vision in a document called a ‘Management Plan’, which will set out exactly the work that needs to be done. We want the plan to be ambitious but deliverable; we want to anticipate the challenges and work together to meet them. We’ll set dates and targets, so that you can see the progress we’re making together."
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/apr/13/pet-detective-says-stole...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQQdnr2JbGs&ab_channel=BonnCastell
lol
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-56745840
Hmmm ....
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-56665508
5 Comments
A Monoculture
Submitted by Captain Qahn on
"These vast mantles of dark, compressed plant matter, which are found in lowland fens and upland bogs, hold huge quantities of carbon because, when healthy, they are almost permanently wet. Dead vegetation decomposes extremely slowly in the waterlogged conditions: this is because the fungi and bacteria that break down plants fast need oxygen, which moves through water 10,000 times slower than it does through the air. Whereas plants rot relatively quickly in dry forests or grasslands, sending the carbon dioxide they have absorbed during their lifetimes back into the atmosphere, in peatland their carbon is held securely below saturated carpets of moss."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/02/rome-colosseum-to-gain-hi-...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed1tv_gCOUA
Ah, So
https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/building/palace/architec...
"... the scheme’s leaders said they were now looking at a “more agile set of projects... The review finds that, by approaching the restoration in a new way, with a phased approach, including the potential of accessing the Palace from the river to carry out work before and after decant, and close coordination with the in-house teams to maximise the benefits from any early works, the time the members and staff would spend in temporary accommodation is kept to a minimum.””
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56966859
"The other options it considered were: the partial demolition of Richmond House; no demolition, which would involve creating a pop-up chamber in the existing Richmond House courtyard; and erecting a bespoke modular building on the Horse Guards Parade Ground."
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/may/01/its-become-them-and...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnvFOaBoieE
A Mysterious Alchemy
Submitted by Captain Black on
"“It’s just nice to get out and nice to see the sea,” Jim said. “It makes such a change from the house and the garden.”"
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/23/its-cold-and-wet-but-sca...
"Though he said his job had been fairly quiet over the winter, having carried out only a couple of rescues, he was alert to people taking more risks than usual after being cooped up at home. “People can get a bit silly. A lot of them don’t realise the danger,” he said. “But we’ve been doing a lot of training and educating people so hopefully we’ll have a good summer.”"
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/20/spanish-aid-volunteer-luna...
"These are challenging times and being cooped up with others, no matter how good your relationship, can fast become an explosive scenario when heightened emotions come into play."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRARTIdYEqw
Golden Gnomes
Submitted by Captain Black on
"The Golden Gnomes are a nod to the garden gnomes which caused a stir.."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-northamptonshire-57187982
""Because it's not acceptable for those bad eggs to be attacking our warriors - be they male or female.
"Warriors who are out there every day without pay working for our families, working for our communities."
Only 59, eh ?
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/feb/27/frank-bruno-i-took-a-big-r...
"‘Your biggest fight is when you retire.’ He was right because what are you going to do? If you’re 75 you can retire and be grateful. When you retire at 35 it’s very confusing.”"
Have a sensible day.
Stiff Competition
Submitted by Captain Black on
""Everyone is going to live a bit differently because they have more flexibility and are less anchored to the city...
"Of the people living on Airbnb on a monthly basis, about 11% of them are living nomadically, they don't even have homes."
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/may/25/i-was-sleeping-in-l...
"However, whether remote working and nomadic living emerge as new frontiers in the sharing economy of private homes, Airbnb is facing increasingly stiff competition in the space it pioneered."
"Another perennial threat to the company is regulation. Where Airbnb has contributed to influxes of tourists that local communities struggle to cope with, governments have proposed curbs like tourist taxes and new rules on gaining permission for private holiday rentals.
