I Dream of Utopia

Education and Training in Nuclear Decommissioning Conference in Birmingham Notes by William Gaskell, at University of Birmingham School of Physics and Astronomy, 16-17th April 2015 Identifying needs for E&T in Nuclear Decommissioning Mrs Helena Harding – Radioactive Waste Management Geological deposition: ·          555 jobs required over 140 years of the project’s life ·          50% would be “skilled” 25% “management and professional” class workers Communication: ·          Need to commercialise safety cases so that people can understand them better ·          Communicating effectively to broad range of people, from technical to non-English-speaking stakeholders Mr Axel Backer – Energiewerke Nord EWN GmbH, Germany Licencing procedures need to be utilised to allow work to progress as quickly as pos...

Coleridge Lecture: Reimagining the City By Melissa Harrison at Wills Memorial Building Reception Room, Bristol 2 nd April 2015 Shelley thought “Hell is a city much like London” when he was writing in the early 19 th century 1851 Urban population exceeded rural population in the UK, 1 st time in the world that this had happened in a country. It was thought city living “led to death of society”. [I think that may have something to do with the Palace of Versailles culture.] Today 82% live in urban environments with the following benefits: ·          Boosted immune response ·          Better mental health treatment Birdlife saved in UK in 1962 by book “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson about the damaging effects of DDT use as a pesticide to the food chain. ·          Bird of prey who are at the top of the chain were affected by a build up of...

Clearing the Air – Trams for Bath Prof Lewis Lesley BRLSI 1 st April 2015 ·          Air pollution kills 29,000 people per year in the UK Proportion of greenhouse gas emissions: ·          Transport 20% ·          Energy 35% 60 Billion trips made in total in Britain per year ·          64% by car ·          12% by public transport ·          8 tram systems in UK carrying 0.3% of total trips made Whole year’s pollution quota exceeded by transport sector in first 15 days of the year! Tram solution: 8 times less energy required than to use a bus and is electrified meaning can be powered by renewable, low-carbon electricity sources. Shallowest system would be most suitable & cost-effective ·    ...

The Rings of Saturn and the Cassini Mission William Herschel Society Free Public Lecture with the University of Bath By Carl Murray 19 th November 2014 at the Chancellor’s Building, University of Bath ·          It was previously thought there were 21 moons of Saturn, now we know more than 63 exist. ·          Saturn’s Rings are 90%+ pure water ice ·          Smaller moons of Saturn get covered in dust ·          Smaller amount of dust on larger moon,, Enceladus, which darkens leading face of white moon.

Criminals like to be free and have what they want on demand. They are very serious people who are both shallow and very deep depending on what level they need to be to get what they want. So both instant gratification and long term fulfillment appeal to them. The more dangerous ones are more interested in instant gratification. They feel like they owe nothing to everyone else, and everyone owes them something. They feel good just playing their games – they can never be trusted and carry on a bit like a party. Sex does not particularly appeal to them, unless there is some personal involvement or someone seduces them.

Bath in Fashion 2015 Jaeger conversation on style. Fashion writer Hywel Davies in conversation with Anna Sui (esteemed designer) Inspiration ·          NYC wedding as a kid [from Detroit] ·          Advert in back of Life magazine for Parsons School of Fashion – just applied and got on course ·          Had a dream she wanted to create (from Vogue and Mademoiselle magazines) ·          Influenced by NY Punk scene ·          Shopaholic o    New outfit from a thrift shop every day for $5 to look like a rockstar Getting in there ·          Spent time at college mostly going out rather than studying, dropped out in favour of a job after 2 years ·          Got her collectio...

I read a book called 'The Slave Trade' by Nigel Sadler and here are a collection of quotes from that book telling the story of the slave trade which I have posted on various people’s profiles on Facebook: ‎ '...the first known British trader in Africans was John Hawkins. Between 1562 and 1567, Hawkins made four journeys between the Sierra Leone River and Hispaniola (modern day Haiti and the Dominican Republic ), taking a total of 1,200 enslaved Africans to sell to the Spanish settlers.' ‎'prices had already been arranged with the quick for what quantity of each goods a female, male and child slave would raise' ‎' Bristol owes ALL her prosperity, nay, her existence to commerce with the West Indies .' 'I never before witnessed such a Christmas Day; the negroes have been beating their tambourines and dancing the whole day and now between eight and nine o'clock they are pursuing their sport as hotly as ever'. ‎...