Coalition government starts going a dirty brown colour

The Conservative dominated coalition government is starting to gradually turn from 'green' to a brown colour (does mixing blue and orange make a brown colour??).
What was purported to be the greenest government 'ever' by the Conservatives, has shown something else recently, with Eric Pickles this week looking like a Dickensian character axing the 198 National Indicators.

The indicators are used to assess what each local authority is doing to cut emissions in their area and other important things. Unless they are replaced by some other information system that reveals what local authorities are doing, the fear now is that there will be no incentive to do anything.

If it is replaced by something simpler, then so be it, but such data should be available nationally so progress can be checked.

Other legislation under scrutiny includes a simplification of tree protection, again the concern is that the information being collected maybe reduced, giving cowboy tree surgeons, property owners and developers, opportunities to damage or remove trees.

The demise of some of the Quangos (announced yesterday) is probably less of a problem however some are of concern. The Carbon Trust and The Energy Saving Trust were not mentioned.

The latest news is that low carbon public transport is to see some cuts, with old rail stock not replaced and cuts to bus services. The controversial Seven barrage has been cancelled. RenewableUK put some light on the costs of the Seven Barrage, pointing out that the barrage would last 120 years whilst the proposed nuclear power stations would last 40 years.

All in all, it is seems the Conservatives and now the Liberal Democrats have been lying about their green credentials.

Added: Although there are some green shoots... New Energy Focus article about green energy investment.

Sainsburys says I'll be back!

Yes Sainsburys is back with a new planning application for the Caetano site. It was predicted of course and the new plan has taken into account most of the issues raised by local residents, especially the location of the petrol station.
Councillors and residents had suggested moving the petrol station from the Sprint Print site to the current recycling centre site, Sainsburys have now done this.

It should be pointed out that the recycling centre must be moved to the new location by Taylor Wimpey by a certain date (can't remember the actual date) or on completion of something like 200 homes. So Sainsburys are constrained by these time scales and the progress Taylor Wimpey make at Dukes Meadow.

It should be noted that Sainsburys have ignored the environmental concerns raised. Cyclists and pedestrians trying to get into Waterlooville will have to deal with more traffic, whilst the store will obviously encourage car use and increase carbon footprints of shoppers attracted to the store. Small shops in Waterlooville will be under pressure, the green grocer and butchers will have to compete with a new business.

Also, although nothing to do with Sainsburys, the small Shoe Zone shop in Waterlooville has closed, presumably as a result of competition from Brantano.

Southseasaurus burnt to the ground

Sadly the steel and fibre glass sculpture that I decided to name Southseasaurus was burnt to the ground last night. It isn't known whether arsonists or an electrical fault was responsible.

I went down to Southsea to have a look in August and took some photos, creating a special image using Hugin. See my August post: http://lovelywaterlooville.blogspot.com/2010/08/southseasaurus.html.

Park(ing) Day

It was international Park(ing) Day on Friday, something I haven't heard of before, where by people around the world take over metered parking spaces and make them into green parks, complete with turf and plants.

Here is a video:




I'm wondering if they put money in the meter?
I assume they do.

Visit the parking day web site.

Highest Tide 2010

December last year I posted a photo article about sea levels and high tide down at Southsea. It wasn't the highest tide, but this year I managed to catch the highest tide.

I took this video near Southsea Castle and the aquarium:

You can see in the last clip of the video I had to stand on the wall to avoid getting wet. Later on whilst taking some photos at Old Portsmouth, I did get soaked by spray from a wave.
This is a nice photo showing just how high and rough it was on the day, I couldn't get to close to the fence because of the waves:

Two of the waves can be seen just reaching the top of the sea wall.
And here it is at low tide in the summer:

Why take these photos?

Well imagine adding 1 to 2 metres to that high tide, the path would have to be blocked from public use many times a year and the waves would be slopping over the higher sea walls.

1 to 2 metres is the sea level rise expected by the end of the century and into the first part of the next century.

Now instead add 6 metres - the amount sea levels would rise if the equivalent volume of ice as on  Greenland melted - then Portsmouth would be flooded in many areas.

Retro Computing

Some 22 years ago I bought a brand new cutting edge computer called an Amiga. I still have it and for years it has been stuck in a drawer, with all the software discs and joystick. Unfortunately when I recently took it out of the drawer and tried it for the first time for 2 or 3 years, it's floppy disc drive finally gave up the ghost. But thanks to the English Amiga Board I discovered that some PC floppy disc drives can be modified to work with an Amiga.

Not only that, I discovered that my PC had an unused floppy disc drive which was one of the models that could be modified. Here it is, opened up with the mods done (the wires):

After some measuring, sawing and filing, I got it fitted into the case. Unfortunately the drive fascia is black:

But the proof of the pudding is in the eating, just stick a disk in:

Classic workbench screen with clock. Even today, you can have widgets on a modern computer, such as clocks and calculators. This one is circa 1988. Notice the 'windows', at the the end of the '80s' this was way ahead of Microsoft Windows. Most people were still using MSDOS:

Amoeba Invaders, a free game from a magazine cover disc, circa 1991:

Cyber Punks game:

Screen shot of Deluxe Paint. This was top notch graphics editing software for home computers. But by today's standards, it is incredibly limited. It's amazing what many people produced with it:

Panorama of Waterlooville

My latest go at using Hugin. A 360 degree panorama of Waterlooville town centre. Click on the image to see a bigger version: