Things that have recently annoyed me

[Dave Barter]

Come on Bob, we all know if the world was run by engineers and not bankers, it'd be far better

I predict a nuclear war on imperial vs metric within the first term

[PaulB2]

A couple of things that annoyed me recently.

The water companies lose 2.4 billion litres of water every day mostly due to crumbling ancient infrastructure they inherited during privatisation - fixing the infrastructure would eat into profits so they're happy just doing spot fixes while losing 40 litres per person per day.

I was reading that the French electric bills have gone up by 4% during this energy crisis while ours have gone up by up to 300% (and rising). For purely ideological reasons when all our national industries were privatised not only did the government of the day sell their entire stake (at mates rates), they also removed most regulation of the market so 'the market forces could decide' while putting in overseers whose only job seems to be to spend taxpayer money on bureaucracy and apply miniscule fines based on automated metrics. The French however cap all price increases, kept a 50% stake in EDF and very wisely bought into the largely unregulated UK market so we can be happy that our massive electric bills are helping keep French bills low. To add insult to injury of course they also built power cables across the channel so excess power generation in France can be sold at exhorbitant rates to the UK or excess power generation in the UK can be sold cheaply to France.

The way we went about privatisation in general annoys me but that's a topic for another rant.

[RIP]

very wisely bought into the largely unregulated UK market so we can be happy that our massive electric bills are helping keep French bills low

Yes that's the hilarious irony of course. Same for rail companies and just about everything else. Claim that 'everyone in UK can be a shareholder and have a stake' but the result has been what were our already-shared companies/industries becoming 'private' and then effectively owned by the 'public' governments of other countries.

In the case of utilities they've turned out to be still monopolies, with a vested interest in selling us as much (water etc) as they can rather than saving it.

Sigh.

[Cheeky Monkey]

Come on Bob, we all know if the world was run by engineers and not bankers, it'd be far better

I work with engineers. I've even been called one occasionally (I'm not). I think I can guarantee our world would look like a very basic Minecraft creation if they were "in charge".

EDIT - nah, F' that

[whitestone]

Come on Bob, we all know if the world was run by engineers and not bankers, it'd be far better

I work with engineers. I've even been called one occasionally (I'm not). I think I can guarantee our world would look like a very basic Minecraft creation if they were "in charge".

EDIT - nah, F' that

Ha ha. So true. You need a mixture of skills that complement one another. Look at Apple- you had the engineering genius of Steve Wozniak but it also needed the artistic flair of Jonny Ive and the vision of Steve Jobs to create truly great products.

A few years ago when the BBC had a series of programmes on the 50th anniversary of the moon landings they were interviewing James Burke who I always thought had a science background but in fact he had a degree in the arts. Turns out that the BBC had a policy of arts people presenting science programmes and vice versa as it was felt that that got the points across much better. JB also mentioned that NASA liked the BBC as they asked interesting questions rather than the inanities posed by the American press such as “what colour shirts do you wear?”

[Lazarus]

you had the engineering genius of Steve Wozniak but it also needed the artistic flair of Jonny Ive and the vision of Steve Jobs to create truly great products.

You forgot the marketing team and how important they were and still are to the brand

[Bearbonesnorm]

I predict a nuclear war on imperial vs metric within the first term

Proper engineers can use both - even on the same drawing

[Bearbonesnorm]

Just going back to the Air B&B - does anyone know how the planning 'works'? Obviously you don't need planning to site something mobile such as a shepherds hut but I'm assuming you do need planning if you're intention is to hire it out as accommodation. I also assume that stands if you wish to hire your garden shed out too?

[PaulB2]

Yes that's the hilarious irony of course. Same for rail companies and just about everything else. Claim that 'everyone in UK can be a shareholder and have a stake' but the result has been what were our already-shared companies/industries becoming 'private' and then effectively owned by the governments of other countries.

I think I'm right in saying that once Virgin/Stagecoach lost its franchise(s) almost all of our major railways are owned either wholly or in part by the German, French, Italian or Dutch governments and the only major European government not making profits by fleecing us through the most expensive rail tickets in Europe is our own government. In other news, the Germans have announced a 9 euro ticket to travel on local trains throughout Germany for the entire summer.

[RIP]

Yep. Bonkers. Although "almost all" isn't quite fair - TfW sort of 'state owns' Welsh railways (albeit hamstrung by UK govt).

CrossCountry, Chiltern - German govt
Northern - now 'nationalised' but was German govt
C2C - Italian
Anglia - Dutch govt
London Midland - French govt
Southern - French govt
South Eastern - French govt

Although
East Mids, South West - Stagecoach
GWR - FirstGroup
and obviously ScotRail (but Dutch govt until this year)

etc etc etc

[MuddyPete]

Yep. Bonkers. Although "almost all" isn't quite fair - TfW sort of 'state owns' Welsh railways (albeit hamstrung by UK govt).

