h/t Gates of Vienna
Despite plummeting temperatures, Rita Young only puts her central heating on twice a day. Instead, the 76-year-old widow from Peterborough, a town about 150 kilometers north of London, says she "tries to keep busy and warm."
Young survives on her UK state pension - one of the least generous in Europe - and is classed as being in fuel poverty. That's when more than 10 percent of a household income is spent heating and lighting the home.
As recently as 2008 - before the financial crisis and subsequent deep recession hit - an estimated 3 million British households were classed as being in fuel poverty. Since then, with incomes squeezed and salaries frozen, the figure has nearly doubled. Well, you gotta have your priorities straight
#1
There is a frustratingly easy solution for a lot of this, with mass production of thin sheet aerogel insulation. They have tried weaving it into extreme cold weather clothing but it insulates so well that in near Arctic conditions, wearers are too hot.
Lining a refrigerator, it would use only a fraction of its energy to keep food cold. Lining an oven, the same, but keeping food hot. Line a building with it and human body heat will turn it into a sauna.
The key is mass production to drive the price down.
#2
Britain used to get its energy from a source other than windmills. I'm told it was common in Wales and in the southwest. You could send men under the ground to bring it out.
Too bad they can't use that instead of windmills.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/16/2012 9:32 Comments ||
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#3
10% of household income is spent on heating and lighting? Many people in the U.S. would being living in fuel poverty by that standard.
I seem to recall that hearth burning in London for heat/cooking was banned many years ago because of smog.
So far in our area, using wood, oil burners and fireplaces are not against the law.
#4
Although Britain has one of the most competitive markets for home energy in the 27-member European Union, Young claims the big fuel companies act like a "cartel," deliberately working together to keep prices high.
Uh oh, we have a turd in the punchbowl!
Somebody shut this guy up! He's giving away industry secrets!
this is Europe we're speaking of. The cartel exists as part of the EU it's the gov't. that causes and enforces these conditions for their own greater good.
#6
Moose - do you have sources for the info on aerogel clothing? I've never heard of any clothing insulation rendering the wearers 'too hot' under Artic conditions. The human body generates about 100W of heat, and that makes it very hard to imagine any such scenario for a body that continues to breathe out some of its hot air and take in some Artic type air, even if heat loss through skin were zero.
Retro-engineering dilapidated and obsolete housing for proper insulation does tend to be uneconomic. I must say I have met many elderly individuals who complain bitterly about cold temps and utterly refuse to wear knit caps, sweaters & other such appropriate indoor wear even though it might solve their problem.
OTTAWA -- The Harper government's controversial bill to end the long-gun registry has passed the House of Commons, marking the end of a long political battle over one of the most controversial law enforcement measures in recent memory.
The bill passed easily, by a margin of 159 to 130, as the Conservatives used their majority in the House secure passage of the bill, which now goes to the Senate where the Conservatives also have a majority.
This should make it easier for the Government to block efforts by the environmental lobby to prevent building the oil pipeline.
The Senate hearings are expected to take several weeks before the bill is passed into law.
#1
The Canadian Government will now impose a "Stupid People" registry; liberals are forming up queues to comply.
Posted by: Steven ||
02/16/2012 0:19 Comments ||
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#2
This liberal fantasy of a control-over-the-masses registry wasted a huge amount of money, and accomplished nothing. And they pulled it off with the same b.s. arguments the gun controllers in the US used.
Hopefully, the conservatives will lose their embarrassment 'aboot' doing the right thing, which by their statements they do seem to be embarrassed 'aboot'; and look South to the United States to see what we have done, with its universally positive effects.
#4
I second that, Twobyfour, and hope that the rest of the stupid gun laws will also be killed . . . someday.
Over the years I have made some donations to the CPC with the result that they call me for money about once a month. Lately I've been telling them "Not one more penny until the long gun registry is dead". It's not dead until the Senate has passed it, Royal assent has been granted and the registry erased completely. Then and only then does my wallet get opened.
A preschooler at West Hoke Elementary School ate three chicken nuggets for lunch Jan. 30 because the school told her the lunch her mother packed was not nutritious.
The girls turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips, and apple juice did not meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, according to the interpretation of the person who was inspecting all lunch boxes in the More at Four classroom that day.
The Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department of Health and Human Services requires all lunches served in pre-kindergarten programs - including in-home day care centers - to meet USDA guidelines. That means lunches must consist of one serving of meat, one serving of milk, one serving of grain, and two servings of fruit or vegetables, even if the lunches are brought from home.
When home-packed lunches do not include all of the required items, child care providers must supplement them with the missing ones.
The girl's mother - who said she wishes to remain anonymous to protect her daughter from retaliation - said she received a note from the school stating that students who did not bring a "healthy lunch" would be offered the missing portions, which could result in a fee from the cafeteria, in her case $1.25.
"I don't feel that I should pay for a cafeteria lunch when I provide lunch for her from home," the mother wrote in a complaint to her state representative, Republican G.L. Pridgen of Robeson County.
The girl's grandmother, who sometimes helps pack her lunch, told Carolina Journal that she is a petite, picky 4-year-old who eats white whole wheat bread and is not big on vegetables.
"What got me so mad is, number one, don't tell my kid I'm not packing her lunch box properly," the girl's mother told CJ. "I pack her lunchbox according to what she eats. It always consists of a fruit. It never consists of a vegetable. She eats vegetables at home because I have to watch her because she doesn't really care for vegetables."
When the girl came home with her lunch untouched, her mother wanted to know what she ate instead. Three chicken nuggets, the girl answered. Everything else on her cafeteria tray went to waste.
