Happy 80th Birthday Tony

My Life as an Artist (2)

Happy Birthday Tony………..It is my friend Tony’s eightieth birthday today.

A therapist, lover of poetry, theatre and much more, Tony is a good friend and an especially good listener.     An attribute that seems to be lacking in our society today.

Oil on canvas.   I painted this about nine years ago.      Since this painting and the header photograph, taken around the same time, Tony lost his favourite hat…however it will live on in these two images. Tony is a man of his word and completely trustworthy.     When I first met Tony I was going through a difficult period and it’s fair to say that in many ways my trust of others had been tarnished.      Over the years, Tony has been one of those people who has helped to restore that trust within me.

So thank you Tony and I hope you enjoy…

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This Is What Britain’s Biggest Construction Project Looks like

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(Bloomberg) — Britain’s biggest construction project is emerging from the ancient flatlands in the west, overlooking the sea where humans have lived for more than 10,000 years.

Over an area covering 245 soccer fields, Electricite de France SA is building the U.K.’s first new nuclear power plant in more than 20 years. The project employs 4,500 people and will cost up to 22.5 billion pounds ($28 billion), a sum the French utility boosted this week after discovering more difficult conditions on the ground.

Still at least five years away from producing electricity, the Hinkley Point C near Bridgwater near where the River Parrett empties into the sea will feed enough electricity for 6 million homes. In addition to being the largest and most advanced infrastructure project in the country, it’s generated a number of superlatives that highlight the scale of the work underway.

It included the largest single pour of concrete in the U.K., taking 240 hours to put 9,000 cubic meters of the material into a nest of steel reinforcement bars.

More recently, EDF installed “Big Carl” at the site. The world’s largest crane towers 250 meters overhead, moving along 6 kilometers of track powered by 12 engines. The crane operated by Sarens NV of Belgium arrived on 280 trucks and took about  three months to erect.

Once finished, Hinkley will contain 3 million tons of concrete and 50,000 tons of structural steel, enough to build a railway line between London and Rome. Two tunnels out to sea feeding water for cooling are more than 7 meters in diameter, drilled with the same machines that bored a new subway line in London. The pipes will be capable of filling an Olympic-sized swimming pool in 20 seconds.

The U.K. government has put nuclear at the center of effort to attract billions of pounds of investment in new power plants as old reactors are retired in the coming years. Many see nuclear as key to the country’s low carbon future as fossil fuels are gradually phased out, but the technology is facing stiff competition from renewable energy, including offshore wind where prices are plunging.

EDF says that once Hinkley produces energy, using the nuclear power instead of traditional alternatives will prevent some 600 million tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. EDF’s own assessment of the lifetime emissions of Hinkley – that is the carbon emitted right through construction to retirement – is 4.8 grams of CO2 per kilowatt hour, 35% of which will come in the construction phase.

To contact the authors of this story: Jeremy Hodges in London at jhodges17@bloomberg.netRob Dawson in London at rdawson30@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net, Lars Paulsson

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

https://nz.finance.yahoo.com/news/britain-biggest-construction-project-looks-040007364.html

Funny Sicilian Cow Story Friday Funnies #368

• by Peter Pelliccia

Hey guys, I’m back from my Italian holiday and I thought that this week’s Friday Funnies would be about a funny Sicilian cow story. Once I’ve told you about the funny Sicilian cow story I’ll mention another funny Sicilian story, something that happened to me when we were leaving Catania to drive to how holiday home in San Gregoria Sicily.

The Funny Sicilian Cow Story

The only cow in a small town in Northern Italy stopped giving milk. So the town folk found they could buy a cow in Sicily quite cheaply.

So, they brought the cow over from Sicily.  It was absolutely wonderful. It produced lots of milk every day and everyone was happy.

They bought a bull to mate with the cow to get more cows, so they’d never have to worry about their milk supply again.

They put the bull in the pasture with the cow but whenever the bull tried to mount the cow, the cow would move away.

No matter what approach the bull tried, the cow would move away from the bull, and he was never able to do the deed.

The people were very upset and decided to go to the local veterinarian, Dr Santucchi, who was very wise, to tell him what was happening, and to ask his advice.

“Whenever the bull tries to mount our cow, she moves away. If he approaches from the back, she moves forward.

When he approaches her from the front, she backs off.  If he attempts it from the one side, she walks away to the other side”.

