edh649

You could do, but might be caught as 2 were in 2016

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/commuters-ordered-to-repa...

There's an excellent book just out about this and how the US has taken over the UK business world: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199503848-vassal-state

Self-checkouts, like many problems, seemed to be solved when I visited Japan. They have 3 stations, 1 where an employee scans your items and then puts them back into a new basket. They then direct you towards (one of many) terminals where you pay. There are then more spaces where you can bag your groceries.

Once you've seen it you'll be baffled as to why it isn't a global solution. No need for the employee or others to wait while you count your coins or bag up, and no need for anyone to wait behind you while you wait for the self-service checkout to weigh each item individually, fail to scan etc.

Balanced out by the centripetal force of the plane turning!

I've seen swimming googles with the same idea around (virtually in adverts, not in real life)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbes-personal-shopper/2021/09...

This is an excellent podcast around the Dunning-Kruger effect, how we can all be afflicted by it, and what it actually means. Setup around a (true) airline hijacking.

https://timharford.com/2021/03/cautionary-tales-the-dunning-...

The demand for a Tesla at $25K is going to be huge. Given previous manufacturing delays, I wouldn't expect them to anywhere near keep up. Therefore although they could sell at $25K, due to the insane demand they may as well sell at $30K to reduce some demand, and then bring it down to $25K over a year or 2 as they work through those willing to pay a higher price.

It's suspected that this mutation arose from a single patient who had a long case of COVID-19. Here's an interesting pre-print study on an individual (not the one from this mutation) who harboured many mutations over a 101-day period. [https://www.cogconsortium.uk/news_item/persistent-sars-cov-2...]

In terms of this strain, the actual rate of mutation is higher (5.6E-4 nucleotide changes/site/year vs 5.3E-4) [https://virological.org/t/preliminary-genomic-characterisati...]

Page 8 of https://www.cogconsortium.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Repo... hints towards this.

The short answer is that 'The extent to which SARS-CoV-2 may evolve to escape immunity induced by infection or vaccination is not currently known'. However analysis has been carried out to work out how far from the receptor-binding site the mutations are, and how 'antibody-accessible' these are, with a few such as . No conclusions are drawn from this analysis.

Earlier on in the report (towards the end of page 1), this statement is given `One of these (the N501Y mutation) occurs in the region of the Spike protein, the receptor binding domain (RBD), that the virus uses to bind to the human ACE2 receptor. Changes in this region of the Spike protein can result in the virus changing its ACE2 binding specificity and alter antibody recognition`.

Saying all this, vaccines are designed to create a range of antibody responses, in order to stop this very fear of a single mutation rendering a whole vaccine useless. [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02544-6] I also recall reading somewhere that adapting the vaccine to account for a mutation (much like is done yearly with the flue vaccine) is relatively easy, though I haven't managed to find that article again yet.

For those (like me) who are looking for some more details of this new strain, I found 2 papers from the `COVID-19 Genomics Consortium UK (CoG-UK)` of great interest. It seems like the prime reasons for concern are increased frequency of mutations, increased proportion of cases, and possible change in immune response

Several aspects of this cluster are noteworthy for epidemiological and biological reasons and we report preliminary findings below. In summary: The B.1.1.7 lineage accounts for an increasing proportion of cases in parts of England. The number of B.1.1.7 cases, and the number of regions reporting B.1.1.7 infections, are growing. B.1.1.7 has an unusually large number of genetic changes, particularly in the spike protein. Three of these mutations have potential biological effects that have been described previously to varying extents:

- Mutation N501Y is one of six key contact residues within the receptor-binding domain (RBD) and has been identified as increasing binding affinity to human and murine ACE2.

- The spike deletion 69-70del has been described in the context of evasion to the human immune response but has also occurred a number of times in association with other RBD changes.

- Mutation P681H is immediately adjacent to the furin cleavage site, a known location of biological significance.

The rapid growth of this lineage indicates the need for enhanced genomic and epidemiological surveillance worldwide and laboratory investigations of antigenicity and infectivity.

https://www.cogconsortium.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Repo...

https://virological.org/t/preliminary-genomic-characterisati...

They didn’t reject the bidders because of the materials, they were rejected due to the overall bid price. They had a budget (£8 million iirc), most came in at ~£11 million except the winning bid which was at ~£9 million. They then engaged in some shady pre negotiation with them to reduce their bid before accepting it.

After accepting it the contractor realised some of their values were wrong so in addition to attempting to find hundreds of thousands of pounds of saving from the council, they were also trying to save hundreds of thousands due to their own misestimates.

Part of this led them to select aluminium cladding over the originally specified zinc cladding which was much less flammable but much more expensive.

There certainly is! Initial architecture selections were based around appearance and price, and in fact specified a zinc fire-resistant cladding. But due to ‘value engineering’ (read: cost cutting) this was switched to aluminium (flammable) cladding. The architects didn’t specify exact materials, they thought this would be done by the design and build contractors, who knew nothing about cladding and outsourced. The facades contractor got a heavily discounted price from the cladding suppliers, but didn’t believe it was their responsibility to check it met fire regulations, especially considering the cladding promotional literature said it was suitable. Then, pet way through the building process there was a shortage of the original insulation, and so another insulation was substituted in. At no point were the engineers/designers informed, and the on site surveyor from building control did not realise. In addition to this the installers were installing things the wrong way round, upside down, improperly cut and attached etc. The failings go on and on...

