Life Matters

Outlook 2011 and Calendar Duplicated Calendar Events

2012-03-22T16:56:00.001+00:00

Mac problems with duplicated calendar events in Outlook 2011 and Calendar? Calendar Cleaner works brilliantly! Check in out in App Store.

Being a Number

2011-10-25T16:44:00.001+01:00

I remember, many moons ago, sitting in the doctor's waiting room and having a number on a disc that you put on a hanger after you were called in by the receptionist. You felt like a number. Now, your name comes up (full name with title) on an LED display about 12 inches high. Then you go in to see the doctor and in the rush to get rid of you, you feel like a number.

WTF! Man Baled Alive!

2010-11-01T06:33:00.001+00:00

Good news. Bacteria eat CO2!

2009-12-12T05:27:00.001+00:00

Global climate change has prompted efforts to drastically reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas produced by burning fossil fuels.

In a new approach, researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have genetically modified a cyanobacterium to consume carbon dioxide and produce the liquid fuel isobutanol, which holds great potential as a gasoline alternative. The reaction is powered directly by energy from sunlight, through photosynthesis.

The research appears in the Dec. 9 print edition of the journal Nature Biotechnology and is available online.

This new method has two advantages for the long-term, global-scale goal of achieving a cleaner and greener energy economy, the researchers say. First, it recycles carbon dioxide, reducing greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the burning of fossil fuels. Second, it uses solar energy to convert the carbon dioxide into a liquid fuel that can be used in the existing energy infrastructure, including in most automobiles.

While other alternatives to gasoline include deriving biofuels from plants or from algae, both of these processes require several intermediate steps before refinement into usable fuels.

"This new approach avoids the need for biomass deconstruction, either in the case of cellulosic biomass or algal biomass, which is a major economic barrier for biofuel production," said team leader James C. Liao, Chancellor's Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UCLA and associate director of the UCLA-Department of Energy Institute for Genomics and Proteomics. "Therefore, this is potentially much more efficient and less expensive than the current approach."

Using the cyanobacterium Synechoccus elongatus, researchers first genetically increased the quantity of the carbon dioxide-fixing enzyme RuBisCO. Then they spliced genes from other microorganisms to engineer a strain that intakes carbon dioxide and sunlight and produces isobutyraldehyde gas. The low boiling point and high vapor pressure of the gas allows it to easily be stripped from the system.

The engineered bacteria can produce isobutanol directly, but researchers say it is currently easier to use an existing and relatively inexpensive chemical catalysis process to convert isobutyraldehyde gas to isobutanol, as well as other useful petroleum-based products.

In addition to Liao, the research team included lead author Shota Atsumi, a former UCLA postdoctoral scholar now on the UC Davis faculty, and UCLA postdoctoral scholar Wendy Higashide.

An ideal place for this system would be next to existing power plants that emit carbon dioxide, the researchers say, potentially allowing the greenhouse gas to be captured and directly recycled into liquid fuel.

"We are continuing to improve the rate and yield of the production," Liao said. "Other obstacles include the efficiency of light distribution and reduction of bioreactor cost. We are working on solutions to these problems."

More information: Nature Biotechnology paper: http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v27/n12/abs/nbt.1586.html

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Strata-Sphere » The AGW Cover Up Is In The Code – Smoking Gun Update!

2009-12-04T06:09:00.000+00:00

Anthropogenic Global Warming - what belies the truth?

The Strata-Sphere » The AGW Cover Up Is In The Code – Smoking Gun Update!

Self assembly poinsettia

2009-12-03T18:02:00.001+00:00

I didn’t realise this was a self assembly poinsettia when I bought it from Somerfield/Co-op in Pocklington. Not to worry though as they say I can return it for a replacement fully assembled version. It cost £3.75. The 10 mile car journey that will also take an irreplaceable 1/2 hour of my life is something that I look forward to with Christmas glee! British grown, British broken and British dissatisfied customer. Merry British Christmas! Oh sorry, it’s not British to say that is it? Merry British Festival of Light! And up your Merry British Arses!

Rare brain disorder that causes dementia is hereditary

2009-11-17T18:56:00.001+00:00

New research shows that a rare brain disorder that causes early dementia is highly hereditary. The brain disorder, called frontotemporal dementia, is formerly known as Pick's disease and destroys parts of the brain, leading to dementia, including problems with language or changes in behavior and personality. The disease often affects people under the age of 65. The study is published in the November 3, 2009, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Violating Homeopaths

2009-11-16T09:24:00.000+00:00

The Society of Homeopaths is in breach of its own code of ethics by posting "speculative," "misleading," and "deceptive" statements on its website, claims a leading UK expert in complementary medicine.
Edzard Ernst, professor of complementary medicine at the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, identified numerous statements on the society’s website that he claimed could be seen as contravening the code. He was writing in the International Journal of Clinical Practice (doi:10.1111/j.1742-1241.2009.02249.x).
The code of ethics, which runs to 23 pages, sets out the rules that the society expects its members to abide by. These state that advertising should not make claims to "cure named diseases" or be "false, fraudulent, misleading, deceptive, extravagant or sensational." It adds that "all speculative theories will be stated as such and clearly distinguished."
However, a review of some members’ websites showed a series of violations

