Shuff's General Chat Thread ... #73 - Talk about anything and everything...  

Britain set for its first coal-free day in 250 YEARS since the industrial revolution as UK plants close or switch to biomass and the National Grid leans on gas or green energy

Friday may be first continuous 24-hour coal-free period in Britain in 250 years
The electricity grid has been coal-free a number of times since last spring
Gas and renewables are playing an increasing role in providing power


Friday could be the first full coal-free day in Britain for 250 years, according to the National Grid.

The grid may go the whole of today without using coal power, which would be the first 24-hour continuous coal-free period since the use of fossil fuels began.

National Grid's electricity control room tweeted: 'It looks likely that today will be the first ever working day in Britain without coal since the industrial revolution!'

It comes as the government admitted the last coal power station may close earlier than the plan of 2025, and could be shut by 2022, even without intervention.

The electricity grid has been coal-free a number of times since last spring, as gas and renewables such as wind and solar play an increasing role in providing the country with power.

The longest continuous period until now was 19 hours - first achieved on a weekend last May, and matched on Thursday.

Coal has seen significant declines in recent years, accounting for just nine per cent of electricity generation in 2016, down from around 23 per cent the year before, as coal plants closed or switched to burning biomass such as wood pellets.

The Government has pledged to phase out coal - the most polluting fossil fuel - from the system by 2025 as part of efforts to cut carbon emissions in the UK.

Hmmmm

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Hold your horses: Great Wall Steed hits two-star crash test wall

Wheels Magazine
Barry Park

THE Ford Mustang now has some company on the independently assessed list of Australia’s worst cars for crash performance.

The Great Wall Steed hasn’t lived up to the glory of its name, earning a shock two-star rating from the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP).

According to ANCAP, the underpinnings of the Steed “differ little to that of the previous-generation dual-cab ute which carried the V240 model name”, lowering it to the level of Ford’s similarly equine-themed performance coupe.

The poor result was despite Great Walls’ claims the ute was “all-new” and offered “outstanding levels of performance, value, safety and comfort”, ANCAP said.

“This is a disappointing result for consumers and the brand,” ANCAP chief executive James Goodwin said.

“While the Steed is equipped with six airbags and electronic stability control, features which were not offered on the previous model, there has been little change to the vehicle’s structure to improve the safety of the passenger cabin.”

Great Wall Motors, which is trying to rebuild itself after something of a false start on the Australian market, defended ANCAP’s claims.

Spokesman Andrew Ellis said the brand’s Australian distributor had “sent all the data to our engineering team in head office and set up a response team to investigate what needs to be done to improve the ANCAP performance of our product”.

“We thought the additional safety features would help improve the Steed’s ANCAP rating. It’s clear to everyone in the organisation our ANCAP test standards need a dramatic improvement,” he said.

ANCAP rated the Great Wall Steed at 16.49 out of a potential 37 points for its part in the bits of the crash testing in which the vehicle was eligible to take part - it decided to not test the Steed for pedestrian protection “due to its poor performance in the frontal offset test”.

Australians have a lot to learn from Europe on how to drive correctly. The biggest difference is that everyone sits in the right lane (slow lane) unless overtaking, meaning that the fast lane is always empty. You really have to pay attention to your rear view mirror when overtaking as cars that looks far away are not really that far away when driving 200+. I can see that the reason for the reluctance to raise the speed limit in Aus is because people do not know how to drive properly and it is understandable.

Hacker known as 'The Dark Overlord' holds Netflix to ransom and says it will release the entire upcoming season of their hit drama Orange is the New Black unless the streaming service pays up

Hacker 'The Dark Overload' claims to have stolen Season 5 of the hit series
The hacker is threatening to release the series to file sharing services unless paid
Netflix says that a small production company it worked with was breached
The new episodes were scheduled to debut June 9
Netflix is counting on the show to increase its subscriber base

Netflix's popular show about female criminals is the victim of a cybercriminal who claims to be holding the upcoming season hostage.

A hacker claims to have stolen the new season of the hit series 'Orange Is The New Black,' and is demanding that the video streaming service pay an unspecified ransom to prevent all the new episodes from being prematurely released online.

The hacker, operating under the name The Dark Overlord, has already purportedly uploaded the first episode to an illegal file-sharing service. The Associated Press could not legally confirm the authenticity of that uploaded file.

New episodes of Season 5 OITNB are scheduled for official release on June 9.

Netflix said that a small production vendor that works with several major TV studios had suffered a breach. The Los Gatos, California, company described it as an 'active situation' that's being investigated by the FBI and other authorities.

Netflix said it is aware of the situation.

Pirated copies of hit show about a minimum-security women's prison in Connecticut could dent Netflix's subscriber growth and the company's stock price.

In the ransom note, The Dark Overlord claimed to have stolen series from other studios, too, by breaking into a single company. The purported hacker promised to also release those titles unless 'modest' ransoms are paid.

Police Investigating Sir Tom Jones Over Child Rape Allegations

British pop star Sir Tom Jones is being investigated by police over the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl.

The alleged victim has provided police with graphic testimony alleging Tom Jones raped her on his bed in room 629 of the old President Hotel in Cape Town, South Africa, when she was a 14-year-old virgin.

After making a complaint to Britain’s Scotland Yard she was informed that as the alleged offense occurred outside their jurisdiction they were unable to investigate the case as part of Operation Yewtree, however they passed her allegations on to the South African Police Service.

Charges have now been registered against Sir Tom Jones and police have begun an investigation.

Alph, don't even bother linking the DT trailer. Disappointing.