"She came home with her whole sandwich I had packed, because she chose to eat the nuggets on the lunch tray, because they put it in front of her," her mother said. "You're telling a 4-year-old. 'oh. your lunch isn't right,' and she's thinking there's something wrong with her food."
While the mother and grandmother thought the potato chips and lack of vegetable were what disqualified the lunch, a spokeswoman for the Division of Child Development said that should not have been a problem.
"With a turkey sandwich, that covers your protein, your grain, and if it had cheese on it, that's the dairy," said Jani Kozlowski, the fiscal and statutory policy manager for the division. "It sounds like the lunch itself would've met all of the standard." The lunch has to include a fruit or vegetable, but not both, she said.
There are no clear restrictions about what additional items - like potato chips - can be included in preschoolers' lunch boxes.
"If a parent sends their child with a Coke and a Twinkie, the child care provider is going to need to provide a balanced lunch for the child," Kozlowski said.
Ultimately, the child care provider can't take the Coke and Twinkie away from the child, but Kozlowski said she "would think the Pre-K provider would talk with the parent about that not being a healthy choice for their child."
It is unclear whether the school was allowed to charge for the cafeteria lunches they gave to every preschooler in the class that day.
The state regulation reads:
"Sites must provide breakfast and/or snacks and lunch meeting USDA requirements during the regular school day. The partial/full cost of meals may be charged when families do not qualify for free/reduced price meals.
"When children bring their own food for meals and snacks to the center, if the food does not meet the specified nutritional requirements, the center must provide additional food necessary to meet those requirements."
Still, Kozlowski said, the parents shouldn't have been charged.
"The school may have interpreted [the rule] to mean they felt like the lunch wasn't meeting the nutritional requirements and so they wanted the child to have the school lunch and then charged the parent," she said. "It sounds like maybe a technical assistance need for that school."
The school principal, Jackie Samuels, said he didn't "know anything about" parents being charged for the meals that day. "I know they eat in the cafeteria. Whether they pay or not, they eat in the cafeteria."
Pridgen's office is looking into the issue.
Sara Burrows is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.
Editor's note, Feb. 15: The first two paragraphs of this story were updated. Neither DHHS nor school officials would identify the person who inspected the homemade lunches and decided they did not meet USDA guidelines. CJ has made multiple requests to DHHS for clarification. In an email to CJ, department spokeswoman Lori Walston said: "As mentioned in the statement from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) issued last night, this agency is currently working to determine the specifics of this case."
Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, officials in the Gazoo Strip accused Israel of encouraging the drug trade in the coastal enclave, the Paleostinian Ma'an news agency reported Wednesday.
Director of the anti-drugs police in northern Gazoo Ashraf al-Bayari said Israel deliberately sends large quantities of drugs to the Gazoo Strip "in order to blackmail youths and trick them into becoming collaborators with Israeli intelligence," the agency said.
According to Ma'an, Hamas copperstossed in the calaboose a drug pusher on Sunday evening in the refugee camp of Jabalya in the northern Gazoo Strip who was in possession of 1,000 ecstasy pills.
The pills were smuggled into the Gazoo Strip from Israel via the Erez crossing, the Hamas authorities claimed.
Baroness Warsi has hit out at "secular fundamentalists" as she met the Pope and concluded an historic visit of British ministers to the Vatican.
The Cabinet Office minister and chairman of the Conservative Party gave Benedict XVI a personal gift during a 20-minute private audience -- a gold-plated cube that opens up to reveal 99 tiny cubes, each inscribed with a reference to Allah.
In keeping with the theme of interfaith dialogue, she also gave him a copy of the Koran which was translated by an East European Jew who converted to Islam and helped write Pakistan's constitution.
"They were personal gifts from me," Baroness Warsi, the first female Muslim cabinet minister, told The Daily Telegraph at the Vatican on Wednesday.
She also presented the pontiff with a letter from David Cameron, the Prime Minister, a message from the Queen and a copy of the King James Bible.
Baroness Warsi expanded on a speech she gave in Rome on Tuesday, and an article she wrote for The Daily Telegraph, that British society was under threat from a rising tide of "militant secularisation" and that Europe needs to be "more confident in its Christianity".
Speaking after her meeting with the Pope, she said: "Secular fundamentalists are saying that people of faith shouldn't have a voice in the public sphere. I'm saying faith should be one of many voices, it should be part of the debate."
According to a study carried out for Richard Dawkins's aggressive atheist
think tank, most people in Britain who identify themselves as Christian are "overwhelmingly secular in their attitudes on issues ranging from gay rights to religion in public life".
Almost three-quarters of people interviewed agreed that religion should not influence public policy, while only 12 per cent thought it should.
#1
In a just world (and in keeping with the theme of interfaith dialogue), His Holiness would have presented the good Baroness with a copy of Madden's "The Real History of the Crusades".
"Described as the world's most prominent and prolific film composer by Time, his works are notable for integrating eastern classical music with electronic music sounds, world music genres and traditional orchestral arrangements. He has won two Academy Awards, two Grammy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, four National Film Awards, fifteen Filmfare Awards, thirteen Filmfare Awards South in addition to numerous other awards and nominations.
"Working in India's various film industries, international cinema and theatre, Rahman has sold more than 300 million records worldwide of his film scores and soundtracks as of 2009 for over 100 film scores worldwide, making him one of the world's all-time top selling recording artists."
#8
"Choral music is often devoted to religious themes. ... This is not a case where the school is endorsing or promoting any particular religion...The song was chosen because its rhythms and other qualities would provide an opportunity to exhibit the musical talent and skills of the group in competition, not because of its religious message..."
-well, if you were hell-bent on doing some middle-eastern sounding shit why not just go all out and do "kashmir" by Led Zeppelin...idiot dhimmis...Good for this kid to drop that choir.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