Mailstrom

2008-03-03T18:29:00.000+00:00

I just had a Parcelforce (trading name of a Royal Mail Group plc) take 5 days to deliver a parcel that I ordered as guaranteed 24 hour delivery. Frustratingly, I could see the parcel stuck at one of their depots through web tracking. I communicated through their web page but only received a reply after the parcel was delivered that I had already seen through tracking! The recipient had a hard time believing that I had dispatched the parcel. How embarrassing and how well this standard of service describes Britain in 2008!

ID Cards - Confident in the Protection of Identity in the UK?

2008-02-13T00:56:00.001+00:00

With the government intent on pushing forwards with the introduction of ID cards in the UK, are you confident in the way your identity and personal details are secured?

Over time, I will add items that might help you to make up your mind. And then please make your voice heard at the website:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/

6th Feb 2008 NHS has lost thousands of smart-cards
http://www.itpro.co.uk/news/163317/nhs-has-lost-thousands-of-smartcards.html

Data thefts and losses in the UK - Timeline
http://www.itpro.co.uk/news/158184/data-thefts-and-losses-in-the-uk-timeline.html

UK information commissioner warns of data loss
UK has seen an "alarming number of security breaches" in the last six months
Computerworld UK staff, Computerworld UK
25th April 2008

The UK has seen an "alarming number of security breaches" in the last six months involving public sector, private and charity organizations according to Information Commissioner Richard Thomas.
There have been 94 serious data breaches reported to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in the six months since HM Revenue and Customs lost two CDs containing 25 million records of child benefit recipients.

Public sector was the worst culprit, experiencing 62 breaches in the past six months. Almost a third of those occurred in Whitehall and its agencies, and a fifth happened in NHS trusts.
In the private sector, which had some 28 incidents, financial firms were responsible for half of security breaches. HSBC was one high profile culprit. Retailer Marks & Spencer was another. In January the Information Commissioner gave it two months to encrypt all its laptop hard drives. This followed the theft of an unencrypted laptop which contained the personal information of 26,000 M&S employees.
Thomas said it was "disappointing" that the HMRC breaches calamity had not stirred other bodies to prevent "unacceptable security breaches."
"The government, banks and other organizations need to regain the public's trust by being far more careful with people's personal information. Once again I urge business and public sector leaders to make data protection a priority in their organization," Thomas said.
Information that has gone missing includes unencrypted laptops and computer discs, memory sticks and paper records. Data has been stolen, gone missing in the post and whilst in transit with a courier. The material that has been lost includes a wide range of personal details, including financial and health records.
In 16 cases the ICO has required the organization to make procedural changes to improve data security, such as encryption. In three instances the lost information has been recovered.
The Commissioner's findings coincide with the release of the 2008 Information Security Breaches Survey, which was conducted by Price Waterhouse Coopers on behalf of the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.
The survey revealed that 78 per cent of those surveyed reported having a laptop stolen where the data on hard drive was not encrypted while 13 per cent had detected unauthorized outsiders within their network.
Andrew Beard, director of PricewaterhouseCoopers, said: "It's easy for companies to become complacent but they must consider their duty to protect users in the long term future."

Boots security worker loses data on 34,000 people
Posted by Nicole Kobie at 3:06PM, Wednesday 23rd April 2008
Data tapes stolen out of security subcontrator's car included banking information related to the firm's dental plan.

Boots is the latest UK organisation to lose customer data - but this time, it was from the hands of a security subcontractor.
The high street chemist chain has today admitted losing 27,000 customer records and 7,000 employees details related to their dental plan. The information included bank account details, as well as names and addresses.
The data tapes were stolen from the car of a security subcontractor on 3 April in Bristol. Police and the Financial Services Agency are investigating, and the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has been notified. The FSA has previously issued massive fines for such breaches, including a £1 million fine to a building society for a lost laptop.
In a statement, Boots said it takes data protection "extremely seriously," and that fraud was unlikely to occur because of the nature of the stolen data. "We would like to reassure our Boots Dental Plan customers that because of the type of data tape that was stolen and the way the information was stored it is highly unlikely that any personal data could be accessed or misused."
Boots added that all the affected people had been notified.   The news comes as the Bank of Ireland today admitted losing four laptops contining details pertaining to 10,000 customers.
The breaches are just two in a long string of UK losses.
The ICO said yesterday that nearly 100 such incidents had been reported to it in the six months since HM Revenue and customs lost records for millions of people on two discs.