CrossCountry, Chiltern - German govt
Northern - now 'nationalised' but was German govt
C2C - Italian
Anglia - Dutch govt
London Midland - French govt
Southern - French govt
South Eastern - French govt

Although
East Mids, South West - Stagecoach
GWR - FirstGroup
and obviously ScotRail (but Dutch govt until this year)

etc etc etc

Which neatly brings us back to Jacob Rees-Mogg: when he was appointed "Minister for Brexit Opportunities...etc" I naturally assumed it would be to help UK companies exploit European markets, rather than.....oh, never mind

[Pirahna]

Look at Apple- you had the engineering genius of Steve Wozniak but it also needed the artistic flair of Jonny Ive and the vision of Steve Jobs to create truly great products.

and the money of Bill Gates to bail them out when they got into trouble. Apple people tend to forget that bit.

[riderdown]

: a modern toilet uses 6L per flush

Flapper toilets are a modern evil, water leaks into the pan and no-one notices or bothers to fix. Second evil is sinks that don't have plugs

Look for reasons to do something rather than reasons not to

Looked for a long time, unfortunately water is heavy, doesn't compress and can host bugs that aren't good for you. Any grey water system involves tanks and pumps and some treatment, needs servicing etc etc at a household level they are a classic example of greenwashing that achieves nothing than posh case studies. In a large managed building you might have half a chance but usually it's ticking a box.

Far better to reduce the initial consumption, and change our gardening culture, meter everyone, renew the aging network to reduce leakage

Even better is target the reuse of final effluent for industry where the saving is megalitres a day rather than tens of litres

[In Reverse]

Agree with all that ^ on grey water usage - I was loosely involved with looking at implementation on some schemes in London, including some eco housing and London Sustainable Industries Park both of which were really pushing for high BREEAM scores. We couldn't really get much benefit outside of using it for watering the planting & landscaping.

[Verena]

In cafes, those little sachets of tomato sauce. I'm sure back in the day they used to have a clearly visible notch, sometimes a little dashed line, and "tear here", and that worked.
Now, they seem to have nothing of the sort, and are impossible to open.

[RIP]

Now that's the tiniest annoyance so far - nice one!

Pair of tiny bikepacking scissors? (*)

(*) someone must sell such a thing (**)

(**) awaits....

[fatbikephil]

Just going back to the Air B&B - does anyone know how the planning 'works'? Obviously you don't need planning to site something mobile such as a shepherds hut but I'm assuming you do need planning if you're intention is to hire it out as accommodation. I also assume that stands if you wish to hire your garden shed out too?

It's a bit up in the air Stu ( ) planning regs are catching up with informal accommodation such as air B&B and sheds etc. 'Change of use' is what normally covers it - i.e. from private dwelling to B&B business but there is a huge grey area whereby people are claiming it's no different to having friends round to stay. HMO regs appear as well but these are based on permanent residents, not people staying for a few days, even if different people staying for a few days at a time are the same as one or two people staying permanently.... The tax man is also getting involved as many air B&B's are run by householders who are not on the Inland Revenues radar and taking cash payments. Finally insurers are also waking up to the fact that people with normal home insurance are renting out rooms to paying punters.....

But currently it's a free for all!

[Bearbonesnorm]

That's why I asked Phil

[macinblack]

In cafes, those little sachets of tomato sauce. I'm sure back in the day they used to have a clearly visible notch, sometimes a little dashed line, and "tear here", and that worked.
Now, they seem to have nothing of the sort, and are impossible to open.

My favourites are the vinegar sachets - Rip wherever you like, the contents are going to spurt everywhere but on your food.

[Bearbonesnorm]

Rip wherever you like, the contents are going to spurt everywhere but on your food.

In your eye mainly

[PaulB2]

That’s been the modern internet business mantra - get huge amounts of investment and market share while you can get massive profits by exploiting loopholes in legislation and then once the legislation catches up you use your bloated market cap to buy up the opposition

[Bearbonesnorm]

Just read that according to the fire service, a total of 88 fires were lit deliberately across the south Wales countryside during the latest heatwave

[fatbikephil]

When I was pedaling alongside Loch Rannoch yesterday at 27degrees C I passed at least a dozen fires going.....

[voodoo_simon]

Resurrecting this thread…

Trying to book a summer holiday with the family. Thought of going to London for Harry Potter world and the museums in London itself, decided on train travel but you’ve guessed, nothing is published yet for August!! Same for coach travel too.

4 months away and you can’t book travel

[Lazarus]

Just taken the dynamo hub off and done the first commute on the proper road wheel

WHY IS THE DT SWISS LOGO ON THE FRONT WHEEL UPSIDE DOWN*

I forgot how much this annoyed me
* its a disc wheel so its not me