The Scottish government has proposed giving councils power to enact such measures, to protect areas like Edinburgh's Old Town and the Isle of Skye."
https://newsthump.com/2021/05/25/disappointed-lukashenko-cant-understand...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3j2NYZ8FKs
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-57240212
https://www.eddsfield.co.uk/index.html
"The idea of a train station serving a village with more sheep than people seems absurd but during the golden age of British railways – and before the advent of the car – every other village did."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyeWRd7ZEBs
"Nuclear fusion is an attempt to replicate the processes that power the Sun - and other stars - here on planet Earth."
"Mast Upgrade is one attempt to come up with a template for more compact, cheaper fusion reactors. It makes use of an innovative design known as a spherical tokamak to squeeze the fuel into a 4.4m-tall, 4m-wide space. By comparison, the containment vessel Iter will use to control its fusion reactions is 11.4m tall and 19.4m wide.
But Mast Upgrade's bijou dimensions come at a price: "You're making something that's hotter than the Sun... in a smaller volume. How you then get the heat out becomes a big challenge," said Prof Chapman.
The core of the plasma within the tokamak reaches temperatures of 100 million C. Without an exhaust system that can handle this unimaginable heat, materials in the design would have to be regularly replaced - significantly affecting the amount of time a power plant could operate for.
The new exhaust system being trialled at Culham is known as a Super-X divertor. This would allow components in future commercial tokamaks to last for much longer; greatly increasing the power plant's availability, improving its economic viability and reducing the cost of fusion electricity.
Tests at Mast Upgrade have shown at least a tenfold reduction in the heat on materials with the Super-X system.
Researchers said the results were a "game-changer" for the promise of fusion power plants that could provide affordable, efficient electricity. Against the background of climate change, fusion could offer a clean and virtually limitless source of energy.
Dr Andrew Kirk, lead scientist on Mast Upgrade, said the results were "the moment our team at UKAEA has been working towards for almost a decade".
"We built Mast Upgrade to solve the exhaust problem for compact fusion power plants, and the signs are that we've succeeded.
"Super-X reduces the heat on the exhaust system from a blowtorch level down to more like you'd find in a car engine. This could mean it would only have to be replaced once during the lifetime of a power plant."
The success of the exhaust system for Mast Upgrade delivers a boost to plans for a prototype fusion power plant in the UK called Step. It is expected to come online sometime in the 2040s.
The Mast Upgrade facility will have its official opening ceremony on Wednesday, where guest of honour, astronaut Tim Peake, will create his own artificial star by running a plasma test on the machine."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57232644
"But the trick is getting more energy out of the reactions than you put in. This goal continues to elude teams of scientists and engineers around the world, who are working to make fusion power a reality."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDe60CbIagg
"Hambleton District Council’s planning committee will meet on Thursday to consider Bagby Airfield owner Scott’s latest changes to the site, which some residents have sought to have closed for about a decade."
https://www.thisisthecoast.co.uk/news/local-news/north-york-moors-nation...
"May's full moon, which will be one of this year's supermoons, is sometimes known as the Flower Moon, though it has many other nicknames by different cultures."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eylFXI20hww
Enjoy your evening.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57234610
On Another Clock
Submitted by Captain Qahn on
"Rural housing enablers for the two counties are celebrating this week’s rural housing week (5 to 9 July) by pledging to make sure there are high quality, low carbon, affordable homes developed in conjunction with registered providers (RP)."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57649618
"Do I want night skies and bright stations, or the inky-black privacy of my moving cell?"
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2021/jul/09/because-the-night-why-i-l...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHMlLCMkuPE
https://www.thisisthecoast.co.uk/news/local-news/new-strategy-for-tour-d...
"Experts say that the country managed to save its iconic animal through its long-term conservation efforts, including the expansion of habitats."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4hOH4YMPoE
About that rewilding ...
Oh.
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/environment/rewilding-parts-of-york...
Darn it...
"“They’d been very well welcomed. There’s photos of them meeting the local vicar and coming for tea and cricket matches. There was a wonderful accord.”"
lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3UqsZOZMGQ
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/people/call-for-memorial-in-filey-t...