ianr

I think ONS life expectancy figures are typically given for people at ages 0 and 65. The ones given above obviously won't be for newborns, so will I guess be for an already fairly old generation. And presumably, it'll include all those who have been teachers but may have retired or left the profession some time previously. Actually, looking at the BBC report, it seems to be about social classes rather than specific occupations -- which would explain why I've not yet found any occuaption-specific stuff in the national statistics. That being so, it shouldn't really imo have been adduced as a figure for teachers at all, other than as a best available guess.

He's a very good photographer actually, imo. http://www.martinusborne.com/photos/ And his blog's not bad either. Here's a topical entry: dead foxes are so February. God knows what's a la mode in Hoxton now. But this one has got an EDF feel to it. http://www.martinusborne.com/photos/gn0uv5tpk.jpg

Fresh from the Consultations page: "The online libraries consultation form will be available from Tuesday afternoon, 28 June. The first consultation meeting is on Wednesday 29 June at East Street Library."

James, if you as a councillor apparently don't have access to the relevant information about what is being done and what any problems are, who on earth does? Is the information being withheld as a matter of national security, or to reduce the risk of public panic or disorder?

dulwichbloke - each time your ADSL modem connects to the exchange, the apparatus there engages it in a conversation in which line condition, etc, are tested, and then decides what seems to be a realistic connection rate achievable for the session. So, for example, the typical modem log entry for my current session: "00:00:58 (since last boot) xDSL linestate up (downstream: 7808 kbit/s, upstream: 960 kbit/s; output Power Down: 19.5 dBm, Up: 12.0 dBm; line Attenuation Down: 39.0 dB, Up: 22.0 dB; snr Margin Down: 11.5 dB, Up: 6.0 dB )" But, as I said, all my downloads, whatever, whenever and wherever they're from, whichever computer or modem I use, and however they're measured , all come close to 110 kbyte/s. That's on Virgin Media National ADSL, on the Dulwich exchange, for which I pay Virgin ?18.35 a month. [Edited, to avoid spurious smiley, and amend 110 kbit/s -> 110 kbyte/s]

celebrationoftheyear wrote: > Just come back from Dulwich Library this morning where I was approached by a member of staff to fill out a 'Library Review Questionnaire'. > It didn't take long and had space at the back to put forward any comments "An online consultation will begin on Monday 27 June. " says this Soutwark web page. It's not there yet, but Southwark does tend to be slow -- it was possible to go through the motions of entering the Leisure Centre competition some days after the official closing date. Probably best to keep an eye on this Consultations page ( hidden away within the Council & Democracy category)

> Closing such an arterial road then only reopening it northbound after 35+ hours and the southbound blocked > probably for another 48 hours with little or not visible work going on for most of this time is outrageous. Well, it might be, if we knew that there were better alternative courses that could have been taken but weren't. Do you know if that is, or is not, the case?

[updated 18:25] First Capital Connect are reporting: http://www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk/plan-your-journey/live-train-updates/ A signalling problem is causing disruption at London Blackfriars. Because of this, there are delays of up to 30 minutes. These delays are expected to last until approximately 20:00 The following are accepting passengers on any reasonable route: * London Underground * East Midlands Trains (between London St Pancras International and Bedford) * Croydon Tramlink * London Buses * Southern * First Capital Connect (Great Northern route)

> Zero Clothes Moths Killer. ...or, How to make a good article of clothing repellent and unwearable...? "Contains natural floral scents."

I get even less than dulwichbloke on a Virginmedia ADSL connection that routinely synchs at 7Mbps. It shows every sign of being permanently capped, and my usage is well below the levels at which they say they will cap broadband rates.

...or someone with an interest in physiological tribology...

>I'm wondering if this account (which is six years old) is right about the wireless bit I take that back: http://www.visitsoutheastengland.com/site/things-to-do/museum-of-ancient-wireless-p55103

> At 77, he [Maurice Seddon] certainly has a full diary. He is still active in producing bespoke heated clothing, > maintains an historic wireless restoration business and also runs a private wireless museum. I'm wondering if this account (which is six years old) is right about the wireless bit, or whether they're possibly confusing him with Dulwich's own Gerald Wells.