The veterinarian rubbed his chin thoughtfully and pondered this before asking, “Did you by chance, buy this cow in Sicily?”

The people were dumbfounded, since no one had ever mentioned that they had brought the cow over from Sicily.

“You are truly a wise veterinarian,” they said. “How did you know that we got the cow from Sicily?”

The Vet replied with a distant look in his eyes:  “My wife is from Sicily.”

Now is the best time to check out my Laughaholics jokes so you can keep the laughs coming. You’ll especially love my latest Funny Blonde jokes video. While you’re there why not join my growing YouTube Channel. As you know I’m always looking for new subscribers so why not consider subscribing to my My Bonzer Channel.

If you ever wondered how to remove a background from an image you should watch my Removing the background with InPixio Photo Clip. I’ve also found Luminar 3 to be a fantastic photo editor.

Of course, you know you can always get more laughs at my Friday Funnies posts, not to mention my Heaps Of Jokes.

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Good Old Hooters Friday Funnies #367

Love Good Old Hooters Why a post about good old hooters? Because it’s funny, that’s … Read more

It started with politicians dividing the people “with us v them”…

“The Real Braveheart” – As told by Tony Robinson…

Plastic bottle return scheme to ‘put value back into recycling’

Pete's Kiwi Korner

RNZ

Work has begun to develop a fit-for-purpose beverage container return scheme for New Zealand.

Photo:123rf

Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage made the announcement at the WasteMINZ conference in Hamilton this morning.

Such a scheme would would see plastic bottles carry a refundable deposit, for example 10 to 20 cents, that is redeemed when the container is returned to a collection depot or other drop off point.

Ms Sage said this would change the way New Zealanders see beverage containers.

“They would again become something of value, and we would see increased recycling and new opportunities for refilling. When consumers recycle their drink bottles, they would get a deposit back, which incentives higher recycling rates,” she said.

An estimated two billion glass, plastic, aluminium, paperboard, and other single use drink containers are consumed in New Zealand each year.

While many are recycled, they also end up in landfills or as…

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China Launches Massive Combat Drill In Hainan As War With Taiwan “Becomes More Probable”

Not in the MSN;

by Tyler Durden

Chinese President Xi Jinping promised a more transparent China on Tuesday, during a keynote speech at an economic forum in Boao, on the southern island of Hainan. Immediately after the conference, China’s PLA Navy began a 3-day combat war drill in waters to the south of Sanya, the southern tip of China’s Hainan Island, which is about 112-miles south from the economic forum.

The Hainan Maritime Safety Administration has demarcated an area in the South China Sea that will be closed to all civilian and commercial vessels from April 10 through 13. The military exercise was made public earlier this week on the government’s website.

Read more:

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-11/china-launches-massive-combat-drill-hainan-war-taiwan-becomes-more-probable

NZ Post and Kiwibank branches have been closing down across NZ…

Pete's Kiwi Korner

Should New Zealand Post be able to close its last remaining 79 standalone post shops in suburbs and towns around the country? Australia supposedly had combined banking and postal hubs, but they too are closing down because of disagreement with costing structures. Its banking is, of course, privately owned.

Because NZ Post is government owned they should be forced to have a set minimum of branches round the country.

The NZ Govt has options open to them. Use Kiwibank for government banking instead of the Westpac Bank.

The Govt could also use NZ Post instead of private postal services. In the Hutt the private postie on his small motor bike is well known and visible delivering government sourced mail.

It doesn’t make much sense to me that these two government departments can’t get together and provide joint postal and Kiwibank banking services.

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I have been re-booted…..

My Life as an Artist (2)

I am pleased to report that I feel better than I have done in a long while    Not only are my energy levels back to normal but it feels like my mind and body have been (as one of my friends put it) re-booted……..

“Some of my old memories feel trapped in amber in my brain lucid and burning, while others are like the wing beat of a hummingbird, an intangible, ephemeral blur.”   watercolourI am now very excited about the upcoming course at the school in Portugal (http://www.artinthealgarve.com) on the 2nd of October where we will be focusing on observation and imagination……and using the medium of watercolour to loosen up – `and free ourselves from fear based restraints.

Two minute watercolour sketch…..Like most people throughout my life I have experienced some important turning points.     Usually  events that I could never have imagined….and often events…

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Viking Music Epic (10 hrs)