Ministers in dock after massive loss of UK prisoner data
Yet another government data bungle
Mike Simons, Computerworld UK Friday, 22 August 2008
Minsters are squirming this morning after the details of 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales were lost.
The data was supplied by the Home Office to contractor PA Consulting but was transferred, unencrypted, to a memory stick and subsequently lost.

The Information Commissioner has described the loss as "deeply worrying." "Searching questions must be answered about what safeguards were in place,” said David Smith, deputy commissioner at the ICO.
The missing memory stick includes un-encrypted details for about 10,000 prolific offenders and data on all 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales.
PA Consulting told the Home Office on Monday that it feared it might have lost the data and confirmed the next day that it could not locate the memory stick. No more data will be transferred to PA Consulting during the investigation into the loss, the Home Office said.
Philip Wicks, a security expert at IT services firm Morse, said, “This case highlights the fact that it isn’t just laptops that you need to secure to protect against data loss in the event of them being lost or stolen.
"Organizations need to ensure they have controls in place to protect the data on memory sticks, and other removable storage devices such as iPods and discs, so that if they are lost and end up in the hands of criminals the data can’t be used for unscrupulous purposes."
Wicks said that there seemed to be “a culture of letting anyone download anything onto a memory stick.”
He called for a reversal of this approach so that downloading was forbidden, unless people who absolutely needed data on portable media could demonstrate that the information would be held securely. “If this is done, data security will be vastly improved,” he said.
PA Consulting has not so far commented on the data loss.

Personnel records stolen from MoD

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is investigating the theft of computer files with the records of thousands of serving and former RAF staff on.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/7639006.stm

Teachers' details on missing disk

A computer disk containing the names and addresses of more than 11,000 teachers has gone missing in the post.

The General Teaching Council (GTC)'s letter to teachers said it went missing after being sent from Rotherham via Parcelforce to its Birmingham office.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/7636822.stm

Dump The Bump

2008-02-12T22:43:00.001+00:00

Drivers demand dangerous speed humps be dumped ...

        The UK’s Association of British Drivers has renewed its call for all speed humps to be removed from British roads after a speed hump caused a serious accident.
        According to a report in the Manchester Evening News a police Transit van, responding to a 999 call, lost control upon hitting a speed hump in Ashby Close, Bolton, causing it to become airborne. The van then hit an oncoming car, and crashed into a garden where it hit six people who were standing in the garden, including an 8 year old boy.
        ABD Spokesman Nigel Humphries said "It is only by some miracle that no-one was killed here. We get to get away from the simplistic notion that speed humps make roads safer, they do not, they often make them more dangerous."
        The ABD has compiled a comprehensive list of problems associated with speed humps, and some forward thinking local authorities such as the London Borough of Barnet have already begun removing them. Yet in other areas they are still being installed with no thought whatsoever for the consequences.
        ABD Chairman Brian Gregory added: "Speed humps are nothing more than inverted pot holes, they are a danger to all road users. As long ago as the early 70's a woman cyclist was killed in Swindon when a speed hump caused her to fall and be hit by a vehicle - that speed hump was subsequently removed. Yet when the government thought people had forgotten about this tragedy, they started installing them again."
        Also, research from the Automobile Association (AA) has shown that speed humps double carbon dioxide emissions and fuel consumption by forcing drivers to brake and accelerate repeatedly.
        The AA’s research shows a car travelling a steady 30mph on a speed bump-free road manages to achieve 58mpg - on the same road travelling at between 20mph and 30mph with speed bumps the driver only manages 31mpg.
        Reducing speed limits to 20mph will also harm the environment - cars are designed to be most efficient at speeds above 30mph, and lowering the speed to 20mph will result in a 10 per cent rise in emissions.
        The AA has now called for the removal of speed bumps and for average speed-check cameras to replace them.

Life is Sweet

2008-02-12T00:29:00.000+00:00

Into the Wild is a tremendous film. Walking to Alaska would be ... well, a long way!

Apple released the OS 10.5.2 update today and life is sweet.

Giving the bird

2008-02-10T18:07:00.000+00:00

... never in the history of Britain has such a wide variety of safe and healthy food been affordable to so many. When the well-to-do start lecturing companies and customers about their selling and eating habits, it’s not just the chickens that need a good roasting. From Rob Lyons deputy editor at spiked Thursday 7 February 2008.

Blue Wardrobe of Heaven

2008-02-09T20:14:00.001+00:00

“In the blue wardrobe of heaven are many unused clothes, too tight-fitting yet too beautiful to throw away. And in that wardrobe we hang our likenesses, yellow diaries yellowed with yesterday, thumb smeared with tomorrow. But the now, the present, like the hollow screech of ancient flamingos in search of shrimps, is still vibrantly shocking pink." The Eating at Rawlinson End (unpublished book by the late Vivian Stanshall) To see more about Vivian click here

Glasses

2008-02-09T17:45:00.001+00:00

Look out! The key to information is to see it.

Cool Man!

2008-02-09T01:14:00.001+00:00

Always stay cool. Remember, he who loses his temper loses the argument.