Sue Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Mike Waterson Who has died recently. June Tabor will be speaking about him on R4 Last Word, that's about to start.

LadyDeliah Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Julie Bindel is a mysoginist who hates women who love hetrosexual sex and she needs to be gagged, or ignored. It's her hot voice. Can she not do what she wants with it?

> You can see their faces and the side of the van (but not the VRN) - and I told the police all of this but, as yet (two months later) I have > not been able to convince them to come and look at the video, or let me arrange an appointment to deliver it to them. Do the faces offer a fair chance of making an identification? If so, a letter by recorded delivery to the Borough Commander, reminding him/her of your previous communications and asking whether they have any wish to examine the video and possibly use it, might not be amiss. Actually, why not just copy the video to DVD and send that with your letter?

The strikes are now officially off. http://www.rmt.org.uk/

dukesdenver wrote > (Like how much the library service spends on postage for letters notifying you that reservations are ready for collection - > they could save a bit there by sending emails instead!) When I took some books back two days ago I was told that my registration needed to be rechecked -- no problem, just a matter of checking that i was ta the same address. But I was also asked for an e-mail address, and told that that would be used for communications. I belong to several other London borough libraries. They've all been using e-mail for communications for yonks.

You want to start a bring back kedgeree campaign.

> RIP Thaddeus, lone tadpole occupant of our salad bowl 'pond'crying smiley > We had such hopes for you, you managed to outlive your brothers and sisters for so long! RIP Thaddeus, et eius fratres sororesque. Were any of them named, btw, or was this a sad consequence of Thaddeus's outliving them?

I'm not sure how useful a statistic the cost per open-library-hour is anyway. It conflates running costs, capital outlay, and overheads. Given that the staff and fuel costs of keeping even the largest library open will be a lot less than ?297 per hour, the logical thing to do to reduce it would be to increase opening hours (and the annual cost). There's a Tim Coates (as mentioned in James's blog, linked-to above) paper from 2004, "Who?s in Charge?", downloadable from http://www.rwevans.co.uk/libri/downloads.htm, which at least gives an idea of the type of his arguments. I'd recommend looking at it too for some of his statistics, including the Appendix showing specific costs for a county library, though the proposals there seem me well-intentioned hand-waving, possibly very practicable but without enough convincing detail. Do any of the videos of any of his (presumably more recent) presentations go further? I'm reluctant to be a 'consultee' on Southwark's own service without having more facts as to their specific costs. Are they available anywhere? Related to that question, I did see yesterday, I think perhaps in the latest Southwark News, a public announcement about the forthcoming annual audit. It mentioned the public right, within a specified time window, to examine any of the accounting documents presented for the audit, and to ask the auditors questions about them. I can today find NOTHING so far on the Southwark council website resembling this announcement. Is it hidden somewhere or perhaps not available there, or have I been careless?

James Barber Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > Our libraries are open collectively for 518 hours per week. The budget is ?8M in the last statement > given to me by the head of leisure incl. libraries. That's ?15,444 for each hour that a library is open. 8,000,000 / (518 x 52) -> 297.00 (pounds per library-hour)

If you google 'wholesale oil painting china' you can get an idea of how extensive it is. Found a price list at http://www.oil-painting-wholesaler.com/en/prices.asp.

>I have intermittent connectivity with the Virgin ADSL service which is definitely made worse during poor weather. I've had that. It's quite possibly not attributable to Virgin but to a bad joint in the BT wiring near you. The problem is it's often not bad enough to cause degradation below BT's standard of acceptability for voice calls. If your modem interface permits it, you could monitor your connection statistics, particularly for the number of line drops, errors reported, and the value of your download signal/noise ratio margin. Connections are liable to be dropped when the latter gets too low (less than six or so), as will happen if the line gets noisier because of damp or corrosion. It gives you something to pass on to the Virgin help desk. Noting times and conditions may also help provide clues as to the cause: sometimes signal degradation can be due to intermittent electromagnetic interference in the home.

Are you folk who are talking about Virgin connections deteriorating in wet weather speaking about the ADSL (phone wire) service, or the optical fibre cable one?