Seen in the News

[Big Kev]

Chinese spy infiltrating British parliament warns MI5
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59984380

[Tripps]

As mentioned previously - Hong Kong Chinese are arriving here at a curent rate of 2,500 per week.

Chinese arrivals

What could possibly go wrong?

[Whyperion]

As mentioned previously - Hong Kong Chinese are arriving here at a curent rate of 2,500 per week.

Chinese arrivals

What could possibly go wrong?

250,000 Chinese meeting 70,000 indians in the new village near Twyford on Crossrail or an ex Military Base Gove Garden Village ?

[Stanley]

What struck me Kev was the fact that there was no other action that could be taken except exposure in the press even though she has been financing an MP's office.
See THIS, Guido Fawkes has more to say about bribes. Another facet of the problems with party funding.

[Tizer]

Barry Gardiner says he informed MI5 from the very start of his contact with the Chinese woman and kept them updated ever since. MI5 says she wasn't doing anything illegal, she wasn't spying so there's nothing they could do other than make it all public. They've asked laws to be changed or instigated to allow them to deal with such activities.

[Stanley]

Start by finding a different way to finance political parties and make private donations illegal. We all know why most of the Tory donors are either hedge fund magnates or developers.

[Tizer]

`RAF man unleashes Virgin Orbit space rocket over Pacific' LINK

We are all supposed to go ooh and aah at how clever Mr Branson is with his Virgin Orbit company. Likewise with Musk and other rich men shooting things into space. But I have worry that this type of activity by private entities might one day backfire. Imagine this scenario...Branson fires off a rocket over the Pacific. Something goes wrong and the rocket heads towards Chinese or Russian territory. They see this big `missile' heading towards them. If it were a US military project they would be quickly on a hot line to Russia or China to warn them it's not an attack and to prevent any immediate retaliation and escalation. But when the rocket project is run by a private company do they have a hot line to the Russian or Chinese leaders?

[Big Kev]

But when the rocket project is run by a private company do they have a hot line to the Russian or Chinese leaders?

I would certainly hope the government, of the country the rocket was being launched from, were aware and would 'make the call'.

[Stanley]

I have a sneaking suspicion that these 'foreign countries' would have a fair idea of what was happening.....

THIS caught my attention this morning. What is Harry complaining about now? Another recipient of unearned privilege whingeing about his lot. Nothing to stop him spending as much as he wants on 'protection' if he needs it, which I doubt. This is the same attitude that led Andrew to believe he deserved free luxury jet flights, they are better than us. (Does this remind you of anyone else?)

[Whyperion]

As the Serbian Tennis player loses Appeal to the Australian Govt decision to remove him from their country. I am not certain on what legal grounds the court acted , it seems shaky to me, the Govt had two areas of concern under the law to act on, and I though the Serb's lawyers rebutted them well and the Govt lawyers had not laid out specific evidence in a clear manner. Of course Australian Public Opinion about the attitude the tennis player has to the medical safety of others and apparent disregard of the regulations in the nation to protect the nation is quite right, but I could not see how legally that could stack up, and indeed that Public Opinion as such was not one of the points argued in Court. A Pity as I would liked to have seen a strong legal reason for what I think is the correct outcome.

[Tizer]

He made the mistake (or choice) of only taking into account state laws and was ignorant of (or disregarded) national laws.
--------------------------------------------

Closer to home...
`Crocodile found under Rhondda school floor on display' LINK

[Stanley]

What tickled me was the fact it had been 'vacuumed' as well as cleaned.... Nothing like making sure!

[Stanley]

Shock horror! There are warnings of a shortage of truffles after swine flu was discovered in wild boars in the truffle harvesting area where pigs are used to hunt the valuable fruiting bodies. God knows how we will survive.

[Tizer]

We've featured this issue previously on OG - now it's got to the point where tomorrow we'll start to find out if the airlines are correct in their warnings of danger...
`US airlines warn of impending 5G flight disruption' LINK
`The 10 biggest US airlines have warned that the impending switch-on of 5G mobile phone services will cause "major disruption" to flights. They said the start of Verizon and AT&T 5G mobile phone services, planned for Wednesday, would cause a "completely avoidable economic calamity". Airlines fear C-band 5G signals will disrupt planes' navigation systems, particularly those used in bad weather. The warning was issued in a letter sent to US aviation authorities.'...

[Stanley]

I heard a piece this morning on World Service about this. The telephone companies have once more delayed the roll out of 5g while the matter is investigated further. It was mentioned that the same problem hadn't been found in the UK because our telephone companies use different radio frequencies.

[Tizer]

Yes, there's more about it here...
`5G phones: How serious is the threat to US flights?' LINK

[PanBiker]

Just a comment, the guard band between the top of the 5G portion of the band and that used by the altimeters and other equipment on the aircraft is quite large in radio terms at that portion of the band, It's 220MHz wide If the avionics on the aircraft are properly up to spec it should include robust filtering to avoid any such interference. I would appreciate Mr Trippiers take on this from his previous employment perspective.

[Tripps]

I was MHz rather than GHz, but as you imply the guard band seems plenty big enough, assuming correctly functioning equipment. Just think what fits into the 0 - 220 Mhz bandwidth, including plenty of 'safety of life',

However it's the FAA that has raised concerns so I suppose they must be taken seriously. Perhaps there's more to this?

I found this picture on the interweb recently of my former work station, with my friend at the desk.

Clive at work.jpg

If anyone is interested - here's the full room with lights off for added drama, and the chap who took over my post in the foreground.
Was it really 19 years ago. . . .

Ops room.jpg

[PanBiker]

They could also include exclusion zones for 5G masts around airports like they do for drone flying etc. It smacks of potential underspecified equipment on the aircraft and a need to spend some brass to ensure it is safe. I believe they do use bits in the guard band for satellite management communication. which seems to indicate that the guard band is not actually totally exclusive. I suppose it depends who's satellites are using that bit of spectrum. Not easy to shift band usage on those. 5G could just be being used as a scapegoat and smokescreen.

A bit lower down in the spectrum in the amateur allocations we have lots of entire bands that occupy less space than 220MHz. A simple example is the 2M band 144MHz-146MHz - 2Mhz total allocation. We manage to fit hundreds of repeaters all over the country within half of that and in the all mode section in half of that again 12.4Khz spacing between channels. All done with a bit of selective calling tones and other such robust technologies. Equivalents further up the spectrum should not be beyond the remit of multi billion pound avionics industries I reckon. Get some better kit!

[Whyperion]

Shock horror! There are warnings of a shortage of truffles after swine flu was discovered in wild boars in the truffle harvesting area where pigs are used to hunt the valuable fruiting bodies. God knows how we will survive.

Use dogs, particulary Spainels

[Stanley]

As a complete dunce in this subject but a pretty good judge of how news is presented I would say that Ian is right. The fault lies with airlines not making sure altimeters are upgraded. Something that should have been done even if 5g wasn't a consideration. It makes you wonder what other essential pieces of equipment have been run with more economy than safety in mind.

[Tizer]

It also indicates a failure of the various agencies, businesses etc to work together from the beginning to find a satisfactory solution for all concerned.

[Tripps]

This is the 'bridge' which collapsed under the load of a vehicle and trailer carrying 11 beaters returning from a 'perfectly ordinary pheasant shoot' a couple of days ago. One died and several were badly injured. RIP. Best not to jump to any hasty conclusions.

bridge.jpg

More detailed photos can be seen Mail online

[Stanley]

That's not a bridge David, it's a sick joke!

[Stanley]

See THIS News of a large explosion in Ghana. A lorry carrying explosives collided with a motor bike.