The Great UK C02 Shortage

While the rest of the world is bending over backwards to rid the planet of the life-giving, odourless, colourless, invisible gas that represents 0.04% of atmospheric gasses, the UK has a shortage in some industries.

If it wasn't so serious it would be hilarious.

In the UK there is a shortage of C02 because plants that produce fertilizer can't get sufficient energy to run their plants, an output of which is C02 used in fizzy drinks, the meat industry, and elsewhere.

Those politicians, paid "scientists" and media brightsparks who have slandered C02 as a dangerous gas that we need to reduce by 2050 - an impossible task - are responsible for the destruction of Western energy systems, directly or indirectly.

The UK is the last of several countries to find that wind turbines and solar won't provide the amount of energy required to run modern economies. Trillions have been spent on subsidies, payments to turbine companies to switch off (can you believe that?) Now, the UK looks like having an unhappy winter.

The only way to rid the planet of the nonsense that we can save the planet by killing off our reliable coal, nuclear and gas supplies and replacing them with solar and wind is for those of us fortunate enough to vote, to elect governments who know that the global warming/climate change nonsense being pushed by the IPCC and others is a farce.

How anyone, scientist or gifted amateur, can calculate a pathway to exactly a 1.5 degree Celsius increase in temperature or think they can control the climate by reducing C02 is a mystery. The UK is finding out the hard way.

Robin.....

Those Dangerous Roads

In the Barossa Valley there has been a lot of press about an intersection where two traffic incidents occurred within a matter of weeks. As I understand it, nobody was killed, but injuries occurred. 

The intersection has a lot of heavy truck traffic and was controlled by stop signs. The local council, in its wisdom, replaced the stop signs with give-way signs. This was considered to be an error that was increasing the danger within the intersection. After much public reaction, the council was pressured by public opinion to remove the give-way signs and replace them again with stop signs.

Numerous people said the intersection was "dangerous" and that stop signs would prevent crashes from occurring. Good luck with that.

One thing I discovered during 12 years of police service, four of which were spent full-time investigating traffic incidents where fatalities or evidence of dangerous driving occurred, is that it doesn't matter how straight, how good a surface, how many signs or road markings there are on a road, drivers will still manage to crash.

The cause of 99%* of traffic incidents is drivers. Let me say that again; drivers cause crashes. Not roads. Not signs.

There are people who wilfully disobey stop signs and give-way signs in the same way there are people who use mobile phones while driving (inattention), and consume drugs or alcohol before driving. There are also people who have a propensity to collide.

If drivers disobey give-way signs and can't manage to avoid traffic travelling on an interesection road, why would we expect drivers not to disobey stop signs? In fact, everywhere I drive, I see people who don't stop at stop signs.

According to the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (Australian Standard 1742) stop signs are used when there is a visibility problem or other feature that requires a driver to stop.

I've attended dozens of traffic incidents (mostly fatalities) where people have failed to stop.

I hope the so-called dangerous intersection doesn't have any more crashes, but I know where I'd place my bet.

Robin

* I'll discuss a fatality I attended that was brought about by mechanical failure next post and two where people weren't wearing seat belts that probably prevented them from dying.

What does Jesscia REALLY want?

 

Jesscia, which is probably a misspelled Jessica keeps sending me these emails that end up in my spam folder. The screen capture at left is one day's worth of spam from Jesscia.

Some moron sitting in Africa, Russia or somewhere else is pumping out millions of these spam messages daily. And there are plenty of others of various types promising large sums of money, unsubscription from porn sites and on it goes.

If Jesscia was really contacting me to see her naked pictures, wouldn't she just send one message? Why send multiple messages every day? She must think she's special.

As you'd expect, I never click on any of these messages. If I want to, I can see plenty of naked women online without risking my computer and the data I have stored thereon.

My email client always sends these annoying messages to the spam folder. Why don't they just delete them? Every day I receive the same lot of stupid messages.

Does anyone ever click on these? Somebody must be doing so otherwise the spammers would probably stop. 

In the meantime, I'm getting so much spam I'm thinking about changing my email address. Also, the "Have I Been Pwned" site tells me that my email address has been spread far and wide through security leaks.

If you haven't done so, take a look at Have I Been Pwned to see if your address has been compromised.

Good luck.

Robin

Executing an 'Instantia Warrant'

Most people have heard of warrants but to make sure we're on the right track, I'll explain the two main types of warrants available when I worked as a police officer. 

One was a search warrant, the most common that obviously gives police and others the right to search someone's property. The second was a warrant of apprehension that allowed police officers to legally arrest someone. These were also called 'Bench warrants' because they were issued by Magistrates at their court bench.

Some statutes provide powers of arrest under different circumstances eg, if a police officer finds someone offending. Other statutes or parts of statutes require that a warrant be executed.

A warrant must always be executed as an original and signed on the back to state that it has been executed.

In Queensland, we had a process that allowed a person who was of the rank of Inspector or above to issue an instantia warrant ie, a warrant completed on the job. Presumably, a police officer would go to an Inspector and swear using a Holy Bible that certain offences were about to be committed or being committed and insufficient time was available to obtain a warrant through the usual court-based process.

One such time a few police officers including an Inspector were observing a criminal organisation when they saw that offences were being committed. The Inspector had a blank instantia warrant in his possession and decided to write in the details to allow a search of the property under surveillance.

The police team subsequently burst into the property, seized stolen goods and arrested a number of offenders. The offenders pleaded not guilty and a committal trial was conducted in a Magistrates Court.

During cross-examination the defending counsel was examining the Inspector's evidence and the conversation went like this:

Defence: "Inspector Doe, describe how you took out the instantia warrant."

Inspector: "When I saw that an offence was being committed and that a warrant was necessary, I took a blank instantia warrant sheet from my briefcase. I then completed all the details and swore that the information contained therein was true and correct."

Defence: "How did you swear that the information was true and correct?"

Inspector: "In the usual manner. I held the Holy Bible in my right hand and swore on the bible that it was true and correct."

Defence: "Where did you get a bible from at such short notice?"

Inspector: "I always carry a small version with me."

Defence: "Do you have it with you now?"

Inspector: Looking embarrassed and touching each of his suit pockets in turn replied, "No sir, I must have left it at the office."

Everyone in the courtroom sniggered. Only the police officers involved in the case knew the truth.

In courts, it's very easy to get caught with one's pants down - so to speak.

Robin