Re rebranding I think the industry would be aware enough. Despite the tests having been frauded previously, they would need to be redone under new company names at great expense, fraudulently or not. The more likely course I suspect is companies rebranding existing products and claiming new chemical formulas. (As was already done by Celotex: https://www.bdonline.co.uk/insulation-used-on-grenfell-refur...)

Corporate witnesses who do testify are immune from having their own admissions used against them in a criminal proceeding. Though it’s worth noting things said about others can be used against said others.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/grenfell-towe...

I would highly highly recommend this podcast. I've listened to every single episode from phase 2 (from episode 114), and a large majority of those from phase 1. I believe listening to this podcast should almost be mandatory for any engineer involved with any form of safety system.

For those interested in the engineering side of the scandal, phase 2 is amazing listening. The amount of detail the enquiry goes into is incredible. The number of failings across the construction industry with this project from architecture to fire consultants to insulation providers is shocking, but despite this you can also see why those failings occured at the time. The enquirers are knowledgeable and ask extremely probing questions, you can almost hear witnesses squirm.

Phase 1 is worth listening to part of, it's all about what happened on the night, the fire service response and failings, call center communication, broken lifts, inadequate equipment and more. However, it is very heavy and depressing listening, and quite repetitive (Phase 1 the podcast was done each day of the enquiry, phase 2 is done weekly).

I went to a talk by one of the head researchers from Bristol. They usually use fixed wing drones (https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/porta...) and then any detailed areas can go over with multi rotors . I’m not quite sure what the application of the ground robot is, there isn’t much publication out there yet. However, I would imagine it could allow for identification of individual radioactive objects, without throwing up radioactive dust, and for radioactive mapping indoors.

Because in a traffic scenario people do act selfishly!

Where they always have, as an all online supermarket, betting on the fact that their technology can make them cheaper and with a side hustle of selling their technology and expertise to both other supermarkets and external markets

A common trick the universities use is to tell candidates that they'll upgrade them from a conditional (e.g. AAB offer) to an unconditional offer if they make that university their firm choice within X days.

I believe it's a way for them to better predict how many students they'll have next year, otherwise it can fluctuate pretty wildly based on exam day results.

It does look at all Harvard students, however the analysis is done from a racial point of view, in-line with the original law suit.

Use what works for you. Personally I frequently switch between the two as I find that light mode works better in the day for me, while dark mode is better in the evenings/night.

Apparently it became law in Scotland in July 2019, and will become opt-out in Scotland in March 2021

https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/uk-laws/organ-donation-law-...

This is just a tool used to explore the data. There's a link to the actual screening paper at the top of the page (https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.E...), which cites the sensitivity exit/entry scanners of infrared thermal image scanners at 86% from https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...

In the UK we have similar questions of plotting and describing geometric functions, however we were simply taught how to plot them by hand, or just directly interrogate the equation to spot where an asymptote might be, roots etc.

IMO this gives a much better inherent understanding of equations, rather than just plugging in some numbers into a calculator and reading what comes out.

It’s worth noting that ‘established technologies’ have not been eligible since CfD round 2 in 2017. This includes onshore wind, solar PV, energy from waste with CHP, hydro (>5MW and <50MW), landfill gas and sewage gas technologies. [1]

From phase 1, roughly 670MW of onshore wind and about 75MW of solar were supported. [2]

[1] https://www.ashurst.com/en/news-and-insights/legal-updates/u...

[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/contracts-for-dif...

Mechanical simplicity and standardisation.

The windscreen wiper is very likely to be outsourced to a 3rd party company, and they can reduce costs by having a repeatable design. In terms of a blade going on a straight line, it’s much easier to rotate a wiper blade from a motor than translate that into a linear movement.

It’s worth nothing that other systems exist (https://www.a1-windscreens.co.uk/news/windscreen-wiper-movem...), but much less common.

This is true of the powertrain for vehicles, however there are still many many other parts which go into a car. Most human jobs are in final assembly, needed here due to the tight spaces and complex customisations in each different vehicle, which will not change in electric vehicles.

There are plants out there where the electric vehicle model is produced on the same body shop, paint, and final assembly lines. The same steps are taken just with different parts/different dimensions.

Both sides are now at a point where they feel like the other is trying to stage a coup.

The remainers believe it is a coup that the PM has suspended parliament seemingly in an effort to bring the country closer to a no-deal Brexit.

The leavers believe it is a coup that there is a bill with a very real chance of passing that would make leaving without a deal illegal, therefore leading closer to not leaving the EU at all.

The Queen has to give her permission to suspend parliament (as it is 'her' government), however it was not her decision about whether to say yes or no. She acts on the advice of her Prime Minister, and must do as they say.

[0] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49495575

For reference, from the 2019/20 TFL Budget, direct operating surplus' are:

Streets -£167m

Buses: -£722m

Rail: -£49m

Underground: £823m

Elizabeth Line: -£267m

Other: £9m

Professional Services: -£560m

Property: £69m

Media: £145m

[0] http://content.tfl.gov.uk/tfl-budget-2019-20.pdf

It's 500 entry level jobs, not all remaining 500 jobs. I presume there are many people between the bottom 500 employees and top 20 executives