Ferdinand

Indeedy-doody. I was thinking precisely of you. Lettuce proceed. I do not have the hirsuteness to grow a hipster, which is probably required. My beard limit is bumfluff. 8-{o>

Depends on what they are doing. I combined nature with plants/trees, and I knew what to expect before the Surveyor arrived. Out of date with costs, but it should be a few hundred I would think. The Phase 2, now .... ?. Get thyself over to http://www.ecologistdating.com/, and bag an affair and a bus-non-gender-specific-person’s holiday. F

Presumably they are being shafted by iirc the Dartford Warblers if it is Farnham? There is probably more on a canary than a swift.

Obviously the whole system is a confused, confusing, bureaucratic mess, which could be designed to extracted as many paperwork fees as possible while incentivising flytipping, and making it all so difficult that fines can be picked off people like gooseberries from a bush, but... 1 - What is "waste"? Where is it defined? eg The 2011 Waste Regulations seem to be missing a definition. eg to pick something on the edge. If I as a self-employed individual take some broken paving slabs from Location A to Location B to be used as hardcore, is that waste? To my eye it obviously is not, but what does the Law say? If I have organised for location B to have paid Location A a tenner for it, with a receipt, is that waste? What about eg wood from a tree-trim to be used for as firewood? 2 - What is defined as "waste you produce yourself."? Cited from here. "Registration is usually free if you only transport waste you produce yourself. Otherwise, registration costs £154." 3 - Who needs to register for a license? Is transporting material between 2 of my own locations described as my 'own' waste? What happens if the person transporting material is a self-employed tradesman working for me? Any answers are most welcome. Cheers Ferdinand

The EU Water Stats page linked does include some residential vs industry comparisons, but I am not *that* convinced by the quality of the data as there seem to be some peculiar numbers that defy explanation. On the investment, the comparison we need is real terms numbers with what went before - we need data from the war until 1990. My view - which I do not have the data to prove - is that there may well have been relatively heavy investment up to the 1960s, then less in the 1970s because the economy etc, and either not very much or moderately more in the 1980s (idealogical reasons and policy), followed by a boom in investment after privatisation. I think that is more or less the pattern on the railways, for example. Point 2: Fair enough. Point 3: I haven't seen or got any information that would allow that determination. Be interested to see it if it turns up. F

Found some more Zoot Music. Apparently this 60s band is called Zoot, playing a cover of Eleanor Rigby. I think the vocalist may have escaped from the first Shatner version of the Star Trek title sequence.

The figures are updated weekly. Agree that fish seem to be involved, as the amount left in the reservoirs seems to have continued going down albeit more slowly (except for West Cumbria). Pity the Burghers of Carlisle, where the ban stands. Suspect there may be a PR Calypso played on a violin all summer about this. Latest Previous

This is presumably a different neighbour than the one with the free retaining wall ? ? F

You can get your screws on good centres by using the ‘Method Of Halves’, if you do not want to measure and mark, or are not happy with eg a handspan as a measurement. On a 6-8ft plasterboard, it will give you a good approximation to 125-150mm since you will need 8 equal gaps between your screws. Put a screws at top bottom and middle to hold it, then put the next one in the middle of each gap. Do it again and then once more, and you should have evenly spaced screws. Ferdinand

“They looked like scissors so I put them with the scissors”.

Cushions. One of the undoubted plagues of life. Exodus should have had them between Plague of Frogs and Plague of Boils. F

I would say history and the developing world lifting itself out of poverty over the last half century. Making my own sweeping statements ?, as far as I am aware every country in Western Europe (except possibly one or two outliers) has a service sector which is more than 70% of the economy. If you compare UK / France / Germany, the main differences are that Germany has a bit more manufacturing (27% vs 21%), we have more higher value services (eg Golden Circle Law Firms, Finance, International Architects), and France maintains a very pleasant agricultural museum and a government owned manufacturing sector. Services are within 1% of each other at 78-79% for all three. F+G also *may* have tradtionally had more local retail services than UK since say 1990 (eg Monsieur Le Boulanger and German Sundays), but I am not sure if that is the case any more. We are ahead with % of online sales, but I would say that is just a matter of a few years before it is ubiquitous. F

This is a subject where I have not seen *that* much data. There is this page from the EU, (eg below) which illustrates the thinness of some of the information. The main thing I draw is that the stats seem to illustrate the impact of external factors, such as population density and whether the Rhine/Danube runs through your country, almost as much as they show information about water use / abstraction. Why is water consumption in Belgium so low? I do know: - UK water meters are at about 50% of households. - UK water bills rose significantly in 1990-1995 to drive heavy investment, less quickly for the next 15 years, and have fallen recently in real terms. All data from an OFWAT report here. I am not clear about: - Current versus previous investment. Investment by water companies since 1990 has been £130bn, which is I think likely to be slanted to underground and water quality. - I am not clear how that compares with previous investment in eg all those reservoirs in the earlier period (to 1950, or is 1980 a better dividing point)?. I would love to see some data about restrictions imposed on domestic consumption. My sneaking suspicion is that there are fewer of them now, in the period 2000-2015 compared to say 1970-1985, say. I think that like energy saving, the legacy housing stock is a key question ... all the building regs in the world are of limited impact when we only build 0.5-1.0% of new stock each year. I think that, again following energy saving, there is probably more utility to be gained by reduction and demand management rather than building shiny new anything. I would hate to try and get a big new reservoir through the current Planning System. I wonder if we need to start disconnecting larger houses from the sewerage system? Ferdinand

I think there is a bit of virtue signalling and PR involved, but it saves I think around 1%. Still worth having. Here is a vid of Ladybower in wetter times last year - by Dean Read of peakroutes.com . One of my favourite bike routes when extended a little.

Thanks, but I was wondering about 2018.

Any photos?

First look I have had at any rates of change. This was United Utilities in Cumbria a week ago - going down by 4-9% of total volume in a week, and a hosepipe ban about to arrive. Ouch. One can understand why. https://www.unitedutilities.com/help-and-support/your-water-supply/reservoir-levels/

There also longer screws available if you need them. You can get them from Screwfix and they will probably be called ‘machine screws’. You can take one of yours along, or look at a socket in the shop to check. Other places have better value etc, but if you are there then they have the stuff. Ferdinand

Far easier not to overload the mixer, and put it on a square of membrane.

I am certainly on a number of drugs, but none of them are narcotics. Just for you, Herbert and the Sherbert: If it is Zoot Horn, we expect a piccie in a Zoot Suit with the foam monster worn like a feather boa ! Less painful than the Zoo and Thorn version, which would involve a bear and a pyracantha. We'll be on Blossom Dearie in a minute.

Now why does that music sound like one of those trainspotter journeys in the Flying Scotsman? That's triggered my Zoot Music, though I need to know whether it is Zoo-Thorn or Zoot-Horn? Anyhoo, it reminds me of the swing-dance-ish song Zoot Suit Riot.

I was racking my brain for something a little bigger to make it a bit easier, and I guess you could use a clock or a clock face. Any 5 hours will be 150 degrees. Not sufficent for accuracy, but probably enough to show up if it is way off.

Quick check ... should be 5 sides of the new 12 side pound coin, or something similar, when centred on the meeting point on the plan.

You are Julian Assange and I claim my £5.

Cheers. Just had a useful chat with ST. They do not have any lateral sewers there on there computer .. hardly surprised since it is 1900 vintage, so I need to get a bit of info together, and tell them and Planning and Building Control. It is not a relevant planning consideration aiui, but it can only help to tell them. Ferdinand